Leaked Docs Reveal British Intelligence's Secret Exploitation of Palestinian Refugees. Material leaves little doubt British govt has long sought to covertly surveil, infiltrate, manipulate Palestinians for malign ends while exploiting their suffering to serve London’s geopolitical objectives.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-05-19T20:54:46+00:00

Diana Șoșoacă mentioned in the video above, entered the race for mayor of Bucharest

The Robert Lansing Institute, a US think tank, published an analysis claiming that nationalist and conservative MP Diana Șoşoacă has connections with the Russian military secret services. The analysis cited her submission of a draft law that aimed to annex a portion of Ukraine's territory as evidence of her alleged links to Russia's GRU. https://www.romania-insider.com/diana-sosoaca-enters-race-mayor-bucharest-2024 02 May 2024

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/talk-to-al-jazeera/2023/12/30/nicole-jenes-and-rathbone-social-media-influencers-a-new-lens-on-gaza-war

Nicole Jenes and Rathbone: Social media influencers a new lens on Gaza war.

Exploring how Instagram and TikTok influencers shape narratives in Israel’s war on Gaza. Social media has revolutionised our understanding and perception of wars and conflicts.

Platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, with their real-time, unfiltered content, offer a new perspective that’s immediate and often raw.

These platforms enable users worldwide to witness conflicts like the war on Gaza as they unfold, offering a variety of viewpoints that traditional media may not cover.

This shift has led to a more multifaceted and grassroots-level narrative, one which we will explore as influencers Nicole Jenes and Rathbone talk to Al Jazeera

Budget-song-budget · 2024-05-18T16:58:25+00:00

https://archive.ph/2UJok

Budget-song-budget · 2024-04-07T02:11:40+00:00

Those who admonish Palestinian Resistance, armed or otherwise, have little understanding of the psychological ramifications of resistance, such as a sense of collective empowerment, honor and hope.

But resistance is not just a rifle or a rocket launcher. The latter are but one manifestation of resistance, and if not backed by strong popular support, they hardly have much impact.

Indeed, all forms of sustainable resistance have to be rooted in culture, which helps it generate new meanings over time.

In the case of the Palestinian struggle, the concept of resistance is multifaceted and strongly embedded in the collective psyche of generations of Palestinians, which allows it to surpass the ideological and political confines of factions and political groups.

Though the symbols of this resistance – for example, the keffiyeh, the flag, the map and the key – are part of this generation of meanings, they are mere signifiers of ideas, beliefs and values that are truly profound.

No matter how hard Israel has tried to discredit, ban or recounter these symbols, it has failed and will continue to fail.

In the early 2000s, for example, Israeli fashion designers created what were supposed to be Israeli kuffiyehs. From a distance, the Israeli scarves looked similar to the Palestinian traditional scarves, except that they were mostly blue. At a closer look, one would be able to decipher that the Israeli replica of the Palestinian national symbol is often a clever manipulation of the Star of David.

This could easily be classified under the banner of cultural appropriation. In actuality, it is far more complex.

Palestinians did not invent the keffiyeh, or hatta, one of the most common neck or even head scarves throughout the Middle East. But they did take ownership of it, giving it deeper meanings—dissent, revolution, unity.

The keffiyeh’s prominence was partly compelled by Israel’s own actions and restrictions.

After occupying the remainder of historic Palestine, namely East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel immediately banned the Palestinian flag. That ban was part of a much larger restrictive campaign aimed at preventing Palestinians from expressing their political aspirations, even if symbolic.

What the Israeli military administration could not prevent was the use of the keffiyeh, which was a staple in every Palestinian home. Subsequently, the keffiyeh quickly became the new symbol of Palestinian nationhood and resistance, at times even replacing the now-banned flag.

The history of the keffiyeh goes back many years before the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine by Zionist militias in 1947-48.

In fact, if one examines any revolt in Palestine’s modern history, from the 1936-39 Palestinian strike and rebellion to Palestinian resistance during the Nakba to the Fedayeen movement in the early 1950s, all the way to the present, the keffiyeh has featured prominently as arguably the most important Palestinian symbol.

Yet, the real rise of the keffiyeh as the symbol of global solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinians did not become a truly international phenomenon until the First Intifada in 1987. It was then that the world watched in awe an empowered generation only armed with rocks facing the well-equipped Israeli army.

TWO TYPES OF SYMBOLS

It is worth noting that when we talk about the ‘symbolism’ of Palestinian cultural symbols and counter-Israeli cultural symbols, we refer to two types of symbols: one laden with intangible, although quintessential representations—for example, the watermelon—and another with tangible and consequential representations—for example, the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a symbol of Palestinian spirituality, history, and nationalism, and it is also an actual physical structure located in an occupied Palestinian city, Al-Quds, East Jerusalem. For many years, Israel has perceived the Mosque with alarm, countering the Palestinian claim by alleging that, beneath Al-Aqsa, there lie the ruins of the Jewish Temple, whose resurrection is critical for Jewish spirituality and purification.

Therefore, Al-Aqsa cannot be considered a mere symbol, serving the role of a political representation. On the contrary, it has grown in terms of imports to carry a much more profound meaning in the Palestinian struggle. It would not be an exaggeration to argue that the survival of Al-Aqsa is now directly linked to the very survival of the Palestinian people as a nation.

According to renowned Swiss linguist Fernand de Saussure, every sign or symbol is composed of a ‘signifier’, meaning the form that the sign takes, and the ‘signified’, the concept that it represents.

For example, although a map is commonly defined as the geographic representation of an area or a territory merely showing physical features and certain characteristics of the place, it can take on a different ‘signified’ when the territory or land in question is an occupied one, as Palestine is. Therefore, the physical representation of Palestine’s borders became, with time, a powerful symbol, reflecting the injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people throughout history.

