LUISTER NAAR DE JOODSE STEMMEN OVER

DE ISRAELISCHE MEGA-MISDRIJVEN TEGEN

HET INTERNATIONAAL HUMANITAIR RECHT

JEGENS DE PALESTIJNEN !

THE JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE - JVP

  LEES "THE WIRE" !

BERICHTEN NA 30-04-2025 STAAN HIER

13 mei 2025

Dit is een actieve nieuwsbrief met twee belangrijke evenementen voor deze week en een oproep tot actie as. donderdag op Nakbadag.

in Amsterdam vindt een grote bijeenkomst plaats in de Dominicuskerk met daarna een herdenking op de Dam. En zaterdag tijdens het Eurovisie Songfestival houden BDS Nederland en Rotterdams Palestina Coalitie een alternatief Protest Songfest in het Hip Hop Huis in Rotterdam.

We hopen jullie te zien in Amsterdam of Rotterdam!

Een strijdbare groet van het docP team; blijf BDS-en!

 77 jaar ontheemding, verzet en solidariteit

Nakbaherdenking in Amsterdam

77 jaar ontheemding, verzet en solidariteit

Wereldwijd wordt de Nakba (Arabisch voor “catastrofe”) herdacht op 15 mei, de dag na de Israëlische Onafhankelijkheidsdag. Deze dag markeert voor veel Palestijnen het verlies van hun thuisland in 1948, toen zo’n 700.000 Palestijnen werden verdreven of vluchtten tijdens de oprichting van de staat Israël en er meer dan 500 Palestijnse dorpen werden vernietigd.

De Verenigde Naties erkenden in 2023 voor het eerst officieel de Nakba met een herdenking in het VN-hoofdkwartier, ook in 2024 werd daar de Nakba herdacht.

Ook in Amsterdam herdenken we de Nakba, met een bijeenkomst die ruimte biedt voor erkenning, rouw en solidariteit, midden in de stad waar verhalen van ontheemding en verzet elkaar raken.

Een gezamenlijk initiatief

De herdenking wordt georganiseerd door de Dominicuskerk, Stichting Argan, Kairos-Sabeel en het SeSi Community Center. Zij slaan de handen ineen om in Amsterdam ruimte te maken voor erkenning, rouw en solidariteit.

Herdenken én handelen

De bijeenkomst biedt niet alleen ruimte voor herinnering en verdriet, maar ook voor bezinning en handelingsperspectief. Veel Nederlanders met een migratieachtergrond voelen zich in de steek gelaten door een samenleving die niet met hen mee rouwt en waarin weinig kennis bestaat over de historische context van de bezetting van Palestina.
“We staan stil bij het leed van toen en nu,” zegt theoloog en medeorganisator Janneke Stegeman. “Met deze bijeenkomst willen we mensen en organisaties handelingsperspectief geven. In Nederland moeten we in conclaaf over onze houding. We vragen aan culturele en academische instellingen om bij te dragen aan een nieuw fundament waarop we als land rechtvaardiger kunnen kijken naar de bezetting van Palestina en de onderdrukking van Palestijnen.”

Programma & sprekers

De herdenking start om 16:30 uur in de Dominicuskerk (Spuistraat 14) en bevat bijdragen van onder anderen:
• Jan Pronk – oud-minister en pleitbezorger voor mondiale rechtvaardigheid
• Omar Barghouti – medeoprichter van de BDS-beweging (bijdrage via livestream)
• Amal Helles – journalist uit Gaza, bekend van haar verslaggeving voor The Times
• Sinan Çankaya – cultureel antropoloog en auteur van Galmende geschiedenissen
• Janneke Stegeman – theoloog en publiek denker
• Muzikale en artistieke bijdragen van Qusai Naim, Lev Avitan en Alaa Minawi

De bijeenkomst in de wordt gemodereerd door journalist en auteur Naeeda Aurangzeb.

Naar de Dam

Om 19:15 loopt het publiek gezamenlijk naar de Dam, waar we aansluiten bij een solidariteitsbijeenkomst ter gelegenheid van de Nakba-herdenking. Deze bijeenkomst op de Dam wordt georganiseerd door andere solidariteitsgroepen en biedt ruimte voor publieke toespraken en Palestijnse stemmen. Samen met hen zetten we de herdenking voort met bijdragen van:

• Joyce Man (Amnesty International)
• Esther van der Most (Stichting Plant een Olijfboom)
• Nicole Hollenberg (BDS Nederland)
• Sami, Rasha Hilwi en Alaa Minawi (Palestijnse stemmen)

Iedereen naar buiten op 15 mei!

Al bijna 20 jaar leidt de BDS-beweging de roep om strategische en impactvolle solidariteit met de Palestijnse strijd voor rechtvaardigheid, vrijheid en gelijkheid.  Sinds het begin van Israëls live uitgezonden genocide op ons volk in Gaza, is de druk van BDS om een einde te maken aan de internationale medeplichtigheid aan het regime van koloniale apartheid en illegale bezetting exponentieel toegenomen.

Rotterdam Palestina Coalitie en BDS Nederland organiseren counter songfestival

De Rotterdam Palestine Coalitie (RPC) en BDS Nederland organiseren samen een Protest Songfest op zaterdag 17 mei in Hiphophuis in Rotterdam. Het Protest Songfest dient als counterfestival tegen het Eurovisie Songfestival en de hypocrisie en dubbele standaard die met dat festival gepaard gaan.

OPTREDENS VAN O.M. Stryder, Rocher

Koendjbiharie, Ikbenmusa, Disco Arabesquo

RPC en BDS roepen Nederlanders, artiesten en AVROTROS op het Eurovisie te boycotten en zich daarmee aan te sluiten bij de wereldwijde oproep tot uitsluiting van de Israëlische omroeporganisatie KAN van Eurovisie omdat ze medeplichtig is aan de voortdurende genocide in de Gazastrook en omdat ze de codes en regels van Eurovisie en de EBU schendt.

KOOP ALVAST EEN KAARTJE!

In plaats van naar het Eurovisie te kijken, kunnen mensen naar Protest Songfest komen waar ze kunnen genieten van een avond vol optredens, muziek en spoken word van artiesten die zich wel durven uit te spreken tegen onrecht en onderdrukking. Samen, in solidariteit met hen die onderdrukt worden.

1349.

13 mei 2025

Quick Takes:

Readers’ Recommendations

1348.

13 mei 2025

FIFA, the world football governing body, meets in Asunción, Paraguay for its annual Congress this week, on May 15, Nakba Day. FIFA is complicit in Israel’s ongoing Nakba against Palestinians.
 

Palestinians in Gaza are literally being starved to death due to Israel’s ban of all humanitarian aid and fuel.
 

Hundreds of Palestinian footballers have been killed by Israel’s Gaza genocide and Palestinian stadiums and sports facilities have been razed to the ground.
 

Israel continues to escalate and expand its brutal military occupation of the Palestinian territory, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice, and the Israel Football Association maintains teams in illegal settlements.

A year ago, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) presented a motion to FIFA calling to ban Israel over its Gaza Genocide, its illegal settlement teams and its attacks on Palestinian sports.
 

Meanwhile, corrupt FIFA and its shady and autocratic president Gianni Infantino continue to shield genocidal Israel from accountability.

­

Tell FIFA: #BanIsrael NOW!

The corrupt FIFA leadership is more and more isolated in its shameful shielding of Israel.
 

The 47-member Asian Football Confederation supports the PFA motion and recently called on FIFA to end its foot dragging and sanction Israel.
 

LO, Norway's 1 million member strong Confederation of Trade Unions, voted by 77% for a full boycott of Israel, including a sports boycott, over Israel’s Gaza genocide.
 

Join us as we raise a virtual red card against Israel’s crimes. We won’t let FIFA escape its legal and ethical responsibilities. 
 

#BanIsrael! #RedCardIsrael! #NoRestForFIFA

In solidarity,

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

1347.

13 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Hamas releases Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander after direct talks with U.S.

Qassam Muaddi

The release of Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander, following direct negotiations between the U.S. and Hamas, comes after the Trump administration had already caught Israel off guard by agreeing to halt hostilities with Yemen’s Ansar Allah.

I was with Shireen Abu Akleh when she was murdered. Was justice served when her murderer was killed?

I was with Shireen Abu Akleh when she was murdered on May 11, 2022. The Palestinian resistance in Jenin killed her murderer, but I find myself asking, was justice served, or did he escape accountability?

1346.

13 mei 2025

It takes courage and perseverance not to despair in the face of continued genocide, man-made famine and siege, but we keep our compass strong towards a liberated future and because we have no choice but to fight for our people.

Mobilization and pressure work. All the measures taken below have happened thanks to months, sometimes years, of advocates, activists or regular community people in our movement and in solidarity deciding not to stay silent or idle and act to fight complicity wherever they are.

In the past three months here are wins we added to the map:

• Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund, divested from Paz Oil, the main Israeli energy company, for its involvement in “illegal Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian territories”. This comes a few months after the Fund divested from Bezeq, the israeli internet provider.
• The University of San Francisco endowment fund announced selling off its direct investments in Palantir, L3Harris, GE Aerospace and RTX Corporation, four companies providing weapons technologies and military intelligence tools to the Israeli regime.                
• MIT University cut ties with israeli arms company Elbit Systems after student-led campaign     
• The Spanish Government unilaterally canceled a contract with an Israeli weapon company for the purchase of ammunition for Spanish police, following internal government coalition and grassroots pressures            
• Danish pension fund AkademikerPension have agreed to divest from companies operating in “Occupied Palestinian Territories”                 
• The Maldives banned Israelis from obtaining visas and visiting, reaffirming its “resolute solidarity” with the Palestinian cause.    
• The University of São Paulo (USP) canceled its 2025 International Cultural Fair, initially scheduled for April 23, following public pressure from senior professor and UN diplomat Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, due to the planned participation of the Israeli Consulate.
• Europe Netball cancelled its upcoming competition that was set to take place in Cardiff in early May, after a coalition called to ban Israel from the tournament.

The tide is shifting and we must double down. Keep fighting!

The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy

Keep fighting,

Inès

The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy
AL-Masayef
Ramallah, WB 00000
Palestine (State of)

1345.

12 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Film Review: ‘The Encampments’ is an inspiring call for liberation in response to the horror of genocide

The documentary film "The Encampments" shares the inspiring story of how students brought Columbia University to a standstill, and the issue of Palestine to millions around the world.

Why higher education must boycott Tel-Aviv University

Youth Front for Palestine

Since its establishment, Tel-Aviv University has functioned as an arm of Israel’s settler colonial project. As calls for university divestment continue to grow, we must also demand that schools cut ties with institutions contributing to war crimes.

1344.

11 mei 2025

Op 18 mei komen we in actie en trekken samen die rode lijn voor Gaza! Sluit jij je aan?

Samen met Amnesty International, Plant een Olijfboom, PAX, Palestijnse Gemeenschap in Nederland en veel meer* gaan we op 18 mei een menselijke ketting door Den Haag vormen. Samen trekken we die rode lijn en eisen dat de Nederlandse regering ons niet medeplichtig maakt aan Israëls oorlogsmisdaden.

Doe mee op 18 mei
Op 18 mei eisen wij een regering die staat voor mensenrechten en   

luister naar de luide oproep van de meerderheid.

Een regering die actie onderneemt wanneer internationaal recht wordt geschonden.

Activistische groet,
Noël, Letty en de rest van het Oxfam Novib team

*Wij trekken een rode lijn met Ambtenaren en de grondwet, Amnesty International, Amsterdam for Gaza, Artsen voor Gaza, Artsen zonder Grenzen, BDS NL, Care, De Goede Zaak, De Nieuwe Vredesbeweging, Dolle Mina’s, Een Ander Joods Geluid, Erev Rav, Extinction Rebellion, Free Press Unlimited, Gate48, Greenpeace, Het Actiefonds, Hivos, Humanistisch Verbond, Meldpunt Islamofobie, News Neighbours Utrecht, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Palestijnse Gemeenschap In Nederland, PAX, Peace SOS, Plan Internationaal, Plant een Olijfboom, Platform Stop Racisme, Platform Vrouwen & Duurzame Vrede, Rotterdam Palestina Coalitie, S.P.E.A.K., Samenwerkingsverband Islamitische Organisaties Regio Haaglanden (SIORH), Save the Children, Schone Kleren Campagne, SOMO, Stichting Kifaia, Stichting Vluchteling, Terre des Hommes, The Rights Forum, War Child, Wo=men. 

1343.

11 mei 2025

Israel plots ethnic cleansing under Trump’s cover

This week, dozens of students were arrested at Columbia University after peacefully occupying a campus library to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

These arrests reflect Trump’s escalating campaign against anyone challenging U.S. complicity with Israel’s crimes. But the crackdown hasn’t completely stifled dissent. Students nationwide are responding with greater organization, resilience, and courage. As Michael Arria reported, resistance is not weakening—it’s gaining momentum, forcing a confrontation with institutions that have long been complacent or complicit.

Trump’s administration, despite recent legal setbacks, including a federal appeals court ordering the transfer of Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk, remains determined to criminalize activism. But these young people are fighting back—and starting to win important battles.

Despite his blustery show of power, Trump, like many U.S. presidents before him, seems either unwilling or incapable of confronting Israel’s atrocities. His positions on Gaza are often contradictory, driven more by incompetence than by a clear foreign policy strategy. Trump’s chaotic approach offers the Netanyahu government cover to pursue its genocidal agenda unchecked. Israel’s war cabinet recently approved plans to expand the assault on Gaza and permanently reoccupy the territory, as Qassam Muaddi outlined in a sobering analysis. Trump’s inconsistent and ineffective posture leaves Israel emboldened, knowing the U.S. won’t hold it accountable.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has shown a cold disregard even for Israeli lives, openly prioritizing ethnic cleansing over any attempt at negotiation. Rather than seeking the safe return of Israelis still held captive by resistance groups, Netanyahu’s administration has pushed forward relentlessly, creating chaos and intentionally sabotaging any effort to end the violence. Tareq Hajjaj exposed how Israel is deliberately fostering violence and disorder in Gaza by backing armed looters and killing civilians who resist. This is not random violence—it’s strategic. With Gaza’s civil structures deliberately dismantled, Israel hopes to break Palestinian resistance completely.

