Police detain protesters outside Woolwich Crown Court, London, during a hearing where Palestine Action activists were due to be sentenced over over a break-in at the UK base of an Israel-based defence firm, Elbit Systems site near Bristol on August 6 2024
YOUR PARTY parliamentary leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged to oppose the government’s National Security (State Threats) Bill today as ministers started to rush the measure through Parliament.
He warned that the Bill “is an alarming expansion of state power, and an escalation of the government’s chilling assault on the right to protest.
“This week more than 100 people were arrested for holding placards in support of a group that has taken direct action against British complicity in genocide. Meanwhile, Britain continues to sell arms to a state whose leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“This Bill represents a further, grave risk to our civil liberties. Under the new legislation, people can be criminalised for ‘expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of’ bodies that the Home Secretary deems prejudicial to ‘the safety or interests’ of the UK.”
Mr Corbyn added: “Deliberately vague and open-ended, this legislation gives the Home Secretary sweeping powers to criminalise political campaigns of their choosing.
“We are going down a very dangerous path, and the fact that this legislation is being rushed through Parliament in one day should alarm us all.
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Former Israeli Prime Minister and leader of Israel Democratic party, Ehud Barak speaks at the Party’s Election campaign event in Tel Aviv on July 17, 2019. [Gili Yaari/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be removed “with sticks and stones” if he attempts to undermine the upcoming general election, Anadolu reports.
Barak, who served as Israel’s prime minister from 1999 to 2001, made the remarks in an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster KAN.
“I fear Netanyahu may try to sabotage the elections, and he can do it very easily,” Barak said. “If he tries, we will have no choice but to remove him with sticks and stones.”
Netanyahu, 76, has led the current government since late December 2022. His coalition has been widely described as the most right-wing since Israel was established on Palestinian territories in 1948.
The Knesset’s current term expires in October 2026, with elections expected to be held in September or October.
Barak argued that Netanyahu “could sabotage the elections by launching operations in Lebanon that would provoke retaliation from Hezbollah and Iran.
“Netanyahu wants an endless war because he understands that ending it would accelerate his trial,” Barak said. “Just as he obstructed some prisoner-exchange deals (with Hamas), he also blocked the possibility of progress in Lebanon.”
Netanyahu is currently standing trial in Israel on corruption charges and is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2024 on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Barak also criticized the emerging agreement between the US and Iran. “In one word: bad. In two words: very bad,” he said.
He warned that “Israel is paying the price for Netanyahu’s arrogance and lack of foresight,” adding that the arrangement under discussion was “not an agreement, but a memorandum of understanding that failed to address either missiles or Iran’s regional allies.”
Barak argued that “none of the objectives of the war against Iran have been achieved.”
The remarks drew immediate criticism from Netanyahu’s allies.
Boaz Bismuth, a Likud lawmaker and chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, called for a criminal investigation into Barak for what he described as legitimizing violence against the prime minister.
“He should be sent to a psychiatrist, and if he is found mentally fit, a criminal investigation should be opened against him immediately,” Bismuth said in a post on US social media company X.
While US President Donald Trump said an agreement with Iran that would open the Strait of Hormuz would be signed on Sunday, Tehran has disputed the timeline and says the signing could happen in the coming days.
Since the April 8 ceasefire mediated by Pakistan, efforts aimed at ending the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28 have continued.
Article by republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
US service members conduct an Armed Forces Full Honors Arrival Ceremony for the outgoing head of the Israeli military, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, in Conmy Hall at Fort Myer, Virginia on February 18, 2025. (Photo by Sgt. Nathan Winter/US Army)
“At a time when Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza… Congress should be cutting off military support—not integrating the US military and Israeli defense sector,” said one critic.
A US congressional committee on Thursday rejected an amendment to strip a provision from next year’s Pentagon funding bill aimed at deepening integration of the US and Israeli militaries under the guise of reducing aid.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced an amendment to strike Section 224—which would establish a formal “United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative”—from the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. The proposed NDAA authorizes $1.15 trillion in baseline military spending, while the Trump administration’s full defense request seeks an unprecedented, debt-exploding $1.5 trillion in armed forces and related funding for the coming fiscal year.
Section 224 would require the US defense secretary to designate a Pentagon executive agent responsible for coordinating and expanding US-Israel defense technology cooperation.
In Thursday’s voice vote, members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) from both parties rejected the amendment to remove Section 2024 from the NDAA, with only Khanna and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) backing the measure.
The House voted today on a new measure to fuse elements of the Israeli and US militaries, particularly on the cyberweapons front. Section 224, as its known, is included in the National Defense Authorization Act. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to strip it from… https://t.co/xWAiZQ03BCpic.twitter.com/rLUViMeKLv
While proponents of Section 224 contend that the measure would reduce US taxpayer funding for Israel, Khanna argued that the provision amounts to a blank check for a country that most Americans oppose sending more aid to.
“The American people are tired of the arrogance and insolence of Prime Minister Netanyahu telling America what we should do,” the congressman said Thursday while promoting his amendment. “The entire country of Israel has a GDP that is less than a single town in my district, yet somehow Netanyahu thinks he could tell the American people what we should do.”