The same process was applied to the keys belonging to those very refugees, the victims of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The only difference is that while the villages existed and then ceased to exist, the key existed as a physical object before and after the Nakba. The house and the door are, perhaps, gone, but there is a physical key that still, symbolically, unlocks the dichotomy of the past, with the hope of, one day, restoring the door and the house as well.

In view of this, the segment of land stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea ceased to be just sand, water, grass, and stones and became a representation of something else entirely.

It must be denoted that the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea’ neither references actual topography nor politics. It is based on the understanding that a disruptive historical event has wrought a great deal of injustice, pain and hurt to historic Palestine. Confronting this injustice cannot be segmented, and it must take place through a wholesome process that would allow the land but, more importantly, the native inhabitants of that land to restore their dignity, rights and freedom.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-03-16T14:08:50+00:00

LLM?

Budget-song-budget · 2024-03-14T04:43:17+00:00

https://x.com/GUnderground_TV/status/1767943322918625335?s=20

Wikileaks revelation on Israel under Julian Assange:

Israel's 'Dahiya doctrine' gives the green light for excessive disproportionate force against civilian populations

https://rumble.com/v4i17if-alan-dershowitz-challenged-on-israels-genocidal-slaughter-in-gaza-most-heat.html

Budget-song-budget · 2024-03-09T05:49:01+00:00

Extract:

President Joe Biden does not have to fear any primary challengers. His party is stuck with him. This despite some awful polling data that should have pushed the Democrats to retire Joe Biden.

Only 38.9% of voters approve of Biden and his policies while 55.7 % disapprove them. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/

Trump numbers are better. 43.1 % have a favorable opinion of him while 51.8% find him unfavorable. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/favorability/donald-trump/

General election polls have Trump leading over Biden by 5%. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/

There is little chance for Biden to turn this around. There is nothing in the policy queue that could be seen as a win for him. On domestic issues he is limited by a Republican majority in the House. Problem areas are the perceived state of the economy as well his failure to stop mass immigration. He is also losing in the foreign policy frame. His war in Ukraine is near total failure and the U.S. position in the Middle East is about to explode.

Trump still has dozens of open (kangaroo) court cases against him. But it is doubtful that any court will truly dare to put the leading presidential candidate into jail. In the end a conservative Supreme Court, and enraged Republican voters, would anyway find a way to get Trump out of the mess.

On foreign policy issues Trump has a rather dubious record. But I agree with Stephen Walt who finds that there are only few differences between Trump's and Biden's foreign policies. It is the deep state which is anyway formulating as well as executing them. {https://archive.is/QxgQg Another Trump Presidency Won’t Much Change U.S. Foreign Policy. The world’s fears are mostly exaggerated.}

But is still more likely that Trump will find a way out of the mess in Ukraine than Biden. Trump is also way less a Zionist than Biden. His opinion about Netanyahoo and settlers is generally low. {https://israelpalestinenews.org/trump-blasts-netanyahu-fk-him-he-never-wanted-a-deal/}

My opinion on Trump is unchanged. He is just a run of the mill U.S. president. His biggest fault is his inability to select good people and to keep control over what they are doing. Previous Trump selections like McMaster, Bolton or Pompeo were all too radical and treacherous. They should never have been chosen. For someone who once had a reality show about selecting apprentices that is an astonishingly bad record. {https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._McMaster - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bolton https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pompeo }

Or, as Stephen Walt expresses it: https://archive.is/QxgQg

To be clear, I’m not saying that this election will have zero effect on U.S. foreign policy. Trump may try to take the United States out of NATO, for example, although such a move would undoubtedly face enormous resistance from the foreign and defense policy establishment. He may focus primarily on his domestic agenda—and his lingering legal troubles—which would further reduce his already-limited interest in foreign affairs and tend to reinforce the existing status quo. Trump was a poor judge of foreign-policy talent during his first term (and provoked unprecedented rates of staff turnover), and that tendency may hamstring U.S. policy implementation and lead foreign governments to hedge even more. There would be subtle differences between Biden 2 and Trump 2, but I’d bet against a radical transformation.

My concern with U.S. foreign policy is the huge damage it is causing all over the world. I see Trump as the better candidate to minimize that. He has avoided wars as far as the deep state allowed him to do so.

One can not say that of Biden.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-03-06T03:47:48+00:00

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1764771314600952192

https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/1764771314600952192?s=20

buried on page 15 in its 23 page "report", the UN's Pramila Patten admits that all her information comes directly from the Israeli regime, and that it blocks UN agencies with an actual investigative mandate from doing independent investigations into their propaganda claims

Budget-song-budget · 2024-03-06T03:33:00+00:00

A more honest appraisal of her performance!

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/03/ukraine-cookie-monster-retires.html

Extract:

Victoria Nuland, a member of the neo-conservative Kagan clan, is only 62 years old - too young to retire regularly. https://asiatimes.com/2021/12/neocons-bent-on-starting-another-disaster-in-ukraine/

She will be remembered for handing out cookies to anti-government demonstrators in Ukraine and for installing the 2014 coup regime. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26079957

That has been her main project in the State Department. But the 2014 Maidan putsch that turn the Ukraine into a battering ram against Russia, has ended in a complete failure.

Neither was Russia 'weakened' by the war nor has Ukraine any perspective to survive but as some Russian controlled land-locked backwater country in Europe's east. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/25/russia-weakedend-lloyd-austin-ukraine

Given that billions were spent on Ukraine with little controls and nothing to show for Nuland, and her family, have certainly made a bit on the side. One wonders if any of the ongoing and coming investigations into the black hole Ukraine will leave them unscarred.

As even Guardian commentators are now waking up to the mess they helped create it is high time for European politicians to also finally accept this reality: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/05/nato-ukraine-russia-germany-military-leak

Western Europe has no conceivable interest in escalating the Ukraine war through a long-range missile exchange. While it should sustain its logistical support for Ukrainian forces, it has no strategic interest in Kyiv’s desire to drive Russia out of the majority Russian-speaking areas of Crimea or Donbas. It has every interest in assiduously seeking an early settlement and starting the rebuilding of Ukraine.

As for the west’s “soft power” sanctions on Russia, they have failed miserably, disrupting the global trading economy in the process. Sanctions may be beloved of western diplomats and thinktanks. They may even hurt someone – not least Britain’s energy users – but they have not devastated the Russian economy or changed Putin’s mind. This year Russia’s growth rate is expected to exceed Britain’s.

The crass ineptitude of a quarter of a century of western military interventions should have taught us some lessons. Apparently not.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-03-04T21:29:11+00:00

For a minute there I thought you meant

Riders on the Storm - The Doors HD (7.24) https://youtu.be/k9o78-f2mIM?feature=shared

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-28T02:42:33+00:00

Until now, Americans have been told that all the US taxpayer cash being earmarked for Ukrainian aid is to help actual Ukrainians. Anyone notice that the $75 billion American contribution isn’t getting the job done on the battlefield? Victory in military conflict isn’t supposed to look like defeat. Winning also isn’t defined as, “Well, on a long enough time axis, like infinity, our chance of defeat will eventually approach zero.” And the $178 billion in total from all allies combined doesn’t seem to be doing the trick, either. Short of starting a global war with weapons capable of extending the conflict beyond a regional one, it’s not like they’ve been holding back. The West is breaking the bank. All for some vague, future Ukrainian “victory” that they don’t seem to want to clearly define. We keep hearing that the support will last “as long as it takes.” For what exactly? By not clearly defining it, they can keep moving the goal posts.

But now here comes Regime Change Karen, dropping some truth bombs on CNN about Ukrainian aid. She started off with the usual talking point of doing “what we have always done, which is defend democracy and freedom around the world.” Conveniently, in places where they have controlling interests and want to keep them – or knock them out of a global competitor’s roster and into their own. “And by the way, we have to remember that the bulk of this money is going right back into the US to make those weapons,” Nuland said, pleading in favor of the latest Ukraine aid package that’s been getting the side eye from Republicans in Congress.

So there you have it, folks. Ukrainians are a convenient pretext to keep the tax cash flowing in the direction of the US military industrial complex. This gives a whole new perspective on “as long as it takes.” It’s just the usual endless war and profits repackaged as benevolence. But we’ve seen this before. It explains why war in Afghanistan was little more than a gateway to Iraq. And why the Global War on Terrorism never seems to end, and only ever mutates. Arguably the best one they’ve come up with so far is the need for military-grade panopticon-style surveillance, so the state can shadow-box permanently with ghosts while bamboozling the general public with murky cyber concepts that it can’t understand or conceptualize. When one conflict or threat dials down, another ramps up, boosted by fearmongering rhetoric couched in white-knighting. There’s never any endgame or exit ramp to any of these conflicts. And there clearly isn’t one for Ukraine, either.

Still, there’s a sense that the realities on the ground in Ukraine, which favor Russia, now likely mean that the conflict is closer to its end than to its beginning. Acknowledgements abound in the Western press. And that means there isn’t much time left for Europe to get aboard the tax cash laundering bandwagon and stuff its own military industrial complexes’ coffers like Washington has been doing from the get-go. Which would explain why a bunch of countries now seem to be rushing to give Ukraine years-long bilateral security “guarantees,” requiring more weapons for everyone. France, Germany, Canada, and Italy have all made the pledge. Plus Denmark, which also flat-out said that it would send all its artillery to Ukraine. If security for Europe is the goal, that sounds kind of like the opposite. Particularly when Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told the EU that “Russia has gotten closer to your home” in the wake of the most recent defeat in Avdeevka. He sounds like one of those guys in TV ads trying to peddle burglar alarms. Seems like Russia only exists in the minds of the West these days to justify sending weapons to Ukraine to get blown up, while also justifying to taxpayers why they should continue funding this whole charade.

Meanwhile, the West’s drive towards peace seems to be taking the scenic route. “As we move forward, we continue our support to Ukraine in further developing President Zelensky’s Peace Formula,” G7 leaders said after a recent meeting with Zelensky in Kiev. Nice to see that he’s devoting all his time to this magic peace formula instead of running around extorting his friends for cash by threatening them with Putin.

It was already a pretty big hint of what’s really been going on when the EU decided to use the taxpayer-funded European Peace Facility to reimburse EU countries for the unloading of their mothballed, second-hand weapons into Ukraine, where Russia can then dispose of them before anyone could be accused of overcharging for clunkers. Now, with the clunker supply running dry, they just have to make more weapons. Maybe funneling cash into weapons for themselves will be the Hail Mary pass that saves their economies that they’ve tanked “for Ukraine”?

Thanks to Nuland’s nuking of any plausible deniability on Ukrainian “aid” not going to Washington, it’s now clear that Ukrainians continue to die so poor weapons makers don’t end up shaking tin cans on street corners. She has also removed any doubt about the ultimate US goal being Russian regime change, calling Putin’s leadership “not the Russia we wanted,” and sounding like someone who chronically sends back a meal to kitchens of a dining establishment. “We wanted a partner that was going to be Westernizing, that was going to be European. But that’s not what Putin has done,” she told CNN. That’s exactly what Putin has done, actually. It’s the West that’s moved away from itself and is becoming increasingly unrecognizable by its own citizens. Pretty sure that it goes beyond just wanting a country to be “European,” too. Because Germany’s European, and an ally, and Nuland wouldn’t shut up about how much she hated its Nord Stream gas supply — until it mysteriously went kaboom.

