Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing.

Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence officer convicted of spying for Israel, pictured in New York City in 2017. Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

 

Ex-US spy for Israel calls for Gaza ethnic cleansing as he seeks Knesset seat

Jonathan Pollard, who served 30 years for selling US military secrets, advocates ‘forcible removal’ of Palestinians

Julian Borger in Jerusalem

Tue 5 May 2026 14.21 EDT

Jonathan Pollard, a former US navy intelligence analyst jailed for 30 years for spying for Israel, has said he will stand for election to the Knesset this year on a platform of ethnic cleansing.

Speaking to Channel 13 television, Pollard said: “I personally prefer the forcible removal of all current residents of Gaza, and the annexation of Gaza and its repopulation by us.”

Pollard said he decided to enter politics because of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities that killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war. He blamed the Israeli government for failure to prevent the attack or intervene quickly after it began.

“Until then, I thought that the abandonment and betrayal I experienced from the government was an exception and not the rule, but after October 7 I realized that I was not an exception,” he said.

Pollard was released on parole at the age of 61 from US prison in 2015 after serving 30 years for selling military secrets to Israel for money. He and his wife, Anne Henderson, were arrested in 1985 after Pollard passed a huge volume of classified documents to Israeli intelligence – enough to fill a 10ftx6ftx6ft room, by Pollard’s own calculation. In return he received cash and jewels... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/05/jonathan-pollard-israel-gaza-ethnic-cleansing

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‘My life has become a rollercoaster’: Francesca Albanese on death threats, danger and dread after accusing Israel of genocide. When the UN special rapporteur published her report Anatomy of a Genocide in March 2024, she was lionised by some and demonised by the Trump government. She describes what happened next...

"She believes she is up against not just Trump’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s governments, but also “predatory elites” around the world who are prepared to defend the accumulation of unprecedented riches with violence. Israel’s war against Palestinian resistance is one of many battlefields, she says." 

‘I go around with cash or I have to borrow from friends or from family members’ … Francesca Albanese in Geneva last month. Photograph: Jordi Ruiz Cirera/The Guardian

Interview by Julian Borger in Geneva

Tue 14 Apr 2026 

In retrospect, arranging to interview Francesca Albanese in a cafe was not the best plan. Before we could start, the waitress wanted a photo with the Italian human rights lawyer. So did the cashier. Then the cook came out of the kitchen in his whites for a group photo. Some of the customers wanted their turn. Albanese was gracious with all comers and chatty in three languages, so the process took some time.

Albanese, 49, has been getting similar rock star welcomes everywhere she goes lately, which is not the norm for unpaid UN legal experts. In other times, her job title – UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 – would sound like a recipe for obscurity. She is one of more than 40 special rapporteurs, human rights experts appointed to do pro bono investigations and reports on areas of concern.

These are no ordinary times, however. The untreated wound of Israel-Palestine has shown its capacity every generation to give the rest of the world a fever. The Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, provoked a ferocious Israeli response that has killed more than 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza, displaced more than 90% of its population and reduced the overwhelming bulk of the territory to ruins.

Albanese was not the first person to describe the Israeli military campaign as a genocide, but she was the first person with the initials UN in her title to do so. She has used her megaphone consistently over the past two years not just to condemn the Israeli government and its military, but also the constellation of western states and corporations that have abetted them. Her message, delivered emphatically in person and in a series of UN reports, is that we are living in an interlocking system that has shown itself capable of mass killing.

For her public stance, Albanese’s life has been threatened and her family put in danger... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/apr/14/my-life-has-become-a-rollercoaster-francesca-albanese-death-threats-danger-dread-accusing-israel-genocide  

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"The goal is to expel these people,” Taor said, referring to the local Palestinians... In the Jordan valley [PALESTINE], teenage [ISRAELI] settlers [FUNDED BY ISRAEL] drive herds of goats into a [INDIGENOUS] Palestinian community in a bid to force [NATIVE BUT NOT JEWISH] families out

Herds of goats are sent to the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja while volunteers form a ‘protective presence’.

 Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian

The volunteers putting their bodies between Israel settlers and a Palestinian village

In the Jordan valley, teenage settlers drive herds of goats into a Palestinian community in a bid to force families out – volunteers are trying to hold the line

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/20/the-volunteers-putting-their-bodies-between-israel-settlers-and-a-palestinian-village

Julian Borger and Quique Kierszenbaum in Ras Ein al-Auja, West Bank

Sat 20 Dec 2025

It is a daily onslaught. Every morning, teenage Israeli settlers drive a herd of goats from their outpost in the hills down into the valley towards the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja.

The local men, women and children retreat inside their huts and tents. Any hint of resistance from a Palestinian is likely to bring in the Israeli army or the border police, confiscation of property and disappearance into the maw of “administrative” detention without trial, for months or years.

Instead, a small group of volunteers step forward each morning to face the descending settlers whose stated aim is to overrun and trample the village with their livestock, and drive Palestinians out.

On this particular Saturday, the defenders of Ras Ein al-Auja are four Israeli Jews, a Hungarian and an American, who make a screen around Palestinian homes to shoo away the encroaching animals.

“The settlers are trying to provoke the local people into protecting themselves, but if they do the army and police will storm the community and arrest everyone,” said one of the Israeli volunteers, Amir Pansky, a retired Israeli army major.

“We are a protective presence because we are putting our bodies between the Jewish settlers and the Palestinians.”

For every defensive move they make, the teenage settler goatherds respond with an offensive counter-move to outflank the village guardians. The boys walk right up to the volunteers until their faces are inches apart, and the latter try to stand their ground, waving their arms and shouting.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/20/the-volunteers-putting-their-bodies-between-israel-settlers-and-a-palestinian-village

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"Since the US-brokered ceasefire was announced on 10 October, Israeli forces have killed more than 360 Palestinians in Gaza; according to a UN official, at least 70 are children – like Jumaa and Fadi."

A boy sits slumped amid the rubble in Nuseirat, central Gaza, after an overnight Israeli airstrike on 29 October in which at least 50 Palestinians died. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

 ‘Bloodshed was supposed to stop’: no sign of normal life as Gaza’s killing and misery grind on

Seham Tantesh in Gaza, Julian Borger and Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem

 Sat 6 Dec 2025

The term ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion life is returning to normal’ for Palestinians squeezed into the remaining 42% of their land behind Israel’s ‘yellow line’

When Jumaa and Fadi Abu Assi went to look for firewood their parents thought they would be safe. They were just young boys, aged nine and 10 and, after all, a ceasefire had been declared in Gaza.

Their mother, Hala Abu Assi, was making tea in the family’s tent in Khan Younis when she heard an explosion, a missile fired by an Israeli drone. She ran to the scene – but it was too late.

Since the US-brokered ceasefire was announced on 10 October, Israeli forces have killed more than 360 Palestinians in Gaza; according to a UN official, at least 70 are children – like Jumaa and Fadi.

They were killed, their mother said, at “a time when bloodshed was supposed to stop”.

“After the ceasefire was announced, I felt a bit of safety and believed that nothing would harm my children any more,” Abu Assi said. “But fate had another plan.”

She is focused now on keeping her two surviving daughters alive. “I still hear explosions and gunfire,” she said. “I do not feel that the war has ended.”

The toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza has fallen significantly compared with the preceding two years of war, when on average 90 Palestinians were killed each day, but significant numbers of civilians are still losing their lives.

On average, Israeli weapons now kill seven people a day. That rate of violent death would be considered an active conflict in many other contexts, raising questions about how accurately “ceasefire” describes the new status quo.

“It’s something that if you want to you can call a ceasefire, which is very convenient for the Americans and for everyone who wants this off their television screens and off their streets and off their annoying parliamentary and political schedules,” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator and the president of the US/Middle East Project....READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/dec/06/bloodshed-was-supposed-to-stop-no-sign-of-normal-life-as-gazas-killing-and-misery-grind-on

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Israeli settlers attack and rob Italian and Canadian volunteers in West Bank- Group beaten in early hours of morning in village where they volunteered to help protect Palestinians from settler violence

Israeli forces in the West Bank. The pace and intensity of attacks in Ein al-Duyuk have increased substantially over the past two months since the establishment of a new settler outpost. Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

West Bank

Israeli settlers attack and rob Italian and Canadian volunteers in West Bank

Group beaten in early hours of morning in village where they volunteered to help protect Palestinians from settler violence

Julian Borger in Jerusalem

Mon 1 Dec 2025 11.40 EST

Italy and Canada have raised concerns about the treatment of their citizens who were beaten and robbed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Three Italians and a Canadian were attacked early on Sunday morning in the village of Ein al-Duyuk, near Jericho, where they had volunteered to help protect the Palestinian population from intensifying settler violence.

All four were hospitalised and one, an Italian man, was still receiving care in Ramallah on Monday for more substantial injuries.

In a written account, the Canadian said: “At 4.30am on 30 November, 10 masked settlers, two carrying army-issued rifles, burst into the home where we were sleeping after night-watch.

“They beat us for about 15 minutes. I was repeatedly kicked in the head, ribs, hips and thighs. They shouted insults at us in Arabic and told us we had no right to be there. They smashed the interior of the house and destroyed the solar batteries before leaving.”

