Jonathan Cook | Israel’s undoing will not be an attack from Arab states or international sanctions. Rather, its leaders have created a monster they can no longer tame | As Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary, the state-building project it cemented into place in 1948 by expelling 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland is showing the first signs of unraveling. ● The surprise is that Israel’s woes spring not, as generations of its leaders feared, from outside forces – a combined attack from Arab states or pressure from the international community – but from Israel’s own internal contradictions. ● Israeli leaders created the very problems they all too obviously lack the tools to now solve. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bombardment of Gaza in recent days, killing dozens of Palestinians, should be understood in that light. It is one more indication of Israel’s internal crisis. Once again, the Palestinians are being used in a frantic bid to shore up an increasingly fragile “Jewish” unity.

■ 15 May – Commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at UN Headquarters in New York (05/15/23)

Israel & Palestine: The Maps Tell The True Story

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the mass displacement of Palestinians known as “the Nakba” or “the Catastrophe”. The UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at UN Headquarters in New York. | For the first time in the history of the UN, this anniversary will be commemorated pursuant to the mandate by the General Assembly (A/RES/77/23 of 30 November 2022). ● The CEIRPP will organize a High-Level Special Meeting on 15 May 2023, from 10 am to 12.30 pm (NY Time) in Conference Room 4. The High-Level event will be conducted in the six official languages. The High-Level event will be presided over by the Chair of the Committee, Ambassador Cheikh Niang. It will include a keynote address by the President of the State of Palestine, H.E. Mahmoud Abbas, and statements by Rosemary A. DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, representatives of Regional Groups and civil society. The High-Level event will be conducted in the six official languages. A Special Commemorative Event will be held in the General Assembly Hall in the evening from 6 pm to 8 pm (NY Time). ● Palestine refugees have been on an epic journey since their catastrophic displacement in 1948 and remain, today, a scattered people, further displaced by conflict, blockaded and living under occupation, marginalized by national legislations, deprived of rights and fervently longing for a resolution of their exile and dispossession. UNRWA, the UN Agency created to bring human development and emergency assistance to Palestine refugees, has been with these Palestinians every step of the way. UNRWA photographers have chronicled the Palestine refugee experience since it started operations in 1950. This photo essay is a snapshot of the extensive UNRWA exhibition of archival photographs inaugurated in November 2013 in Jerusalem entitled, ‘The Long Journey of Palestine Refugees’. The images are drawn from the magnificent and extensive UNRWA archive which was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2009, recognizing its historical value.

■ For first time in its history, UN commemorates Palestinian Nakba Day (PressTV)
■ The Nakba at 75 – Palestinians’ struggle to get recognition for their ‘catastrophe’ (The Conversation)
■ The Nakba: All you need to know explained in five maps and charts (Middle East Eye)
■ What is the Nakba? Day of catastrophe for Palestinians, explained (Middle East Eye)
■ ISRAEL & PALESTINE: The Maps Tell The True Story (What Really Happened)

Air strikes target Islamic Jihad leaders, leaving three commanders killed, along with four children, five women and a dentist | The Israeli military killed 15 Palestinians, including three Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commanders along with their wives and children, in a fresh attack on the Gaza Strip. ● A total of 40 fighter jets participated in bombing different locations in the besieged enclave just after 2am local time on Tuesday, according to the Israeli military. Another air strike in the afternoon targeted a vehicle in Qarara town in Khan Yunis. ● The Palestinian health ministry said at least four children, five women, a dentist and his family were among those killed. Another 22 people were wounded, including three children and seven women, some of whom are in a serious and critical condition. ● Three commanders in the al-Quds Brigades (Saraya al-Quds), the military branch of the Islamic Jihad, were killed along with their families in the initial raids.

■ Sadness, anger in Palestine: Gaza mourns 13 killed in Israel raid (Al Jazeera)
■ Israel has opened up gates of hell to itself with Gaza assassinations: Lions’ Den (PressTV)

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman has strongly denounced “as a crime against humanity” the Israeli regime’s detention and ill-treatment of Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan, who ultimately lost his life in jail, saying the international community's silence will further embolden the occupying regime. Nasser Kan'ani made the remarks in a statement released on Tuesday, following the murder of a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad movement, Khader Adnan, at an Israeli jail following an 87-day hunger strike. “The way the Israeli regime detained and its inhumane treatment of this Palestinian hunger striker are a clear example of the inhumane and violent behavior the Israeli regime has, in an organized and extensive manner, shown against the Palestinian nation and fighters over the past seven decades,” he said. The Iranian diplomat also noted the martyrdom of this fighter in an Israeli jail displayed the righteousness of the Palestinian nation’s resistance, and how it is being oppressed by the Israeli regime.

■ Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan dies in prison (If Americans Knew)
■ PCHR: “Leaving Palestinian Hunger Striker Khader Adnan in his Cell Without Healthcare is a Decision to Kill him”

■ Profile: Khader Adnan, iconic Palestinian resistance leader, murdered at 44 (PressTV) | By Syed Zafar Mehdi | Khader Adnan, a senior leader of the Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad, breathed his last in an Israeli jail in the wee hours of Tuesday morning after nearly three months of hunger strike. Adnan, who had emerged as a powerful symbol of the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli regime’s policy of arbitrary detentions and custodial torture of resistance fighters, was “found unconscious” in his prison cell, according to his jailers, confirming the custodial murder. The 44-year-old resistance commander and a father of nine from the town of Arraba near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin spent several years in different Israeli prisons and went on hunger strike many times in protest against the regime’s so-called “administrative detention”. This arbitrary detention policy, inherited from British colonizers, allows the occupying regime to indefinitely hold Palestinian "suspects" without charge or trial.

Zionists brutally attack worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

If any country that the West doesn't like did this in a holy site, we wouldn't stop hearing about it in western media for days. But since the Zionists are doing it... silence. Hypocrites.pic.twitter.com/KN2dc2THN2

— Hassan Mafi ‏ (@thatdayin1992) April 5, 2023

Marwa Osman | This is what Zionist occupation soldiers were doing last night inside #AlAqsaMosque against people worshipping Allah sw during the holy month of #Ramadan. If you are a Muslim and you see this and your blood doesn't boil, then you are a hypocrite. If you are a non-Muslim free man/woman who advocate for freedom of speech,expression and practicing religion & you see this and your blood does not boil then you are hypocrite. If this were a Church, the NON-PRACTICING Christian western world would have had a nervous breakdown. If this were GOD FORBID a synogogue, WWIII would have started. But it is only a "mosque" and these people getting beaten up are only Palestinians. The only way to make this vile enemy stop is THROUGH WAR.

West Jerusalem’s new national security chief has ordered the removal of “terror flags” from public places [From the loony bin:] 💬 “It is inconceivable that lawbreakers will wave terror flags, incite and encourage terrorism,” Ben-Gvir said on Sunday night in a statement cited by the Jerusalem Post. “I have issued instructions for the removal of the flags, which support terrorism, from the public space and to stop incitement against the state of Israel.” ● The nationalist official, who already stirred controversy shortly after taking office by visiting the Temple Mount compound last week, dismissed concern that his flag order would infringe on civil liberties, arguing that freedom of expression “does not extend to identifying with a terrorist” and those who seek to harm Israeli soldiers. ● The move came after Palestinian flags were flown at an anti-government protest on Saturday night in Tel Aviv. Concerns also were raised after the release of Israel’s longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, Karim Younis, who was convicted in 1983 of kidnapping and murdering an Israeli soldier. Younis waved a Palestinian flag as he returned home to a celebration in northern Israel’s Ara village. ● Netanyahu’s government also has announced a series of punishments of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for seeking a legal opinion from the UN’s International Court of Justice on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki discovered on Sunday that those sanctions apparently included rescinding his travel pass.

■ Israel: MP says time to 'subdue Palestinians once and for all' in the 'last war' (01/05/23)
■ Operation Cast Lead and the Dismembering of a People (Vincent Di Stefano)(12/29/10)

■ Slouching Towards Gaza. Operation Cast Lead and the Dismembering of a People WEBAMP Sound: Two days after Christmas in 2008, the isolated and densely populated city of Gaza was visited by volley upon volley of deadly missile and mortar fire. The intense bombardment of what has been described by the United Nations Development Programme as "one of the most densely populated places on earth" continued unabated for a period of three weeks. By the end of the assault, over 1,400 Palestinians had been killed and more than 5,000 wounded, many seriously. Between three and four hundred of the dead were children. A total of 13 Israelis were killed during the same time, four of them by the action of their own troops. This post offers a fifth anniversary commemoration of this tragic and highly destructive assault which commenced on the 27th December 2008 and ended on the 18th January 2009. It offers an account of pivotal events in the history of Israel/Palestine from 1947 to the present through the reflections of a number of informed and articulate commentators.