Regime Change Karen saying the quiet part out loud has decimated the Western establishment’s narrative so badly that it’s a miracle no one has yet accused her thermonuclear mouth of being an asset of Russia’s weapons program.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-28T02:30:48+00:00

Extract:

Regrettably, the reports from Paris were largely a media-engineered deception intended to divert attention from the real purpose of the confab. Keep in mind, the primary attendees of the gathering were not senior-level diplomats or trained negotiators, but the directors of the Intelligence services including the head of Israel’s Mossad, David Barnea, Egyptian spy-chief Abbas Kamel, and CIA Director William Burns. These are not the men one would choose to hammer-out a hostage exchange or a ceasefire deal, but to implement electronic surveillance, espionage or black ops. Thus, it is extremely unlikely that they met in Paris to settle on a plan for the cessation of hostilities. The more probable explanation is that the respective spy-chiefs are putting the finishing touches on a collaborative plan to breach the Egyptian border wall so that one and a half million severely-traumatized Palestinians can flee into Egypt without any serious opposition from the Egyptian army.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-24T02:21:35+00:00

And did you miss the joke, that after decades of American interference all Africa had to show was dictators, and a massive pile of debt? Confessions of an Economic Hit Man author John Perkins was bemoaning Africans don't want to deal with America. When asked why? They said "because America overthrow or outright kill our leaders."

Whereas at least after the Chinese deals the country also has some infrastructure to show for it.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-23T00:49:59+00:00

Any war between the Israeli occupation and Hezbollah is sure to end in mutually assured destruction on such a scale that Israel would be facing an existential threat, Israeli security, and military affairs expert Yossi Melman wrote in Haaretz.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-21T00:08:18+00:00

Aren't you expecting pragmatism or logic? Zelensky is currently a begging bowl. If Biden can't oblige.Sweden, Canada and Japan who can. Elections are due. Ordinary people are fatigued. Bbc have been running down Putin, by any means necessary. Now if only Navalny could serve a higher purpose, to galvanize .......

Set against that background, if the ultimate did happen to Navalny.........

I just finished watching this yesterday before it expired. He glossed over a lot of the important details.

He made it sound as if the West was either a panacea or an extremely soft touch. Giving money and "freedom" to the former eastern European countries. He never addressed why after the Warsaw pact folded, why didn't it's supposed counterpart Nato, also call it a day?

As for Stepan Bandera, his name wasn't even mentioned, nor the $5 billion Victoria Nuland spent on behalf of the Obama government!

The Bendera problem was overcome by simply stating all counties had pro Nazi volunteers, sympathisers, and to underline the point a photo of Oswald Mosley was shown on screen.

With so many omissions - he's irresponsibly helping to get civilians killed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f32zxs

Pictures from...Ukraine - Part Two

In March 2022, with Russian tanks still surrounding Kyiv, veteran photojournalist David Pratt travels to Ukraine along with documentary maker Robbie Fraser. Their intention: to bear witness to the biggest unfolding crisis in Europe since World War Two.

In part one, after crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border against a tide of refugees, David travels to the western city of Lviv. The city is tense but relatively peaceful. Buildings and monuments are covered up against attack.

In an archive section, David tells the story of the first three weeks of the war, and of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Lviv train station is jammed with refugees. Outside the station we meet Alina, a refugee from Melitopol who has fled with a young baby. As David is walking outside the station an air raid siren sounds. David reflects on the conflict, and the fact that scenes like this have not been seen in Europe since the Balkan Wars.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f330gm

Pictures from...Ukraine - Part Two

In this episode, David returns to Ukraine in late summer. He crosses the border from Poland before taking the night train to Kyiv. He tells the story of what has happened since April, checking off key events such as the Russian withdrawal from around Kyiv, the capture of Mariupol and the sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva.

David describes the international situation and how Russia has attempted to use the energy supply to the west, the occupation of a Ukrainian nuclear plan and the control of grain shipments, to isolate Ukraine and blackmail the international community into backing down. He visits Borodyanka, a town to the north of Kyiv that contains areas which were devastated by Russian strikes. There, he meets Natalya, a woman from the town who has lost her husband in the fighting.

In the village of Moschun, David meets local man Vadym, who describes how the villagers assisted the Ukrainian army in their defence of the village by giving the positions of Russian troops by mobile phone and helping Ukrainian soldiers navigate the forests.

David then travels to Bucha, where he meets three gravediggers who assisted with the recovery of bodies following the murder of hundreds of civilians by Russian troops. He also speaks to Alena Grom, a photographer from Donetsk who has turned from street art and portraiture to war photography. They talk about the impact of the war and how photographers cover conflict.

Back in Kyiv, David comes across dozens of destroyed or captured Russian armoured vehicles that have been placed on the main street off Maidan Square. It is a dark satirical gesture of defiance by Zelenskiy, a parody of the victory parade which Putin expected to be holding. He then speaks to Valentyn, a volunteer Ukrainian soldier who fought in Donbas in 2014 and took up arms again in 2022. Valentyn describes how he is fighting for his family and future.

David ends his journey where it began, in Kyiv, January 2023, as the war continues on.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20240220-sweden-boosts-military-aid-ukraine-682-million-armament-package

Sweden boosts military aid to Ukraine with $682 million armament package

Sweden said Tuesday it would give 7.1 billion kronor ($682 million) worth of military equipment to Ukraine, in a boost for the country as it struggles to fight off Russia's invasion.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/canada-to-send-hundreds-of-drones-to-ukraine-as-2nd-anniversary-of-invasion-nears/ar-BB1iy3tJ?ocid=AMZN

Canada to send hundreds of drones to Ukraine as 2nd anniversary of invasion nears

Monday's announcement is meant to provide Ukraine with the "drones it needs" to detect and identify Russian targets, he said, adding, "Canada will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes."

It comes less than a week after Canada announced a new contribution of $45 million to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group Air Force Capability Coalition, which has been set up to help Ukraine establish a sustainable F-16 fighter aircraft capability.

The donated drones are produced by Teledyne FLIR in Waterloo, Ontario, and are funded by the $370 million in military assistance for Ukraine announced by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his visit to Kyiv in June 2023.

