Thursday, June 11, 2026

"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

[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]

Monday, June 8, 2026

The power of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the power of ideas to change the world. It inspires us to continue working to ensure all people can gain freedom, equality and dignity...

United Nations

@UN

In December 1948, the UN General Assembly met in Paris to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The principles laid out in this historic document have been key in helping guide humanity toward a world of greater freedom, equality & justice.

ohchr.org/en/universal-d

https://www.ohchr.org/en/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, it set out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

Discover the Declaration

The power of the Universal Declaration is the power of ideas to change the world. It inspires us to continue working to ensure that all people can gain freedom, equality and dignity.

Read the Declaration
Discover the articles in social media
Listen to the Declaration
UDHR Audio/Video Project

The original records

The Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 during its 183rd plenary meeting.

View the original resolution.
Explore the meeting record for the historic adoption.
Examine the voting record.
And for more information about the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, discover research guides and resources.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Exhibit

We maintain a worldwide collection of materials on the Declaration, which is permanently based... READ MORE https://www.ohchr.org/en/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Ali Louis Bourzgui dedicates Tony award to immigrants and Palestine ...Accepting the award, the 26-year-old dedicated it to "the people of Palestine who deserve to live a fruitful life, a free life, a full life without occupation", drawing applause from the audience...

Ali Louis Bourzgui was born to a Moroccan-American father and an Italian-Irish mother [Getty/file photo]

Tony winner Ali Louis Bourzgui dedicates award to Palestinians

Tony winner Ali Louis Bourzgui dedicated his award to Palestinians and called for greater Arab representation in the arts.

Moroccan-American actor Ali Louis Bourzgui used his acceptance speech at the Tony Awards on Sunday night to speak out in support of Palestinians, immigrant communities and LGBTQ people after winning Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role in Broadway's The Lost Boys.

Accepting the award, the 26-year-old dedicated it to "the people of Palestine who deserve to live a fruitful life, a free life, a full life without occupation", drawing applause from the audience.

His remarks come as Palestinians in Gaza continue to endure Israel's devastating military campaign, while Palestinians in the occupied West Bank face escalating attacks by Israeli settlers and military forces, alongside ongoing displacement linked to settlement expansion.

Bourzgui also paid tribute to immigrant families and LGBTQ communities in the United States, telling them they should not have to "audition for the empathy" they deserve.

Speaking about immigrant communities, he said the "beautiful tapestry" they create is what makes the United States special.

"May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty," he said.

The actor also used the moment to celebrate Arab artists and theatre makers, calling for greater visibility and representation.

Addressing underrepresented Arab creatives, he said he hoped they would continue telling their stories and showing their faces so that "our humanity becomes undeniable, and our families can no longer be written off as merely collateral damage."

"May they know the beauty of our kisses upon each cheek and the romance of a language rooted in passion for love and life itself," he added in his speech.

https://www.newarab.com/news/tony-winner-ali-louis-bourzgui-dedicates-award-palestinians

"We live in an age saturated with Holocaust books, films, documentaries, and lessons that teach us how dangerous dehumanization can be. We are reminded time and again that before people can be mistreated, displaced, or killed on a mass scale, they are first stripped of their humanity through words and imagery. And yet, when similar language is used today to describe Palestinians, much of the world remains silent—or worse, offers its support. If history has taught us anything, it is that when human beings are reduced to weeds, thorns, insects, or any other nuisance, the groundwork is being laid for people to accept what would otherwise be unacceptable. That is why the language matters. And that is why the silence is so troubling." ~ Mike Odetalla

Mike Hanini Odetalla

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Morning reflections regarding Gaza with coffee as I look over my yard:

6/08/26

I can't look at my lawn without thinking about the terminology that has been used over the years to describe military assaults on Palestinians.

"Mowing the lawn" was one such phrase used to describe repeated assaults on Gaza, reducing Palestinian men, women, and children to little more than blades of grass to be cut down.

More recently came "Field of Thorns," a term associated with the current Israeli leadership, where Palestinians are once again reduced to an unwanted nuisance that must be removed.

What I find most disturbing is not merely the language itself, but the world's reaction to it.

We live in an age saturated with Holocaust books, films, documentaries, and lessons that teach us how dangerous dehumanization can be. We are reminded time and again that before people can be mistreated, displaced, or killed on a mass scale, they are first stripped of their humanity through words and imagery.

And yet, when similar language is used today to describe Palestinians, much of the world remains silent—or worse, offers its support.

If history has taught us anything, it is that when human beings are reduced to weeds, thorns, insects, or any other nuisance, the groundwork is being laid for people to accept what would otherwise be unacceptable.

That is why the language matters.

And that is why the silence is so troubling.

~ Mike Odetalla

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10166147366441977&set=a.10150390714236977

Those who championed free speech in the UK and US now wage war on it. And here’s why: Palestine ...."How can any of this be justified in a democracy? No foreign government should be granted immunity from criticism. Not China. Not Saudi Arabia. Not Israel. And yet the self-proclaimed Jewish state occupies a uniquely and weirdly protected place in our political discourse. Criticism that would be considered routine in any other context – don’t bomb hospitals! Don’t kill kids! – is cynically rebranded as anti-Jewish bigotry."