The international community’s ongoing silence and complicity have allowed Israel to openly discuss its ultimate goal: exterminating Gaza as we know it. In this week’s must-read analysis, Qassam Muaddi says Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza is now official state policy, openly discussed and executed without consequence.

Meanwhile, global inaction has inspired similar aggressive moves elsewhere, notably India’s recent escalation against Pakistan, modeled directly on Israel’s actions against Gaza, as Maah-Noor Ali reports.

But as horrific as the current situation is, resistance continues to build, from fired Microsoft employees challenging corporate complicity, as Michael Arria recently detailed, to new political realities emerging in Canada with Prime Minister Mark Carney promising to chart a new foreign policy course, though Yves Engler cautions against optimism. The struggle is daunting, but it is not hopeless, and our collective action remains essential.

Stay safe,

David Reed, Publisher

Must Read: Exterminating Gaza was always Israel’s plan, but now it’s official

Qassam Muaddi: Israel carried out its plan to erase Gaza over the course of 18 months. Now that the plan has clearly fallen into place, the Netanyahu government is openly discussing ethnic cleansing. And still, Israel enjoys complete international impunity.

Aerial view of the destruction in Rafah on January 19, 2025, during the start of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

Catch-up

= Roughly 80 protesters were arrested Wednesday after occupying a library on Columbia University’s campus. The Trump administration is stepping up actions against student protesters as Gaza encampments are starting to spread once again across the U.S.

= India’s May 6 attack on Pakistan shows how the world’s inaction on the Gaza genocide has inspired Narendra Modi to escalate in Kashmir. From New Delhi to Tel Aviv, the ideological affinity between Zionism and Hindutva has never been clearer.

=  Growing reports show that Israel has been fomenting armed gangs to loot food supplies in Gaza and sow chaos — and it’s killing those who attempt to stop it. But this strategy isn’t new: Israel has waged a war on Gaza’s civil government from the start.

= In a blow to the White House, a federal appeals court ruled that Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk must be transferred from Louisiana to Vermont. It was just one of several legal setbacks for the Trump administration in recent days.

= Qassam Muaddi: The Israeli war cabinet unanimously approved on Sunday the expansion of Israel’s war on Gaza, which reportedly includes plans to reoccupy the strip indefinitely.

= Mondoweiss talks to former Microsoft employees who were fired for protesting the company’s role in the Gaza genocide.

= Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, has promised to forge a new foreign policy path forward. This must include stopping the atrocities Canada has abetted in Palestine.

= The Canadian election results angered the right people. But for Palestine, Mark Carney’s win represents harm reduction at best.

1342.

11 mei 2025

Today's headlines

What Google’s largest-ever acquisition of an Israeli software company tells us about Big Tech’s complicity in genocide

Refaat Ibrahim

Google’s acquisition of Israeli software company, Wiz, for $32 billion shows just how much Silicon Valley is invested in Israeli tech. The problem is, almost all of Israeli tech is first developed by a genocidal army.

California State University, Long Beach students go on hunger strike for Gaza

Twenty-five students across four California State University campuses have launched hunger strikes in solidarity with Palestine. They join a nationwide wave of protests demanding an immediate end to U.S. support for the genocide in Gaza.

1341.

10 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Israeli soldiers are using slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s face for target practice

A new documentary on the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh reveals that Israeli soldiers use her photo for target practice. This exposes the Israeli mentality that journalists are "fair game", and that the killing of journalists in Gaza is no accident.

Why Trump cut a deal with Yemen behind Israel’s back and what it means for the region

Benjamin Netanyahu is likely missing the days of Genocide Joe Biden, when he had more direct influence over U.S. policy. Still, Trump's surprise deal with Yemen doesn't mean he is abandoning Israel, in fact, he might be setting it loose.

Exterminating Gaza was always Israel’s plan, but now it’s official

Qassam Muaddi

Israel carried out its plan to erase Gaza over the course of 18 months. Now that the plan has clearly fallen into place, the Netanyahu government is openly discussing ethnic cleansing. And still, Israel enjoys complete international impunity.

1340.

9 mei 2025

We Won’t Back Down

By now, you’ve likely seen the news that a federal judge in Nevada dismissed all claims in a politically motivated lawsuit against American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). The court made one thing crystal clear: our advocacy for Palestinian rights is fully protected by the First Amendment.

It was a decisive rejection of attempts to use the courts to stifle legitimate, constitutionally protected advocacy for Palestine. The message from the court was unmistakable: AMP was targeted because we are successful and effective, because we are changing the conversation, and because we refuse to be silent in the face of injustice and genocide in Gaza.

These attacks are part of a larger smear campaign being waged against AMP. This isn’t about legal merit. It’s about silencing one of the most effective voices advocating for Palestinian rights in the United States. When our opponents can’t beat us on facts, they try to bury us in baseless lawsuits and defamation.

Across the country, there is a coordinated campaign to criminalize and suppress any voice that challenges Israel’s ongoing human rights abuses. AMP has been on the front lines of that fight, educating the public, mobilizing communities, and confronting U.S. complicity in Israel’s crimes.

When AMP wins in the courtroom, the entire movement for Palestinian justice moves forward. Our legal victories do not belong to us alone; they are a win for everyone committed to this struggle. But this court victory does not mean the attacks will stop. In fact, it shows exactly why we must keep going. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue this critical work. Will you stand with us? 

=  Defend against legal intimidation tactics aimed at silencing Palestinian advocacy= Educate the public and policymakers through grassroots campaigns and media= Mobilize thousands to demand justice, from Congress to city halls

This win in court was a victory for the entire Palestine movement. This court win was just one battle Together, we will continue to speak truth to power. We will not be silenced. We will not back down. We will not abandon Gaza and the Palestinian people. We need you with us for the fight ahead.

In solidarity,

Osama Abu Irshaid
Executive Director, AMP

1339.

9 mei 2025

Join AMP on Thursday, May 15th @ 8:00 PM EST for a webinar titled “Nakba 77: Reaffirming Palestinian Return & Liberation”

This is a special action where the Palestinian Nakba is front and center. The Nakba in Arabic means catastrophe, and rests in the collective memory of the Palestinian people. The Nakba represents the ongoing forcible displacement, ethnic cleansing, land theft, and systematic oppression of the Palestinian people.

While the Nakba resulted in the shattering of the Palestinian collective, it also consolidated a shared national consciousness that is expressed in the unceasing steadfastness, resilience, and resistance of the Palestinian people.

The past 19 months represent the most extreme period of the Nakba, where Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza persists unabated, aided and abetted with US weapons and tax dollars, not to mention IOF and by extension settler violence in the West Bank, not to mention the already existent apartheid regime impacting all Palestinians.

We look forward to having you join us for this important discussion commemorating 77 years of the Palestinian Nakba, LIVE on YouTube, Facebook, and X.

Sincerely,

Tarek Khalil
Education Coordinator (AMP)

1338.

9 mei 2025

Woensdag werd bekend dat de Nederlandse regering na 19 maanden Israëlisch geweld in Gaza een ‘streep in het zand’ heeft getrokken. Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Caspar Veldkamp (NSC) wil een Europees onderzoek naar de vraag of Israël de mensenrechten wel respecteert. Zo niet, dan wordt het EU-Israël Associatieverdrag opgezegd, waarmee belangrijke handelsvoordelen voor Israël komen te vervallen.

Veldkamps losse flodder
Veldkamps ‘streep in het zand’ is geen antwoord op de crisis in Gaza, maar een losse flodder en vertragingstactiek, schrijven wij vandaag in een artikel.

In Gaza worden ruim twee miljoen Palestijnen al sinds 2 maart door Israël afgesloten van voedsel, water, medicijnen, brandstof en humanitaire hulp. Zij kunnen niet wachten op een traag EU-onderzoek – áls dat er al komt –, maar hebben nu direct hulp nodig.

Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Caspar Veldkamp tijdens zijn ontmoeting in september 2024 met de Israëlische president Yitzhak Herzog op de eerste dag van een tweedaags bezoek aan Israël en de Palestijnse gebieden.

Bovendien zijn de uitkomsten van zo’n onderzoek al lang bekend. Zo oordeelde het Internationaal Gerechtshof op 19 juli dat de aanwezigheid van Israël in de Palestijnse gebieden illegaal is en gepaard gaat met schendingen van de mensenrechten, waaronder raciale segregatie en apartheid. De regering heeft dat botweg genegeerd, net als de talloze rapporten die uitwijzen dat Israël zich in Gaza schuldig maakt aan genocidale daden zoals de inzet van uithongering als oorlogswapen.
 
Wat wél helpt is dat Nederland zijn medeplichtigheid aan Israëls genocide beëindigt door het instellen van een handelsverbod en beëindiging van zijn wapenhandel en militaire- en academische samenwerking met Israël. Daarop blijven wij in woord en daad aandringen. Maar het eindelijk eens een keer opleggen van sancties jegens Israël, zoals die ook door ons land zijn opgelegd jegens Rusland, dát willen en dur-ven wij van TRF nog steeds niet aan.
 
Lees ons artikel over Veldkamps losse flodder >

Kom met ons in actie | Op 18 mei trekken we in Den Haag een Rode Lijn

Maar liefst 42 maatschappelijke organisaties en vele duizenden Nederlanders hebben zich al aangemeld om op zondagmiddag vanaf 13.00 uur samen een menselijke keten te vormen onder het motto ‘als de regering geen rode lijn trekt, doen wij het’.

Praktische informatie
 Wat: Gezamenlijk een menselijke ketting vormen in Den Haag
 Wanneer: Zondagmiddag 18 mei, 13:00
 Waar: Den Haag, exacte locatie volgt

Bericht uit Gaza – ‘Zo overleven we’

Tussen het puin van de Gazastrook moeten ruim twee miljoen Palestijnen zien te overleven. Onze correspondent in Gaza beschrijft de situatie in Khan Yunis, waar Palestijnen tussen de ruïnes sterven van honger en dorst, artsen vrijwel niet meer kunnen werken en het onderwijs tot stilstand is gekomen.

Internationale hulporganisaties spreken van een humanitaire catastrofe. Toch blijft grootschalige hulp uit – vanwege logistieke belemmeringen, politieke blokkades en vooral het gebrek aan politieke wil.

‘Wij zijn geen nummers. Wij zijn mensen’, roept de arts Reem Saqallah vertwijfeld uit. ‘We willen niet sterven onder het puin of vergeten worden in de schaduw van diplomatie. Wij willen leven, liefhebben, opgroeien.’

Wij strijden tegen annexatie, onderdrukking en bezetting. Help mee!

Nee, ik steun The Rights Forum niet! Zolang die blijft bibberen voor het eisen van sancties jegens Israël.

‘Nooit meer’ / Inclusieve 4 mei-herdenking in Den Haag werd druk bezocht

Dat aan een inclusieve 4 mei-herdenking grote behoefte bestaat, werd bevestigd door de vele duizenden bezoekers en online kijkers die eraan deelnamen. De herdenking voegde voor de deelnemers veel toe door de bijzondere sfeer en het inclusieve karakter dat aan velen troost bood.

Veel Nederlanders kunnen de traditionele herdenking niet langer rijmen met de Nederlandse medeplichtigheid aan de Israëlische genocide in Gaza. Ook biedt de herdenking plaats aan de steeds grotere groepen Nederlanders met eigen ervaringen en herinneringen aan genocide.

Kijk de herdenking terug op YouTube >

Hoe de hetze rond de inclusieve 4 mei-herdenking zorgde voor een haatcampagne

Onze solidariteit met de inclusieve 4 mei-herdenking leidde tot een stortvloed van haatberichten en zelfs bedreigingen. In een artikel op onze website beschreven we een aantal voorbeelden.
 
Die variëren van woeste beschuldigingen van het ‘kapen’ van de traditionele herdenking tot de uitgesproken hoop op een aanslag tijdens de inclusieve herdenking. Opmerkelijk is de bagatellisering van de Holocaust in combinatie met de herdenking: begrippen als nazi’s, SS’ers en NSB’ers waren niet van de lucht.
 
Ophitsing door de media
De polarisatie werd aangejaagd door media als SBS6, de Telegraaf, die een podium boden waarop Frits Barend ons mocht uitmaken voor antisemieten die het maar om één ding zou gaan: ‘Joden pakken’.
 
Dat bij The Rights Forum Joden werken en nog veel meer zijn aangesloten, werd niet opgemerkt. Bovendien werden wij ten onrechte aangesproken op de organisatie van de herdenking. Noch de beide media, noch Frits Barend namen de moeite de feiten te checken. De kans om The Rights Forum te belasteren was kennelijk te verleidelijk. En dat gebeurde volop.

Lees het artikel >

Ruim 500 Nederlanders herdachten Hind met een persoonlijk bericht

Op 3 mei openden we een speciale pagina waarop Nederlanders een boodschap konden achterlaten voor het Palestijnse meisje Hind Rajab. Zij zou die dag zeven jaar zijn geworden, maar dat was haar niet gegund. Op 29 januari 2024 werd ze in Gaza-stad vermoord. De auto waarin zij en zes familieleden reden werd doorzeefd met 335 kogels, afgevuurd door een Israëlische tank.
 
Hind groeide uit tot symbool van de Israëlische genocide op de bevolking van Gaza. Intussen heeft Israël 52.653 Palestijnen ‘direct’ gedood, onder wie circa 16 duizend kinderen, hoewel die cijfers vermoedelijk een zware onderschatting van het werkelijke aantal doden vormen (waaronder de zogenoemde ‘indirecte’ doden ten gevolge van niet beschikbare behandelingen, uithongering en ziektes).
 
Dat Hinds gruwelijke lot velen aan het hart gaat, blijkt uit de ruim vijfhonderd persoonlijke berichten die op onze site werden geschreven. The Rights Forum zal alle berichten bundelen en aanbieden aan minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Caspar Veldkamp en alle leden van de Tweede Kamer.
 
Bekijk alle vijfhonderd berichten >

Opinie | Festival voor collaborateurs

Op 13 mei vindt het Eurovisiesongfestival plaats in Bazel, Zwitserland. Journalist Jos van Noord vraagt zich af hoe het kan bestaan dat Israël deelneemt aan dit liedjesfestijn.

Hoe, in hemelsnaam, kun je een liedje gaan staan zingen, nota bene als representant van een land, met op hetzelfde podium de zanger van een land dat ondertussen weerloze burgers bombardeert? Een moorddadige bezetter die kinderen opzettelijk uithongert! Hoe diep kun je zinken?

Zijn nabestaanden van genocide soms vrijgesteld van mensenrechtenplichten? Rechtvaardigt de ene genocide dan de andere?

Terwijl de belangrijkste boodschap van het nationaal Holocaust museum nu juist is dat wij – ja, wij! – niet weer wegkijken bij onrecht. Nooit meer.
 

Uit onze agenda
zaterdag 10 mei t/m zaterdag 17 mei
Demonstraties en wakes
• Wake van Vrouwen in het Zwart op zaterdag 10 mei in Groningen, Waagplein (13.00 uur)
• Zorgmanifestatie voor Gaza op zaterdag 10 mei in Rotterdam, Schouwburgplein (14.00 uur)
• Demonstratie tegen Four Winds K9 op zaterdag 10 mei in Geffen, bij het hondentrainingscentrum van K9
• Nakba-herdenking op zondag 11 mei in Rotterdam, Schouwburgplein (14.00 uur)
• Demonstratie ‘Laat je horen tegen genocide’ op zondag 11 mei in Helmond (14.00 uur)
• Nationale demonstratie ‘Stop Nakba, Stop Genocide’ op zondag 11 mei bij het Noordstation in Brussel (14.00 uur)
• Wekelijkse stiltedemonstratie op zondag 11 mei in Amsterdam, Spuiplein bij het Lieverdje (17.00 uur)
• Wekelijkse sit-in van Rijksambtenaren op donderdag 15 mei in Den Haag, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, Rijnstraat 8 (12.00 uur)
• Nakba Herdenking & protest op donderdag 15 mei in Amsterdam, Dominicuskerk, Spuistraat 14 (16.30 uur)
• Wekelijks protest tegen de genocide op de Palestijnen op donderdag 15 mei in Zaandam, ingang NS-station, Provincialeweg 25 (17.30 uur)
• Nakba Manifestatie op donderdag 15 mei in Utrecht, Domplein (18.00 uur)
• Nakbadag-demonstratie op donderdag 15 mei in Maastricht, Stationsplein (18.15 uur)
• Wake voor Palestina op zaterdag 17 mei in Den Bosch, Burgemeester Loeffplein (12.00 uur)
• Solidariteitsbijeenkomst ‘Sta op voor Palestina’ op zaterdag 17 mei in Utrecht met protesttocht en sprekers, Stadsklooster, Kanaalstraat 198 (14.00 uur); workshop tatreez vanaf 11.30 uur
• Protestmars ‘Remembering the Nakba’ op zaterdag 17 mei op de Dam in Amsterdam (15.00 uur)

Culturele evenementen
• Cartoon Exhibition by Mo Qasim op zaterdag 10 mei in Rotterdam, Laurenskerk, Grotekerkplein 27 (12.00 uur)
• Sophie Straat’s Protestfest 3 op zaterdag 10 mei in Paradiso, Amsterdam (18.00 uur)
• Heart of Gaza: Children’s Art from the Genocide op zondag 11 mei in Moira, Wolvenstraat 10, Utrecht (15.30 uur)
• Don’t Stop Talking About Palestine op woensdag 14 mei in poppodium PAARD, Den Haag (19.00 uur)
• Filmavond Al-Damun – The War of Memory op woensdag 14 mei in Nijmegen, De Klinker, Broekhuysenstraat 46 (20.00 uur)
• Alternatief Songfestival op zaterdag 17 mei in Rotterdam, Hiphophuis, Boomgaardsstraat 46 (18.00 uur)

Bijeenkomsten op universiteiten
• Seminar Policing Dissent on Campus op maandag 12 mei, Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen (12.15 uur)
• Lezing Palestine Emergency Reading Group op donderdag 15 mei, Universiteit Tilburg (13.00 uur)
• Night University Protest op donderdag 15 mei, Universiteit Tilburg, AH tegenover de campus, Professor de Moorplein (18.15 uur)
• Lezing met directeur van Physicians for Human Rights op donderdag 15 mei, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Roeterseilandcampus, building A, room A2.09 (18.30 uur)

1337.

9 mei 2025

Today's headlines

A day in the life hunting for food and water during the Gaza famine

For many in Gaza, the psychological toll of seeing their children go hungry is far worse than the physical exhaustion they feel from malnutrition and scavenging for food.

Court orders Trump administration to transfer Rumeysa Ozturk to Vermont

In a blow to the White House, a federal appeals court ruled that Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk must be transferred from Louisiana to Vermont. It was just one of several legal setbacks for the Trump administration in recent days.

NYPD arrests dozens of pro-Palestine protesters after Columbia library occupation

Roughly 80 protesters were arrested Wednesday after occupying a library on Columbia University’s campus. The Trump administration is stepping up actions against student protesters as Gaza encampments are starting to spread once again across the U.S.

1336.

9 mei 2025

Er is veel gaande op het gebed van BDS. Met op 15 mei meerdere herdenkingen van 77 jaar Nakba en op 17 mei het Protest Songfest in Rotterdam als alternatief voor het Eurovisie Songfestival, dat AVROTROS nog steeds niet wil boycotten. Ondanks dat tientallen ex-deelnemers uitsluiting van Israël eisen.

Het  is duidelijk geworden dat containerscheepvaartgigant Maersk flinke verantwoordelijkheid draagt voor het bewapenen van Israël. Dat leidt tot succesvolle actie. Wij lichten toe.

We delen ook een geweldig elders verschenen stuk over hoe de progressieve media met hun verhullend taalgebruik in feite collaboratie plegen met de Israëlische bezetting van Palestina

Tot slot nog een oproep uit Frankrijk tot steun aan Urgence Palestine dat bedreigd wordt door de Franse regering.

Een strijdbare groet van het docP team; blijf BDS-en!

Nakba 77: 7 feiten en 7 eisen

Op de 77ste verjaardag van de Nakba (1947-1949), de etnische zuivering en verdrijving van het grootste deel van de inheemse bevolking van Palestina en de vernietiging van honderden van onze steden en dorpen om Israël te stichten als een vestigingskolonie gebaseerd op joodse suprematie en apartheid, deelt de BDS-beweging deze 7 feiten en 7 eisen.

Read more

Tientallen ex-Eurovisiedeelnemers eisen uitsluiting van Israël – RPC en BDS NL organiseren counter-songfestival

Meer dan 70 voormalige Eurovisie-deelnemers uit heel Europa, waaronder winnaars als Salvador Sobral (2017), roepen de European Broadcasting Union (EBU) met klem op om de Israëlische publieke omroep KAN te verbannen van het populaire songfestival. Zij beschuldigen KAN ervan “medeplichtig te zijn aan Israëls genocide op de Palestijnen in Gaza”. De Rotterdam Palestine Coalitie (RPC) en BDS organiseren een counterfestival.

Read more

Rotterdam Palestina Coalitie en BDS Nederland organiseren counter songfestival

De Rotterdam Palestine Coalitie (RPC) en BDS Nederland organiseren samen een Protest Songfest op zaterdag 17 mei in Hiphophuis in Rotterdam. Het Protest Songfest dient als counter festival tegen het Eurovisie Songfestival en de hypocrisie en dubbele standaard die met dat festival gepaard gaan. RPC en BDS roepen Nederlanders, artiesten en AVROTROS op het festival te boycotten.

Masker af voor Maersk

Het Deense containtervaartbedrijf Maersk is een van de meest winstgevende bedrijven ter wereld. Het is betrokken bij alle aspecten van de toeleveringsketen van de dood – het brengen van militaire vracht naar wapenbedrijven voor assemblage en het verschepen van vracht naar Israël vanuit de VS. Havenarbeiders en demonstranten proberen de verlading van schepen tegen te houden.

Een "complex probleem": hoe de progressieve media met de bezetting collaboreren

"Ik kijk uit naar de dag dat er een onderzoek komt naar de rol van de Westerse Corporate Media in deze Genocide." - Francesca Albanese, VN-Speciaal Rapporteur voor de mensenrechten in de Palestijnse gebieden

Op Joop publiceerde Salar Garcia op 27 april een bijdrage hiertoe, met een ijzersterk artikel over hoe de grote media met hun taalgebruik de genocide toedekken. Wij vinden deze longread zo belangrijk dat we hem hier delen.

Steun Urgence Palestine tegen de Franse regering

Steun Urgence Palestine tegen de Franse regering

Terwijl de genocide in Gaza toeneemt, terwijl de belegering een heel volk uithongert en vernietigt, wil de Franse regering een van de belangrijkste Palestijnse organisaties aldaar ontbinden. Dit vormt een repressiepolitiek die in de lijn ligt van de leuzen van extreem-rechts in Frankrijk en de Israëlische regering.

Onze eisen zijn eenvoudig:

- Stop de genocide in Palestina
- Nee tegen de ontbinding van Urgence Palestine
- Ja tegen vrijheid van meningsuiting en internationale solidariteit.

1335.

8 mei 2025

The Palestinian BDS movement calls on supporters worldwide to participate in Anti-Chevron Day on Wednesday, May 21. Anti-Chevron Day has been organized by Amazon Watch since 2014. It is a global day of action protesting Chevron’s historical and ongoing climate destruction and violations of human rights globally, especially in the Amazon basin in Latin America. In solidarity with the BDS movement’s call to boycott Chevron for its complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid, Amazon Watch and allies integrated the Palestinian Boycott Chevron campaign into the Anti-Chevron Day tradition.

Anti-Chevron Day falls one week before Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting (AGM). At the upcoming 2025 AGM, shareholders will vote on a proposal calling on Chevron to audit its human rights abuses worldwide, requiring input from civil society and human rights organizations. This is a crucial time for our campaign to mobilize. We know that Chevron is feeling the heat! Chevron entered the Israeli market in 2020, and it can exit just as easily.

Be a part of Anti-Chevron Day on May 21 by peacefully disrupting business as usual.

Action ideas include:
 

• BOYCOTT & PICKET: organizing a gas station boycott picket
• DIVEST: starting a campaign calling on your city council, university, union, or other institution to divest from Chevron and/or exclude it from contracts;

1334.

8 mei 2025

Today's headlines

From Gaza to Kashmir: India’s attack on Pakistan is straight out of the Israeli playbook

India's May 6 attack on Pakistan shows how the world's inaction on the Gaza genocide has inspired Narendra Modi to escalate in Kashmir. From New Delhi to Tel Aviv, the ideological affinity between Zionism and Hindutva has never been clearer.

Report: Israel to use U.S. military contractors to deliver aid as it prepares to reoccupy Gaza

Israel’s Cabinet has approved plans to reoccupy Gaza and use U.S. private military contractors to distribute aid to Palestinians. Human rights and aid groups say the plan “makes a mockery of international humanitarian law.”

1333.

8 mei 2025

Humanitarian Situation Update #287
West Bank

Humanitarian teams visiting displaced people in the Masafer Yatta area of Hebron following a demolition that destroyed most of the community of Khallet Athaba’. Photo by OCHA

Key Highlights

• Israeli forces demolished at least six residential buildings in Nur Shams refugee camp; these are among 106 structures in Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps slated for demolition by Israeli military orders issued on 1 May. 
• Most communities in the northern Jordan Valley are suffering from acute water shortages, which have been exacerbated by settler attacks and Israeli demolition and building-permit policies.
• On 5 May, Israeli authorities demolished more than 85 per cent of homes and other structures in Khallet Athaba’ community of Masafer Yatta in Hebron; about 50 people have been displaced, half of whom were children, and the community has been left without access to water or electricity.
• Seventy per cent of structures demolished by Israeli authorities in Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the West Bank so far in 2025 were agricultural, livelihood, and water and sanitation structures.

