AT LAST!

20.5.2025:  On Tuesday 20 May 2025 at 14:22:06 BST, Nigel Glanvill <> wrote:

"further concrete actions "

Like what?

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <jayne.kirkham.mp@parliament.uk>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2025, 13:07
Subject: Gaza and the West Bank (Case Ref: JK6695)
To: <>

Dear Nigel Glanvill

I am writing to you again as you have previously written to me to express your deep concern about the situation in Gaza. 

You may already be aware that the Government has issued two statements on the situation today (19 May 2025).

The first statement was a joint statement from the leaders of the UK, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. The statement reads:

’We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable. Yesterday’s announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate. We call on the Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. This must include engaging with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles. We call on Hamas to release immediately the remaining hostages they have so cruelly held since 7 October 2023.

The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law. We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law. 
Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7. We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate.

We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.

We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank. Israel must halt settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians.  We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions. 

We strongly support the efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. It is a ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages and a long-term political solution that offer the best hope of ending the agony of the hostages and their families, alleviating the suffering of civilians in Gaza, ending Hamas’ control of Gaza and achieving a pathway to a two-state solution, consistent with the goals of the 18 June conference in New York co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France. These negotiations need to succeed, and we must all work towards the implementation of a two-state solution, which is the only way to bring long-lasting peace and security that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve, and ensure long-term stability in the region.

We will continue to work with the Palestinian Authority, regional partners, Israel and the United States to finalise consensus on arrangements for Gaza’s future, building on the Arab plan. We affirm the important role of the High-level Two-State Solution Conference at the UN in June in building international consensus around this aim. And we are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end.’

The second statement was a joint statement on aid to Gaza and the proposal for a new aid delivery model. The statement reads:

’Whilst we acknowledge indications of a limited restart of aid, Israel blocked humanitarian aid entering Gaza for over two months. Food, medicines and essential supplies are exhausted. The population faces starvation. Gaza’s people must receive the aid they desperately need.

Prior to the aid block, the UN and humanitarian NGOs delivered aid into Gaza, working with great courage, at the risk of their lives and in the face of major access challenges imposed by Israel. These organisations subscribe to upholding humanitarian principles, operating independently, with neutrality, impartiality and humanity. They have the logistical capacity, expertise and operational coverage to deliver assistance across Gaza to those who need it most.  

Israel’s security cabinet has reportedly approved a new model for delivering aid into Gaza, which the UN and our humanitarian partners cannot support. They are clear that they will not participate in any arrangement that does not fully respect the humanitarian principles. Humanitarian principles matter for every conflict around the world and should be applied consistently in every warzone. The UN has raised concerns that the proposed model cannot deliver aid effectively, at the speed and scale required. It places beneficiaries and aid workers at risk, undermines the role and independence of the UN and our trusted partners, and links humanitarian aid to political and military objectives.  Humanitarian aid should never be politicised, and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.  

As humanitarian donors, we have two straightforward messages for the Government of Israel: allow a full resumption of aid into Gaza immediately and enable the UN and humanitarian organisations to work independently and impartially to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity. We remain committed to meeting the acute needs we see in Gaza. We also reiterate our firm message that Hamas must immediately release all remaining hostages and allow humanitarian assistance to be distributed without interference. It is our firm conviction that an immediate return to a ceasefire and working towards the implementation of a two-state solution are the only way to bring peace and security to Israelis and Palestinians and ensure long-term stability for the whole region.’

This statement was signed by the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management and the EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean.

I hope this information is of interest to you.

Yours Jayne

Timothy Veater 

From:

