Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Trump’s sanctions against a UN human rights expert show free speech is dying: Francesca Albanese recommended ICC arrests and investigations over Gaza. Who will be the administration’s next target?

‘Trump’s retribution against Albanese should concern far more than those focused on Israel’s human rights record.’ Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Sandra L Babcock, Susan M Akram, Asli Bali, Thomas Becker and James Cavallaro

Tue 24 Mar 2026

We are North American university professors and human rights lawyers who teach, write, and speak about the human rights of people around the world, including Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. In a country that purports to value democracy and human rights, we never imagined that we could face civil penalties or imprisonment for our work. That sense of security has evaporated after the Trump administration issued a series of executive orders and memoranda that aim to stifle speech and demonize dissent – particularly when it comes to Israel’s crimes against Palestinians living in Gaza.

Let us be clear: the evidence that Israel has committed war crimes is overwhelming. Israel killed an estimated 20,000 children – including more than 1,000 babies – in two years of war. Israel used starvation and thirst as a war tactic, leading to widespread famine that indiscriminately targeted the civilian population. It kept civilians from accessing cancer treatment, neonatal and maternal care, and basic antibiotics and painkillers by blockading the delivery of medical equipment and medications. Israel destroyed Gaza’s entire healthcare system, including reproductive healthcare facilities and Gaza’s largest fertility clinic. Israel’s systematic attack on Gaza’s civilian population was accompanied by dehumanizing language by authorities at the highest levels of government comparing Palestinians to “‘human animals” and “children of darkness”.

In January 2024, the international court of justice ordered Israel to take “all measures within its power” to prevent acts of genocide. Israel ignored that order. Since then, leading international and Israeli human rights organizations and experts–including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, B’Tselem, the UN commission of inquiry, and the authors of this essay – have concluded that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people.

In May 2024 the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu; its defense minister, Yoav Gallant; and three leaders of Hamas.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/24/trump-sanctions-un-human-rights-expert-free-speech

[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]

"One Gulf diplomat, who has direct knowledge of the talks and is furious with Witkoff and Kushner’s behaviour, described the pair as “Israeli assets that had conspired to force the US president into entering a war from which he is now desperate to get himself out of”."

A search and rescue team member sits in the rubble of a damaged building in Tehran on 12 March. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

How ignorance, misunderstanding and obfuscation ended Iran nuclear talks

Negotiators had reached agreement on key issues despite Trump team’s idiosyncratic approach. Two days later, war began

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Wed 18 Mar 2026

In the many bizarre exchanges that occurred in the run-up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, perhaps the most unexpected was an invitation by Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff for the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, to join him and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for a visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.

The idea that Araghchi would leave talks in Oman about the future of Iran’s nuclear programme to tour a ship sent to the Gulf in an effort to dislodge his government seemed idiosyncratic at best.

But it was symptomatic of the unorthodox way in which Kushner and Witkoff approached the nuclear talks that stretched through last year and this, and have twice been halted by Israeli and US airstrikes.

One Gulf diplomat, who has direct knowledge of the talks and is furious with Witkoff and Kushner’s behaviour, described the pair as “Israeli assets that had conspired to force the US president into entering a war from which he is now desperate to get himself out of”.

Witkoff does not pretend to regional expertise – in one of his recent interviews he referred to the strait of Hormuz as the “Gulf of Hormuz”. Similarly, he admitted in an interview that his knowledge of Iran’s nuclear programme was sketchy.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/18/ignorance-misunderstanding-obfuscation-iran-nuclear-talks-trump

Monday, March 23, 2026

Israeli settlers carry out series of West Bank attacks as security forces stand by

Witnesses describe coordinated raids in which homes and vehicles were set on fire and several Palestinians injured

Middle East crisis live – latest updates

A Palestinian woman takes a photo of a damaged house after Israeli settlers attacked three West Bank communities Photograph: Zain Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images

Lorenzo Tondo in Jerusalem

Sun 22 Mar 2026

Israeli settlers have carried out a series of attacks across the occupied West Bank, setting homes and vehicles on fire and wounding several Palestinians in what witnesses described as coordinated raids on communities.