Zapped. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/19/russian-helicopter-pilot-defected-found-dead-spain-says-ukraine-security-agency

Russian pilot who defected found dead in Spain, says Ukraine security agency

Maksim Kuzminov, who changed sides in secret operation, killed after allegedly moving to Alicante, reports suggest

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/18/biden-tells-zelenskyy-hes-confident-us-will-renew-aid-to-ukraine?traffic_source=rss Biden says he told Zelenskyy he’s ‘confident’ US will renew aid to Ukraine

US president warns of further losses of Ukrainian territory if Congress does not renew military aid.

Biden is strapped for cash. For Zelensky, only option is onwards.

https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20240219-ukraine-seeks-japan-s-support-for-post-war-reconstruction

Ukraine seeks Japan's support for post-war reconstruction

Ukraine's prime minister urged Japan's government and private sector on Monday to step up support for the country's reconstruction, promising an "economic miracle" once the almost two-year-old war with Russia ends.

The BBC's been busy. Endorsing Navalny's narrative. Putin targets him for holding him to account!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016txs/storyville-navalny?ftag=MSF0951a18

This Oscar-winning documentary follows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as he and his team unravel a plot to poison him with deadly nerve agent novichok.

In August 2020, a plane travelling from Siberia to Moscow made an emergency landing. Alexei Navalny was deathly ill. He was taken to a local Siberian hospital and eventually evacuated to Berlin. Doctors there confirmed that he had been poisoned with novichok, a nerve agent implicated in attacks on other opponents of the Russian government. President Vladimir Putin immediately cast doubt on the findings and denied any involvement.

While Navalny is recovering, he and his team uncover the plot against him, finding evidence of the Kremlin’s involvement, and prepare to go public with their findings.

Duration 93 mins. First shown 9 pm 25 Apr 2022. Available 28 days.

They even did a three part docu-drama said to be based on true events.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08dqns1/episodes/guide

In March 2018, Salisbury becomes the site of an unprecedented national emergency.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68326718

"If you are killed, if this does happen, what message do you leave behind to the Russian people?"

This is the first question posed to Alexei Navalny by Canadian director Daniel Roher in the 2022 Oscar-winning documentary Navalny.

"Come on Daniel, no," Navalny responds, smiling.

"No way. It's like you're making a movie for the case of my death."

Those words have now taken on a new poignancy with the news that the 47-year-old Russian political activist died in an Arctic Circle jail on Friday.

Russian prison authorities said that the Kremlin critic had become unwell following a walk. Navalny's team says his body is purposely being withheld by the Russian authorities so they can "cover traces".

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-20T03:28:00+00:00

The horrific treatment of women and girls by Israeli soldiers – including rape and execution – has been condemned by the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in a damning statement today from the ‘Special Procedures’ group of human rights experts, saying that the actions of the IDF are likely to amount to prosecutable war crimes.

The statement says that the group:

expressed alarm over credible allegations of egregious human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls continue to be subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children, according to information received.

“We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing. Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces,” the experts said.

The experts expressed serious concern about the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women and girls, including human rights defenders, journalists and humanitarian workers, in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October. Many have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food.

“We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,” the experts said. They also noted that photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.

The experts expressed concern that an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army in Gaza. “There are disturbing reports of at least one female infant forcibly transferred by the Israeli army into Israel, and of children being separated from their parents, whose whereabouts remain unknown,” they said.

“We remind the Government of Israel of its obligation to uphold the right to life, safety, health, and dignity of Palestinian women and girls and to ensure that no one is subjected to violence, torture, ill-treatment or degrading treatment, including sexual violence,” the experts said.

They called for an independent, impartial, prompt, thorough and effective investigation into the allegations and for Israel to cooperate with such investigations.

“Taken together, these alleged acts may constitute grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and amount to serious crimes under international criminal law that could be prosecuted under the Rome Statute,” the experts said. “Those responsible for these apparent crimes must be held accountable and victims and their families are entitled to full redress and justice,

While Israel’s atrocity propaganda claiming ‘systematic’ use of rape as a weapon of war have been characterised by an absence of evidence and a demand to be believed regardless how lurid and unfeasible the claims have been, and have quickly collapsed under scrutiny – yet have been propagated by western media and governments anyway – the UN experts’ sober claims carry weight and a call for serious investigation, but has been entirely ignored so far by the UK and US ‘mainstream’ media:

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-19T07:38:29+00:00

Extract:

The Black family, formerly Manchester based, make their money from string of well known outdoor clothing companies which anyone opposed to the genocide in Gaza should henceforth boycott including Regatta, Craghoppers, Dare2B, Hawkshead and Tactical Threads.

Below is the group of companies 'best wishes' sent to the UK AWIS fundraising dinner in 2020.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-19T07:27:49+00:00

Yeah you're right. Sorry I didn't notice the error.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/17/720247/Yemen-USVs-threat-US-Navy-commander

US Navy baffled by new sea threat from Yemen

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-18T03:25:14+00:00

Also in Madrid.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/02/17/720244/Thousands-of-pro-Palestinian-protesters-march-in-Madrid

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-17T21:24:44+00:00

Extract:

Biden argues that standing by America’s “allies,” even when they are not actual allies, is essential to maintain confidence in the United States and its leadership mission to create a “rules based international order” and thereby save the world. Beyond Ukraine, there is, of course, America’s “best friend” and “greatest ally” Israel which also is no democracy as Palestinian citizens have limited rights, with those living on the Israeli army occupied West Bank having effectively no protection from being arrested arbitrarily or even shot on sight by rampaging soldiers and settlers, who fear no consequences for killing and robbing Arabs because there are no consequences. The bombing of Gaza into the stone age continues with hardly any coverage in the mainstream media =as if it is an atrocity that will disappear from the collective conscience if no one refers to it in spite of the rows of dead women and children. The US and European media meanwhile blithely report every new “Hamas atrocity” promoted by the habitually lying Israeli Army (IDF) as if it were the truth while Biden is pulling out the stops to provide the cash ($14 billion) and weapons to enable the IDF to kill more Palestinians while at the same time mock-mourning the slaughter of the innocents that is taking place. The ghastly death toll is a direct result of Joe’s lack of any action to force the Israelis to change course, which he has the leverage to do with a phone call to Benjamin Netanyahu threatening to cut off the cash, arms and political support. But the administration has made plain that it has no intention to do anything like that.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-17T21:22:32+00:00

