Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich attend the weekly cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv on 7 January 2024 (Ronen Zvulun/AFP)
Finance minister describes Donald Trump’s election victory as an ‘opportunity’ to extend Israeli ‘sovereignty’ over the entire Palestinian territory
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has told his department to prepare for the annexation of the occupied West Bank in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections.
Speaking at a meeting of his far-right Religious Zionism party, Smotrich said that Trump’s victory provided an “important opportunity” and that “the time has come to apply sovereignty” over the West Bank.
According to a statement from his office, Smotrich said he had instructed Israeli authorities overseeing West Bank settlements “to begin professional and comprehensive staff work to prepare the necessary infrastructure” for extending sovereignty.
As well as finance minister, Smotrich has a role in the defence ministry overseeing illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Injured Palestinians, including children, are brought to Al Ahli Baptist Hospital for medical treatment following an Israeli attack on the Omar Al Mukhtar market in Gaza City, Gaza on November 11, 2024. (Photo: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Despite clear evidence showing that Israel is committing war crimes and blocking humanitarian aid, the U.S. is still unconscionably selling billions of dollars of offensive weapons to Israel,” said one advocate.
Ahead of historic U.S. Senate votes on military aid for Israel that are expected next week, dozens of civil society groups on Monday launched a grassroots campaign aimed at pushing lawmakers to support blocking more than $20 billion in offensive weapons transfers.
Demand Progress, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), Action Corps, and the Center for Constitutional Rights were among the groups that launched the No More Weapons for Israel’s War campaign, asking the groups’ millions of supporters across the U.S. to demand that their senators to support the joint resolutions of disapproval (JRD) that are scheduled for a vote this month.
The JRDs were introduced by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) in September. The resolutions could block transfers of certain U.S. weapons, such as joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs), tanks, and artillery shells, which have been linked to civilian casualties in Gaza since Israel began its assault on the enclave more than 13 months ago.
“For the last 13 months, the Biden administration has refused to use the leverage at its disposal to end to the war in Gaza and alleviate an ever-increasing humanitarian catastrophe,” said Cavan Kharrazian, senior policy adviser for Demand Progress. “Despite clear evidence showing that Israel is committing war crimes and blocking humanitarian aid, the U.S. is still unconscionably selling billions of dollars of offensive weapons to Israel.”
Kharrazian noted that passing the JRDs is “even more urgent now,” following the election last week of President-elect Donald Trump, a “notorious ally” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sanders pointed out when he introduced the JRDs in September that the weapons that would be impacted by the vote have been shown by “a mountain of documentary evidence” to be killing and maiming civilians in Gaza.
Amnesty International submitted a report to the federal government earlier this year detailing several Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure including homes in which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used U.S. weapons to kill large numbers of civilians.
An attack using JDAMs manufactured by Boeing killed 43 civilians, nearly half of whom were children, in October 2023. Four strikes used bombs and other weapons made in the U.S. and killed at least 95 civilians, including 42 children.
A Guardian analysis last month also found that U.S. weapons were used by the IDF when it conducted an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 115.
The Biden administration has repeatedly claimed that it is pushing Israel to limit civilian casualties, but has been condemned by human rights advocates and progressive lawmakers for continuing to provide offensive weapons despite mounting evidence that more civilians are being killed each day. Last week, the United Nations said it had found that 70% of people killed by the IDF in Gaza between November 2023 and April 2024 were women and children, despite persistent claims by the U.S. and Israel that it is targeting Hamas fighters.
“It’s time for the Israeli government to take U.S. demands about de-escalation, civilian protection, and humanitarian aid seriously,” said Tori Bateman, advocacy director for the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “If the United States wants to see the Israeli government change its behavior, then it must change too by being willing to leverage arms sales to achieve a cease-fire, protect civilians, and serve the U.S. national interest. Senators should vote ‘yes’ to block these transfers of offensive weapons to Israel.”
Progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups have pointed out in recent months that $12.5 billion in U.S. military aid has continued flowing to Israel even as the Israeli government has blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, resulting in the spread of disease and widespread hunger, with U.N. experts saying in July that the enclave was facing famine.
Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act prohibits the U.S. from providing weapons to a country that is blocking U.S. humanitarian aid.
“We are grateful Sen. Sanders has introduced the joint resolutions of disapproval and the historic vote to take place in November to block the sale of offensive arms to Israel,” said Yasmine Taeb, legislative and political director for MPower Change Action Fund. “Sending any offensive arms to Israel is a violation of U.S. and international humanitarian law. We urge senators to co-sponsor and vote YES on the JRDs.”
Hassan El-Yayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy for FCNL, called Israel’s war in Gaza “not just a humanitarian catastrophe but a mass atrocity carried out with U.S. bombs and military support, funded by American taxpayers.”
“It’s long overdue for Congress to hold a public debate and vote on ending U.S. complicity in the mass killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians,” said El-Yayyab. “These joint resolutions of disapproval mark a historic moment—the first major effort in Congress to block offensive arms sales to Israel in United States history. Senators must vote yes and press the Biden administration to use all forms of U.S. leverage to finally end the war in Gaza, bring hostages home, and de-escalate tensions across the Middle East.”
In a separate statement on Monday, Chip Gibbons of the civil liberties group Defending Rights & Dissent noted that “war crimes” committed by Israel include “the deliberate assassination of Palestinian journalists, making our government complicit in the worst attack on free expression rights anywhere in the world today.”
“As a domestic civil liberties group, we don’t take stances on international issues,” said Gibbons, the group’s policy director. “But when our government provides weapons that are used to violate human rights, that implicates our core mission.”
The group’s executive director, Sue Udry, applauded Sanders for introducing the JRDs and urged every member of Congress to support them.
