“No One Can Say We Didn’t Know”: Greta Thunberg, Others Speak After Israeli Detention
It starts with Palestine protests. But where will the crackdown on Britain’s democratic freedoms end?
dizzy: This is a small excerpt (the closing paragraphs) of a long Guardian article by journalist Owen Jones. The whole article is recommended. Will these new laws lead to widespread challenges just as the proscription of Palestine Action has done? Is it too much to expect the arrogant Zionist Labour government to learn from it’s mistakes?
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On the same day as the synagogue attack, the Israeli army killed at least 57 Palestinians in Gaza – another hideous tally in two years of daily atrocities that have left tens of thousands dead. British politicians and media outlets have barely concealed the lack of value they attach to Palestinian life. It is among the most brazen expressions of racism of our time. One wonders how history will judge this moment: politicians are accusing people who are protesting against genocide of inciting hatred, while they are supporting those who are committing genocide.
Our government has already crossed a dangerous threshold by proscribing Palestine Action, a non-violent, anti-genocide direct action group. More than 2,000 British protesters have been arrested, mostly for holding placards opposing genocide and supporting the banned organisation. Many of them are pensioners; one is a retired priest, another the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. When the state begins calling movements “terrorism” when they are nothing of the sort, it is attacking democracy itself.
It’s not hard to see where this all leads. In the US, Democrats helped to demonise pro-Palestinian protests: the former house speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that some were “connected to Russia”, while Joe Biden called such protests antisemitic. In doing so, they only helped to legitimise the authoritarian crackdown on such protests – and on freedom of expression in general – under Donald Trump. If Nigel Farage becomes prime minister, a hard-right government would be granted sweeping powers to control dissent. What do you think a Reform government would do with this repressive toolkit? Our ancestors struggled, suffered and died to secure our freedoms. We will come to rue how casually we let them go.
Original article at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/06/palestine-protests-labour-democratic-freedoms-nigel-farage
Gaza death toll tops 67,100 amid Israel’s genocidal war
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
At least 67,139 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the Health Ministry said on Sunday, Anadolu reports.
A ministry statement said that 65 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours, while 153 people were injured, taking the number of injuries to 169,583 in the Israeli onslaught.
“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
It also noted that two Palestinians were killed and 30 others injured by Israeli army fire while trying to get humanitarian aid in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed while seeking aid to 2,605, with over 19,124 others wounded since May 27.
The Israeli army resumed its attacks on the Gaza Strip on March 18 and has since killed 13,549 people and injured 57,542 others, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
2 years of genocide: Gaza aid workers face hunger, death alongside those they help
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Israel Condemned as Sumud Flotilla Organizers Report ‘Harsh Treatment’ in Detention
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
US Rep. Ro Khanna demanded that Israel release American flotilla member David Adler, whose family has not heard from him since October 1.
US Congressman Ro Khanna on Sunday demanded the Israeli government’s release of David Adler, a US citizen who was one of the organizers intercepted by Israeli forces last week after they came close to breaking the country’s blockade on Gaza with the Global Sumud Flotilla.
As Marco Sermoneta, Israel’s consul general to the Pacific Northwest in the US, dismissed reports that humanitarians who were aboard the flotilla’s 50 boats are being deprived of food and water and mistreated in an Israeli detention center, Khanna (D-Calif.) called on the diplomat to confirm that Adler, a California resident, is a safe.
“I am most concerned about David Adler, a Californian and Jewish American, who is in the Ketziot prison,” said Khanna. “I spoke to his sister last night and their family is deeply anxious. Can you assure us he will be released and sent home safely?”
Khanna said Saturday that Adler’s family has not had contact with him since October 1, the day before a majority of the flotilla’s boats were stopped from reaching Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.
The congressman said he plans to lead a delegation letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Leiter on Monday and expressed hope that “every colleague, particularly every California member, will sign.”
“Our government must stand up for an American citizen’s fair treatment and release,” said Khanna.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Saturday that 137 of the rights advocates who were aboard the flotilla had been deported to Turkey; they were from the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States.
More than 400 humanitarians, lawmakers, and lawyers were aboard the vessels, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who told Swedish officials Saturday that she has been “subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody” in recent days.
The Guardian obtained correspondence from Sweden’s Foreign Ministry that described Israeli authorities taking photos of the climate campaigner “holding flags,” the identity of which was not reported.
“The embassy has been able to meet with Greta,” reads an email sent by the Foreign Ministry to people close to Thunberg and viewed by The Guardian. “She informed of dehydration. She has received insufficient amounts of both water and food. She also stated that she had developed rashes which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”
Turkish activist Ersin Çelik, who also participated in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu that Israeli authorities “dragged little Greta by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others.”
Another humanitarian told reporters that the Sumud flotilla campaigners had been “woken up at 3 in the morning with dogs and snipers walking into our rooms” and prevented from having medicine.
“If Netanyahu’s government is treating Greta Thunberg this way, imagine how they are treating women and children in Gaza,” said Khanna on Sunday.
Talks on a peace plan between Israel and Hamas, proposed last week by US President Donald Trump, are scheduled to begin Monday in Egypt. Hamas has said it is willing to release the remaining hostages the group has been holding captive in Gaza since October 7, 2023 in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians detained by Israel.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people across Europe marched in solidarity with the flotilla members and with Gaza, where more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel—with the backing of the US and a number of European governments—since October 2023.
Organizers in Rome said 1 million people turned out for the demonstration that was planned after Israel’s interception of the flotilla; police said 250,000 people marched. Spanish campaigners said hundreds of thousands of people rallied in every major city in the country, while smaller protests were reported in cities including Paris, Lisbon, Athens, and London.
Families attended a rally in Barcelona—whose former mayor, Ada Colau, was among the participants in the flotilla—and held signs with messages including, “Stop the Genocide,” and “Hands off the flotilla.”
On Sunday, protests in support of the flotilla and Gaza continued in countries including South Africa and Amsterdam.
Aaron Bastani of Novara Media said it was likely not “a coincidence that David Adler remains in prison, has not been in contact with his family, and has reputedly suffered significant ill treatment.”
“The biggest problem for [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the Israeli right, long term,” said Bastani, “is anti-Zionist Jewish Americans.”
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Starmer and Mahmood’s attack on protest is naked genocide collaboration