"Israel’s much greater firepower today, provided by modern munitions supplied by the United States, has allowed Israel to realise what before it could only dream of doing: wiping Gaza off the map." Gaza is not an aberration - Israel planned this genocide decades ago. In October 2023, Israel found an excuse to breathe new life into an old story of slaughter and expulsion. The chief differences this time have been of scale and duration

A Palestinian girl wounded in an Israeli strike on a tent encampment for displaced families, according to medics, is carried at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on 25 May, 2026 (Reuters)

Jonathan Cook

11 June 2026

The truth slowly comes to light: Israel's genocide in Gaza was planned decades ago.

Listen to the testimonies of four Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza. 

Soldier 1: “Human lives didn’t matter. You could kill, there was no law. No one would say a word to you. But it’s not a good feeling. It mainly kills your humanity.”

Soldier 2: “At first I wasn’t willing to execute Arabs who weren’t resisting [that is, civilians]. Then we came to the conclusion that we had to kill. We went through the process of ceasing to see them as human beings.”

Soldier 3: “We caught guys, lined them up and eliminated them. In retrospect, it looks like murder.”

Soldier 4: “We would roam through refugee camps in Gaza and carry out purges... Every soldier who was there created a ‘concentration camp’, and they didn’t hesitate to kill people who caused a slight disturbance.”

No, these testimonies are not new. The whistleblowers did not serve in Gaza during the current, ongoing genocide there. These accounts are nearly 60 years old, published last week by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz under the headline "We were ordered to kill”. 

Israeli soldiers interviewed shortly after the 1967 war - often referred to as the Six-Day War - not only confessed that they and others routinely committed war crimes but they pointed out that they did so under orders from their commanders. 

The accounts were compiled into a book, The Seventh Day: Soldiers Talk About the Six-Day War, by Avraham Shapira, though many testimonies were not included because they were too shocking.

None of this should be simply of historical interest. These accounts are a vivid reminder that what Israel has been doing during its current, near three-year destruction of Gaza - levelling all homes, hospitals, schools, universities, bakeries and government offices; murdering tens of thousands, more likely hundreds of thousands, of Palestinian civilians; and blocking aid and starving the population - is part of a decades-old pattern of Israeli military conduct. 

Nothing “started” on 7 October 2023, when Hamas broke out for a single day of the Gaza “concentration camp” - the plight of Gaza’s Palestinians noted 59 years ago by Soldier 4. 

Rather, Israel found an excuse that day to breathe new life into an old story, one in which it has been slaughtering and expelling Palestinians for decades. The chief difference this time is simply one of scale and duration. 

Washington and other western capitals have given Israel the time and space to finish in Gaza what, earlier, it had only been able to achieve in part. Israel’s much greater firepower today, provided by modern munitions supplied by the United States, has allowed Israel to realise what before it could only dream of doing: wiping Gaza off the map.

Policy of starvation

The whistleblowing soldiers of 1967 admitted their job was not to “fight the enemy” - or “eradicate the terrorists”, as Israeli leaders now term it. It was to kill and terrorise Palestinian civilians under cover of war. 

Few soldiers were shy of saying why they were committing atrocities. Their task was to create a reign of terror, integral to Israel’s efforts to expel as many Palestinians as possible from the last remaining parts of the Palestinian homeland, the territories captured by the Israeli military in 1967 and then illegally occupied.

This was seen as a new opportunity to complete the ethnic cleansing campaign begun by Zionist militias in earnest in 1947 and 1948 as the British Mandate authorities withdrew from Palestine. By the end of that campaign, some 80 percent of Palestinians had been expelled from their homes inside the borders of the newly declared Jewish state. 

Many ended up in refugee camps in neighbouring states such as Lebanon and Syria. But some fled into the surviving pockets of historic Palestine in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza - the 22 per cent of their homeland that had been shielded from further Israeli advances in 1948 by Jordan and Egypt. 

The 1967 war was... READ MORE  https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-not-an-aberration-israels-genocide-gaza-was-planned-decades-ago

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Last week, Israel carried out its largest demolition operation in the West Bank since 1967, destroying twenty buildings in the Jenin Refugee Camp within seconds. This assault is part of a broader escalation that has unfolded over the past two weeks... These measures involve mass arrests, ground raids, and demolitions, aiming to dismantle social infrastructure and disrupt daily life in a manner reminiscent of previous assaults on Gaza.

Sabeel Jerusalem

@SabeelJerusalem

Last week, Israel carried out its largest demolition operation in the West Bank since 1967, destroying twenty buildings in the Jenin Refugee Camp within seconds. This assault is part of a broader escalation that has unfolded over the past two weeks. Under the operation dubbed “Operation Iron Wall,” Israeli forces have increased military actions in Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas, and Tammoun. These measures involve mass arrests, ground raids, and demolitions, aiming to dismantle social infrastructure and disrupt daily life in a manner reminiscent of previous assaults on Gaza. 

God of Compassion, for nearly 80 years, our people have endured dispossession and loss. From Gaza to the West Bank, the weight of oppression continues to bear down on our hearts. We grieve the pain of those who have lived through generations of injustice and especially for the people of Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas, and Tammoun who live with no moment of peace. Amidst our fear and uncertainty, we ask you to make your presence and love known to those suffering. Grant peace to the afflicted, comfort to the grieving, and strength to the oppressed. Embolden the world to put an end to this cycle of violence and injustice.

Lord in your mercy…hear our prayer     https://sabeel.org/read-more-2404/

Ibrahim's Estate

August 28 2024: Since last night, the Israeli army has conducted a large-scale military operation in various parts of the West Bank, particularly in the northern regions.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti

 Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti

@MustafaBarghou1

Palestinian MD and MP, Presidential candidate 2005, Founder and Leader of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) Activist and advocate of Palestinian rights.

 

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti:  

 

Since last night, the Israeli army has conducted a large-scale military operation in various parts of the West Bank, particularly in the northern regions. The army has invaded Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem, Jenin city and its camp, and the Al Fara'a camp and the city of Tubas. 

 

Additionally, the Israeli army has besieged all hospitals in the area, including Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin, and is preventing people from reaching the hospital and restricting the movement of ambulances. 

 

So far, 11 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, most of them civilians. The army has also initiated a process of destruction, targeting infrastructure including electricity networks, water pipelines, and roads. 

 

The level of destruction being inflicted on the West Bank is a reminder of the extensive damage caused in Gaza by the Israeli bombardments. Moreover, the Israeli army has invaded numerous villages in the West Bank and is conducting a significant campaign of arrests. Dozens of people were arrested last night, and the operation which is the largest since 2002 is ongoing. 

 

The Israeli army remains stationed in these four areas, and the operation continues, reflecting a dangerous escalation that suggests the transfer of the genocide and ethnic cleansing war crimes from Gaza to the West Bank The Israeli foreign minister Katz called for displacement of Civilian Palestinians from refugee camps trying to imitate the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. 

 

The west Bank is fully Occupied by Israel since 1967 and Israel is conducting a unilateral war on the people it is occupying using Air Force, tanks which is a grave violation of international law. 

 

Aug 27, 2024

 

It is time for everyone to understand Netanyahu’s intentions: 

 

1- He does not want the war to stop and will keep undermining negotiations for a ceasefire by constantly changing or imposing new conditions. 

 

2- He wants to keep the Israeli occupation of the entire Gaza Strip. 

 

3- His plan is to continue the war on Gaza and expand it to the West Bank, combining the Israeli army and illegal settler attacks on Palestinian civilians. 

 

4- Netanyahu does not care about the lives of Israeli captives and he doesn’t care if they die due to Israeli bombardment. 

 

5- By destroying the chances of ending the war Netanyahu is hoping to help the election of Trump so he will try to extend the war till after the American elections. 

 

In summary Netanyahu cares only about his own interests.

Israel's Attack on America's USS Liberty in 1967

 

On June 8, 1967, US Navy intelligence ship USS Liberty was suddenly and brutally attacked on the high seas in international waters by the air and naval forces of Israel. The Israeli forces attacked with full knowledge that this was an American ship and lied about it. 

Survivors have been forbidden for 40 years to tell their story under oath to the American public. The USS Liberty Memorial web site tells their story and is dedicated to the memory of the 34 brave men who died.

The Attack

After surveilling USS Liberty for more than nine hours with almost hourly aircraft overflights and radar tracking, the air and naval forces of Israel attacked our ship in international waters without warning. USS Liberty was identified as a US naval ship by Israeli reconnaissance aircraft nine hours before the attack and continuously tracked by Israeli radar and aircraft thereafter. Sailing in international waters at less than five knots, with no offensive armament, our ship was not a military threat to anyone.

The Israeli forces attacked without warning and without attempting to contact us. Thirty four Americans were killed in the attack and another 174 were wounded.   The ship, a $40-million dollar state-of-the-art signals intelligence platform, was later declared unsalvageable and sold for scrap.

The Cover Up

Despite a near-universal consensus that the Israeli attack was made with full knowledge that USS Liberty was a US Navy ship, the Johnson administration began an immediate cover-up of this fact. Though administration officers continued individually to characterize the attack as deliberate, the Johnson administration never sought the prosecution of the guilty parties or otherwise attempted to seek justice for the victims. They concealed and altered evidence in their effort to downplay the attack. Though they never formally accepted the Israeli explanation that it was an accident, they never pressed for a full investigation either. They simply allowed those responsible literally to get away with murder.

In an ongoing effort to reveal the truth about the attack, the USS Liberty Veterans Association has filed with the Secretary of the Army in the manner prescribed by law a detailed, fully documented Report of War Crimes describing the circumstances of the attack on our ship and evidence that it was a crime under international law. In accordance with international law and treaties, the United States is obligated to investigate the allegations. So far, the United States has declined even to acknowledge that the report has been filed. The full text of the report can be found at http://www.gtr5.com/evidence/warcrimes.pdf

Anti-Semitism and the Anti-American Apologists

The USS Liberty Memorial web site abhors the racist and extreme positions taken by antiSemitic, Holocaust denial, conspiracy theorist and other such groups which often seek to identify with us and to usurp our story as their own. We have no connection with and do not support or encourage support from any of these groups including National Alliance, National Vanguard, The New Order, National Socialists, The French Connection, Liberty Lobby, American Free Press, Republic Broadcasting, USS Liberty Radio Hour, Storm Front or other such groups. We wish harm to no one and encourage social justice and equality for everyone; we seek only accountability for the criminal acts perpetrated against us and can do that without help from hate-mongers.

On the Israeli side, the group of pro-Israel, anti-American critics of our story, while small, persists in launching loud, vicious ad hominem attacks on anyone who attempts to discuss the deliberateness of the attack. These anti-American apologists refuse to discuss the facts of the case. Instead, they rely on propaganda and charge anyone who questions the Israeli position with being antiSemitic.

For detailed and authoritative accounts of the power and influence of the pro-Israel lobby, please see The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by Mearsheimer and Walt and The Pro-Israel Lobby by Edward Herman.

The Betrayal of American Veterans
.
Americans who volunteer for military service effectively write a blank check, payable to the United States of America for an amount "up to and including my life." The United States, in turn, promises to spend these checks responsibly. That bargain implicitly includes a promise by the United States to protect them and to seek retribution against anyone who harms them. In the case of USS Liberty, the United States has failed to keep its end of the bargain.

http://www.gtr5.com/

F.A.Q.
The following are some of the more frequently asked questions about the Israeli attack on USS  Liberty, together with answers.

• Haven't there been numerous investigations of the attack?
  
• Why was the attack unlawful?
• Why did Israel attack?
• What can I do to support Liberty survivors?
• What motivates the anti-Liberty, pro-Israel apologists?
  

http://www.gtr5.com/faq-home.htm

 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'We're Fed Up With It': Survivors of the USS Liberty Look for Answers ...

A supporter dons a USS Liberty memorial shirt as surviving crew members place roses on the ship’s memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 34 on June 8, 2022. (Military.com photo by Drew F.Lawrence)

" "Heroism was the order of the day, and every man who could help, stepped up to help," said Bowen.

The attack, which left 34 Americans dead and 174 others injured -- two-thirds of the crew in total, according to a press release organized by the Liberty Veterans Association -- has been veiled in controversy since it happened, with survivors, and even some former senior intelligence officials, pointing to a deliberate bombardment by Israel and a subsequent U.S. dismissal of the event to pardon its ally. "    

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/06/08/were-fed-it-survivors-of-uss-liberty-look-answers-55-years-later.html

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UNRWA: A man-made famine is "tightening its grip" across Gaza

 UNRWA warns man-made famine tightening grip across Gaza

11:24 AM

The New Arab Staff & Agencies

A man-made famine is "tightening its grip" across the Gaza Strip, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA warned on Wednesday as he accused Israel of blocking aid deliveries and seeking to end UNRWA's activities in the enclave.

"Today, an insidious campaign to end UNRWA's operations is underway, with serious implications for international peace and security," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

 

Analysis: Israeli accusations against UNRWA are part of a long-running interest in disbanding the UN agency and nullifying the issue of Palestinian refugees.

“UNRWA serves 5.6 million Palestinian refugees stemming from the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli conflicts. Most of the refugee population resides in camps located in the OPT, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The decision to suspend aid impacts refugees in all these locations,” Zaha Hassan, a Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and human rights lawyer, told The New Arab.

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"... and birds shall return" The Deluge and the Tree poem by Fadwa Tuqan, written in 1967, right after the Naksa (ongoing israeli made Nakba) & remembered #Gaza 2024

 

Found online:  

 

"Eid Mubarak.

 

Let me offer you this poem, which has been my talisman during these six brutal months. By our glorious Fadwa Tuqan, written in 1967, right after the Naksa.

 

Translated by Naomi Shihab Nye and Salma Khadra Jayyusi"

Moonlight... a true childhood story of being Palestinian in 1967 by Mike Hanini Odetalla

 

Moonlight...a true childhood story of being Palestinian by Mike Hanini Odetalla

 

As I look outside my window and see a most beautiful full moon, so bright and brilliant; it literally sends golden shards of light through my window shades. I begin to remember that night in June of 1967. Could it have been the same bright and peaceful moon that lit our escape path as we ran for the neighboring hills and caves? I remember it being so big and bright, that the worn dirt path that led us away was clearly visible. The mouth of the cave faced due east and that night, the moon shone like a giant spotlight that seemed to be resting on top of the hill that my family had owned a large chunk of for generations. The moon seemed to be resting on top of that hill facing the west and looking straight into my eyes as I sat there at the mouth of the cave. I was in awe struck as the jets crisscrossed the night sky, their silvery metallic bodies gleaming, and reflecting dabs of moonlight.

 

Could this be really war I wondered? It didn’t seem like it. Except for the brilliant flashes of light that were later followed by the thunder, all seemed “normal”. Yes, we were cramped, more than 25 people were in the cave with us, but I had somehow tuned out all the noise of the women and the cries of the other children. I was totally hypnotized by that gorgeous moonlight. Suddenly, I was rudely snapped out of my hypnotic state, as my mother yanked my arm, yelling for us to run away from that cave. I got up and ran simply because of my mother’s frantic yelling and urging.

 

We ran until we reached a large tree in the middle of an olive grove about 100 yards away. Then I became conscious that my mother was still urging the others to follow. They hesitated at first, but finally relented as it became clear, you see that those jets gleaming in the moonlight were preparing to hit us. Not 5 minutes had passed when I saw them again, flying low over head. After 2 passes, a jet positioned itself and dove at us from the east, the same direction as that brilliant moonlight. The flash from under its wing deployed its rockets directly into the mouth of the same cave where we had taken refuge only a few minutes before. There were powerful explosions as debris flew outward.

