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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

Netanyahu aims to fully control Gaza despite warnings of mass death

Netanyahu aims to fully control Gaza despite warnings of mass death

The Guardian reports: Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza in defiance of warnings that such a move would lead to countless more Palestinian deaths, further mass displacement and endanger Israeli hostages still held in the territory. Before a security cabinet meeting to discuss Gaza’s future, the Israeli prime minister insisted that Israel does not want to ultimately govern the territory and would hand over that responsibility to friendly Arab nations….

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Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha talks to Jon Stewart about Gaza

Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha talks to Jon Stewart about Gaza

  As the world confronts images of the suffering in Gaza, Jon is joined by Pulitzer Prize winning Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha to hear the human story behind the photos. He shares his experience as a refugee, the voices of those still living through the devastation, and what he hopes for the future of his homeland.

The ADL used to fight for justice for all. Now its focus is on crushing pro-Palestinian activism

The ADL used to fight for justice for all. Now its focus is on crushing pro-Palestinian activism

  Noah Shachtman writes: On June 4, an executive at the Anti-Defamation League, which was founded with a mission to defend the Jewish people and “to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” walked into a room on the fourth floor of the Eisenhower building across the street from the White House. They were there to attend a meeting between Jewish groups and members of the Trump administration. Just a few years before, in the waning days of Trump’s first…

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Netanyahu willing to sacrifice hostages in pursuit of complete conquest of Gaza

Netanyahu willing to sacrifice hostages in pursuit of complete conquest of Gaza

The Times of Israel reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior security officials on Tuesday to hammer out Gaza war plans, and reportedly came out in favor of the military taking control of the entire enclave, even if it meant that the remaining hostages could be harmed or executed by Hamas. The meeting came amid multiple reports of rising tensions between the prime minister and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir over the prospect of Israeli forces…

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Violence against women is global and enduring

Violence against women is global and enduring

Rebecca Solnit writes: On 2 July, the jury delivered a guilty verdict on some of the charges against the music mogul Sean Combs, accused of horrific sexual abuse of women with the help of his extensive staff and deep pockets. He’s also accused in many civil suits of sexual abuse of adults and minors. It seems like everyone promptly forgot about Combs when the facts about the financier Jeffrey Epstein’s decades of horrific sexual abuse of at least a 100…

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Trump regime turns domestic disaster relief into a tool for shielding Israel from boycotts

Trump regime turns domestic disaster relief into a tool for shielding Israel from boycotts

Reuters reports: U.S. states and cities that boycott Israeli companies will be denied federal aid for natural disaster preparedness, the Trump administration has announced, tying routine federal funding to its political stance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency stated in grant notices posted on Friday that states must follow its “terms and conditions.” Those conditions require they certify they will not sever “commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies” to qualify for funding. The requirement applies to at least $1.9 billion that…

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Israeli authorities are trying to silence humanitarian aid workers in Gaza

Israeli authorities are trying to silence humanitarian aid workers in Gaza

Jonathan Whittall writes: Gaza has been held under water for 22 months, allowed to gasp for air only when Israeli authorities have succumbed to political pressure from those with more leverage than international law itself. After months of relentless bombardment, forced displacement and deprivation, the impact of Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s people has never been more devastating. I have been part of coordinating humanitarian efforts in Gaza since October 2023. Whatever lifesaving aid has entered since then has been…

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DOJ contradicts White House’s goal to arrest 3,000 immigrants per day

DOJ contradicts White House’s goal to arrest 3,000 immigrants per day

Politico reports: Stephen Miller was unequivocal: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would seek to arrest 3,000 or more immigrants per day, a staggering target that he said was necessary to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day,” the senior White…

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The United States is complicit in genocide. Let’s stop pretending otherwise

The United States is complicit in genocide. Let’s stop pretending otherwise

Mehdi Hasan writes: Can we finally stop pretending that what we have been witnessing in Gaza over the past 22 months is a “war,” a “conflict,” or even a “humanitarian crisis”? Many of the world’s leading human rights and humanitarian groups – including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders – agreed months ago that what is being livestreamed to our phones on a daily basis is indeed a genocide. This week, Israel’s own leading human rights group…

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‘We’re trying to do the best we can before we die’

‘We’re trying to do the best we can before we die’

Claire Porter Robbins writes: George Anton is hungry, but he’s become used to the sensation—the urgent, aching feeling in his stomach, the heaviness of his limbs. He hardly has time to acknowledge the discomfort, given all the work he has to do. He is the operations manager for an aid-distribution program operating through the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City, the sole remaining Catholic church in Gaza. Anton lives at the church in a single room that he shares…

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How the Israel inquiry led by ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, was derailed

How the Israel inquiry led by ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, was derailed

  A major Middle East Eye investigation has uncovered extraordinary details of an intensifying intimidation campaign targeting the British chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court over his investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes. The campaign has involved threats and warnings directed at Karim Khan by prominent figures, close colleagues and family friends briefing against him, fears for the prosecutor’s safety prompted by a Mossad team in The Hague, and media leaks about sexual assault allegations.

Netanyahu is choosing to let starvation consume the children in Gaza

Netanyahu is choosing to let starvation consume the children in Gaza

Alex de Waal writes: Mass starvation is unfolding in and around the Sudanese city of El Fasher, where the Sudanese Army and its allies are defending a siege and onslaught by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Both sides are fighting a war of starvation, stealing food from civilians and blocking aid. If the warring parties were to agree to a cease-fire this instant, given the perilous roads and the underfunded aid operation, it would be weeks or months before sufficient…

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As Witkoff and Huckabee staged a humanitarian photo op, dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israelis

As Witkoff and Huckabee staged a humanitarian photo op, dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israelis

Abdel Qader Sabbah and Sharif Abdel Kouddous report: President Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee toured an “aid distribution” site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday. During the U.S. envoy’s highly stage-managed visit, at least 82 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave, including 49 people seeking food aid with more than 270 injured. The visit came as the leading international authority on food crises—the…

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The starvation of Gaza is shameful. Crippling sanctions on Israel are needed, say Israeli public figures

The starvation of Gaza is shameful. Crippling sanctions on Israel are needed, say Israeli public figures

The Guardian reports: A group of high-profile Israeli public figures, including academics, artists and public intellectuals, has called for “crippling sanctions” to be imposed by the international community on Israel, amid mounting horror over its starvation of Gaza. The 31 signatories of a letter to the Guardian include an Academy award recipient, Yuval Abraham; a former Israeli attorney general, Michael Ben-Yair; Avraham Burg, a former speaker of Israel’s parliament and former head of the Jewish Agency; and a number of…

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France and Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state won’t end Israel’s onslaught

France and Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state won’t end Israel’s onslaught

Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write: Almost two years into a conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives, amid an Israeli military campaign and humanitarian blockade that have reached apocalyptic proportions, and faced with their own powerlessness as they bear witness to what growing numbers of experts call a genocide, Emmanuel Macron has announced France’s dramatic next step: it will recognize a Palestinian state in September. Keir Starmer quickly followed suit, stating that the UK would do likewise…

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Venezuelan men sent to CECOT on what they endured and reuniting with their families

Venezuelan men sent to CECOT on what they endured and reuniting with their families

By Perla Trevizo, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, Melissa Sanchez and Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica, Ronna Rísquez, Alianza Rebelde Investiga, and Adrián González, Cazadores de Fake News, photography and additional reporting by Adriana Loureiro Fernández for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune This story was originally published by ProPublica Now that he’s free, Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison. He said guards stomped on his…

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