“It’s well past time to hold our government accountable to our own laws,” said Udry.
Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
Protesters hit out at fossil fuel corporations fuelling the climate crisis and profiting from genocide in Gaza
Activists demonstrate for climate justice and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, November 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan
PROTESTERS hit out at oil giant BP “hijacking” Cop29 while profiting from the genocide in Gaza as the international climate summit kicked off in Azerbaijan today.
Palestine and climate campaigners protested outside the firm’s London headquarters as world leaders headed the latest round of international climate talks.
As the UN warned 2024 is set to be the hottest year on record, Fossil Free London activists held a banner reading “BP, stop fuelling genocide and climate breakdown.”
They demanded BP stop its oil and gas extraction, “hijacking” the Conference of the Parties (Cop) process in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku and “profiteering from genocide.”
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Human rights experts have warned that countries and corporations supplying oil to Israeli armed forces may be complicit in war crimes and genocide following an International Court of Justice ruling on Israel.
Joanna Warrington, a campaigner with Fossil Free London, said: “It’s the very same fossil fuel giants that profit from the suffering of billions as our climate tips closer to collapse, which are fuelling and enabling Israel’s horrific colonial genocide.
Mask off Maersk campaign exposes shipping giant’s use of Algeciras Port for transporting military cargo to Israel despite Spain’s stated arms embargo
The Spanish government has announced it will block two ships—Denver and Seletar—operated by shipping giant Maersk and carrying military cargo bound for Israel, from docking at the port of Algeciras. This decision comes just days after the Mask off Maersk campaign released a report exposing the company’s regular use of the Spanish port for transferring cargo that enables the ongoing genocide against Palestinians, despite Spain’s stated arms embargo.
Researchers from the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Progressive International (PI), who contributed to the report, told Peoples Dispatch that it is unclear whether Pedro Sánchez’s administration was genuinely unaware of the shipments or deliberately chose to look the other way. What is clear, however, is that since Sánchez announced the embargo in May, Maersk has succeeded in delivering thousands of tons of military cargo to Israel. It appears that Maersk typically sends one ship per week from New Jersey to Spain, carrying around 1,000 tons of military cargo destined for the Israeli military, the report states.
These shipments end up being used in Gaza, facilitating the killing, torture, and kidnapping of Palestinians. In recent months, Maersk has transported aircraft parts, armored vehicles, and projectile bodies—much of which has been essentially subsidized by US tax dollars. The shipments also included nearly 300 tons of goods labeled as “diplomatic cargo,” a classification that, according to PYM and PI researchers, is undoubtedly being used to obscure the true nature of the containers. This is one of several strategies used to evade oversight over shipments bound for Israel; others include submitting blank designations and relying on freight forwarders to mask the trace of what is being transported.
These entities, including Interglobal Forwarding Services (IFS) used by Israel, can get very creative in how they describe cargo. The Mask off Maersk report documents such practices and makes it clear that shipments bound for Israel should undergo regular oversight and inspection in order to stop ammunition and other military cargo being transported there. Between 2011 and 2014, for example, IFS managed to transport over 16,000 tons of “diplomatic” cargo on Maersk ships, according to the report. This designation appears to establish a stable supply chain of goods whose true nature remains concealed from customs authorities and the public, PYM and PI warn.
Maersk is fully aware of these operations, as well as of the nature of the cargo its ships transport, and could halt them immediately if it chose to, the report’s authors told Peoples Dispatch. However, it continues to enable this flow of deadly cargo, fueling the genocide. As a result, responsibility to block these shipments now lies with the governments of the countries whose ports are used in the transfers. Researchers noted that Morocco, Egypt, Italy, and Turkey must all be held to the same scrutiny as Spanish authorities. For instance, after being denied access to Spanish ports, the Maersk Denver sought permission to dock in Tangier, Morocco, sparking a BDS call urging local activists to mobilize and prevent this. Reports that Mediterranean ports might allow these ships to dock are deeply troubling and, moreover, stand in violation of several UN resolutions and recommendations.
The researchers emphasize that pressure must continue on the Sánchez administration until it commits to inspect every Maersk vessel originating from the US and carrying cargo to Israel, given the practices highlighted in the report. “These vessels must be blocked from docking—nothing more and nothing less,” stated PYM and PI activists.
Without grassroots pressure, governments are likely to ignore public opposition and continue allowing military cargo to flow to Israel through their logistical hubs. What’s needed now, according to the researchers, is a stronger mobilization of trade unions and workers’ actions against these shipments. For example, in October, dockworkers at Athens’ Piraeus port successfully blocked a shipment of ammunition destined for Israel.
Though such direct action triggers government repression, PYM and PI researchers argue that it remains one of the few effective ways to disrupt and halt Israel’s arms supply chain. The two Maersk ships Spain decided to block are not the only ones expected to bring more weapons to Israel—but the full list can be stopped through strong workplace mobilizations. Advocacy alone will not be enough to get the governments to act against the genocide in Palestine; only a people-led strategy, with trade unions playing a central role, can accomplish this goal.
Britain’s Labour government has ordered 100 spy flights over Gaza to aid Israeli intelligence, it can be revealed.
This amounts to an average of more than one a day since Keir Starmer became prime minister on July 5.
Starmer’s administration suspended 30 arms export licences for Israel last month, citing “a clear risk” the weapons might be used in a “serious violation” of international law.
But the spy flights, which began in December under the previous Conservative government, have continued apace.
Although the Ministry of Defence (MoD) refused to give details, Declassified independently found the flights departing from Akrotiri – Britain’s sprawling air base on Cyprus – to fly over Gaza on Starmer’s watch.
During Labour’s first full month in office, in August, the Royal Air Force (RAF) flew 42 flights over the devastated Palestinian territory.
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Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
