Welcome to Andy Worthington

In my latest article about Israel’s genocide in Gaza, I examine a little-discussed aspect of Israel’s actions — the lack of an exit strategy. With no prospect of any other countries accepting the population of the Gaza Strip as refugees, I conclude that Israel’s genocidal actions are actually a “final solution” to the Palestinian “problem”, and that President Biden, who leads the west’s largely unconditional support for Israel, also endorses this approach. Criticizing western leaders for the emptiness of their support of Israel’s “right to defend itself”, I also condemn their refusal to recognize that Israel’s two stated aims — to “destroy” Hamas and to free the hostages seized on October 7 — are either unworkable or self-defeating, and conclude my analysis by comparing how the west’s position on Israel is as dangerous and irresponsible as its failure to take climate collapse seriously, and warn that, by allowing Israel to so blatantly shred international humanitarian law, and by using fake antisemitism claims to suppress dissent and to further stifle protest, they are ensuring that, not only is nowhere in Gaza safe, but nowhere in the west is safe either — not from any external “terrorist” threat, but from our own governments.

Photos from, and my report about the nine vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on April 3, 2024, the latest in an ongoing series of monthly coordinated global vigils that began last year. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is May 1. This month’s vigils featured a special one-off vigil from inside the European Parliament, at an exhibition of prisoners’ artwork attended by former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi.

In my latest article about Israel’s still-ongoing genocide in Gaza, I reflect on the latest death toll of 41,496 Palestinians, compiled by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which also indicates that 90% of those killed were civilians, and discuss the latest investigation by +972 Magazine, exposing the existence of an AI program, codenamed “Lavender,” which auto-generated bombing targets with little or no human oversight, contributing immensely to the devastating civilian death toll. I note, however, that the existence of the AI program shouldn’t distract us from the reality that Israel’s aim has always been genocide, as evidenced by bombing raids in which no military target is discernible, through the complete destruction of Gaza’s entire infrastructure, its war on hospitals, its summary executions and enforced disappearances, its incessant use of snipers and quadcopters (often deliberately targeting children), and its use of starvation. I end by noting that unconditional western support for Israel finally seems to be waning, particularly as a result of outrage generated by the killing of six western aid workers (and a Palestinian), which, of course, only demonstrates a fundamental racism in the west. Despite the hypocrisy, however, I conclude that it is worth exerting as much pressure as possible on western politicians and the media to permanently shift their positions and to begin the necessary moves towards finally ending Israel’s 76-year impunity, and, by whatever means, ending its current, and unprecedented genocidal slaughter.

The ninth article in my ongoing series of ten articles about the 16 men approved for release from Guantánamo, noting how long they have been held since those decisions were taken, telling their stories, and tying publication of these articles into significant dates in their long ordeal. The articles are published alternately here and on the Close Guantánamo website, and this particular article focuses on the case of Sanad al-Kazimi, seized in the UAE in January 2003, and held in Emirati custody and CIA “black sites” until September 2004, when he was flown to Guantánamo, where he has been held ever since without charge or trial. He was finally approved for release in October 2021, after over 12 years of tortuously slow review processes that began under President Obama.

My latest article about Israel’s genocide in Gaza follows the most recent report, by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, that over 40,000 people (mostly civilians) have now been killed by Israel over the last five months. I discuss the latest horrors to be inflicted on the trapped Palestinians of Gaza — deliberate starvation — and assess how, despite so much unconditional support for Israel in the west, an untold number of people are waking up to the fact that Israel is the last European colonial settler project, and that the brutality of the Israelis, their belief in themselves as the “chosen people”, and their horrendous dehumanization of the Palestinians, is all part of the same colonial template that western countries undertook for many centuries, and which in some cases (including the UK and France) involved their engagement in unspeakable brutality as recently as the 1950s, and into the 1960s. With western countries still engaged in desperate attempts to stifle all criticism of Israel, I conclude with a hope that an end to this horrific situation is in sight, that Gaza will be rebuilt and Palestinians given autonomy, that Israel will collapse, and that everyone who has supported this genocide in any way will be permanently ostracized.

The seventh article in my ongoing series of ten articles about the 16 men approved for release from Guantánamo, noting how long they have been held since those decisions were taken, telling their stories, and tying publication of these articles into significant dates in their long ordeal. The articles are published alternately here and on the Close Guantánamo website, and this particular article highlights the case of Khaled Qassim, a Yemeni, and a talented artist, whose ongoing imprisonment without charge or trial was upheld for many years because of his “non-compliance” — his resistance to the injustice and brutality of Guantánamo, including through persistent hunger strikes — far more than anything he was alleged to have done before he was seized and taken to Guantánamo in the first place.

My latest quarterly fundraiser, in which I ask you, if you can, to make a donation to support my ongoing work on Guantánamo, over the next three months, as a reader-funded independent journalist and activist. My aim, every three months, is to raise $2500 (£2000) to enable me to continue my work, now in its 19th year.

Photos from, and my report about the eight vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on March 6, 2024, the latest in an ongoing series of monthly coordinated global vigils that began last year. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is April 3.

Linking to, and discussing my recent interview with Chris Cook of Gorilla Radio, in which we discussed Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the significance of the recent by-election victory in the UK of George Galloway, the continuing plight of the 16 men still held at Guantánamo who have long been approved for release, the global vigils for the prison’s closure, and the continuing plight of Julian Assange, who is still fighting in the British courts to prevent his extradition to the US to face outrageous and unjustifiable espionage charges relating to WikiLeaks’ publication, in 2010-11, of classified US files leaked by Chelsea Manning. Chris also played ‘Warriors’, my recently released song about Julian and Chelsea, recorded with The Four Fathers.

The fifth article in my ongoing series about the 16 men approved for release from Guantánamo, noting how long they have been held since those decisions were taken, telling their stories, and tying publication of these articles into significant dates in their long ordeal. The articles are published alternately here and on the Close Guantánamo website, and this particular article highlights three men approved for release in December 2021 — the talented artist Moath al-Alwi, and two victims of extraordinary rendition and torture: Zakaria al-Baidany and Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu.