The US is Taking the International Community for Fools

How long will the world  believe the American lies that only negotiations can bring about a Palestinian state? The American collusion with the Zionists over rejecting a Palestinian state should be obvious now after 40 years of deception by Israel.

The US has been opposing any "unilateral" measure (like the UN resolutions) that it says would undermine the prospects for a two-state solution. With its veto, the US is denying the entire world community its obligation to take measures against the illegal land theft, expropriation, dispossesion by systematic violence against the indigenous Palestinian population and construction of Israeli settlements.

What concrete progress has ever been achieved towards the two-state solution? The Oslo Accords were a trap in which the Palestinians, heretofore called terrorists, fell as they were thirsty for any recognition of their plight as a dispossessed nation. 

What has the United States done to ensure that tangible measures are taken to satisfy its  calls for a two-state solution? Nothing, other than expressing its concerns, or deeming the Zionist rape of Palestine "not constructive", or the home demolitions and killings by terrorist Jews "distrubing" . By keep brandishing a hypothetical two-state solution that the Israelis themselves keep vocally rejecting, the US is dangling a mirage to the fools of this world while slow and gradual "facts on the ground" are created by the Israelis that truly undermine a two-state solution. The US is a dishonest broker. Either it is a useful fool in the hands of the Zionists, or it is in collusion with the Zionists in killing any prospects for a Palestinian state.

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U.N. adopts resolution calling for Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders
Paul Godfrey & Chris Benson
Wed, September 18, 2024


The U.N. General Assembly will vote in New York on Wednesday on a resolution calling on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territory. File Photo by Eduardo Munoz/UPI

Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territory, according to new reports.

The largely symbolic United Nations resolution demands that Israel "brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence" in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and do so within 12 months. The resolution passed with 124 votes in favor, 14 against and 43 abstentions.

The United Staes voted against. Among the abstentions were Canada, Australia, Italy, Germany, Britain and Ukraine.

The resolution arrived two months after the International Court of Justice ruled the current map was unlawful and that security concerns cannot override the universal prohibition on taking territory by force.

The revised draft of a resolution sponsored by the State of Palestine and 29 other countries demands that Israel end its "unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory no later than 12 months from the adoption of the resolution and cease immediately all new settlement activity and evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory."

It states that Israel must hand back territory seized since its occupation started in 1967 and allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes and urges states not to recognize as legal Israel's unlawful presence and abstain from trade or investment deals that may assist Israel in sustaining "the illegal situation it created."

The text further requires that Israel immediately comply with all its legal obligations under international law, including as stipulated by the International Court of Justice, which after examining the issue at the request of the assembly issued an advisory finding in July that the Israeli occupation violated international law.

The assembly asked the court in The Hague in December 2022 to provide an opinion on the legality of the Israeli occupation and its policies and treatment of Palestinians.

The court's advice to the assembly, which is non-binding, was that the occupation was illegal and that Israel should reverse all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and pay Palestinians reparations for losses caused by the occupation.

Speaking as the assembly debated the resolution Tuesday, General Assembly President Philemon Yang of Cameroon urged members to keep uppermost in their minds those killed and the unfolding humanitarian disaster.

"Without justice and the rule of law, Israelis and Palestinians alike will not attain what they long for most: peace and security, " said Yang.

The assembly must "not lose sight of the many lives lost, the staggering humanitarian challenges and infrastructural destruction that continue to take place, particularly in Gaza in the past several months," he added.

The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine Riyad Mansour said the existential threat the Palestinian people are facing cannot be ignored, saying that more Palestinians will be killed, maimed and detained unless Israel's use of force was checked.

"I stand on this podium to tell you that justice is the only path to peace. We are a nation that asks for nothing more than [from] your nations but can accept nothing less," he said.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said the assembly should be considering a resolution condemning the Oct. 7 attacks on his country instead of gathering to "watch the Palestinians' U.N. circus, a circus where evil is righteous, war is peace, murder is justified and terror is applauded."

He accused those backing the resolution of what he called "diplomatic terrorism" of being enablers who give impetus to the violence and succor to those who choose conflict over peace.

He argued that the resolution distorted the "flawed" advisory opinion of the ICJ and turned reality on its head, glossing over Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and Israel's legitimate security concerns.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield urged members to reject the motion in favor of joining the United States in "pressing Israelis and Palestinians to recommit to the hard work of direct negotiations," and to press Hamas to "take the [cease-fire] deal on the table."

She said Washington opposed any unilateral measure that undermined the prospects for a two-state solution, including the growth of Israeli settlements and the resolution under consideration.

The Bibi Files: War Criminal Netanyahu's Right to Kill 41,000 Innocent People...

... in his own defense, not in the supposed self-defense of the Zionist colony in Palestine.

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‘I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption’: controversial Netanyahu doc screens at Toronto
Radheyan Simonpillai in Toronto
Tue, September 10, 2024



A still from The Bibi Files.Photograph: Ziv Koren

Audiences got a look at Benjamin Netanyahu’s leaked police interrogation videos for the first time at last night’s world premiere of The Bibi Files. The urgent and incendiary documentary played at the Toronto film festival despite the Israeli prime minister’s attempts to block its screening.

Israeli courts rejected Netanyahu’s request before the film – in which he is seen furiously denying allegations of bribery and corruption – was unveiled to a tense and vocal audience, many of whom were carrying signs reading “Bring Them Home” and “Deal Now”, referring to hostages held in Gaza.

The film, directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Alex Gibney, builds a rigorous and damning case, posing an argument close observers may already be familiar with: Netanyahu is prolonging the devastating war in Gaza – which has amassed more than 40,000 deaths – to avoid possible prison time stemming from corruption charges. A humanitarian crisis flouting international law is all about his self-preservation.

According to the documentary – which Bloom began working on before 7 October, when a source provided Gibney with the leaked videos – Netanyahu’s lawyer filed a motion to delay the trial currently scheduled for December. The lawyer cites the ongoing war as the reason.

“I’ve never seen the depth of moral corruption as I’ve seen in this man,” Gibney, the director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, told the audience following the screening. A member of what appeared to be a largely pro-Israel audience policed Gibney’s language, interrupting the producer to clarify that Netanyahu had not yet been found guilty. The attempts at seizing control of the narrative, both on screen and off, didn’t end there.

The interrogation videos shown in the film were recorded by police between 2016 and 2018 before they formally brought charges of corruption against Netanyahu. The footage includes the prime minister addressing allegations that he and his wife accepted expensive champagne, Cuban cigars and jewelry from the Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan. Netanyahu is heard minimizing the champagne and cigars as simply gifts from a friend, while denying knowledge of the jewelry.

Several witnesses who worked for Milchan and Netanyahu are also shown speaking to police. They paint a picture of regular gifts expected by Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in exchange for favours. One such favour includes a marginal tax break extension that benefited Milchan. Netanyahu argues his unusual interference regarding the tax break was for the good of the state, not Milchan. Meanwhile, the LA Confidential producer corroborated much of the witness testimony, though, in one excerpt, he gently asks police not to use the word “bribery” because it would make him look bad.

Netanyahu is also seen vehemently denying allegations that he signed off on regulations favouring the Israeli media mogul Shaul Elovitch. The prime minister repeatedly and dramatically calls one of his top aides, Nir Hefetz, a liar for saying so. Other witnesses argue Elovitch paid back the alleged generosity by allowing Netanyahu to directly influence coverage of his family on the popular website Walla.

The incriminating evidence in the interrogation videos has already been leaked and reported on by Israeli media. But the videos will never be shown to the public (at least legally) in that country. According to Gibney, Israeli law grants privacy to subjects who have been photographed in official proceedings, which would make publication of the footage illegal. “It’s a peculiar law to Israel [that] doesn’t affect the rest of the world,” Gibney said.

He explained that they brought The Bibi Files to Toronto, as a work-in-progress, because it urgently needed to be seen while the death toll in Gaza continues to rise. But also because they are seeking distribution partners at the festival’s market, hoping to get the film released as quickly as possible for the world to see.

Though the documentary doesn’t reveal new information, Gibney explains that for an audience familiar with Netanyahu’s carefully stage-managed speeches, watching his agitation under interrogation, where his performance begins to crack, is illuminating. At various points when police officers confront him with incriminating testimony from his peers, Netanyahu raises fists and repeatedly slams his hand against his desk as if the banging will silence the accusations.

“Even in the interrogation videos, you see performances,” says Gibney. “But you see performances that are not as finely tuned; that are performed for an audience of three people; that he doesn’t think is going to get out of the room.”

The Bibi Files contextualizes the interrogation videos with a portrait of Netanyahu, whose career is built on stoking fear and promising security, and whose personal life is largely in service of his wife Sara’s turbulent moods and expensive lifestyle. Sara Netanyahu’s erratic testimonies and outbursts during testimony are also included in the footage.

Insiders like the Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker, former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon, a childhood friend and more are on hand as talking heads. They connect the dots and reveal the long-running pattern of Netanyahu serving his own interests while clinging to power – from deliberate ploys to sabotage an alliance between the West Bank and Gaza by enabling Hamas, to his alliance with the violent far right and attempted overhaul of the supreme court to save himself from prosecution.

Bloom expressed disappointment after the screening that more people didn’t speak up on the record. She said she interviewed former chiefs of staff, heads of Shin Bet and others in senior positions under Netanyahu who would speak to her for hours about his lies and corruption. One of them compared his regime to the Netflix series House of Cards. “One said to me, ‘Well, you know, I might go into politics myself one day,’” Bloom recalled. “‘So I have to be careful.’”

The atmosphere at the premiere, which was announced just days before the festival began, was more anxious than usual. Added security, including a police canine unit, were at the scene. While the screening itself went off without a hitch, many in the audience appeared agitated during the post-screening conversation between Bloom, Gibney and Tiff’s documentary programmer, Thom Powers. Some yelled out for their turn to have a say, prompting Powers to call for some order and avoid overt statements.

Following the conversation, a visibly nervous Bloom was surrounded by a crowd and accosted by an audience member who claimed that she included “a bunch of lies” in the film. He was referring to the report that more than 40,000 people have been killed by Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

“You don’t know that,” he said before asking, accusingly, “Are you trusting Hamas?”

“I think they’re corroborated,” Bloom gently responded.

“You are putting a false narrative out there,” he warned.

The Bibi Files is screening at the Toronto film festival and is seeking distribution

• This article was amended on 10 September 2024. There have been more than 40,000 deaths in the Israel-Gaza war to date, not 40,000 casualties, which includes injured people and is a far higher figure.

In the US, you May Burn the US Flag, but not the Israeli Flag

Man indicted for allegedly burning Israeli flag during protests at Columbia University
AARON KATERSKY
Mon, September 9, 2024

A Brooklyn man has been indicted on charges accusing him of burning an Israeli flag during a protest last spring at Columbia University in New York City.

The indictment charged James Carlson, 40, with criminal mischief and arson.

Carlson pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Monday and was released on his own recognizance. ABC News has reached out to his attorney for comment.

During a protest in April at the Manhattan university, a witness, who is Jewish, said another protester stole his Israeli flag, prosecutors said. Before the witness could retrieve the flag from the other protester, Carlson allegedly seized it and began burning it with a lighter but was thwarted from fully lighting the flag on fire when the witness pulled it away, according to prosecutors.

"This defendant's alleged activity went beyond legal and peaceful protest. Committing arson in a crowded protest endangers the safety of others, and this type of behavior will not be tolerated," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. "We will continue to work closely with the NYPD and local colleges and universities to ensure the safety of students, staff and community members during any protest or demonstration."

The protest movement connected to the Israel-Hamas war began in April at Columbia and swept across college campuses nationwide.

Meanwhile, as Columbia University began its new semester on Tuesday, the pro-Palestine demonstrations continue to divide its campus, despite an overwhelming repression of pro-Palestinian demonstrators and students and a biased backing for pro-Zionist measures in occupied Palestine.

On the first day of the school term this week, demonstrators gathered at the school's gates as an NYPD police drone hovered over their heads - although there were at least two arrests, according to the agency, police categorized the gatherings as "peaceful."

Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson, president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation said that he did not foresee campus relations improving soon. "I think we're going to see a crescendo of intimidation and hostility as we approach October 7," he said, referring to the anniversary of Hamas' attack on southern Israel, during which Palestinian resistance fighters took hostages and killed Israeli civilians and soldiers, In reprisals worthy of a Bronze Age biblical eye-for-an-eye vengeance, Israeli forces have killed 41,000 innocent Palestinians, of whom two-thirds are women and children, destroyed every aspect of normal life in Gaza, including hospitals, schools, shelters and international aid operations, and is savagely starving the population.

Columbia's former president, Nemat Shafik, resigned last month after her handling of protesters on campus "[took] a considerable toll on [her] family." Sparks had flown after Shafik, the school's third president over an eight-month period, called in hundreds of armed police officers to arrest over 30 pro-Palestine protesters.

