Workers at the Spanish port of Barcelona announced their refusal to allow any ships carrying weapons to operate inside the port, rejecting the violence practiced by Israel in the occupied territories, and accusing the UN of failing to carry out its role.

The workers said in a statement to their association that it is their duty to adhere to and defend the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at a time when the signatory countries have forgotten about it.

The statement continued: “We decided within the association not to allow ships containing war materials to operate in our port, for the sole purpose of protecting any civilian population, regardless of their location, as there is no justification for sacrificing civilians.”

The statement called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the search for peaceful solutions to conflicts, and for the UN to stop its complicit and negligent behavior in order to maintain international peace and security and defend international law.

Earlier last week, the Belgian transport workers’ unions called on their members to refuse to load or unload arms shipments being sent to Israel.

“While genocide is under way in Palestine, workers at various airports in Belgium are seeing arms shipments in the direction of the war zone,” the trade unions said in a joint statement.

A Belgian government spokesman declined to comment on whether weapons were being shipped to the region via Belgium.

The unions said that loading or unloading these weapons means contributing to supplying regimes that kill innocent people.

Source: Middle East Monitor

Over the last few days, this video clip has gone absolutely viral. Syrian Girl, a user on X (formerly Twitter), shared it with the compelling caption, “BREAKING: Israel admits Apache helicopters fired on their own civilians running from the Supernova music festival.”

Syrian Girl also shared this passage from an article in Yedioth Ahronoth, a major Israeli newspaper, that has been quoted in several other publications:

“The pilots realized that there was tremendous difficulty in distinguishing within the occupied outposts and settlements who was a terrorist and who was a soldier or civilian … The rate of fire against the thousands of terrorists was tremendous at first, and only at a certain point, did the pilots begin to slow down the attacks and carefully select the targets.”

Since Syrian Girl posted the tweet on 9 November, the embedded video has been viewed almost 26 million times. The tweet itself has been reposted or liked almost a quarter of a million times.

Syrian Girl’s tweet has given many the impression that this type of footage has just emerged.

In fact the Israeli army published similar footage in the middle of October, though its significance may have escaped many at the time. And while Syrian Girl only posted a 14-second clip, the video released by the Israeli military is almost three minutes long.

As The Times of Israel reported on 15 October, the army published video claiming it shows “helicopter gunships striking Hamas terrorists as they streamed across the breached border from Gaza” on 7 October.

The army video was also published by other major media outlets at the time.

It’s not clear whether the clip posted by Syrian Girl is sourced from the same longer video released by the Israeli army.

But the army video almost certainly does show Israeli helicopter pilots shooting at Israeli civilians, and possibly soldiers as well.

‘Shoot at everything’

The quote in Syrian Girl’s tweet comes from an article published on 15 October in Hebrew by Yoav Zitun, military correspondent for Ynet, the online outlet affiliated with Yedioth Ahronoth.

The full article translated into English appears below. Zitun’s article also includes the video released by the Israeli military – and that is the video at the top of this article.

Zitun does offer clear evidence that the Israeli military fired indiscriminately, targeting Palestinian fighters and Israeli civilians alike.

He cites the startling case of one Lieutenant Colonel A., the commander of Squadron 190 who around mid-morning of 7 October, “instructed the other fighters in the air to shoot at everything they see in the area of the fence, and at a certain point also attacked an IDF [Israeli army] station with trapped soldiers in order to help the fighters of Navy commando Unit 13 attack it and liberate it.”

But Zitun’s account indicates that this was not isolated.

“The air force has begun to summarize the events of the surprise attack that began the war in Gaza, and it emerges that there was a fog of war during the first hours of Black Saturday, not only for the fighters on the ground, but also for the air teams that were summoned to the skies of the western Negev,” Zitun’s article begins.

‘Difficult to distinguish’ between fighters and civilians

“After the pilots realized that inside the army stations and the settlements that were conquered, it was very difficult to distinguish between terrorists and [Israeli] soldiers or civilians, the decision was made that the first objective of the fighter helicopters and the armed Zik [Elbit Hermes 450] drones is to stop the deluge of terrorists and the murderous masses that flowed into Israeli territory through the holes in the fence,” Zitun writes.

Zitun then adds: “Twenty-eight fighter helicopters shot over the course of the day all of the ammunition in their bellies, in renewed runs to rearm. We are talking about hundreds of 30 millimeter cannon mortars (each mortar is like a hand grenade) and Hellfire missiles,” he adds.

“The frequency of fire at the thousands of terrorists was enormous at the start, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow their attacks and carefully choose the targets.”

At least one Israeli survivor has said that another Israeli woman was killed when a helicopter fired on the vehicle she was in with Palestinians and other Israelis.

