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Swiss politicians push to revoke UEFA’s tax-exempt status over complicity with Israeli apartheid

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. See more news at Middle East Monitor.

A banner which reads ‘Stop killing children – Stop killing civilians’ is displayed as players of both side’s line up prior to during the UEFA Super Cup 2025 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur at Stadio Friuli on August 13, 2025 in Udine, Italy. [Photo by Chris Ricco – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images]

Swiss lawmakers have launched a formal effort to revoke UEFA’s tax-exempt status in Switzerland, citing the European football governing body’s continued affiliation with the Israeli Football Association (IFA), which includes clubs based in Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The move follows a growing campaign by human rights advocates and football activists under the banner of #GameOverIsrael, which argues that UEFA is complicit in Israel’s apartheid and war crimes by continuing to grant legitimacy and financial support to the IFA. Swiss MPs and campaigners say UEFA is in breach of the very conditions that earned it tax benefits in the country, namely, its stated commitment to promoting peace, inclusion, and anti-racism through sport.

READ: Why a match with an Israeli team should not be taking place in my city

A resolution introduced by Swiss legislators references the 19 July 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling confirming Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. It argues that Swiss citizens, specifically in Vaud, are funding the illegal activities of the Israeli Football Association, and calls for an end to the double standards that allow UEFA to sanction Russian teams while taking no action against Israel.

“UEFA enjoys preferential tax treatment in Switzerland. This comes with certain obligations, including promoting the values of peace. A double standard is unacceptable. While UEFA has rightly chosen to sanction Russian teams, it has taken no action or measures against Israel to date,” said Raphaël Mahaim, Member of the National Council of Switzerland.

Campaigners note that the IFA currently fields five teams located in illegal Israeli settlements and continues to receive financial and institutional backing from UEFA. “UEFA is at the forefront of funding and normalising the apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territories,” said Ashish Prashar, former Middle East Peace Envoy and Campaign Director for Game Over Israel. “The simple solution for UEFA and their President if they truly believe in international law, national law and promoting peace – is to suspend Israel.”

READ: What does the ICJ ruling mean for Israel’s supporters? MEMO in conversation with Kathryn Ravey

Legal experts and former UN officials have also weighed in, warning that UEFA’s credibility and tax status are both at risk. “UEFA has an opportunity… to align with the forces of law, justice, and global conscience,” said Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine. “The refusal to take such a stand would be negatively etched in the collective memory of humanity.”

UEFA’s headquarters are located in Nyon, Switzerland, where local authorities are also considering action. Craig Mokhiber, former UN human rights official and President of the Gaza Tribunal, stated: “Today, on 10 December (International Human Rights Day) Swiss and cantonal authorities will start the debate on the continuation of UEFA’s privileged tax status. That status should be revoked until UEFA ends its complicity in the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. And Swiss authorities should know that their international reputation as a leading proponent of humanitarian law is itself on trial in this process.”

The #GameOverIsrael campaign is backed by a broad coalition including ADC, Athletes 4 Peace, CODEPINK, The Gaza Tribunal, Health Workers 4 Palestine, the Hind Rajab Foundation, Tech for Palestine, and numerous legal scholars, footballers, and human rights defenders. The debate on UEFA’s tax status is expected to intensify ahead of a formal vote scheduled for January 2026.

READ: FIFA, UEFA flayed for disregarding international law by continuing to include Israel in competition

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. See more news at Middle East Monitor.

Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Continue ReadingSwiss politicians push to revoke UEFA’s tax-exempt status over complicity with Israeli apartheid

Another Palestinian Infant Dies of Hypothermia in Storm-Battered Gaza

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A Palestinian man carries the shrouded body of Taim Al-Khawaja, an infant who died of hypothermia in the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, on December 12, 2025. (Photo by Hamza Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Palestinian babies freeze to death as shelters and lifesaving humanitarian aid—located just a few miles away—for 1 million civilians is blocked by Israel,” noted one journalist.

A second Palestinian infant and a young girl died of hypothermia in Gaza as heavy rains and flooding—whose effects are exacerbated by Israel’s genocidal annihilation and ongoing siege of the coastal strip—raised the death toll from Storm Byron to at least 16.

