Palestine

cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/117448377720236214

Updated - Peter Beinart speaking in Ann Arbor and #Detroit, #Michigan, #USA October 19-20
#AntiSemitism, #Islamophobia, and the Future of Democracy

Here is an updated version of the Peter Beinart leaflet, and a link to updated information. (from a JVP-Detroit email - https://mailchi.mp/jewishvoiceforpeace/beinart-levin-democracy-divest-canvas-6754946?e=7085bb33b2)

https://bit.ly/BeinartLevinTour

#FreePalestine #StopGazaGenocide
#SolidarityWithPalestineIsNotAntisemitism #EqualRightsForAllFromTheRiverToTheSeaIsNotAntisemitic
#JewHatredHurtsPalestine
#Palestine #Israel #Gaza #news #politics #USpol #AnnArbor #PeterBeinart
@palestine@lemmy.ml
@palestine@fedibird.com

Not sure abt this channel in general but it could be Fredda type good and informative?

The IDF has killed at least eight people in Gaza since Saturday, including two children, according to medics and local reports.

In a statement released on Sunday morning, the Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli fire killed six people and wounded 25 others over the past 24 hours, adding that rescue teams also recovered the body of a person killed in earlier strikes.

Two other people were killed later on Sunday, according to media reports. Al Jazeera reported that Israeli strikes had killed five people since dawn, two of them in the afternoon, and wounded 11 others.

According to Al Jazeera, sources at the enclave's hospitals said Israeli fire had killed two children in Gaza since dawn. The Palestinian news agency Shehab identified one of the two children as Tamer Shadi Soboh, saying he was killed in the Tel al-Dhahab area of Beit Lahia.

Shehab also reported that Israeli shelling killed one and wounded several others in a displaced persons' camp on Gaza City's beach, while Israeli drone strikes wounded several people in the area around the chalets west of Gaza City.

According to Shehab, Israeli gunfire killed a woman in Khan Yunis and another man in the city's suburb of Qizan al-Najar.

Shehab also reported that Israeli gunfire wounded one in Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, while several people were wounded when IDF military vehicles opened fire near Al-Atatra Clinic, west of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Gaza's Education Ministry said Israel had killed three students in less than 24 hours, calling for "immediate measures to ensure the protection of students and halt attacks that threaten their lives," according to Al Jazeera.

The Israeli military has yet to issue statements on any of the reported strikes.

On Saturday, Palestinians held a mass funeral procession in Gaza City's al-Daraj neighbourhood, following the recovery of the remains of nearly 85 people whose bodies were trapped beneath the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes, according to AFP.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry's Sunday statement, Israeli attacks have killed 1,517 people since the Gaza cease-fire and hostage deal was announced in October of last year and wounded another 5,400.

Throughout the same period, Gaza Civil Defense rescue teams have recovered the remains of 839 people killed in earlier strikes, whose bodies were trapped under the rubble, the statement said.

Medics in Gaza said they have received the bodies of 74,475 people killed in Israeli strikes since 2023, adding that they treated 175,517 others who were wounded.

Daniel here. I refused to serve in the Gaza war after serving as a reservist for several years. Today I organize war refusers as a member of Yesh Gvul, an Israeli movement that has supported refusers since 1982.

We are currently in the process of organizing a new initiative of group refusal, which you will hear more about once it becomes public. We wrote a new refusal letter opposing the Israeli government's policies and its destructive use of the military. We have begun circulating it and collecting signatures. We wanted to thank you, donors and supporters of Resistance Solidarity Network around the world, for the support you have given us in the past few months. It means the world to us.

We are currently seeing an increasingly desperate Israeli government doing everything it can to bring reservists back into the army. In recent months, we have received widespread reports of renewed efforts to draft reservists, including those who previously received exemptions or stepped away from military service. We are resisting this new wave. More and more soldiers are questioning whether they can continue participating in the Israeli military's violence against the Palestinian people, and our task is to support those who choose to refuse. None of us can do this work alone, so I want to thank you for your generous help and support.