Supporters of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil chain themselves to a fence at Columbia University, New York, 2 April 2025. Photograph: Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

It was once an article of faith that even those who speak words we disagree with deserve protection. As regards Palestine, that’s now not true

Mehdi Hasan

Mon 8 Jun 2026

Remember the Satanic Verses controversy? Remember “Je suis Charlie”? Remember the constant invocations of Voltaire and Orwell? The great irony of our age is that many of the cadre of politicians who spent years anointing themselves as champions of free speech have become its most enthusiastic enemies when the subject turns to one issue: Palestine.

For decades, western governments lectured the world about liberal values. They declared freedom of expression the hallmark of a liberal democratic society. Protest was deemed patriotic while the right to offend was considered sacred. Then came Gaza. Suddenly, the principles that we were once told were non-negotiable became highly negotiable indeed...

.... The actions are opaque, the message unmistakable: there are political causes the British establishment welcomes but also political causes it very much fears.

This isn’t even about Uygur or Piker’s views. Whether one agrees with everything either man has ever said is irrelevant. Piker, for example, referred to some Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and once said the US “deserved” 9/11, both offensive comments for which he has since expressed regret. Defending free speech is most crucial when that speech is controversial. You cannot show your support for free expression only by defending opinions you already share.

In the US, where I now live and vote, the situation is even more alarming.

The Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian voices and, in particular, foreign students should be seen as one of the most severe assaults on free expression in modern American history... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/08/uk-us-champion-free-speech-war-palestine

Sunday, June 7, 2026

"I visited almost 200 locations. It was never intended to be a project — it was a journey to educate myself and to witness the Palestinian loss of 1948." A Palestinian photographer’s ‘search for what remained’ from 1948 When Nablus-based journalist Ahmad Al-Bazz received an Israeli travel permit, he rushed to visit nearly 200 villages depopulated in the Nakba. Five years later, his new book offers a powerful visual archive of erasure.

Ahmad Al-Bazz | The Erasure of Palestine

How did the experience of documenting these depopulated villages shape the way you perceived and moved through the 1948 territories?

Once you cross the wall, everything feels very foreign. I knew that I was still in Palestine — I’m just crossing a wall that divides it — but what I saw on the ground felt very different from what I was used to. It looked Western, but not like any specific place. You might be standing in front of a very Western-looking city, yet know that it was built over a Palestinian one — like Tel Aviv, which was built on part of Al-Manshiyya and a few other villages. As a photographer, that pushed me to search for what remained and to photograph it. In that sense, the act felt like a form of visual decolonization.

It was also a weird feeling because you are suddenly among the settler community. They don’t know that you’re Palestinian, and you never feel completely okay about it. Yet architecture photography helped me connect with these sites. That was also the visual style of the book: you see the Palestinian layer and the Israeli layer in the background, and I wanted to show the contrast between the two.

As you said, many of your photographs show how closely these depopulated Palestinian villages lie beside new Israeli construction, fenced off with vegetation growing over and obscuring them. What did the condition of these villages tell you about Israeli society?

Palestinian sites take different forms today. Some are destroyed, completely erased, or reduced to rubble, sometimes in nature in the middle of nowhere. In other places, surviving structures are scattered between Israeli houses, as in Haifa, or in Ijzim [now the Israeli moshav Kerem Maharal) and Ein Hod, where wealthy Palestinian houses are inhabited by Israelis. Some sites are abandoned, while others are reused in strange ways: a Palestinian school may become an Israeli school, as in Al-Tira, or a mosque may be turned into an animal shelter, as in Kawfakha.

https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-destroyed-villages-nakba-photography/

Saturday, June 6, 2026

"Homes can be demolished. Walls can be reduced to rubble. Entire families can be scattered across the world. But roots run deep... And sometimes, from beneath the wreckage, life emerges to remind us that memory, belonging, and hope refuse to die." Mike Hanini Odetalla

Mike Hanini Odetalla

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All That Remains...Reflections on a rather sad day

5/31/26

After the death of my father-in-law (ay), his humble two-room home in the Kadoura Refugee Camp was torn down.

His family, like so many Palestinians, had been violently expelled from their homes and lands by Zionist forces in 1948 and forced into a life of exile and displacement.

Seven years later, in 2022, I took my grandson—his great-grandson—back to show him where his grandmother had grown up and to visit a place that I myself had always loved.

The house was gone.

The tiny garden that my father-in-law had tended with such tender loving care was buried beneath rubble. Yet among the destruction, something remarkable remained.

A magnificent grapevine once covered his patio, providing shade in the summer and producing the most exquisite grapes. As I stood there looking at the ruins, I noticed a small cluster of grapes protruding defiantly from the debris.

I took this photograph.

To some, it is merely a bunch of grapes growing from a collapsed structure.

To me, it is a symbol of Palestine itself.

Homes can be demolished. Walls can be reduced to rubble. Entire families can be scattered across the world. But roots run deep.

And sometimes, from beneath the wreckage, life emerges to remind us that memory, belonging, and hope refuse to die.

All that remains... and yet, somehow, it is enough to tell the whole story.

That image of grapes emerging from rubble carries a quiet symbolism that is difficult to ignore:

the house was destroyed, but the vine still remembered where it belonged.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10166091777606977&set=a.10150390714236977

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