Citing the Israeli military’s preliminary investigations, Zitun describes an utterly chaotic situation: “The air activity on the first day was not organized, and in the skies pilots had to improvise solutions to the complicated and unprecedented situation: much of the firing and targeting directions received from forces battling on the ground reached the pilots via phone calls or images sent by WhatsApp.”

The most bizarre element of the account in Zitun’s article is the claim that “Hamas made it more difficult for helicopter pilots and the drone operators” by using a ruse.

According to the Israeli military investigation, Zitun says, the Hamas fighters had been ordered “to march slowly towards the settlements and army stations, and inside them, and not to run under any circumstances, to make the pilots think they are Israelis.”

It is not explained why anyone would think Israelis would not run amid such a violent and chaotic situation, but according to Zitun, the army concluded that “the deception worked for a little while, until the Apache pilots understood they needed to sidestep their restrictions.”

He also says that some pilots started “on their own initiative to spray the terrorists with cannons without permission from their superiors.”

Two elements stand out here: By the military’s own admission, Israeli pilots could not distinguish clearly between Palestinian combatants and Israeli civilians but decided to open fire with massive amounts of weaponry anyway.

300 ‘targets’

Perhaps in order to preempt the obvious conclusion that Israel killed many of its own people, Zitun inserts this strange sentence: “Reflecting on the enormous number of murdered and kidnapped, the air force is convinced that without the fire support and many attacks carried out by the IDF fighter helicopter pilots on that day, the carnage would have been much greater.”

According to the air force, Zitun writes, “in the first four hours from the start of the battles, helicopters and fighter craft attacked about 300 targets, most in Israeli territory.”

Israel pilots fired at hundreds of targets on their own territory without even having a clear picture of who or what they were shooting at.

With that admission, it would be all but impossible for the Israeli military not to have killed large numbers of its own people.

Blasting away at civilian cars

In light of Zitun’s report, the video released by the Israeli military last month may show much more than Israeli officials are willing to admit.

The video released by the Israeli army shows the helicopters and perhaps drones firing away at civilian cars the identity of whose occupants cannot be determined. They may well have been Israeli civilians trying to flee the area. At one point, a car comes under fire and people pour out only to be machine-gunned by the Israeli aircraft.

It also appears far more likely that the graphic images of burned bodies distributed by Israel and its propagandists – supposed evidence of Hamas atrocities – were caused by helicopters firing heavy caliber shells or Hellfire missiles, rather than the light weapons that the Palestinian fighters were generally seen carrying.

Accumulating evidence

Over the last month, compelling testimonies and other evidence have appeared in Israeli media indicating that a large though undetermined number of Israelis were killed on and after 7 October by Israeli forces.

These accounts have been reported in English primarily by independent media, including The Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss and The Grayzone.

One of the first testimonies was from Yasmin Porat, who survived the violence at Kibbutz Be’eri.

She told Israeli state radio that Palestinian fighters treated her and the other Israelis they were holding “humanely.” Israeli security forces then showed up and started a gunfight.

Porat said that the heavy fire from the Israeli side killed almost all the civilians, along with many of the Palestinian fighters.

Need for investigation

Mainstream media and Western governments have ignored the story, preferring to stick to Israel’s lurid, unsubstantiated and often outright false atrocity tales – such as the infamous claim that Hamas fighters beheaded dozens of Jewish babies.

While sometimes unjustly questioning well-documented Palestinian death tolls, media and governments have accepted without question Israel’s claim that 1,400 people were killed on or just after 7 October.

On Friday, Israel revised that death toll down to 1,200.

While there can be no doubt given the evidence and testimonies available so far that Israel killed some of its own people on and after 7 October, knowing exactly how many would require an independent investigation – something Israel will almost certainly not allow.

But a good start would be for mainstream media – and its various investigative powerhouses – to do their own examinations and test Israel’s often outlandish claims against the evidence.

As I noted in a recent Electronic Intifada livestream, they are failing miserably to do that:

Translation of Ynet article

Translation for The Electronic Intifada by David Sheen.

SOURCE: Ynet

LINK: https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/b111niukzt

HEADLINE: Hamas tricked Israeli helicopters, and pilots over WhatsApp | The Air Force on Day 1

SUBHEAD: The first helicopters were summoned from the north ironically, and reached the Gaza envelope about an hour after the battles began. The terrorists were instructed not to run so that from the air they will be thought of as Israelis. The pilots fired at those who crossed the fence, and even right inside the settlements. The pilots received information from the ground to their mobile phones. In four hours 300 targets were attacked | The events of Black Saturday [2023-10-7].

BYLINE: Yoav Zeitun

DATELINE: 15 October 2023

BODY: The air force has begun to summarize the events of the surprise attack that began the war in Gaza, and it emerges that there was a fog of war during the first hours of the Black Saturday, not only for the fighters on the ground, but also for the air teams that were summoned to the skies of the western Negev.