The woman, who did not want her name published for safety reasons, added: “This is not about us. We were beaten for 15 minutes. Palestinians here endure this violence every day, every hour, a thousand-fold.”

The pace and intensity of attacks in Ein al-Duyuk have increased substantially over the past two months since the establishment of a settler outpost nearby and the arrival of young and aggressive settlers.

Activists say that violent incidents have become an almost daily occurrence. Attacks have included settler mobs breaking into homes and beating villagers, stealing 200 sheep, two cars and destroying solar panels.

While all settlements on occupied territory are illegal under international law, irregular outposts are illegal under Israeli law. Ein al-Duyuk is in Area A of the West Bank, which means it is meant to be administered by the Palestinian Authority and illegal for Israelis to enter.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/01/italian-canadian-volunteers-beaten-robbed-israeli-settlers-west-bank

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Guardian’s former Gaza correspondent named young journalist of the year in UK awards Malak A Tantesh, 20, ‘showed immense talent and bravery’, said judges at Media Freedom awards in London

Malak Tantesh (right) with family members in northern Gaza. Photograph: Enas Tantesh/The Guardian

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https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/14/gaza-correspondent-young-journalist-of-the-year-media-freedom-awards

Julian Borger Senior international correspondent

Fri 14 Nov 2025 09.33 EST

The Guardian  

The UK’s Society of Editors has named Malak A Tantesh, the Guardian’s former Gaza correspondent, as young journalist of the year in the national press category at this year’s Media Freedom awards.

The judges said Tantesh “showed immense talent and bravery in some of the hardest conditions ever faced by a journalist, she continued to report while having to forage for food and facing the constant risk of bombing and the threat of targeted killing”.

Tantesh, 20, reported for the Guardian from Gaza for 18 months. She described the impact of the war, losing close relatives and witnessing the aftermath of bombing first hand. She wrote about her family’s return to her birthplace in Beit Lahia, to find their home in ruins and their orchard destroyed. “My memories are crushed and buried,” she wrote.

In October, Tantesh published an article looking back on two years of war, which took the people of Gaza through a “gateway to hell”. There were times, she wrote, when the surviving members of her family envied the dead.

Tantesh and her father Amjed return to the rubble of their home in northern Gaza. Photograph: Enas Tantesh/The Guardian

According to the UN, at least 248 journalists had been killed in Gaza by September, more than in any other conflict in modern times. There have been repeated allegations that Israel was deliberately targeting journalists. Israel has denied the charge, while claiming that some of the journalists its forces killed had been Hamas operatives.

Receiving the award on Wednesday, Tantesh thanked her parents for “raising me to be the person who I am now”.

“They are still there in Gaza, suffering what I was suffering during the past months,” she said, and went on to thank her sister Enas, who worked alongside her as a photographer in Gaza, and her cousin Seham, who has now taken up her position as correspondent. They had stood with her throughout her time working in Gaza, she said.

Tantesh also acknowledged the support of her editors and colleagues at the Guardian and “all the people who have stood with me all the way”.

The Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, said: “I am thrilled that Malak’s brave, meticulous, moving reporting, delivered under the most awful of circumstances, has been recognised by the judges. A brilliant journalistic future is ahead of her.” 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/14/gaza-correspondent-young-journalist-of-the-year-media-freedom-awards 

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Torture in Israeli prisons rose sharply during war, says freed Palestinian author - Nasser Abu Srour says prisons became like ‘another front’ in Gaza conflict and tells of struggle to adjust to life outside

A Palestinian protester holds a placard in 2015 bearing a portrait of Nasser Abu Srour during a demonstration marking Palestinian Prisoner Day in the West Bank town of Bilin, near Ramallah. Photograph: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images

Julian Borger

Tue 4 Nov 2025 02.00 EST

A celebrated Palestinian author who was freed last month after more than 32 years in Israeli prisons has said the use of torture increased dramatically during his last two years of captivity as Israel came to treat its jails as another front in the Gaza war.

Nasser Abu Srour, whose prison memoir has been translated into seven languages and is tipped to win a major international literary prize this month, was among more than 150 Palestinians serving life sentences who were freed as part of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire and then immediately exiled to Egypt, where most remain in limbo.

Abu Srour, 56, recounted a sharp increase in the use of beatings and the deprivation of food and warmth after the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

“The prison guards uniform changed, with a tag on the chest written on it the word ‘fighters’, or ‘warriors’, and they started acting like they were in a war and this was another front, and they started beating, torturing, killing like warriors,” he said.

A UN commission listed 75 deaths of Palestinians in Israeli custody between 7 October 2023 and 31 August 2025... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/04/freed-palestinian-author-nasser-abu-srour-israel-prisons-gaza-war 

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