Ibaitik Itsasora
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Gaza BEFORE Israel showed up
Israel is a criminal state
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1887980771178070396
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Zionists in 2025… “Palestine never existed”
Zionists in 1899… “We will colonise Palestine”
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In 1948 Albert Einstein foresaw the Israeli terrorism in Palestine that would eventually bring a catastrophe on the Jewish colonists.
Update on the killing of Awdah Hathaleen:
An Israeli settler murdered Awdah Hathaleen. Instead of arresting the killer, the Israeli police released him. Meanwhile, they arrested members of Awdah’s family and friends—and are still holding his body.
The family was informed that the funeral must take place at night and that he would be buried in secrecy.
This is not just a crime; it is a clear act of racism, injustice, and apartheid.
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Israeli military plane refuelling fighter jets bombing Gaza on Monday (28 July 2025) – and using Egyptian airspace while it does it
This Israeli tanker does this pretty much every mission it undertakes, which is most days
Is this sanctioned by President Sisi?
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This is Ayat, my friend and cousin,the little girl who once told me:l want to go back to playing. This isn’t a sentence any child would say.Ayat isn’t just any child. She was saying this sentence while a third of her body was burned with fifth-degree burns.
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Alan Dershowitz, the man who literally argued that you have to kill all Palestinian civilians to destroy Hamas was also literally Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer and his frequent “client” for underage girls.
How do Americans still tolerate this perverted ghoul walking free among them?
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950552920107180371
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China, Cambodia and Thailand held an informal trilateral meeting in Shanghai.
Cambodia and Thailand reaffirmed to China that they will abide by the ceasefire agreement, and expressed their appreciation for the positive role China has played to date in calming down the situation.
It is China’s latest diplomatic effort to facilitate the implementation of the ceasefire and create conditions for quickly restoring peace and stability along the Cambodia-Thailand border.
https://english.news.cn/20250730/55a83e2893c848c89d22852bfc7678d0/c.html
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State of Palestine@Palestine_UN
“We may be small but we have never ever failed to stand for what it is right. This is why we recognized the State of Palestine in 1988. The State of Palestine exists. The Palestinian flags flies outside this hall. Its sovereignty and its people must be not erased. Palestinians have the inalienable right to remain to return and to govern State of their own, freely and fully.”
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950612341307097486
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On Wednesday, German pro-Palestinian activist Yasmin Acar stood trial on nine charges related to her political activism and was found not guilty.
Speaking after the verdict, Acar, who was aboard the Maddalena, a Freedom Flotilla ship bound for Gaza, and was arrested by Israeli forces before being deported to Germany, said: “We will continue the fight, and we will take ships, we will take planes, and we will use our feet to march to Gaza.”
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950694452520951920
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“I Will not stand here and be lectured to by a political party that refused to acknowledge, let alone condemn, the murder and slaughter of innocent children. And the starvation of children…”
—Powerful speech by Senator of Australia Sarah Hanson-Young
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950583995722264942
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“Don’t let Gaza die.” Actor Daniel Brühl is among 200 German cultural figures who have called for tougher action toward Israel. In an open letter to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, they demand a halt to arms exports, suspension of the EU-Israel deal, and an immediate ceasefire.
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READ: Israel wants you to believe that airdrops and symbolic aid trucks will solve their man-made famine in Gaza.
Meanwhile? Palestinians are still starving. Kids are still dying.
It’s not relief—it’s PR for genocide. Don’t fall for the optics.
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Don’t stop talking about the famine in Gaza
(https://mondoweiss.net/2025/07/dont-stop-talking-about-the-famine-in-gaza/)
Israel wants you to believe that airdrops and symbolic aid trucks will solve the famine in Gaza. Don’t believe them. These measures are not meant to end hunger, only to quell growing global outrage as the genocide continues unchecked.
By Malak Hijazi July 29, 2025
A charity distributes meals to Palestinians facing famine amid ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza City on July 28, 2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)
Recently, several friends and colleagues messaged me about protests and international outrage over the famine in Gaza. “There’s been a huge push,” they said. Israeli media spoke of growing global pressure on Israel and how its image had been damaged in the eyes of the world. Some Arab and Western countries even floated the idea of airdropping aid again, ignoring how unsafe and ineffective it has always been.
