"Difficult to function while a genocide in Gaza – which is still ongoing – and accelerated ethnic-cleansing in the West Bank unfolds. And it has been difficult to wrestle with the ways in which the media is complicit in what is happening. More than 200 Palestinians journalists have been killed in Gaza by Israel since 7 October; far too many journalists in the West have been silent about this. The scale of carnage in Gaza simply wouldn’t have been able to take place without the media dehumanizing Palestinians and manufacturing consent for atrocities...."

" For example: one of the biggest and most inflammatory talking points after 7 October – one which helped convince people there wasn’t a single innocent Palestinian civilian – was that Hamas beheaded 40 babies. Hamas committed verified atrocities, but this was a lie. It was one, however, which plenty of journalists, including CBS news correspondent and a CNN anchor, spread without properly confirming. The CNN anchor later apologized; CBS did not." Arwa Mahdawi

READ MORE  

 https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/15/its-the-medias-job-to-hold-power-to-account-this-year-too-many-got-into-bed-with-it-instead 

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A protestor in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: David Swanson/Reuters

It’s the media’s job to hold power to account. This year, too many got into bed with it instead

Arwa Mahdawi

 The lines between advertising, public relations and journalism have become dangerously blurred

 Funded by readers, the Guardian’s fierce independence is guaranteed. Please help us reach our year-end fundraising goal

Enough time has passed now, I think, that I can safely tell you about one of the stupidest things I have ever done. Almost a decade ago I decided to quit my well-paid job in advertising in order to pursue a precarious career in freelance journalism. The merits of that decision are up for debate but the real stupidity is in how I quit my job: I wrote a rather cringeworthy column for the Guardian about my “meaningless job in advertising” and publicly proclaimed that I’d decided to quit. My boss saw the piece and, well, he obviously wasn’t happy. (Sorry, Sean!)

I bring this embarrassing anecdote up because I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting recently on the reasons why I left advertising. Maybe this sounds twee, but I was sick of selling people things they didn’t need. I wanted to do something meaningful.

You know what, though? While selling underwear and vodka to the masses may not be entirely fulfilling, it’s better for the soul than selling people wars and genocide... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/dec/15/its-the-medias-job-to-hold-power-to-account-this-year-too-many-got-into-bed-with-it-instead

"Archaeology has become yet another mechanism of oppression, alongside settler and military violence, movement restrictions, and daily dispossession. And while Palestinian communities resist with the few means available to them, Israeli archaeologists continue to legitimize and advance these forces. If Israeli archaeologists wish to maintain their academic legitimacy — and, more importantly, cease participating in an unethical project of colonial domination — they must heed the warnings of their international peers and reject the state’s cynical exploitation of their profession."

 Israel preparing largest ever act of ‘archeological cleansing’ in West Bank

Subordinating scientific value to colonial expansion, Israeli archeologists are putting up no resistance as the state moves to expropriate swaths of Sebastia.

By Alon Arad December 11, 2025

 

Graffiti sprayed on ancient archeological artifacts, in Sebastia, near the West Bank city of Nablus, May 12, 2025. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

https://www.972mag.com/sebastia-archeological-cleansing-west-bank/

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... On Nov. 19, Israel’s Civil Administration announced plans to expropriate 550 of Sebastia’s private plots — approximately 1,800 dunams (450 acres) of land that have been central to the village’s livelihood, cultural heritage, and identity for centuries. Residents say the project will devastate local agriculture, including destroying some 3,000 olive trees, some of which are hundreds of years old.

Sebastia is, undeniably, a multi-layered archaeological site of extraordinary value. Once the Iron Age city of Samaria, capital of the Kingdom of Israel, it contains remnants of King Ahab’s palace that were unearthed in the 1930s. In the first century BCE, King Herod of the Kingdom of Judea rebuilt the city, leaving behind a temple honoring his friend, Roman Emperor Augustus, near the older ruins. A well-preserved Roman theater, Byzantine church, and other antiquities have also been uncovered in the area.

