Monday, June 1, 2026

"The Israeli military’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities, along with other practices, involved gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, which in many cases may have amounted to war crimes and other atrocity crimes..." UN Human Rights Palestine

• Israel’s repeated choice to use heavy munitions in densely populated areas despite foreseeable outcomes led to a shockingly high rate of civilian casualties in Gaza, including women and children.

• Narratives that treat Palestinian men as inherently lawful targets or security threats are egregious, cause immeasurable harm, and violate the principle of distinction under international humanitarian law.

• Israel’s conduct involved committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

Read Overview report covering 19 months from 7 October 2023 through the end of May 2025: ohchr.org/en/documents/c

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/opt/occupied-palestinian-territory-overview-report-east-jerusalem-practices-en.pdf

"...... 3. The Israeli military’s choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities, along with other practices, involved gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law, which in many cases may have amounted to war crimes and other atrocity crimes. The cumulative effects of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023, which compounded the damaging effects of over 58 years of occupation and 18 years of blockade and closure of the strip, created conditions of life incompatible with Palestinians’ continued existence as a group in much of Gaza.2 Many of these trends and their impacts were present in the Israeli military’s large-scale siege and attacks on North Gaza between 6 October 2024 and 19 January 2025, which is analyzed as an emblematic case study in this report.

4. In parallel, the West Bank experienced an alarming surge in the unlawful use of force by Israeli security forces against Palestinians, including through the deployment of means and methods of the use of force designed for warfare. Coercive and discriminatory Israeli practices and legislative measures proliferated and intensified, deepening Israel’s near-total control over, and violation of, Palestinians’ political, civil, social, economic and cultural rights. These developments came amid intensified Israeli settlement activity, associated displacement, and administrative moves and rhetoric by Israeli officials promoting the application of sovereignty over the occupied West Bank – together consolidating Israel’s annexation of large parts of the territory.

5. The deleterious human rights situation was further compounded by the Palestinian authorities’ intensified unlawful use of force against Palestinians in the West Bank, practices of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture, and a crack-down on civic space.

6. Considered together, Israeli Government’s measures and steps across Gaza and the West Bank reflected a concerted and accelerating practice of undermining the fabric of Palestinian life while consolidating the annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and forcibly displacing Palestinians from much of their land and territory. The cumulative effect of the Israeli practices detailed in this report was to entrench Israel’s unlawful presence in the Palestinian territory and, in doing so, to render increasingly tenuous the prospect of the Palestinian people’s exercise of their right to self-determination, including the realization of an independent and sovereign State.4

Furthermore, an appraisal of the totality of Israel’s policies and practices raises serious concerns about its compliance with the International Court of Justice’s binding orders and its obligations to prevent the commission of acts within the scope of Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide...."

[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]

"For ease and speed, we are degrading our ability to connect and to organise our societies. We must assert our trust in humans over machines" Nesrine Malik

OpinionAI (artificial intelligence)

AI is devoid of meaning and humanity. That’s why its vapid voice suits this political moment

Nesrine Malik

Here is a nightmare scenario for you. You are writing a book about how AI reshapes reality. You start using it as a research partner, confident that you are applying the right hygiene by not letting it actually write a sentence of the book. You think you’ll be careful, you will double check everything. And then your book comes out and it appears that it includes more than a half dozen misattributed or fake quotes. Steven Rosenbaum, the unfortunate writer, acknowledged that sometimes the output of AI was “staggeringly wrong”, but still, errors crept in.

There are others. A Commonwealth prize-winning short story became engulfed in claims that it carried the hallmarks of AI. And every time I see a story of a journalist caught out by fake AI quotes during research, I cross myself – there but for the grace of God go I. But to make sure it is not left up to grace alone, I never touch the thing. When AI results pop up as the default in a search engine, I reject them, rebuke them, as if they contained a dark sorcery that would through mere engagement creep into my synapses and take control.

This monastic, almost paranoid approach is not only because AI is a risky and unreliable research tool. It is a voice, a tone, a frequency. AI language haunts me in a million similar tinny chants from customer care to social media posts to press releases. I worry even as I write this column that it might sound like AI. That I have somehow through relentless exposure assimilated its blandness and excess. Its short declarative sentences. Its advertorial narration. Its informal mimicry of personhood. Hi there! Hope all is well. I thought you might be interested in a column about AI, an issue that is increasingly occupying thought leaders and writers. Would you like to learn more?