Now, interim president Katrina Armstrong is tasked with maintaining order on the embattled campus. Since she took her position, new restrictions and changes have been made on campus in an attempt to control the conflict, according to the school's updated code of conduct.

Camping is now banned on the school's campus, with new signs and guards dotting the school's south lawns, according to Reuters. Gates to the campus that were kept open to surrounding streets for decades have been closed under a new system that restricts access to students, with guards only allowing those with Columbia IDs and preregistered guests to enter. Officials have set up fences and gates on wheels around campus, which will be used to cordon off small areas.

Because of the repression of free speech and the heavy-handed pro-Israel and anti-Palestine bias, the non-profit Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression ranked Columbia in 250th place - second to last - in its annual College Free Speech Rankings.

"Surrounding my campus has been a 'doxxing truck' since October 2023, wherein students who express any criticism of Israel are identified by their full name and a giant picture under the label 'Antisemite of the Week' on a large truck with a digital screen," one rising junior told the surveyors.

"Students have reported this to the administration multiple times, and they did nothing for months. Friends of mine have also lost jobs and internship opportunities because of their political beliefs," the student said.

In an effort to combat hostility on campus, Columbia created an Antisemitism Task Force, supposedly to monitor anti-Jewish activities, but rampant hostility toward Arab, Muslim and Palestinian students and faculty has not been met with an equal degree of concern despite mounting complaints from students who are harassed eveery day for their Muslim faith or for wearing the Palestinian headscarf on campus.

"It would not surprise me that schools with the most activism have the least free expression, said one faculty member. "These are not measures to foster a healthy debate on the Palestine issue; these are measures meant to stifle a debate on the fundamental question in the Middle East: Should Palestinians obtain their internationally-recognized self-determination, or should they continue to be ruled by a violent and repressive, and frankly genocidal, foreign occupation?"

When asked for comment on the purported lack of free expression on campus, interim president Armstrong reiterated a portion of a recent message sent to students.

"Everyone needs to feel engaged, that their voices matter and that they belong here," Armstrong wrote. "Protests need to be managed effectively and fairly. That requires holding two truths at once. The truth is that our mission depends upon free speech and open debate. And the truth that our mission equally depends upon an environment free of harassment and discrimination, where our students can learn. There is no doubt that holding those two truths requires understanding and effectively implementing our policies, rules and procedures, just as it does in the society around us."

In Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), the US Supreme Court (https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/free-speech-flag-burning_1.pdf) ruled 5 to 4) agreed with Johnson and held that flag burning constitutes a form of "symbolic speech" that is protected by the First Amendment. So even as US citizens are protected against arbitray arrest for burning the US flag during a protest, US citizens may not burn the Israeli flag. That should be enough to tell you who dictates United States policy, especially in regard to the Zionist colony in Palestine.

 

At Columbia U, the Rapists of Palestine Shall Henceforth be Known as the "Unmentionables"

The supporters of the 'unmentionables' are demanding that Columbia University ban the use of all words such as 'Jews', 'Zionists' and 'Israelis' pertaining to those unmentionable people in any speech that criticizes, even mildly and on good grounds, the unmentionable people. On the other hand, if you want to conform to the uniform and unquestionable bias, and so cavort and lick boots, then you are more than welcome to use the words 'Jews', 'Zionists' and 'Israelis'. 

Apparently, research has shown that the unmentionable people are beyond reproach and have divine immunity against criticism, and that would be the basis for Columbia's linguistic ban. Which means you can no longer level any criticism at these people because you cannot name them. From now on, you shall refer to them as the "unmentionables". For example, you are allowed to say that the unmentionables raped Palestine, but you cannot say the Zionists raped Palestine. It's really very simple.

Next, as natural selection works on language as it does on genes, other terms will be coined to fill in the now empty niche. For example, I believe the Columbia's "proper speech lexicon" will eventually add other terms to its linguistic ban such as the word "Settler" or "European Semites". But until Columbia does ban these terms, you are free to say, for example, "unmentionable settlers raped Palestine 100 years ago and continue to rape it as we speak". 

Now, for equanimity and fairness, Columbia should also ban the use of the words "Arab", "Palestinian", or "Muslim" whenever blame is to be leveled against those people too. Only praise should be showered on them, just like their semitic unmentionable brethern. Perhaps, this will catch on and the words "Black", African" or "African American" will eventually be banned from critical use like their ancestor term "n----r"... Otherwise, the whole enterprise will be seen as favoring the unmentionables in this linguistic protection program against the fundamental right of free speech.

Just like 1948: Ongoing Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine one Village at a Time

It took the colluding US and its European poodles 80 years to begin imposing sanctions on a few of those barbarian Bronze Age foreign Jewish settlers who kill, rape, harass, and expel indigenous Palestinians from their villages.

But the US and its European poodles know that the problem is not with a handful of Jewish terrorists who occasionally cause trouble. They know that these few settlers are only a tiny part of the Israeli State's ongoing plan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that began in the 1920s and 1930s. And because they know, the US and the Europeans are in collusion with the Zionizt movement to completely eliminate Palestine from existence.

Israel's history lays the trajectory of the colonization of Palestine. First the foreign Jewish settlers arrived illegally in Palestine. They embarked on a campaign of terror to force the Palestinian villagers and townspeople to flee their homes. That is why the 1947 "Israel" initially was the strip of Palestinian land along the Mediterranean plus the Naqab desert which was essentially empty and easy to take. The foreign Jewish invaders basically landed from the boats and controlled the villages and towns along the seacoast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With time and expansion wars, the foreign Jewish settlers began encroaching further inland. Look at the map of today's Israel and you'll notice that Jerusalem is at the tip of an arrow of Jewish penetration into the Palestinian interior. Netanyahu keeps saying that Israel is tiny. That is true (although Lebanon is tinier) but Israel is so because it is an artificial construct that emerged out of a series of expansionist wars. In fact, at his latest press conference Netanyahu showed a map of "Israel" in which there was no West Bank. Of all the stolen Palestine, only Gaza was shown to make his point about the Philadelphi corridor. 

 

Netanyahu and his criminal Jewish settlers have already deleted the West Bank and will soon delete Gaza. The ongoing war in Gaza is purely genocidal: it is NOT about revenge; it is NOT about destroying Hamas; it is NOT about recovering the hostages. The October 7 attacks were the golden opportunity, the perfect pretext to fulfill the plan as laid out as early as the Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897. 

