Manufacture Dissent

We all knew this is why the US government and most anyone in a high powered position are compromised.

In this interview from Mahmood Mamdani, New York Mayor elect Zohran Mamdani’s esteemed father, describes the problem with imperialist policies of occupation. This is such a powerful interview that if the Bush administration listened to him, millions and millions of lives could have been saved.

Core Points

• Complexity of the Iraq Conflict:

U.S. troops struggled to distinguish between factions resisting occupation and those targeting America, underscoring the conflict’s nuance.

• Democracy vs. Preconceived Blueprints:

The Bush administration imposed a fixed political model, expecting democracy to deliver predetermined outcomes, ignoring its inherent unpredictability.

• Religious Leadership and Political Power:

The U.S. sidelined Grand Ayatollah Sistani’s vision of scholars as moral guides, favoring Al-Sadr’s theocratic stance to fit its “bad Muslim” narrative.

• Fallujah and Occupation Parallels:

Fallujah risked becoming a prolonged conflict zone akin to the Israeli-Palestinian territories, where military force eclipses political solutions.

• Nationalism vs. Terrorism:

Drawing from Vietnam, Mamdani emphasized distinguishing nationalist resistance from international terrorism to avoid counterproductive military responses.

• Cold War Roots of Terrorism:

Networks like Al-Qaeda emerged partly from U.S. Cold War proxy wars, which fostered militant groups without foresight.

• 9/11 as a Political Act:

The attacks aimed to spark global uprisings, though widespread rebellions never materialized.

• War on Terror as Imperial Crusade:

The U.S. shifted from homeland defense to reshaping global politics, often ignoring conditions that breed terrorism.

• Addressing Core Grievances:

Poverty alone does not drive resistance; dignity and self-determination are central motivators.

• Political Nature of Terrorism:

Counterterrorism must isolate demagogues from legitimate grievances rather than rely solely on military force.

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Key Conclusions

• Withdrawal from Iraq Is Inevitable:

Occupation is unsustainable; an orderly exit must balance stability with minimizing chaos.

• Democracy Cannot Be Imposed:

Genuine democracy requires discarding blueprints and engaging all groups fairly, protecting both majority and minority rights.

• Mischaracterization of Muslim Actors:

Simplistic “good vs. bad Muslim” labels fuel conflict and undermine effective policy.

• Military-Only Strategies Fail:

Force-driven approaches risk escalating violence, repeating mistakes of Vietnam and Palestine.

• U.S. Foreign Policy Responsibility:

Cold War proxy wars seeded future terrorism, revealing unintended consequences.

• Terrorism Requires Political Solutions:

Addressing grievances and systemic change are essential to prevent future militancy.

• War on Terror Expanded Beyond Defense:

The Bush administration’s campaign became a global crusade, often at the expense of civilian lives and goodwill.

Important Details

• Mahmood Mamdani’s Background:

East African of Indian origin, exiled twice from Uganda, Harvard PhD, Columbia professor, author on colonialism, genocide, and terrorism.

• Grand Ayatollah Sistani:

Advocated scholars as society’s conscience, not rulers, contrasting with Al-Sadr’s pursuit of theocracy.

• Al-Sadr’s Positioning:

Leveraged Najaf’s sanctity as protection against U.S. military strikes.

• Fallujah as Symbol:

Embodied cycles of occupation and resistance, echoing Israeli-Palestinian struggles.

• Interim Constitution:

Strong on rights but risked disenfranchising the majority by granting sovereignty to minorities.

• Cold War Proxy Wars:

U.S.-backed groups like RENAMO, Contras, and Mujahideen exemplify America’s proxy wars to weaken the Soviets and establish a global hegemony.

• Osama bin Laden:

A wealthy Saudi political figure, seen by followers as a leader rather than a fanatic.

• 9/11’s Intended Impact:

Designed to ignite global insurgencies, though uprisings failed to spread.

• Dignity as Motivation:

Resistance movements are driven by demands for respect and self-determination beyond material poverty.

• Mamdani’s Experience:

His exile and scholarship highlight how demagogues exploit grievances, reinforcing terrorism’s political dimension.

How can a faith that professes to embody God’s unconditional love support the most brutal acts of humanity, livestreamed? How can a religion that prides itself on selfless giving, saving lives, and pious living stand by, watch, and support the brutal annihilation of an entire people right before their eyes? The reason for this maddening dissonance is rooted in deep fear-programming within American Evangelicalism. I know this intimately because I was once a victim who broke free from the spell.

My Personal Journey Out of Hell

I was deeply immersed in my Christian faith.

A devout worshipper.

I loved, and still love God with my whole being.

I belonged to an all-Black Pentecostal Holiness church, where I learned about the power of faith and the living Word. I witnessed healings, miraculous interventions, financial breakthroughs, and moments that felt like heaven opening on earth. Being a woman hungry to please God, I was easy prey for hypnotic Word of Faith teachings that fused rhetoric with displays of power. In my mind, if the power was real, then God must be present.

What I couldn’t yet imagine was that corruption and miracles could coexist, that humans could stand amid what seemed like God’s power and still twist it for their own ends. That was the seed of a dissonance that would take me more than three years to escape.

Inside the church, that dissonance was easy to ignore because we all breathed the same air of duality. We were in the world but not of it. Our bodies belonged to earth, but our souls were citizens of a higher order—a divine operating system. We were taught that we possessed superior insight, a “discernment” unavailable to unbelievers. The Holy Spirit, we were told, guided every thought, whispering through Scripture and inner impressions.

But the language of guidance was elastic—vague enough to be shaped by whoever held the microphone. When right and wrong were reduced to “what pleases God,” interpretation became control. All it took were a few sacred trigger words—chosen, obedience, blessings and curses, the will of God—to keep entire congregations self-policing.

We monitored ourselves and one another, scanning constantly for invisible blemishes to purify, seeing demons in every doubt, striving to earn a love that was already promised but never felt. The result was a community primed for manipulation—hearts sincere, minds pliable, obedience guaranteed to whoever was anointed “leader.” That was my spiritual training ground.

The Fracture

When the world locked down in 2020 and our collective gaze shifted online, I watched the dissonance I had long ignored metastasize. Donald Trump turned outrage into liturgy, and American Evangelicals called it revival. I watched believers defend the indefensible; cruelty, vulgarity, violence, racism, because they had been conditioned to equate power with divine favor.

The harder they twisted to justify him, the clearer the truth became: the faith I loved had been hijacked. My excuses ran out. Their devotion to his depravity broke the last tether of my denial.

That rupture began my deconstruction.For the next three years, I questioned everything; every verse, every sermon, every fear. My only compass was the rule I had once recited without understanding: God is love. That single truth became my doorway out of hell.

It was agony. Each time I doubted, Scripture surfaced in my mind like a weapon; verses of wrath and warnings of apostasy. I would fall asleep terrified that God might kill me for thinking. I woke relieved just to be alive. Alone, I wrestled with a God who no longer fit the cage I’d been given, until love, not fear, became the only voice I could trust.

I understand why many Christians watch what’s happening to the Church and yet feel powerless to intervene. For some, belonging to the collective matters more than truth itself. The thought of being ostracized, cut off from community, family, or salvation, feels more unbearable than death. Breaking free from mental and spiritual control is terrifying.

But this is where the rubber meets the road: every believer is called to heed God’s Word even in the face of persecution. And persecution does not always come from outside the Church; it often comes from within it. That is the true test of love, whether our devotion is to God or to our own ego’s need for acceptance.

Those who remain bound to Christian Zionism are not merely trapped in false doctrine; they are clinging to identity, power, and belonging. They have chosen ego over love. And this is the mirror now confronting American Evangelicalism: a movement that once preached freedom has become terrified of it.

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What the Elites Did to Evangelicalism

When I say American Evangelicalism was hijacked, I don’t mean a single coup. I mean a slow, deliberate rewiring of the American Christian soul. In the early twentieth century, the ruling class saw that religion could move the masses more effectively than any policy. The pulpit reached where propaganda couldn’t, into the human soul, where eternity could be held hostage for obedience.

