"Bombing the infrastructure people rely on will not make Iranians [or Palestinians] embrace those carrying out the attacks." .... ‘It’s truly hell here’: airstrikes, repression and water shortages become ‘new normal’ for Iranians

Iranians describe how daily life is becoming ever harder as conflict continues and human rights crisis worsens 

Three boys play in the shallow waters of the strait of Hormuz as a plume of smoke rises from an explosion in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran Photograph: Razieh Poudat/AP

As US airstrikes hit port and inland cities in Iran, and Tehran strikes at the US’s Middle East allies, the escalating conflict has left many Iranians fearing that, amid war and a worsening human rights crisis, they remain trapped in a cycle of violence and repression with no way out.

Bandar Abbas, on the strait of Hormuz and the headquarters of the Iranian navy, has been hit by strikes every night since the latest escalation began nearly two weeks ago. Soroush*, a writer based in the city who secretly publishes a newsletter documenting human rights violations in Iran, described a “new normal” for its residents.

“We need to accept this could just be our new reality now and it’s worked because we are less afraid as each day goes on,” the 37-year-old said. “We are less afraid of the future because we are now forced to accept this is the new normal. There’s no one coming to save us from the bombs or the regime’s bullets. Our brains have tricked us into making peace with this new reality.”

For those living near the port, loud explosions followed by prolonged power cuts have become the norm over the past week.

Mehnaz*, 39, depends on the internet for her work and says she was already struggling with the government-imposed internet shutdown, which has severely affected her earnings.

“We always had power cuts, but the hours have now extended and I fear I can’t rely on my online work any more. The war is far from the end and daily life is becoming harder under the bombs, power cuts and internet shutdowns. It’s truly hell here,” she said.

Another port city reportedly struck by the US this week was Jask. State media claimed US strikes hit 100 civilian vessels and that an attack on the Bonji desalination plant left 20 villages without drinking water... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/22/its-truly-hell-here-airstrikes-repression-and-water-shortages-become-new-normal-for-iranians

    [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine] 

"It’s no accident, Israel murdered her. From Shireen to Amal, the press vest is a target for Israel." Assal Rad

Lebanon 2026: Rescuers trying to help Amal Khalil were reportedly blocked from getting to her by an Israeli sound grenade.

Palestine May 2022, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 51-year-old Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

It’s no accident, Israel murdered her. From Shireen to Amal, the press vest is a target for Israel. 

 

https://x.com/AssalRad/status/2047069049394507994

 

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May 11, 2022: Palestinian American Arab Christian Journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, was assassinated by Israeli sniper fire while she was documenting and exposing Zionist violence & Israeli crimes

"Remember this was the Israeli military's first response after murdering Shireen Abu Akleh in broad daylight, repeatedly lying about it and then getting away with it. Doing Journalism was [IS] enough to get you killed by Israel." Yousef Munayyer

 

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry found that Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. In its report it concluded: “It is clear there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

 

United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

 

“It is clear there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.” UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry's report shows #Israel has committed #genocide in #Gaza.

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session60/advance-version/a-hrc-60-crp-3.pdf

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies] 

"No self-respecting journalist considers Holocaust denial a legitimate point of view, and no serious media organisation argues that impartiality requires it to provide Holocaust denial with a platform in any serious discussion about Germany's extermination of Europe's Jews during World War Two - let alone equal time, or beginning and ending every such discussion with "Germany said". Gaza Genocide denial, by contrast, is a well-organised and orchestrated global campaign sponsored, funded, and avidly promoted - without any hindrance whatsoever - by the regime perpetrating the genocide."

Paper boats and a 'Stop the genocide' poster at a Palestine solidarity protest during the Venice Film Festival on 30 August 2025 (Stefano Rellandini/AFP)

In the West, it is a crime to deny one Holocaust and dangerous to name another

Mouin Rabbani

5 September 2025 

 

While outlawing Holocaust denial, western governments punish critics of Israel's crimes and elevate denial of its ongoing genocide in Gaza to official policy and media orthodoxy

The difference between Holocaust denial and Gaza Genocide denial is that Holocaust denial is illegal or a criminal offence in many countries, and is, for the most part, the preserve of marginalised kooks and conspiracy theorists.