The first pair of fighter helicopters that was immediately available to the Gaza Division reached the Gaza envelope about an hour or more after the start of events, around 7:30 to 8:00, from Ramat David base in the north [SW Galilee]. This though the Apache helicopters’ parent squadrons are at the Ramon base, which is closer to the Gaza Strip. At the Ramon base they quickly understood that something odd is developing and they got a fighter helicopter in the air with the Commander of the 190 Squadron Lt. Col. A himself, arriving at the Gaza envelope at 8:32.

After the pilots realized that inside the army stations and the settlements that were conquered, it was very difficult to distinguish between terrorists and [Israeli] soldiers or civilians, the decision was made that the first objective of the fighter helicopters and the armed Zik [Elbit Hermes 450] drones is to stop the deluge of terrorists and the murderous masses that flowed into Israeli territory through the holes in the fence. Twenty-eight fighter helicopters shot over the course of the day all of the ammunition in their bellies, in renewed runs to rearm. We are talking about hundreds of 30 millimeter cannon mortars (each mortar is like a hand grenade) and Hellfire missiles. The frequency of fire at the thousands of terrorists was enormous at the start, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow their attacks and carefully choose the targets.

It turns out that the Hamas made it difficult for helicopter pilots and the drone operators: the investigation revealed that the invading forces were asked in their final briefings to march slowly towards the settlements and army stations, and inside them, and not to run under any circumstance, to make the pilots think they are Israelis. The deception worked for a considerable while, until the Apache pilots understood they needed to sidestep their restrictions. Only around 9:00 did some start on their own initiative to spray the terrorists with cannons, without permission from their superiors.

The air activity on the first day was not organized, and in the skies pilots had to improvise solutions to the complicated and unprecedented situation: much of the firing and targeting directions received from forces battling on the ground reached the pilots via phone calls or images sent by WhatsApp. Reflecting on the enormous number of murdered and kidnapped, the Air Force is convinced that without the fire support and many attacks carried out by the IDF fighter helicopter pilots on that day, the carnage would have been much greater.

Something else that helped the Air Force commanders realize the severity of the event in its early hours occurred around 10:00 AM, when the commander of Squadron 190 Lt. Col. A. got out of his helicopter at Ramon [Air Base] to rearm and refuel. He extracted the full video that the helicopter camera documented and quickly broadcast it to the IDF HQ at the Kirya [in Tel Aviv]. In less than 20 minutes he was in the air again, and with the information extracted, he instructed the other fighters in the air to shoot at everything they see in the area of the fence, and at a certain point also attacked an IDF station with trapped soldiers in order to help the fighters of Navy commando unit 13 attack it and liberate it.

In one instance, removing his own self-imposed restrictions, he shot a distance of only twenty meters from one of the houses on the kibbutz in order to cover the Deputy Commander of Division 80 that was called in from the Sinai sector and killed four terrorists in a difficult battle. According to the Air Force, in the first four hours from the start of the battles, helicopters and fighter craft attacked about 300 targets, most in Israeli territory.

On the ninth day of the war (Sunday) the Air Force is embedded in the effort to eliminate the leaders of Hamas, while preparing for its massive contribution in advance of a ground invasion. The Air Force has not related to the dilemma created by attacking targets in which Hamas leaders like Muhammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar are hiding next to Israeli hostages used as human shields.

The Air Force is working to create a new barrier between Israel and the Gaza Strip up to three kilometers wide, and to encourage the Gazans to go southward in advance of the heavy bombardment that will rain down on Gaza City and the northern towns. The phrase currently driving the Air Force is “the destruction of military capabilities, movements and authorities of the terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip that threaten Israel.” The pilots were instructed to act calmly and professionally, with organized intelligence and operational logic behind every one of the thousands of attacks carried out up to now.

Currently the air effort is invested in Gaza, but at heightened readiness for days of battle that is already unfolding in the north. The IDF explains that the Air Force is trained and equipped to deal with two fronts simultaneously, but its preference is to focus on one main theater. Thus for example the Air Force is not automatically attacking every Hezbollah anti-aircraft missile launcher that shoots a rocket at Israeli drones.

At the same time, the IDF has identified for some time a great effort by Iran to transport advanced weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to the foreign press, it was the Air Force that in recent days attacked the Syrian airports of Aleppo and Damascus, shutting them down, along with the large weapons transports on the way to Lebanon.

Air Force Commander Major Tomer Bar spoke about the events of the first day, saying: “There are many stories of courage by soldiers on the ground. The pilots killed many terrorists and helicopters brought fighters to the battlefield while under fire. We are proud of them and of the reservists who prove the strength of the IDF and the Air Force. We are investigating every day, and improving every day.”