BBC has been busy. Shilling for him. Now that he's dead, they'll probably bring back the documentary, as they've done since it was first shown. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016txs/storyville-navalny

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T12:00:03+00:00

https://www.globalresearch.ca/water-abundant-scarcity/5849611

The second most water-abundant country is Russia with 4,500 km3 / year, followed by Canada, Indonesia, China, Colombia, US, Peru, India – all with renewable water resources of between 2,000 km3 and 3,000 km3 / year

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T11:42:53+00:00

Above map comes from:

https://www.globalresearch.ca/water-abundant-scarcity/5849611

Water – The Abundant Scarcity

Extract:

Water in the Israel-Palestine Conflict

The Oslo Accords of 1993, sponsored by Norway, were to be a guiding path for Peace in the Middle East; for Peace between Israel and Palestine. They were designed to be the first step towards a two-state solution.

One of the major features of the Oslo Agreements was that even during the precursor of the two-state solution, each country, Palestine, and Israel had full and autonomous rights to their natural resources, which included water, a scarce commodity in the Middle East in general, and especially in the Palestine-Israel region.

However, the Oslo Accords went nowhere, since Israel never agreed to them. A major reason was that under the Accords Palestine was to be given sovereignty over their land and resources, including water.

Close to 80% of all the water in Palestine, now including Israel, is on Palestine territory, over or below grounds of the West Bank. Israel would never admit it, but they know it. Israeli settlements illegally imposed on the West Bank are not by coincidence almost always on or near a perennial Palestinian water source.

Palestine knows it but they have no voice in the West.

✂✂

Water, Water Everywhere – as an Abundant Scarcity is not a myth. Fresh water is just not equally distributed across the globe. But it can be made accessible to people everywhere.

In abundance available, but made scare by excessive pollution, excessive use in one place, so that it may create shortages in another place.

The corporate sharks, who speak with a split tongue, pretend to protect water from pollution, but they do just the contrary.

If they succeed pretending that water is disappearing, because it has become so polluted, that every drop of fresh water is becoming ever rarer — for them it is a justification to privatize water for profit, corporate profit, that is, not for the benefit of the people.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T11:09:45+00:00

Extract:

COVID was a crisis of capitalism masquerading as a public health emergency.

Capitalism

Capitalism needs to keep expanding into or creating new markets to ensure the accumulation of capital to offset the tendency for the general rate of profit to fall. The capitalist needs to accumulate capital (wealth) to be able to reinvest it and make further profits. By placing downward pressure on workers’ wages, the capitalist extracts sufficient surplus value to be able to do this.

But when the capitalist is unable to sufficiently reinvest (due to declining demand for commodities, a lack of investment opportunities and markets, etc), wealth (capital) over accumulates, devalues and the system goes into crisis. To avoid crisis, capitalism requires constant growth, markets and sufficient demand.

According to writer Ted Reese, the capitalist rate of profit has trended downwards from an estimated 43% in the 1870s to 17% in the 2000s. Although wages and corporate taxes have been slashed, the exploitability of labour was increasingly insufficient to meet the demands of capital accumulation.

By late 2019, many companies could not generate sufficient profit. Falling turnover, limited cashflows and highly leveraged balance sheets were prevalent.

Economic growth was weakening in the run up to the massive stock market crash in February 2020, which saw trillions more pumped into the system in the guise of ‘COVID relief’.

To stave off crisis up until that point, various tactics had been employed

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T11:01:17+00:00

https://www.trtworld.com/asia/who-is-shehbaz-sharif-the-politician-expected-to-lead-pakistan-17005298

Who is Shehbaz Sharif - the politician expected to lead Pakistan?

The younger brother of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif has the reputation of a stern administrator with a penchant for building big-ticket infrastructure projects.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T10:38:16+00:00

Continued

Following the last Israeli strikes, the Lebanese side said that four civilians had been killed or wounded by them.

The increase of hostility is getting to a point where there will no longer be the question "if" another war between Israel and Hizbullah will occur but only the question of "when"

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T10:37:45+00:00

The situation on the northern Israeli border is escalating. It is likely to soon evolve into a full fledged war. The situation is already increasing the economic price Israel has to pay for its misdeeds.

The international rating agency Moody's has downgraded Israel's credit rating. [https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/02/moodys-just-told-you-so-downgrades-israel-warns-that-weaker-us-backing-for-israel-war-with-hezbollah-would-trigger-crash.html ] This will lead to higher interest payments on Israeli government debt:

In a report dated last Friday but not issued until Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, the agency officially reduced Israel’s rating from A1 to A2, and added pointers of further downgrading to come. The Anglo-American press immediately reacted against Moody’s.

“Israel hits back”, the Financial Times https://archive.is/ecS6p headlined. The newspaper added: “[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, in a rare statement over the Jewish Sabbath, [https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-moodys-smotrich-netanyahu-economy-4272d00b1626a4a8390a84def7196d99 ] said: ‘The rating downgrade is not connected to the economy, it is entirely due to the fact that we are in a war. The rating will go back up the moment we win the war — and we will win the war.’” In the Associated Press report, “Israel’s finance minister blasts Moody’s downgrade”. Rupert Murdoch’s platform Fox [https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6325282739112 ] claimed: “Israel has a strong, open economy despite Moody’s downgrade”. “Israel’s creditworthiness remains high,” according to the New York Times [https://archive.ph/uCdUa ], “but the rating agency noted that the outlook for the country was negative… A rating of A2 is still a high rating.”