Through the hotline of Yesh Gvul that I coordinate, we have been tracking these changes, helping reservists navigate the army's changing procedures, and supporting dozens of soldiers looking to refuse service in the unjust wars.

We are also trying to build a new generation of organized resistance. A group of us, soldiers-refusers who refused during the recent Gaza war, have joined Yesh Gvul movement, and together we have drafted a new letter opposing the Israeli government's policies and its destructive use of the military. We have begun circulating it and collecting signatures, with the goal of building a stronger community of reservist refusers who can bring new energy into the movement and create pressure against the occupation and Israel's policy of endless war.

This work feels increasingly urgent. Military and settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is intensifying, the destruction of Gaza continues, and Lebanon remains caught in the cycle of war. Meanwhile, militarization and the occupation are becoming increasingly normalized in Israeli society. We need a broad left movement capable of confronting Israel's ongoing occupation and connecting the struggles against military and settler violence, the destruction of Palestinian life, and the government's wider policy of death and destruction.

That is what we are building now: a new public soldiers-refusers letter, and a community of resistance. I believe there are many more people in Israel ready to take a stand against the occupation and against endless war than it sometimes appears. Our task is to find one another and organize.

The support you, members of the Resistance Solidarity Network, have given us throughout this period is extremely meaningful. It makes it possible to stand behind people who are taking real risks to resist the Israeli military, the occupation, and the government's policies. Please support RSN and help make sure that those of us doing this work can keep going.

In solidarity,
Daniel Yahalom

---

Support the resistance to Israel's occupation today.

Resistance Solidarity Network brings you the latest stories from the ground: movement news, refusers' stories, the latest demonstrations. We amplify and fund a wide-range of resistance groups opposing Israeli wars and occupation. Our role is to support resistance from within, and we rely on global support to carry out this work. We value whatever you can spare, but a monthly subscription makes the most impact. Make a donation today at this link.

(Taken from an email sent to me by the Refuser Solidarity Network. Emphasis original.)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/54172205

By equating Zionism with racism, the party has sparked a predictable wave of outrage. But are we debating the right questions?

16 October 2026

At the same time, the discourse around the motion has centred on how people define themselves, rather than on the realities of the racist oppression Palestinians face.

Some within the movement are comfortable with that focus. A year ago, I was asked at a conference whether I agreed that the problem with Zionism was not its impact upon Palestinians, but its essential character as a racist ideology. In response, I paraphrased civil rights leader Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael): “If a man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem.”

This does not mean that we compromise on our understanding of Zionism and the realities of the oppression of Palestinians. It does mean that we avoid building roadblocks to people becoming part of the mass movement for change.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/54120069

from The Wire [online publication of Jewish Voice For Peace (JVP) in USA] October 15, 2026

Also:

• Find your place in the movement.
• JVP Action Power Dial: Help elect pro-Palestine champions.
• Tell Congress to Block the Bombs.
• We’re reading: Grief as a pulse of our organizing work.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/54119793

“You mean the footage of the Israeli terrorists beating her up isn’t clear enough?” one critic sardonically asked. October 16, 2026

As Common Dreams reported, Levine—a 63-year-old Jewish American by birth who has reported from war zones including Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, and Syria—was covering Palestinian farmers desperately trying to harvest their olives when around 80 masked settler colonists descended upon them.

Armed with rocks, clubs, sticks, assault rifles, and the self-assured belief that their deity figure promised them all the land that was once ruled by Jewish kings millennia ago, the settlers set fire to the olive trees that are the backbone of Palestine’s rural economy and a literal symbol of Palestinians’ rootedness in their homeland.