On Saturday night, July 26, Telegram chats where people in Gaza discuss news went crazy. It started with Israeli officers admitting that aid had never been stolen by Hamas. Then came the surreal headline: Israel deciding to drop aid, as if they weren’t the ones controlling all crossings and borders, as if trucks had not been stacked for months that they refused to let in. They also declared tactical humanitarian pauses, notably from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and Muwasi, to create limited aid corridors for UN convoys. Egypt announced it would allow dozens of trucks carrying tonnes of humanitarian aid to pass through the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in southern Gaza.
We didn’t believe our eyes. What happened? What suddenly changed the Israeli stance?
How could this be possible when the same people had just announced they were no longer interested in ceasefire negotiations?
Visuals of parachuted food packages and aid trucks accompanied the news, along with statements filled with numbers and achievements. Hundreds of trucks were reported heading to Gaza. Relief seemed near. Finally, real action. We felt hopeful. After four months of documenting and speaking, it seemed someone had listened.
Meanwhile, many jokes circulated online: that Israel had agreed to let us be fed before completing the slaughter. Still, a small wave of relief passed through. Parents would finally have something to offer their children, even if only briefly.
But on the ground, nothing changed. The crisis ended only in the headlines.
Humanitarian aid supplies are airdropped by military cargo planes over the western part of Deir al-Balah, in Gaza, on July 28, 2025. (Photo: Ahmed Ibrahim / APA Images)
In the two days following Israel’s announcement of the tactical pause, Israeli forces killed over 160 Palestinians, including children. People thought they could take the chance to move, collect aid, or breathe, but that too became another Israeli trap. It was a lie crafted by Israel, amplified by Western media, declared without our knowledge, and never enforced. The bombing never stopped. The death toll remained just as high. Some Arab governments echoed the false narrative, while only a handful of aid trucks entered—much of it looted before reaching the people. Food prices soared to unbearable levels.
In fact, none of the current methods of aid distribution are functioning. Egyptian trucks are often looted before reaching civilians due to the collapse of order and lack of secure passage. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked police escorts and civilians waiting for aid. Airdropped aid is minimal, scattered, and deeply dehumanizing.
There is massive media buzz around humanitarian pauses and aid convoys, but the reality is far worse. Aid enters in small, inconsistent trickles. Israel has allowed only symbolic amounts of fruit or goods, just enough for photos, not to solve the crisis.
Israel wants the famine to appear complicated—something out of its hands and nearly impossible to resolve. However, improving quality of life and ending the crisis can be done quickly and easily by simply opening the crossings and allowing aid, medicine, and commercial goods to enter.
It is striking how they try to invent other methods, such as airdrops or the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. But these are well-planned performances. Both share humiliation and carry the underlying message that aid will not reach everyone equally. They are solutions that are not meant to solve.
When an airdrop falls anywhere in Gaza or trucks arrive, it becomes like a battle. People shout and fight over a can of beans or a few grams of sugar because those simply do not exist in markets, and the amount of aid is small compared to the need. This is a natural reaction after months of severe famine and deprivation. There should be no expectation of organized behavior from someone who has been starved for so long. But this fractures us. It chips away at our sense of community, turning survival into competition. People in Gaza were always generous, but Israel has turned them into people scrambling for food. And while the headlines focus on aid and chaos, Israel goes on committing crimes and quietly executing its plans in the background without questioning.
Don’t stop talking about the famine and genocide. Don’t let Israel and the complicit Arab countries manipulate you into thinking they’ve made efforts or a difference. Famine isn’t over. It still exists. And the killing has not stopped for almost two years.
Free speech is under attack—especially when it comes to Palestine.
From the censorship of student voices to the assassinations of journalists in Gaza, the cost of telling the truth about Palestine has never been higher. At Mondoweiss, we publish fearless reporting and critical analysis that others won’t touch—because we believe the public needs to know the truth about Palestine.
We’re funded by readers who believe in justice, transparency, and freedom of the press.
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David Ramírez Álvarez 
@DvidTwit
Palestinian students graduated as doctors from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana.
As a gesture of gratitude, they gifted their Kuffiyehs to the Provost of the University.
While #Cuba promotes solidarity with those in need, imperialism promotes genocide.
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Muhammad in Gaza
@7MohammedKhaled
Photos from the end of the world in Gaza today Humanity has never seen anything like this throughout all modern history. And it’s all live A whole people on the edge of the courtyard.