What are we losing in this fire? Writing is not just about rendering thoughts through words in a certain style: analysis, literary fiction, storytelling. It is about the particular alchemy of a single individual drawing on their own unique profile to construct an idea. It is about the way their brain works, the quirks they have picked up along the way, their politics, their history, their relationships, the very way they see the world. You can produce a thousand Dickenses and Rumis through AI, but you can’t create a new iconic writer. You can only draw on the chorus of styles that already exist. You can only derive, never create.

And then there is the atrophy. The loss of the ability to struggle for a word, to craft a verbal image. I could save precious minutes as a deadline approaches and ask AI to cook me up a nice line, or I could linger and conceptualise that resisting AI writing feels like trying not to inhale an airborne virus. It might not be a great simile, but it’s mine goddamit. And it helps me, in writing, to consolidate what I am thinking. Whether it’s a political text or an email, leaning on AI for everything from research to writing severs the connection between feeling and expression. It drains the colour from everything and suffocates one’s ability to channel and meet and be surprised by what is knocking about in your head. When tech becomes about reducing labour in every way, it ends up becoming an inhibitor of actual consciousness. Entirely unsurprising research shows that leaning on LLMs may reduce brain engagement.

Even more depressing is how well suited this cauterisation of the self is to the political moment, one of a glut of content and bad information. AI is rampant on social media, where accounts authoritatively post long texts on everything from the wars in the Middle East to dramatic personal experiences that didn’t happen in a sort of reality fan-fiction. And in politics, where... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/01/ai-meaning-humanity-political-moment-trust-humans-over-machines

NPR: Israel seizes medieval castle as it expands major offensive in southern Lebanon... "Israel must know that its scorched earth policy, collective punishment and expropriation of villages and towns will not achieve security and stability but will instead deepen the divide with the Lebanese people"

Israeli troops patrol at the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon. Israel said Sunday it had captured the hilltop castle, which provides a commanding view of southern Lebanon and northern Israel. Israel has been rapidly expanding its offensive in Lebanon in recent days.

Courtesy of Israel Defense Forces

Jane Arraf reported from Beirut and Greg Myre reported from Tel Aviv.

May 31, 20269:33 AM ET

BEIRUT, LEBANON — Israeli forces have captured a medieval castle in southern Lebanon which dates back to the Crusader era and raised their flag on the strategic mountaintop, part of Israel's deepest military push into Lebanon in 26 years.

Video showed the Israeli flag fluttering from atop the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle while black smoke billowed from the nearby town of Arnoun. The rapidly expanding Israeli operation, including a swathe of destroyed villages, suggests Israeli forces are planning an extended presence in the region.

Israel previously held the castle during an 18-year-old long military occupation that ended in 2000. A quarter-century later the Israelis are still fighting Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Iran.

In recent days, Israel has rushed in ground troops and intensified air strikes — while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to "crush" Hezbollah — despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire that is officially still in place.

The fighting threatens to complicate, or even undermine, the U.S.-Iran efforts to end the war in Iran. Iran says any agreement must also include an end to the conflict in Lebanon.

"Our brave soldiers have captured the Beaufort once again — and they will remain there as part of the security zone in Lebanon," Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said Sunday.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the invasion.

Two Israeli soldiers operate in southern Lebanon, as seen from northern Israel, April 29, 2026

Middle East conflict

Mirroring Gaza, Israel is destroying towns and villages in southern Lebanon

"Israel must know that its scorched earth policy, collective punishment and expropriation of villages and towns will not achieve security and stability but will instead deepen the divide with the Lebanese people," he said in an address to the nation Saturday.

Israeli attacks and demolitions have leveled entire villages in southern Lebanon and have now displaced more than 1.2 million people. The Lebanese ministry of public health says more than 3,300 people have been killed, about 20 percent of them women, children and first responders... READ MORE https://www.npr.org/2026/05/31/g-s1-125056/israel-seizes-medieval-beaufort-castle-southern-lebanon

Sunday, May 31, 2026

“I have never in my career witnessed the level of atrocities and targeting of my medical colleagues as I have in Gaza,” Adam Hamawy, The doctor who came back from Gaza and is leading a New Jersey congressional race

Adam Hamawy, candidate for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, in Gaza in May 2024. Photograph: Hamawy for New Jersey

The doctor who came back from Gaza and is leading a New Jersey congressional race

Frontrunner Adam Hamawy has gone from political nobody to endorsements from Bernie Sanders, AOC and Ilhan Omar

Knocking on strangers’ doors on a warm May afternoon in Trenton, New Jersey, Adam Hamawy did not seem fazed when more than a few went unanswered.

