Torture, genocide and erasure
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
“This is not incidental violence. It is the architecture of settler-colonialism, built on a foundation of dehumanisation and maintained by a policy of cruelty and collective terror.” The concluding sentence to the summary of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s report to the UN Human Rights Council on torture and genocide succinctly sums up how Israel has been using torture as part of its gradual annihilation of the Palestinian people. Since October 2023, torture has become a weapon in Israel’s genocide.
Albanese notes that while torture is a crime under international law, the Genocide Convention describes torture as an underlying act of genocide “when inflicted with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group “as such”. Genocide, Albanese explains from the legal framework of the Genocide Convention, “many be committed through sustained practices that break bodies, minds and collective resilience.”
READ: Israeli army demolishes Palestinian park, car showroom in occupied West Bank
The historical realities of torture since the British Mandate contextualises the current torture practices Israel inflicts on Palestinians today. British torture practices were incorporated by Israel after 1948. In 1987, the Landau Commission effectively ruled in favour of torture “on a person suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.” With impunity assigned a foundation, what happens when a settler-colonial entity which treats Palestinians as legitimate targets for annihilation, blatantly considers all Palestinians as terrorists?
Torture becomes normalised, and because the international community has already subscribed to Israel’s security narrative, there is no opposition to a practice that, as Albanese illustrated, also constitutes an underlying act of genocide.
It is not Israel’s torture of Palestinian detainees since October 2023 that catches attention when reading the report, but the analysis of how Israel uses genocide as a means of torture. Albanese’s report illustrates how mass displacement, the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure and cultural sites, the erasure of collective memory through such destruction, the destruction of the healthcare system, starvation, permanent disabilities, as well as Israeli weaponry used against Palestinians in Gaza all constitute forms of torture. The same applies to the occupied West Bank, where sophisticated surveillance and military incursions, the destruction of refugee camps and agricultural land, all constitute forms of torture and genocidal violence.
READ: Gaza death toll from Israeli war nears 72,300, Health Ministry says
Having prioritised Israel’s security narrative over rights, both the Knesset and Israel’s judiciary have normalised torture. Albanese writes, “Torture has thus become a collective enterprise,” showing how the entire fabric of Israeli society renders itself a participant in torture practices through the settler-colonial narrative. “by targeting the totality of the people, across the totality of the occupied land, through a totality of conduct, genocide has become the ultimate form of torture: continuous, generational and collective.”
Justice, Albanese stated, should “confront torture not as an isolated crime, but as a foundational pillar of the genocidal project aimed at the complete erasure – physical and psychological destruction, displacement and replacement – of the Palestinian people.” Torture as state policy has ensured that no aspect of Palestinian life is immune. The report illustrates what statistical data omits – the price Palestinians are paying in their daily lives for the international community’s complicity with colonialism and genocide.
BLOG: The UN leaves UNRWA isolated, and Palestinians prone to genocide
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Green MPs and peers demand answers from Starmer and an end to UK involvement in illegal US-Israel war on Iran
Iran’s Foreign Minister has warned Yvette Cooper in a phone call that allowing US use of UK bases is considered as British “participation in aggression”.
Green MPs and peers have written to Keir Starmer expressing alarm at the UK’s involvement in the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran and pressing the Prime Minister to answer a number of urgent questions – including what control, if any, the UK has over US strikes launched from British bases and whether British-made weapons components are being used in breach of international law.
They note that the UK is obliged under international law to have no involvement in illegal military action, including the use of UK bases and UK-made weapons, and reiterate demands for an end to all UK complicity in this illegal war.
FULL TEXT OF LETTER
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing as Green Party MPs and Peers to express our alarm at the UK’s involvement in the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran.
Already well over 1,000 civilians have been killed, including a reported 168 children killed by a missile now widely believed to be from the United States (Guardian, 2026). UNICEF has reported that the Israeli military’s assault on Lebanon is killing or injuring the equivalent of one classroom of children every day (Reuters, 2026).
In addition to the grave humanitarian impacts, the longer this illegal, unnecessary war continues, the greater the global economic fallout – to which the UK is particularly exposed because it remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
In light of this, there are urgent questions your government must answer:
- What steps, if any, is your government taking to ensure that B-1 and B-52 bombers taking off from RAF Fairford are being used for ‘specific, limited defensive purposes’ – as you committed to?
- What assessment have you made, if any, of how many Iranian civilians have been killed by US bombing missions from British air bases?
- Are target lists for US strikes from British soil approved by the Ministry of Defence before each mission or audited afterwards?
- Is the US being permitted to load banned cluster munitions at British bases?
- What assessment has the government made of the risk of UK-made weapons components being used in violation of international law in Iran, including in the Tomahawk missile systems which may have been involved in the strike on the Shajareh Tayyerbeh girls’s school which killed a reported 168 children and 14 teachers, in the single deadliest known attack so far?