[He intends to exterminate the Palestinians. He wants a "Final Solution" to the Palestinian "problem." (RE: "Endlösung der Judenfrage") - Ed.] Lawmaker Zvika Fogel told Channel 12 that going to war with Gaza every two or three years was not enough | An Israeli MP in the governing coalition has called for a "final war" against the Palestinians to "subdue them once and for all", following international condemnation of security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's incursion into Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Zvika Fogel - an MP with Ben-Gvir's ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party - hit out at Hamas, saying in an interview on Channel 12 that 💬 Israel's policy of going to war with Palestinians "every two or three years" was not enough and that it should "subdue them once and for all". "It would be worth it because this will be the final war, and after that we can sit and raise doves and all the other beautiful birds that exist," he said, according to Haaretz. In December, Fogel told the UK's Channel 4 News that he wants to end any form of proportionality when dealing with Palestinians, whom he claimed Israel has been "too merciful" towards. ● Thousands of Palestinians have died as a result of Israeli assaults on Gaza since the strip was put under siege in 2007.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call late Friday asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution that calls on the International Court of Justice to issue a legal opinion on the consequences of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, Ukrainian and Israeli officials told Axios. | The big picture: Ukraine had voted in favor of the resolution during a UN committee vote but did not attend Friday's General Assembly vote "in order to give a chance to the relationship with Netanyahu," the Ukrainian official said. Catch up quick: The UN General Assembly approved the resolution late Friday, with 87 countries voting in favor, 24 countries voting against and 53 countries abstaining.

● According to the resolution, the ICJ will draft an advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank — a process that could take between one to two years.
● The opinion should address the legal consequences of Israel's "occupation, settlement and annexation ... including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem," the resolution reads.
● The opinion should also address the question of “how the policies and practices of Israel affect the legal status of the occupation, and what are the legal consequences that arise for all States and the United Nations from this status."
● Ukraine defied Israeli requests to vote against the resolution during the UN committee vote several weeks ago because of Israel's refusal to provide military assistance to Ukraine, Ukrainian officials had said.
● Israeli foreign ministry officials were furious at the time and summoned the Ukrainian ambassador for a tough conversation.

Объясняет Readovka | Clown offended - Zelensky has ignored Netanyahu's request to vote against Palestine | Ukrainian President Zelensky, according to the US publication Axios, did not vote against the Palestinian resolution proposed by the UN General Assembly on the occupation of Palestinian territories, despite a request from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. The reason is very simple - the supreme 404 was offended that he was not given a weapon.: ● Shortly before the vote on the resolution, Netanyahu held talks with a host of world leaders, only a conversation with Zelensky reportedly went nowhere. The president literally blackmailed the Israeli prime minister, trying once again to get his arms and Israel's much-coveted Iron Dome air defence system. Netanyahu, for his part, did not promise Zelensky anything and only agreed to continue contacts in the future. ● The relations between Ukraine and Israel are not at their height and regular importunate begging for weapons from Ukraine clearly does not enhance Zelensky's score in the eyes of Tel Aviv. Moreover, the personal factor is also important - it will be recalled that once the Ukrainians rejoiced at Netanyahu's defeat in the elections, while communication between Vladimir Putin and the current Israeli prime minister, has always been rather smooth. Let us not forget Zelensky's idiotic and insulting statement about comparing today's events to the Holocaust. ● Israel currently refuses to transfer lethal weapons to Ukraine, and the provision of air defence systems is out of the question, according to officials. Can the situation change? Anything is possible, but so far Mr Zelensky is only getting further and further away from his wishes. However, this is only to our advantage. (Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator) (free version)

Several U.S. Jewish leaders during a meeting with Israeli officials earlier this month warned that racist and extremist moves by the new Israeli government could seriously hamper support for Israel among Jews in the U.S., six sources who either attended the meeting at the Israeli embassy in Washington or were briefed on it told Axios. | Why it matters: The incoming Israeli government is expected to be the country's most right-wing ever. A senior Israeli official said the meeting at the embassy represented the anxiety the organized U.S. Jewish community has about the incoming Israeli government over its expected policies towards Jews in the diaspora and against democratic values. ● The Dec. 7 meeting was attended by representatives of several mainstream U.S. Jewish organizations that are the backbone of the pro-Israel community in the U.S. They are all regular interlocutors of the Israeli embassy. ● Driving the news: The representatives of the Jewish organizations were invited for a meeting with Shuli Davidovich, the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry bureau for the diaspora, who asked to hear their thoughts about the political situation in Israel, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to speak freely about what was discussed in the meeting. The meeting took place against the backdrop of the negotiations between Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and the radical right-wing and ultra-orthodox parties. According to sources who attended the meeting, the atmosphere was very difficult and almost all of the attendees raised concerns about the policies of the incoming Israeli government.