So the establishment began to merge faith with nationalism, Jesus with empire, and salvation with obedience. Over decades, as the ruling class strategically weaponized media and theology schools, the message of Christ was replaced by the myth of the chosen nation. Evangelicalism, once a grassroots spiritual movement, was remodeled into a psychological operation serving geopolitical agendas.

The Cold War sealed the deal. Anti-communism became the new gospel; Israel became the proxy of divine prophecy; and the “free world” was cast as God’s army against evil. Churches became distribution centers for state ideology, while congregants believed they were defending God Himself.

Follow the Money: The Architects of Influence

Behind the curtain stood industrial titans and political strategists who understood that controlling belief is the highest form of power. Figures like John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan financed advertising campaigns promoting premillennial dispensationalism, a theology that fused American patriotism with end-times prophecy. Think tanks, oil magnates, and intelligence-linked foundations built new seminaries, media networks, and prophecy conferences.

This theology, later branded as Christian Zionism, turned unconditional love into conditional allegiance. To bless Israel was to bless God; to question Israel was to curse Him. A faith once centered on mercy was converted into a machine that sanctified militarism, apartheid, and silence in the face of genocide—because it was “God’s plan.”

The Manufactured Dissonance

To maintain control over millions of sincere believers, the architects of this system didn’t need to silence conscience. They just had to confuse it. The simplest way to do that was through dualistic thinking.

They split the world into:

Good vs. Evil

God’s side vs. Satan’s side

Us vs. Them

Once that binary is established, the ruling class can accomplish any goal by plugging in their agenda as “Us/Good” and manufacturing an enemy as “Them/Evil.” Evangelicals traded their discernment and picked a team.

This is the engine of cognitive dissonance: the mind cannot hold both love and hatred, mercy and murder, at once. So it resolves the tension by spiritualizing cruelty. Bombs become God’s weapons against evil. Empathy becomes a trick of the “enemy.” To question the system or form an original thought becomes rebellion against God Himself.

It’s a closed circuit where fear masquerades as faith. The dualism gives believers the illusion of moral clarity while stripping them of moral agency. The enemy is always “out there,” never within. And as long as people believe that, the architects of power remain untouchable.

Evil by Design: How Islam Became the Devil

With dualistic thinking installed, the ruling class input Islam into “Them/Evil” parameters. And the Middle East conflict was birthed and legitimized.

For centuries, Islam had been Christianity’s mirror: another faith claiming devotion, discipline, revelation. Believers rooted in love saw Muslims as brothers and sisters in faith, but Evangelicals hypnotized by fear became prey to spiritual propaganda. Islam became the enemy of God in their eyes.

Preaching verses like “Come out from among them, and be ye separate” (2 Corinthians 6:17) easily set up walls between brothers, and Islam morphed from a different religion into the enemy of God. The vague “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11) became potent when Islam was assigned the role of darkness. Islam was the Devil’s religion, and Muslims became the living symbol of “evil.”

Old Testament warnings about Babylon and about Gog and Magog were redrawn onto modern maps—reinterpreting Ezekiel 38–39 and Revelation 20—turning spiritual struggles into geopolitical policy. Muslims became the prophetic armies of Gog and Magog, the end-time threat to God’s people.

Every war in the Middle East was holy, and every bombing campaign became a strike against Satan himself. The dualism was complete: “we” were God’s soldiers; “they” were demons. The tragedy is that this story didn’t arise from Scripture. It was engineered—a psy-op that weaponized fear to keep believers loyal to empire and blind to empathy. And in that blindness, the unconditional love of Christ was quietly crucified again.

From Prophecy to Profit: How Zionism Became a Bankroll

Once the moral battlefield was drawn, money began to flow along its fault lines. If Islam represented evil and Israel represented God’s chosen army, then supporting Israel became an act of worship.

Televangelists capitalized on end-times eschatology with every war, pounding Armageddon into evangelical souls at “prophecy conferences” and “Bless Israel” nights. Congregants were told that every dollar sent to the Holy Land would hasten Christ’s return, while being reminded of the blessings and curses of siding with Israel. These campaigns grew into a billion-dollar network of Christian-Zionist nonprofits, church foundations, and donor ministries linking American pews to West Bank settlements.

Tax-exempt organizations collected tithes for “relief” projects that, in practice, underwrote settlement housing, security walls, and infrastructure on occupied land. Through conduits such as the Central Fund of Israel and partner ministries, believers were promised that to “build homes for God’s chosen” was to build their own blessing.

Then came the airlifts.Beginning in the 1980s through the 1990s, Christian ministries launched “bring the elderly Jews home” campaigns, funding charter flights that relocated impoverished Russian and Eastern European Jews to Israel. The marketing was emotional: frail grandparents clutching Torah scrolls, returning to Zion before the Messiah’s arrival. For donors, it was prophecy fulfilled in real time. For Israel, it was demographic strategy disguised as humanitarian grace. Each campaign repopulated settlements under the banner of biblical compassion.

At the same time, churches began running Holy Land tours that turned faith into a tourism economy. Thousands of pilgrims walked where Jesus walked, unaware that their spending fed the occupation regime and agenda. The experience was engineered to graft spiritual attachment to political loyalty: believers returned home convinced that defending modern Israel was defending God Himself.

Evangelicals funded their own propaganda. Behind the pulpits and tour buses stood lobbyists and PR firms who understood that weaponized fear was a powerful renewable resource. Every prayer breakfast, every “Stand with Israel” gala, every photo of an elderly immigrant stepping off a plane became moral currency.

By the 2000s, the merger was complete: American piety supplied the optics, money, and moral cover; Israeli power supplied the narrative of divine destiny. The settlements thrived not merely on bulldozers and permits but on a theology that equated possession with prophecy. The occupation had become a sacrament.

The West Bank Settlements – A hidden Money Laundering Racket

Most of the world watches as the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raid the West Bank under the pretext of “security,” evicting Palestinian families so their homes can be seized and resettled. What’s less visible is the money trail connecting American evangelical donations to Israeli real-estate interests.

The homes taken from Palestinians aren’t simply handed to settlers; they’re sold at market rates—yet none of the proceeds reach the dispossessed owners. For generations, Palestinians have faced a rigged permit system—less than 1 percent of building requests in Area C are approved—leaving them branded as “illegal” residents on their own land. When Israeli authorities invoke those fabricated infractions, the IOF carries out “legal” evictions that strip Palestinians of both property and rights.

Once the residents are expelled, the land is re-classified as Israeli property. Sales to settlers are then brokered by state-linked bodies and implemented through developers or settler NGOs. Funding for these purchases often originates abroad, via U.S.-based tax-exempt organizations such as One Israel Fund and Friends of Ir David—charities that funnel millions into settlement construction and property acquisition.

For Christian Zionists, these transactions are celebrated as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy—the restoration of the “Promised Land.” In practice, they underwrite an expanding Greater Israel project that displaces Palestinians with impunity while converting theft into real-estate profit and divine narrative alike.

Daniella Weiss – West Bank Settlement Architect

Daniella Weiss is a veteran Israeli settler leader who pioneered a rapid-expansion method for illegal settlements on occupied West Bank land. She co-founded Nachala, an organization that supplies logistics, fundraising, and political pressure to establish new outposts and enlarge existing settlements. Nachala raised money under banners such as the “National Fund for the Building of Eretz Israel,” and its activists have traveled to the United States to solicit donations from groups including Americans for a Safe Israel, sometimes using crowdfunding channels tied to religious networks such as Chabad.

Nachala’s field operations revolve around creating facts on the ground: the group mobilizes young couples, students, and volunteers to occupy targeted hillsides with tents, caravans, or abandoned farmhouses. These makeshift encampments—often set up overnight—quickly grow into permanent outposts. Another tactic is to establish small “agricultural farms,” which require little capital but extend control over large tracts of surrounding land. Many of these outposts sit beside Palestinian villages, where settlers—backed by Israeli army patrols and permissive enforcement—use roadblocks, intimidation, and occasional violence to push Palestinians away from their fields.