Regarding a ground invasion, Bar said: “We are preparing the theater for the most effective maneuvers possible, and are removing as many threats as possible from the ground and the air, in order to give the fighters operational freedom of action. At present we are focusing on the southern theater but are prepared at a high state of readiness to any development that could also occur in the north.”

Source: Electronic Intifada

 

Genocide Joe: Ceasefire now!

People around the world are demanding that the Zionist apartheid regime stop murdering Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Over 11,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,500 children.

Three hundred thousand people marched on the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4. They demanded that “Genocide Joe” Biden stop the massacre being carried out by the U.S. client state of “Israel.”

This was the biggest march in defense of Palestine in U.S. history. Many Palestinian organizations helped organize it, along with the ANSWER coalition.

Activists in the Black Lives Matter movement have rallied to defend Palestine. So have Indigenous nations and organizations defending immigrants.

Marches took place the same day across the United States. Five thousand people took to the streets in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Anti-War Committee also organized a busload of people who traveled 1,400 miles to join the Washington protest.

Hundreds of thousands marched in London and other British cities for Palestine on Nov. 4. The Tory government wants to stop a demonstration in London on Nov. 11, since that’s the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I.

As former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn pointed out, wasn’t that armistice a ceasefire? What better day to demand peace for Palestine?

Corbyn said “the Palestinian cause will never go away.” 

Thousands have also marched in Berlin and Paris. Italians are demanding a ceasefire. “Peace with Gaza” has been painted on Italian railroad passenger cars.

Thousands marched in Mexico City. They rightfully called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal.

Massive marches to stop the killing in Gaza have taken place in both Istanbul and Ankara in Türkiye. Demonstrators tried to storm the U.S. air base at Incirlik in southern Türkiye.   

Nelson Mandela supported Palestine

An estimated 2 million people marched in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. 

The 278 million people of Indonesia have been politically smothered since the CIA-orchestrated massacres of a million communists, workers and peasants in 1965-66. The mass marches for Palestine are helping to break through decades of reaction.

The people of South Africa are heart and soul with Palestine. Nelson Mandela said in 1997 that “we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

Marches have been organized in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. People remember how Israel supplied rifles and other military hardware, including nuclear weapons, to the old apartheid regime. 

They also remember Ruth First, a Jewish South African communist who was murdered by a bomb sent by the apartheid secret police. Thousands of Jewish people around the world have marched to demand freedom and peace in Palestine.

But in “democratic Israel,” nobody is allowed to march for peace and to stop murdering Palestinian children. Zionist police chief Yaakov Shabtai has threatened to arrest anti-war protesters and bus them to Gaza. 

On Nov. 9 people in the U.S. took to the streets again. At least 10,000 people demonstrated in New York City.

Among them were thousands of high school and college students who walked out of class earlier in the day. Struggle-La Lucha’s Bill Dores reported they marched from the New York Public Library down Fifth Avenue, across 34th Street through Herald Square, then up Eighth Avenue to the New York Times.

Hundreds of writers and journalists were sitting in there to protest the Times’ support of the war on Gaza. People then marched through Times Square back to the library,

Earlier in the day, activists at the People’s Forum took over the lobby of the BlackRock financial octopus that has assets of over $9 trillion. Among its holdings are war profiteers like Lockheed.

The world is with Palestine. Ceasefire now! Palestine will be free!

The House of Representatives voted 234-188 to censure Rashida Tlaib — its only Palestinian member — for condemning the U.S. / Israeli genocide in Gaza. Over 10,000 Palestinians have been murdered so far in Gaza by U.S.-made and U.S.-paid-for bombs and shells. Four thousand have been children.

The Nov. 7 resolution is as racist as was the expulsion of Harlem Congressperson Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in 1967. Powell had earlier been ousted from chairing the House Education and Labor committee, where he battled discrimination and fought for all poor people.

It’s reminiscent of Georgia’s state legislature refusing to seat Julian Bond in 1966 because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. Bond was among the first Black people elected to Georgia’s legislature since the bloody overthrow of Reconstruction.

What was Rashida Tlaib censured for? According to Politico, “Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) had moved to censure Tlaib for what he called ‘promoting false narratives’ about the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ attack on Israel and for ‘calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.’”

So Rashida Tlaib was punished for her opinions, just as Julian Bond was prevented from taking his legislative seat for what he said about the dirty U.S. war against Vietnam. “Freedom of speech” was never meant for the oppressed.

Tlaib’s censure follows the expulsions earlier this year of Justin Bautista-Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black members of Tennessee’s House of Representatives. The Montana House of Representatives prevented Zooey Zephyr, its only transgender member, from speaking or even entering the legislative chamber.

All these elected legislators were punished for expressing their opinions. The real “cancel culture” is capitalist reaction trying to silence any genuine opposition.