Out of more than a thousand cases of alleged offences by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians, only 11 have yielded an indictment, according to the rights group Yesh Din. | Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip over the last five years have been indicted in less than 1 percent of the hundreds of complaints against them, an Israeli rights group reported. The watchdog argued that Israel's military systematically fails to conduct a credible prosecution of itself. ● Between 2017 and 2021, the Israeli military received 1,260 cases of alleged offenses by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians, including 409 cases involving the killing of Palestinians, according to military data obtained by the group Yesh Din and released Wednesday after a freedom of information request. ● The Israeli military opened 248 criminal investigations into instances of possible misconduct in response to those complaints — just 21.4 percent of the total, Yesh Din said. Only 11 investigations during that five-year period have yielded indictments. In those cases, Israel’s military prosecutors acted with leniency toward convicted soldiers, the group added, with those sentenced for killing Palestinians serving only short-term military community service.

■ Norway to review Israel investments to ensure they do not fund illegal settlements: report (The New Arab)

Israeli attacks continue against Palestinians, some of whom are exercising their internationally recognized right to resist occupation, others are ‘collateral damage.’ A 46-year-old laborer was killed while he was heading to work. | Palestinian non-combatants and minors who are killed during Israel’s allegedly “precise” targeted killings during undercover Israeli operations comprise the majority of those killed this year. An eyewitness described one Israeli raid on Thursday as “a true massacre.”

PHILIP GIRALDI | How to Trash a Movie in Support of a Lie | Israel’s new government is planning to give de facto operational control of the national police and heavily armed border police to Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of a party of right wing, racist extremists. It can perhaps be regarded as the prelude to the last phase in the uprooting and displacement of the Palestinian people. Those who resist will be killed and not a single Israeli soldier or policeman will be punished for carrying out what the Benjamin Netanyahu government will frame as a war against terrorists blessed by Yahweh in support of his “Chosen” people.

Media coverage: "20 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces in the last three weeks." pic.twitter.com/xna3IBrce0

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 10, 2022

Militants of the Ukrainian "Pravyy sektor" (Right sector) practiced torture of prisoners of war

Despite the Israeli brutality – indeed, because of it – Palestinians have risen up in defense of their existence on their land, with as much fearlessness and determination as every previous generation | Events in the occupied West Bank over the past week indicate that the Palestinian liberation struggle, and Israel’s efforts to repress it with with brutal violence, have entered a new phase. In this looming scenario, the formerly extremist fringe settlers see themselves represented at the top levels of Israeli government, emboldened and beyond the restraint of the army. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is proving increasingly ineffective at quelling armed resistance and teetering on what some Israeli analysts fear is the verge of collapse. The PA exists to serve as an enforcement arm of the Israeli occupation and its presence would not be missed by many Palestinians except for those who are currently on its payroll. But in a situation of complete Israeli impunity, and only empty gestures by international parties towards a nonexistent peace process, the grim statistic of more than 100 Palestinians killed in the West Bank so far this year foretells the even worse violence likely to come.

Commanders of the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) have been authorized to use armed drones to kill Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with the approval of Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi | Hamas called the order “a dangerous step” and urged Palestinians “to continue resisting the Israeli occupation with all means possible until they regain their legitimate rights.” ● The authorization to expand the use of killer drones coincides with “a significant rise in shooting attacks and massive gunfire during arrest raids, specifically in the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus,” according to The Jerusalem Post. On September 28, the IOF killed four Palestinians and injured dozens more during protests in Jenin. ● Since as early as 2008, the Israeli Air Force has been killing Palestinians in Gaza with drones. They have also been used to fire gas bombs and live rounds in occupied Jerusalem. Although drones have been employed for surveillance, this is the first time armed drones will be utilized in the occupied West Bank. Drones comprise 80 percent of the total flight hours in the Israeli Air Force.

Israel Authorizes Military to Kill Palestinians with Drones in West Bank (Marjorie Cohn / Consortium News)

Once again, invading Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians – a teen & a 24-year-old. 27 Palestinians have been killed at Israeli hands since the beginning of September; one Israeli has also been killed. Reposted from IMEMC – the International Middle East Media Center, October 8, 2022

On Saturday dawn, many armored Israeli military vehicles invaded the Jenin city and Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, killing two Palestinians and injuring at least eleven, three seriously. ● Undercover soldiers first invaded Jenin and Jenin refugee camp, then dozens of armored military vehicles invaded the refugee camp from several directions, leading to protests. ● Medical sources at Ibn Sina Specialist Hospital in Jenin said the soldiers killed Mahmoud Moayyad Sous, 18, after shooting him with a live round in the neck and added that the soldiers also shot seven Palestinians, three seriously. ● One of the seriously wounded Palestinians, Ahmad Mohammad Hussein Daraghma, 24, from Tubas in the northeastern West Bank, succumbed to serious wounds he suffered during protests in Jenin city. ● Medical sources at the Jenin governmental hospital said Ahmad suffered serious gunshot wounds to the head and succumbed to his injuries.