Although such activity is illegal under both Israeli and international law, Nachala has largely evaded consequences. Its close ties to right-wing ministers and sympathetic local councils allow it to lobby for retroactive legalization of outposts once Israeli families move in. The state then reclassifies the land as part of an approved settlement, effectively converting an unlawful seizure into “legal” Israeli property.

Since the 1990s, Nachala-style outposts and allied farm initiatives have multiplied across the West Bank. According to Peace Now and Kerem Navot, roughly 786,000 dunams—about 14 percent of the West Bank—have been declared “state land” through this expansionist model, turning temporary encampments into the architecture of permanent dispossession.

Call to Christians to Return to God

The current genocide and land grab were not accidents. This was a campaign slowly curated over a century, and Christian Zionism is the backbone of its success. The ruling powers hijacked the message of Christ to bring hell to earth—and the people of God played right into its plans. An awakening is stirring in the church: many are leaving institutions and returning to a relationship with God in purity. The grip that religious dissonance has on evangelicals is not small and deserves a hard look at the power behind religious abuse. Still, it’s time for the world to hold up a mirror to Christians everywhere and ask, “Who are you serving?”

Sources: Marxists.org | Haaretz.com | IceJusa | PeaceNow

In Gaza, Israel has implemented a policy requiring residents to collaborate with its forces or face severe consequences, including airstrikes, starvation, and displacement. This strategy, reported in August 2025 by Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, targets families in northern Gaza, pressuring them to act as informants or form armed militias aligned with Israeli interests. Non-compliance results in bombardment, forced migration south, or death, aiming to erode community trust and resistance.

A key figure in this policy is Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin warlord leading the Popular Forces, a militia of approximately 100 men, including former prisoners and ISIS-linked fighters. Armed and supported by Israel since early 2025—as confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements on “activating” local clans—Abu Shabab’s group operates in eastern Rafah, controlling aid distribution points for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Reports from +972 Magazine in September 2025 detail how these forces loot aid convoys and target civilians, contributing to massacres at distribution sites. Leaked documents from September 27, 2025, reveal the Palestinian Authority (PA) provided $15 million in funding and dispatched officers to train his militia in coordination with Israel. Hamas issued a 10-day ultimatum in July 2025 for Abu Shabab’s surrender, labeling him a traitor, but Israeli protection has rendered this ineffective; several of his members surrendered to Hamas on September 27, 2025, following executions of collaborators.

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On September 26, 2025, the Bakr family in Gaza City’s Al-Shati refugee camp faced this ultimatum. An Israeli intelligence officer demanded they form a militia like Abu Shabab’s to remain in their homes. Refusing collaboration, the family’s elder chose displacement, stating he preferred “the suffering of displacement over treason.” That evening, Israeli airstrikes struck their residential square, killing at least nine, including women and children, and injuring others, as reported by Euro-Med. Social media posts, including from survivor Motassem Baker, and videos documented the devastation, with rescuers recovering bodies from rubble. Similar incidents targeted the al-Deiri and Daghmash families, with over 60 deaths reported across nearby neighborhoods after rejections, including shelling and car bombs in Al-Sabra.

Humanitarian workers face coercion, with +972 Magazine reporting in September 2025 that aid organizations in northern Gaza must share operational details and beneficiary lists with Israeli forces to continue their work. Non-compliance risks abandoning vulnerable populations, while compliance implicates them in surveillance. Abu Shabab’s militia exacerbates this, controlling aid routes and turning distribution into opportunities for violence and theft. Emerging groups, such as Ashraf al-Mansi’s militia in northern Gaza and Hussam al-Astal’s Khan Yunis militia, follow this model. On September 28, 2025, an i24 News interview shared on X featured al-Astal admitting, “We are with legitimacy, and there are figures from the Palestinian Authority who respond to us and support us,” confirming PA coordination and Israeli backing, sparking outrage as evidence of open collaboration.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich outlined this strategy in October 2024, presenting Palestinians with three options: exile, submission to Israeli control, or death through siege and annexation if resistance persists. This policy, coupled with arming figures like Abu Shabab and al-Astal, aims to fracture Gaza’s social fabric and suppress resistance. Palestinian factions, including Hamas, have condemned Abu Shabab, with his Tarabin tribe disavowing him in May 2025 for “supporting the Zionist occupation.” Social media reflects widespread outrage, highlighting the Bakr family’s refusal and subsequent airstrikes as evidence of systematic retribution.

As of September 28, this policy continues to destabilize Gaza, targeting civilians and aid efforts while leveraging local collaborators to enforce control. The Bakr family’s stand and others like it underscore a refusal to submit, despite the heavy cost in lives and displacement.

In the world’s weary gaze on Gaza, the spotlight falls, rightfully, on the fragile forms of women and children—their suffering a siren call for justice. But in the shadows of this narrative, the men—the fathers, brothers, husbands—stand as silent sentinels. They are the ghosts of this story, their valor eclipsed, their agony unspoken. These are not militants or faceless shadows, but flesh-and-blood guardians whose every breath is an act of defiance, every step a vow of loyalty to family and land. Their courage roars like thunder, their resilience a quiet flame that refuses to be extinguished. Yet the sorrow they carry is a weight that crushes mountains, a grief that hollows souls. There is anger—how dare the world forget them, these honourable souls who shield the vulnerable with bodies broken by shrapnel and bullets? It is time to humanise them, to feel awe for their unbreakable spirit, fury at the injustice that demands their silence, and profound sorrow for their untold losses.

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Forged in Fire: The Crucible of Resilience

Imagine the dust-choked streets of northern Gaza, where the air tastes of iron and despair. There, a man emerges from the maw of rubble, not once, but twice—his body a map of scars from bombardments that spared him by cruel whim. He has undergone a colectomy, his innards rearranged by a first blast, yet he smiles—a miracle of resolve—as rescuers pull him free, his voice a whisper of thanks. This is the resilience of Gaza’s men: not superhuman, but achingly human, clawing life from death’s jaws.

Consider Mohammed, trapped for 23 days under the wreckage of his home. He survived on brackish water, his hands clawing at dirt and concrete until he heard the voices of civil defense workers. “I survived,” he gasped when they found him, but his eyes told the true cost—the relentless thirst, the fear that clawed at his mind. This same fierce will is seen in Youssef, a father who rebuilt his small shop after a 2024 bombing, only to lose his teenage son to a drone strike while the boy fetched water. Yet, Youssef did not crumble. With trembling hands, he cleared the debris again, setting up a tent amid the ruins to sell what remained, all for the sake of his surviving daughter. Their resilience is a quiet rebuke to despair, a testament to a spirit that war cannot break.

The Honor of the Unyielding: Loyalty in the Face of Annihilation

Honor in Gaza is not an abstract concept; it is a blood oath, a fierce, unbreaking chain linking family to homeland. It is embodied in men like Mohammed Hussein, a 30-year-old, THREE ZERO, MBA holder now scribbling lessons from a tent’s dim light. He writes that manhood here means “carrying water through sniper fire, hoisting children on shoulders fleeing bombs, burying pain deep to shield the innocent.” His words are both a balm and a blade, revealing a loyalty that costs everything.

This loyalty often falls on the young, thrust into roles they should never have to bear. Take Omar, just 17, who became the head of his household after his father was killed in a hospital strike. He dodged shells to find flour, soothed his siblings with stories under drone-filled skies, and assured his mother, “Don’t worry.” A sniper’s bullet stole him mid-errand, his body returned in a blanket, his mother’s cry—“My boy, my strength!”—echoing as a permanent wound. Or consider Hassan Alloush, who returned from work to find his entire family—parents, siblings, wife, and one-year-old son—obliterated in a single strike. He did not rage; he stood by the hospital slabs, holding his son’s tiny hand, as if touch could defy the void. Their loyalty is love’s last stand, an honor that persists even as grief devours.

Grief’s Cruel Forge: Fathers Bereft, Husbands Hollowed

The sorrow of Gaza’s men is a private inferno, a grief that twists like shrapnel in the gut. It is the weight of entire families erased in airstrikes—generations gone in heartbeats, leaving fathers to cradle ghosts. Ahmed al-Naouq lost his brother, father, and more in one blast; Ramzy Abu al-Qumssan buried his wife Asmaa and five-year-old daughter Nur alongside 15 relatives. These men live through the unimaginable: mornings without children’s laughter, nights replaying the explosions that stole them.