Humanitarian Developments

• Between 29 April and 5 May, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians and injured at least 57 others, including six children, across the West Bank. During the same period, one Palestinian from the West Bank died in Israeli custody in unclear circumstances. 
  • On 1 May, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in confrontations with Palestinian stone throwers in Beita town, in Nablus governorate. The incident took place amid ongoing Israeli operations in the town, which began the previous day on 30 March after one Israeli soldier was injured by a roadside explosive. 
  • On 2 May, undercover Israeli forces dressed in civilian clothing shot, killed and withheld the body of a Palestinian man during a raid into Balata refugee camp, in Nablus governorate, which reportedly involved exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians.
  • On 4 May, the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority, the Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club announced that a Palestinian from Jenin, who had been under administrative detention since 8 August 2023, died at the Soroka Hospital in Israel. 
• Between 29 April and 5 May, OCHA documented the demolition of 73 Palestinian-owned structures, including 24 provided as humanitarian assistance, for lacking Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain. All but one of the structures were in Area C and were demolished by Israeli authorities and one family was forced to demolish its home in East Jerusalem. These demolitions resulted in the displacement of 20 households comprising 104 Palestinians, including 58 children, and affected the livelihoods of at least 90 people. The majority of people displaced were in three communities in Area C: Khallet Athaba’ (see below) and Umm ad Daraj herding communities, in Hebron governorate, and Qibya village, in Ramallah governorate. Since 1 January and as of 7 May, 581 structures were demolished due to the lack of permit in Area C, displacing more than 600 people, including over 220 children. During the same period, 65 structures were demolished on the same grounds in East Jerusalem, displacing more than180 people, including over 90 children.
• On 5 May, Israeli authorities carried out a mass demolition in the herding community of Khallet Athaba’ of Masafer Yatta, in Hebron governorate, demolishing 39 structures, including 19 provided as humanitarian assistance; these included 14 inhabited residential structures (of which, six were caves), an uninhabited residential cave, five animal shelters, seven latrines, six water cisterns, two structures used for storage, a kitchen, the community centre, the water network, the communal electricity solar system with the electricity room, and the electricity and internet networks. In total, 10 households comprising 49 people, including 26 children, were displaced and the community was left without access to water, electricity or the internet. The demolition left 85 per cent of the community’s structures destroyed and 60 per cent of its residents (84) displaced, some of whom have already been displaced twice in 2025 in two other rounds of demolitions in the community that took place on 10 and 26 February. 
• Two of the demolition incidents between 29 April and 5 May took place in two herding communities in the northern Jordan Valley (Ad Deir and ‘Ein al Hilwa), during which Israeli authorities demolished 14 structures, including two residential structures, five agricultural structures, four water and sanitation structures, and three other structures. So far in 2025, nearly one in five structures demolished in the Jordan Valley were water and sanitation structures, many of them in the northern Jordan Valley. Most communities in the northern Jordan Valley are not connected to the water network due to the restrictive planning regime enforced by Israeli authorities in Area C. The communities continue to suffer from acute water shortages compounded by very low water from rainfall and exacerbated by settler attacks and Israeli authorities’ Area C demolition policies, according to the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster. Under the WASH Cluster’s 2024 water vulnerability mapping for communities across the West Bank, most northern Jordan Valley herding communities fall under the worst index category for water vulnerability, as they rely mainly on water trucking, pay between 20-25 ILS (US$5-7) per cubic metre of water, and have insufficient water storage capacity. Overall, herding and Bedouin communities across the West Bank, who rely on livestock grazing as their main source of income, suffer from limited access to water and are disproportionately affected by the demolition of water and sanitation and agricultural structures. Between 1 January and 5 May 2025, OCHA documented the demolition of 187 structures in Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the West Bank for lacking building permits, more than half in the Jordan Valley and 70 per cent of which (130) were agricultural, livelihood, and water and sanitation structures.
• So far in 2025, OCHA has documented a spike in demolitions and displacement in Area C due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits compared with the corresponding period in 2024. Between 1 January and 5 May 2025, 580 structures, including 88 provided as humanitarian assistance, were demolished by Israeli authorities in Area C,; resulting in the displacement of 597 people, more than half of whom were children. This is roughly a five-fold increase in displacement and over double the number of demolished structures compared with the corresponding period in 2024, when 242 structures, including seven donor-funded structures, were demolished and 98 people were displaced, including 51 children. 
• Between 29 April and 5 May 2025, OCHA documented 13 settler-related incidents that resulted in the injury of four Palestinians, the displacement of two families comprising six people, the burning of two residential tents, the vandalism of three vehicles, five livelihood-related assets and three water tanks, and damage to or uprooting of approximately 50 olive and fig trees. The four injured Palestinians were injured in a single incident on 30 April, when settlers believed to be from an outpost near Shilo settlement, raided Duma village, in Nablus governorate. According to community eyewitnesses, approximately 20 settlers – three of them armed – entered the village’s agricultural lands and attempted to erect tents to establish a new outpost. Israeli forces arrived at the lands and dispersed the settlers. After nearly an hour, about 50 settlers returned in a larger group, set fire to agricultural land, and vandalized 16 olive trees about 100 metres away from residential homes and livestock shelters. When Palestinian residents attempted to put out the fire, a confrontation involving mutual stone throwing erupted between them and Israeli settlers. A settler stabbed a Palestinian man multiple times in the back, and another Palestinian sustained a serious head injury from a stone. No injuries among settlers were reported. The village’s firefighting unit eventually extinguished the fire after the settlers withdrew. 
• In a separate incident, on 4 May, on the western outskirts of Kharbatha Bani Harith village, in Ramallah governorate, two Palestinian herding families comprising six people, including two children, were displaced following an attack by Israeli settlers – some of whom were armed. According to local sources, settlers raided the area, threatened a herder family, and forced them to flee with their livestock, fearing the settlers would steal their sheep. The settlers then burned two tents belonging to the family, who relocated to a safer area within the town. A second family, fearing further violence, also moved their belongings and relocated. During the incident, settlers vandalized an agricultural farm, including by cutting part of the fence, vandalizing solar lighting, and stealing agricultural tools. This followed a series of frequent incidents of settler violence and intimidation, including vandalism of property and restricting access to grazing areas. Settlers are believed to be from a nearby outpost that was established in early April 2025 near the community. On the same day, in Yanun, in Nablus governorate, a guard from Itamar settlement detained two Palestinian herders grazing sheep near their home. Israeli forces arrived shortly after, handcuffed the herders, and one soldier hit one of them in the eye, claiming the location was within Area C and grazing was not allowed in the area. During the incident, a settler grazed his sheep on the family’s four dunums of cultivated land, which the landowner has been unable to access due to its proximity to a herding outpost set up by Israeli settlers.

• Out of the 13 documented settler-related incidents, at least twelve incidents involved damage to Palestinian-owned property. On 5 May, in Al Mas’udiya village, in Nablus governorate, settlers reportedly from Homesh settlement set fire to a wheat field, burning approximately 10 dunums of crops. On 29 April, Israeli settlers from a settlement outpost near Ramin village, in Tulkarm governorate, threatened a Palestinian farmer, forced him off his land, and vandalized at least 30 fig trees, a 30-metre fence, and three water tanks. On the same day, in Al Mughayyir village, in Ramallah governorate, settlers damaged about five dunums of land cultivated with vegetables. The attack was carried out by settlers believed to be from an outpost established in Area B between Al Mughayyir and Turmus’ayya towns, which has been linked to repeated attacks on agricultural plots in the area. On 30 April, in Iraq Burin village, in Nablus governorate, settlers believed to be from Bracha settlement continued bulldozing lands on the eastern side of the village, damaging approximately six dunums of land planted with olive trees. Settlers uprooted trees and transported them toward their settlement. 
• Amid escalating Israeli settler violence and a reported surge in the expansion of Israeli settlements and establishment of settlement outposts, over the past three weeks, OCHA documented five cases entailing the abduction and detention of Palestinians by Israeli settlers in Nablus, Ramallah, and Hebron governorates. On 20 April, a group of Israeli settlers, reportedly from Itamar settlement, entered Beit Furik village, in Nablus governorate, and chased children while wielding knives and stones. The settlers then abducted a 13-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother, who were found by their parents 15 minutes later tied to a tree inside the village. The girl reported that settlers threatened them verbally, and with knives . According to the parents, the children were not physically injured but showed signs of fear and psychological distress. On 26 April, Israeli settlers physically injured and abducted at gunpoint two Palestinian men during a raid on Kobar village, in Ramallah governorate. Israeli forces were called by the Palestinian DCL and released one of the injured men from the outpost and detained the other for 24 hours. Since 7 October 2023, OCHA has documented about three dozen cases where Israeli settlers, including some in military uniform, abducted or detained at least 50 Palestinians, including three children. These include 23 cases that also resulted in casualties and/or property damage.
• For key figures and additional breakdowns of casualties, displacement and settler violence between January 2005 and March 2025, please refer to the OCHA West Bank March 2025 Snapshot.

Developments in the northern West Bank

• On 1 May, Israeli forces issued two military orders to demolish 106 Palestinian-owned structures in Tulkarm (58) and Nur Shams (48) refugee camps. Residents were given 24 hours to evacuate or submit a legal challenge against the orders. On 2 May, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, stated: “These demolition orders, if enacted, would further entrench the displacement of thousands of Palestine Refugees in the northern West Bank... They serve punitive and coercive objectives, targeting entire communities. This practice constitutes collective punishment, categorically prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention.” The previous mass demolition in Tulkarm during the first week of March 2025 saw dozens of structures destroyed across both camps, after the demolitions were announced on 18 February. Humanitarian actors have been unable to systematically assess the demolitions due to the lack of access.
• On 2 May, Israeli forces detained for about six hours several families attempting to return to their homes and at least three journalists as they gathered at the entrance of Tulkarm camp. Israeli forces then raided the camp, using stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse crowds, and forced people to leave their homes, during which one journalist was injured. On 4 May, Israeli forces raided Nur Shams camp and forced at least five families to leave their homes. On the same day, a legal petition to stop the demolition of homes by an NGO was rejected by Israeli courts, citing that these demolitions were done out of military necessity. On 5 May, Israeli forces began demolishing six homes that housed 17 families in Nur Shams camp. On 6 May, Israeli forces designated times (between 08:00 and 10:00, and between 10:30 and 13:00) during which over 50 families living in 18 structures were able to retrieve their belongings ahead of further demolitions.
• In Jenin city, displacement around refugee camps continues, amid continued reports of water shortages. On 3 May, at least seven families were forced to evacuate their homes in an area near the Jenin Governmental Hospital. Six of the families had previously been displaced from Jenin refugee camp. The Jenin Municipality reported that, in coordination with humanitarian partners, they have managed to restore the water connection between As Saa’deh water well and the homes of about 15,000 residents in western Jenin city. However, according to the municipality, the eastern part of Jenin city has had its water connection cut, affecting about 20,000 people who are now relying on water trucking, temporary connections, and other short-term solutions. According to the municipality, the cause of the cut is under examination.
• The UN and its partners continue to respond to the deepening needs of displaced families in affected areas in the northern West Bank, including by providing food, water and sanitation assistance, health services, psycho-social support, and multi-purpose cash assistance. In April 2025, WASH Cluster partners continued to provide assistance in Jenin and Tulkarm. These efforts included the distribution of 22 cubic metres of bottled water, 900 hygiene kits, and the collection and transfer of 178 tons of solid waste. Overall, since the onset of operations in the northern West Bank, WASH Cluster partners have: supported the repair of 22,675 metres of water networks and the rehabilitation of 4,087 metres of sewer networks; distributed 1,060 solid waste bins; installed 20 latrines; and delivered 9,317 cubic meters of water and 4,394 hygiene kits to displaced families.
• Over 90 per cent of the 122 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces across the West Bank between 1 January and 5 May 2025 were in the six northern West Bank governorates of Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalqilya and Salfit. Seven Israelis, including five members of Israeli forces, were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank so far in 2025, all of them in the northern West Bank.
• Between 29 April and 5 May, all Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank took place in Nablus governorate. Nearly 90 per cent of the injuries (51 out of 57) across the West Bank were also reported there - 85 per cent of which (49 out of 57) took place in Nablus city and its refugee camps, Balata and Askar. Since Israeli forces launched their ongoing operation in the northern West Bank on 21 January, they have injured 1,058 Palestinians across the West Bank. Nablus governorate accounted for over a third (35 per cent) of these injuries (376), making it the most affected governorate, followed by Ramallah (224). Nablus city and its refugee camps alone have experienced more injuries (133) than the Hebron governorate (127) which is the governorate with the third highest number of injuries by Israeli forces.
• Israeli forces continue to impose access restrictions and conduct raids in and around the northern West Bank cities as part of their ongoing operations. During this period, Palestinian journalists have regularly been denied access to the affected refugee camps and have been detained and injured by Israeli forces. On 2 and 4 May, Israeli forces detained three journalists and injured one other in Tulkarm. Last month on 19 and 20 April, Israeli forces raided homes and vandalized property in Tulkarm city and in one incident, physically assaulted a photojournalist and confiscated his press card and phone. Israeli forces also fired tear gas cannisters toward two Palestinian journalists covering the operation at the entrance of Jenin camp. These attacks prompted the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) to release a statement on World Press Freedom Day (2 May), noting that OHCHR “has monitored multiple cases of journalists detained, a significant number of whom appear to have been detained arbitrarily. Many are held under administrative detention...Both Palestinian and Israeli security forces have banned or limited journalists’ entry to the Jenin and other refugee camps in northern West Bank. They injured, detained, threatened and in some cases subjected journalists to ill-treatment.”

1331.

8 mei 2025

1330.

8 mei 2025

Humanitarian Situation Update #286
Gaza Strip

A Palestinian boy in a site for displaced people in Gaza city. Photo by OCHA/Olga Cherevko 

Key Highlights

• Over nine weeks into the full aid blockade imposed on people in Gaza, some 15 UN entities and 200 non-governmental organizations have rejected proposals by Israeli officials to dismantle the existing aid distribution system run by the United Nations and its humanitarian partners.
• UNICEF warns that children in Gaza are facing a growing risk of starvation, illness and death, as a third of UN-supported community kitchens have shut down in the past 10 days due the depletion of food supplies and limited access to fuel.
• Over 75 per cent of households in Gaza report a decline in water access over the past month, amid deteriorating sanitation conditions.
• Gaza’s medical rehabilitation system is at a breaking point – overwhelmed by traumatic injuries, damaged infrastructure, and severe shortages of specialists, supplies, and equipment – leaving persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups without essential care.

Humanitarian Developments

• Since 18 March 2025, Israeli forces have escalated bombardment from the air, land and sea across the Gaza Strip and expanded ground operations. This has resulted in hundreds of casualties, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and large-scale displacement. Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups has been reported. Strikes on residential buildings and tents of internally displaced people (IDPs) also continue to be reported, alongside detonation of buildings, especially in Rafah and eastern Gaza city. Humanitarian operations have been stifled by a combination of expanded military activity, the Israeli government’s full blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies (since 2 March), attacks on humanitarian facilities, and severe movement restrictions within Gaza. As of 6 May, over 428,000 people are estimated to have been displaced again since the escalation of hostilities on 18 March, according to the Site Management Cluster (SMC), with no safe place to go.
• For over two months, Israeli authorities have made a deliberate decision to block all supplies to Gaza, bringing to a near-standstill humanitarian efforts to protect and assist civilians through the provision of commodities. In response to the ongoing blockade, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (USG-ERC), Tom Fletcher, issued a stark warning: “Blocking aid starves civilians. It leaves them without basic medical support. It strips them of dignity and hope. It inflicts a cruel collective punishment. Blocking aid kills.” In an earlier statement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), underscored the severity of the situation: "As humanitarians, we can see that aid is being weaponized through its denial. There is no justification for this, and it has to stop.”
• On 7 May, the Palestinian  Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, declared Gaza a “famine zone” during a press conference addressing the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. He called on the United Nations system to "immediately activate its mechanisms" in response.
• While hundreds of truckloads with life-saving supplies are waiting to enter Gaza, children, who make up about half of Gaza’s population, are facing the worst humanitarian crisis since October 2023, characterized by the growing risk of starvation, illness and death due to ongoing bombardments, forced displacement and the aid blockade, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Access to food and drinking water is diminishing, malnutrition and diseases are spreading, and vaccines are running low, highlighted UNICEF’s Executive Director, Catherine Russell, adding that about 75 per cent of households reported deteriorating access to water over the past month, with families often “forced to choose between showering, cleaning and cooking,” and acute watery diarrhea now accounts for a quarter of disease cases recorded in Gaza. Similarly stressing the gravity of humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, stated that “we don’t need to see photos of emaciated children to know people are hungry, and that children are weak and malnourished, with life-long consequences.”
• On 5 May, Israel’s security cabinet reportedly approved a plan to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip and a modality for the distribution of limited supplies in Gaza, pending a separate decision of activation. According to Israeli officials cited in the media, the plan would entail the movement of most of the population to the southern part of the Strip, where the Israeli military would retain presence. According to the Israeli army spokesperson, the Rafah model will be replicated in other parts of the Strip. 
• On 7 May, the UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, warned that "Israel’s reported plans to forcibly transfer Gaza’s population to a small area in the south of the strip and threats by Israeli officials to deport Palestinians outside of Gaza further aggravate concerns that Israel’s actions are aimed at inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group."
• In a statement issued on 5 May, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) – which brings together some 15 UN entities and over 200 NGOs – denounced plans by Israeli officials to dismantle the existing aid distribution system run by the United Nations and its humanitarian partners and channel supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the Israeli military, once the Israeli government agrees to re-open crossings: “The design of the plan presented to us will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies. It contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy. It is dangerous, driving civilians into militarized zones to collect rations, threatening lives, including those of humanitarian workers, while further entrenching forced displacement.” On 8 April, the UN Secretary-General, and  on 1 May the USG-ERC, had emphasized that the modality proposed by Israeli authorities fails to meet the minimum standards for principled humanitarian action and that the UN will not participate in any arrangement that does not fully respect humanitarian principles.  
• According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, between 30 April and 7 May, as of noon, 230 Palestinians were killed and 883 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 7 May 2025, the MoH in Gaza reported that at least 52,653 Palestinians were killed and 118,897 Palestinians were injured. This includes 2,545 people killed and 6,856 injured since the escalation of hostilities on 18 March 2025, according to MoH. On 5 May, MoH reported that 16,278 children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. 