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Irish Sport for Palestine@Sport4Palestine
Bernard O’Byrne calls for ‘immediate total suspension of Israel’ from all European basketball competitions
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Yes, we need a public inquiry into Jewish Schools and their grooming of Jewish kids into support for the genocidal ideology of Zionism. But it’s not only schools, even nurseries are involved, run by genocidal cults like Chabad and other Hasidic/Haredi sects.
Then there are all the Torah classes, Kollel, Yeshivot etc. Then there’s the youth movements, and ‘young adult’ movements many of which have branches in the UK
(Youth Movements Hashomer Hatzair | Hanoar Hatzioni | Tzameret | Hamahanot Ho’olim | Haihud Hahaklai | Ariel | Betar | National Youth/Noar Leumi | The General Federation Of Working And Studying Youth/HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed(NOAL) | Tzofim | World Bnei Akiva | Maccabi Hatzair | Ezra | Habonim Dror | Netzer Olami: Young Adult Movements PZC | Magshimei Tora VeAvode | Bana | Tagar | Tamar | Maccabi | Atid | Marom | Magshimei Herut )
Then there’s the student groups, UJS, obviously, but also Chabad, Camera on Campus, and others.
And we can’t forget the Zionist synagogues, that’s almost all of them. (From the following synagogues movements: United Synagogue, Movement for Reform Judaism, Liberal Judaism and Masorti. There are two other synagogue movements which do have a few Satmar oriented Shuls. Satmar are officially anti-Zionist, but remain Jewish supremacist).
After that you have all the central institutions of the Zionist movement, the Zionist Federation, the JNF, the UJIA and the Jewish Agency.
And then there’s all the main ‘Israel lobby’ groups, more than a hundred of them, as well as all the Zionist front groups pretending to do ‘interfaith’ or ‘dialogue’ as cover for normalising genocide.
Finally, there are thousands of charities helping to build financial and practical support for the killing of Palestinian children.
All of this needs investigation and the closure and disembedding of each organisation.
It’s a big task. But we must pursue it.
Aipamena
Dr Rahmeh Aladwan@doctor_rahmeh
uzt. 30
‘We learned this in Torah class in ‘israel’ and England.’ — Dual British-‘israeli’ citizen.
Tell me again why we shouldn’t have an inquiry into British jewish schools and institutions that teach, promote, and justify jewish
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950545429185388598
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One of the most bizarre parts of Israel’s US-financed destruction of Gaza: Israel’s supporters in the US will constantly deny what Israeli officials themselves proudly admit. Israeli Minister Eliyahu said the key war aim is not the hostages, but cleansing Gaza of non-Jews:
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If you’re scrolling, PLEASE leave a dot. STARVATION.
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Mighty BlackRock fails to buy Panama Canal’s ports from the Hong Kong owner, who now wants to include the Chinese SOE, Cosco. China might end up partly or fully owning the 40+ ports owned by Hutchinson, the HK firm. Xi Jinping outmaneuvers Trump?
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US Green Beret saw IDF war crimes at aid delivery sites in Gaza.
“In my entire career I have never witnessed the level of brutality and use of indiscriminate and unnecessary force against a civilian population, an unarmed starving population,” according to US Green Beret Anthony Aguilar, who deployed to Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution sites in the Gaza strip. “Using artillery rounds, mortar rounds, tank rounds into unarmed civilians is a war crime.”
“The American people need to know what the United States is involved in in Gaza. We’re not bystanders. We are a part of it. U.S. tax dollars are going towards this effort. Americans are on the ground, armed, in Gaza, engaging with Palestinians and involved in things that America needs to know about.”
Aguilar has provided direct testimony of his experience working for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which manages US- and Israeli-backed ‘aid delivery’ in Gaza.
“Dystopian to the tenth degree. It’s horrible. There was no box for this young man. So he picked up some things that he found on the ground, and he was so thankful for even that. And he walked up to me and he extended his hand, and I beckoned for him to come forward, and he grabbed my hand, and he kissed my hand and he said, “Shukran, shukran,” and he was sincere.