There are several negative issues that could lead to a further downgrading:

According to Moody’s report, “downside risks remain at the A2 rating level. In particular, the risk of an escalation involving Hezbollah in the North of Israel remains, which would have a potentially much more negative impact on the economy than currently assumed under Moody’s baseline scenario. Government finances would also be under more intense pressure in such a scenario.”

Shortly after the Moody's report appeared Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah set out to increase the [https://english.almanar.com.lb/2044825 ] pressure on Israel:

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah reiterated that Hezbollah will continue its border offensive against the Israeli occupation sites near Lebanon border till the Zionist barbaric war on Gaza ends. “When the aggression on Gaza stops fire will be ceased in South Lebanon,” Sayyed Nasrallah said.

Hezbollah Secretary General commented on the recent threats made by the Zionist defense minister Yoav Gallant who said that the IOF will not stop aggression on South Lebanon even after Gaza ceasefire, stressing that, then, Hezbollah will continue its offensive.

“When the war on Gaza ends, we will stop our offensive. If the enemy resumes its hostilities, we will, act in light of the rules and the formulas.”

Nasrallah rejected western demands, passed through the Lebanese government, to pull back Hizbullah's forces and to cease fire:

It is Hezbollah duty and responsibility to deter the enemy and prevent the assault on Lebanon, Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed, adding that the Resistance responses will be proportionate, yet effective and productive. Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that the hundreds of thousands of settlers already displaced from the North will not be able to return to their homes in case of escalation.

‘Israel’ must prepare shelters, basements, hotels and schools to house 2 million settlers who will be displaced from northern Palestine if it expands the war zone, Sayyed Nasrallah warned.

If the Israeli enemy expands its war zone against Lebanon, Hezbollah will do too, Sayyed Nasrallah emphasized.

“It is easier to move Litani River forward to the borders than pushing back Hezbollah fighters from the borders to the Litani River,” Sayyed Nasrallah said.

More will be announced later:

Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that ‘Israel’ has failed over 130 days to achieve any target in Gaza war, except the monstrous attacks on the civilians.

Concerning the Zionist war on Gaza, Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that he will address more details about during a speech he is scheduled to deliver on Friday (February 16) the anniversary of Hezbollah Martyr Commanders.

Rarely mentioned in western news is the extend of Hizbullah's activities against the [https://x.com/AryJeay/status/1757755955087909000?s=20 ] military of the Zionist entity:

Al-Manar correspondent:

The resistance in Southern Lebanon, has so far attacked:

HQ of the Northern Region Command in Safad.
Command HQ of the 91st Galilee Division in “Branit”
HQ of the 769th Eastern Brigade in Kiryat Shmona.
Meron Air command and control base
Beit Hillel IOF base
Training camp in Kela, in the occupied Golan Heights
Ma’ale Golan IOF base on Mount Hermon
Most artillery positions along the rear front and military concentrations
Every single border military IOF sites

All of these attacks carried out by the resistance confirm that all military and fire pressure and Israeli threats will not deter it from continuing its operations. The resistance is proceeding with full confidence, first relaying on God, and then its military capabilities, the spirit of its fighters, and the resilience of its people.

The Safad headquarter site was only hit this morning. This followed after more Israeli attacks had hit civilian structures in southern Lebanon.

Hala Jaber @HalaJaber - 23:01 UTC · Feb 13, 2024

URGENT: #Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets targeting an army base #Israel’s northern city of Safed.

One reportedly killed & eight wounded, one in serious condition.

The IDF said some of the rockets hit the Northern Command headquarters base in #Safed, some 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the Lebanese border.

Hitting Safad was a (mild) escalation after previous attacks.

Unlike the daily Palestinian victims of Israel's brutality, the Israeli casualties of the strike created headlines [https://www.timesofisrael.com/one-killed-8-injured-as-rocket-barrage-from-lebanon-hits-safed/ ] in Israel:

An Israeli woman was killed and eight others were wounded as a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon slammed into Safed and an army base in the northern city, the military and medical officials said.

In response to the attack, the IDF said it launched “widespread” airstrikes in Lebanon.

There was no immediate claim for the rocket fire, although it was believed to have been carried out by the Hezbollah terror group, which has been launching daily rocket, missile, and drone attacks on northern Israel in recent months, saying it is doing so in support of the Hamas terror group in Gaza, against whom Israel is waging war.

The Israel Defense Forces and Safed’s municipality said rockets hit an army base in the area, some 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the Lebanon border.

The casualty count on Israel's northern border is still very uneven:

So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in six civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of at least nine IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries. Hezbollah has named 194 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 29 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and some two dozen civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.

If Israel does not evacuated more settlers, at high economic costs, the casualty ratio is likely to change.

The Lebanese Hezbollah expert Amal Saad, who is currently teaching in Cardiff, Britain, explained Hizbullah's thinking:

Amal Saad @amalsaad_lb - 10:58 UTC · Feb 14, 2024 [https://x.com/amalsaad_lb/status/1757720876466762235?s=20 ]

There are several messages behind Hizbullah's qualitatively different strike on Safed this morning, which Israel is treating as the gravest attack since the start of the war, with Ben Gvir calling it a "declaration of war".

At the forefront, is Hizbullah's message that it won't capitulate to Israeli and western demands that it cease hostilities across the border, as per Nasrallah's speech yesterday. It's also a response to several Israeli assassination strikes in South Lebanon, reaching as deep as Sidon.

But the timing of this escalation also appears to be related to Netanyahu's scuppering of the Paris cease-fire proposal and his government's threats to invade Rafah, which in turn, would make a full-out attack on Lebanon more likely. Hizbullah is giving Israel a taster of the type of strikes and casualty tolls its military will have to bear, should Netanyahu continue to reject a cease-fire.

Predictably the Israeli occupation forces responded to the strike on Safad by escalating further:

The Israeli military said Wednesday its fighter jets "began a series of strikes in Lebanon", raising fears of a war between the two countries after months of cross-border fire.

The military gave no further details of the air strikes, while Lebanese media reported air raids on southern villages including Adchit, Sawwaneh and Shihabiyeh.