- What assessment has the government made of the risk of UK-made weapons components being used by the Israeli government in violation of international law in Lebanon?
The UK is obliged under international law to have no involvement in illegal military action, including the use of UK bases and UK-made weapons. It is therefore of the utmost importance that these questions are answered as a matter of urgency.
This illegal war is inflicting untold suffering and devastation in the region and will cause huge and long lasting human, political, economic and environmental ramifications, as well as the immediate impact on the cost-of-living for our constituents. We, as Green Party MPs and Peers, reiterate our calls for the UK government to:
- Withdraw all permission for the US to use UK military bases for attacks on Iran.
- End all arms sales to and military cooperation with the Israeli government.
- Impose sanctions on government officials responsible for breaches of international law.
- Condemn the actions of Trump and Netanyahu for their flagrant violations of international law.
- Refuse any further complicity in this illegal war.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Ellie Chowns MP
Carla Denyer MP
Siân Berry MP
Hannah Spencer MP
Adrian Ramsay MP
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
‘AIPAC Getting Desperate’: Pro-Israel Super PAC Tries to Splinter Left Vote in Illinois House Primary
Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Kat Abughazaleh, the progressive candidate for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, said the Israel lobby’s attempt “to split the vote” between progressive candidates “has never been seen before.”
With just days until the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, Chicago voters found their social media feeds blanketed with an ad praising a candidate considered well out of the running in Tuesday’s race.
“Bushra Amiwala is the real deal, fighting for real economic justice,” concludes the 30-second commercial, which touts the 28-year-old activist’s backing of Medicare for All, student loan forgiveness, and other policies aimed at economic justice.
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As it came to light that a political action committee associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was behind the ad, Amiwala said she “could not be more disgusted” by the campaign.
“Let me be clear,” she said. “We don’t want it, we didn’t ask for it, and we’re demanding they stop.”
The ad boosting Amiwala was part of a $100,000 spending blitz by the Chicago Progressive Partnership, which The New York Times describes as “a super PAC that has disclosed few details about its backers but shares vendors with groups linked to [AIPAC].”
The pro-Israel lobbying group is not throwing resources behind Amiwala, a fierce defender of Palestinian rights, to boost her campaign, but to sap the momentum of Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive candidate who has surged to within arm’s length of leading the race in the weeks ahead of the March 17 primary.
AIPAC has spent more than $1 million trying to stop Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old Palestinian-American journalist and media analyst, from taking the seat held by the retiring incumbent Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat.
Abughazaleh, whose grandparents fled Jerusalem during the 1948 Nakba, has called Israel’s US-backed military campaign in Gaza a “genocide,” and has called for the conditioning of military aid to Israel—including funds for its Iron Dome defense system—on an end to its human rights violations.
She has also opposed laws criminalizing participation in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to pressure Israel to change its conduct using economic means.
The most recent poll, from March 9-10, shows Abughazaleh trailing just four points behind frontrunner Daniel Biss, the Democratic mayor of Evanston, Illinois.
Though he recently has described AIPAC as “toxic” and has called for the conditioning of some “offensive” aid to Israel, Biss described BDS as a tactic “used to advance antisemitic ideology” and said he supports the “special relationship” between the US and Israel in a January blog post.
He has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of creating a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, but has stopped short of using the word “genocide.”
AIPAC, meanwhile, has thrown more than $4.6 million behind an even more pro-Israel candidate, state Sen. Laura Fine (D-9), who during the race has firmly supported full military funding for the country “without additional conditions,” even after its military campaign has killed at least 72,000 people in Gaza and independent estimates show even higher death tolls.
Biss has also become a target of $1.5 million in spending from another AIPAC-aligned group, Elect Chicago Women, which has run ads attacking him over a vote to cut Medicaid and for having broken his pledge to serve a full term as mayor before seeking higher office.
The 9th District is one of four Democratic primaries across Illinois where AIPAC and aligned groups have spent more than $15.8 million combined to support pro-Israel candidates, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings analyzed by the group AIPAC Tracker.
Like in Illinois-9, these groups have shied away from making their connections with AIPAC known—as Democratic voters overwhelmingly distrust its branding—and have attacked their opponents on issues not related to Israel and often from the left.
AIPAC has already attempted this tactic in New Jersey’s 11th district, where it backfired tremendously last month: Rather than helping a right-wing candidate, the group’s attack ads claiming that the liberal Zionist former Rep. Tom Malinowsky supported US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) led votes to flow to Analilia Mejía, a progressive endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) who ultimately emerged victorious.