“Then he held my hand and he kissed it, and I knelt down to look at him in the face so I can let him know that, you know, people care. You’re not alone. People care. And he set down his bags and he put his hands on my face and he kissed me. “
And he says, “Thank you.” And he picked up his bags and he went back to join this group. This was the last remaining group of people on the site that were picking up remnants of aid.
“The IDF [Israeli military] opened up with machine gun fire into the crowd to get them to leave faster, to get them to hurry. Shooting at their feet, shooting over their head, shooting into the berm. There’s video of this. It’s been verified. That’s the first time I had experienced such use of force against… So I didn’t know what was going on because he had walked through the berm, and I heard the shooting. So I ran up to the berm to look, and there were dead Palestinians. He was one of them.”
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BREAKING: China seeks international action to arrest Netanyahu over alleged crimes in Gaza.
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This is Derry in Ireland 
Every square on this blanket represents 10 children murdered by Israel 
in Gaza
The blanket stretches for over 40 metres Ireland stands with Palestine
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950838731843289132
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Al Jazeera found the RAF had flown 47% of all surveillance flights over Gaza during the genocide
More than double Israel itself
British ministers—both Tory and Labour—need to be investigated and, I believe, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity
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If you are Israeli & you kill a Palestinian on camera, u won’t be put in jail.
If you are Palestinian & u get shot on your own property, the Israeli army will block ambulances for hours until you die in front of your family.
Not so complicated after all. It’s called apartheid.
Aipamena
Basel Adra@basel_adra
uzt. 29
This is the settler who killed our dear friend ‘Awdah Hathaleen. At the end of the video, he fires the bullet that took the life of ‘Awdah Today, the apartheid court decided to release him to house arrest. Yinon Levi, a settler sanctioned by 9 countries (now 8, because of Trump)
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950202311168385309
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susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى@susanabulhawa
it’s illegal for Palestinians to swim in the ocean. illegal for us to build on our own land. illegal to move between our villages and cities without a passbook they issue. illegal for us to practice indigenous traditions, like foraging. illegal for us to gather even in mourning.
Aipamena
Alon Mizrahi@alon_mizrahi
uzt. 29
A Jewish settler murdered a Palestinian.
Then the IDF came to disrupt the community’s mourning and grief. Israel cannot be fixed. It must be dismantled x.com/OrenZiv_/statu…
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Norwegian 70-year-old Vigdis Bjorvand was imprisoned by Israel for attempting to deliver food, medicine, and toys to innocent people in Gaza. She has now been released.
A true hero in every sense of the word.
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Young Youssef collects chickpeas from the sand in a desperate attempt to feed his family due to Israeli blockade and starvation conditions in Gaza.
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950612837585342670
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BREAKING: The US just SANCTIONED the Palestinian Authority for… taking Israel to court.
What the actual fuck is wrong with America?
Trump is a disgusting orange demon. I’m sick of him.
Israel has tortured another Palestinian to death.
uzt. 30
Breaking: Palestinian citizen Sayel Abu Nasr from the Gaza Strip has died as a result of brutal torture in Israeli prisons following his enforced disappearance.
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Maysam Abu Zayed was a young mother of seven month old twins who, not able to breastfeed them much due to Israel’s starvation policy in Gaza, was desperate to find infant formula. The occupation martyred her just days ago on 25th July 2025.
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The international community hasn’t just violated its obligation to protect Palestinian human lives in the face of genocide, Western world leaders have actively supported and still cooperate with Israel, helping make this Genocide possible.
The leaders who haven’t acted – and still aren’t acting – in a real and effective way to stop the genocide, share responsibility for this horror. They have to act. now. Our Executive Director, Yuli Novak, spoke to
This is genocide and it is happening now, in real time and in full view of the entire world. Genocide must be named, and everything must be done in order to stop it.
The full interview >> https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/30/Tv/
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950642025352908812
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Muhammad Shehada@muhammadshehad2
Israel is holding hostage the body of Odeh Hathaleen who was murdered on camera by an Israeli settler
Israel is conditioning his release on a list of demands from the family, including burying him away from his village & not holding a mourning tent or a large funeral
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Revolutionary Blackout
@SocialistMMA
Zionist Jews are now getting paid reparations because their feelings were hurt by anti genocide protests!