No self-respecting journalist considers Holocaust denial a legitimate point of view, and no serious media organisation argues that impartiality requires it to provide Holocaust denial with a platform in any serious discussion about Germany's extermination of Europe's Jews during World War Two - let alone equal time, or beginning and ending every such discussion with "Germany said".

Gaza Genocide denial, by contrast, is a well-organised and orchestrated global campaign sponsored, funded, and avidly promoted - without any hindrance whatsoever - by the regime perpetrating the genocide.

In many states, Gaza Genocide denial counts among its champions elected and other senior officials, influential lobbies and powerful organisations. Its messages are amplified by an international network of conspiracy theorists, fanatic ideologues and hired hands.

Serious media organisations not only consider it a journalistic requirement to give Gaza Genocide denial a platform and equal time, but they also routinely communicate Israel's talking points to their audiences. The BBC's compulsive resort to "Israel says" is a case in point.

In many of the same states that have criminalised Holocaust denial, it is opposition to, rather than open denial of, the Gaza Genocide that is criminalised and punished. People have been fired from jobs, lost business, forfeited careers and educational opportunities, and literally been imprisoned for speaking out against it.

This repression is happening during the Gaza Genocide, when such voices are most urgently needed to influence governments that, under the 1948 Genocide Convention, are obligated not only to punish but also to prevent genocide.

Denial as policy... READ MORE

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/west-criminal-deny-holocaust-while-it-is-dangerous-recognise-gaza-genocide

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“Far too many states are enabling the genocide of the Palestinians, while turning also repressive toward their own citizens. This is both revolting and scary. We must stop it now.” —UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese

“Far too many states are enabling the genocide of the Palestinians, while turning also repressive toward their own citizens. This is both revolting and scary. We must stop it now.” —UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese

Noura Erakat: "It was the Biden administration, it was the Democratic establishment, that has created the conditions that we are now seeing taken advantage of," Palestinian scholar says of Mahmoud Khalil's arrest and the Trump administration's crackdown on dissent.

   https://x.com/4noura

Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial by Saree Makdisi author of Palestine Inside Out

"How denial sustains the liberal imagination of a progressive and democratic Israel.

The question that this book aims to answer might seem simple: how can a violent project of dispossession and discrimination be imagined, felt, and profoundly believed in as though it were the exact opposite––an embodiment of sustainability, multicultural tolerance, and democratic idealism? Despite well-documented evidence of racism and human rights abuse, Israel has long been embraced by the most liberal sectors of European and American society as a manifestation of the progressive values of tolerance, plurality, inclusivity, and democracy, and hence a project that can be passionately defended for its lofty ideals.

Tolerance Is a Wasteland argues that the key to this miraculous act of political alchemy is a very specific form of denial. Here the Palestinian presence in, and claim to, Palestine is not simply refused or covered up, but negated in such a way that the act of denial is itself denied. The effects of destruction and repression are reframed, inverted into affirmations of liberal virtues that can be passionately championed. In Tolerance Is a Wasteland, Saree Makdisi explores many such acts of affirmation and denial in a range of venues: from the haunted landscape of thickly planted forests covering the ruins of Palestinian villages forcibly depopulated in 1948; to the theater of "pinkwashing" as Israel presents itself to the world as a gay-friendly haven of cultural inclusion; to the so-called Museum of Tolerance being built on top of the ruins of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, which was methodically desecrated in order to clear the space for this monument to "human dignity." Tolerance Is a Wasteland reveals the system of emotional investments and curated perceptions that makes this massive project of cognitive dissonance possible."

AMAZON

Barnes & Noble  

Are restrictions on pro-Palestine speech ‘the new McCarthyism?’

VIDEO INTERVIEW 24 MINUTES LONG- CLICK HERE https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-bottom-line/2024/9/8/are-restrictions-on-pro-palestine-speech-the-new-mccarthyism

Is there an attempt to chill debate on Palestine and Israel on both sides of the Atlantic?

The United States, and the West in general, are in a “dire period” of repression of speech on Palestinian freedom or criticism of Israel, argues Dima Khalidi, founder of Palestine Legal.

Khalidi tells host Steve Clemons that despite strong constitutional protections for free expression, “there seems to be this exception when it comes to Palestine”, as witnessed by the wave of censorship, intimidation, firings and restrictions on activism in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The situation is similar across Europe, says British journalist Richard Medhurst, who’s been covering Gaza closely and was arrested for “speech crimes” upon arrival in London recently.