This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara (L) arrives to attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem on July 9, 2023 [GIL COHEN-MAGEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]
The Israeli government’s legal adviser, Gali Baharav-Miara, on Thursday evening asked Israel’s Supreme Court to issue a conditional order requiring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to explain why he has not dismissed Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
In her request, Baharav-Miara said that “Minister Ben Gvir is abusing his position to improperly influence the activities of the Israeli police in some of the most sensitive areas of law enforcement and investigations, thereby violating basic democratic principles”.
Shortly afterwards, Minister Ben Gvir responded to the Attorney General’s letter by saying: “You are not taken into account!”
In her letter, the Attorney General’s claimed that “Minister Ben Gvir is working systematically to undermine the independence of the police in every possible way, using his broad authority and exerting unlawful influence – direct and indirect – over the use of force and operational decisions in specific incidents, including in highly sensitive matters”.
She added that she had reached an agreement with the minister, but that he had breached it, saying: “The minister is acting unlawfully and in violation of the explicit court rulings issued in his case.”
Baharav-Miara concluded: “At this stage, there is no choice but to conclude that the public cannot be protected from systematic conduct that harms the independence of the police. As stated, this threatens its nature as a non-political state body, with serious consequences for the protection of human rights and the rule of law. This situation results in a real violation of basic democratic values.”
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
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.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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Israeli soldiers are deployed at Erez border with heavy weapons and military vehicles in Erez, Israel on February 29, 2024. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) on Friday said it filed a criminal complaint in the Czech Republic against an Israeli soldier accused of committing war crimes and acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports.
In a statement, the HRF said it submitted the complaint before the the High Public Prosecutor’s Office in Prague against Hagay Monsonego, a member of the Israeli army.
It said the complaint was submitted following confirmation that Monsonego is currently present in Prague, “a fact that activates the Czech Republic’s obligations under international and domestic law.”
“This filing, submitted to the High Public Prosecutor’s Office in Prague, marks HRF’s third criminal complaint in the Czech Republic related to crimes committed in Gaza,” said the statement.
“With this third filing, HRF is no longer testing legal theory. It is testing state practice.” The complaint accused Monsonego of “genocide, war crimes, and persecution of civilians committed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.”
The latest filing follows HRF’s investigative report on Monsonego that documented his service in Gaza as a member of the Mesayaat Shaked Company, 424th “Shaked” Battalion, Givati Brigade, and placed him within the operational context of some of the most serious crimes committed during the assault on Gaza.
The group said the complaint was filed by Jan Taubel, HRF’s legal counsel in the Czech Republic, translating HRF’s evidence into concrete allegations under Czech criminal law.
According to HRF’s investigation, Monsonego was deployed in the besieged enclave between December 2023 and November 2025, including during the siege and destruction of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex.
The complaint links Monsonego and his unit to operations connected to an attack on a protected medical facility, the siege of civilians, patients, and medical staff, mass detention and mistreatment of Palestinian civilians, and practices involving blindfolding, restraint, and humiliation during arrest and transfer operations.
The Hind Rajab Foundation, which is named in honor of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, aims to address and challenge what it describes as Israeli impunity concerning war crimes and human rights violations in Palestine.
Israel killed more than 71,000 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza since October 2023 and destroyed the enclave. A ceasefire took effect in October 2025 but Israeli violations have continued.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the Gaza Strip.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
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.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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini holds a press conference at the UN headquarters on September 25, 2025, in New York City, USA.[Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, has condemned an Israeli Knesset (Parliament) vote targeting the agency, describing it as “outrageous”.
In a statement published on the X platform on Tuesday, Lazzarini said the legislation constitutes a blatant violation of the mandate granted to United Nations Relief and Works Agency by the UN General Assembly and represents a direct challenge to rulings issued by the International Court of Justice.
He said the legislation grants the Israeli government authority to confiscate UN property in occupied East Jerusalem, including UNRWA’s headquarters and its vocational training centre.
Lazzarini added that the bill explicitly excludes the agency from the immunities and privileges normally afforded to UN bodies, a move he said is intended to end UNRWA’s presence in occupied Jerusalem and sever all contact with its officials.
The UNRWA chief described the legislation as a serious blow to the multilateral system and part of a systematic campaign to discredit the agency and obstruct its role in delivering essential humanitarian assistance and development services to Palestinian refugees.
He stressed that Israel is obligated to act within the framework of the United Nations and its Charter, adding that any objections raised by Israel should be addressed through the appropriate UN deliberative bodies, rather than through unilateral legislative measures.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
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.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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Displaced Palestinians living in makeshift tents are trying to carry on their daily lives under harsh conditions in Deir al Balah, Gaza on December 29, 2025. [Mohammed Nassar – Anadolu Agency]
Eight European nations, Japan, and Canada on Tuesday expressed “serious concerns” about the renewed deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports.
In a joint statement, foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK recalled the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave.
The statement mentioned the appalling conditions that are exacerbated by winter, noting that 1.3 million Gazans still require urgent shelter assistance.
The foreign ministers cited the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, which was published earlier in December, as evidence that the situation remains desperate.
The statement expressed their appreciation for the ceasefire in Gaza but stated that they will not lose sight of the plight of Gaza’s civilian population.
It called on Israel to ensure that the UN, its partners, and NGOs can continue their vital work and lift unreasonable restrictions on imports considered to have a dual use.
Saying that many established international NGO partners are at risk of being deregistered because of Israel’s restrictive new requirements, it warned that deregistration could result in the forced closure of humanitarian operations within 60 days in Gaza and the West Bank.
“This would have a severe impact on access to essential services including healthcare,” said the statement.
Ensuring UN, its partners can continue their vital work is ‘essential’
It also underlined that ensuring the UN and its partners can continue their vital work is “essential” to the impartial, neutral, and independent delivery of aid throughout Gaza.