There is no such thing as antisemitism. Zionist Jews are the most privileged people in the world. They get paid for having their feelings hurt
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950644943858667722
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IDF Shoots Boy Moments after Receiving Aid from US Soldier In a heartbreaking moment shared on a recent podcast, a US soldier recounted a scene that continues to haunt him from his time stationed at the GHF aid distribution point in Gaza.
“Amir, a frail child, barefoot, walked 12 kilometres under the sun to reach the distribution point. He only received a handful of rice and lentils from the ground. He approached me, kissed my hand, and said: ‘Thank you.’ Minutes later, as he was leaving with the rest of the civilians, the Israeli army fired gas and bullets, and Amir was killed on the spot.”
Scenes like this are not isolated. Aid distribution centres in Gaza have become “death traps,” where more than 1,050 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food, many deliberately targeted with tear gas and live ammunition by Israeli forces and American private security contractors.
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950373548348027222
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BREAKING: Portugal plans to officially recognize the State of Palestine in September.
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Middle Eastern Affairs@Middle_Eastern0
BREAKING Prime Minister of South Africa: “If international law means anything, Netanyahu must be arrested. Otherwise, the ICC is a Western puppet.”
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Israel is still unlawfully detaining two comrades from the Handala freedom flotilla crew. Both are on their fifth consecutive day of an open hunger strike in protest of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. Solidarity and love to Chris and Hatem. Free Palestine.
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Recognition of Palestine as a State cannot be conditional – it is a moral and legal duty of States as I have argued for more than a decade. What’s worse: the British FM discovering suddenly that the Balfour declaration has not, after all, been realized!
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Prof. John Mearsheimer: The US “special relationship” with Israel “has no parallel” in recorded history.
Tucker Carlson: Why would America spend some $1 trillion dollars a year, in effect, to serve the interests of another country?
Mearsheimer: The Israel Lobby.
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950615164316692525
(1 American trillion = 1 European bilion)
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Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt@FranceskAlbs
Il 2agosto il @fattoquotidiano pubblicherà, in italiano, il mio ultimo rapporto per le Nazioni Unite sull’economia dell’occupazione, che troppi interessi di tutti noi lega ai crimini in corso in Palestina.
Aipamena
Paper First@PaperFirst
uzt. 31
Il rapporto della Relatrice Speciale ONU Francesca Albanese sull’occupazione dei territori palestinesi, il ruolo delle imprese e il diritto internazionale. In edicola con il Fatto Quotidiano da sabato 2 agosto. @FranceskAlbs
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Gehad Qasem~Gaza @GehadfromGaza
“It wasn’t my decision… it wasn’t a choice, but a forced one—imposed by hunger and the cries of my children that tore my heart apart.
‘Daddy, we’re hungry’… Their words were like knives piercing my chest, and I had no flour, no morsel to ease their hunger. I didn’t want to go, but what could I do? Their tears compelled me. Their pain pushed me to risk my life…
I went to the aid distribution point—the one we all know is not a food line, but a death trap.
I knew I might not come back, just like so many before me never did… I left, trembling with fear, whispering prayers: ‘Oh God, I just want to return to them—with something to silence their hunger.’
I arrived. The crowd was overwhelming… everyone was starving, everyone desperate, everyone gambling with their life for a sack of flour. Amid bullets, blood, and screams, I pushed forward… I saw people fall around me, each one carrying a small dream—just a bite of food for their children… I reached a sack of flour, being fought over by more than ten men. It tore apart from all the pulling. I only managed to grab less than half—but it was enough for my children for a few days.
I walked more than 10 kilometers with it… my wound bleeding… my chest aching from the chaos… But I held onto it like it was life itself.
Finally… I arrived.
I saw my children… they ran to me… hugged me as if I’d come back from the dead.
I didn’t bring them a toy, or candy—just half a sack of flour, covered in blood and exhaustion… but to them, it was a treasure, and their smiles meant everything to me.
We never wanted to be here… we didn’t choose this path… but hunger forced us into it. The only thing standing between us and ruin is your support—your donations—your humanity.
Please, don’t leave us alone. Save what’s left of our souls—for the sake of small hearts that understand nothing of this world except that they are hungry, and they want their father alive.”** please 
help my family 
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950620008301649940
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“Gaza Gaza, Paris is with you”
Huge Protest in Paris.
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950614917381591332
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State of Palestine@Palestine_UN
“Uruguay welcomes the recent decisions taken recently by various member states to recognize Palestine as a state. This international recognition contributes to the pursuit of peace between both states based on international law. It will further serve as momentum for Palestine’s admission as a full member of this organization.”