• Between 2 and 7 May, incidents resulting in a large number of fatalities were reported across the Gaza Strip, including the following: 
  • On 2 May, at about 1:37, nine Palestinians, including a girl and five women (one of them pregnant), were reportedly killed and 12 others, including children, were injured when a residential building was hit in northern Al Bureij refugee camp, in Deir al Balah.
  • On 2 May, at about 11:05, seven Palestinians, including at least one woman, were reportedly killed when mourners at a funeral were hit in Beit Lahiya, in North Gaza.
  • On 2 May, at about 15:20, 10 Palestinians, including at least one woman and her daughter, were reportedly killed when a residential building was hit in Jabalya al Balad, in North Gaza.
  • On 2 May, at about 22:00, nine Palestinians were reportedly killed when a residential building was hit in Ash Shuja’iyyeh, in eastern Gaza city.
  • On 3 May, at about 2:40, 11 Palestinians, including at least four women and four children (three infants and a boy), were reportedly killed and others injured when a residential building was hit in central Khan Younis. 
  • On 4 May, 10 Palestinians, including seven women and one child, were reportedly killed and others injured when an IDP tent was hit in western Khan Younis.
  • On 4 May, at about 19:00, 15 Palestinians were reportedly killed and tens of others injured when a residential building was hit in At Tuffah, in northeastern Gaza city. Shooting was reported at people attempting to rescue those trapped under the rubble of the struck building.
  • On 5 May, at about 0:40, 15 Palestinians were reportedly killed and 10 others injured when three floors of a residential building were hit in western Beit Lahiya in North Gaza.
  • On 5 May, at about 18:00, 11 Palestinians, including a woman and male police officers, were reportedly killed and 21 injured when two locations were hit in An Nuseirat refugee camp, in Deir al Balah. 
  • On 6 May, over 30 Palestinians, including children and women, were reportedly killed when an UNRWA school-turned-shelter, hosting 2,000 displaced people, was hit twice in Al Bureij refugee camp, in northeastern Deir al Balah, according to UNRWA. 
  • On 7 May, 15 Palestinians were reportedly killed and 10 others injured when a school hosting IDPs was hit in At Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza city, according to Palestinian Civil Defence.
  • On 7 May, 33 Palestinians were reportedly killed and over 86 others injured in a strike next to a restaurant in Gaza city, according to MoH.
• Between 1 and 7 May, two Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. Between 7 October 2023 and 7 May 2025, according to Israeli forces and official Israeli sources cited in the media, more than 1,612 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, the majority on 7 October 2023 and its immediate aftermath. This includes 412 soldiers killed, in addition to 2,643 soldiers injured, in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation in October 2023. These include five soldiers killed and 59 injured since the re-escalation of hostilities on 18 March 2025. As of 7 May, it is estimated that 59 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including hostages who have been declared dead and whose bodies are being withheld. 
• Fishers and farmers in Gaza continue to face significant risks in accessing the sea and farmland due to restricted access and ongoing insecurity; farming areas have further diminished since 18 March, with 70 per cent of Gaza now designated as an Israeli-militarized zone or placed under displacement orders. Yet, the growing scarcity of food supplies in Gaza is driving some to take the risk. On 3 May, one fisher was reportedly hit and killed off the coast of Gaza city and another five fishers, including a boy, were injured separately on 3 and 6 May in Beit Lahiya in North Gaza, when fishers were hit off the coast. According to Amnesty International, one fisherman described the deadly gamble he is forced to take because his “family’s survival depends on the money [they] can get out of selling the fish in the market.” Moreover, in two incidents on 1 May, five farmers were reportedly killed in Rafah and in Beit Lahiya, in North Gaza, while agricultural lands were reportedly set on fire in Beit Hanun, in the northeastern area of North Gaza, between 28 and 30 April. 
• On 2 May, marking World Press Freedom Day, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in the OPT stated that “Palestinian journalists continue to be killed or injured at an alarming rate with impunity, along with widespread attacks on their work and freedom.” The office further stated that the Israeli military has continued to refuse the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza, except for limited army-controlled visits. Marking the same occasion, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) reported that, since 7 October 2023, 210 male and female journalists and media workers have been killed, of whom 90 were killed in their homes, where many journalists had resorted to working after media offices were destroyed. Some have remained trapped under the rubble of their homes to this day, PJS noted, adding that 29 journalists were killed while in tents or inside IDP shelters, and many others have suffered critical injuries, some leading to amputations. On 7 May, two additional journalists were reportedly killed in two separate incidents in Gaza city and Deir al Balah, raising the number of journalists killed to 212, according to PJS. 
• On the occasion of the International Workers' Day on 1 May, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PRCS) reported on rising unemployment in Gaza. While noting that this metric rose from 45 per cent in the third quarter of 2023 to 68 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024, PRCS stressed that most labour force concepts and measurements have become inapplicable under the circumstances prevailing in Gaza, where economic activity is indefinitely suspended, and people’s priority has shifted to securing shelter, food, and safety.
• In April 2025, the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster conducted the third monthly Light-Touch monitoring survey using the WISE methodology to assess water insecurity across the Gaza Strip. The findings reveal that 90 per cent of surveyed households experienced water insecurity in early April, with a high proportion of assessed households, ranging from 88 per cent to 100 per cent, reporting moderate to high water insecurity across all governorates. Overall, 75 per cent of households reported worsening levels of drinking water security. The main reasons included: decreasing volumes of accessible water (cited by 73 per cent respondents); fewer water points (68 per cent); and the growing number of families at displacement sites (42 per cent). In addition, the majority of households reported challenges to adequate sanitation, due to a decreasing number of functional latrines (57 per cent), lack of cleanliness (57 per cent), and the growing number of families at displacement sites (49 per cent). Households across governorates also reported reduced access to soap, as it is largely depleted and expensive when available. Amid these dire conditions, people are struggling to secure some of their basic WASH needs; according to the survey, 63 per cent of households reported that they have bought drinking water from private or unofficial suppliers to meet some of their needs in the two weeks preceding the survey.  

• Recently, the Joint Service Council (JSC) for Solid Waste Management in southern Gaza has been managing a medical waste collection and storage service. The waste is collected from 32 health-care facilities and stored at a controlled location near the Al Amal dump site. To date, the JSC has collected over 140,000 kilograms of medical waste for a fee of 13 NIS ($3.6) per kilogram. Medical waste includes infectious material, which if not managed separately can render all waste infectious. The JSC in the governorates of Gaza and North Gaza are looking for a location for medical waste storage.
• On 3 May, the Municipality of Deir al Balah issued a warning about the unprecedented and severe water shortages in the governorate, particularly with the summer approaching and temperatures rising. Reliance on groundwater wells is frequently disrupted by a severe lack of maintenance and repair materials and limited access to diesel fuel needed to operate the wells, the municipality reported. The electricity supply line to the Southern Gaza Desalination Plant has been cut off for more than a month, and the Bani Saeed Mekorot water pipeline was damaged in January 2025, with coordination requests to repair it continuously denied by Israeli authorities. 
• On 4 May, the Municipality of Jabalya an Nazla, in North Gaza, stated that there is widespread sewage overflow due to the lack of essential equipment and machinery, which were destroyed in airstrikes in April 2025. Over 90 per cent of the municipality’s heavy machinery, including the only “jetter” truck used for sewage suction, are now out of service. The situation is further exacerbated by the growing infestation of rodents and insects in overcrowded displacement shelters. The municipality warned of a major public health disaster if the crisis continues, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks amid limited medical services. 
• On 6 May, the Municipality of Khan Younis announced that fuel shortages have resulted in a 30-per-cent reduction in all essential water and sanitation services, including water supply, sewage treatment, solid waste collection and disposal, and emergency operations. This has further worsened solid waste accumulation in the streets, led to the proliferation of unregulated garbage dumps, resulted in cases of sewage overflow, and hindered the ability of the municipality to operate water wells and desalination plants. The municipality warned that deteriorating public health conditions are gravely affecting about 700,000 people in the governorate. 

Shrinking Humanitarian Space

• On 6 May, 55 international and local organisations operating in Israel and the OPT issued a statement, urgently calling on the international community to oppose Israeli registration measures that threaten to shut down humanitarian operations and undermine international law. According to the statement, under the new rules, registered international, non-governmental organizations (INGOs) face the risk of de-registration or rejections of new registration "based on arbitrary, politicised allegations, such as ‘delegitimising Israel’ or expressing support for accountability for Israeli violations of international law,” among others. The 55 organizations warned that “[t]hese new rules are part of a broader, long-term crackdown on humanitarian and civic space, marked by heightened surveillance and attacks, and a series of actions that restrict humanitarian access, compromise staff safety, and undermine core principles of humanitarian action.”
• In vast areas across the Gaza Strip, humanitarian teams are still required to coordinate their movements with the Israeli authorities. Between 30 April and 6 May, out of 63 requests to coordinate planned aid movements across the Gaza Strip, 43 were denied outright by the Israeli authorities, four were initially accepted but faced impediments, including blocks or delays on the ground potentially resulting in missions being aborted or partially accomplished, 14 were fully facilitated, and two were withdrawn by the organizers for logistical, operational, or security reasons. These include 24 requests for coordinated aid movements in or to northern Gaza, of which 10 were facilitated, 10 were denied, two faced impediments and two were withdrawn. In southern Gaza, out of the 39 requests for coordinated aid movements, four were facilitated, 33 were denied and two faced impediments. The majority of the denied missions had the objective of retrieving humanitarian cargo left in warehouses in Rafah and at Kerem Shalom crossing, repairing roads to improve accessibility to Kerem Shalom crossing, or retrieving commodities that are stored in areas in Rafah that are either in the Israeli-militarized zone or under displacement orders. Since 2 March, only seven requests to retrieve fuel from Rafah and Gaza city were facilitated while 35 were denied, two were withdrawn and one faced impediments. In Rafah, not a single attempt to retrieve fuel has been facilitated since 18 April.
• Over the past 10 days, between 27 April and 6 May, one in every three community kitchens had to close, leading to a 25-per-cent reduction in daily meal production; the number of meals prepared each day has dropped from 1.08 million, produced through 180 kitchens, to 823,000 meals, prepared and delivered through about 117 kitchens supported by the UN and its partners. Since late April, 100 kitchens have been forced to shut down due to the lack of supplies, and this number is rising by the day. It is expected that the number of meals will further drop to around 440,000 meals on 8 May. This reduction has a critical impact on food security, as the hot meals provided by these kitchens constitute one of the last remaining lifelines. According to the Food Security Sector (FSS), growing overcrowding is being observed across all remaining operational kitchens, leading to increased safety concerns and social tensions. The FSS warns that markets are also running out of commodities, with the very few shops still functioning charging very high prices that fluctuate constantly. For example, during the first week of May, one 25-kilogram bag of wheat flour was sold at upwards of 1,500 ILS (US$415) in Gaza city, representing a 30-fold increase compared with the end of February. Most families no longer have access to affordable bread following the closure of all 25 subsidized bakeries, while the skyrocketing price of flour, when available, and lack of cooking energy, prevent many families from baking.
• Since the collapse of the ceasefire on 18 March, the Education Cluster recorded at least 14 attacks on education infrastructure, causing additional damage, instilling widespread fear and causing delays to the reopening of temporary learning spaces (TLS). Currently, there are 200 TLS functioning across Gaza, benefiting about 117,000 students, with most concentrated in Deir al Balah and western Khan Younis. This includes 40 newly reopened TLS in Khan Younis and 20 in Deir al Balah, which had been paused due to insecurity, in addition to three new TLS in North Gaza and 16 in Gaza city. However, the further expansion of TLS in Gaza city, including nine additional spaces planned by UNRWA, remains hindered by the shortage of educational supplies, posing a serious barrier to the resumption of learning to serve thousands of children.