The assailants fired guns and threw rocks at the olive harvesters, reportedly wounding at least two Palestinians. While documenting the attack, Levine—who, like other journalists killed or wounded by Israel, was clad in a helmet and a blue vest clearly marked “PRESS”—was set upon by settlers, knocked to the ground, and kicked dozens of times while her equipment was stolen.

cross-posted from: https://expressional.social/users/Peter_Link/statuses/117448377720236214

Peter Beinart speaking in Ann Arbor and #Detroit, #Michigan, #USA October 19-20
#AntiSemitism, #Islamophobia, and the Future of Democracy

#FreePalestine #StopGazaGenocide
#SolidarityWithPalestineIsNotAntisemitism #EqualRightsForAllFromTheRiverToTheSeaIsNotAntisemitic
#JewHatredHurtsPalestine
#Palestine #Israel #Gaza #news #politics #USpol #AnnArbor #PeterBeinart
@palestine@lemmy.ml
@palestine@fedibird.com

cross-posted from: https://todon.eu/users/bhyoram/statuses/117451442907056030

Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mahajne from Um alFahm, in the 48 occupied territories of #Palestine.

Administrative detention of Palestinian citizens from inside [Israel] was never an ordinary matter.

In the past, a single case was enough to stir public opinion, but today we have grown accustomed to the detention of sons from the Triangle, the Galilee, the Negev, and the coastal cities, without charges or trials, as if it were natural!

Dozens of detainees languish in the harshest Israeli prisons, some of whom have exceeded a full year under the sword of administrative detention, while their cases are absent from our public discourse, and interest in their suffering and fate is nearly nonexistent.

The harshest part is that an issue that once shook an entire society has become a silent pain borne solely by the families of the detainees.

https://x.com/KhaledMahajna/status/2111119090232291805

@palestine

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53956788

Following mass arrests outside Labour’s Liverpool conference, we’re boosting our defiance against the ban on Palestine Action!

On Saturday October 31st, we are taking mass-action in London. 🪧 This will be a sign-holding action once again!

The new Prime Minister has chosen not to issue a statement about the 230 brave individuals who defied Labour’s unjust ban outside his first conference as PM, 161 of whom were arrested under the Terrorism Act for holding paper signs.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary 🍕 Ed Miliband stated that he “doesn’t think anyone’s intent was to have those people criminalised.” after being gently questioned in a Pizza Express just 100 yards away from where people were being arrested.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/54024498

October 12, 2026

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53941353

Israeli authorities have demolished 80 structures in Al-Dahiya village in Israel’s Negev Desert, claiming they were built without permits. Rahat’s mayor says the demolitions have displaced around 400 Palestinians, leaving families facing uncertainty over where to find shelter.

Published On 12 Oct 202612 Oct 2026

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53937125

cross-posted from: https://hcommons.social/users/adachika192/statuses/117422680882665942

Royal College of Nursing cuts ties with Israeli drug company (Guardian, 2026-10-02)

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/02/royal-college-of-nursing-cuts-ties-with-israeli-drug-company [Teva UK]
———

>> The #RCN represents more than 500,000 nurses in the UK. Teva UK is the British arm of the global drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals, which is one of the NHS’s biggest suppliers of medicines.

>> It acted after coming under pressure from campaign groups Nurses for Palestine and UK Healthcare Petitions to Royal Colleges (UKHPRC) to end its relationship with #TevaUK.

>> Teva has been ordered to pay about £1bn in fines and other payments by the European Commission and US authorities over the last decade for bribery, price-fixing and abuse of its market position…

#BDS #BoycottIsrael #palestine
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@fedibird.com

(This extract takes 4¾ minutes to read.)

The Zionist intelligentsia was keenly aware of the colonial politics of its time. Zionist newspapers reported widely on the Second Boer War (1899–1902),⁶ the Italian Invasion of Libya (1911)⁷ and Ethiopia (1935),⁸ the war against the Herero and Nama in South-West Africa (1904–8),⁹ the Indian anti-colonial struggle,¹⁰ and even Japanese imperial expansion.¹¹

Especially after the issue of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Zionist commentators attempted to articulate their demands and grievances by referring to other colonies, both settler and non-settler. The term ‘settler colonialism’ was not widely used at the time, but some Zionist commentators employed a basic division between exploitation and work colonies, based on Karl Kautsky’s Socialism and Colonial Policy.¹²

Moreover, the distinction between non-settler colonies and settler states, dominions, and colonies was embedded in the Zionist discourse because North America, South Africa, and Australia/New Zealand were major destinations for Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe (and Palestine) while non-settler colonies were not.¹³

Consequently, North America and Australia/New Zealand held an ambivalent position in the Zionist discourse: They were seen as sources of inspiration for the Zionist project in Palestine, but also as fierce competitors for Jewish immigration (South Africa was an exception for reasons that will be discussed below).