Taim Al-Khawaja—who was several months old—died in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza, while 9-year-old Hadeel al-Masri died in a shelter west of Gaza City, according to local officials. Their deaths follow that of Rahaf Abu Jazar, an 8-month-old who died Thursday of exposure after floodwaters inundated her family’s tent in Khan Younis.

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At least five other people were killed when a building in Beit Lahia collapsed amid the storm, and two others were killed when a wall collapsed onto tents housing displaced Palestinians in the Remal neighorhood of Gaza City. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO), at least 13 buildings have collapsed and more than 27,000 tents have been destroyed or left uninhabitable by Byron’s winds, rain, and floodwater.

While farmers in neighboring Israel welcomed the torrential rains, which delivered relief from drought conditions, the storm is devastating Palestinians already reeling and weakened from nearly 800 days of war and siege. Israel’s US-backed onslaught has left more than 250,000 Gazans dead, maimed, or missing and 2 million more starved, sickened, or displaced. Roughly 1.5 million Palestinians are currently living in tents or other makeshift shelters.

The recent hypothermia deaths evoked horrific memories of the past two winters in Gaza, when more than a dozen Palestinians—most of them infants and children—died from hypothermia caused by exposure. While many Israelis and their supporters abroad point to the relatively mild Mediterranean winters in an effort to deny these deaths, experts note that hypothermia can be deadly at temperatures over 60°F (15°C) in overexposed conditions such as those in Gaza.

Reporting from Gaza, Al Jazeera‘s Ibrahim al-Khalili said Friday that genocide-ravaged Gazans are now enduring “an added layer of suffering.”

“The tents are collapsing. The cold is unbearable. Basically, they don’t have anywhere to go. What is unfolding is devastating,” he said. “It’s not just a storm; it’s a new wave of displacement even after the war has stopped. Many people here told me that a new war has really begun after this flooding, and people are being forced to flee whatever fragile shelters they had.”

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem on Friday called the recent exposure deaths a “continuation of the war of extermination.”

“The successive collapses of homes bombed during the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, caused by the storm, and the resulting deaths, reflect the unprecedented scale of the humanitarian disaster left by this criminal Zionist war,” he said.

Jonathan Crickx, chief of communications for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), told Agence France-Presse Friday that Gazans are also enduring “absolutely appalling hygiene and sanitary conditions.”

“There aren’t enough toilets; there are places—I saw some in Gaza City—where large pools of water are essentially open sewers right next to the displacement camps,” he added.

While the shaky two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has somewhat eased the Israeli blockade on Gaza, the GMO said Friday that “the occupation continues to close crossings and prevent the entry of humanitarian aid and materials that could provide shelter.”

“This includes blocking the entry of 300,000 tents, prefabricated mobile homes, and caravans,” the agency added.

https://embed.bsky.app/embed/did:plc:skmvc4cstxwtt3oct44fpf66/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7t3otbj7w2f?id=6146816129335417&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.commondreams.org%252Fnews%252Fgaza-infant-hypothermia&colorMode=system

In a statement Friday, Doctors Without Borders Gaza emergency coordinator Caroline Seguin said that the charity is “very, very worried about the next month with the winter coming and the heavy rain.”

“Last year we saw a huge increase in respiratory infections for children, diarrhea as well, and of course all the wounded that are living inside the tents will have big difficulties to heal their wounds and will have probably an increase of infection for the wound of the wounded,” Seguin noted. “It’s near to be not possible to live in this conditions.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.

Continue ReadingAnother Palestinian Infant Dies of Hypothermia in Storm-Battered Gaza

‘Total Amateur Hour’: FBI Official Says Antifa Is #1 Threat in US—But Can’t Say Where, Who, or What It Is

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Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Operations Director of the National Security Branch at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Michael Glasheen testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security on December 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Just a complete admission here that the entire ‘antifa’ threat narrative is totally manufactured by this administration,” said one critic.

A top FBI official struggled on Thursday to answer basic questions about antifa, a loosely organized collective of anti-fascist activists that he labeled the top terrorist threat facing the US.

Michael Glasheen, operations director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, testified before the US House Committee on Homeland Security that antifa was “the most immediate violent threat” facing Americans today when it comes to domestic terrorism.

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But when Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, asked Glasheen for specifics about this purportedly dire threat, he mostly came up empty.