It’s his first time running for office, but this is an area where he has experience. After returning from a medical mission in Gaza in 2024, Hamawy went to Washington to describe the crisis – which he viewed as a US-funded genocide – to lawmakers, only to encounter “too many doors that were closed, that didn’t even want to listen”.

“I could only define it as a genocide, because I saw the bodies of the people that came in,” the veteran army trauma surgeon and political newcomer reflected, while walking between houses. “And it wasn’t an accident. You can’t have an accident, every single day for three years.”

“When the hospital shakes and I see the bodies come in, I’m paying for it with my tax dollars,” he said. “I don’t want my tax dollars doing that.” ... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/31/new-jersey-congress-adam-hamawy

[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]

Saturday, May 30, 2026

"Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope’s concerns, describing AI as an “unregulated” industry increasingly being used to the “detriment of too many people”, while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm."

Pope Leo XIV speaks during a meeting with bishops, members of the clergy and families whose members have been victims of environmental pollution at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in Acerra, Italy, on 23 May 2026. Photograph: Ciro De Luca/Reuters

Americans echo Pope Leo’s concerns about AI: ‘It threatens workers, privacy and human life’

Guardian readers in the US spoke of fears about unregulated AI in response to the pope’s encyclical warning about the risks of the technology

Maya Yang

Sat 30 May 2026 07.00 EDT

In his first major papal text since assuming leadership of the Catholic church last year, Pope Leo issued a stark warning about the rise of artificial intelligence this week, denouncing the “culture of power” driving the AI age.

Calling for the “most rigorous” ethical constraints on AI – which he described as one of the greatest threats facing humanity today – the first US-born pope also warned of “new forms of slavery” emerging through the digital economy.

Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope’s concerns, describing AI as an “unregulated” industry increasingly being used to the “detriment of too many people”, while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm.

For Linda Given, a 74-year-old resident of Boston, Massachusetts, who ran a small gift store in Cambridge for nearly 40 years, the pope’s warning resonated deeply.

“I think he’s right to emphasize the dignity of humans, and to warn that things in the AI field are moving both too fast, and without any significant oversight,” Given said, adding: “To use it as any kind of substitute for human interaction or human agency [is] awful … [and] the entirely likely possibility it could be manipulated to do destructive things.”

Stephen Sincoskie, a 55-year-old print shop supervisor from Howell, New Jersey, expressed similar concerns.

“Unregulated AI is a possible threat to workers, privacy and even human life. Unfortunately, the most corrupt family in politics … is making money to look the other way,” he said.

“I’m concerned the use of AI will replace workers and assist in the ushering in of a fascistic surveillance state. I do not believe for one second the 1% are interested in paying out guaranteed monthly salaries for everyone to relax and enjoy a career and ‘debt free’ life.”

Others focused on the effect AI is already having on education and critical thinking.

Debra, a 58-year-old college professor in Massachusetts, said she worries students are losing critical thinking skills.

“From my perspective, AI is robbing many students of the need to think critically, learn the ways of research and express themselves by writing,”... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/30/pope-leo-ai-reaction

"... Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom." Pope Leo XIV on AI Artificial Intelligence

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center

@TheKingCenter

“Artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship or responsibility mean. Nor do they have a moral conscience, since they do not judge good and evil, grasp the ultimate meaning of situations, or bear responsibility for consequences. They may imitate or even simulate, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational, and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom.”

https://x.com/TheKingCenter/status/2060540471319924994

[Disarm AI] POPE LEO XIV ON SAFEGUARDING THE HUMAN PERSON IN THE TIME OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Thursday, May 28, 2026

"I was just a boy when I learned that my family would soon be leaving my beloved homeland of Palestine to begin a new life in America. To the adults, it was a practical decision—one made in search of opportunity and a better future, away from the suffocating Israeli occupation & oppression. But to me, it felt as though my entire world was being torn away. How could I explain what Palestine meant to a child? It was not merely a place on a map. It was the hills that encircled our small village of Beit Hanina and served as my endless playground. It was the olive and fruit orchards where I wandered freely beneath the sun. It was the caves hidden among the rocky slopes, the handmade kites dancing in the wind, and the familiar scent of earth after the rain. It was home." Mike Odetalla

Mike Hanini Odetalla

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The Boy Who Tried to Stay

By Mike Odetalla

Fifty-seven years ago, I made one final, desperate attempt to hold on to the world I loved.