In Focus: Access to Health Services

• Ambulance services across the Gaza Strip are shrinking due to damage and lack of access to fuel. Prior to the collapse of the ceasefire on 18 March, 149 ambulances were operational, of which only 48 are now functional, severely limiting emergency medical transport and outreach capacity. Humanitarian partners report that many injured civilians now rely on makeshift means of transportation, with donkey carts being the most commonly used mode. This situation is especially dire for vulnerable groups, including the elderly, persons with disabilities and pregnant women, who increasingly depend on fractured social networks for access to health services. Additionally, six hospitals and two field hospitals are in areas that were placed under displacement orders by Israeli authorities, further hampering the access of new patients to life-saving care. This critically increases the risk of mortality and long-term complications, particularly for trauma patients who require urgent care. Across Gaza, about 350,000 people are suffering from chronic diseases, including 71,000 patients living with diabetes of whom over about 1,000 patients have Type 1 Diabetes and require insulin therapy and regular medical attention. 
• Capacity at health facilities is shrinking. When patients manage to reach medical facilities, the services available are minimal and insufficient to meet the vast scale of needs. Since 18 March, the number of public trauma hospitals has decreased from seven to five. In parallel, the access of international medical staff to support emergency medical teams (EMT) has been more restricted, resulting in a 45-per-cent reduction in the number of international EMT staff, from 97 to 53. Meanwhile, the proportion of trauma and emergency care missions denied by Israeli authorities has increased from 25 to 40 per cent between 18 March and 5 May, according to the Health Cluster.
• The Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) and the Disability Working Group have raised urgent concerns regarding the heightened vulnerability of older persons, many of whom are living with disabilities. There are about 321,000 elderly people (aged 60 and above) in Palestine, with about five per cent of Gaza’s population falling into this age group, according to PCBS. Older persons face multiple challenges, including physical impairments, chronic illnesses, and limited mobility, which require sustained access to medical care, psychosocial support, and basic hygiene items. According to 2024 data from PCBS, about 78 per cent of the elderly population suffer from chronic illnesses. Their situation has been further exacerbated by the depletion of essential supplies in local markets, most notably adult diapers that are critical to maintaining the health, hygiene, and dignity of those relying on them. The extensive destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, including health facilities, roads and shelters, has severely restricted access to essential services and lifesaving support for this population group.
• In new guidelines on the minimum rehabilitation service package for Gaza, WHO, MoH, and the Health Cluster in the OPT stressed that rehabilitation is an essential health service in emergencies and conflict settings, such as Gaza, as they are vital for addressing a surge in impairment and disability due to injuries, as well as restoring functionality, enhancing the quality of life, and promoting psychosocial well-being. A new assessment report by WHO, MoH and the OPT Health Cluster on Level 4 specialized rehabilitation services at Hamad, Al-Wafaa, and Al-Amal hospitals finds that Gaza’s rehabilitation system is unable to address the current scale of needs. This is due to a surge in traumatic injuries by ongoing hostilities, destruction of health infrastructure, limited bed capacity at health facilities that continue to provide rehabilitation services, mass displacement and the lack of appropriate home environments, and shortages in specialized health personnel, as summarized below: 
  • As of April 2025, the MoH and the Health Cluster estimated that at least a quarter of people injured in Gaza require sustained rehabilitation support, while only a fraction of services remain operational. More than 2,000 people are currently living with spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries, conditions that require long-term, specialized rehabilitation services, while there are an estimated 15,000 cases of extremity injuries, the dominant form of injury, according to the abovementioned assessment report, which could drive up the number of persons with disabilities in the Gaza Strip to over 80,000. More than 4,000 of these people have undergone amputations since 7 October 2023, including over 920 children.
  • One in every three rehabilitation beds in Gaza is now occupied by patients with pressure sores, also known as bedsores, as hospitals are often forced to retain patients beyond optimal rehabilitation timelines due to the lack of viable community-based care options. Many patients are at risk of experiencing rapid deterioration in their health when they are discharged into tents or damaged buildings with generally poor shelter and sanitation conditions. This has reduced the capacity of hospitals to serve others and resulted in an increased de-prioritization of non-traumatic rehabilitation cases, such as stroke or cerebrovascular accident survivors, children with cerebral palsy, and unaccompanied minors who need urgent mental health care, widening gaps in equity and access to care.
  • Outreach services have been recurrently disrupted due to security concerns and the lack of fuel to carry out outpatient wound-care services. As of March 2025, according to the Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS), 61 per cent of home visit services, a vital lifeline for persons with disabilities and the elderly, were unavailable – a figure that has likely increased due to ongoing hostilities, according to the Health Cluster.
  • Rehabilitation equipment is scarce or damaged and stocks of assistive products and prosthetic materials are quickly running low, including pediatric wheelchairs, hearing and mobility aids, and raw materials for limb prosthetics. Based on data provided by MoH, the Health Cluster reported that while over 3,330 wheelchairs are waiting at the border, about 4,250 patients are currently on waiting lists for wheelchairs. In addition, about 1,900 people are on waiting lists for walkers and 7,400 people are awaiting crutches. 
  • An additional challenge is the lack of specialist capacity; according to Health Cluster partners, there are now only nine prosthetics and orthodontics care technicians across Gaza whereas 6,000 prosthetics are needed to address the scale of needs, especially among children who need continuous care. As children grow, they need new and updated components every six months, according to UNICEF, who is currently co-launching a ground-breaking project to 3D-print prosthetic limbs for war-injured children in Gaza.

1329.

7 mei 2025

Romania has referred the Hind Rajab Foundation’s war crimes complaint against Israeli soldier Orel Benyaish to its military prosecutor. The HRF welcomes this development as a serious step toward accountability and urges swift investigation and precautionary measures.

Read the full press release below.

Bucharest | 7 May 2025

​

The Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice in Romania has formally acknowledged the war crimes complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation against Israeli soldier Orel Benyaish, a member of the 432nd Battalion of the Givati Brigade. The complaint, submitted on behalf of the Foundation by attorney Elena Lazăr, has been referred to the Military Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Bucharest Military Court of Appeal for further examination.​

The legal action concerns Benyaish’s alleged involvement in the intentional destruction of civilian property during Israel’s military operations in Gaza, including the demolition of the homes in the Nuseirat camp on 12 November 2024. The complaint is based on documented open-source material, including videos and photographs posted by the accused on social media, which appear to show direct participation in and endorsement of the destruction of civilian infrastructure.

The submission is grounded in both Romanian domestic law—specifically Articles 438 and 441 of the Romanian Penal Code, which criminalize genocide and war crimes against property—and relevant international legal instruments, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Geneva Conventions, to which Romania is a party.

In a written communication, Romanian authorities confirmed that the materials submitted by the Hind Rajab Foundation were officially registered and forwarded to the competent military prosecution authority for further processing.

Legal Context and Next Steps

The complaint also includes references to broader patterns of destruction in Gaza, particularly the use of the Netzarim Corridor as part of a strategy that has resulted in widespread displacement and destruction of civilian areas. Reports by Forensic Architecture and various international observers are cited in support of these claims.

In light of the open-source evidence and Romania’s international obligations, the Foundation has called on Romanian authorities to consider preventive measures, including placing the suspect on a travel watchlist, initiating the confiscation of digital evidence, and opening a formal investigation.

The Hind Rajab Foundation welcomes the decision by Romanian authorities to treat this matter with the seriousness it warrants and to act in accordance with international legal standards.

“The referral to military prosecution is a serious development,” said HRF's Chairman Dyab Abou Jahjah. “It shows that Romania is taking its international legal obligations seriously and is willing to consider accountability for war crimes, even when committed outside its borders.”

1329A.

7 mei 2025

Right now, as Israel's military continues devastating Palestinian communities, Chevron's gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea play a key role in powering this destruction.¹ Chevron's complicity in supplying energy to Israel helps make genocidal violence against Palestinians possible.

On Wednesday, May 21, people all across the world will mobilize for Anti-Chevron Day—a powerful moment to disrupt business as usual and demand Chevron stop fueling genocide. This global day of action builds on Amazon Watch's decade-long tradition of protesting Chevron's environmental destruction, which Amazon Watch expanded last year to include its complicity in Israel's violence against Palestinians.

The timing is critical: Anti-Chevron Day falls just one week before Chevron's annual shareholder meeting, where investors will vote on a proposal requiring the company to audit its human rights abuses worldwide. Chevron only entered the Israeli market in 2020, and with enough pressure, they can exit just as easily.

Transform your outrage into action. Here are some ways you can mobilize on May 21:

1. BOYCOTT & PICKET: Organize a gas station boycott picket.
2. DIVEST: Start a campaign calling on your city council, university, union, or other institution to divest from Chevron and/or exclude it from contracts.
3. MOBILIZE: Do a banner drop or protest at a Chevron location.  

TAKE ACTION: JOIN ANTI-CHEVRON DAY

1328.

As we approach the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, the planned ethnic cleansing and expulsion of most of the Indigenous people of Palestine, your meaningful solidarity action is needed now more than ever. 

Israel just announced its livestreamed genocide against Palestinians is about to get even deadlier, as it prepares for mass ethnic cleansing and total destruction of Gaza.

“In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians,” is a popular slogan of solidarity around the world. Given the ferocity of Israel’s daily massacres and its criminal impunity, the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the largest Palestinian coalition leading the global BDS movement, calls for escalating peaceful pressure like never before.
 

Rise up and escalate BDS now!
 

The BDS movement calls for mass global mobilizations and civil disobedience on 15 May.

­

Share our call for a Global Day of Action on social media now!

Israel is only able to continue its genocide, including daily massacres, burning our children, men and women alive, or starving and thirsting them to death, due to the ongoing international complicity.
 

Let’s show complicit governments, institutions and corporations what real people power can do!
 

TAKE ACTION:
 

1: Mobilize: Take to the streets, peacefully disrupt the status quo, occupy the offices of complicit governments, institutions and corporations (especially military, tech, finance and media).

2: Walkout: If you can, tell your employer, university, school, etc. why and stage mass walkouts at a specified time. If you cannot, then “call in sick” (sick of the horrible complicity that enables the genocide!) or leave early to join mobilizations.
 

3: Pressure: Organize collectively to boycott BDS priority targets, organize popular pressure on: (a) elected officials to demand targeted sanctions on Israel, and (b) complicit institutions to pressure them to end their involvement in Israel's crimes.

1327.

7 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Israel is creating a power vacuum in Gaza by backing armed looters — and killing anyone who tries to stop them

Growing reports show that Israel has been fomenting armed gangs to loot food supplies in Gaza and sow chaos — and it's killing those who attempt to stop it. But this strategy isn't new: Israel has waged a war on Gaza's civil government from the start.

I was in the BBC documentary ‘The Settlers.’ This is the part of my story they didn’t tell.

Mohammad Hureini

I met Louis Theroux to share my story as a Palestinian under the constant threat of displacement. While the film is an important look into the Israeli settlers trying to erase us, there is one crucial part of our story that was left out.

1326.

7 mei 2025

Readers’ Recommendations

= Gaza will be entirely destroyed, Israeli minister says (The Guardian)

= Israel attacks main airport in Yemen's capital Sanaa (BBC) 

1325.

6 mei 2025

A Landmark Victory for Free Speech and our work to Free Palestine

In a decisive victory for civil rights and constitutional freedoms, a federal judge in Nevada has dismissed all claims in a lawsuit filed against American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). The court found the case to be without merit, reaffirming that AMP’s advocacy is fully protected under the First Amendment.

This landmark ruling sends a strong message: attempts to silence lawful political expression and intimidate grassroots organizations through the courts will not succeed.

The lawsuit, driven by recycled and baseless allegations, is part of a broader strategy to suppress voices that challenge Israel’s human rights abuses. The court’s decision reinforces that advocacy for Palestinian rights is not only moral, it is legal and constitutionally protected.

“American Muslims for Palestine welcomes the ruling and expresses its deepest gratitude and appreciation to the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) and its lawyers for standing by us in the vexatious lawsuits filed against us in a clear violation of our constitutional rights, especially our right to freedom of expression,” said Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid, AMP’s Executive Director. “This ruling confirms that the series of vexatious lawsuits against us have no legal basis and that their primary goal is to deter and silence anyone who dares to take a moral stand against Israel's genocide in the Gaza Strip.”

AMP remains steadfast in its mission to educate, advocate, and organize for Palestinian rights. Today’s ruling is not just a legal win, it is a clear affirmation of the right of all people in the U.S. to speak truth to power.

“Supporters of Israel's genocide know that they cannot win the battle of facts and ideas, a fact confirmed by opinion polls. Therefore, they attempt to discredit the voices that expose their crimes and weaponize courts against them to violate their constitutional rights,” said Abu Irshaid.

The Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), a national nonprofit legal organization dedicated to defending the civil rights of Muslims in the United States, played a pivotal role in securing this legal victory. MLFA provided legal representation through its Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America (CLCMA), assembling a skilled team of attorneys who successfully argued for the dismissal of the baseless lawsuit. Their unwavering support, legal expertise, and commitment to upholding First Amendment protections were instrumental in defending AMP’s right to advocate for Palestinian human rights without fear of legal intimidation or censorship.

“AMP has every right to lawful advocacy protected by the First Amendment,” said Christina Jump, MLFA’s Civil Litigation Department Head. “As the Court recognized, the plaintiff may not like what AMP has to say, but that doesn’t violate any laws. Today is a win for free speech and a huge win for our clients, and we congratulate them on seeing this through.”

AMP reaffirms its commitment to continue to defend the rights of the Palestinian people, confront Israel's crimes, and expose American complicity in them. We also affirm that we will not surrender to any attempts at intimidation and distortion against us. Nothing will deter us from pursuing our mission or abandoning our moral duty, constitutional rights, and civil liberties.
 

In solidarity,
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)

1324.

KIM VAN DE GOEDE ZAAK

6 mei 2025

Voor ons persoonlijk waren de twee minuten stilte in de vele dodenherdenkingen in dit jaar zonder de huidige genocide te noemen vele malen ongemakkelijker dan de voorafgaande jaren. Voor wie de beelden heeft gezien wordt het steeds moeilijker vol te houden dat er niets aan de hand is in onze maatschappij. De onderdrukking en repressie zagen we afgelopen weekend weer. Mensen werden gewelddadig opgepakt, sommige met een hand over hun mond. In Leeuwarden werd een gebiedsverbod opgelegd voor het uitdelen van flyers met informatie over Hind Rajab. Undercover Agenten arresteerden activisten. Beveiliging probeerde mensen met Palestijnse vlaggen weg te sturen bij bevrijdingsfestivals.

Toch was er ook hoop. In Arnhem zorgde burgemeester Marcouch voor een inclusieve herdenking door de slachtoffers in Gaza wel te noemen in zijn toespraak. [4] Zangeres Sophie Straat stopte haar optreden in Zwolle totdat mensen met Palestijnse vlaggen met rust werden gelaten. In Amsterdam keerden burgers hun rug naar de premier en Kamervoorzitter Bosma. Van Leeuwarden tot Wageningen lieten mensen weten dat ‘nooit meer’ voor iedereen is – overal kwamen mensen in verzet tegen dit kabinet, overal hielden mensen vol, ondanks de tegenwerking.