For husbands, the loss is equally devastating. Bassam, injured in a 2025 strike, lost his wife to the same bomb that mangled his arm. Nightmares replay her screams, yet he wakes to face his children’s hungry eyes, hiding his pain to be their rock. In the queues for aid, a father in his fifties confesses that his sons lie under rubble, leaving him to queue alone for a little girl left with kin. Another muffles sobs; his son vanished in a raid, his fate—prison or grave—unknown. These men, loyal to the last, grieve not just the loss but the crushing duty to persist without their loved ones. “We rose as mourners,” one doctor confesses, his voice cracking as he tends the wounded while his own world lies in ruins.

Wounds That Bind: Providing Through Pain

Even with bodies torn by war, Gaza’s men rise to provide—debilitated limbs be damned. Shrapnel shreds legs, yet men like Mohammed Jaber Shaqliya, 35, limp miles for water, their backs a knot of agony from strikes that felled their families. His five children stare hungry from a rented tent; his youngest seizes from malnutrition. Physical therapy is a dream deferred, but he walks—each pained step for flour a testament to a love stronger than pain.

In crumbling clinics, a man with a leg teetering on amputation from explosive rounds screams not in defeat, but desperation for painkillers. With 40% of Gaza’s youth maimed, they still hunt for sustenance. Sami, displaced five times, pushes his elderly mother in a cart through shell-lit nights, explosions flashing like accusations. “We are being exterminated,” he whispers, his voice raw. Ehab, a father of four, lost his home and leg but still combs debris for scraps to feed his kids, malnutrition a constant specter. Their wounds are not weaknesses; they are badges of a duty that refuses to surrender, a persistence that borders on the miraculous.

Echoes of the Forgotten: A Call to See Them Whole

The men of Gaza are not footnotes; they are the spine of a people, their courage a beacon in barbarity’s night. They are the providers pierced by loss, the loyal hearts armored in quiet fury. Naji Hassan, sole survivor of his kin, clutches coffee like a lifeline: “I eat alone... but I didn’t survive anything.” Yet he endures—for them, for Palestine.

In the queues of sorrow, amid the rubble’s whisper, they stand. Their story demands not pity, but justice—a roar to remember the pillars holding Gaza’s sky aloft. Let us rage with them, weep their tears, and marvel at their might. The world must see: these men are fathers unbroken, husbands eternal, sons of a land that bleeds but never bows. They are the unseen, the unwavering, the unforgettable. It is time the world saw them whole.

The stories of these men, their resilience, their greif, and their unyielding love for their family and land, demand to be told with honest and all heart. It is our responsibility to weave those details into a narrative that honours their living reality.

Thank you for caring enough to read. Share your thoughts for these brave men.

An investigation by Association France Palestine Solidarité and allied NGOs revealed that several major French banks, insurers, and infrastructure firms maintain direct financial links to the Israeli settlement enterprise. This financial backing persists despite UN Security Council Resolution 2334 declaring settlement activity illegal under international law, and President Macron’s recognising a Palestinian state—a clear hypocrisy when billions in French capital and military cooperation continue to entrench occupation.

BNP Paribas leads in this situation where they have given Israeli companies and settlement projects close to $15 billion is loans and hold $5.2 billion Israeli bonds.

Macron’s Promises and Contradiction

Emmanuel Macron has complained about him being under pressure since he took office from Benjamin Netanyahu and his banker friends in Paris. However, he comes from the same banking industry and owes his rise in politics to the Israeli lobby and pro-Israel French financial institutions.

In February 2024, President Emmanuel Macron publicly reaffirmed France’s intent to recognise a sovereign Palestinian state—an announcement hailed by human rights groups. Yet during the same period, these five above institutions have collectively committed over €17 billion in loans, underwriting, and investments that facilitate illegal settlements. This dissonance between high-level statements and financial flows exposes a stark hypocrisy: pledging Palestinian statehood while underwriting the barriers that make it impossible.

Military and Nuclear Support

France’s support for the Zionist entity is nothing new. Some of the first settlers even before the tragedy of Nazi Holocaust were armed French Zionists to the land of Palestine.

In 1953, France served as Israel’s principal arms supplier, delivering Mirage combat aircraft, tanks, artillery, and small arms that underpin the regime’s capacity to secure and expand settlements.

French engineers from the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique assisted in constructing Israel’s first nuclear reactor at Dimona, providing enriched uranium and technical expertise for plutonium production—critical to Israel’s strategic deterrent.

Although President de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo days before the Six-Day War in 1967, France’s strategic ties resumed in later decades under successive administrations. It was only on 5 October 2024 that President Macron halted all new French arms exports to Israel, a belated gesture that fails to address decades of military cooperation which bolstered the security apparatus protecting settlement expansion.

One has to wonder why there has never been an anti-Zionist president in France since de Gaulle.

French Government’s Role and Repeated Missed Enforcement

France’s 2017 due diligence law obliges large companies to identify and mitigate human rights risks within their operations and supply chains. Yet enforcement has been lax: the Ministry of Economy has not imposed sanctions or divestment on banks financing occupation, and state-linked entities like Caisse des Dépôts continue indirect ties to settlement-linked projects through corporate shareholdings. No punitive measures have been taken under Macron’s administration, despite repeated NGO calls for accountability. Macron has been complicit in the erasure of Palestine and the Gaza genocide right from the beginning of his presidency, and now he pretends in front of the world that he stands for a Palestinian state.

Accountability if Macron Was Serious

* Two-state solution has already been deemed unrealistic. However, if any of these nations, especially France is serious, sanctions on almost every aspect of Israel must be enacted immediately. All trade blockade, all travel blockade. French citizens should be banned from going into any territory that Israel has occupied since 1948.

* Invoke the due diligence law to force BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, BPCE, and AXA to divest fully from all settlement-linked assets.

* Launch a government audit of Caisse des Dépôts and other public-sector investments to identify and cease any indirect exposure to occupation-supporting companies.

* Formal recognition signed in the French Parliament with embassies in both Palestine and France.

* Call-back to all those French settlers and companies that at least the Macron administration has facilitated.

* Declare French Israeli soldiers who have taken part in 2018 and 2023 Gaza war and genocide as war criminals and hold trials.

* Finally but most importantly a total arms and intelligence embargo on Israeli military and intelligence agencies and software companies like NSO-Group.

There will never be a Palestinian state if these Architects of Israeli Apartheid entity do not pay the reparations to Palestinians. The best reparation is to stop their actions that does not just help this apartheid to be reality, but promotes it. Holding these largest institutions in France would be the first step the Macron government will take if that declaration in UN meant anything at all. Until then let’s keep protesting and putting pressure.

Democracies should not be funding a genocide and should not be the architects of apartheid.

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Table of Contents

* Nuseirat Massacre

* Hostage Disparity

* Desert Death Camp

* Israel’s 76 Years History of Torture

* Conclusion

The US empire’s rabid dog that is Israel continues to enjoy total impunity even as they commit genocide and the most egregious forms of torture against the Palestinians they have kidnapped from the West Bank and Gaza since October 7th. American media is forefront in covering up for Israeli war crimes during this genocide, so much so that they have openly referred to Hamas as Nazis. However as we watch the live-streamed genocide of Gaza, we realize the actions of the Israeli military are far more akin to Nazis than Hamas. This was made very evident when 4 Israeli hostages were rescued last Saturday, 8th June. However, via this article, I will not only expose the extreme hypocrisy of Israel and its genocidal partners in the West but also the decades-long history of Israel torturing Palestinian hostages in their dungeons of hell.

The fanfare and celebrations drowned out the real screams from real hostages. Tortured Palestinian hostages are being held in Israeli torture dungeons mere kilometres away from the Gaza fence. Despite the New York Times, the “paper of record,” releasing an investigative piece on the widespread culture of torture in Israeli prisons against Palestinians on the 6th of June, the mainstream news media and American politicians and their spokespeople have been utterly silent. This is deliberate.