 

I began to realize, finally, that this, indeed, was war: a word and a reality that had carried no tangible meaning for me until that moment. There was no electricity in my village of Beit Hanina and thus, I had never watched TV nor ever seen a movie. All of knew of war were the tales that the old people told about their experiences in 1948 and the raids by IDF into neighboring villages. Now, a first hand experience was putting War into my life in bright, vivid colors, accompanied by a very violently booming soundtrack.

 

This, my introduction to war, was also the end of my childhood innocence. The sights and experiences that followed would be recorded by my brain for all of eternity, no matter how horrible they were. The moon continued to light our way as we went through the olive groves and seeking yet another scorpion infested cave. That cave would be our “home” for the next 10 days or so. Our new ‘home’ opened directly overhead, looking into the sky, so I no longer had a view of the moon or of what was going on around us. The only reminder of war was the ever present thunder of the artillery in the background, and the confinement inside that cave.

 

To this day, when I look at a full moon, I wonder if it remembers that 6 year old boy gripped then, as now, in its hypnotic powers on that fateful night in early June of 1967…

 

           Mike Odetalla 2002 All rights reserved.

From the archives... 1971 & 1967

From the archive, 11 June 1971: Inter-faith municipality urged for Old City of Jerusalem

'History has placed our three communities here, and we have to find a spiritual as well as a physical way of coexistence'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2013/jun/11/jerusalem-religion-inter-faith-municipality

An Orthodox nun holds a candle during a procession along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City. Photograph: Baz Ratner/REUTERS

A plan for making the Old City of Jerusalem into an "inter-faith municipality" was suggested yesterday by the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, the Most Rev George Appleton, when he spoke to the Council of Christians and Jews in London on "The cost of peacemaking."

He reminded his audience, which included the Chief Rabbi, the Rev Dr Immanuel Jakobovits, that the holy city was only a small area, a little more than one kilometre square, with 26,000 people living inside it. But millions revered it, were moved by it to remember sacred events, and were often better people because of those thoughts...READ MORE

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"Created with the approval of the United Nations, the existence of Israel ought to be guaranteed by that body as long as Israel is amenable to the actions of that body. The borders drawn at the time of partition and affirmed by the United Nations in 1956 must be respected by Israeli and Arab alike until and unless they are changed by procedures of negotiation under the aegis of that body." Rev Harold Bosley, Senior Minister Christ Church, Methodist, New York, July 10, 1967: Letter in the New York Times Israeli Territorial Claims
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70B1FFA3A5E137A93C5A8178CD85F438685F9

Palestinian author Ibtisam Barakat "...and the world is at heart playful..."

Ibtisam Barakat 

I went to buy something and the lady behind the counter pulled out the newspaper from a month or so ago and asked me if I would sign my name next to the article about me as a Palestinian author :):) She has been keeping the newspaper until I showed up . . I have signed books and shoes and extended arms and necks and small pieces of paper including napkins and even chests for teenagers, but today I signed the newspaper for a lady doing paper work behind a counter :):) I did not have to show my ID . . This makes me laugh . . . I feel like a child each time such thing happens . . and I feel that all people are children . . . and the world is at heart playful . . .
Poet and author Ibtisam Barakat 2012 

Tasting the Sky

 Winner, Arab American National Museum Book Award for Children's/YA Literature, among other awards and honors.

In this groundbreaking memoir set in Ramallah during the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, Ibtisam Barakat captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. With candor and courage, she stitches together memories of her childhood: fear and confusion as bombs explode near her home and she is separated from her family; the harshness of  life as a Palestinian refugee; her unexpected joy when she discovers Alef, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. This is the beginning of her passionate connection to words, and as language becomes her refuge, allowing her to piece together the fragments of her world, it becomes her true home.

Transcending the particulars of politics, this illuminating and timely book provides a telling glimpse into a little-known culture that has become an increasingly important part of the puzzle of world peace.