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950630707182567510
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Berlin continues to rise up for Gaza and its oppressed people.
Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1950892344808522079
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The US government is refusing consular support for US citizen, Chris Smalls. Chris is still in Israeli captivity and is on the fifth day of a hunger strike to protest this unlawful detention under poor conditions, where the IOF are violently raiding his cell regularly.
uzt. 30
A spokesperson for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition tells me: “Chris Smalls is still in Givon Prison and despite repeated requests to meet with the U.S. Embassy has been ignored by his country after being abducted by the IOF in international waters.”
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Amnesty International USA@amnestyusa
We demand justice for Awda Al-Hathaleen and for his community. Israel’s unlawful occupation and its apartheid system that destroy Palestinians’ lives and hopes must end now.
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Francesca Albanese Is Immune From US Sanctions, UN Says
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Francesca Albanese Is Immune From US Sanctions, UN Says
(https://passblue.com/2025/07/30/francesca-albanese-is-immune-from-us-sanctions-un-says/)
• July 30, 2025
Francesca Albanese, an Italian and UN human rights expert, has been sanctioned by the United States for her work regarding the Occupied Palestinian territory. The UN has protested the US sanctions by invoking Albanese’s immunity and calling for the sanctions to be dropped. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO
Two weeks after the United States imposed sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the UN has invoked her immunity and called on the US to remove the sanctions against her.
On July 9, 2025, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, imposed sanctions against Albanese, citing oral and written statements she made in her official role within the UN mandate entrusted to her by the UN Human Rights Council. As a result, Albanese is now banned from traveling to the US and any property or other assets she has in the country or its banks may be frozen. The same sanctions may apply to her immediate family members.
On the same day that Rubio designated Albanese for US sanctions, Stéphane Dujarric, the UN spokesperson, said that the imposition of sanctions on UN special rapporteurs is “unacceptable” and sets a “dangerous precedent.” Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, urged the US to reverse the sanctions and said that the attacks and threats against Albanese and other Human Rights Council mandate-holders “must stop.”
Ambassador Juerg Lauber, the president of the Council, emphasized that special rapporteurs “are an essential instrument of the Council in fulfilling its mandate to promote and protect all human rights worldwide” and called on all UN member states “to refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal against them.”
While UN Secretary-General António Guterres himself has not said anything publicly about the sanctions, the UN Legal Counsel, on behalf of the secretary-general, wrote to the US Mission to the UN last week, asserting Albanese’s official UN mandate and maintaining her UN privileges and immunities.
Pursuant to the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the UN, Albanese enjoys the status of a UN expert on mission and is accorded the privileges and immunities “necessary for the independent exercise” of her UN functions. In particular, she enjoys “immunity from legal process of every kind,” including from the US sanctions.
Like all other UN human rights special rapporteurs, Albanese is not paid for her service. Her immunity from legal process is purely functional and applies only “in respect of words spoken or written and acts done” in the course of her work. The immunity is granted “in the interests of the United Nations” and not for her personal benefit.
In Rubio’s letter of July 9, 2025, designating Albanese for US sanctions, he cites her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and her advocacy for criminal accountability for the war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed in Gaza and other parts of the OPT.
According to Rubio, Albanese had recommended “without a legitimate basis” that the ICC issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant whom the US has defined as protected persons pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 14203 issued by President Donald Trump in February 2025.
More than a year ago, in May 2024, the prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, had requested arrest warrants against Hamas leaders and Israeli leaders for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Khan was advised by a distinguished panel of legal experts, including an Israeli — Judge Theodor Meron. Albanese was not a member of the panel.
Far from lacking legitimacy, as Rubio alleged, the panel assessed that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” that Netanyahu and Gallant are responsible for the crimes they are alleged to have committed.
The ICC issued the requested warrants in November 2024. The court has terminated the cases against the Hamas leaders as they have all been assassinated by Israeli forces. The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant are proceeding; they include using starvation as a method of warfare; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population; and committing murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.
In his designation letter, Rubio also accused Albanese of “writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies . . . and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives.”
