It’s not just ‘unlikely’ that a Palestinian rocket hit the Gaza hospital. It’s impossible. The media know this; they just don’t dare say it

Oct. 18 — Let’s say it again: The BIGGEST fake news comes from the establishment media. When the stakes are high, it barely bothers to hide its role as mouthpiece for Western propaganda.

This is another Iraqi WMD moment. We are being gaslit. Believe your eyes and ears, and the laws of physics, not the lies being peddled by our leaders and media about last night’s missile strike on the Baptist hospital in Gaza:

1. No Palestinian group has a rocket that can hit a hospital, killing hundreds. What they have are glorified fireworks that can cause minor damage and the occasional death or two. If Hamas or Islamic Jihad could cause the kind of damage that happened last night, you would hear about it happening in Tel Aviv or Ashkelon too. You don’t, because they can’t.

2. Israel’s apologists (and there are lots of them) are sharing all sorts of videos unrelated to the hospital strike. But the video of the strike itself shows that an incredibly large and powerful weapon is used. Listen to the noise the missile makes just before the hit – that whooshing noise is caused by its phenomenal velocity as it cuts through the air. That is not the noise of a falling Palestinian rocket.

If you watch videos being shared of Palestinian rockets being fired, notice how slowly they travel. Almost at a snail’s pace. If they fail, they drop at free-fall speed, not the near-supersonic speed of the missile that hit the hospital. To think otherwise is to misunderstand the laws of physics.

3. Israel’s apologists are trying to further muddy the waters by suggesting that either a Palestinian rocket fell, or was intercepted, and the rocket or fragments of it hit a very large ammo dump in the hospital. Let’s just accept the racist premise that hundreds of families were quite happy to seek safety next to a huge stash of explosives in the middle of a relentless Israeli bombing campaign. Let’s also accept the fantastical idea that a falling glorified firework or fragment of it could penetrate the hospital’s strong walls and set off such an explosion. If all this was true, you would still see a series of secondary explosions as the arms were detonated by the initial explosion. You don’t because there is only one explosion – from an enormous missile.

4. It’s a desperate psyop, so Israel has now released a recording of two Hamas militants conveniently having a chat after the missile strike, discussing whether they or Islamic Jihad did it. This is the same Israel that did not detect months of planning by Hamas that was needed to organise its breakout 10 days ago. But Israel got lucky this time, it seems, and just happened to be listening in when Huey and Louie decided to self-incriminate.

Remember Israel has a whole unit of ‘mistaravim’, Israeli Jewish undercover agents trained to pose as Palestinians and secretly operate among Palestinians. Israel produced a highly popular TV series about such people, set in Gaza, called Fauda. You have to be beyond credulous to think that Israel couldn’t, and wouldn’t, rig up a call like this to fool us, just as it regularly fools Palestinians in Gaza.

Most of the people spreading these lies know they are lies, including the media, and most especially the Middle East and defence correspondents. At least a few, like the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen and Jon Donnison, are trying cautiously to suggest it’s unlikely a Hamas rocket could cause damage on the scale seen at the Gaza hospital. But it’s not unlikely. It’s impossible, and they know it. They just don’t dare say it.

Jonathan Cook is a Nazareth- based journalist and winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism

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Women in Struggle – Mujeres en Lucha, a U.S.-based organization and member of the Women’s International Democratic
Federation, condemns the Genocide that the murderous state of Israel is committing against the Palestinian population in the
Gaza Strip, a population composed mostly of women and children.

We also condemn the criminal actions of the United States government that hypocritically repeats ad nauseam the justification
of helping in the “defense” of Israel, sending it powerful weapons so that Israel increases its capacity to devastate this invaded
territory that constitutes the largest prison on the planet. But what else can you expect from a country like the United States
that burned to death tens of thousands of Japanese people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Who launched white phosphorus bombs
against the Vietnamese people? Who provided the white phosphorus, prohibited by International Law, to Israel to use against
Gaza and Lebanon, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW)?