“This includes UNRWA, which provides essential services, such as healthcare and education, to millions of Palestinian refugees,” said the foreign ministers.
The statement also called on Tel Aviv to open crossings and increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“The target of 4,200 trucks per week, including an allocation of 250 UN trucks per day, should be a floor not a ceiling,” it said, adding that these targets should be lifted so they can be sure the vital supplies are getting in at the vast scale needed.
The nations also underlined that ongoing restrictions limit the capacity for aid to be delivered at the scale needed, in accordance with international humanitarian law, or for repairs to be made to support recovery and reconstruction efforts.
“We now urge the Government of Israel to remove these humanitarian access constraints, and to deliver and honour the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,” it added.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues to keep Gaza’s crossings largely closed, preventing the entry of mobile homes and reconstruction materials and worsening the humanitarian crisis affecting over 2 million people.
Palestinian officials say that at least 414 people in Gaza have been killed since the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas took place on Oct. 10.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed over 71,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
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.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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
The flags of Indonesia (L) and Israel (R) displayed together [AI generated image]
In recent months, as I continued investigating how pro-Israel narratives are being systematically injected into Indonesia’s social media ecosystem, I encountered yet another account demanding scrutiny. Operating alongside other digital efforts to sanitize Israel’s record, this account advances normalization not through debate or diplomacy, but through relentless repetition, emotional manipulation and the strategic erasure of context. The Instagram and Facebook account @israellovesindonesia is one such example.
At first glance, the account appears marginal. Active since August 2020, it has published more than 1,600 posts on Instagram but attracted only about 1,114 followers. Engagement is thin; likes rarely exceed 50, and comments are often sparse. When discussions do surface, many Indonesian users openly accuse the account of being a “buzzer,” shorthand for coordinated propaganda. Its Facebook counterpart, with roughly 1,000 followers, shows similarly limited reach.
But influence does not always announce itself through scale. Often, it works through persistence.
What @israellovesindonesia seeks to do is not to persuade Indonesians in a single moment, but to gradually dull resistance. The account relentlessly promotes positive news about Israel from mainstream outlets, highlights Israeli advances in agriculture and technology, and repeatedly urges Indonesia to sign what it calls a “Historic Peace Agreement.” Before October 2023, its feed was saturated with carefully curated images of coexistence: Israeli Jews providing medical aid, sharing Ramadan greetings and engaging in charitable acts. These posts were not neutral. They were designed to detach Israel’s image from its policies — to replace occupation with optics.
After October 2023, as Gaza was devastated, tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed, and Israel’s campaign was increasingly described by legal scholars, human rights organizations and states as genocidal, the tone shifted. The account pivoted toward emotionally manipulative storytelling, foregrounding narratives about Israeli hostages allegedly taken by Hamas while erasing the broader context of siege, apartheid and a genocide unfolding in full view of the world. More recently, it has begun openly endorsing Israeli geopolitical maneuvers, including Israel’s recognition of Somaliland — a move widely criticized as cynical and destabilizing.
On Facebook, the effects of this messaging are already visible. Posts quoting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s assertion that Gaza should not be rebuilt until Hamas is disarmed have drawn comments explicitly endorsing collective punishment. One user wrote, “Why keep terrorists alive? Spending huge amounts of money to rebuild Gaza will only turn it back into a terrorist nest. That’s a waste of money.” Another added, “It’s only normal that it shouldn’t be rebuilt — there are too many Hamas terrorists, as long as Hamas hasn’t been wiped out.”
These comments matter. They show how normalization functions in practice: by reframing genocide as security policy, mass civilian destruction as pragmatism, and Palestinian life as expendable.
In another post about South Africa revoking visas for Palestinians accused of misuse, commenters mocked Pretoria’s pro-Palestinian stance using religious contempt and whataboutism. This rhetorical maneuver — deflection instead of accountability — is a familiar companion to atrocity. It allows genocide to be minimized, relativized or dismissed altogether.
These accounts are not spontaneous. They are connected to The Peace Factory, founded by Ronny Edry, an Israeli graphic designer celebrated in Western media for his 2012 viral image declaring, “Iranians, we will never bomb your country.” Edry has since presented his work at TED, MIT and other international forums, promoting a vision of peace built through people-to-people messaging rather than politics.
But peace without truth is not peace. It is propaganda.
Campaigns like The Peace Factory deliberately evacuate power from the conversation. They erase occupation, apartheid and now genocide, replacing them with abstract appeals to empathy and mutual understanding. They ask the colonized to affirm the humanity of the colonizer while remaining silent about systems of domination and mass killing. In the context of Palestine, this is not naïveté. It is ideological laundering.
The danger is not that @israellovesindonesia will suddenly convince Indonesians to abandon Palestine. The danger is that normalization advances quietly and persistently, wrapped in the language of pragmatism, until genocide becomes background noise and outrage is trained to fade. Occupation is not a side issue. Apartheid is not an inconvenience. Genocide is not a policy disagreement to be managed away.
Indonesia’s position on Palestine is not incidental. It is rooted in the country’s founding identity. The Indonesian Constitution explicitly rejects colonialism in all its forms — a principle forged through Indonesia’s own experience of dispossession and struggle. To normalize relations with Israel while Palestinians endure occupation, apartheid and genocide would not be realism. It would be a moral collapse.
Peace cannot be built on curated social media feeds while Palestine lies in ruins. Friendship cannot be forged by demanding silence in the face of genocide. And normalization does not become ethical simply because it arrives wrapped in the language of love. Indonesia must resist this soft-power offensive — not because it is loud, but because it is patient, disciplined and designed to make injustice, even genocide, feel ordinary.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
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.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.Vote Labour for Genocide.