To:Nigel Glanvill

Tue, 20 May at 23:03

Thanks for this Nigel  Do you have any objections to me putting it up on my Blog with e-mail details deleted? As to the contents, all very well, but the trouble is neither America or Israel take a blind bit of notice. Nor is it easy to reconcile the words with actions over the last 18 months or more. It is good polemic and that's about it. What these countries continue to display is a tacit acceptance of israel as a bonafide state rather than the fascist, apartheid, vicious one it has proved to be over the last 80 years but on an increasingly evil scale as recent events have proved. The central, nefarious role of the United States is plain to see in providing three times the destructive power of its two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. To this we have to add duplicity, in that it does not even honour its word. It promised the HAMAS negotiator it would pressure Israel to ceasefire and allow aid in, in return for the release of the one remaining American hostage. Of course it reneged on it and no such action emerged. It is tantamount to shooting surrendering people under a white flag as Israel did. Both America and Israel are unscrupulous actors that set the parameters of a one sided conflict that no other country is prepared to actively challenge. And so the misery, suffering and devastation continue. The israeli blockade needs to be challenged. Israel needs to be internationally interdicted and embargoed until like the mad dog it is, either comes to heal or is put down. An autonimous Palestinian state on 1967 boundaries needs to be established, recognised and militarilly defended. Only then will there be a glimmer of hope  for the region and world.  Regards, Tim.

12.5.2025:  Mind control of the masses is not only what is said and revealed whether true or not but what the public is prevented from hearing. Propaganda doesn't have to be obvious. Indeed it is more effective if it isn't. There has been little or no coverage of the terrifying experience of living in Gaza and the rest of Palestine on the BBC or in papers (a couple recent programmes excepted, one of which was 'pulled') or of Israel's brutal killing operation, not only of Hamas but predominently of innocent civilians. Presumably this was intentional, to lessen the public outcry and outrage directed towards the complicit British Government. It is all very well for the King (and Pope!) to argue in favour of peace and an end to conflict, but it rather rings hollow when, for the last 18 months, his government has aided and abetted the slaughter not to mention the Christian churches remaining utterly silent. What a shameful failure on all fronts? From me in 2014: https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-barrage-of-bbc-anti-russian-pro.html

How can the ghastly world allow it? Billions of people are asking the same question. We now know that the term 'Representative Democracy' is just a sick joke. In fact we are ruled by an autocratic zionist tyranny composed of psychopaths that do nothing to feed or protect hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people. It is a shameful moment in human history. Why no air drop? Why no ships direct to Gaza coast? Why no military intervention to prevent murdering IDF gangs? Why not a 'No fly zone' to prevent bombs falling on innocent civilians? The apathy and mealy mouthed excuses coming from government is as shocking as it is pathetic. The VE Day celebrations should have been boycotted in disgust.

14.5.2025:  So SIXTY more innocents wiped out according to the BBC - besides many more maimed and injured. orphaned and dispossessed - by jewish Israeli bombs dropped on a refugee camp. The disproportionate and inexcusable massacres continue, owing to a brutal and despotic regime and that the rest of the world sits on its hands instead of informing it to desist - 'or else'. Or else what? Cutting off all diplomatic and trade links, on which the entity is wholly dependent, for a start. The absence of any effective action demonstrates how hippocritical are the claims of concern for human life and humanitarian principles. As has been said so many times, this failure to act - to decisively intervene to protect the vulnerable and defenceless - proves how corrupt and callous our governments truly are. It is a turning point not only in international relationships but of belief in the ability of the world to prevent heinous state crimes. As long as Israel is allowed to continue acting in this barbrous way, none of us are untainted by, or protected from, tyranny.

15.5.2025: To Jack Dart: You should not apologise other than for remaining silent. The whole country, yes the whole world, should PROTEST at our governments' failure to DEMAND Israel stop this brutal massacre, all engineered by it to further its territorial and ethnic-cleansing plans. It is utterly shameful that government and media have colluded to white-wash the awful crimes Israel has committed against civilians. I have called it out from the beginning. Thank god public opinion is at last making itself heard in Parliament, but still government sits on its hands claiming it can do nothing while people are starved and slaughtered. SHAME on them. Blair's mate Charlie Falconer's son Hamish, has been placed in the hot seat defending the indefensible Starmer. His father did the same for Blair over Iraq. "History doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes"! https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/2025/05/

15.5.2025: In response to this https://www.facebook.com/reel/1176819210848466 More proof of their utter wickedness, defended by the likes of that awful woman in the Times, Melanie Phillips. Apparently our aversion and condemnation is all misplaced and undeserved! https://www.thetimes.com/.../was-london-audience-on-the...

16.5.2025:  A female MPs question about the role of the RAF and its base in Cyprus in support of Israel's (genocidal!) actions in Gaza, was blocked by the Speaker on the grounds of operational security. The visual item popped up on the FaceBook feed, but before I had finished commenting it had disappeared and my opinion with it! All attempts to trace the speech on FB and YT to date have failed. As I said at the time, if this were a Western, someone would call out Starmer and his Government for 'speaking with forked tongue'. For over eighteen months we have been fed weaselly words of concern, whilst the government has actively supported the abominable actions of Israel. Now the usual administrative 'cover-up' and 'white-wash', the only reason being it would prove the government's duplicity and falsehood. The people of Gaza urgently need food, medical aid and PROTECTION. Britain has the means to supply all of them if it had the will but the will has been lacking and instead it has contributed to the slaughter. The hypocrisy of celebrating victory over fascism eighty years ago, whilst at the same time supporting and facilitating it today, is clear for all to see. The pejorative label 'Perfidious Albion' is it would seem as apt today as when it was first coined over three hundred years ago!

17.5.2025:  David Guy I pity you. The reality of Israeli barbarism is daily on our screens. Israeli spokesmen and women lie daily in our ears. On the atrocity scale, Israel is off it. It is a recent state founded on theft of land and the massacre and expulsion of those that lived on it up to that time. Its history is shameful not glorious and the pathology of 1948 has never faded and is continued in both the West Bank and Gaza to this day. It values only JEWISH life and despises all other. Its cruelty to civilian men, women and children is unsurpassed in modern times and is paraded and exulted over by the most immoral army the IDF, whilst in the public arena, spokespersons blatantly perjure themselves. Locking millions of defenseless people in a geographical area, shooting anyone attempting to go outside it, and then intentionally bombing and starving them in an effort to drive them elsewhere - anywhere - demonstrates a depravity of mind equalled only by the Nazis in the Second World War, the paradox of which needs no explanation. Israel and its jewish inhabitants have become a byword for inhumanity and cruelty. Like Hitler and Germany, they will never recover their reputation and must of necessity be consigned to the contemptable bin of history, when eventually it is consumed by its own hatred and paranoia. May that time come soon. https://veaterecosan.blogspot.com/

They just lie through their teeth!  

Watch This Journalist Dismantle Israeli 

Propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOB-otPKYPE

A glimmer of hope from the Government that it will at last take practical steps to oppose the Israeli regime in its genocidal policies. Maybe it's 'too little, too late', but it is also a sea-change in the attitude of our Parliament. Perhaps it was best summed up by the emotional and powerful contribution by the MP for Wrekin, Mark Pritchard (Read below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9dws0yuaPY

"For many years - I have been in this house for twenty years - I have supported Israel - pretty much at all costs quite frankly, but today I want to say I got it wrong. 

I condemn Israel for what it is doing to the Palestinian people in Gaza and indeed in the West Bank. And I would like to withdraw my support for the actions of Israel right now, for what they are doing right now in Gaza.  

Of course the hostages should be released, of course Israel has the right to exist, of course the Israeli people - the Jewish people - should have the right to live in peace - but so do the Palestinian people. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, that the life of a Palestinian child is as precious as the life of a Jewish child, and at this particular moment in time - we've had lots of statements over the last eighteen months - this is not only not this Parliament's greatest hour, I am really concerned this is a moment in history, where people will look back and say we got it wrong as a country. 

Can the Minister stand up to our friends and allies in the United States and make a strong stand for humanity, for us to be on the right side of history, to have the moral courage to lead, not just to follow the United States and to make a difference. 

That's why we were all elected here. Let's stand up for life, let's stand up for all children, not just Jewish children." 

MARK PRITCHARD, MP.

Oral statement to Parliament

Minister for the Middle East statement on Gaza

Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer made a statement to the House of Commons on Gaza.

Delivered 6th May, 2025

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/minister-for-the-middle-east-statement-on-gaza#:~:text=We%20strongly%20oppose%20the%20expansion,want%20this%20war%20to%20end.

With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on the Middle East.

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israel Security Cabinet has approved a plan to expand and intensify Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

He said that the Israeli Defence Force operations will extend across more of Gaza. Tactics will no longer involve short raids – with the implication that Israel will hold the ground it takes. Reports suggest that the plans could include full military occupation of the entire Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Gaza’s population will be moved ‘for its protection’. Tens of thousands of reservists are being called up. In parallel, the Security Cabinet reportedly approved a plan to deliver aid through private companies.

This comes at a time, Madam Deputy Speaker, when the scale of civilian suffering and humanitarian need is already intolerable. More than 52,000 people have now been killed in Gaza. Israel has fully blocked the entry of humanitarian aid for over two months. The World Food Programme says their food stockpile has been exhausted.

These announcements from the Israeli government have rightly sparked grave concern that this conflict, which has already wrought so much bloodshed and suffering, may enter a dangerous new phase.

I know that concern will be felt right across the House.

Let me make the Government’s position crystal clear.

We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s operations.

Any attempt to annex land in Gaza would be unacceptable.

Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.

We want this war to end.

We want an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, the urgent provision of humanitarian aid and a pathway to a political solution.

Madam Deputy Speaker,

All of us recognise that Hamas continues to hold hostages in the cruellest fashion.

Their actions show the complete disregard for the interests of the Palestinian people.

Hamas must not divert aid for their own financial gain or use civilian infrastructure for military purposes.

We repeat our demand for the immediate release of the hostages.

But an expansion of this conflict is not the route to achieve their safe return.

That is why it is strongly opposed by so many hostage families themselves.

It is negotiations which offer the best hope of ending the agony of those waiting for loved ones held captive, alleviating the suffering of civilians, and ending Hamas’ control of Gaza.

It is evident that Hamas cannot be defeated through military means alone.

And an expansion of military operations will result in the deaths of more innocent civilians, and put the hostages at yet greater risk.

The fighting must stop.

The Government has said since day one in office that the only way to ensure a path towards long-term peace and stability is an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, better protection of civilians, and significantly more aid entering Gaza.

Diplomacy is how we ensure security for Israelis and Palestinians - not more bloodshed.

All the people of this region deserve to live in peace, prosperity and security.

We urge all parties to return urgently to talks, implement the ceasefire agreement in full and work towards a permanent peace.

We continue to use our full diplomatic weight to bring about a ceasefire and end the suffering.

After more than two months of aid into Gaza being blocked, Palestinians continue to face immense suffering.

Essential supplies of food and medicine are either no longer available or quickly running out.

As the UN has said, it is hard to see how, if implemented, the new Israeli plan to deliver aid through private companies would be consistent with humanitarian principles and meet the scale of the need. We need urgent clarity from the Israeli government on their intentions.

We must remember what is at stake. These humanitarian principles matter for every conflict around the world. They should be applied consistently in every warzone.

As we have said repeatedly, humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Israel is bound under international law to allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid.

I repeat my call for Israel to engage with partners to allow for a rapid and unhindered resurgence in the flow of aid into Gaza.

We reiterate our outrage at recent strikes by Israeli forces on humanitarian workers, on infrastructure, and healthcare facilities. Israel must do far more to protect the civilian population and humanitarian workers, and hold to account those who are responsible.

Over a year since the appalling attack on the World Central Kitchen in which three British nationals were tragically killed, we continue to press for a conclusion to the Israeli investigation and a decision as to whether criminal proceedings will be brought.

The UN and humanitarian partners must be able to carry out their work in safety, in accordance with their principles. 

Madam Deputy Speaker,

Last week we welcomed Prime Minister Mustafa of the Palestinian Authority to the United Kingdom. We signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding and confirmed a £101m package of support for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

We will continue to support the Palestinian Authority as the only legitimate governing entity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including in Gaza.

During the visit we reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a two-state solution.

It is only a political horizon towards a two-state solution that can ensure the long-term peace and security of both Palestinians and Israelis.

I commend this statement to the House.

Updates to this page

Published 6 May 2025

WHAT ISRAELI OCCUPATION MEANS TO A PALESTINIAN

Dolores Peers

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Fatma Hussein Areib was 11 when she packed up and left her home in Burayr, a village near Gaza that was taken by elite Palmach soldiers during Israel's War of Independence. "My parents were very scared of the war and said we had to leave," she recalls of the moments that forever changed her life. "I held my nephew's hand and we walked a great distance to look for a safe place."

During this displacement march – Burayr is around 18 kilometers (11 miles) northeast of the Gaza Strip – the family made it to the town of Majdal, where Israel's resurrected city of Ashkelon is today.

Majdal later fell, and the Areibs spent a few days there. They then arrived in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, eventually settling in the Shabura refugee camp in Rafah at Gaza's southern tip. In later years, Fatma married and moved in with her husband in the Jabalya refugee camp in the north, where the couple started a family.

In October 2023, as part of the war that followed Hamas' attack, northern Gazans were ordered to leave their homes. At 86, Fatma Hussein Areib found herself packing up again, but this time she was in a wheelchair. She and her family relocated to Rafah, where they spent around seven months.

Last May, when the Israeli army invaded the area, the family headed back to Deir al-Balah. "There are similarities between the 1948 Nakba and what has been going on in this war now," she told Palestinian news agency Wafa after relocating to Rafah. "The thirst, the hunger and the search for a safe place were the main things back then. But this war now is much harder; entire families have been wiped out."

In a new Hebrew-language book whose title can be translated as "A Lexicon of Brutality," Adam Raz and Assaf Bondy seek to contribute to the Israeli debate on the war in Gaza and its horrific results.

"The lexicon has come out in book form, but it's far from complete – not just because more entries need to be included, but because these entries aren't 'history' but a continuous present," Raz and Bondy write in the introduction. "The entries keep evolving under the shower of shells and missiles, as the pile of bodies in Gaza keeps growing. The rationale behind the policy that produces this is still in power."

We'd like to avoid falling into the symmetry trap that seeks to defuse any deep criticism. The book cries out the language prevalent during the war, but its roots reach well before that, of course.

Assaf Bondy

As the authors put it, as words lose their moral gravitas, it's more important than ever to observe how the Israeli discourse shapes the collective consciousness about the Palestinians. This shaping creates a violent reality that ties in directly to the 1948 Nakba, when more than 700,000 Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes during the War of Independence.

According to Raz and Bondy, the use of militaristic, aggressive and violent language not only minimizes the Palestinians' humanity, it shapes perceptions of reality and public behavior. Analysts, politicians and other people in key positions manipulate words and phrases and in the end control Israelis' thoughts and behavior.

Part of the war goals

It could be that if Fatma Hussein Areib's story were reported in the wider Israeli media today, it would be filtered through neutral phrases, hiding the tragedy. We would probably see anchorman Dany Cushmaro interviewing experts like retired general Giora Eiland, who would explain that "there are no uninvolved people in Gaza" and that the only solution is the "Generals' Plan," which champions the blocking of food supplies.

Military analyst Nir Dvori would read out "the IDF spokesperson's comment," telling how Israeli forces had taken the Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, so people like Fatma had to evacuate to "humanitarian zones."

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich would probably stress the need for "depopulation" and "voluntary emigration," noting that this was part of the "war goals." To him, as to most studio guests, Fatma and everyone in Gaza are an "existential threat," so "Gaza should be leveled" by "strategic bombing."

In "A Lexicon of Brutality," Raz and Bondy have compiled around 150 phrases including "no uninvolved people in Gaza," "starvation," "transfer" and "Nakba 2023" that have peppered the Israeli discourse during the war. We see these phrases in the work of journalists, researchers and human rights activists.

"We wanted to take these commonly used phrases, like the song 'Harbu Darbu,' and ask that readers stop for a moment and see what this phrase means, and how by normalizing it we're becoming a brutal society," says Bondy, a sociologist.

"We don't ignore the horrors that Hamas perpetrated against us Israelis. We also don't ignore the horrors perpetrated by Hamas against Palestinians.

6:29 A.M. is not the starting point of the tragedy we are living through. People who insist that it is seek to conceal the context, the history of repression.

From 'A Lexicon of Brutality'

"But we'd like to avoid falling into the symmetry trap that seeks to defuse any deep and genuine criticism. The book cries out the language prevalent during the war, but its roots reach well before that, of course."

The book opens with the phrase "6:29 A.M." – when Hamas' onslaught across the border region began. According to Bondy and Raz, "6:29 A.M. is not the starting point of the tragedy we are living through. People who insist that it is seek to conceal the context, the history of repression – 6:28 A.M. Every action, anywhere and anytime, comes in a context."