The second major argument of this article is that most involved Zionist comparisons, especially after 1917, focused on Britain’s African settler colonies. Before the issue of the Balfour Declaration, the World Zionist Organization was dominated by German, and to a lesser extent, French experts who imported their respective empires’ colonial models to Palestine.¹⁴

The First World War saw a changing of the guard, with Chaim Weizmann and Ze’ev Jabotinsky leading a new generation of Anglophile Zionist leaders. The Balfour Declaration and the establishment of the Mandate then made Palestine and the Zionist movement part of the British Empire. Thus, comparisons with anglophone colonialism took precedence over other empires.

[…]

Perhaps the best illustration of Zionist colonial envy is a 1929 Jabotinsky op-ed about settler politics in Northern Rhodesia. A few Rhodesian policies caught his eye: first, according to Jabotinsky, the head of the colony was appointed by a charter company, which was a private company ‘just like the Zionist Organization’.¹⁰ For Jabotinsky, this justified the Zionist demand that the WZO should have a say in picking the high commissioner for Palestine.⁶¹

Secondly, as a fervid opponent of the British initiative to establish a Legislative Council with significant Palestinian representation in Palestine, he noted that the North Rhodesian Legislative Council was entirely white, despite the fact that the settlers comprised no more than five per cent of the population.⁶²

Finally, Jabotinsky repeatedly criticized the Mandate Government for not availing state lands for Jewish use and called for the expropriation of uncultivated private land.⁶³ To support his argument that the Mandate Government should give state lands to Jewish settlers, he mentioned in the article that Kenyan and Rhodesian settlers received government land for free.⁶⁴

[…]

As part of his ongoing anxiety about imperial fatigue, Jabotinsky was also aware that the legitimacy of settler colonialism was fading. In a 1932 diary entry, he noted that the argument that America was colonized against the will of the natives — and thus native consent was not needed to legitimize the colonization of Palestine — no longer held sway among the British.

Jabotinsky criticized as ineffectual the often-repeated Zionist claim that colonization was beneficial for Palestine and mentioned that it did not work for the Japanese who attempted to justify their conquest of Manchuria. He then suggested that Zionists switch arguments — they were not colonizers on a civilizing mission but rather ‘the real natives’ of Palestine, who were once forcibly expelled and are now returning to their homeland.⁷⁷ Although Jabotinsky continued to identify with white settlers across the globe, his successors would reimagine themselves as anti-colonial natives in the 1940s.

[…]

Another expression of the crumbling Zionist-British alliance was the growing volume of complaints that the British were treating Jews ‘like natives’, with the word ‘natives’ transliterated into Hebrew even though a Hebrew term denoting indigenous people — yelidim — was already widely in use.⁸⁷

The injunction to not be treated like natives conveyed Jewish settlers’ growing anxiety about their uncertain place in the British Empire, and in this sense, it was a different articulation of the anxieties expressed in comparisons to other settler colonies from the 1920s and 1930s. But whereas in the 1920s and 1930s Zionists complained about being second-class settlers, their 1940s’ complaints reflect a fear of losing their settler status altogether.