But Sebastia’s archeological significance only sharpens the political contradiction at hand: While the site merits careful study, the gulf between the ethical commitments claimed by Israeli archaeologists and the state violence carried out in archaeology’s name to justify steps toward annexing the West Bank has never been more stark.

Israel’s takeover of Sebastia — its largest ever land expropriation for antiquities — began in May 2023, when the government allocated NIS 32 million for the site’s “restoration and development.” The campaign escalated in July 2024, when the military seized the summit of Tel Sebastia (the village’s highest point, home to its most significant archaeological remains) citing vague “security concerns.” Soon after, the government signaled plans to take over even more of the village. 

Palestinian residents — together with Emek Shaveh, the organization I direct — filed a formal objection with the Civil Administration, arguing that international law prohibits the use of cultural property for military purposes. The challenge was ultimately rejected.

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu celebrated the expropriation online. “We will no longer hand over our inheritance to murderers,” he wrote on X last month. Eliyahu, a prominent advocate of West Bank annexation and Jewish resettlement in Gaza, added: “This is our historic homeland; we will never leave this place.”

Though the area currently targeted for excavation lies technically within Area C (under full Israeli control) and most of Sebastia’s built-up village falls within Area B (under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security control), in practice the two zones form a single, continuous landscape. The village’s own antiquities are historically and culturally inseparable from those situated in Area C.

The new expropriation plan threatens to rupture that connection entirely. It envisions diverting Israeli visitors along a road settlers intend to build that bypasses the Palestinian village altogether, and includes constructing a visitor center, fencing off the archaeological zone, and charging entrance fees. If carried out, these measures would effectively cut Sebastia’s residents off from their land and heritage.

Archaeology in service of annexation

Israel’s use of archaeology to facilitate the takeover of Palestinian land — a practice that can aptly be described as “archaeological cleansing” — long predates Sebastia. For decades, the state has deployed this strategy both within the 1948 borders and across the West Bank: in East Jerusalem’s City of David park, in the village of Susya in the South Hebron Hills, in the Nabi Samwil national park, in Shiloh, and in numerous other sites. ... READ MORE 

  https://www.972mag.com/sebastia-archeological-cleansing-west-bank/

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Ahmad a MUSLIM risked his own life tackling the terrorist and disarmed him - getting shot himself in the process. He is the epitome of a hero. PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU PREACH HATRID TO RELIGIONS

 Fan Ms Rachel At Songs

@msrachelforlitt

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Ahmad a MUSLIM risked his own life tackling the terrorist and disarmed him - getting shot himself in the process. He is the epitome of a hero. 

 

PLEASE THINK BEFORE YOU PREACH HATRED TO RELIGIONS

 

  #bondibeach

 &

 BBC News Arabic

Ahmed al Ahmed, the bystander who disarmed one of the gunmen during the Bondi Beach attack in Sydney, acted out of “pure conscience and humanity,” his family tells BBC News Arabic.

According to the family, Ahmed’s condition is stable, and he is awaiting further medical treatment for gunshot wounds to his shoulder and hand sustained during the attack.  

In Syria, where Ahmed was born and raised, his uncle Mohamed Ahmed al Ahmed tells BBC Arabic that the family felt immense pride.

“He made us proud, our village, Syria, all Muslims and the entire world,” he says.  

 https://www.bbc.com/news/live/ckgk391yzm7t?post=asset%3A256c0682-8363-409c-a2d0-35b1caac5927#post

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Pope Leo XIV says in a statement that he wishes to "entrust to the Lord the victims of the terrorist massacre carried out yesterday in Sydney against the Jewish community". He adds: "Enough with this antisemitic violence! Let us eliminate hatred from our hearts." The pontiff also asks people to pray together for everyone who suffers as a result of war or violence.

Image source, Reuters

Pope Leo XIV says in a statement that he wishes to "entrust to the Lord the victims of the terrorist massacre carried out yesterday in Sydney against the Jewish community".

He adds: "Enough with this antisemitic violence! Let us eliminate hatred from our hearts."