According to Raz, a historian and researcher at the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, "Understanding the context allows us to understand why we reached a reality where thousands of Palestinians were willing to perpetrate horrors against Israeli civilians and foreign nationals. This context also works in the other direction: why so many Israelis were willing to legitimize the bombing and starving of the civilian Palestinian population, as well as a policy of untrammeled firepower.

"The rationale behind the military's operations in Gaza and the West Bank wasn't born on October 7. You can go back to the starting point: 1948. Israel deported hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed villages, allowed the public to loot the property of their former neighbors, to dry out orchards and fields, and to use great physical violence."

Phrases like "Second Nakba" and "Nakba 2023" in "A Lexicon of Brutality" convey the Palestinians' perception of the war, amid images of mass graves in Gaza, mass killing and bodies strewn in the streets. These terms are also used by Israelis.

In November 2023, Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter was asked by Channel 12 whether images of people fleeing northern Gaza could be compared to images of the Nakba. He replied: "We are now in fact unleashing the Gaza Nakba." When asked again whether this was a "Gaza Nakba," he said: "The 2023 Gaza Nakba. This is how this will end."

In 2021, Raz wrote about the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre in Haaretz, where, using testimonies and documents, he put together a chilling picture of killings by Israeli soldiers during the War of Independence. The unveiling of minutes from cabinet meetings in 1948 reinforced the realization that the government was aware of what was happening and that the Deir Yassin massacre wasn't unusual.

Today, phrases in "A Lexicon" such as "depopulation," "rubble," "voluntary emigration" and "Amalekites" – mentioned in the general Israeli debate and by politicians alike – give Palestinians a feeling of déjà vu. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even said on October 29, 2023: "This is our second War of Independence …. This is our life's task; it's also my life's task."

In Deir Yassin and Kafr Qasem the killing was done at close range. Today, a pilot drops a one-ton bomb on a humanitarian zone, sometimes without knowing what he's bombing.

Adam Raz

As Raz puts it, "Minutes from cabinet meetings in 1948, released after decades and still not in full, show that alongside decision-makers' awareness of events on the ground such as expulsions and acts of massacre and looting, some also expressed shock. It's obvious that many cabinet members realized that their deeds would shape the society taking shape.

"The current government stands out . ... That is, there is an explicit policy of transfer, murder and starvation, and this is leading more and more people in Israel and around the world to blame Israel for perpetrating the crime of crimes: genocide."

Raz adds: "In Deir Yassin and Kafr Qasem the killing was done at close range. Today, a pilot, maybe a [left-wing] Meretz voter, drops a one-ton bomb on a humanitarian zone, sometimes without knowing what he's bombing. The next day he opens Haaretz, reads a story and gets angry. He's not willing for his country to act with such brutality. There's no doubt that the conditions of the fighting have changed."

According to Bondy, notable about the current war "is the brutal use of words. There's no longer any shame or desire to conceal. That's what's so unique about this war. From the first moment, the leaders have been saying exactly what they're going to do – and they do exactly that.

"This is so shocking that we decided that, rather than focus on the actual deeds or a legal analysis of the deeds, we would focus on the language that lays bare so much of the deeds but mainly the reality we live in."

Some of the phrases in the book refer directly to Israeli society such as "Israeli flag." "Already during the judicial overhaul in the months before the war, the center and left appropriated the national flag after it had been a staple of right-wing displays such as the Flag March in East Jerusalem," Raz and Bondy write.

"The waving of flags at protests reflected a war over 'the home,' over the country, over the essence of the regime." But the two authors add that "the flag also expresses the exclusion of Israeli Palestinians from the protest against the war, as well as for a hostage deal.

"Waving the flag does reflect an honest desire to topple the current bloody government, but it also sometimes indicates an acceptance of the reality of recent decades: occupation, Jewish supremacy, settler violence and the theft of Palestinian property. This was evident when many people were moved when they saw our brave soldiers raising the flag in Gaza in November 2023 (and many times since)."

Nothing new

The deeper you delve into the phrases in "A Lexicon of Brutality," the more you realize that the contemporary linguistic strategy reflects a perception of Palestinians that began in 1948 and is still going strong.