I was just a boy when I learned that my family would soon be leaving my beloved homeland of Palestine to begin a new life in America. To the adults, it was a practical decision—one made in search of opportunity and a better future, away from the suffocating Israeli occupation & oppression. But to me, it felt as though my entire world was being torn away.

How could I explain what Palestine meant to a child?

It was not merely a place on a map. It was the hills that encircled our small village of Beit Hanina and served as my endless playground. It was the olive and fruit orchards where I wandered freely beneath the sun. It was the caves hidden among the rocky slopes, the handmade kites dancing in the wind, and the familiar scent of earth after the rain.

It was home.

Unable to imagine life anywhere else, I did the only thing a heartbroken child could think to do: I ran away.

I sought refuge at the home of my beloved Aunt Jameela (Allah yerhamha), whose house rested on the side of the great hill overlooking our village. To me, it was a sanctuary. I believed that if I stayed there, hidden among the hills and within the loving embrace of my aunt, perhaps the inevitable could somehow be delayed—or even stopped altogether.

For one precious night, I allowed myself to believe that I had succeeded.

But childhood dreams are no match for the plans of adults.

The next day, to my profound disappointment, I was gently but firmly returned to my family. Three days later, I boarded an airplane and arrived in Detroit, Michigan.

In the span of a few hours, my world changed forever.

I went from olive groves and stone terraces to concrete and smokestacks. From the quiet rhythms of village life to the noise of traffic and crowded city streets. From a landscape shaped by generations of my ancestors to an unfamiliar urban jungle of steel and asphalt.

To a young boy, it felt like exile.

Yet even as I adapted to this new world, a part of me never left that hillside in Beit Hanina.

It remains there still—in the caves I explored, in the orchards where I played, and in the comforting presence of Aunt Jameela's home perched above the village. In my mind, I can still see that small boy clutching his hopes, convinced that if he hid long enough, he could somehow prevent the loss of everything he cherished.

He was wrong, of course.

But I have never stopped admiring his determination.

And perhaps that is why Palestine has never left me.

Because no matter how many miles separate us, no matter how many years pass, the heart remembers where it first learned to love.

And somewhere deep inside me, that little boy is still running up the hill, still seeking refuge in Aunt Jameela's home, and still believing that home is worth holding onto with all his might.

Mike Hanini Odetalla

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Reflections on the wholesale Destruction in Gaza & Lebanon

5/27/26

Once, when I was a child, my late grandfather (ay) scolded me for disturbing a bird’s nest.

He asked me, “How would you feel if someone came and destroyed your home?”

That lesson stayed with me my entire life.

A simple village farmer (fallah), with little formal education, understood something fundamental: compassion begins by placing yourself in the suffering of others.

And yet today, we witness Palestinian and Lebanese homes destroyed on a massive scale — entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, families buried beneath concrete, children traumatized for life, and generations scarred forever.

I often wonder: where are the voices of the grandfathers who are supposed to teach mercy, restraint, and humanity? What lessons are being passed down to children when silence greets the destruction of other people’s homes and lives?

Because when children are taught to normalize cruelty, indifference, or collective punishment, the damage extends far beyond shattered buildings. It reaches and decays the soul.

The measure of our humanity is not in how we treat those who look like us, pray like us, or agree with us — but in whether we can recognize the pain of others as if it were our own.

— Mike Odetalla

Mike Odetalla's newest book- buy a copy, enjoy, savor it... then pass it on to your local library or a child that you know and love

Aunt Jameela's Bread. A Story of Food, Family, and Love..... A beautiful new book by Palestinian-American Mike Odetalla about childhood and baking bread in his homeland.

A beautiful new book by Palestinian-American Mike Odetalla about childhood, family, and homemade bread in his homeland

Annie's New Letters (& notes)

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