Dit is het moment om deze hoopvolle burgerlijke actie en verzet kracht bij te zetten. Op 24 mei komen we daarom massaal samen met de hele Nederlandse progressieve beweging in verzet. [5] We gaan de straat op om te laten zien dat we ons niet laten intimideren in onze strijd voor een Nederland voor iedereen. We demonstreren voor ons fundamentele recht om te kunnen demonstreren én tegen de hele extreemrechtse agenda die onze burgerrechten bedreigt. Samen zorgen wij ervoor dat de roep om rechtvaardigheid niet gesmoord kan worden!

Ik ga 24 mei de straat op!

Met strijdbare groet,

Kim van DeGoedeZaak

1323.

6 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Israel plans to reoccupy Gaza indefinitely. Here’s what that actually means.

Qassam Muaddi

The Israeli war cabinet unanimously approved on Sunday the expansion of Israel’s war on Gaza, which reportedly include plans to reoccupy the strip indefinitely.

Meet the fired Microsoft employees challenging the company’s complicity in the Gaza genocide

Mondoweiss talks to former Microsoft employees who were fired for protesting the company’s role in the Gaza genocide.

1322.

5 mei 2025

Deliberate starvation is a genocidal tactic, and that’s exactly what the apartheid state is doing

Since March 2nd, after entirely violating the ceasefire, the apartheid state of Israel has imposed a total blockade on the already besieged Gaza Strip, completely sealing it off from the outside world. No food. No fuel. No medical aid. No water. The flow of humanitarian assistance has been entirely strangled. This is not a military tactic; it’s the use of starvation as a weapon. It is a deliberate, calculated act of collective punishment and genocide – something universally recognized as a human rights violation.

TAKE ACTION: Urge Trump and Congress to immediately intervene and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza

More than 2.2 million Palestinians (half of them children) are being held hostage under this siege. Since early March, not a single aid truck has been allowed to enter through the southern crossings at Rafah or Kerem Shalom. This total blockade has pushed Gaza to the brink of famine.

The consequences are already catastrophic:

• More than 9,000 children have been admitted for acute malnutrition since the beginning of 2025, with countless more unable to access care due to the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system.
• Starving Palestinians are forced to eat grass and animal feed to survive while hundreds of aid trucks sit waiting at shuttered border crossings.
• Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue to bomb aid convoys, attack aid workers, and restrict access even where humanitarian corridors are promised.

This is not simply a humanitarian crisis. Calling it that implies a natural disaster or unintended tragedy. It’s neither. It is a man-made catastrophe–a deliberate, state-engineered campaign to destroy an entire population. Israel’s systematic obstruction of food, water, and medical supplies, alongside its continued targeting of hospitals, bakeries, and aid infrastructure, is a war crime.

And the United States is not a bystander; it’s a co-conspirator. By continuing to ship weapons, provide military aid, and shield Israel diplomatically, the U.S. government is directly enabling Israel’s extermination campaign.

Neutrality is a privilege Gaza cannot afford. Our elected officials are directly responsible for enabling this ongoing genocide. We should be flooding their offices with calls, emails, and pressure until they can no longer look away. Take action now and urge everyone you know to do the same.

In solidarity,
Americans for Justice in Palestine Action

1321.

1321.

5 mei 2025

Readers’ Recommendations

• Israel must let international journalists into Gaza (Haaretz)

1320.

5 mei 2025

Today's headlines

New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney must chart a new course on Palestine

Canada's new prime minister, Mark Carney, has promised to forge a new foreign policy path forward. This must include stopping the atrocities Canada has abetted in Palestine.

Liberal win in Canada’s election upsets Israel supporters

The Canadian election results angered the right people. But for Palestine, Mark Carney's win represents harm reduction at best.

1319.

4 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Palestinians in Lebanon fear another ‘War on the Camps’ as Israeli airstrikes continue

Mayssoun Sukarieh

As Israeli airstrikes throughout Lebanon continue, the Lebanese state is threatening to disarm Palestinian factions in the refugee camps. Residents fear this is a prelude to an all-out assault on the camps — and the Palestinian cause.

1318.

4 mei 2025

On what would have been Hind Rajab’s 7th birthday, the Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court, naming Lt. Colonel Beni Aharon, the commander of the Israeli 401st Armored Brigade, responsible for her killing. After a year of investigation, the Foundation has also identified the battalion and officers involved in the deadly assault on Hind, her family, and the medics who tried to rescue her. While today’s filing names only the brigade commander, further cases will follow in front of the ICC and national courts.

Read the full press release below.

Brussels, 3 May 2025 — Today, little Hind Rajab should have been blowing out candles on her 7th birthday. On this day of remembrance and heartbreak, the Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. After a year of tireless investigation, we have identified the military unit responsible, as well as the commander who led the operation that killed Hind, her family, and the two medics who tried to save her.

The Commander, the Brigade, the Battalion

We now publicly name the commander responsable for killing Hind:

Lieutenant Colonel Beni Aharon Commander of the 401st Armored Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at the time of the killing

It was under Lt. Col. Aharon’s command that an Israeli tank unit attacked the civilian vehicle of Hind's family, and later destroyed the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance dispatched to rescue her.

We also confirm that the battalion operating under his authority in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood on 29 January 2024 has been fully identified, along with its field commanders and operational officers. These men are no longer unknown. They are no longer protected by silence.

We Will Not Stop at Naming One Man

While we begin by calling on the ICC Office of the Prosecutor to issue an arrest warrant for Lt. Col. Beni Aharon, we are preparing additional legal complaints against the battalion’s officers. These will be filed in qualified national jurisdictions under universal jurisdiction principles.

We will go after every officer involved—those who gave the orders, those who fired, those who covered it up, and those who let it happen.

“Today, Hind should have been blowing out candles. Instead, we are naming her killer,” said Dyab Abou Jahjah. “This is only the beginning. We are coming for every name, every link in the chain, with the law and with truth.”

A Crime That the World Must Remember

On 29 January 2024, Hind Rajab’s car was hit by Israeli tank fire. Six members of her family died instantly. Hind, wounded and terrified, remained alive for hours, whispering into a phone with PRCS dispatchers: “I’m so scared… please come.”

The ambulance sent to save her never made it. It too was shelled and burned. The two medics inside were killed instantly. When rescue workers returned ten days later, they found Hind’s small body lying next to her cousin Layan. Their voices had gone quiet.

A Year of Research

This complaint is not an act of revenge—it is a solemn legal act rooted in evidence, law, and the humanity Hind was denied. We built it on a year of work by our team, who expanded on the groundbreaking investigations of Forensic Architecture, Sky News, and others. We have gathered what courts need to act, and now we ask them to do so—with urgency and courage.

Hind Rajab’s Voice Will Echo in Justice

This Foundation carries the name of Hind and will make sure that her martyrdom is not the end of the story. We are relentless in the pursuit of justice, and we are not alone. More organizations are starting to follow the path we have opened. More names will follow. More jurisdictions will open. The wall of impunity that shields war criminals is beginning to crack.

And it will crack because a six-year-old girl asked for help. Because she waited and we could not save her. Because we will not let her name be buried.

Justice for Hind. Justice for Palestine

​ 

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1317.

3 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Biden staffers admit what we all knew: White House lied about ceasefire efforts

Once and for all, we can lay to rest any notion that the Biden administration ever did anything to stop the Gaza genocide.

Who is Hussein al-Sheikh, and what does his appointment as the PLO’s new Vice President mean?

Qassam Muaddi

Prominent political figure Hussein al-Sheikh was recently tapped by President Mahmoud Abbas as vice president of the PLO, and by extension, Abbas' successor. The appointment tells us a lot about what the future of Palestinian politics may look like.

Organizers say Israel is behind drone attack on Gaza aid flotilla

A ship carrying aid to Gaza was hit by a drone in international waters off the coast of Malta. Many are accusing Israel of being behind the attack.

1316.

2 mei 2025

Ook binnen de traditionele pro-Israëlpartijen VVD, PVV en CDA staat slechts een (kleine) minderheid nog achter het regeringsbeleid, bleek uit de op 21 april gepresenteerde uitkomsten van een Ipsos-peiling.

Protest noodzaak
De uitkomsten van beide peilingen dwingen de regering tot een radicaal ander beleid. Maar het lijkt er niet op dat het kabinet-Schoof zich iets zal aantrekken van de publieke opinie. Om die reden blijven wij oproepen tot verzet tegen het regeringsbeleid.

Actie | Premier Schoof: als u geen rode lijn trekt, dan doen wij het

Op 18 mei komen we in Den Haag in actie en trekken we een rode lijn. We eisen een einde aan Nederlandse medeplichtigheid aan Israëls oorlogsmisdaden. Doe mee!

Ik doe mee!

Praktische informatie
 Wat: Gezamenlijk een menselijke ketting vormen in Den Haag
 Wanneer: Zondagmiddag 18 mei
 Waar: Den Haag, exacte locatie volgt
 Kleding: Trek rode kleding aan om de rode lijn zichtbaar en krachtig te maken

Gaza gaat verhongeren en Nederland staat het toe!

Na acht weken Israëlische blokkade is de voedselhulp voor de Palestijnen in Gaza uitgeput, waarschuwt de VN. We moeten toezien hoe de bevolking door onze Israëlische bondgenoot wordt doodgehongerd.

Zo voltrekt zich een vermijdbare ramp van ongekende wreedheid. Vermijdbaar omdat Israëls bondgenoten – vooral de VS en EU, waaronder Nederland – het land kunnen dwingen om de klaarstaande hulp direct en onbelemmerd toe te laten, maar dat weigeren.

Wij strijden tegen annexatie, onderdrukking en bezetting. Help mee!

Nee, ik steun The Rights Forum niet. Want TRF  blijft weigeren om sancties tegen Israel te eisen!

Volg herdenking ‘4 mei inclusief’ via livestream

Hoorzittingen Internationaal Gerechtshof over Israëls humanitaire verplichtingen

Deze week vonden er hoorzittingen plaats bij het Internationaal Gerechtshof (ICJ) in Den Haag over de vraag wat de verantwoordelijkheden zijn van Israël tegenover hulporganisaties en de Palestijnse bevolking in de bezette gebieden.

Algemene Vergadering
De hoorzittingen volgen op een resolutie van de Algemene Vergadering van de Verenigde Naties van 29 december 2024. Die resolutie vroeg het Hof om een advies te geven over de juridische verplichtingen van Israël als bezettende macht. Concreet gaat het om de vraag in hoeverre Israël verplicht is om de aanwezigheid en het werk van de VN en andere hulporganisaties in de Palestijnse gebieden mogelijk te maken — met name het leveren van voedsel, water, medische zorg en andere basisdiensten aan de burgerbevolking. Maar Israël is daarvoor voor de volle 100% verplicht naar internationaal recht!

UNRWA
Een belangrijk onderdeel van deze zaak is de situatie van UNRWA, de VN-organisatie die hulp biedt aan Palestijnse vluchtelingen. Israël nam vorig jaar een wet aan die het voor UNRWA illegaal maakt om in het land te werken. Sinds het uitbreken van de oorlog in Gaza zijn talloze medewerkers van hulporganisaties, waaronder UNRWA, omgekomen bij Israëlische aanvallen.

Adviesopinie
Het Hof bekijkt nu hoe internationaal recht zich verhoudt tot deze situatie. Het gaat daarbij niet om een strafzaak of directe veroordeling van Israël, maar om een gezaghebbend juridisch advies over de plichten die een land heeft in bezette gebieden – vooral als het gaat om bescherming van burgers, humanitaire toegang en het recht op zelfbeschikking van een volk.

Middle East Eye heeft de hoorzittingen nauwlettend gevolgd. Op de website van het nieuwsmedium zijn uitgebreide verslagen te vinden.

Hind Rajab geldt als symbool van de Israëlische genocide in Gaza.

Zij is één van de 16 duizend Palestijnse kinderen die de afgelopen 19 maanden door Israël in de Gazastrook zijn vermoord. Onder de doden zijn bijna 900 baby’s.

Op haar geboortedag gedenken we haar en spreken we de Nederlandse regering aan op zijn medeplichtigheid aan de Israëlische genocide.

Uit onze agenda
zaterdag 3 mei t/m zaterdag 10 mei

Demonstraties en wakes
• Stille tocht voor de vermoorde kinderen in Gaza op zaterdag 3 mei in Nijmegen, Grote Markt (15.00 uur)
• Wake op zaterdag 3 mei in Maastricht, Markt, achter het stadhuis (16.00 uur)
• Herdenken zonder grenzen op zondag 4 mei in Rotterdam, Stichting Formaat, Westzeedijk 513 (19.00 uur)
• Wake op zondag 4 mei in Haarlem, Grote Markt (14.00 uur)
• Demonstratie Bevrijdingsdag? Palestina is niet vrij! op maandag 5 mei in Arnhem, Markt (15.00 uur)
• Maandelijkse herdenking van zorgmedewerkers op woensdag 6 mei in Amsterdam en Nijmegen
• Wekelijks protest tegen de genocide op de Palestijnen op donderdag 8 mei in Zaandam, bij de ingang van het station (17.30 uur)
• Sit-in rijksambtenaren op donderdag 8 mei in Den Haag, Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, Rijnstraat 8 (12.00 uur)
• Zorgmanifestatie voor Gaza op zaterdag 10 mei in Rotterdam, Schouwburgplein (14.00 uur)

1315.

2 mei 2025

Your Activist Scoop

TAKE ACTION NOW! 

1314.

2 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Israel is on a home demolition rampage in the West Bank. Its aim is to force Palestinians to leave.

Qassam Muaddi

Israel’s escalating campaign of demolishing Palestinian homes in the West Bank is the other side of the coin of seizing Palestinian land for settlement expansion. The objective is to force Palestinians to silently leave.

‘The Encampments’ Documentary’

'The Encampments' is a powerful and intimate look inside the student-led divestment movement that brought some of the nation's most powerful institutions to their knees. And inspired thousands across the country to demand an end to the Gaza genocide!