It is also sickening and outrageous that to justify massacring a people, they use the religious fervor of people around the world
as a shield.

We also refuse and condemn the silence of governments that, for their economic interests, excuse and condone this genocide.

We, however, embrace the Palestinian people and support their just struggle of Resistance that has not ceased since the beginning
of the invasion and occupation by Israeli Zionism. We emphasize that the Armed Struggle used against the subjugation of
a colonized people, their right to resist in the way they deem convenient and possible, is valid within International Laws.

Long live Free Palestine!

Declaración de Mujeres en Lucha-Women in Struggle sobre Palestina

Mujeres en Lucha – Women in Struggle, organización basada en los Estados Unidos y miembro de la Federación Democrática
Internacional de Mujeres, condena el Genocidio que el estado asesino de Israel está cometiendo contra la población palestina en
la franja de Gaza. Población compuesta en su mayoría, de niños y niñas y de mujeres.

Condenamos asimismo la actuación criminal del gobierno de los Estados Unidos que hipócritamente repite hasta el cansancio la
justificación de ayudara la “defensa” de Israel, enviándole poderosos armamentos para que de este modo, Israel tenga la capacidad
de arrasar este territorio invadido que constituye la cárcel más grande del planeta. Pero, ¿qué más se puede esperar de un país como
los Estados Unidos que quemaron vivosa decenas de miles de japoneses en Hiroshimay Nagasaki? ¿Que lanzó bombas de fósforo
blanco contra el pueblo vietnamita? ¿Quién le proveyó el fósforo blanco, prohibido por las Leyes Internacionales,a Israel para
usarlas contra Gazay el Líbano según reportó ONG Human Rights Watch (HRW)?

Resulta además asqueantee indignante que para justificar masacrara un pueblo utilicen como escudo el fervor religioso
de las personas alrededor del mundo.

Rechazamosy condenamos asimismo, el silencio de los gobiernos que por intereses económicos excusany condonan este genocidio.
Nos abrazamos sin embargo al pueblo palestinoy apoyamos su justa lucha de Resistencia que no ha cesado desde el inicio de
la invasióny ocupación por el sionismo israelí. Recalcamos que la Lucha Armada en contra de la subyugación de un pueblo
colonizado, su derechoa resistir de la forma que lo crea convenientey posible, es válida dentro de las Leyes Internacionales.

¡Viva Palestina Libre!

Israel has demanded that 1.1 million Palestinians evacuate the northern half of Gaza while subjecting them to constant bombardment. This ruthless move is part of Israel’s plan, backed by unwavering support and active participation from the U.S. and a majority of European states, to carry out unprecedented and heinous massacres against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and to ethnically cleanse it altogether. Since Oct. 14, Israel has indiscriminately and intensively bombarded Gaza and cut off fuel, electricity, water, food, and medical supplies. Israel has killed more than 2,600 Palestinians — including 724 children — leveling whole neighborhoods, wiping out entire families, and injuring more than 10,000 people. Some international law experts have begun warning of Israel’s genocidal acts.

Elsewhere, Israel’s far-right government has distributed more than 10,000 rifles to extremist settlers in ‘48 Palestine and the occupied West Bank to facilitate their escalating attacks and pogroms against Palestinians. Israel’s actions, massacres, and rhetoric point to its intention to implement its long-promised second Nakba, expelling as many Palestinians as possible and creating a “New Middle East” in which Palestinians live in perpetual subjugation.

The response by Western states has been one of complete and total support for the state of Israel, without even a cursory nod toward international law. This has amplified Israel impunity, giving it carte blanche to carry out its genocidal war without limit. Beyond diplomatic support, Western states are supplying Israel with armament, sanctioning the operation of Israeli weapons companies within their borders.

As Israel escalates its military campaign, Palestinian trade unions call on our counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes — most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding and military research. The time for action is now — Palestinian lives hang in the balance.

This urgent, genocidal situation can only be prevented by a mass increase of global solidarity with the people of Palestine that can restrain the Israeli war machine.