12-year-old dies from injuries after Israeli soldier shot him Sept 28 in Jenin (IMEMC/If Americans Knew)
Israeli forces kill two more Palestinian teens (IMEMC/If Americans Knew)

The report establishes 1958 as the year when contact between Lebanese officials and the Israeli military establishment was first initiated | Almost a week before the 40th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, a document submitted to the Israeli High Court of Justice has revealed Israel’s role in Lebanon’s bloody conflicts, dating back to the 1950’s. ● The report establishes 1958 as the year when contact was first made between Lebanese Christian leaders and the Israeli military establishment. ● Then-Lebanese President Camille Chamoun requested armed assistance from the Israeli army to counter the 1958 power struggle against groups influenced by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. ● “In the 1950s in the framework of ‘Khalil’ there was a discussion between us about the need to support Christians in Lebanon. Chamoun was in danger of losing his rule,” the declassified Israeli document adds. ● In response, the Israeli army and Mossad agreed to prepare an Iranian plane sent by the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to transport weapons from Israeli stocks to the Lebanese Christian militias.

of victims of the continuous Israeli aggression for the third day on the besieged Gaza Strip has risen to 31, including six children, in addition to wounding more than 260 Palestinians.

Occupied Jerusalem, SANA | The aggression of the occupation has caused great damage to Palestinian homes, properties and infrastructure, which will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis suffered by the Palestinians in the Strip. The Israeli occupation’s prevention of the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip threatens to stop the medical services provided by hospitals in the coming hours due to the shutdown of the power plant and the shortage of fuel needed to operate the generators. In response to the continuous Israeli aggression, the Palestinian resistance renewed today targeting the Israeli occupation settlements in the occupied city of Jerusalem and on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip.

Times of Israel: Joint List MK: Lapid went to war to win election, ‘at expense of Palestinian blood’ - An Israeli Arab politician slammed Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday, claiming he launched the operation in Gaza in an attempt to win the upcoming Knesset election “at the expense of Palestinian blood” and criticizing the Israeli public, which he claimed had “lost its humanity.” [...] Abou Shehadeh said the thing that frightened him most was that the Israeli society and media had completely aligned behind what he called a “massive machine of destruction.”

Biden praises Israel for saving ‘countless lives’   [no comment...]
Palestinian Authority spox: Israeli aggression on Gaza, al-Quds, Jenin crosses all red lines (PressTV)
IRGC: Israeli crimes in Gaza speed up collapse of usurping, occupying regime (PressTV)
Israeli Premeditated Cold-Blooded Murder (Stephen Lendman)
Gaza: at least 15 dead as a result of Israeli strikes (08/05/22)

On Friday, the scourge of Israeli apartheid state terror reared its ugly head again against long-suffering Gazans.: Along with its 2008-09 Cast Lead aggression and three other preemptive wars that followed, the IDF terror-bombed and shelled the Strip many times — murdering civilians, destroying vital infrastructure, attacking Gaza fishermen at sea, shooting Palestinian children for target practice. On August 5, Israeli Yair Lapid regime terror-bombing killed at least 12 Strip residents, including a senior freedom-fighting Islamic Jihad official, injuring about 75 others, some severely, Lapid roaring: His regime will continue terrorizing Gazans for “as long as it” takes to achieve his diabolical aims.

Palestinian Authority spox: Israeli aggression on Gaza, al-Quds, Jenin crosses all red lines (PressTV)
IRGC: Israeli crimes in Gaza speed up collapse of usurping, occupying regime (PressTV)
Gaza: at least 15 dead as a result of Israeli strikes (08/05/22)

Yousef Alhelou |💬 “I think the latest Israeli unprovoked aggression on Gaza which led to the assassination of top Islamic Jihad commander&killing of 31 others so far and injury of 220 across Gaza, first: was aimed at gaining credit for Israeli defence minister and the current ruling poltical party, second: to cause split between Hamas and Islamic Jihad and deepen the geographical separation between Gaza and the West Bank, Third: to change the rules of engagement and to regain the so-called “power of deterrence” Fourth: to test the response of the so-called international community and regional Arab governments whether those friend’s or foes of Israel.”