“Massive outside spending from corporate PACs and groups like AIPAC has long been used to overwhelm grassroots candidates and distort the democratic process, reflecting the priorities of wealthy donors rather than everyday voters,” Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of the progressive group Our Revolution, told Common Dreams. “But recent races show that strategy does not always deliver the results these interests expect. From New Jersey’s 11th district to North Carolina, where Nida Allam came within a fraction of a percent of victory, voters are increasingly questioning the flood of outside money in their elections.”
Nevertheless, AIPAC is using the same playbook in Illinois.
Axios noted that last week, the Chicago Progressive Partnership began targeting tech entrepreneur Junaid Ahmed, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Justice Democrat-backed candidate in Illinois’ 8th district, not for his outspoken criticisms of Israel but for his large personal fortune and his investments in Tesla, which it used to tie him to its CEO Elon Musk, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump.
Abughazaleh has been hit with similar attacks claiming she’d received funds from “right-wing donors” and criticizing her support for Republican Marco Rubio in the 2016 presidential election, when she was in high school.
In the final days of the campaign, Abughazaleh has described AIPAC’s tactics against her as a sign of “desperation” in the face of growing “Abughamania.”
With Fine largely out of the running, she said the group has pivoted toward “the only horse left they could have in this race: Mayor Daniel Biss.”
Abughazaleh described the group’s sudden launch of ads supporting Amiwala “to try to split the vote” as something that “has never been seen before.”
On Sunday, Abughazaleh won a key endorsement, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian-American in Congress. She also has the backing of another leading progressive figure in Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), as well as the Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement.
“AIPAC’s guiding principle when buying elections: Just lie,” said Justice Democrats in response to a report on AIPAC’s tactics to divide left-wing voters. “Spend millions to lie about who you are, lie about who you’re supporting, lie about your agenda. They know that they are so toxic and their policies are so unpopular that being truthful would lose them every election.”
Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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Leftist Journalist Owen Jones Vindicated in Libel Case Over BBC’s Biased Coverage of Gaza Genocide
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
The BBC has long been accused of centering Israel and dismissing the humanity of Palestinians in its coverage of Gaza.
British journalist Owen Jones on Thursday celebrated a UK High Court judge’s ruling in his favor in a libel lawsuit that a BBC editor brought against him—and said that should the editor choose to move forward with his case despite the decision, he was looking forward “to defending my article in court.”
The High Court ruled that Jones was expressing an opinion when he wrote an article for Drop Site News in December 2024 titled “The BBC’s Civil War Over Gaza,” in which he spoke to BBC staffers about Middle East online editor Raffi Berg’s influence over the news outlet’s coverage of Israel and Palestine.
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The court also said Jones had expressed his opinion and that of his sources based on concrete examples of Berg’s editorial role and journalism.
Jones’ article described staffers’ allegations that “internal complaints about how the BBC covers Gaza have been repeatedly brushed aside” as Berg “sets the tone” for the outlet’s online coverage of Israel’s onslaught in the exclave, where more than 75,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023 in what’s been called a genocide by top Holocaust scholars and human rights groups.
It noted that the BBC failed to report on Amnesty International’s finding that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and displayed an on-screen chyron reading, “Israel rejects ‘fabricated’ claims of genocide.’”
“Journalists expressed concerns over bias in the shaping of the Middle East index of the BBC news website,” wrote Jones. “Several allege that Berg ‘micromanages’ this section, ensuring that it fails to uphold impartiality.”
The BBC has long been criticized for centering Israel and “dehumanizing” Palestinians, as more than 1,000 artists said in a letter last year when they condemned the network for refusing to air a documentary about the impact of Israel’s attacks on children in Gaza, on the grounds that it featured the child of the exclave’s deputy minister of agriculture—suggesting “that Palestinians holding administrative roles are inherently complicit in violence.”
The article also pointed to Berg’s own history of pro-Israel coverage, including a 2002 story “that presented young [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers as courageous defenders of their country while failing to mention the occupation and settlement of Palestinian land or the widespread allegations of crimes” documented by human rights groups and the US government.
Berg also presented Israeli settlers in the West Bank as “victims seeking ‘a better quality of life’ and did not mention the fact that the settlements have been repeatedly deemed illegal,” and wrote about the Mossad “in glowing terms” in a book he wrote with extensive cooperation from the Israeli intelligence agency.
He also posted a photo on social media showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a copy of Berg’s book on his bookshelf, Jones reported.
Berg’s lawyer said last year that Jones’ reporting attacked Berg’s “professional reputation as a journalist and editor,” and led to death threats.
In order for his case against Jones to proceed, Berg would now need to prove in court that “Jones did not genuinely hold the opinion he expressed in his reporting, or demonstrate that the opinion is not one an honest person could hold on the basis of any fact that existed at the time of its publication,” Middle East Eye reported.
“I am proud to stand by my journalism,” said Jones Thursday.
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).