“So where is antifa headquarters?” Thompson asked him.

Glasheen paused for several seconds and then said, “What we’re doing right now with the organization…” before Thompson interrupted him.

“Where in the United States does antifa exist?” asked Thompson.

“We are building out the infrastructure right now,” Glasheen replied.

“So what does that mean?” asked a bewildered Thompson. “I’m just, we’re trying to get information. You said antifa is a terrorist organization. Tell us, as a committee, how did you come to that? Whether they exist, how many members do they have in the United States as of right now?”

“Well, that’s very fluid,” Glasheen said. “It’s ongoing for us to understand that… no different from al-Qaeda and ISIS.”

Thompson again interrupted and tried to make Glasheen answer his original question.

“If you said antifa is the No. 1 domestic terrorist organization operating in the United States,” he said, “I just need to know where they are, how many people. I don’t want a name, I don’t want anything like that. Just, how many people have you identified, with the FBI, that antifa is made of?”

“Well, the investigations are active…” Glasheen said.

Thompson then became incredulous.

“Sir, you wouldn’t come to this committee and say something you can’t prove,” he said. “I know you wouldn’t do that. But you did.”

Many observers were stunned that Glasheen appeared to know so little about what he proclaimed to be the top domestic terrorist threat facing the US.

“Total amateur hour in US law enforcement,” remarked Democracy Docket news editor Matthew Kupfer, “where the No. 1 terror threat is an organization that does not formally exist and a career FBI official is dancing around before a congressional committee trying to make the Trump strategy sound legit.”

Zeteo editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan argued that Glasheen’s testimony was proof that the administration was simply concocting domestic terrorism threats with zero basis in reality.

“Wow,” Hasan marveled. “Just a complete admission here that the entire ‘antifa’ threat narrative is totally manufactured by this administration.”

Fred Wellman, a Democratic congressional candidate in Missouri, wondered how many actual dangerous criminals are running free while the FBI focuses on taking down an organization that it apparently knows nothing about.

“This would be comical if there wasn’t real world impact from this idiocy,” Wellman wrote. “We have real crimes and real threats and they are chasing a fake ‘organization’ for politics.”

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee also piled on Glasheen, citing his testimony as evidence that the Trump administration is completely unserious about law enforcement.

“If your ‘top threat’ has no headquarters, no organization, and no definition then it’s not a top threat,” they posted on social media. “The Trump administration is ignoring real threats, and the American people see right through it.”

Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading‘Total Amateur Hour’: FBI Official Says Antifa Is #1 Threat in US—But Can’t Say Where, Who, or What It Is

‘Stop Arming Israel,’ Jewish-Led Groups Tell DNC Leaders at Party Summit

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Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

A massive smoke and dust cloud rises after Israeli forces demolish several buildings in the Shujaiyya neighborhood located inside the so-called yellow zone in northern Gaza City, Gaza on December 9, 2025. (Photo by Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“The American public is demanding decisive action to end US complicity in the Israeli government’s war crimes by stopping the flow of weapons to Israel.”

Jewish Voice for Peace Action on Friday led a coalition of groups demanding that the Democratic Party stop providing arms to the Israeli government.

Speaking outside the Democratic National Committee’s Winter Meeting in Los Angeles, Jewish Voice for Peace Action (JVP Action) held a press conference calling on Democrats to oppose all future weapons shipments to Israel, whose years-long assault on Gaza has, according to one estimate, killed more than 100,000 Palestinian people.

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While carrying banners that read, “Stop Arming Israel,” speakers at the press conference also called on Democrats to reject money from the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), which has consistently funded primary challenges against left-wing critics of Israel.

JVP Action was joined at the press conference by representatives from Health Care 4 US (HC4US), Progressive Democrats of America, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action (CAIR Action), and the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) Board of Directors.

Estee Chandler, founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, warned Democrats at the press conference that they risked falling out of touch with public opinion if they continued to support giving weapons to Israel.

“The polls are clear,” Chandler said. “The American public is demanding decisive action to end US complicity in the Israeli government’s war crimes by stopping the flow of weapons to Israel, and the Democratic Party refusing to heed that call will continue to come at their own peril.”

