Israel and Palestine

Three weeks into Israel’s renewed genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, and five weeks since all supplies of food, water, medicines and fuel were cut off, Israel’s primary objective is now nothing less than the extermination of the Palestinian people, with the only other option being a plan to military occupy the whole of Gaza, and to herd the remaining population into concentration camps. A third option being pushed by Israel, encouraged by Donald Trump, is for the “voluntary migration” of the entire population of two million people. I repeat my previous beliefs that this is a fantasy, because it would be politically suicidal for Egypt and Jordan, and because anti-refugee sentiment is so dominant in the west. However, I also pay close attention to a recent post on X by Dr. Ezzideen, who runs a clinic in Gaza, and who recently posted an important appeal for help, on behalf of the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who responded enthusiastically to the rumor that other countries might take them in. As he stated in his post, “Please understand, we didn’t want to leave. We loved our land more than our lungs. But we love our children more. We love the ones we still have”, and “we are asking … for a way out.” As he also stated, “If you hear us, if you read our comments, if you hold power or voice or kindness, answer us. Not tomorrow. Not in theory. Now.” I raise Dr. Ezzideen’s request because those whose voices he is amplifying — those suffering unprecedented levels of deprivation and fear in Gaza — can truly see no end to the slaughter and destruction, and nor can I. Those countries and organizations that are not actively supporting Israel’s genocide have, like the UN, found themselves powerless to do anything to bring it to an end. Faced with only two options — death or imprisonment in a concentration camp — we are being asked to mobilize in support of an alternative that, although legally abhorrent, may also be the only guarantor of life: coming together, throughout the countries of the world, to push our governments to offer new homes to those who, otherwise, see nothing but death.

As the official death toll in Gaza passes 50,000, and the journalist Hossam Shabat is ruthlessly targeted and murdered by Israel, I examine how, when secondary deaths are taken into account, a more realistic death toll may be as high as 250,000. I also point out how almost 500 times as many Palestinian children (17,492) have been killed by Israel compared to the number of Israeli children (36) killed on October 7, and point out how, again, when secondary deaths are taken into account, that total may rise to over 87,000 Palestinian children, more than 2,400 times as many as the number of Israeli children killed on October 7. I also celebrate the life and work of Hossam Shabat, and discredit the lies told about him and the more than 220 journalists murdered by Israel, who have all been falsely accused of being Hamas operatives, and I also point out how these same lies have been applied to the more than 1,500 doctors and medical staff killed or disappeared into Israel’s horrendous prisons for Palestinians, and how, in addition, Israel continues to kill Hamas administrative officials from all walks of life, blatantly ignoring the fact that they were not connected with the military or involved in the October 7 attacks. With the resumption of the genocide eight days ago, I express my horror that this is happening, as it confirms how an entire country has lost its way, and now lives only to kill as many Palestinians as possible, and I condemn the western countries, and the western mainstream media, who largely continue to support Israel, and who, as a result, are dragging us all down into depraved and unprecedented depths of inhumanity. I end with Hossam Shabat’s final words, which I encourage you to read in full, and which end with the following request for our continued support: “I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories — until Palestine is free.”

My report about the heartbreaking resumption of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, as numerous attacks in the early hours of March 18 killed over 400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, bringing the two-month ceasefire to a blood-soaked end. Although Israel has cynically tried to blame Hamas, the responsibility lies solely with Israel itself, whose flailing excuses cannot disguise the blunt truth that they never wanted to proceed to the second phase of the ceasefire, which required their full military withdrawal, and manufactured excuses to implement a “complete siege” on Gaza two weeks ago, and, yesterday, to once more begin slaughtering Palestinian civilians. Although Israel’s actions have been greeted with outrage around the world, the resumption of the genocide has Trump’s backing, the UN remains as powerless as ever, and the best hope for a resolute challenge is perhaps from within Israel itself, where the families of the remaining hostages are openly condemning the government — and have the support of a majority of the Israeli population.

My analysis of a devastating new report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, finding that Israel is guilty of “the crime against humanity of extermination”, through the deaths of women and girls “from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities which have denied access to reproductive healthcare.” The Commission also found that Israel has engaged in acts “amounting to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention”; namely, “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births”, through its “systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare” in Gaza. The Commission also found Israel guilty of “the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing” for targeted killings of women, and for female fatalities on “an unprecedented scale” as the result of Israel “deliberately targeting residential buildings and using heavy explosives in densely populated areas.” The timing is appropriate, as, for the last two weeks, Israel has once more imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, as part of deliberate attempt to sabotage the ceasefire in place since January 19, which can only compound the ongoing suffering of women and girls in Gaza. Condemnation has been widespread, but, as I note in conclusion, there is is still no clear way forward towards a lasting peace, and in the meantime the death toll will continue to rise; perhaps, as the renowned surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta suggested in December, being as high as 300,000, of whom at least a third — 100,000 people in total — are women and girls.

My analysis of, and condemnation of Donald Trump’s deranged press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu last week, when he called for the ethnic cleansing or forced displacement of the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, framing it as a humanitarian move, and also, to everyone’s surprise, called for the US takeover of Gaza to develop it as “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Reassuringly, Trump’s performance galvanized support around the world for the Palestinians, more noticeably than at any time in the last 16 months, although his proposals are not only a complete affront to international law; they also undermine the ceasefire deal that he was instrumental in finalizing, via his Middle East Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just three weeks ago. I explain how the ceasefire deal, as I describe it, “isn’t something that can be tossed aside as an irrelevance, just because Trump wants to be seen as a humanitarian ethnic cleanser, and a conquering real estate developer”, and I express my hope that the ceasefire will hold, that international pressure will be applied to stop the escalation of Israel’s aggression in the West Bank, and that Israel, fundamentally fatigued and isolated as a result of its 15-month genocide, will realize that the only lasting solution is “for the Palestinians to be free to establish their own autonomous state in Gaza and the West Bank, with its capital in East Jerusalem — the only just solution, and the only guarantee of a lasting peace now as it has been for the last 58 years.”