The violence, reported across at least half a dozen locations overnight from Saturday into Sunday, comes amid a wider surge in tensions in the territory. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, cited local sources as saying settlers had entered al-Fandaqumiya and the nearby town of Seilat al-Dahr, south of Jenin, late on Saturday.

In al-Fandaqumiya, settlers set fire to houses and cars and smashed windows of other homes as residents “attempted to confront them and put out the fires”, according to Wafa. In Seilat al-Dahr, several homes were targeted and a resident was beaten, leaving him injured.

Further attacks were... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/22/israeli-settlers-carry-out-series-of-west-bank-attacks-as-security-forces-stand-by

Sunday, March 22, 2026

"An entire Economist article on famine in Gaza doesn’t say the word “Israel” once. Not even when describing damage to farmland and water facilities or severely restricted aid deliveries. Saying who is destroying the farmland and restricting aid seems like basic info to include." Assal Rad

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

An entire Economist article on famine in Gaza doesn’t say the word “Israel” once. Not even when describing damage to farmland and water facilities or severely restricted aid deliveries.

Saying *who* is destroying the farmland and restricting aid seems like basic info to include.

https://x.com/AssalRad/status/1772862382462636150

"Church leaders argue that invoking Christian identity while directing military actions that have killed thousands amounted to a political use of the faith, reducing Christianity to a public‑relations tool rather than a moral framework. It is this stark contrast between rhetoric and lived reality that fueled widespread anger among Christian leaders in Jerusalem and beyond."

International Middle East Media Center IMEMC Editorial Remark: Netanyahu’s statement that “Jesus was a Jew, and Christianity is part of our heritage” was framed as an outreach message to Western Christian audiences, yet it was received by Palestinian Christians as deeply provocative.

The concern was not the historical accuracy of the phrase itself, but the context in which it was delivered—during a devastating war in Gaza and amid ongoing Israeli policies that continue to harm Palestinian Christian and Muslim communities.

Church leaders argue that invoking Christian identity while directing military actions that have killed thousands amounted to a political use of the faith, reducing Christianity to a public‑relations tool rather than a moral framework.

It is this stark contrast between rhetoric and lived reality that fueled widespread anger among Christian leaders in Jerusalem and beyond.

Jerusalem Archbishop Rebukes Netanyahu’s Statements on Christianity

Archbishop Atallah Hanna, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia, Jerusalem; March 21, 2026:

They want a Jesus shaped by their own agendas and desires, while Jesus Christ came into this world to spread love, compassion, and fraternity among human beings.

Netanyahu’s offensive remarks about Christianity have angered Christians everywhere, as well as every reasonable and wise person in this region and across the world.

His statements are insulting and wholly unacceptable, yet they are not surprising. They stem from a Zionist ideology that excludes and marginalizes anyone who is not Jewish, viewing followers of other faiths as lesser beings.

Netanyahu is a product of this racist school of thought. But what concerns us most is not only what he says, but what his government continues to do to our Palestinian people, who are targeted in every aspect of their lives.

At the very moment he insults Christianity and Christians everywhere, he persists in his aggressive policies against our people.

The genocidal war in Gaza stands as the clearest testimony to the crimes committed against a people who seek nothing more than to live freely and with dignity in their homeland and on their sacred soil.

This Zionist current to which Netanyahu belongs seeks a Jesus of a different kind—one molded to their whims and political needs.

They want a Jesus who tells the killer to remain a killer, the criminal to remain a criminal, and the butcher to continue his brutality.

Jesus Christ came into this world to correct false concepts, including some recorded in the Old Testament. He came to straighten what had gone crooked, and to call every human being to live with integrity, mercy, and humanity.... READ MORE https://imemc.org/article/jerusalem-archbishop-rebukes-netanyahus-statements-on-christianity/

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