After 1939, British policy restricted Jewish immigration and land purchases. When Zionist militias began attacking British infrastructure and personnel, the Mandate Government responded with violent sweeps, curfews, extrajudicial killings, and collective punishment — all of which had been previously used on Palestinian rebels, often with Zionist encouragement.⁸⁸

The loss (or at least diminution) of its settler privileges on the one hand, and British violent repression on the other, caused an identity crisis among the Zionist intelligentsia. Most Zionist politicians and intellectuals were fully aware of the racial hierarchy of the British Empire. As the Labor Zionist columnist Ari Ankorion explained in 1929, the word native was not a neutral name for indigenous people. It specifically denoted a culturally inferior colonized person with little or no rights.⁸⁹

Moreover, they were very familiar with the British suppression of multiple Palestinian uprisings. The Zionists who felt that they were being treated like natives understood and feared the consequences of losing their status as settlers, not only practically but also culturally: To lose one’s settler status in the colonies was often akin to losing one’s claim to be European.

[…]

In the mid and late 1940s, as the British-Zionist conflict became increasingly violent and it became clear that the Jewish state would not be part of the empire, the Zionist meta-narrative shifted and adopted an almost classically postcolonial form: Zionists now imagined themselves as a colonized community, oppressed by an evil empire that was illegally occupying Palestine.⁹⁴

This shift created some striking dissonance in the way in which Zionists understood themselves. As we have seen, in 1929 Jabotinsky compared the Jewish Agency to the British South Africa Company, a charter company founded by Cecil Rhodes. In 1946, in contrast, the Revisionist columnist Yohanan Bader compared it to an African ‘native authority’.⁹⁵

It is clear, then, that how Zionists contextualized their experience in Palestine was highly contingent on their relationship with Britain. This goes against much of the nationalist ‘postcolonial’ mainstream historiography of Zionism, which tends to present the Zionist-British relationship as short-lived, transactional, and largely antagonistic, and thus not particularly important to the formation of Zionist identity (more on this in the conclusion).

And yet, this was not how many Zionists experienced this relationship in real time. The most important Zionist leaders, whether they were ‘for’ or ‘against’ the empire, had an intense intellectual and affective relationship with Britain. Studying colonial comparisons has allowed us to recover some aspects of this intense relationship.

(Emphasis added.)

(This extract takes 4⅓ minutes to read.)

The creation of the United States of America was based on the Manifest Destiny ideology, like how the creation of the state of Israel was based on the Zionist idea of the land of Palestine being the land of the chosen people by G-d, the Jews. The idea of Manifest Destiny — the belief that U.S. expansion was divinely sanctioned, justified, and inevitable — was used to legitimize the displacement of Native American tribes.

Many white Americans viewed Indigenous land as underutilized since it was largely left for hunting rather than farming. They saw it as their duty to claim, settle, and cultivate the land. Land speculators, who profited from rising land values as westward expansion continued, were among the strongest advocates for this ideology and the removal of Native Americans.

The founding myths of both the United States and Israel reveal how settler colonial states mobilize sacred or civilizational narratives to legitimize territorial conquest. In the United States, the doctrine of Manifest Destiny cast westward expansion as a divinely sanctioned mission, rendering Native American lands as underutilized and available for “improvement” through settler agriculture and speculation.

Similarly, the Zionist claim to Palestine as the divinely promised homeland of the Jewish people framed territorial acquisition not as conquest but as a redemptive return. In both cases, Indigenous claims to land were not denied outright but delegitimized as culturally inferior: Native reliance on hunting and communal farming was depicted as “wasteful”, while Palestinian cultivation was erased under the Zionist maxim of making “a land without a people for a people without a land”.

Patrick Wolfe’s notion of the “logic of elimination” is evident in both trajectories: settler societies justified displacement not only through force but also through ideological constructs that erased Indigenous presence by casting it as non­‑modern, unproductive, or illegitimate.

The Balfour Declaration vs. The Indian Removal Act

Although Indian removal became official policy under the 7th president of the USA, Andrew Jackson (1829–1837), its roots trace back to the 18th century. Thomas Jefferson was among the first to propose it, believing that while Native Americans were equal to whites in intellect and ability, their way of life was culturally inferior. He saw their semi­-nomadic traditions and communal farming as inefficient land use and thought they could only become “civilized” by adopting European­‑style agriculture and settlements. Jefferson’s views were influenced by Enlightenment environmentalism, which suggested that culture shaped human progress.