An earlier Nov. 1 vote to censure Rashida Tlaib narrowly failed. Its sponsor was the reactionary Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who believes “Jewish space lasers” caused California forest fires. 

Six days later, McCormick’s censure of Tlaib passed in revenge for the massive protests around the world in defense of the Palestinian people. Three hundred thousand people marched to the White House on Nov. 4 in a demonstration organized by many Palestinian organizations and the ANSWER coalition.

Twenty-two Democrats shamelessly voted with Republicans to censure Tlaib. Along with the one Democrat who was counted present, their votes were the margin of victory to try to silence the lone Palestinian voice in Congress. 

Refuses to censure Israeli racism

Prominent Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer refuse to condemn racist statements made by Israeli officials and media. Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichay Eliyahu called for dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu ostensibly kicked Eliyahu out of the cabinet. Nobody is supposed to admit that “little Israel” has nukes. The thousands of bombs dropped on Gaza have twice the equivalent of TNT compared to the atom bomb the U.S. used to incinerate Hiroshima. 

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “total siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” Gallant said. “We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly.”

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog proclaimed there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, meaning that any child or adult can be killed. 

U.S. Congressperson Brian Mast also denied that Gaza lives matter, comparing the civilians there to Nazis. Yet Democrats pulled their censure resolution of the Florida Republican. 

The Israeli daily newspaper Hayom demanded that the time had come to “send Gaza back into the Stone Age.” 

Retired Israeli general Giora Eiland said a “total war” was necessary to defeat Palestinians. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels also demanded a “total war” after the German defeat at Stalingrad.

Eiland, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council, called for creating “a terrible humanitarian crisis in Gaza because this kind of pressure might be the most effective one.”  

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir doesn’t want to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza. 

This barbarism is intended to drive the Palestinian population out of Gaza as well as the West Bank. Zionist leaders want a new Nakba — Arabic for catastrophe — like what happened in 1948. “Israel” was born with 15,000 Palestinians murdered and 531 Palestinian villages destroyed.

Palestine extends from river to sea

All the big capitalist media are supporting the ruthless Zionist invasion of the Gaza ghetto. “Freedom of the press” is for those who own one.

Palestinian freedom fighters are being labeled “terrorists” just like the slave masters called Nat Turner — who led a revolt of enslaved Africans in Virginia — a “monster.”

Neither the media nor the Biden administration nor Bernie Sanders are calling for a ceasefire. Refusing a ceasefire is endorsing the continued bombing of 2.3 million Palestinians in an area that’s as densely populated as New York City. 

The Zionist military and its Pentagon advisors are deliberately targeting hospitals, schools, and other shelters. Hundreds of children are guaranteed to be killed every day.

The same House of Representatives that censured Rashida Tlaib voted five days earlier to give another $14.3 billion to Israel for killing Palestinians. At the same time, $3 billion has been cut from SNAP benefits (formerly called food stamps) every month since March. 

Rashida Tlaib was censured for supposedly “calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.” What’s wrong with destroying a racist apartheid state that even restricts Palestinians from traveling on certain highways? 

It’s anti-racist, not anti-Jewish, to chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” Thousands of Jewish people have demonstrated in support of Palestinians.

The people of Zimbabwe wiped racist Rhodesia off the map and took back their land. So will the people of Palestine.

Hands off Rashida Tlaib!

The Port of Tacoma in Washington state was shut down by a picket line shortly before 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 6. Protesters swarmed the entrance with signs and chants: “No aid for Israel” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” 

Demonstrators parked cars along the road leading into the port, stopping all traffic, including trucking to and from the port. Organizers say their protest delayed the ship’s departure by at least 12 hours.

The action was called to prevent the MV Cape Orlando, part of the U.S. fleet, from transporting military cargo to Israel. On Nov. 3, the ship had been delayed by a last-minute, unpublicized demonstration at the Port of Oakland. 

At that protest, Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, said: “We’re hoping that the workers in Tacoma will not load that military cargo, that people of Tacoma will show up to protest this genocide, and that workers around the world will continue to stop ships like this anywhere they may be found,”

In fact, at the Tacoma Port located near McChord Air Force Base, workers could not load the vessel. As members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), they are bound not to cross picket lines. It is a clear violation of their union principles and potentially dangerous as well. 

Clarence Thomas, a retired longshore worker and former secretary-treasurer of ILWU Local 10 in Oakland, remarked that protests are more powerful when workers at the point of production become involved.

It was reported that members of the U.S. military had been ordered to attempt to load the ship using water taxis.

Commenting on the success of the demonstration, protester Alon Lapid told KOMO News: “This turnout is incredible. The people here are all showing up to support Palestinian liberation, to stop an ongoing genocide, and to call out all U.S. military aid to this genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. 