The pontiff also asks people to pray together for everyone who suffers as a result of war or violence.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/ckgk391yzm7t?post=asset%3Aeb76d7d9-9787-4d9d-8573-8d240ae48450#post 

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Pope Leo XIV holds an audience in the Paul VI Hall with donors of the St. Peter's Square Christmas tree and Nativity scene 

Pope remembers victims of Sydney attack: ‘Enough with antisemitic violence!’

Speaking with the groups that donated this year’s Vatican Christmas Tree and Nativity Scene, Pope Leo highlights God’s closeness to humanity and calls for prayers for those who suffer on account of war and violence, especially the victims of Sunday’s terror attack on the Jewish community in Sydney, Australia.

By Christopher Wells

Nativity scenes and Christmas trees are “signs of faith and hope”, Pope Leo said on Monday, inviting the faithful as they contemplate them to “ask the Lord to renew within us the gift of peace and fraternity”.

The Holy Father went on to ask for prayers for all those suffering due to war and violence, especially victims of the terrorist attack against the Jewish community in Sydney on Sunday, whom he entrusted to the Lord.

“Enough with these forms of antisemitic violence!” Pope Leo said. “We must eliminate hatred from our hearts.”

A mystery of humility and love

Pope Leo’s remarks came during an encounter with representatives of the communities that donated the Christmas Tree and Nativity Scene for Saint Peter’s Square, and the Nativity Scene set up in the Paul VI Hall, where Monday’s audience took place.

The Nativity Scene in St Peter’s Square – from the Diocese of Nocera Inferiore-Sarno outside of Naples – will remind pilgrims from around the world “that God draws near to humanity, becomes one of us, enters into our history with the smallness of a child,” the Pope said.

He recalled that “in the poverty of the stable in Bethlehem, we contemplate a mystery of humility and love” that invites us to “rediscover ourselves and enter into communion with God.”

A sign of life and hope

Greeting representatives of the “beautiful land” of Bolzano in northern Italy, who donated the 25-meter Norway spruce that stands next to the Creche in St Peter’s Square, Pope Leo recalled that the Christmas tree “is a sign of life and evokes the hope that never fails, even in the cold of winter.”

At the same time, the lights on the tree symbolize Jesus Christ, “the light of the world, Who came to dispel the darkness of sin and illuminate our path.”... READ MORE  https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-12/pope-leo-xiv-sydney-attack-enough-of-antisemitic-violence.html

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2025-12/bondi-beach-shooting-hanukkah-australia-terrorism.html 

At least eleven killed in Australia shooting during Jewish festival

Officials believe two men were involved in a shooting at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia.

... The Muslim Council of Elders, meanwhile, "strongly condemned" the mass shooting, calling for the strengthening of "international efforts to combat hate speech, extremism, and racism, while also addressing the root causes of such reprehensible violence, by promoting dialogue and mutual respect". 

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community during a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia...

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 Ihab Hassan

@IhabHassane

 

https://x.com/IhabHassane/status/2000253635964322062 

 

BREAKING: The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community during a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia. 

 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly condemns the terrorist attack that took place in the Australian city of Sydney, which resulted in a number of deaths and injuries. 

 

The Ministry affirms the full solidarity of the State of Palestine and its standing alongside friendly Australia—its government and people—during this painful tragedy. 

 

It reiterates its firm rejection of all forms of violence, terrorism, and extremism, which contradict human values, moral principles, and the teachings of all heavenly religions that call for peace, respect for human life, and the rejection of hatred and extremism. 

 

The Ministry extends its sincerest condolences and sympathy to the government and people of Australia, and to the families of the victims of this criminal attack, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.