The so-called investigation from the NYT was deliberately a word salad of an article, with editors finding it difficult to ignore the whistleblowers approaching them. However, since the beginning of the Gaza holocaust, the NYT's coverage has been comparable to that of Fox News, with editors in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem dictating their coverage of the genocide in Gaza.

The New York Times is not new to the claims of torture of Palestinians by Israelis. They have long been aware of this prevalent torture culture in Israeli society. They reported on it back in the 70s. During the 70s, the NYT relied on original reporting from the London Times. The same London Times, though now owned by Rupert Murdoch, recently reported that the rape allegations made by Israel against Hamas on October 7th were totally fabricated. This is eye-opening, considering NYT did a feature piece on supposed mass rapes that occurred on the day, without providing any evidence and testimony of survivors.

Failed Rescue Operation, But Celebrations

Last Saturday Israel committed another brazen massacre in Al-Nuseirat, killing at least 278 Palestinians and injuring 700 more. This was Israel’s grand rescue mission wherein they rescued 4 and killed 3 Israeli hostages. Israel since has claimed they practised this “rescue” operation for 3 weeks. Did their practice include killing every Palestinian in their way, including 72 children? Yes!

During this genocidal attack in Nuseirat, Israel also violated every international law they could. Israel’s Yamam forces undertook this mission including dressing up as humanitarian aid workers. Yamam soldiers were hidden in a truck of humanitarian assistance that transported them to the most densely populated area in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

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As days have passed, more details of this gruesome terrorist attack by Israel keep rolling out. The New York Post reports that Israeli spies on the ground in the Nuseirat camp were instrumental in the genocidal hostage rescue mission. When we spoke to our former SAS source, he claimed under any circumstances, such an operation wherein 300 civilians were murdered would be considered a failed operation by both British and American military standards. Our source also claimed that the US and UK have constant drone surveillance of the entire strip of Gaza, and most of the intelligence collected for the Israeli military comes from these drones. With human intelligence, aka Israeli spies on the ground, Israeli’s Yamam forces would have known about the dense population of civilians at 11 am in a market in Nuseirat, the time of the massacre.

The more we learn about this murderous rescue mission, the more we realize this rescue operation deliberately included killing dozens of Palestinian children and hundreds of Palestinians. However, that has not stopped Israeli and American media from their celebrations. The same celebrations drowned out the harrowing reports coming out about Palestinian hostages in the torture cells in Israel for months. The NYT was not the first to report on this.

Lastly, we must ask ourselves whether Israel genuinely wants to recover those hostages alive. Given that their indiscriminate bombing of Gaza has resulted in more hostage deaths than rescues, and the only significant retrieval of hostages occurred during the 7-day “humanitarian pause,” it is legitimate to question if the primary objective for those in power in Israel is to kill more Palestinians rather than save the hostages.

The Hostage Disparity

As global colonial powers exert pressure on the Hamas resistance to release the 116 Israeli hostages, there is a conspicuous lack of equivalent demands on Israel to free the more than 14,000 Palestinians it has abducted since October of the previous year.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club reports that "Israeli occupation authorities, after almost 260 days of genocidal warfare, persist in intensifying systematic arrest campaigns. These efforts have ensnared over 9,170 hostages from the West Bank, including Jerusalem, along with thousands from Gaza.

The organization highlights that "the occupation has perpetrated horrific crimes" against these prisoners, resulting in at least 18 deaths. Furthermore, it is estimated that "dozens more of hostages from Gaza have been martyred." In a recent statement issued on Wednesday, the group revealed that "an investigative report by the occupation indicates that 36 hostages from Gaza have been martyred, yet it continues to withhold their identities and the details surrounding their deaths."

However such reports have been coming out for months, without any mainstream media in the West reporting on it honestly and with the urgency it requires. One such hostage was Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon who refused to leave Gaza during the genocide. Dr Al-Bursh, the head of the orthopaedics department at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, was murdered at Israel’s Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank, a facility notorious for subjecting Palestinian hostages to inhumane conditions.

"He was beaten to death”, ex-prisoners who shared the same prison recounted. Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah tells us, “he exhibited signs of trauma to the face and head”. Dr Abu Sittah is a British-Palestinian plastic and reconstructive surgeon who had collaborated with Al-Bursh in Gaza hospitals during previous instances of Israel mowing the grass in Gaza.

The news of Al-Bursh’s death surfaced only after some kidnapped hostages, released on May 2 at the Karam Abu Salem crossing, conveyed the information to Palestinian NGOs. After that, the Israeli military swiftly confirmed that the doctor had died on April 19, after hiding the news of his death for weeks.

Israel has refused to release Al-Bursh’s body, with activists asserting that Tel Aviv aims to prevent the world from discovering that he was tortured to death. Israel has also refused to release the bodies of other prisoners martyred under torture in their prisons, staying true to their campaign of maximum harassment of prisoner families.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club also emphasized to us that 310 women and at least 640 children have been abducted, alongside approximately 85 journalists, 52 of whom remain in custody, including 14 journalists from Gaza. Among the prisoners are 6 female journalists held under administrative detention or charged with incitement, as claimed by the occupation.

The number of administrative detention orders has soared to about 6,627. This form of detention is a severe Israeli military order that allows imprisonment without charge for up to six months, with the possibility of indefinite renewal. It seems Israel has the right to indefinite torture.

The PAL Prisoners’ Club pressed that;

"The plight of Gaza detainees is the foremost challenge for human rights organizations, particularly given the occupation's ongoing practice of enforced disappearance against the majority of Gaza detainees and its refusal to permit the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit and inspect their detention conditions."

A Desert Death Camp

On May 11, Wasim Saleem discovered a leaked photograph of his missing brother Ibrahim in a media report on Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The image showed Ibrahim, blindfolded and with his hands tied above his head, raising fears of Israel operating a detention centre akin to Abu Ghraib. When shown the photograph, Ibrahim's family immediately recognized him, providing the first indication of his whereabouts in five months. Ibrahim, a 34-year-old father of three, had gone missing after being abducted by Israeli forces during a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital following a bombing campaign that destroyed his home and killed most of his relatives. Ibrahim’s brother, Wasim, questions why he was detained, noting that Ibrahim is a hairdresser with no known charges against him.

A whistleblower provided this information to CNN directly from the Sde Teiman torture facility. However, Wasim Saleem has no idea whether his brother is alive.

Initially a military base, Sde Teiman was transformed into a concentration camp-like detention centre during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Situated about 30 kilometres from the Gaza frontier in the Negev desert, it now houses the majority of Palestinian hostages abducted by Israeli forces, subjecting them to severe physical and psychological torture, sometimes resulting in death.

The whistleblower’s accounts, which describe the harrowing treatment of Palestinian hostages—including beatings, dog attacks, starvation, and denial of medical care—are supported by reports from human rights groups, as well as leaked photographs, videos, and testimonies from released hostages.

These sources collectively indicate a significant escalation since October 7th, in Israel’s long-standing mistreatment and torture of Palestinian prisoners.

“The frequency of arrests has significantly increased since October 7, reflecting a policy of revenge and aggressive behaviour by the occupation army,” said Abdullah Al Zaghari, head of the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS).

“From the moment of arrest through interrogation and detention, detainees have been subjected to various methods of torture”.

Al Zaghari added that the testimonies from some released prisoners from Gaza describe systematic torture methods that defy human comprehension.

“Prisoners are left in these prisons with their hands and legs shackled and their eyes blindfolded for days and weeks. The use of shackles as a means of torture has led to the amputation of limbs for some detainees inside the Sde Teiman prison, where a large number of detainees have died,” he said.

We know that 36 Palestinians have died at the torture camp, with the Israeli military acknowledging the deaths but they continue to insist hostages are being treated "appropriately and carefully" and that any misconduct is investigated.

Despite clear evidence of severe mistreatment and torture, formal investigations are conducted by the Israeli government itself. For instance, on May 23, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, urged Israel to investigate “allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment against detained Palestinians since October 7, 2023”. The response has been minimal, what else could be expected?