The October 7 attacks have revealed the true intentions of "Israel". The Jewish colony in Palestine does not want peace; Having peace means running out of pretexts for further expansion. Having peace means recognizing Palestinian sovereignty over some parts of Palestine and admitting that Israel has borders. But Israel has no borders; it has no constitution that spells out its boundaries. Israel is indeed not a "state" in the proper definition of the term; it is a colony that might keep expanding by stealing land, demolishing indigenous villages and replacing them by settlements. Have you ever wondered why Palestinian places are called villages and Israeli places are called settlements?

For the foreign Jewish invaders, Palestine and the indigenous Palestinians must be completely eliminated from existence so that only a purely Jewish supremacist racist state takes its place. 

Below is the story of a tiny Palestinian village where the Israeli judicial authorities allowed the indigenous inhabitants of the village to return after they were chased out of it by foreign Jewish settlers. Now don't jump to the conclusion that since an Israeli court has allowed this particular case, Israel is a fair arbiter between the indigenous population and the foreign settlers. Of every 100 cases brought by Palestinians before Israeli courts on issues of home ownership, home demolition orders, home expansion, building permits, land ownership.... a mere 1% is resolved in favor of the Palestinians and this 1% is marketed with grand pomp to the media. Why is that? Precisely because the Israelis use this to say that they are treating the Palestinians fairly in a legal framework worthy of "democratic" Israel. What you never hear about are the remaining 99% of cases where the Israeli court system acts a kangoroo colonial legal system whose job is to violate every judicial and ethical norm and grant discriminatory judgments in favor of the foreign Jewish settlers.

In the case of the village below, the court allowed the indigenous inhabitants of the village to return BUT they cannot build new homes. They cannot grow and expand inside their own land. Meanwhile the Jewish terrorists who expelled the Palestinians in the first place remain in place, along the village's vicinity ready to pounce again, and fear no punishment or retribution.

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Chased away by Israeli settlers, these Palestinians returned to a village in ruins
JALAL BWAITEL and JULIA FRANKEL
Sun, September 8, 2024

Palestinians Ribhi Ahmad Battat, left, and Issa Ahmad Battat, residents of the West Bank village of Khirbet Zanuta, take shelter from the midday sun in a cave Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. Ten months after settlers threatened to kill them if they didn't leave their village, some Palestinian residents are finally home, under a rare court order. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) ASSOCIATED PRESS

KHIRBET ZANUTA, West Bank (AP) — An entire Palestinian community fled their tiny West Bank village last fall after repeated threats from Israeli settlers with a history of violence. Then, in a rare endorsement of Palestinian land rights, Israel’s highest court ruled this summer the displaced residents of Khirbet Zanuta were entitled to return under the protection of Israeli forces.

But their homecoming has been bittersweet. In the intervening months, nearly all the houses in the village, a health clinic and a school were destroyed — along with the community’s sense of security in the remote desert land where they have farmed and herded sheep for decades.

Roughly 40% of former residents have so far chosen not to return. The 150 or so that have come back are sleeping outside the ruins of their old homes. They say they are determined to rebuild – and to stay – even as settlers once again try to intimidate them into leaving and a court order prevents them from any new construction.

“There is joy, but there are some drawbacks,” said Fayez Suliman Tel, the head of the village council and one of the first to come back to see the ransacked village – roofs seemingly blown off buildings, walls defaced by graffiti.

“The situation is extremely miserable,” Tel said, “but despite that, we are steadfast and staying in our land, and God willing, this displacement will not be repeated.”

The Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank said in a statement to The Associated Press it had not received any claims of Israeli vandalism of the village, and that it was taking measures to “ensure security and public order” during the villagers’ return.

“The Palestinians erected a number of structural components illegally at the place, and in that regard enforcement proceedings were undertaken in accordance with law,” the statement said.

The villagers of Khirbet Zanuta had long faced harassment and violence from settlers. But after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that launched the war in Gaza, they said they received explicit death threats from Israelis living in an unauthorized outpost up the hill called Meitarim Farm. The outpost is run by Yinon Levi, who has been sanctioned by the U.S., UK, EU and Canada for menacing his Palestinian neighbors.

The villagers say they reported the threats and attacks to Israeli police, but said they got little help. Fearing for their lives, at the end of October, they packed up whatever they could carry and left.

Though settler violence had been rising even before the war under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it has been turbocharged ever since Oct. 7. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence since then, according to the United Nations, and very few have returned home.

Khirbet Zanuta stands as a rare example. It is unclear if any other displaced community has been granted a court's permission to return since the start of the war.

Even though residents have legal protection Israel's highest court, they still have to contend with Levi and other young men from the Meitarim Farm outpost trying to intimidate them.

Shepherd Fayez Fares Al Samareh, 57, said he returned to Khirbet Zanuta two weeks ago to find that his house had been bulldozed by settlers. The men of his family have joined him in bringing their flocks back home, he said, but conditions in the village are grave.

“The children have not returned and the women as well. Where will they stay? Under the sun?” he said.

Settler surveillance continues: Al Samareh said that every Friday and Saturday, settlers arrive to the village, photographing residents.

Videos taken by human rights activists and obtained by The Associated Press show settlers roaming around Khirbet Zanuta last month, taking pictures of residents as Israeli police look on.

By displacing small villages, rights groups say West Bank settlers like Levi are able to accumulate vast swaths of land, reshaping the map of the occupied territory that Palestinians hope to include in their homeland as part of any two-state solution.

The plight of Khirbet Zanuta is also an example of the limited effectiveness of international sanctions as a means of reducing settler violence in the West Bank. The U.S. recently targeted Hashomer Yosh, a government-funded group that sends volunteers to work on West Bank farms, both legal and illegal, with sanctions. Hashomer Yosh sent volunteers to Levi’s outpost, a Nov. 13 Facebook post said.

“After all 250 Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta were forced to leave, Hashomer Yosh volunteers fenced off the village to prevent the residents from returning,” a U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said last week.

Neither Hashomer Yosh nor Levi responded to a request for comment on intrusions into the village since residents returned. But Levi claimed in a June interview with AP that the land was his, and admitted to taking part in clearing it of Palestinians, though he denied doing so violently.

“Little by little, you feel when you drive on the roads that everyone is closing in on you,” he said at the time. “They’re building everywhere, wherever they want. So you want to do something about it.”

The legal rights guaranteed to Khirbet Zanuta's residents only go so far. Under the terms of the court ruling that allowed them to return, they are forbidden from building new structures across the roughly 1 square kilometer village. The land, the court ruled, is part of an archaeological zone, so any new structures are at risk of demolition.