"The moral failure here is not abstract. The 1,000 pastors who enjoyed their free trip to Israel did not seem concerned that Palestinian Christians living minutes away cannot freely access their own churches in Jerusalem and other holy sites without Israeli military permission." ....U.S. Pastors Become Willing Ambassadors for Israel’s War-- More than 1,000 U.S. pastors flew to Jerusalem on December 3–7 for the Friends of Zion Ambassador Summit , a fully funded trip backed by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Munther Isaac's book Christ in the Rubble

 Munther Isaac منذر اسحق

@MuntherIsaac

An important article by my friend Fares

U.S. Pastors Become Willing Ambassadors for Israel’s War

 By

Fares Abraham

When one megachurch pastor in Texas received his invitation to the summit, he reviewed the itinerary and said to himself what any discerning Christian leader should have said: “This feels like an indoctrination trip, not ministry.” He declined immediately. But a thousand others became part of what Israel’s foreign ministry called “ the largest Christian delegation ever to visit Israel.”

 

No modern government has ever invested so much money, coordination, and political effort to mobilize American pastors before now. Why would Israel pay to assemble 1,000 Christian leaders, covering their airfare and luxury accommodations, and choreograph their every step?

 

And more importantly, why would spiritual leaders allow themselves to be used in this way?

 

At a minimum, it raises serious questions about whether American religious leaders should be mobilized to serve the interests of a foreign government rather than the interests of the United States.

 

The summit was not a spiritual gathering. It was a political operation wrapped in Scripture, engineered to manufacture a religious mandate for policies that cannot withstand moral scrutiny. It was statecraft masquerading as spiritual experience.

 

The summit’s own “Before You Go” guidelines made the contradiction unavoidable. Pastors were told that public evangelism and distributing Christian materials were prohibited in Israel, and that they should refrain from preaching altogether. In effect, the very faith that has driven Christians to share the gospel for two millennia was instructed to remain silent in Jerusalem.

 

The attendees did not reflect the breadth of American Christianity. Many of the private invitations were circulated by the  highly criticized  White House Faith Office, led by Paula White-Cain, or through networks of politically aligned activist pastors. No mainline denominations, evangelical institutions, or global church bodies were included. Presenting this narrow political cohort as the voice of American Christianity is as misleading as it is strategic.

 

The itinerary revealed the intent. Pastors were guided through a tightly curated emotional journey of military briefings and visits to selected trauma sites—all designed to produce loyalty, not understanding. They met Israeli officials, not the local church. They heard talking points, not theology. They saw what they were meant to see and were shielded from what they must not see.

 

For Palestinian Christians watching from just miles away, the scene felt familiar. It mirrored a pattern we know from both daily life and the Gospels: political authority and religious influence aligning while the vulnerable bear the cost. In Jesus’ time,

 

Pilate and the Sanhedrin reinforced each other’s power at the expense of justice. Today, Christians in Bethlehem and Jerusalem see a similar convergence that deepens displacement, restricts worship, and silences the very Christian communities rooted in this land.

 

That convergence was reinforced not only by who was excluded, but by what was said at the summit, which paired exclusion with theological coercion. U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee told the assembled pastors that “ there is a growing cancer within the evangelical movement” because some Christians do not interpret Scripture exactly as he does regarding Israel. He even warned that disagreeing with his political theology “borders on blasphemy.”

 

This is theocratic pressure dressed in the language of faith. It is a demand that pastors surrender their moral agency to the talking points of a foreign government. Christian leaders who swallow that logic become political instruments rather than shepherds.

 

The moral failure here is not abstract. The 1,000 pastors who enjoyed their free trip to Israel did not seem concerned that Palestinian Christians living minutes away cannot freely access their own churches in Jerusalem and other holy sites without Israeli military permission.

 

Yet these pastors were paraded as Israel’s spiritual partners while the indigenous church—the men, women, and families who actually bear the weight of life in the land—were treated as an inconvenience.

 

No American pastor should be recruited into a project that ultimately normalizes perpetual conflict or provides religious cover for endless war.

 

Some defenders say this was simply a show of Christian support for Israel. But the summit went far beyond support. The organizer Mike Evans urged pastors to push back against criticism of Israel by dismissing dissent as propaganda from Qatar and others. In other words, he intimated, anyone who seeks to draw attention to the suffering of Palestinian Christians must be part of a foreign plot.