For example, "humanitarian zones" replaces the "security zones" seen in previously censored documents in the state archives. That phrase substitutes for the transfer of Palestinians after their cities were taken in 1948.

According to Jaffa resident Ismail Abu Shehade in one document, "They surrounded us with barbed wire and three gates; we could only leave the zone to work in one of the citrus orchards around town, which required confirmation from our employer."

Today, however, no free movement is allowed in Gaza, and a Palestinian moving around is taking a risk, as told by Aisha, a former Gaza City resident who relocated to the Muwasi area in southwest Gaza, which was declared a humanitarian zone.

"We're afraid to go back to the city because we're scared we'll run into the army and be shot at," she told Haaretz. "The sense is being stranded and under threat of death because humanitarian zones sometimes get bombed, too."

In 1948, the phrase "voluntary emigration" was employed to cushion a policy of displacement in moderate, emotionless words. According to minutes from cabinet meetings, Minority Affairs Minister Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit addressed the displacement of Palestinians in the central city of Lod.

"According to military estimates, 3,000 residents remain. Forty-eight hours after the conquest, no residents remain in either Lod or Ramle. I wasn't aware of, nor could I get a response, on whether those residents have been displaced by force or voluntarily.

"If they left voluntarily, that's their own business. If they have been displaced by force, this must be sorted out.

"The [Arab] population around the country, mainly in the cities, has greatly decreased. In the villages where some residents remain, a constant war [of words] is going on with the army on whether to leave them alone or displace them. My demand is to set a clear line of action that will prevent the lawlessness that has taken root on our side."

The term "looting," also in "A Lexicon," isn't new either. This phenomenon happened in 1948, as described by Raz in his Hebrew-language book "Looting of Arab Property in the War of Independence." "In the lexicon we show that commanders allowed soldiers to loot. This is a combination of greed and revenge against Palestinians," he says.

"What's so surprising here is that in 1948 this was nothing to boast about. No opinion pieces came out in favor. But today, there are videos of soldiers looting that are almost pornographic. That is, they see it as something positive. They expect to earn cultural capital from their looting."

Some of the phrases are context-dependent. For example, the phrase "The IDF still has a lot of work to do" recalls Smotrich's remarks in 2021 when he addressed Arab lawmakers from the Knesset podium. "You are here by mistake," he said. "Ben-Gurion didn't get the job done and didn't throw you out in 1948."

Raz: 'Today, there are videos of soldiers looting that are almost pornographic. That is, they see it as something positive.'

Raz sees this as one link in a long chain. "Nothing is new here. When they talk about 'starvation,' Israel didn't begin depriving Palestinians of food just now. It has been counting calories for them for years, on both sides of the Green Line."

He backs his claims with documents from the early '50s, when Bedouin in the Negev were concentrated in a certain area after the War of Independence.

"This was done to take over fertile land and, in part, to control Palestinians' nutrition," Raz says. "You can't understand the current policy of starvation if you believe that it came out of nowhere. Israel has been blockading Gaza for many years."

He says that practices currently in use in Gaza such as "house burnings" and "kill zones" (phrases in "A Lexicon" ) are nothing new. The only difference is "in intensity, not the rationale. Israel has been controlling the movement of Palestinians and taking over their land since 1948."

Despite the brutal language and harsh reality, Bondy is still looking forward to the future. "We have hope that Israeli society has not yet leaped into the abyss, hope that at least some people who read this book will attend protests and hold up another sign next to the sign calling for the release of the hostages," he says.

Bondy hopes that "more people will call – around the dinner table, in living rooms and at protests – for an end to this terrible war; that some of our readers will do something for more coexistence in the region."