In my latest long read about Israel and Palestine, I celebrate, unreservedly, the triumph of the Palestinians over unimaginable adversity, as, via the terms of the ceasefire deal agreed on January 15, a million civilians began a “Great March of Return” from the south, where they had been exiled for up to 15 months, to their shattered homes in the north. This return, ending the four-month long “Generals’ Plan” for the erasure of northern Gaza, along with the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Netzarim Corridor, which separates the north from the south, confirms the failure of Israel’s military aims, beyond its depraved determination to kill as many civilians as possible, demonstrating how every “war” — even one I describe as a “one-sided aerial pogrom lasting 15 months” — ends either with compromise, or with conquest and surrender, and with the compromises of the ceasefire deal clearly signalling the way forward, now that Israel’s seemingly endless genocidal fury has run its course. As Hamas officials once more begin to administer life in the Strip, I examine how the only way forward now is for Israel to drop its insistence that Hamas “can play no role” in Gaza’s post-war future, to recognize it as the administrative government, and to allow negotiations to proceed towards granting independence for Gaza via elections in which the Palestinian people themselves can decide who they want to represent them.

My analysis of the hostage releases that took place as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal on Sunday, when three young Israeli hostages were freed, in exchange for 90 Palestinian women and children. Predictably, the western media focused almost exclusively on the Israelis, reinforcing the notion, entrenched over the last 15 months, that Palestinian lives have no value to western politicians and the mainstream media. In fact, almost all of those released had never been charged with a crime, and many had only been seized and “disappeared” into Israel’s extensive prison network of brutal and fundamentally lawless prisons for Palestinians because of social media posts or taking part in protests, making them, in quite a fundamental manner, hostages as well. The west’s indifference not only fails to credit Palestinian women and children with stories worth recounting; it also fails to examine or hold Israel to account for a truly repulsive prison system in which over 10,000 Palestinians are currently held, many without charge or trial, and many others under “administrative detention”, which can be endlessly renewed every six months without any trial ever taking place. I also reiterate my hope that, because the hostage releases are phased over the next three months at least, Netanyahu cannot seriously contemplate resuming the genocide in Gaza that many still want, especially as the devastation in Gaza becomes ever more apparent, and, hopefully, as international bodies are allowed in to to assist with the enormous humanitarian requirements of the surviving population, and to begin the plans for its reconstruction.

As the ceasefire in Gaza enters its third day, I report on what must be the almost unimaginable relief of Palestinians now that the relentless fear of sudden death has come to an end, but how they now face the new challenges of finding out whether or not their homes have survived, and searching for the remains of their loved ones, buried in the rubble or shot in the streets. While I hope that the release of hostages in stages over the next 18 weeks means that Israel cannot resume its deadly violence, I also note the vital return of humanitarian aid, but point out how it also needs to be accompanied by foreign support in rebuilding Gaza’s destroyed hospitals and healthcare system, and the almost unthinkable task of reconstruction in general — not just for its own sake, but also as another crucial obstacle to any attempts by Israel to think that it can resume the policies of extermination that it has been inflicting on Gaza for the last 15 months.

My report about the ceasefire deal for Gaza, which was announced on January 15, and which will begin to be implemented on Sunday (January 19), the day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. I examine how Trump, via his envoy Steve Witkoff, seems to have played a central role, to fulfil his intention of starting his presidency as the “hero” who stopped the war and secured the release of Israeli hostages, the first of whom will be freed as his presidency begins. This would seem to unmistakably show up President Biden and Antony Blinken for their own failures to have ever stood up to Netanyahu, especially as the ceasefire deal is almost identical to one that could — and should — have been implemented eight long months ago. While I have no hopes that Trump, surrounded by rabidly enthusiastic supporters of Israel, will bring peace to the Palestinians, with the most likely scenario being that violence will be ramped up in the West Bank, I’m unwilling to declare that the ceasefire will be broken by Netanyahu after the first of its three phases, as some are discussing, because Hamas has only agreed to free hostages over all three phases of the deal, and the release of hostages is so important within Israel itself that any backsliding could be politically fatal. I also hope that the ceasefire will last because international organizations and observers will have to be allowed into Gaza in significant numbers, and, in addition, because of a creeping war fatigue in the Israeli military, exacerbated by the pursuit of soldiers in courts around the world, following on from the ripples of accountability created by the issuing of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in November.

My latest long read, marking 450 days of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, in which I review the horrors of the last 15 months, bringing the story up to date with the recent abduction of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who has since disappeared into Israel’s prisons for Palestinians, where 50 prisoners have been killed since October 7, 2023, including three doctors. I also analyze the grotesque lies peddled by Israel throughout this time, dismissing 75 years of its systematic oppression of the Palestinian people, analyze in depth the deficiencies in its claims to be “targeting Hamas”, and note how, despite no one being able to stop Israel, a noose is tightening around Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, via the repercussions from the ICC’s recent arrest warrant for both men for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as various other opinions and reports concluding that Israel is engaged in a genocide in Gaza.