Meanwhile, the United States, Israel's genocidal partner, has expressed only "deep concern" regarding reports of Palestinian torture in Israeli custody. Conversely, American media and politicians assert with certainty that Hamas is torturing Israeli hostages in Gaza, despite no released hostages making such claims. One former hostage did report an incident where a 19-year-old Hamas fighter attempted to sexually assault her, later apologizing and refraining from further contact. However, this isolated incident does not substantiate the Israeli and US claims of systematic sexual violence as a tactic of Hamas.

On June 3, Haaretz reported that the Israeli military police had initiated 48 criminal investigations, mostly involving detainee deaths, including the 36 Palestinians who died in Sde Teiman and two Gaza hostages who died en route to the facility.

Although as expected from Israel, no criminal charges have been filed, and no suspects have been arrested.

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Despite the constant flow of reports of inhumane torture at these Israeli concentration camp prisons, the US and other allies of Israel have given Israel the responsibility to conduct their investigations into these obvious torturous acts. The Israeli justice system is notorious for covering up war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli forces in their torture cells. When have Palestinians who faced systematic rape and abuse received any justice from the Israeli Kangaroo court system?

Al-Zhagri on hostages from Gaza alone;

“We estimate that the number of detainees from the Gaza Strip exceeds 4,000 Palestinians, who are held in oppressive conditions and inhumane circumstances. Gaza prisoners face coercive policies, enforced disappearances, and a lack of disclosure of any information, preventing local or international human rights organisations from communicating with the detainees”.

The lack of transparency surrounding these detentions exacerbates the distress for families, who are left with no clear avenue for obtaining information or seeking justice. Hostages seem to vanish into a legal void, held without charge or explanation and stripped of their basic rights.

Buried somewhere in 3800 words, the New York Times revealed several cases of severe torture and human rights abuses at an Israeli torture camp in Sde Teiman, southern Israel that are nothing short of barbarism. However, since the beginning of Israel's conflict in Gaza, disturbing reports of extreme mistreatment have surfaced from within the walls of Sde Teiman. Where has the New York Times been since December last year?

Palestinian hostages have described horrifying experiences: subjected to metal rod insertions, electric shocks inside their anus, and brutal beatings with batons, rifle butts, and handheld metal detectors.

Many hostages spoke of being constantly blindfolded and stripped down to their underwear during their captivity.

Younis al-Hamlawi, a 39-year-old paramedic, recounted the intense pain he endured from torture at Sde Teiman. He described being forced by a female officer to press his rectum against a metal object fixed to the ground, resulting in severe bleeding and excruciating agony. "It was like fire," he said, echoing the sentiments of Muhammad al-Kurdi, a 38-year-old ambulance driver who endured similar suffering.

Since October 7th, allegations of rape and torture against Hamas and PIJ fighters emerged when female IDF soldiers were taken hostage. These claims have persisted in Israeli and Western discourse until today. Israeli accounts circulated photographs purportedly showing evidence of rape by Hamas fighters, but later footage of the soldiers' abduction revealed the blood on their pants was from struggling with zip-tied hands.

Additionally, despite claims that the women were civilians, they were confirmed to be Israeli soldiers. A female soldier similar to the case involving the torture of al-Hamlawi, just a Palestinian paramedic.

It almost seems like Israel is deliberately using female soldiers to sodomize Palestinian men to death who have nothing to do with Hamas in an act of revenge. However, revenge for what? Every bit of evidence from October 7th shows Hamas or other Palestinian resistance groups did not use rape as a weapon.

This is internalizing of Hasbara. Israel has always excelled in making their citizens believe in something that does not exist by constantly replaying the horrors of the Holocaust of European Jews by Germans. Their actions are forever excused.

"I was imprisoned for 32 days, it felt like 32 years."

Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli organization focused on human rights, condemned the hospital at Sde Teiman, a facility notorious for torture, as "a glaring example of ethical and professional misconduct."

Dr. Yoel Donchin, a military physician stationed at the compound, expressed bewilderment over the hostages' profiles, pointing out that many were non-combatants. Among them were a paraplegic, and another who had relied on a neck tube since childhood.

In all eight former Palestinian hostages, with their voices trembling with shared trauma, broke their silence to expose the horrors endured at Sde Teiman. Their testimonies depict a harrowing scene of relentless brutality.

One detainee named Falid Bakr, 25, recalled the chilling words of an officer who brutally beat him for falling asleep: "This is the punishment for anyone who sleeps." Other hostages recounted being stripped down to just a diaper and subjected to electric shocks.

According to the NYT report, hostages such as Bakr were taken to a room known as the "disco room," where loud music played incessantly to prevent sleep, a tactic considered a form of torture that caused one detainee to bleed from his ear.

Ibrahim Shaheen, a truck driver, recounted being subjected to multiple electric shocks while officers accused him of withholding information about the whereabouts of deceased hostages. Israeli way of getting information on their hostages held in Gaza is to abduct random Palestinian men in Gaza and torture them.

The irony is Israel has constantly run Hasbara campaigns focused on their hostages where they claim Hamas and Palestinians are torturing Israeli hostages. Amongst these claims is wild rape atrocity propaganda that serves no purpose but to manufacture consent for the Gaza genocide and the torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Some of the released Palestinian hostages have been so tortured that the Red Cross nurses and doctors had to ask if they were even alive. This means a clear indication of horrific physical and psychological torture.

The Swiss Red Cross has made numerous requests to visit Israeli prisons and assess the conditions of Palestinian hostages, all of which have been consistently denied by the Israeli government. Similarly, the United Nations Investigative Commission has encountered repeated refusals from Israeli authorities when seeking permission to interview Palestinian prisoners.

Since last Saturday, the latest released hostages from Gaza and the Nuseirat Massacre have not reported any bit of torture close to what the Palestinian prisoners have all reported and have even provided forensic evidence for, medically and visually through photographs and videos.

Noa Argamani, one of the female Israeli soldiers taken hostage on October 7th revealed she was more afraid of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. She even reported being a victim of a missile strike from Israel that killed 2 of her fellow hostages. Miss Argamani told an Israeli news outlet in an interview, that she was allowed to wear a burkha and go shopping with the family she was kept with after changing multiple apartments in Gaza due to them being bombed.

This is evidence that the 41 Israeli hostages that are believed to be dead already, are most likely the natural cause of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign of Gaza. This is also evidence of the contradiction of Palestinian hostages’ conditions, who are bound for days with handcuffs so tight that have led to several amputations of limbs as reported earlier.

When hostages were released in the November Humanitarian pause of 7 days, except one, every hostage claimed they were treated well, and were taken care of by Hamas. This is not to justify taking hostages in any situation. However, the contrast between what Palestinian hostages are going through versus how Hamas and Palestinian fighters have treated the Israeli hostages is a story that has to be more prevalent. The evidence is in front of us, the propaganda is trying to drown it with wild, false claims about Israeli hostages being tortured, while the actual victims of torture are the thousands of Palestinian hostages.

Notice who the prisoners from Gaza are: medical workers, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and aid truck drivers, many of whom were taken hostage from Gaza's hospitals. What happened to the hundreds and thousands of others? Numerous Palestinians have been discovered in mass graves at locations like the Al Shifa and Nasser Hospital compounds, among others.

When Israel deliberately destroyed all hospitals in Gaza, they also tortured patients and their family members, executing hundreds of Palestinians with their eyes and arms bound. A United Nations commission investigating survivors from these hospitals reported credible evidence and testimonies of women being raped in front of their family members by the occupation forces. Is this not torture? Yet, the New York Times conveniently omits these details in their reporting.

Pride In Their History Of Torture

Lea Tsemel, an Israeli lawyer renowned for her defence of Palestinian prisoners subjected to torture from the 1990s to the present day, authored a report in 2012 detailing Israel's extensive history of torturing Palestinians within its prison and judicial systems.

“Almost every Palestinian who was interrogated can tell you about the sleep deprivation, the denial of access to a toilet or shower, the hunger, the physical pressures, including being made to sit tied to a small stool for days, the beatings and the kicks, the threats, the hanging, the bending, the shaking, sometimes to death”.