The press conference came a day after the progressive advocacy group RootsAction and journalist Christopher D. Cook released an “autopsy” report of the Democratic Party’s crushing 2024 losses, finding that the party’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza contributed to last year’s election results.

Chandler also called on Democrats to get behind the Block the Bombs Act, which currently has 58 sponsors, and which she said “would block the transfer of the worst offensive weapons from being sent to Israel, including bombs, tank rounds, and artillery shells that are US-supplied and have been involved in the mass killing of Palestinian civilians and the grossest violations of international law in Gaza.”

Although there has technically been a ceasefire in place in Gaza since October, Israeli forces have continued to conduct deadly military operations in the enclave that have killed hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children.

Ricardo Pires, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund, said last month that the number of deaths in Gaza in recent weeks has been “staggering” given that they’ve happened “during an agreed ceasefire.”

Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.

Continue Reading‘Stop Arming Israel,’ Jewish-Led Groups Tell DNC Leaders at Party Summit

Morning Star Editorial: Robinson’s ‘Christianity’ reflects US leadership of the global far right

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/robinsons-christianity-reflects-us-leadership-global-far-right

 Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, London, November 4, 2025

ANTI-RACISTS, many of them Christians, will challenge far-right agitator “Tommy Robinson” over his attempt to identify Christianity with his message of hatred this weekend.

Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) hosting a carol service is a surreal contrast to his normal routine of bigoted rants and spontaneous punch-ups.

He supposedly found God while in prison for contempt of court for repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee, though he hasn’t shown much contrition for his violation of the Ninth Commandment since. Indeed this is hardly a Damascene conversion given Robinson’s priorities (railing against immigrants and Muslims) seem exactly the same as before.

The recent emergence of Christian nationalism in Britain may have less to do with Robinson’s spiritual journey than with the influence of Donald Trump’s United States over the global far right.

Robinson is always acutely alert to where the money is and the US Christian right is awash with it. We also know, from the White House’s new national security strategy, that it hopes to reshape Europe in its own image.

It declares Europe at risk of “civilisational erasure” from immigration, commits itself to “help Europe correct its current trajectory” and identifies the “the growing influence of patriotic European parties” as the means to do so.

This is a potentially huge boost to the far right in countries like Britain. But it can be turned into a weakness.

A boost, because resources matter.

Robinson has already had legal fees paid by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who addressed the huge far-right demonstration held in London in September.

Their movement will have access to enormous funds, enabling effective propaganda operations and paid organisers.

It’s backed by the most powerful country on Earth — something we saw hints of in the succession of far-right figures hosted by US Vice-President JD Vance on a so-called holiday in England last summer, under the very noses of the supposedly allied British government he was working to undermine.

A factor which again benefits the far right: the liberal Establishment cannot conceive of a breach with Washington, and continues to lick the boots that are kicking it in the ribs. Most recently with a craven surrender to US demands over NHS drug pricing, which will raise the cost of medicine and cost British lives.

But that’s why the apparent asset of being a US asset can be turned against the insurgent right.

Robinson is not the only recipient of US largesse. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is also linked to the US “Maga” movement (he has received free services from the PR firm Capital HQ, linked to Steve Bannon, and is notorious for his frequent transatlantic trips).

Its economic priorities, in particular an acceleration of healthcare privatisation by proposing vouchers allowing access to private providers, align with the US aim — openly avowed in documents like Project 2025 — of turning the NHS into a cash cow for US companies.

We should expose the foreign money behind these so-called “patriotic” movements — and the similarity between the far right’s fixation with privatisation and deregulation with that of Tory and Labour governments. The flood of ex-Tories joining Reform do so because it is a Tory party: it is not “anti-Establishment” at all.

And our message in calling out Robinson’s perversion of the Christian spirit needs to look beyond him to the normalisation of cruelty in the political mainstream.

At Christmas Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, born in a stable, child refugee from King Herod, who urged his followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger and visit the prisoner.

That message damns a government that cuts benefits, hounds asylum-seekers and is ready to let eight brave hunger-strikers, some jailed for over a year already though none have faced trial, starve to death rather than address the injustice it has done them.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/robinsons-christianity-reflects-us-leadership-global-far-right

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Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Robinson’s ‘Christianity’ reflects US leadership of the global far right