We need you to take immediate action — wherever you are in the world — to prevent the arming of the Israeli state and the companies involved in the infrastructure of the blockade. We take inspiration from previous mobilizations by trade unions in Italy, South Africa and the United States and similar international mobilizations against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, the fascist dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s and elsewhere where global solidarity limited the extent of colonial brutality.

We are calling on trade unions in relevant industries:

1. To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.
2. To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.
3. To pass motions in their trade union to this effect.
4. To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.
5. Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel and, in the case of the U.S., stop funding it.

We make this call as we see attempts to ban and silence all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask you to speak out and take action in the face of injustice as trade unions have done historically. We make this call in the belief that the struggle for Palestinian justice and liberation is not only a regionally and globally determined struggle. It is a lever for the liberation of all dispossessed and exploited people of the world.

Signers:

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, Gaza

General Union of Public Service and Trade Workers

General Union of Municipal Workers

General Union of Kindergarten Workers

General Union of Petrochemicals Workers

General Union of Agricultural Workers

Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees

Generation Union of Media and Print Workers

Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU)

General Union of Palestinian Teachers

General Union of Palestinian Women

General Union of Palestinian Engineers

Palestinian Accountants’ Association

Professional Associations Federation including:

Palestinian Dental Association – Jerusalem Center

Palestinian Pharmacists Association – Jerusalem Center

Medical Association – Jerusalem Center

Engineers Association – Jerusalem Center

Agricultural Engineers Association – Jerusalem Center

Veterinarians Syndicate – Jerusalem Branch

Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate

Palestinian Bar Association

Palestinian Nursing and Midwifery Association

Union of Kindergarten Workers

Palestinian Postal Service Workers Union

Federation of Unions of Palestinian University Professors & Employees

The General Federation of Independent Trade Unions, Palestine

The Palestine New Federation of Trade Unions

Palestinian General Union of Writers

Palestinian Contractors Union

Federation of Health Professionals Syndicates

Palestinian Union of Psychologists and Social Workers

To get involved, contact us at: workersinpalestine@gmail.com

X [Twitter]: @WorkersinPales1

Instagram: workersinpalestine

Saturday, October 21, 2 p.m.
FLOOD THE STREETS for PALESTINE!
Penn Train Station – Baltimore

March and rally!!
Bombing schools and hospitals is a war crime—US/Israel are responsible.
#freepalestine #freepalestine🇵🇸 #palestinesolidarity #solidaritywithpalestine #internationalsolidarity

Resolution passed at the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) 78th Convention held September 17-21 in Pittsburgh with the theme “Building Strike Power.”

Statement by New York City Councilmember Charles Barron.

Let’s be very clear. The attack on Israel by Hamas, on October 7, 2023 was not an “unprovoked attack”; it was inevitable and must be put into historical context and cannot be used as a justification for escalating the continuing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Let me state unequivocally that I have always deplored any intentional killing of innocent non-combatant women, children, and men in any theater of war, anywhere in the world including the so-called Middle East.

The road to peace in the so-called Middle East can be achieved if the international community calls for the apartheid Israeli government to end its decades-long colonization and illegal, immoral occupation of Palestinian land, since the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The international community must support the right of Palestinian refugees who were forcibly displaced from their land, to return to their homes.

From the Englishman Lord Balfour’s Declaration, in 1917, to support the Jewish people in establishing a “national homeland” in Palestine; to the Nakba (“Catastrophe”) when 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in 1947 to establish a Jewish state in 1948; to the present; tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian women, children, and men have been killed by Israeli forces.

In 2014, a United Nations report documented that in the attack on the Gaza strip, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) killed 1523 Palestinians, which included 509 children.

Earlier this year, before the October 7th attack, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Donald Trump of the Middle East, and his fascist right-wing government annexed more settlements in the West Bank, killing over 239 Palestinians and 40 of them were children. The armed Jewish civilian settlers participated in the killings, according to international reports.