Distraught but not deterred, the villagers are repairing badly damaged homes, the health clinic and the EU-funded school — by whom, they do not know for sure.

“We will renovate these buildings so that they are qualified to receive students before winter sets in,” Khaled Doudin, the governor of the Hebron region that includes Khirbet Zanuta, said as he stood in the bulldozed school.

“And after that we will continue to rehabilitate it,” he said, “so that we do not give the [Jewish] occupation the opportunity to demolish it again.”

No Garbage "Antisemitic" Contortions at Venice Mostra: Justice for Palestine is Simple

Israel-Gaza Conflict In Focus At Venice Awards Ceremony As Multiple Winners Voice Support For Palestinian People
Melanie Goodfellow
Sat, September 7, 2024




The Venice awards ceremony had a political edge on Saturday evening as multiple winners used their acceptance speeches to express sympathy for the Palestinian people and condemn Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

“As a Jewish American artist working in a time-based medium, I must note, I’m accepting this award on the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and 76th year of occupation,” said U.S. director Sarah Friedland as she accepted the Luigi de Laurentiis prize for best first film for Familiar Touch.

“I believe it is our responsibility as filmmakers to use the institutional platforms through which we work to redress Israel’s impunity on the global stage. I stand in solidarity with The people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation,” she continued.

Friedland’s film, which played in the Horizons competition, also won the section’s best director award, while Kathleen Chalfant, clinched best actress for her performance as a woman getting used to life in an assisted care home.

Chalfant also alluded to the conflict in her speech expressing her hope that the catastrophic turn of events in the region would come to an end so that people on both sides could “live in peace, freedom and justice.”

Jewish director Sarah Friedland accepted the #VeniceFilmFestival Lion Of The Future Award for Best Debut Film for ‘Familiar Touch’.

During her speech she said that she stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine and says “I am accepting this award on the 336th day of… pic.twitter.com/w3uL3MyK1S

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) September 7, 2024

Received with strong applause in the room, Friedland’s comments came amid growing condemnation of Israel’s 10-month military campaign in Gaza. The conflict was sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,000 people and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage.

The Israeli response has devastated the densely populated strip, and resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 Palestinians and injured more than 94,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel believes around 60 to 70 hostages are still alive in Gaza.

Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti echoed Friedland’s words as he accepted the best screenplay prize in the Horizons section for his Happy Holidays, about four interconnected characters living in Haifa, navigating different generational and cultural backgrounds.

“I stand here deeply honored, yet profoundly affected by the difficult times we’re living through over the past 11 months, our shared humanity and moral compass have been tested as we witness the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he said.

“This painful reality reminds us of the devastating consequences of oppression, which is a theme in our film. Our film looks at how moral narratives can bring us together as communities, but also blind us to the suffering of others.”

BDS Movement Against the Zionist Colony is Gaining Traction

After Norway [https://lebanoniznogood.blogspot.com/2024/09/ethical-norway-to-divest-wealth-fund.html] and other decent civilized countries, as well as educational and corporate entities suffering from worldwide boycotts, the BDS movement against the Zionist colony in Palestine is slowly but steadily rallying participants to its cause.

No one is afraid anymore of "Jew-hating" and "Antisemitic" accusations. They've been so used and abused that they don't stick any longer to honest, moral critics - including many Jews - of Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Palestine.

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Portland City Council votes to divest from companies doing business with Israel
Emma Davis
Thu, September 5, 2024




Demonstrators, led by the Maine Coalition for Palestine, protest at a General Dynamics factory in Saco, Maine on Jan. 3, 2024. (courtesy of Schaible, Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights)

Portland’s city council adopted a resolution Wednesday night urging the city to divest from companies doing business with Israel in response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The city council unanimously approved the resolution — put forth by councilor April Fournier and sponsored by the Maine Coalition for Palestine and Maine’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace — in a packed chamber following more than three hours of public comment. Councilors also said individually that they’d received thousands of emails from constituents regarding the resolution.

More than 80 companies are included in the divestment list, including the major corporations Volvo, Boeing, Chevron and Intel, which the resolution calls complicit in Israel’s violation of international law.

Citing investigations by the United Nations and humanitarian aid organizations, the resolution states these companies provide Israel with military equipment used in Gaza, contribute to the expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements, and enable or profit from the ongoing Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.

Portland residents largely made pleas to the council to support the resolution, particularly pointing to the deaths of Palestinian children. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the death toll from Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza has reached 40,861, many of whom were children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

“It is not antisemitic to divest from any company or other entity that is profiting from the murder of children,” said Abby Alfred, a Portland resident who is Jewish.

While the council’s decision was ultimately unanimous, some councilors wavered in their support ahead of the vote. At-large councilor Roberto Rodriguez had questioned whether it was the council’s place to weigh in on this issue, but on Wednesday said he wholeheartedly believed the council was within its right to take a stance and supported the resolution without any reservations.

Portland Mayor Mark Dion, who is a former police officer and sheriff, said he thought Israel had a right to defend itself but also ultimately supported the resolution.

“It doesn’t diminish the criminality of what Hamas perpetrated on Israelis,” Dion said, adding “the police officer in me understands if you could bring them to justice they should be brought to justice and that’s how we prove we’re superior to them.”

The resolution will remain in effect as long as the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the violations of human rights and international law continue.

In a statement following the vote, the Maine Coalition for Palestine also urged Mainers to individually join the divestment effort. “Our tax money should not be spent killing women and children in Palestine,” the statement read. “Our elected officials in Congress no longer represent the views of a majority of us seeking change, so this is also a message to them.”

The council’s action Wednesday comes after it unanimously passed a resolution earlier this year calling on President Joe Biden and Maine’s congressional delegation to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. That resolution also urged “an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring the unhindered free flow of humanitarian access.”

Gaza is Beyond Catastrophic. Why? Zionist Jews Want to Expel Gaza's Palestinians into Egypt

The world should not lament decades from now about the "unstable" Middle East and those bad Arab terrorists. In 1948, few saw live the unfolding ethnic cleansing of Palestine by European Jews. There were a few reporters beholden to the foreign illegal Jewish migrant invaders. It took a few decades for the world to recognize the Palestinian refugees as a dispossessed raped nation.

Now in 2024, everyone is watching the second installment of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by foreign invaders. If nothing is done to stem the US-endorsed and armed religious fanaticism of Israel's Zionists, the world will be again faced with the dilemma of why are a new generation of Palestinians still committing acts of violence in 1935 against Israeli and Jewish targets?