However, his motivations were largely economic — if Native Americans abandoned their lands, it would free up space for white settlers. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase provided a convenient solution, allowing the government to relocate tribes further west, postponing assimilation while making room for expansion. In 1825, President James Monroe, 5th American President built upon Jefferson’s ideas, arguing that Native Americans could not integrate into white society and should be relocated for their own benefit. Though Jefferson and Monroe shaped the policy, it was Andrew Jackson who ultimately enforced it, making Indian removal a reality⁴⁰.

This trajectory parallels the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which Britain endorsed the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine without consulting its Arab majority. Both texts exemplify the imperial prerogative to decide the fate of Indigenous populations, treating them as obstacles to larger strategic projects — agrarian empire-building in the U.S., and geopolitical partition in the Middle East.

To underscore the colonial context of Zionism’s rise, the Sykes–Picot Agreement, revealed in 1916, was a secret arrangement between Britain and France — endorsed by Russia — to divide the Arab provinces of the collapsing Ottoman Empire into colonial spheres of influence. The agreement carved up the Middle East with little regard for ethnic, tribal, or religious realities. France was to control what is now Syria and Lebanon, while Britain would dominate areas including Iraq and Jordan, with Palestine placed under international administration. This imperial blueprint ignored Arab aspirations for independence, despite concurrent British promises to Arab leaders leading to the Balfour Declaration of 1917⁴¹.

Similarly to the Balfour Declaration, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was an act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing⁴². Not only were the indigenous people forced out of their lands, but they were confined to Indian reservations ⁴³. Native people needed government-issued permits to leave⁴⁴.

Similarly to that, the […] occupation has systematically imposed measures that fragment Palestinian communities, restrict movement, and undermine economic self-sufficiency. In other terms, the Middle East was carved into spheres of European influence with little regard for local populations. Just as U.S. policy confined Native peoples to reservations and imposed movement restrictions, Israel’s occupation has fragmented Palestinian territory into enclaves divided by checkpoints, walls, and permits.

Both systems manufactured dependency and immobility: Native Americans were forced to rely on federal rations, while Palestinians today face unemployment, confiscated revenues, and blocked access to their own resources. In both cases, settler colonial policy not only dispossessed but also engineered conditions of structural dependency, undermining sovereignty and enforcing fragmentation.

According to a report by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as of [February] 2025, there are 793 […] checkpoints and obstacles in the West Bank, severely disrupting daily life and economic activities for Palestinians. These restrictions have contributed to an unprecedented unemployment rate of 51% across Palestinian territories. Additionally, Israel has deducted approximately 797 mln USD from Palestinian tax revenues, further exacerbating the economic crisis⁴⁵. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) highlights that, since 2007, Gaza’s GDP would have been 77.6% higher without these constraints, amounting to a cumulative loss of 35.8 bln by the end of 2023⁴⁶.

Similarly, the Indian reservation system in the United States was designed to restrict the movement of Native Americans, confining them to specific areas and creating economic dependence. Native people were required to obtain government­-issued permits to leave reservations or engage in trade, much like Palestinians need permits to travel between areas under [settler] control. Both systems have resulted in high unemployment, lack of access to resources, and a reliance on external authorities for basic economic survival.

In both cases, settler-colonial policies have worked to weaken indigenous sovereignty and enforce territorial fragmentation. The 1917 Balfour Declaration, which endorsed the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine without consulting its Arab majority, laid the diplomatic foundation for Zionist settlement, ultimately catalysing mass displacement, intercommunal violence, and the erosion of Palestinian sovereignty under British colonial rule.

(Emphasis added.)

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/13029126

Rabbi Yaakov and civil rights lawyer Eric Lee defend Orthodox Jewish activist Yehonatan Ovadia, who was detained by ICE after joining Jewish residents protesting an "Israeli" flag in their neighborhood.

Taleb al-Sana, chairman of the High Steering Committee of the Arabs of the Negev, criticized the demolitions.