The United States for decades has supplied the state of Israel with billions of dollars worth of arms to continue the occupation of Palestinian land. For over 16 years, Israel has imposed an illegal blockade on Gaza. Nothing comes in by land, sea or air! No food, no electricity, no fuel! The blockade did not start as a reaction to the latest attack.

This madness must stop! How much blood must be spilled before Israel ends its occupation of Palestine?

Free Palestine and there will be peace in the Middle East!

Oct. 12, 2023

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle stands united in unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. The Palestinian people are absolutely united in their aspiration to bring an end to the Zionist occupation and to finally live in a free and democratic Palestine.

The actions by the Zionist state are nothing short of a genocide.  Since the latest attacks against Gaza began, over 3,000 have been killed in indiscriminate airstrikes, including at least 500 getting medical treatment and taking refuge in a hospital.  A complete blockade has deliberately cut Gaza off from food, water, fuel and electricity, leaving the people starving and with a medical system on the brink of collapse with over 10,000 injuries and rising.  Palestinian health officials cannot keep up with carrying away the dead bodies that lie unattended throughout the strip, leading to the high risk of a disease outbreak amongst the population.  Zionist forces have also demanded that 2.3 million Gazans evacuate to the south to make way for their ground invasion and likely attempt to re-occupy the strip while killing even civilians obeying this order.  Airstrikes have even hit the southern border between Gaza and Egypt, the only way for Palestinians to leave the strip if they want, leaving desperately needed humanitarian aid packages sitting at the border unable to enter.  In addition to airstrikes, the Zionists have even used internationally banned weapons such as white phosphorus gas.  Included is the continued violence by soldiers and armed settlers which has killed over 70 in the past 11 days alone.

Indeed, the Zionist government may have declared war on October 7th, but the previous 75 years of occupation and ethnic cleansing policies since the Nakba have been a never-ending war against the Palestinian people.  What we see now is merely a heightened general offensive by Zionism within Palestine itself with continuing aggression against neighboring rival countries.

The Zionists may have openly declared war this time, but that’s only because of the Palestinian resistance’s decision to unite in struggle to take up arms against the US-backed occupation state and its “state-of-the-art” military.  For over 75 years, the Palestinian people have used every option they’ve had against the occupation of their land, to no avail.  The international governance system has allowed the occupation to become normalized with no end in sight.  The people have chosen to take the courageous path of united coordination in armed resistance, bravely tearing up the Zionist-imposed border fence of Gaza and launching coordinated strikes in air, land and sea that inspired peoples’ movements the world over to see a united people taking the military might of an imperialist satellite state off guard.

The Palestinian resistance is a beacon to our resistance!  By this, we mean that this strike against a running dog of US imperialism is a move that weakens US imperialism as a whole.  The global imperialist system is entering into a new stage of multipolar turmoil, from the US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine, to the build up to war in Asia-Pacific, to the upsurge of peoples’ movements for national self-determination in Latin America and Africa, and of the continued advance of armed resistance movements in the Philippines, India, Kurdistan, West Papua and of course Palestine.  The Palestinian resistance gives inspiration to all people struggling in this context for national and social liberation, and therefore we must support their resistance as if it was our own.

The ILPS supports all resistance fighters regardless of organizational affiliation – now is the time to unite!

We also condemn the attacks on Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organizations around the world on behalf of the US and Zionist forces.  We are witnessing an unprecedented outlawing of democratic organizations and bans on free speech when it comes to the Palestinian cause while pro-Zionist slogans are given full support, even within the so-called “democratic” liberal states of North America and Europe.  Now is the time to defend peoples’ struggle in all its forms.

The ILPS calls on its members to take actions worldwide outside of Israeli, US and European embassies to condemn the genocide taking place in Gaza.  We also encourage members to demand of their own governments official condemnation and to push for the unconditional end of the blockade, assault and genocide of Gaza, as well as the end of all military aid to the Zionist state, especially from the US.