'Depopulation' and 'Kill zone': Brutality lexicon exposes how Israelis talk about the war https://www.haaretz.com/.../00

Resigned Israeli helicopter pilot labels his government "Jewish Suprematist Nazis" and explains why:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/667147595931965/?s=single_unit&__cft__[0]=AZWY2wa9bzINJhMy4CnQoyvXT8F-Y1wfmqGWb_wG8Nn4MqOEsiZOCaXnV2Ho_1L3BFOwWFnAG4kKtlIuhTTHvpSJggZUWnfq_w31oJDVG46Lu3tGEFEtgqSOCu2Xo4Og8-39dcWtf-vMpb7XTAXf2doInXoJY6GZdWsUHu1ifR9D5w9Mbx4pLODJsZatuChSqza_Ic1aU89RCrDP9ABUQF56yMd5gbTPkEAujreMzqQYQE2K7ZiQO1Un4vS06Yxovx8vici0x8pBea3rLChoV8fr&__tn__=H-y-R

Caity Johnstone

ondortepSs3ltlciaiulh4g2a7hiai228l70i27c1f70l25mf9tfcl9134ch  · 

It can make you feel like you’re going mad. How phony and superficial it all is. How we’re a year and a half into history’s first live-streamed genocide and our whole society is acting like everything’s peachy.

We’re murdering kids. We’re starving them. We’re dropping high tech military explosives on them. Blowing their limbs off. Ripping their guts out. Shooting them in the head. This isn’t just being done by “Israel”. It’s being done by the entire western empire which backs these atrocities.

And yet if you turn on a TV you’ll see famous people laughing and joking about nonsense, expressing political opinions of no more depth and significance than whether or not there should have been a female Ghostbusters movie. Go read the news and it’s dominated by empty fluff about celebrities and politicians and the latest brain fart to come out of Donald Trump’s mouth. Go to a party and everyone’s nattering about vapid gibberish, yelling “No politics!” if you try to say anything about the holocaust-shaped elephant in the room.

Newer readers might not know this, but I used to have a lot more fun on my platform. Lots of humor. Psychedelic poetry. Spirituality and philosophy. But ever since the Gaza holocaust began, that kind of writing has often felt like it would be irreverent and frivolous. Almost sacrilegious. I would feel like I’m joining in with the madness of mainstream culture by turning my back on all those emaciated bodies and mutilated children.

So for the last year and a half I’ve mostly just been doing what I feel everyone on earth ought to be doing: pointing to the genocide and saying it needs to stop.

I used to be a lot more poetical and creative in my ways of pointing to the criminality of the empire, because its depravity was often difficult for people to really grasp, so I was always seeking out new ways to help people see its monstrosity with fresh eyes. Now that they’re just butchering children right in front of us, that’s not really what’s called for anymore. What’s called for is to keep drawing everyone’s attention to the terrible thing that’s staring us all right in the face.

This task shouldn’t be falling to university activists and obscure antiwar bloggers. Every news outlet in the world should be making this their entire focus.

If we had a sane and ethical news media, this is what they would be doing. All the leading stories every single day would be about the latest evil thing Israel and its western backers have done in Gaza, clearly stating in every headline our own government’s role in making this possible. Every press conference would be completely dominated with questions asking every western official why we are participating in an active genocide and demanding answers about when it is going to stop.

Instead we get “Palestinians perish in explosion” passive-language headlines, usually coupled with “…says Hamas-run health ministry” in order to let readers disbelieve the entire story. And that’s on those rare occasions that Israel’s atrocities get reported on at all; normally Gaza is seen as a third or fourth-tier issue of far less importance than some infinitely less egregious grievance in our own country. Palestinian lives are given vastly less weight than western lives, with our own feelings and comforts emphasized far more heavily than the issue of the Palestinian people living or dying.

And it can just make you feel like you’re going crazy. It’s like if we were all going around physically drenched in human blood, with blood flooding our living rooms and severed limbs strewn about our bedrooms and kitchens — but nobody was talking about it. You try to say “What’s up with all this blood and gore?” and they shush you and tell you it’s impolite to talk about politics. A dark red deluge pours out of your minivan door when you open it to pick up your kid from soccer practice, and everyone looks away.

This is happening. We know it’s happening. It’s happening right in front of us and we’re acting like it’s not. It’s so maddening and frustrating, and it can make you feel so powerless.

But we keep pointing at Gaza, because what the hell else are we going to do? The alternative is to join the lunatics acting like it isn’t happening.

At the very least, it’s a way of preserving our sanity. Preserving our humanity. Even if they do succeed in purging Gaza of all Palestinian life, at the very least we will have prevented the bastards from warping and twisting us into psychopathic freaks like them. Even if we can’t stop them from destroying Gaza, we can at least stop them from destroying our hearts.