"These are scenes of war, of an earthquake. A village that has suffered a disaster, only here it's a disaster of racism. Instead of investing all the money in demolition, they should have developed infrastructure and roads and given hope to the children. What are they sowing here when a child sees bulldozers destroying his home? What is the logic in that?" he said.

"It seems that until the elections, this government has made home demolitions part of its election campaign. Instead of celebrating the recognition of communities, it inaugurates another village demolition and leaves more families homeless. Shame on them," he added.

Al-Sana said the demolitions would strengthen the community's determination to fight for equality and justice.

"This will only strengthen our belief in the struggle for full equality and justice. We will not despair or lose hope in shared life and the development of the Negev. Even when we see these scenes, there is hope," he said.

Hanan (a pseudonym), a 55-year-old resident who was born and raised in the village, watched the demolitions from beneath a tree alongside other women and children.

"Yesterday at 1 P.M., I finally understood that they were demolishing our home," she said. "The feelings are difficult; I can't stand on my feet. I feel utterly destitute. My medications were also left in the house; we didn't manage to clear everything out."

She said she had tried to find an apartment to rent in Rahat but could not find one that suited her needs, and that rents were too expensive.

"I am a sick woman who receives income support. How can one feel when your home is being demolished? I don't know where we will spend the night. We will probably sleep under a tree," she said.

Hanan added that large numbers of police officers and bulldozers were at the site to carry out and secure the demolitions.

Attorney Ben Zaken, who represents the clan members, said the state's proposed housing arrangement had several problems.

"They offered the residents 47 entitlements to plots when there are about 130 eligible individuals. This means about 80 eligible individuals will remain without a solution," he said.

He added that Rahat municipality had told several families that the plots were intended to accommodate their own natural population growth and that they would not agree to outsiders moving in.

"The Abu Wadi family is not welcome there, and this could lead to bloodshed," he said. "The Rahat municipality also does not issue building permits in the compound because the infrastructure has not yet been developed."

(This extract takes five minutes to read.)

"At the roll call every morning, everyone has to say, 'Good morning, captain. Thank you very much, captain,' and bow down. Then you have to stay on the floor for another half hour until they finish counting. Once, the guards came into the wings, threw us out into the yard and cuffed our hands behind our backs. They walked dogs over us and fired into the air. Our heads were pressed against the ground. They didn't tell us why, but a few days later, new prisoners arrived and told us they had seen videos of Ben-Gvir visiting. That's how we figured out why they had done it.

"One day, I had a court hearing. I was surprised when my lawyer told me during the hearing that my daughter had been born. I was detained for nine months, a relatively short time, but when I got out, I saw how much things in the village had deteriorated. It turned out my uncle's community had left because of settler violence.

"Before I was released, a Shin Bet officer asked me about October 7. I told him I call it the cursed October 7. I told him, 'Don't look at me as a terrorist. No one is more peaceful than me. Our problem is with the extremist settlers who have turned the world upside down.' If he had pushed me a little, I would have told him, 'I have more Jewish friends than you do.' I have Jewish friends I'm really proud of, who stood by me during my detention, before it and after it. I won't forget that."

When R., 43, was released from Ketziot Prison in April 2025, doctors told him not to hug his children. "I have five children," he says. "For two weeks, I wasn't allowed near them because of the scabies I caught at the end of my prison term. You itch all night and can't sleep. Then blisters appear all over your body. When I told the prison doctor, he said he had nothing to give me: 'When you die, you'll get ointment from God.' They don't give you medicine there. Sometimes, if you ask for medicine, they punish you by turning off the light in the whole cell. You spend the whole day in the dark.

"There were 15 of us in a room meant for six. Not enough blankets, no clothes. I spent six months in the same pants and shirt. There were no spoons or cups, just a disposable plastic plate. If you try to wash it, it breaks. For three weeks, I didn't have a toothbrush either. Then they brought me a small one.