 

Reducing compassion to disinformation in this way is not only morally bankrupt; it is a direct assault on the Christian conscience.

 

As a Palestinian-American evangelical with family in Bethlehem and Gaza, and as someone who leads ministry across the region, I listened to this rhetoric with grief. Christians across history have interpreted Scripture differently, especially on matters of prophecy and politics. Treating theological disagreement as betrayal is both irresponsible and theologically unsound.

 

If anything borders on heresy, it is the idea that requiring unquestioning loyalty to Israel or any modern state is a test of Christian faithfulness.

 

What happened in Jerusalem last week was not a spiritual high point; it was a crisis of Christian integrity. It revealed how quickly the pulpit can be weaponized when pastors forget that their first loyalty is not to presidents, prime ministers, or political alliances but to their God who demands truth, justice, and compassion for all people. 

 

When faith becomes a tool of the state, it ceases to be faith. And when pastors allow themselves to be mobilized as foot soldiers in someone else’s geopolitical campaign, the church loses not only its witness but its soul.... READ MORE https://x.com/amconmag/status/2000230757927686629

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We now see the ugly face of Gaza’s ‘new normal’. Israel’s genocidal campaign has left behind a reality that our starved bodies cannot survive.

By Eman Abu Zayed

Palestinian writer from Gaza.

Published On 14 Dec 202514 Dec 2025

A girl stands in a pool of water at a makeshift camp sheltering displaced Palestinians after heavy rains in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City on December 11, 2025 [AFP]

Winter came to Gaza last month with a violent storm. I woke up at night to a disaster. Our tent was flooded with water which had transformed our “floor” into a shallow pool. The mattresses and pillows were completely soaked, cooking pots were submerged, the clothes were drenched, and even our bags— which function as our “closets”—were filled with water. Nothing inside remained dry.

As I tried to understand what was happening, I suddenly heard children crying at the entrance of our tent. I opened it quickly and found three children from the neighbouring tents, their lips blue from the cold, with their mother trembling behind them saying, “We are completely soaked… the rain leaked inside and the water reached everywhere.”

The same tragic scene was repeated all around us: women, children, and elderly people sitting in the street under the rain, their bedding drenched and their belongings scattered, while confusion and cries filled the air.

All 1.4 million displaced Palestinians who lack proper shelter suffered that day—people with no protection against the weather or its sudden storms.

For us, it took two full days for our belongings to dry because the sun barely appeared; everything stayed cold and damp. We didn’t move to another place—we stayed where we were, trying to salvage whatever we could, because there was simply nowhere else to go.

Only a week later, an even stronger winter storm arrived with severe rainfall. Tents were flooded again; little children froze in the rain again.

This week, when Storm Byron hit, we were flooded once again. Despite all our efforts to reinforce the tents, secure them tightly, and bring in stronger tarps, nothing worked. The winds were fiercer, the rain heavier, and the water pushed its way inside from every direction. The ground no longer absorbed anything. The water began rising rapidly beneath our feet, turning the entire area into a swamp.

According to the authorities, the strong winds destroyed at least 27,000 tents. These are 27,000 families who already struggled and now have nothing, no shelter, nowhere to hide from the rain and cold.

The rain also brought down damaged homes where people had been sheltering. Every time there is a storm or strong wind, we hear the sound of falling debris and concrete pillars from badly damaged buildings near us. This time, the situation was so bad that 11 people were killed by collapsed buildings.

It is clear that after everything we have endured, we – like other displaced Palestinians – cannot survive a third winter in these harsh conditions. We survived two winters in displacement, living in tents that protected neither from cold nor rain, waiting with exhausted patience for a ceasefire that would end our suffering. The ceasefire finally came, but relief did not. We remain in the same place, with bodies drained by malnutrition and illness, under tents worn out by the sun and wind.

We are a family of... READ MORE    https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/12/14/we-now-see-the-ugly-face-of-gazas-new-normal 

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