"Every Palestinian who was interrogated." This chilling statement comes from Lea Tsemel, an Israeli Jewish lawyer who has witnessed the extensive physical and mental damage inflicted on Palestinians throughout the country's history. In her report, she highlights her discovery of documents from the Haifa trials of 1972, revealing that the torture of Palestinian prisoners was far more widespread compared to that of Jewish suspects. The Haifa trials primarily involved espionage charges against Israeli collaborators, but Tsemel's findings indicate that Palestinians and Israeli Arabs were consistently treated worse than Jewish men accused of spying.

Lea Tsemel goes deeper after the Haifa trials' revelations. In 1977 the New York Times did their report of torture tactics Israel uses against Palestinians piggybacking on original reporting from the London Times. Unlike the recent 2024 report, the 1977 NYT reporting was more balanced and did not attempt to bury the truth to maintain Israel’s impunity. These revelations in 1977 were shocking to the Israeli public who largely remain ignorant about anything to do with Palestinians.

Since the 1972 Haifa trials and the 1977 London Times and NYT reporting, what steps did Israel take after it got widespread condemnation for their torturous practices against Palestinians?

Following the Haifa Trials, torture practices in Israel evolved to include extreme methods such as beatings, electrocution, sexual abuse and hanging. These brutal techniques were primarily employed by the General Security Services (GSS or Shabak) and Military Intelligence, marking a period characterized by severe physical abuse to extract confessions from detainees. Unfortunately, the revelations of the Haifa trials and the NYT / London Times reporting only resulted in torture techniques becoming more widespread in Israeli prisons against Palestinians.

Since October 7th, we have seen Israelis releasing “confession tapes” of supposed Hamas fighters confessing to every war crime Israel has accused them of, especially the accusations of rape and torture. These are claims that have no evidence in the photographs and GoPro video footage from the day. As an aspiring lawyer, I studied these supposed confessions. We must ask the question, how is it that every “Hamas terrorist” confesses with damning details to every accusation Israelis levied on Hamas happened on October 7th, but have no proof of?

Israel’s policies and history suggest these confessions were obtained after torture. Around 1987, Israel came up with a new technique to torture Palestinians. This time it was torture without direct contact or physical violence.

The Palestine Theatre: “Asafeer” (birds), collaborators posing as fellow detainees manipulate and extract confessions through psychological and sometimes physical threats. It is common practice to have Arab Israelis pose as Asafeers. “It was like your worst nightmare coming true.

“He told me my 16-year-old daughter was taken prisoner and no one knows where she has been kept in detention. I lied several times until he was satisfied with my answer. When I got out, I realized my daughter was never taken but every day an Israeli soldier would come and harass my family, telling them about how I was being treated in the prison. They made my family go through hell every day”.

Saliva Factory: Israeli interrogators are trained to fill their mouths with saliva and deliberately spit on Palestinian prisoners tied to a pole or chair while shouting at them. This dehumanizing act, which lasts for half an hour at a time, leaves the prisoner's face drenched in spit. Due to their hands being tied, they cannot wipe their faces. The prisoner is then left to sit for hours until another session begins. This degrading practice, aimed at humiliating and dehumanizing Palestinian detainees, remains common to this day.

“I felt like I was not even fit to be an animal for her. She spat on me till I could not take it anymore, but if I spoke, it would be worse. When I was released without charges, I could not open my mouth even to eat. I did not want to show my face to my mother, I felt like worse than an animal”.

Isolation In Faecal Matter: When all other methods fail, a Palestinian prisoner who does not comply with an Israeli interrogator's demands is placed in a filthy, solitary room, often stripped down to their underwear. These cells lack a toilet, basin, or any access to water. Food and water are provided at the bare minimum, and prisoners can be left in these conditions for days, weeks, or even months. Those kept the longest are often Palestinian academics, poets, politicians, and activists, who are forced to survive in their faecal matter due to the lack of sanitation facilities. The most recent version of this tactic is being used at the Ofer and Sde Teiman torture camps. Palestinian hostages are kept in solitary confinement or torture tents as shown in the above CNN reconstruction video with only adult diapers on, forcing them to defecate themselves and remain in the condition for hours, sometimes days.

I often wondered if I was still meant to be alive. They make you give up all will to even live.

Back in 2012, attorney Lea Tsemel's report provided a comprehensive overview of the history and ongoing issues surrounding the use of torture in Israel. However,, many human rights organizations based in Israel like B’tsalem have detailed accounts of Palestinian hostages and prisoners who underwent dehumanizing torture. We have provided a few quotes from B’tsalem above while protecting the identity of said Palestinians.

Despite existing legal frameworks and international scrutiny, the use of torture remains a deeply ingrained and troubling aspect of Israel's security and interrogation tactics. It is the Israeli way.

A report published by Military Court Watch in 2017 reported that 67% of all Palestinian children taken hostage are tortured and abused in Israeli military prisons. Israel is the only country in the world where children are sent directly to military courts and prisons. Children as young as 6 are taken by Israelis and abused in their torture cells. These children have no legal representation, are hidden away in dungeons and are separated from their families for months and sometimes years. Between 2012 and 2017, Israel “arrested” 6000 Palestinian children and put 72% of them in administrative detention.

Legal Intervention For Show

Due to international pressure, Israeli courts have sometimes intervened to address these atrocities being committed regularly by Israeli military and intelligence services. Two such notable interventions reported by Lea Tsemel were:

Landau Commission

* 1987 Landau Commission: Established to address torture practices, concluding that while torture might sometimes be necessary, lying to the courts was unacceptable. This led to the development of a secret list of approved and prohibited methods of torture.

Supreme Court Rulings

* 1999 Supreme Court Ruling: Declared torture illegal, yet left a loophole for cases deemed as “necessity,” which has allowed the continuation of certain coercive practices under specific conditions.

Israel’s intelligence and military continue to use torture using these loopholes because by their statements and actions, “all Palestinians are terrorists”. Hence these tactics become “necessities” in the cases of most Palestinian prisoners/hostages.

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To Conclude

Almost every independent investigation and whistleblower report that emerges from the "Israel-Hamas conflict" indicates that the true perpetrator of barbarism is Israel. However, the rape atrocities and "bring them home" campaigns for the hostages have become an excuse for Israel to commit genocide. The glaring fact we have tried to reveal in this article is that the same institutions participating in these atrocity propaganda efforts have known for decades about Israel's culture of barbarically torturing Palestinians.

Every Palestinian in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7th lives in fear and grave psychological trauma. To people who say Hamas is responsible for all this misery of Palestinians, do you think every Palestinian child deserves to live shivering every moment as they constantly hear the sound of drones and Israeli air bombers above them?

The fact is, this was never about what Hamas did on October 7th. If it were, Israel would not be killing Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Jenin wouldn't be getting bombed, as Hamas does not hold power in the West Bank or Jerusalem.

The reality is that Israelis were committing acts similar to Abu Ghraib long before the U.S. invaded Iraq. Israel had multiple Guantanamo Bay-like facilities even before 9/11. Throughout 2023, Israel was killing Palestinians while the world remained silent.

The New York Times similarly masked the screams of Palestinian torture victims with their convoluted writing, while prominently featuring false stories of mass rape from October 7th. They used fabricated evidence to highlight the suffering of Israeli women. However, when reporting on the severe torture experienced by Palestinians in Israeli torture camps, they opted to write a 4,000-word article, burying the legitimate accounts of Palestinian suffering until the very end.

Despite the NYT and CNN investigations, prime-time news in Western countries has continued their despicable silence over the systematic torture of Palestinian hostages. This has given Israel the confidence to pass a new law since the June 6th NYT article, by which ONLY Palestinians and “Israeli Arabs” will be eligible for “administrative detention without charges”, not Israeli Jews. Earlier in this article we defined what Israeli Administrative Detention means.

Silence is participation at this point. Given Israel's history of torture policies, it is time for anyone with a conscience to speak out. We decided that crimes against Palestinians required a real article. We decided to give Palestinian survivors the dignity the New York Times inhumanely denied them.

Share this article with people you think should know about the atrocities Israel commits daily in its dungeons.