“We know that we have a responsibility and a duty to shut down this port because the military is literally going to be loading weapons and bombs that are going to be sent to the Israeli occupation regime to commit genocide today. We’re all out in force for Palestine,” Lapid concluded.

As the sun rose on Nov. 3, protesters began to pour into a site near Berth 20 in the Port of Oakland in California, where the U.S. military vessel MV Cape Orlando was preparing for departure. It is a roll-on/roll-off ship, part of the U.S. fleet that is replenishing military stockpiles in Israel.

After leaving Oakland, the ship’s next destination was the Port of Tacoma, in Washington state, where there is a power projection platform* located close to the McChord Air Force Base. The Cape Orlando will be prepared to deliver tanks, armored personnel, carriers, and mobile rocket launchers, as well as troop trucks, cargo trucks, and Humvees.

Swelling ranks of protesters occupied Berth 20 and shut it down. The departure of the ship was delayed for more than nine hours. 

A group of young Palestinians, their energy fueled by the loss of family and community, breached the Homeland Security Department’s MARSEC security perimeter. While they scaled the fence, they must have thought of their siblings shot dead by Israeli forces when they approached the walls bounding Gaza.

Protesters lashed the boat back to its mooring lines on the bollards. Three locked themselves to the ladder leading onto the ship, adding significant delay. They are currently being held in custody by the police.

The protest was called by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) less than 24 hours after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $14.3-billion aid package to Israel. Merchant marine workers told AROC about the ship.

“We know that the ship is destined as a military ship to Israel because of the courage of workers,” says Lara Kiswani, AROC executive director.  

“We’re hoping that when it reaches Tacoma, the workers will not load that military cargo, that people of Tacoma will show up to protest this genocide, and that workers around the world will continue to stop ships like this anywhere they may be found,” she said. 

“We are simply trying to call for an immediate ceasefire and stop the aiding of the genocide of my people.”

The protest grew quickly even though there had been little time to organize the action. Speakers denounced President Biden’s cruel hypocrisy of talking about a “humanitarian pause” to the epic massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. 

Kiswani said: “Today we showed the world: No business as usual while Israel commits genocide against the Palestinian people. This genocide is being funded by our government and they’re sending weapons starting from our city.” 

ILWU solidarity with Palestine

Clarence Thomas, a retired longshore worker and former secretary-treasurer of International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) Local 10, spoke to the rally. He called out to the merchant marine crew of the military cargo ship to let them know that longshore and maritime workers in Gaza could not get work.

As an African American worker, he said he had experienced the scourge of apartheid in the U.S. — the inability to find a job, the theft of land and homes, as well as genocide. 

Bishop Tutu, Nobel laureate, criticized Israeli policies toward the Palestinians as “humiliating,” and said those policies were familiar to all Black South Africans under apartheid.

“ILWU Local 10 has had a long record of solidarity with the Palestinians. In 2014 they blocked an Israeli ship after Israeli commandos launched a murderous attack on a flotilla bringing aid to Palestine. During another assault on Gaza in 2021, longshore workers refused to unload Israeli cargo in Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, and Vancouver, British Columbia.”

Thomas added that he wasn’t surprised to see this demonstration just a week after dockworkers in Belgium pledged not to work any ships destined for Israel.

Sharif Zakout, speaking for AROC, said: “Israel’s ability to commit genocide against the people of Gaza is entirely dependent on U.S. military aid. We are here to sound the alarm on this U.S. military ship bound to Israel, to disrupt this war machine, and to do whatever we can to stop the killing of our loved ones in Gaza.”  

AROC reported that as many as a thousand people joined in the demonstration against U.S. military support for Israel. Communities in the Pacific Northwest have already called for more protests to block the military supply vessel.   

* A power projection platform is an Army installation set up to mobilize and generate forces and project those forces anywhere in the world at any time.

Nov. 3, New Orleans – About 100 pro-Palestine protesters gathered on Canal Street downtown, outside the Sheraton Hotel, where the annual State of the Port address was happening. This is an elite event for business people and politicians.

Activists demanded that the Port of New Orleans, the city and state governments, along with the police forces, cut all ties with the Zionist state, which is currently carrying out a genocide of Palestinian people with Washington’s full backing. Protesters rallied, passed out literature, formed a picket line, and then marched during the lunch rush.

Connecting the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, the Port of New Orleans is a major economic hub for the United States, responsible for a nationwide economic output of $29.8 billion. The port has established collaborations with Israel’s Port of Ashdod in Tel Aviv, launching an “Innovation Embassy” this year.  

The U.S. Census Bureau says that 28.3% of people in New Orleans live in poverty. While working-class people struggle to make ends meet, U.S. capitalists – including in Louisiana – continue to get richer by collaborating with Zionist Israel. These business leaders have blood on their hands.