She had, in fact, written to these entities warning them of their potential liability for their complicity in what the International Court of Justice had deemed a plausible genocide in Gaza and an unlawful occupation of the entire OPT. She then issued a report detailing how these entities have “profited from Israel’s illegal occupation, its brutal system of apartheid and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Albanese has been serving as UN special rapporteur since May 2022; signaling its approval of her work, the Human Rights Council renewed her for another three-year term in April 2025 — with overwhelming support from UN member states.
Albanese has consistently condemned all violence against civilians — Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians. Given the duration and magnitude of Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza and the surge in Israeli settler violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Albanese’s courageous, undaunted defense of Palestinian lives and rights has resonated throughout the world.
The ICC prosecutor was the first to be sanctioned, pursuant to Executive Order 14203 on June 5, followed by four ICC judges on June 6 and most recently Albanese on July 9. It is highly unlikely that the Trump administration will remove any of them from the sanctions list. However, while Guterres has no responsibility for or authority over the ICC prosecutor and judges, he is duty bound to defend Albanese’s mandate as a UN expert on mission and to uphold her UN immunity from any and all legal process.
Guterres, who has already been declared persona non grata by Israel, and the UN — which is struggling from US budget cuts — will soon face yet another difficult decision: risk further Israeli and American retaliation or protect UN mandates and UN mandate-holders.
Regardless of his fears of retaliation, legitimate as they may be, Guterres must speak up and, if necessary, stand up for UN mandates and UN mandate-holders, including Albanese. She is entitled to the protection of the UN and its secretary-general.
In two previous cases involving the immunity from legal process of UN human rights special rapporteurs, the International Court of Justice confirmed that the secretary-general has the primary responsibility and authority to determine whether such experts are acting within the scope of their functions and, where he so concludes, to protect them by asserting their immunity.
Dumitru Mazilu and Dato’ Param Cumaraswamy faced national legal process arising from their work as UN special rapporteurs in their own countries — Romania and Malaysia, respectively. When those governments failed to respect the UN immunity, Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar spoke up for Mazilu, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke up for Cumaraswamy in the UN Economic and Social Council. After the Council sought an advisory opinion from the ICJ, they stood up for them in the world court.
Albanese is Italian, not American; as such, the US sanctions against her represent an even more extreme violation of the UN Convention, and as the UN spokesperson rightly noted, they set a “dangerous precedent” not only for Albanese as a UN expert but also for the UN itself.
A dispute between the UN and the US seems inevitable. The secretary-general will have to speak up for Albanese in the General Assembly; should the Assembly agree to request the ICJ’s advisory opinion, he and the UN Legal Counsel will have to stand up for her in the world court.
Like Albanese, Guterres and the UN Legal Counsel will undoubtedly face serious threats and immense pressure from the US and Israel.
One can only hope that they will perform their duty with the same courage of conviction that Albanese is performing hers.
This is an opinion essay.
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i feel like it should be a national crisis that a foreign nation has kidnapped and tortured a U.S. citizen
Aipamena
@harshawalia.bsky.social@HarshaWalia
uzt. 29
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition has released statement that Black labour leader Chris Smalls (Amazon Labour Union) faced violence that no one else on Handala did. He was severely beaten by seven ppl in Israeli custody. Labour must stand for Chris Smalls and stand for Palestine.
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Dr. Abu Safiya has been arbitrarily detained for over 6 months by Israeli authorities. He has been subjected to abuse and other ill-treatment. Act now and call for his immediate and unconditional release.
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Geure herriari, Euskal Herriari dagokionez, hona hemen gure apustu bakarra:
We Basques do need a real Basque independent State in the Western Pyrenees, just a democratic lay or secular state, with all the formal characteristics of any independent State: Central Bank, Treasury, proper currency1, out of the European Distopia and faraway from NATO, being a BRICS partner…
Ikus Euskal Herriaren independentzia eta Mikel Torka
eta
Esadazu arren, zer da gu euskaldunok egiten ari garena eta zer egingo dugun
gehi
MTM: Zipriztinak (2), 2025: Warren Mosler
(Pinturak: Mikel Torka)
Gehigarriak:
MTM klase borrokarik gabe, kontabilitate hutsa da
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1 This way, our new Basque government will have infinite money to deal with. (Gogoratzekoa: Moneta jaulkitzaileko kasu guztietan, Gobernuak infinitu diru dauka.)