“I am for Team America,” Khanna added. “I am for the interests of this country, and I believe that’s what [President] Donald Trump ran on. That includes American interests against any foreign country. We should have American sovereignty and make it clear that we strike 224. If we want to give aid to Israel, if we want to sell them weapons, that should be a vote for the entire Congress.”
This is a simple question. Do we do more for Israel now or less? I introduced an amendment to strike 224 because I am for the American people calling the shots, not Netanyahu. I am for Team America. pic.twitter.com/FTWToXOl2T
In a letter to Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.)—who is not on the HASC—Netanyahu said he is “heartened” by Section 224’s plan to “develop a new Memorandum of Understanding with the United States government” that will reduce “US financial military assistance over the next decade” and replace it with “a new framework of joint defense cooperation, codevelopment, coproduction, and mutual investment.”
The US has provided more than $20 billion in armed aid to Israel during the Biden and Trump administrations since Netanyahu launched the genocidal war on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. The current 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Israel, signed in 2016 during former President Barack Obama’s tenure, provided Israel with $38 billion in US military aid and expires in 2028.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)—who has partnered with Khanna on introducing or supporting war powers resolutions aimed at curbing Trump’s ability to wage unconstitutional wars in countries including Yemen, Venezuela, and Iran—said last month that if Section 224 made it out of committee, he would work with Khanna to “offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor.”
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is urging Americans to contact their members of Congress to tell them to reject Section 224.
U.S. tax dollars have bene funding Israel’s war crimes. Section 224 would make that funding automatic, classified, and permanent.
Demand congress to reject section 224!
📢 TAKE ACTION: 👉 Send a letter to your representative: [https://t.co/R00bzrtYrZ] 👉 Call the House Armed…
“This is not ‘America First.’ It is Israel First,” ADC argues on its website. “The resolution languageattached to this proposal gives it away: it expresses support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initiative to transition the US–Israel relationship toward mutual defense cooperation and joint economic investment. This language turns Congress into a vehicle for advancing Netanyahu’s agenda and asks the American people to treat it as their own national security policy.”
“Section 224 would move US support for Israel away from the more transparent foreign aid framework and into a maze of Pentagon procurement, licensing, data-sharing, and backdoor deals that are harder for Congress, taxpayers, and future administrations to monitor, cap, condition, or unwind,” the group continued. “Concerns of undefined ‘network integration’ and ‘data fusion’ should alarm every American who cares about sovereignty, privacy, civil liberties, and democratic oversight.”
“At a time when Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, exporting surveillance technologies used against activists and journalists around the world, marketing military technology tested on Palestinians, and carrying out terrorist attacks as seen in the cell phone [bombings] in Lebanon, Congress should be cutting off military support—not integrating the US military and Israeli defense sector and making accountability harder than ever,” ADC added.
In an opinion piece published this week by Common Dreams, Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote that “lawmakers should reject Section 224 from the NDAA to avoid deep integration with Israel’s military at a time when a growing number of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in the region.”
“This unprecedented level of US-Israeli military integration stands in stark contrast to the traditional aid model of defense cooperation, in which Israel already stood out as the top recipient of US military assistance,” Freeman said.
Article by republished form 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.Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
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Former ICC’s Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda [Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung/Flickr]
Former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, said she was pressured and threatened in connection with investigations related to Palestine, including direct contacts from former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Bensouda said Cohen met her twice — in Munich and New York City — and explicitly requested that she halt investigations concerning Palestine.
She described the request as direct interference in the work of the court.
According to Bensouda, the pressure later escalated into indirect threats targeting members of her family. She said her husband was followed and information was gathered about him in what she believed was an attempt to influence her decisions.
Bensouda stated that she informed Dutch authorities about the threats but did not receive what she considered adequate protection.
She also said that member states of the ICC did not provide sufficient political backing in the face of Israeli pressure related to the Palestine investigations.
The former prosecutor stressed that the court must continue its work independently despite political pressure, arguing that international justice should not be subordinated to political interests.
The comments come amid ongoing controversy surrounding ICC investigations into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The ICC previously issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over allegations related to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
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Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stands at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, ahead of an address by the US president in Jerusalem on October 13, 2025. [Chip Somodevilla / POOL / AFP/ Getty Images]
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday and vowed to continue escalating measures against Palestinians, following reports that the court is considering issuing an international arrest warrant against him.
Earlier on Monday, British news website Middle East Eye reported that a request had been submitted to the ICC seeking a secret arrest warrant for Ben-Gvir and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The website did not identify the party that submitted the request. Neither the ICC nor the Israeli government had issued an official comment as of 20:00 GMT.
In a statement, Ben-Gvir said: “I am not afraid and I will not back down. No order from The Hague will stop me from continuing to lead an aggressive policy against terrorists.”
He claimed the court was “protecting terrorists and trying to restrict Israel”, adding: “I will continue to fully support Israeli fighters and act firmly for the security of our citizens. I will not apologise and I will not stop.”
Palestinian and international rights groups have increasingly called for an arrest warrant against Ben-Gvir over what they describe as repeated incitement against Palestinian prisoners, including his backing of a Knesset law seeking the execution of prisoners.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.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.
Police detain protesters outside Woolwich Crown Court, London, during a hearing where Palestine Action activists were due to be sentenced over over a break-in at the UK base of an Israel-based defence firm, Elbit Systems site near Bristol on August 6 2024
