Author: Brett Wilkins

The recent rescue of a newborn from the womb of his mother after she was killed by an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza refugee camp has renewed focus on the horrors endured by Palestinian children and their families during Israel’s nine-and-a-half-month onslaught.

Ola Al-Kurd was nine months pregnant and “wanted to hold her child and fill our home with his presence,” Adnan Al-Kurd, the slain woman’s father, told Reuters.

Continue reading “Gaza Newborn Saved From Womb of Mother Killed in Israeli Airstrike”

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump – the 2024 Republican nominee – for the White House in an interview published Wednesday in which he accused the Biden administration of preventing Israel from winning its war on Gaza.

“I believe that with Trump, Israel will receive the backing to act against Iran,” Ben-Gvir, who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, told Bloomberg. “With Trump, it will be clearer that enemies must be defeated.”

“A cabinet minister is supposed to maintain neutrality,” the 48-year-old minister conceded, “but that’s impossible to do after [U.S. President Joe] Biden.”

Continue reading “Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He’s More Likely to Back War on Iran”

Pressure is mounting on U.S. lawmakers to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled address to Congress later this week, as a newly formed coalition of civil society groups announced a protest against the far-right leader – whose policies and actions in Gaza are on trial for genocide at the World Court.

As Netanyahu “brings to Congress his message of extending and expanding the devastating war in Gaza, neglecting the safety of Israeli hostages, and ensuring impunity for the actions of his government, an alternative message must be heard,” the new coalition said in a statement Monday. “To amplify a message of safety, freedom, just peace, collective liberation, and human rights for ALL Palestinians and Israelis, nine diverse groups have come together to form the Peace and Justice Protest Bloc.”

Continue reading “Calls to Boycott Netanyahu Speech Grow as Israeli PM Heads to DC”

A U.K.-based humanitarian group on Tuesday delivered “heartbreaking” letters from two Palestinian girls – including one who lost her arm in an Israeli attack – imploring new Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “intervene and help bring about a permanent cease-fire” in Gaza.

“We write to you with hearts full of sorrow and spirits crushed by the daily suffering inflicted upon us by the brutal war,” wrote 15-year-old Mais Abdel Hadi, president of the youth-led Palestinian Children’s Council, in a letter presented to Starmer’s office in London by the charity Christian Aid. Palestinian Children’s Council is a partner of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

Continue reading “‘I Am Not a Terrorist’: Letters From Gaza Children Decry Daily Horrors of Israeli Assault”

Academic freedom defenders around the world are rallying around a renowned French political scientist and Arabist who was detained by police Tuesday after voicing “respect and appreciation” for the militant Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

François Burgat, the 75-year-old research director emeritus at the French National Center for Scientific Research, was taken into custody Tuesday morning in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence as part of an investigation into “apology for terrorism,” his lawyer Rafik Chekkat said on social media.

Continue reading “Uproar Over Detention of Prominent French Scholar for Gaza Solidarity Posts”

A longtime Israeli lawmaker and former defense minister took to the airwaves and social media on Wednesday to suggest his country should do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“It is not possible anymore to stop the Iranian nuclear program with conventional means,” Avigdor Liberman of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party said during a Channel 12 interview. “And we will have to use all the means that are available to us.”

Continue reading “Senior Israeli Lawmaker Suggests Nuclear Attack on Iran”