Labeling an entire people who have been dispossessed and chased out of their historic lands as "terrorists" is not only unethical and cruel, it is illogical. Who wouldn't fight until the bitter end if one's home is destroyed, one's family assassinated, one's village razed to the ground or its ancient Canaanite name replaced with a Hebrew name, and one's country Palestine deleted from existence? 

ISRAEL'S EXISTENCE IS PROOF THAT THE "GREAT REPLACEMENT" STRATEGY DOES WORK WHEN WELL-EXECUTED.

IN LEBANON, THE LEBANESE PEOPLE (4 MILLION) ARE BEING REPLACED BY SO-CALLED SYRIAN 'REFUGEES' (3 MILLION) WHO ARE NOT REALLY REFUGEES. THESE "REFUGEES" IN FACT COMMUTE DAILY BETWEEN SYRIA WHERE UNHCR DOES NOT PAY THEM, AND LEBANON WHERE THEY REGISTER AS REFUGEES TO GET PAID BY UNHCR.

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UN warns humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip 'beyond catastrophic'
DPA
Fri, September 6, 2024



Palestinian children sit in the midst of the destruction in the aftermath of a reported overnight Israeli strike that hit tents used as temporary shelters by displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, as the israeli war on Gaza continues. Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is "beyond catastrophic," the United Nations warned on Thursday.

More than 1 million people did not receive any food rations in August in southern and central Gaza through humanitarian means, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.

"Despite the challenges we face, the UN and other humanitarian organizations continue to do everything possible to provide life-saving aid to Palestinians," he said.

Between August 19 and the end of the month, 450,000 cooked meals prepared in 130 kitchens were provided daily to families across the Strip.

"It bears repeating that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains beyond catastrophic and we still do not have all the conditions necessary to support people near the scale that they actually need," Dujarric said.

Multiple evacuation orders issued by the Israeli security forces had forced 70 kitchens to suspend service or relocate.

For the second consecutive month, there would be insufficient supplies to meet need, meaning families in central and southern Gaza would receive only one food parcel.

Dujarric added that 11 months into the war, international media were still banned from entering Gaza to report on the humanitarian impact.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces continued to "utilize lethal war-like tactics," Dujarric said, referring to reports from the UN emergency aid organization OCHA.

"Medical facilities have been virtually besieged for over a week now, with heavy restrictions imposed on the movement of ambulances and medical staff," he said.

"OCHA also warns that this is deepening people’s humanitarian needs as well as insecurity and raises concerns over excessive use of force."

Israel has been blockading and bombarding large parts of the Gaza Strip in a war launched after the Palestinian militant group Hamas led unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7 that killed more than 1,200 people.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, more than 40,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war.

Columbia Arrests Pro-Palestine Protesters. U South Carolina Applauds Racist Proud Boys

There you have it.

In New York, Columbia University succumbs to Zionist terror and continues to collude with the police in arresting students speaking out against the Palestine Genocide.

In South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, also in collusion with local authorities, enables the Fascist Right-Wing White supremacist organization the Proud Boys (a sister of the Zionist Organization of America which preaches a Fascist Right-Wing Jewish supremacy and endorses violent means to ethnic cleanse Palestine), to hold an event on its campus.

Calls to prohibit the event go unheard. The filthy Proud Boys have been calling Kamala Harris, Cumala, as a sexist, disgusting and cheap distortion that demonstrates the abysmal intellectual level of these inbred white mongrels from the backward southern state of South Carolina.

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White House reacts to ‘obscene’ campus roast of VP Harris at University of South Carolina
Gerren Keith Gaynor
Thu, September 5, 2024



Kamala Harris, theGrio.com

The event, organized by student organization Uncensored America, will feature a right-wing provocateur and the founder of the Proud Boys, a designated white supremacist hate group.

The White House on Wednesday avoided commenting on recent outrage over a planned comedy “roast” of Vice President Kamala Harris on the University of South Carolina campus.

The event is steeped in controversy due to the event’s vulgar advertising and the involvement of far-right extremist figures, conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and Gavin McInnes, the co-founder of Proud Boys, a designated white supremacist hate group.

Uncensored America, a nonprofit that bills itself as an organization fighting for freedom of speech, is hosting the event. Advertisement for the scheduled Sept. 18 campus event makes vulgar and sexual references to Harris, the nation’s first female vice president.

In a letter condemning the event, the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, said of the advertisement, “Lest there be any doubt of the obscene nature of the image, rather than listing the Vice President’s name as Kamala, the advertisement changes the first three letters to a vulgar term for semen.”

NAACP President Derrick Johnson and the group’s South Carolina state conference president, Brenda Murphy, called on USC President Michael Amiridis and the institution’s board of trustees to cancel the event.

During a White House press briefing on Wednesday, Karine Jean-Pierre, press secretary and spokesperson for President Joe Biden, declined to comment specifically about the University of South Carolina campus roast. Jean-Pierre told theGrio she wasn’t “familiar with this particular event” but reiterated President Biden’s praise of Harris as the “best decision” of his political career when selecting her as his vice president.

“I can’t speak to every racist, misogynistic, sexist comment that’s been out there,” said the White House spokesperson.

Critics of the USC campus event say it goes beyond free speech and exposes its students, particularly its Black student population, to hate speech and a hostile environment.

Johnson and Murphy of the NAACP point out in their letter that Black female students who objected to the campus “roast” on social media have been subjected to “racist, misogynistic, sexually explicit and lewd verbal attacks” after Yiannopoulos reposted their posts on his social media platform, which includes hundreds of thousands of followers.

South Carolina state Senator Tameika Isaac Devine also issued a letter calling for President Amiridis to cancel the campus event. Devine argued that it not only violates the institution’s policy on discrimination but also sends the “wrong message to students, faculty, alumni and donors” and will “harm the progress” the university has made toward establishing reconciliation after previously confronting its “challenged history with race.”

“I adamantly oppose our state-funded institution providing a platform to individuals or groups that promote hatred, division, and violence, and I strongly urge the university to reconsider hosting such a harmful event,” said Devine.

The NAACP noted that inviting McInnes and Yiannopoulos, in particular, poses a great danger to the student body and campus personnel. The leaders of the organization pointed out that the extremist leaders and the Proud Boys have a “history of violence,” including the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Right-wing provocateur and Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes (C) pumps his fist during a rally at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park on April 27, 2017 in Berkeley, California. Protestors gathered in Berkeley to protest the cancellation of a speech by American conservative political commentator Ann Coulter at UC Berkeley. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

“As President, you have a duty to protect the students who have chosen to matriculate at USC, your employees, and campus guests,” said their letter. “We urge you to make the correct decision and cancel the proposed event.”