Friday’s protest action was called by Freedom Road Socialist Organization – New Orleans, Students for a Democratic Society, and other groups. Speakers indicated that this is the beginning of a campaign focused on the port authority. They promised to continue disrupting meetings, luncheons, and other functions until the port ends its relations with Israel.

Speakers included Tulane students facing charges after they were attacked by Zionist students during a peaceful protest for Palestine on that New Orleans university campus. Since the incident, they have faced harassment by university police and disinformation campaigns accusing them of antisemitism. 

As with all other pro-Palestine protests in New Orleans, anti-Zionist Jewish activists played a leading role on Friday. Jewish Voice for Peace has been a driving force in the movement, showing that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. 

Statement issued by the Palestinian resistance forces: Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC):

The five Palestinian powers held a leadership meeting in Beirut today, Saturday, October 28, 2023, to discuss the course of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle with the zionist enemy and its brutal aggression against the Gaza Strip.

In their statement, the five powers saluted the martyrs of our Palestinian people and our steadfast and proud people in the Gaza Strip who are facing an organized campaign of extermination, stressing that they are the people of pride, dignity and steadfastness and that they are the people of victory who are loyal to their cause and their homeland, and [the Palestinian forces] pledged to them to continue on the path of resistance until victory is achieved over the zionist enemy.

The attendees affirmed the following:

• This heroic epic is the battle of the entire Palestinian people, which they are waging in defense of their land, their sanctities, their existence, and their right to freedom against a barbaric enemy that does not spare any of our people from its crimes. It targets hospitals, mosques, churches, universities, and ambulances and cuts off electricity, water, fuel, the Internet, and cellular communications for our besieged people.
• Adhering to national unity is a main pillar in confronting the zionist war of genocide against our people, as well as rejecting the enemy’s attempts to divide our people or monopolize any part of it. We stress unifying efforts and closing ranks in this fateful battle.
• We call on the masses of our Arab and Islamic nation and the free people of the world to continue their movements to stop the American-zionist aggression, open the border crossings, bring in humanitarian aid and fuel, and remove the wounded from the Gaza Strip.
• We salute the resistance forces in our nation, especially in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran, and we affirm that our Palestinian people are not alone in this battle.
• We hold the United States of America fully responsible for the war of genocide against our people as it chose to support, escalate, and participate in the war of genocide against our people, which requires a strong response from the Arab and Islamic countries as well as countries friendly to our people to stop this ongoing massacre of our Palestinian people.
• We demand the opening of the Rafah crossing and the entry of aid, humanitarian needs, fuel, and medical and relief teams to our people without delay, allowing the wounded to be transported to Egypt and the Arab and Islamic countries without interference from the occupation or any of the aggression countries.
• We call on the masses of our people throughout occupied Palestine to escalate all forms of resistance and struggle against the zionist enemy, targeting its soldiers and settlers and strengthening popular initiatives of struggle in the face of settler attacks and the encroachment of enemy forces.
• The enemy’s cutting off all access to Gaza, besieging it, and cutting off communications and the Internet completely is a cover for a major crime of genocide that the enemy does not want witnesses to, and we stress breaking this siege with an “official and popular” Arab position.
• We adhere to the right of our people to resist and its confidence in the victory of our people in this battle, as we fight this battle in defense of our land, our people, and our sanctities, and for the sake of liberation, return, self-determination, and the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Glory to the martyrs.
Healing for the wounded.
Freedom for the prisoners.
Victory to our people and their valiant resistance.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Source: Resistance News Network on Telegram

Statement issued by the Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and Wounded for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP):

Our prisoners are in the crosshairs.

O masses of our Palestinian people,

Since the 7th of October 2023, during the Al-Aqsa Flood battle, the zionist occupation has proceeded to transfer prisoners and detainees to an unknown location, notably including the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Comrade Leader Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades, as well as the prisoner leader and intellectual Walid Daqqah, who is suffering from a severe health condition. Moreover, the occupation forces are carrying out an arbitrary arrest campaign targeting released prisoners and resistance fighters from among our people in the West Bank. 

In this context, the Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and Wounded for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issues a call through the media, all social media platforms, international human rights and humanitarian institutions to break this silence which makes them a fundamental partner in all these crimes. It is inconceivable that the lives of prisoners remain constantly threatened by these fascist and Nazi gangs. We fear that our prisoners may become martyrs due to the torture and deprivation inflicted by the zionist prison services, depriving the prisoners of their most basic rights guaranteed by all international and humanitarian laws and conventions.

We call upon the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization to fulfill their humanitarian duties, exert efforts to visit the prisoners, learn about their conditions, and provide all necessary medicine and treatment.

We, in the Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and Wounded for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, closely follow the conditions of the prisoners and exert great effort to determine their fate, including children, women, elderly, and the sick suffering from heart diseases, diabetes, blood pressure, and kidney issues.