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"Tantura," a documentary by Israeli filmmaker Alon Schwarz, delivers a harrowing examination of the events surrounding the village of Tantura during the early days of Zionist colonization of Palestine. Through compelling interviews and archival footage, Schwarz unflinchingly presents evidence of the mass murder and displacement of Palestinians by Zionis…

Watching this interview should send chills down everyone’s spine. It is a reminder that the USA has been lying to the global audience for decades since WWII ended, all to sell massacres around the world. This should alarm us when we see similar propaganda coming out of Israel and its propagandists.

Famously, along with Colin Powel who committed a war crime by lying at the United Nations, Bibi Netanyahu was in the halls of the US congress and at the UN claiming that the invasion of Iraq was the best foreign policy decision taken by a US president. It took 1 year after the invasion for the whole world to realize, we were all lied to, and the Middle East has never been stable again.

Written, Produced and Directed by John Pilger with Alan Lowery.

News From Africa & West Asia.

* Palestinian activists criticize the BBC’s deliberate attempt to whitewash ethnic cleansing by Israeli forces in the new documentary on Nakba. They also called out BBC for minimizing the role played by the British empire in relocating Jews to Palestine which was home to Arabs of three faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

* Algeria recalled their ambassador to France in February. They now accuse France of meddling in Francophone African nations’ internal affairs. The recent outcry is about the Macron administration’s influence in Tunisia. Algerian official was quoted saying, “we have no place for colour revolutions in Africa”.

* Israeli Airforce pilots continue protesting the new far-right, neo-fascist government over its recent legislation of cutting the powers of the Supreme Court. Pilots say, “no airforce, no Israel”.

* Thousands in Lebanon are protesting the devaluation of the Lebanese Lira and how it has impacted the pensions of the majority of Lebanese people.

* Mali, Mozambique, and Switzerland join a new climate pact with UAE.

* The United Nations condemns President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda for signing into law a bill that criminalizes LGBTQ people.

* South African unions and smaller political parties take the state to court over power cuts causing millions in losses each day. South Africans saw 200 days of power cuts in 2022, and 2023 is projected to be worse. 

* Mali and Burkina Faso to hold Pan-Africanism meetings to discuss more cooperation with Latin America, Russia and China. Youth leaders see Mali as a great example for the rising Sunkarism in Burkina Faso. Thomas Sunkara was the revolutionary leader of Burkina Faso, against who the CIA orchestrated a coup de tat.

* 42 African nations express their agreement on the recently proposed idea of trading with Russia and China in Yuan. President Putin condemned US sanctions on countries in Africa that choose to do business with Russia. SWIFT sanctions have paralysed African countries. Using Yuan for all trade with Russia and China would make trade for African nations “sanctions proof”.

* Niger Army claims they’ve killed around 80 Boko Haram terrorists on the border with Nigeria.

* Zimbabwe makes new tobacco deals with Russia. They are also to increase the import of coal from China until Russia helps the country to build nuclear power plants. China is also engaged in ramping up the Belt and Road projects in countries like Zimbabwe and other African nations to help the continent import gas and oil from Russia and Iran.

News From Asia-Pacific.

* The Indian government has removed extra security at the UK High Commission building in New Delhi. Many in the UK call it a retaliation as British authorities let Sikh rebels remove the Indian flag at the Indian embassy in London earlier this week. No arrests were made.

* The crisis in Pakistan gets worse as Imran Khan continues to defy the coup regime’s arrest warrant against him. A Pakistani local politician explained, “they would like to convict him of flimsy corruption charges so they would have an excuse to ban him from running in the next elections”. The charges against Khan are about gifts he has received from the monarch of UAE or Saudi Arabia. The example given by the Shehbaz Sharif coup regime is, “an aid to Imran Khan sold a watch that was gifted to him for lakhs of rupees”. The irony is, Shehbaz Sharif and his brother Nawaz Sharif have been documented to be the most corrupt Pakistani politicians in Pakistan’s history.

* India continues to rely more on US intelligence services while signing a new deal to import new super-sonic weapons from Russia. Indian foreign policy is currently a delicate balancing act that can blow up in the Modi regime’s face as deals with the US are always unreliable.

* Indian National Congress leader may face up to 2 years in prison. The charges against Rahul Gandhi are that he insulted the Prime Minister of India. In reality, Gandhi passed a comment on the last name “Modi”, which is not exclusive to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India is sliding into fascism where criticizing the Modi regime can lead to jail time. This has been getting worse ever since Narendra Modi won re-election.

* Kashmiri journalists continue to be harassed by Indian border forces for covering the ill-treatment of Muslims in the province. Journalists covering the bulldozing of Muslim homes in Kashmir are being arrested and some claim to have been abducted. Bulldozing the homes of Muslims in Kashmir is a policy the Modi regime is adopting inspired by the Zionist Israel regime.

Europe And Russia

* Ukrainian grain flooding into the EU is causing bankruptcy for farmers in countries like Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. The EU commission’s ban on Russian grain, triggered Russia to block Ukrainian grain from being exported to Africa. Russia proposed a deal in June of 2022 that both nations’ should be allowed to export their grain, as grain export was crucial to the people of the African continent. Despite knowing their policies could cause widespread famines in Africa, the EU did not let up. In the end spending billions on importing Ukrainian grain and dumping it in Europe, which faced no food shortages. This devalued the grain being produced by European nations, causing thousands of farmers to lose their earnings and resort to filing for bankruptcy.

* A retired German General claims reserve weapons are being sent to Ukraine. He claims this is in their self-interest. Governments are saving maintenance, storage and repair costs.

* Massive protests in Greece against the privatization of public services. Greece which was pushed into bankruptcy by Germany and France in 2010, has seen continued privatization of many welfare programs. Now the people of Greece see an opportunity to rise up against the IMF and EU commission.

* Hundreds of junior doctors are protesting all across the UK demanding higher investment in NHS. They are denouncing Rishi Sunak’s privatization efforts and NHS cuts being made to every sector. This is a brave move of standing in solidarity with Nurses and first responders in the UK that have been protesting Sunak’s policies ever since he took the Prime Minister’s office.

* Prince William visits Poland to ramp up tensions against Russia and gave pep talks to polish troops for a potential war with Russia. 

* The world witnessed Russian jets come into contact with a US predator drone over the Black Sea, crashing the drone in the waters. Soon after this incident, a Russian Sukhoi Su-35 intercepted two US B-52H bombers that were allegedly moving towards its border over the Baltic Sea. The Russian Ministry of Defence has called these incidents a deliberate attempt to escalate by the US and NATO forces. This was the third such incident and barely reported in the mainstream news media.

Americas.

* Colombian President, Gustavo Petro is keeping his campaign promise of bringing peace to the country. Colombia which has long been plagued by guerrilla factions and armed militias will see these groups meeting with mediators from the Petro government. Mutual agreements are yet to be reached, but the people of Colombia are hopeful that these deals could bring peace to the country and will end the violence once and for all.

* A new bombshell Seymour Hersh article makes the accusations that the German Chancellor was briefed about the Nord Stream 2 attack by intelligence services. He was briefed about the cover-up story that was leaked to New York Times and Washington Post. Hersh claims this was the reason for Shultz's recent visit to Washington, and that was the reason behind Joe Biden and Shultz not holding any press conferences during the visit.

* Cristina Fernández de Kirchner condemns lawfare against progressive leaders in Argentina. Argentine Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kircher said that her mission is to rebuild a democratic state in Argentina, in which the guarantees established in the Constitution are respected. Kirchner is the wife of the former leftist president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner. Cristina Fernandez Kirchner was also Argentina’s president from 2007 to 2015. Speaking at an event organized as a part of the III World Forum for Human Rights, to an audience of thousands of people, Fernández de Kirchner said that the reason behind the persecution she and other progressive leaders face is because they seek equality in societies and fight for social justice. 

* US Economist Richard Wolff claims the country faces a multifaceted crisis and overhaul of global trade and economy. He writes, “this is a serious breakdown in the banking system, both of the United States and Switzerland for sure, but probably brought more, broadly speaking, the whole Western part of global capitalism. It is difficult to say how worried we should be. We should be worried, but we are waiting to see how general these problems are. It is highly unlikely that the problems are only in those particular banks and sectors that have been affected to this point".

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