A petition led by students calling on the university to pull out of hosting the campus roast has garnered nearly 25,000 signatures. In a letter reported by the local TV news station Wis10, USC President Amiridis refused to cancel the event, which he said is organized by the student chapter of Uncensored America and is “not endorsed by the university.”

“We remain steadfast in safeguarding the First Amendment rights of our students, even when we may be offended by their choices and statements,” he said.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has repeatedly been the target of racist and sexist attacks from Republicans and conservatives. In a recent interview with CNN, Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, chose to take the high road when asked about her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, falsely claiming she decided to “turn Black” for political reasons.

“Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” said the vice president.

Democrats and strategists have previously told theGrio that Harris and her campaign should remain focused on running a campaign that keeps the attention on American voters and the issues that matter to them — not cheap shots lobbed against her by her opposition.

“I think that what we’re witnessing is the fear that we’ve got a very strong candidate and a very qualified candidate who will be able to prosecute the case against Donald Trump, and at the same time share the contrast in the two visions for this country,” said U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Delaware. Blunt Rochester is also a national co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign.

“Our focus is to keep our eyes on the prize. It is winning. It is keeping that momentum going,” she told theGrio. “You want to get across that finish line … But I think they may be struggling to figure out how to define her, and we already know how to define her as a leader.”

 

Zionists, Again, Equate Palestinian National Resistance with Defunct Antisemitism

If there is antisemitism in the world today, it is in places like Germany, Great Britain, Italy and other European countries where hatred of Jews was born out of an extremist Christian ideology that lasted from the Middle Ages and well into the 20th century.

Muslim and Jews in fact have always lived together for centuries and millennia in the Arab world as well as in Andalusia and Moorish Spain from which the Christians expelled them both, forced them to convert or subject them to the Inquisition. Why did this change in the 20th century? Because the European Jews decided to have their own little me-too colony, just like King Leopold of Belgium in the Congo and every other barbarian European monarchy with their "empires" in which they decimated entire indigenous populations or turned them into free labor slaves and pilfered their wealth.

Perfidious Zionist propaganda continues brainwashing the West by equating Palestinian national resistance against the one-hundred-year long colonial dispossession and genocide by foreign Zionists with antisemitism.

If European lemurs had invaded Palestine in the 1920s, bedecked with weapons and money, and dispossessed the native indigenous population with untold violence - rapes, home demolitions, exterminating entire villages, bombings, expulsions into refugee camps and other refined European civilizing methods - the Palestinians would still be fighting, like any other indigenous people would do if attacked with such virulence by foreign invading forces. And the Zionists would call these lemurs antisemites.

But anachronistic lies persist. To wit, the following opinion below in which the author ponders, "Hamas murders 6 more hostages, and have 'we' learned anything from history about antisemitism." I wonder whom the "we" represents? Zionists? or plain brainswashed non-Jews? Let me help him:

Hamas is an Islamic terror organization, just as Israel is a Jewish terror state. 

Palestinians have been resisting the influx of illegal Jewish migrants from Europe, despite the odds stacked against them, ever since that influx began in the 1920s. It didn't start with Hamas, and it won't stop after Hamas is gone. The Palestinian cause cannot be deleted from existence, and time is on its side, regardless of the violence inflicted on its people.

When Arafat was defending Palestine, he was branded a terrorist. Haven't we learned from history that foreign colonial invaders always call the indigenous resistance "terrorist"? The German Nazis called the French resistance fighters terrrorists. The French colonial government called the Algerian resistance fighters terrorists. The English crooks (who sold Palestine to a few European Jewish bankers) called the heroes of the Indian uprisings against the vandal British empire terrorists! The Dutch called the resistors against its oppression terrorists in places like Indonesia (1602-1945), Sri Lanka (17th century-1802), the Netherlands Antilles (since 1634), Tobago (1654-1678), Suriname (17th century-1975), Guyana (1667-1815), South Africa (1652-1805), Malaysia (1610-1830), and Brazil (1630-1654).

I could go on and on about Indonesia, Vietnam, Cuba, Chile, South Africa and all the third world colonized countries that were fighting their foreign European oppressors, rapists and land and resource thieves: They were all called terrorists.

Israel is a Johnny-come-late colonial invader of Palestine; its promoters can keep distorting history and facts to fit their false narrative, but in this 21st century, most people around the world look upon Israel's rape of Palestine as a boring oft-repeated story of colonial settler rapists trying to subdue an indigenous rebellious population. What we do learn from history is that nowhere did the colonial invader succeed. The "terrorists" always win.

No matter what the Palestinians do to try and salvage their country, they'll be tagged terrorists and antisemites. In the Zionist lexicon, not one country, not one organization, not one NGO, not one court of justice, not one entity that tried to instill a modicum of justice in the 100-year-old rape of Palestine by European Jewish Zionist settlers has escaped being listed as antisemitic. At this rate, 99.99% of the world is antisemitic for trying to bring justice to the dispossessed Palestinian people. 

I ask an ethical question: Is killing someone with a knife less ethical than killing that someone with a drone? It is easier with a drone because you are not looking your victim in the eye, but that should not diminish the unethical act of killing a defenseless person with overwhelming force.

I ask another ethical question: Israel claims self-defense for indiscriminately killing thousands of people in revenge for the murder of 1,200 of its illegal settlers of raped and occupied Palestine. But the dispossessed dehumanized Palestinians, who have no choice but to fight back against the foreign invader, can also claim self-defense: It was their Palestine that was raped by those now demanding guarantees and protection from their own victim. What upside down world are we living in? 

Read the BS below (starting with a movie, not reality) about the six Israelis found dead in a Hamas tunnel. Shed tears. Learn their names and what great people they were. Learn about their parents's heartache... We all know the future movie and the Hollywoodian tear-jerker melodrama that will net millions upon its release. But will you ever know the name of just one of the 41,000 innocent Palestinians killed in cold blood by Israelis who had herded them in what was supposed a "safe zone"? Just like the Nazis used to tell their concentration camp prisoners that they were going to take a shower before they gas them to death. Is the "tactic" of luring your victim before you assassinate them this much different between Israelis in Palestine and Nazis in Germany?