All organizations are encouraged to hold educational sessions on the history and current situation of the US-Zionist occupation and resistance of Palestine.  Ongoing actions in support of the Palestinian resistance must be maintained worldwide, especially amidst the crackdown and banning of anti-Zionist organizations.  We must assert that activism and resistance of any form is not terrorism.

From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!
Palestinian resistance is a beacon to our resistance!
Long live international Solidarity!

Signed:

Len Cooper
ILPS Chairperson
20 October 2023

Oct. 18: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) confirmed today that the occupation government and its army committed the crime of bombing the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital, knowing in advance that it was impossible for any humane person to justify it or accept it, but had planned in advance a series of similar crimes and prepared the tools of justification, analysis, and fabrication.

The Front said: “Since yesterday, we have faced another crime besides the massacre, which is the enemy’s attempt to attribute the horrific massacre it committed to the Palestinians and their resistance.”

PFLP pointed out that “the enemy’s intention was clear in targeting hospitals from the beginning of the aggression. It had previously attacked the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital, Al-Durrah Children’s Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital, and threatened Al-Awda Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and the Kuwaiti Hospital as part of its comprehensive war on hospitals, and followed its brutal massacre at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital with another bombing of the European Hospital.”

The Front denounced the reluctance of some international bodies to discuss the number of conflicting lies that occupation spokesmen competed to present and withdraw in succession after they were refuted by conclusive evidence from dozens of institutions concerned with verification around the world, not only in Palestine.

The Front also confirmed that the German chancellor and the U.S. war criminal Joe Biden are complete partners in killing us, along with all those governments and parties that gave cover to the aggression or refused to condemn it.

The Front called on the masses of the Arab nation, the resistance and its supporters, and the friends of Palestine around the world to punish the Zionist enemy for this heinous crime.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Information Department

Translated by Melinda Butterfield

Source: PFLP

Excerpts from a talk by Christynne Lili Wrene Wood at the Oct. 7 National March to Protect Trans Youth & Speakout for Trans Lives in Orlando, Florida.

To all our beautiful and loving Floridian rainbow family and allies, I bring our unlimited love and support from the Western end of the rainbow, the great golden state of California! With each swipe of the poisoned pens in Tallahassee, we feel your pain and share your outrage.

I fought against a very well-organized campaign at the Santee City Council near San Diego. During that meeting, a well-coached teenage girl emotionally described her horror and experience at seeing a “naked man” in the women’s locker room of the Cameron YMCA in Santee. 

Even though several members of the YMCA staff assured her and her family that I was indeed a woman, her lie was picked up by a local right-wing media outlet and within 72 hours was both national and international news, with said girl being a keynote guest on the “Tucker Carlson Show.”

During a protest of hate coordinated by a couple of East County churches featuring failed politicians and more right-wing media coverage, I quietly and with resolute conviction made my way to a counter-protest that featured love, diversity, acceptance, and joy. The number of families there to support our rainbow family was overwhelming. 

It was there that I introduced myself as the “scary transgender woman” who was being vilified just 50 yards away at the hatefest event. I invited them all to please join me at the next meeting of the Santee City Council, where I would address the lies being spread! It was at that City Council meeting that I first met Gloria Verdieu and was introduced to Struggle-La Lucha and Women in Struggle.

Salute to Miss Major

Now it is my duty, my responsibility, and my great honor to bring your attention to a civil, human, and trans rights icon who has seen fit to grace us with her divine presence today. I refer to Miss Major Griffin-Gracy – activist, author, mentor, and mother to countless of our trans sisters. 

Miss Major’s accomplishments and sacrifices are far too numerous to mention during the short time allotted, but here are two quotes I particularly love: “Get off our backs and let us live,” and a particular favorite from the HBO special “The Trans List,” when asked how she would summarize her life, stated, “She came, she saw, she cared!”

Check out the magnificent interview in The Guardian by Sam Levine with Miss Major in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the sanctuary she has created.

Miss Major, our love for you is eternal, beloved mother!