"Every night, the Keter unit guards would come in, each time into a different cell. They'd come at 2 A.M., fire rubber bullets, sometimes spray tear gas inside the cell and close the door. After half an hour, they would open it and let us out into the yard. There, they would beat us and bring dogs to walk among us. Sometimes they would let a dog scratch you. If you try to push it away, they jump on you and beat you.

"If your lawyer comes to visit, you go to the visiting room. You get beaten on the way there and on the way back. Your eyes are closed, your hands cuffed behind your back, your head down. If you lift your head, they beat you. They would fasten the cuffs very, very tight, and the shackles on your feet, too. If you fall, they beat you. Once, I asked a guard to loosen the cuffs a little because I couldn't move, so he started beating me. Then they laugh at you. They were young, maybe 25. There were a lot of Druze among them, and they were more abusive than the Jews.

"At night, they would turn on a radio, and one of the guards would start singing and cursing at 3 A.M.: 'You motherfuckers, we're killing you, we're burning you.' I was moved through five wings, and it was like that everywhere.

"I got to shower once every 15 days. The water was cold. There were six showers for 150 prisoners, and they gave us all half an hour. Then they shut off the water. If you got your shower in, you got it in. We got one plastic cup of soap for the whole room: for your hair, your body, everything. You have nothing to wash yourself with. They give you half a plastic cup of laundry powder for the whole room.

"And you aren't allowed to pray together, only on your own. If they heard us praying together, the Keter unit would come in, or they would take people away to punish them. They didn't take me, but others told me they were put in a small room with a bag to use as a toilet, and at night, they had water poured over them. When people came back after three or four days, they couldn't stand.

"Some people arrived from Megiddo Prison. They had diarrhea and couldn't make it to the toilet. Sometimes they soiled themselves. The guards picked those very prisoners to hand out the food."

The Israel Prison Service said in response: "The allegations described are untrue, have no factual basis and are part of the campaign to smear the State of Israel and its lawful institutions around the world. The IPS operates in accordance with the law and under continuous judicial review. All those incarcerated in IPS facilities are held in accordance with the law and receive the rights and necessary treatment prescribed by law."

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in response: "Since the outbreak of the war, substantial resources have been invested in establishing detention infrastructure. IDF detention facilities provide detainees with sleeping arrangements, food, hygiene, medical care and other conditions in accordance with the law and international law. Detention conditions and treatment are subject to internal monitoring and oversight mechanisms, as well as external and judicial review.

"The IDF rejects the allegations of systematic abuse of detainees. Abuse of detainees violates the law and IDF orders and is therefore strictly prohibited. The IDF has various oversight mechanisms to ensure that detention facilities under its responsibility operate in accordance with IDF directives and the law. These include continuous monitoring through closed-circuit cameras, periodic discussions within the General Staff, oversight by commanders at the facility, and other measures.

"Restraints are used on detainees to maintain the safety and security of the facility only in exceptional circumstances that justify their use, subject to Israeli law, the provisions of international law and IDF orders. Administrative detention is used only when the security authorities possess reliable, substantiated information indicating that the detainee poses a real threat to the security of the area, and no other alternatives exist to eliminate that risk.

"Administrative detention is used in accordance with the law and subject to an individual examination of each case, only after a professional official has reviewed the file and confirmed that an indictment cannot be filed on the basis of the nonclassified evidence. The orders are subject to judicial review by the court and are periodically reassessed."

The Shin Bet declined to answer why Samoudi, Abu Naim and Khuwaira had been held in administrative detention.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53890607

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53890199

October 9, 2026

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53886899

For 700,000 children in Gaza, tent classrooms are now the closest thing to school. But after three years of war, Ruwaida Amer reported, they cannot restore the education, routine, and community students once had.

October 11, 2026
from +972’s Sunday Recap +972 Magazine [published in Israel]

Also:

• ‘A race against time’: Israel’s settlement drive is rapidly transforming Jenin
• Debunking Israel’s latest list of ‘terrorist’ journalists in Gaza
• Israel’s flailing chatbot army
• PODCAST: ‘We threw ourselves out of Gaza, but never really left’