Our opinion writer below says that Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped and held captive for nearly 11 months in Gaza, for no other reason than the fact that he was a Jewish man attending a music festival in Israel on the day that his murderers invaded. Not true. He was not just a Jewish man attending a festival in Israel. His presence in Israel-Occupied Palestine implies he at least sees no problem with, and perhaps even condones, the ongoing rape of Palestine and the dehumanization of an entire indigenous population. For the past 100 years, occupied Palestine has been in a constant state of war between foreign invaders claiming Palestine belongs to them because some Bronze Age toilet paper says God gave it to his pet people, and the Palestinian indigenous people who are the victims of that rape. I'm sure Mr. Goldberg-Polin knew the risks.

Palestinians kill Israelis not because the latter are Jews. In fact, many of those detained by Hamas were neither Jewish nor Israelis. Palestinians kill Israelis because the Israelis raped them and their country. Gaza is nothing but a concentration of refugee camps in which millions of Palestinians, uprooted from their ancestral villages by vicious fanatic Zionists, have been herded like "human animals" over many decades of dispossession and hatred. 

Yes, a revolution is necessary: Against Zionist fanaticism and for a free Palestine.

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Opinion

Hamas murders 6 more hostages. Have we learned nothing from history about antisemitism?
Nicole Russell, USA TODAY
Wed, September 4, 2024

The 2023 film "Irena's Vow" tells the true story of Polish nurse Irena Gut Opdyke, who became the housekeeper for a German army major in World War II. She manages to hide 12 Jews in the Nazi officer's villa to save them from extermination in the death camps.

An innkeeper she meets encourages Irena to keep a low profile to survive. When he realizes she's hiding Jews, he feigns ignorance: "I don't want to know anything."

No one in America or anywhere else in 2024 can say they do not know about the rampant antisemitism percolating in elite American universities, around the globe and at the hands of Hamas terrorists.

But have times really changed? Have we learned anything from history about how antisemitism infects and spreads?

On Saturday, Israel Defense Forces recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, an Israeli American, from a tunnel in Gaza, where they had been held captive by Hamas.

Hamas insinuated Monday that the captives were executed because Israeli forces were about to rescue them. The terrorist group also threatened to murder dozens of remaining hostages if Israel attempts to free them.

Hamas has released propaganda footage of the murdered hostages, including Eden Yerushalmi, 24. In the video, she said she missed her family, did not think she would make it out of Gaza alive and blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of abandoning her and other hostages.

Hamas also killed hostages Ori Danino, 25; Alex Lobanov, 32; Carmel Gat, 40; and Almog Sarusi, 27.

The captives were among more than 200 hostages taken Oct. 7, when Hamas invaded Israel and murdered 1,189 innocent people, most of whom were civilians. Hamas continues to hold at least 101 hostages, including seven Americans.

The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza says more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began last fall.

The murder of hostages has exacerbated a fraught political environment in Israel. As many as 500,000 people took to the streets in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to protest the hostages' deaths and the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has handled negotiations for a cease-fire and the release of hostages.

Even President Joe Biden agreed on Monday that Netanyahu has not done enough to aid the hostages' release.

Yet, it's not clear how Biden could pin any part of these murders on Netanyahu. After all, an American hostage was killed and more Americans remain in captivity. Is Biden also not doing enough to secure the hostages' release?

The fact is that Netanyahu and the Israeli government have tried to secure a cease-fire resolution, even though it was Israel that was forced to defend itself after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.

In August, Israel agreed to the Biden-Harris administration’s cease-fire deal, but Hamas rejected it. And U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in June that Hamas had refused to accept an earlier U.S.-backed agreement to end the war.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department charged six leaders of Hamas with the Oct. 7 attack on Israel for charges that include conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, conspiracy to support a terrorist organization and conspiracy to use bombs and weapons of mass destruction.

As the war in Gaza rages on, Jews in the United States and around the world continue to face blatant antisemitism. Whether on elite university campuses or on the streets of New York, antisemitism in any form must be rejected.

Both presidential nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump must make clear that no matter the election outcome in November, the new administration will do everything in its power to protect Jewish people in America and elsewhere.

On Monday, the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin gathered for his funeral in Jerusalem. Only 23, he was kidnapped and held captive for nearly 11 months in Gaza, for no other reason than the fact that he was a Jewish man attending a music festival in Israel on the day that his murderers invaded. 

We can never say we don't want to know what Hamas is doing to Israelis. We cannot feign ignorance for the sake of peace. "May his memory be a revolution," Jon Polin said at his son's funeral. A revolution is necessary. May it come now.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY.

Palestinian Students Pelted with Rocks on University Campus in Utah

A group of Palestinian students at a University in Utah was pelted with rocks as they walked by the Hillel Jewish Campus Center, leaving two students injured, the university announced.

According to a statement from the school, students were attacked near the Hillel Jewish Life on campus around 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Two students were injured in the attacks. The students, who were wearing traditional Palestinian headscarves, were taken to a local hospital for serious head injuries, the university said.

University police attempted to arrest the individuals involved, but the suspects ran into the Hillel Center which the Police refused to enter. The alleged perpetrators, the university said, are believed to be right-wing Jewish students who were wearing Yarmulkes, a traditional Jewish head cover that is mostly used by hardline pro-Israel Zionists.

The university condemned the attack, calling it "appalling," and issued a statement that said, "To be clear: Neither acts of violence nor anti-Arab racism will be tolerated ... Local and federal partners are supporting the Police in this ongoing investigation ... Antisemitim should not be a cover or a pretext to tolerate violence and hate against anyone else".

"No matter what you look like, where you come from, or who you do or do not pray to, you deserve to feel safe on your campus," said the statement.

Attacks against Americans perceived as Arabs have been on the rise in the U.S. since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, when Hamas terrorists killed approximately 1,200 Israeli and foreigners. More than 240 others were taken hostage. In a bibical eye-for-an-eye retaliation, Israel has massacred nearly 41,000 Palestinian civilians in a savage bombing campaign that saw children, women, journalists, aid workers and other innocent people deliberately targeted and assassinated in places like hospitals and schools. Another 30,000 lie dead beneath the rubble of their homes and their shelters, and the stench of rotting bodies is everywhere. This Gaza "genocide" has been recognized by virtually all human rights organizations and the UN as the largest deliberate mass killing of an indigenous people by a foreign occupying power since World War II.

Students on American university campuses who have protested the genocide have been the object of a vicious campaign of retribution and punishment by Zionist lobby-beholden academic administrations for merely expressing their opinions on the Gaza genocide.