The strikes came hours after fire from Lebanon wounded multiple people in northern Israel, according to medics.

Fears have been growing of another full-blown conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with tens of thousands displaced on both sides of the border and regional tensions soaring.

"I don't know when the war in the north is, I can tell you that the likelihood of it happening in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past," Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi said last month.

.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T05:53:34+00:00

Update.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-68313625

Pakistan: Imran Khan picks Omar Ayub as PM nominee

Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has picked one of his party's leaders as PM candidate.

Omar Ayub Khan will run against the candidate of Imran Khan's rivals, who have agreed to a coalition.

Khan-backed independents unexpectedly won the most seats in last week's election, but they did not have enough seats to form a government.

This has led to days of deal-making as the constitution requires the formation of a government by 29 February.

A senior leader of Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, Asad Qaiser, announced Mr Ayub as his pick for PM after meeting with the former premier in prison.

Members of Pakistan's National Assembly will elect the new speaker and 56-year-old Mr Ayub will face off against the nominee of former PM Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), who joined forces earlier this week.

Mr Ayub is on the run from criminal charges, including those related to riots that followed Imran Khan's arrest last year. But that does not disqualify him from seeking the PM post.

If elected PM, Mr Ayub said his top priority is to free political prisoners. He won last week as an independent backed by PTI.

He is the grandson of Mohamed Ayub Khan, a military dictator and Pakistan's president from 1958 to 1969.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T05:16:46+00:00

Extract:

We have good reason to believe that CIA operatives carried out the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, as per Seymour Hersh, who is now an independent reporter. Unlike in 1975, when Hersh was with the New York Times at a time when the paper still tried to hold the government to account, the Times does not even deign to look into Hersh’s account. Holding the CIA to public account is of course a steep uphill struggle. Presidents and the Congress don’t even try. The mainstreammedia don’t investigate the CIA, preferring instead to quote “senior unnamed officials” and the official cover-up.

Are the mainstream media outlets lazy, suborned, afraid of advertising revenues from the military-industrial complex, threatened, ignorant, or all of the above? Who knows.

There is a tiny glimmer of hope. Back in 1975, the CIA was led by a reformer. Today, the CIA is led by William Burns, one of America’slong-standing leading diplomats. Burns knows the truth about Ukraine, since he served as Ambassador to Russia in 2008 and cabled Washington about the grave error of pushing NATO enlargement to Ukraine. Given Burns’ stature and diplomatic accomplishments, perhaps he would support the urgently needed accountability.

The extent of the continuing mayhem resulting from CIA operations gone awry is astounding. In Afghanistan, Haiti, Syria, Venezuela, Kosovo, Ukraine, and far beyond, the needless deaths, instability, and destruction unleashed by CIA subversion continues to this day. The mainstream media, academic institutions, and Congress should be investigating these operations to the best of their ability and demanding the release of documents to enable democratic accountability.

Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Church Committee hearings. Fifty years on, with the precedent, inspiration, and guidance of theChurch Committee itself, it’s urgently time to open the blinds, expose the truth about the U.S.-led mayhem, and begin a new era in which U.S. foreign policy becomes transparent, accountable, subject to the rule of law both domestic and international, and directed towards global peace rather than subversion of supposed enemies.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-16T04:53:06+00:00

Upon clicking message reads:

Your connection is not private

Attackers might be trying to steal your information from nitter.net (for example, passwords, messages or credit cards). Find out more NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-15T18:44:45+00:00

This is 7 year old Sidra, the cousin of my wife. The impact of the Israeli missile was so powerful it flung her out, leaving her mutilated body dangling from the ruins of the destroyed building in Rafah 48 hours ago. My wife’s aunt Suzan, her husband Fouzy Hassouna, two of their sons, Muhammad and Karam, Karam's wife Amouna and her three children (7-year-old twins Sidra and Suzan, and 15-month-old Malik) were all killed. The family had been displaced from the north of Gaza and took shelter in Rafah. We will be relentless until those responsible brought to justice.

Budget-song-budget · 2024-02-14T09:48:45+00:00

Palestinians are being slaughtered by Israel, and the UN annihilates their presence even from statements that should deal with the genocide they are living and dying through. The Israeli hostage situation is being used as a diversion, not least from the fact that Hamas proposed a plan which Israel rejected outright. The UN is sending a clear message: any humanitarian ceasefire would be tied strictly to the release of Israeli hostages and only if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to it. So far, Netanyahu has clearly demonstrated that the remaining Israeli hostages are already collateral damage in the genocide inflicted upon Palestinians in Gaza.

Another question was related to Israel requesting the UN’s help in forcibly displacing Palestinians., “We want to ensure that anything that happens is done in full respect of international law, in full respect of civilians,” said Dujarric. “We will not be party to forced displacement of people.” Wrong on both counts. Maybe the UN needs to hear that it is encouraging Israel’s international law violations including genocide, and it is, and has always been, party to the forced displacement of the Palestinian people since entertaining the Zionist colonial ideology and coming up with the 1947 Partition Plan.

Dujarric’s words not only ring hollow in terms of the UN’s purported concern for Palestine, of which it has none, but he also seeks to conceal the UN’s historical role in forced displacement of Palestinians. The UN’s role in creating Israel – a colonial entity on stolen Palestinian land – is equivalent to complicity in forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and now also genocide. And yet, the Palestinians have been forced perpetually by the UN itself to remain subservient to international demands and conjectures. From Israel’s establishment and subsequent international recognition, to the defunct two-state compromise, the result Palestinians have been forced to reap is their own annihilation with the full blessings of the UN. Any official or entity asking Palestinians to abide by international law has always been a hypocrite. At this stage, anyone advocating for less than a permanent ceasefire, full recognition of the Palestinians’ right to anti-colonial resistance and their full political rights to their land and liberation, would do better to remain silent. The colonised have the right to defend themselves against the coloniser. The UN should get that.

Budget-song-budget

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