We demand the formation of a swift investigative committee to investigate all the details that led to the martyrdom of a number of prisoners due to torture, beating, and deliberate medical negligence.

We also call upon our Palestinian people to engage in the widest campaign of mobilization and solidarity with the prisoners and detainees in the zionist prisons.

Furthermore, the Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and Wounded for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemns the barbaric and brutal zionist aggression against the Gaza Strip, targeting hospitals, innocent citizens, medical and media crews, and committing massacres against our Palestinian people.

Glory and eternity to the martyrs,
Freedom for the prisoners,
Healing for the wounded,
And victory for our people.

Office of Martyrs, Prisoners, and Wounded for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Saturday, October 28, 2023

Source: Resistance News Network on Telegram

On May 27, 1942, in the midst of World War II, anti-Nazi resistance fighters wounded a high-ranking Nazi official, Reinhard Heydrich, while he drove through the city of Prague. He died a week later, on June 4. A furious Adolph Hitler at first ordered the murder of 10,000 Czech people in retaliation. Cooler heads in Berlin prevailed. On June 9, Hitler changed his plan. He now ordered the destruction of the town of Lidice, although there was no evidence that it had anything to do with Heydrich’s assassination.

From June 9 to 10, Nazi troops occupied Lidice. They gathered 500 residents in the town square, and the Nazis executed all 173 men and boys and a few women. The other women were sent to concentration camps, where many were exterminated. The small children were screened by the Nazi “SS Race and Settlement Main Office,” where those who were deemed racially pure enough were later sent to live and be raised by German parents. Eighty other children were gassed to death at the Chelmno extermination camp.

The Nazis then totally destroyed the entire town of Lidice, vowing to wipe it from the face of the earth. Two weeks later, the village of Lezaiky’s adult residents were all shot dead, and the children were sent to a death camp. Over 3,000 Czechs were arrested, with 1,327 executed in further reprisals. Thousands of Jewish people in Prague were also rounded up and deported to the Lublin concentration camp to be exterminated.

The Nazis were open about what they had done. Propaganda films and radio broadcasts proudly proclaimed the destruction of Lidice as a warning to others who might offer resistance to their oppressive rule. Source:  Holocaust Encyclopedia

On May 22, 1946, the high-ranking Nazi who oversaw the murders and destruction of Lidice, Karl Hermann Frank, was executed by hanging after being convicted of war crimes. Many other Nazis also received the death sentence for this and many more crimes against humanity.

What the Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu is doing to Gaza, fully supported by President Joe Biden, is Lidice on a greater scale. It is a war crime to carry out collective punishment. It is a war crime to retaliate and carry out retribution against a civilian population. It is a war crime to cut off food, water, power, and medical supplies to the Palestinian people living in Gaza.

Israel, of course, was built on the murder of Palestinians and the destruction of over 400 Palestinian villages from 1947 to 1948. Since that time, Palestinian people have had their lands and water resources taken from them by the growth of armed Zionist settlements and military coercion.

At the same time, U.S. immigration policy excluded thousands of Holocaust victims from emigrating to the U.S., in effect forcing them to go to Palestine instead. This is a continuation of the historic anti-Jewish bigotry of the U.S. ruling class and their government minions. (See the three-part PBS Ken Burns series: “The U.S. and the Holocaust.”)

These same bigots now proclaim their solidarity with Zionism based on their cold machinations to control the oil-rich Middle East region. Their aim was to turn unwanted Jewish refugees into soldiers for neocolonialism and imperialism against the rising tide of Arab nationalism, including Palestine.

Hence, Israel joined England and France in 1956 to attack Egypt and “take back” from it the Suez Canal, which Egypt had dared to seize control of and nationalized under Nasser.

Hence, the 1967 Israeli “preemptive” war against all its Arab neighbors, who had just emerged from European colonial control and domination.

To the quite anti-Semitic Wall Street wizards and Big Oil tycoons, Zionist Israel is the perfect tool to maintain their domination against Arab revolutions that would threaten their interests.

The October 7 Palestinian fighters who broke out of the Gaza “open-air prison” have been called animals, senseless and pure evil, by Western politicians and compliant media outlets. Yet, is it really surprising that decades of anger and suffering should be directed upon the Israeli soldiers and colonizing settlers and their U.S. patrons? Remember that Gaza has been under siege for 16 years by the Zionist government and military.

The Israeli carpet bombing of Gaza has, so far, caused the death of over 6,000 Palestinians, about half of them children, with no end in sight. Will Netanyahu continue to exact his retaliation and revenge by slaughtering thousands more and trying to destroy the very existence of Gaza? This is on a scale many times greater than Hitler’s destruction of Lidice. Hopefully, people around the world will be able to force an end to this slaughter. But both Netanyahu and Biden will certainly be judged by history as guilty of the war crime of collective punishment and genocide.