1313.

1 mei 2025

In today's Daily Brief:

1312.

1 mei 2025

This May Day, we remember what the billionaire class wants us to forget: that labor is not neutral. It is either in service of oppression or of liberation.

From the ports of Morocco to the campuses of Columbia, workers are refusing to be complicit. Just this week, Moroccan dock workers, backed by thousands in the streets, refused to load Maersk ships carrying parts for F-35 fighter jets destined for Israel’s air force, weapons used in the genocide of Gaza.

It was more than a refusal. It was a global act of working-class solidarity.

Here in the U.S., autoworkers, educators, legal aid workers, and researchers are also organizing for Palestine. The United Auto Workers (UAW) was among the first major unions to demand a ceasefire in November 2023. Since then, UAW has joined the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Education Association (NEA), and other prominent unions to demand an arms embargo on Israel, challenging the bipartisan war machine that prioritizes weapons over workers.

Why are workers and labor unions taking a firm, public stance against the genocide?

We recently interviewed Brandon Mancilla, UAW Region 9A Director, to get the answer directly from him. As Brandon puts simply, “Most working-class people do not want their money going to foreign wars.”
This May Day, Palestinian trade and professional unions have made their own call:

“Israel is only able to continue its livestreamed genocide against Palestinians...due to the ongoing complicity of states, companies, and institutions around the world. On this May Day, a historic day for the international labor movement that commemorates the struggles of workers for dignity and justice, as Palestinian trade and professional unions, we urgently renew our call to unions around the world to escalate all effort to end this shameful complicity in Israel’s illegal occupation, colonial apartheid and genocide.”

For those fighting for Palestinian freedom, this is our moment to meet the labor movement in stride. Because the same corporations profiting off the bombs dropping on Gaza are gutting our schools, militarizing our neighborhoods, and exploiting our labor and resources. This isn’t just about Palestine – it’s also about the war on our communities and our right to protest, to bargain, and to live with dignity. It’s about building a labor movement that sees attacks on Palestinian lives, student speech, and unions as one and the same.

In the spirit of resistance,

Adalah Justice Project

1311.

1 mei 2025

Humanitarian Situation Update #285
West Bank

A resident of the Palestinian village of Bardala points to his home, which was torched by Israeli settlers. The arson destroyed houses and animal shelters, displacing two families and undermining livelihoods. Photo by OCHA

Key Highlights

• Almost 100 days into the Israeli operation in the northern West Bank, about 40,000 Palestinians remain displaced. As this situation risks becoming permanent, the UN Human Rights Office warns it may amount to forcible transfer.
• With two more child fatalities last week, the total number of children killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since the beginning of 2025 has risen to 23.
• A Palestinian fell to his death as Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at people trying to cross the West Bank Barrier in search of work. Since 7 October 2023, 10 Palestinians have been killed and over 100 injured in similar circumstances.
• Israeli settler attacks over the past week resulted in the injury of over 30 Palestinians, the displacement of two families, and widespread damage to homes, a school, and vital livelihood infrastructure.

Humanitarian Developments

• Between 22 and 28 April, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians – both children – and injured at least 49 others, including 10 children, across the West Bank. One other Palestinian succumbed to wounds sustained when he was shot by Israeli forces on 1 February 2025. In addition, six Palestinians were injured by Israeli settlers (see below) and six were injured by live ammunition where it remains unknown if they were shot by Israeli forces or settlers.
  • On 23 April, Israeli forces shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy during a raid in the town of Al Yamun, in Jenin governorate. According to the Mayor, Israeli forces raided the town in jeeps and fired live ammunition at Palestinians who threw stones at them.
  • On 25 April, Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian boy in the village of Salim, in Nablus governorate. According to the Village Council, Israeli forces raided the village and reportedly shot the boy as he was closing and leaving his father’s shop.
  • On 26 April, a Palestinian man succumbed to injuries sustained by Israeli forces’ live ammunition in Beit Furik, in Nablus governorate, on 1 February 2025. Eyewitnesses and video footage showed the man was shot, physically assaulted, handcuffed and left on the ground by Israeli forces in the village.
• On 27 April, a 50-year-old Palestinian man from Iraq Burin village, in Nablus governorate, fell to his death, reportedly while trying to jump over the West Bank Barrier near Ar Ram town, in Jerusalem governorate, with other Palestinians in search for work. During the incident, Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets toward the group.
• To access occupied East Jerusalem, nearly three million Palestinians with West Bank ID cards are required by the Israeli authorities to have individual, Israeli-issued permits, which are difficult to obtain. Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have revoked or suspended most of the permits, including those issued for workers, and attempts to bypass checkpoints have frequently been met with lethal force. Since then, in addition to the man who died in Ar Ram (see above), OCHA has documented the killing of 10 Palestinians by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces at them while they were trying to cross through informal openings of the Barrier, primarily in Tulkarm and Qalqilya governorates, amid rising unemployment in the West Bank. An additional 113 Palestinians have been injured within the same context. In comparison, 15 Palestinians were injured within this context during the first nine months of 2023 and there were no fatalities. According to the Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA) issued by the World Bank, European Union, and UN on 18 February 2025, the unemployment rate averaged 35 per cent across the West Bank between October 2023 and September 2024 “due to the abrupt loss of jobs in Israel and the settlements, as well as job losses in the local economy. Out of the estimated 195,000 workers employed in the commerce, services, industry, and hospitality and tourism establishments in the West Bank, an estimated 40,000 people have lost their jobs due to heightened restrictions and the ensuing reduction in the labour force. The total losses in the commerce and industry sector in the West Bank are estimated at US$1.3 billion, mainly because of trade restrictions and reduced markets.” In its 2004 Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) established that the sections of the Barrier which run inside the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, together with the associated permit and gate regime, violate Israel’s obligations under international law.
• On 29 April, the UN Secretary-General warned that in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, “Israeli military operations and the use of heavy weaponry in residential areas, forcible displacement, demolitions, movement restrictions, and settlement expansion are dramatically altering demographic and geographic realities.” He emphasized that Palestinians are being “contained and coerced” –contained in areas facing intensified military activity and mounting pressure on the Palestinian Authority; and coerced out of areas witnessing settlement expansion. The Secretary-General noted that “settler violence continues at alarmingly high levels in a climate of impunity,” with some attacks “abetted by Israeli soldiers.” He further noted that Palestinian attacks against Israelis in both Israel and the West Bank also continue.
• Between 22 and 28 April, OCHA documented the demolition by Israeli authorities of 27 structures for lacking Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain. All but two of the structures were in Area C and two residences were in East Jerusalem. This led to the displacement of 29 Palestinians, including 16 children, and affected the livelihoods of over 60 people. Two families comprising 13 people, including five children, were displaced on 22 April in Ar Rakeez community of Masafer Yatta, in Hebron governorate, where Israeli authorities demolished two residential structures and a latrine previously provided as humanitarian assistance; an animal shelter; and two other structures. On the same day, a family of five lost its source of livelihood when Israeli forces demolished ten of their greenhouses in Area C near the Barrier in Al Jalama village, in Jenin governorate, damaging ten dunums of seasonal crops, and bulldozed three additional dunums planted with uncovered crops.
• On 22 April, two people were displaced when Israeli forces punitively demolished with explosives a house in Area B of Ar Ram town, in Jerusalem governorate, bringing the total number of houses demolished on punitive grounds since the beginning of 2025 to 13. The house, which was on the upper floor of a two-storey building, belonged to the family of a Palestinian man who was killed on 14 July 2024 after ramming and injuring four Israeli soldiers near Ramla city in Israel, one of whom died of wounds on 25 July 2024. During the demolition, Israeli forces, including snipers on the rooftops of surrounding buildings, imposed a curfew on the town for eight hours and evacuated residents of buildings living within a 200-metre radius of the to-be detonated house. At least five residential buildings and some vehicles nearby sustained damage.

• Between 22 and 28 April 2025, OCHA documented 14 settler-related incidents that resulted in the injury of 36 Palestinians, displacement of two families comprising eight people and damage to seven residential structures, four vehicles, five livelihood-related assets, one water network, as well as a school and a youth community centre. Six Palestinians were injured by settlers in three separate incidents involving physical assault or stone throwing: on 22 April, settlers assaulted a 50-year-old Palestinian herder in Barriyet Za’atra, in Bethlehem governorate, causing him to lose consciousness, and stole 15 sheep; on 26 April, settlers from a newly established outpost near Kobar village, in Ramallah governorate, assaulted and detained two Palestinian men, fired live ammunition, and verbally threatened Palestinian Bedouin families to leave their community; and on the same day, settlers from Asfar settlement injured three Palestinian farmers in Wadi Sa’ir, in Hebron governorate, using stones and sticks, and damaged their vehicle. Another six Palestinians were injured by live ammunition and shrapnel, reportedly fired by either armed settlers or Israeli forces, during a settler attack on Bardala village, in Tubas governorate in the northern Jordan Valley, on 24 April; during the incident, settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces, also set ablaze two houses and two animal shelters, displacing two families comprising eight people, including three children. An additional 24 Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces in two separate incidents in Sinjil town, in Ramallah governorate, on 23 and 25 April, when Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and Israeli forces intervened, critically injuring one Palestinian with live ammunition and 15 others who inhaled tear gas.
• Of the 14 documented settler-related incidents, at least eight involved damage to Palestinian-owned property. On 25 April, settlers from Revava settlement assaulted a Palestinian farmer in Haris village, in Salfit governorate, and confiscated his mobile phone and agricultural tools. On 27 April, settlers from a newly established outpost near Beit ‘Anan village, in Jerusalem governorate, raided a solid waste landfill serving 16 villages, handcuffed two guards, stole their phones, and seized a landfill truck and a motorcycle. On 28 April, settlers raided the Khalet al Aiedeh area of Hebron city, throwing stones at homes and causing damage to two houses; similar attacks in this area reportedly occurred over six consecutive nights during the same week. Other incidents included damage to a youth centre in Kafr Ni’ma village, in Ramallah governorate, theft of livestock in Wadi Raya near An Nabi Salih village, also in Ramallah, and vandalism of vehicles and homes during settler raids on Kifl Haris, in Salfit governorate, on 24 and 25 April.

• One of the eight documented incidents involving damage to Palestinian-owned property occurred on 26 April in Khirbet Zanuta in southern Hebron, where Israeli settlers from a newly established outpost raided the community during night hours and broke into the village’s school, which had recently been rehabilitated by residents through a donor-funded project. Settlers vandalized and destroyed newly renovated classrooms, causing significant damage to the school’s infrastructure. This incident is the latest in a series of settler-related attacks targeting Khirbet Zanuta, a herding community of 24 households comprising about 140 people, about half of whom are children, who were all forcibly displaced in October-November 2023 following repeated settler threats and violence. At the time, settlers reportedly warned families they would be killed if they did not evacuate, forcing them to dismantle about 50 residential and animal structures and to leave their community along with their 5,000 livestock. Some families began returning after a May 2024 Israeli Supreme Court ruling, which ordered Israeli authorities to facilitate their safe return; however, settler harassment and violence have persisted, hindering the ability of families to fully return. On 30 April, the Education Cluster issued a statement on the attack on Khirbet Zanuta school, noting that it is part of “an ongoing pattern of harassment and forced displacement in Zanuta, where Israeli forces and settlers have repeatedly attacked educational facilities and homes.” It highlighted that the same school had been burned and destroyed by settlers in November 2023, contributing to the initial displacement. The Cluster urged international actors to ensure accountability, uphold the Safe Schools Declaration, and protect Palestinian students and educational facilities in line with international law.
• On 23 April, the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster issued a brief that outlines the impact of the ongoing protection crisis on education in the West Bank and provides recommendations to support the continuity of learning, among others. According to the brief, recurrent attacks on education-related infrastructure, movement restrictions, and the growing exposure of children and teachers to violence have severely undermined access to safe and quality education in the West Bank. As a result, learners face significant disruptions, with many unable to reach schools regularly, while some schools have temporarily closed due to insecurity. Learning losses are particularly acute in areas affected by movement restrictions that hamper consistent access to learning and areas most affected by settler violence and operations by Israeli forces, where children face psychosocial distress and “threats that undermine their sense of safety, negatively impact their mental health and well-being, and inhibit their ability to learn.” The brief recommends expanding the reach of catch-up programs to bridge learning gaps, monitoring violations, arranging escorts, organizing a flexible and responsive transportation system, and providing mental health and psychosocial support, among other recommendations. These measures would help mitigate “the risks of reversing education gains, preventing permanent dropouts, and reducing vulnerabilities that can lead to long-term consequences such as poor employment prospects, income insecurity, and multidimensional poverty.”
• The abovementioned settler-related incidents in Bardala and Sinjil reflect recent trends entailing the increased frequency, scale and severity of settler violence following the establishment of new settlement outposts near Palestinian communities, including the growing involvement of large groups of settlers. Perpetrated attacks have frequently involved the targeting of homes, farmland and water infrastructure, with several carried out in the presence of Israeli forces. These developments contribute to a coercive environment, heightening the risk of displacement and deepening the reliance of affected communities on humanitarian assistance.
  • In Bardala, following the establishment of a new settlement outpost between September and December 2024 to the northwest of the village, settlers have erected residential structures, livestock pens, and fences on privately-owned Palestinian land. In subsequent months, settlers believed to be from this outpost carried out nine attacks that resulted in casualties, property damage or both, and were involved in nine other incidents that entailed trespass, harassment and access restrictions, compared with a total of three settler-related incidents documented between 2020 and 2024, prior to the establishment of the outpost. Incidents included the vandalism of 100 olive trees, destruction of irrigation systems, daily livestock grazing on lands cultivated by Palestinians, school intrusions, and physical assaults on farmers and herders, including one case resulting in a broken jaw. Settlers often operated in groups and were, in several cases, accompanied by Israeli forces, who intervened by firing tear gas cannisters and arresting Palestinians. In March, Israeli forces erected a road gate blocking access to farmland in Bardala, further restricting movement and negatively affecting people’s livelihoods.
  • In Sinjil, a similar surge in violence followed the establishment of a settlement outpost on 20 April 2025 on privately-owned Palestinian land in Area B, located on an archaeological site south of the town. Although the settler tent was reportedly dismantled by Israeli forces, settlers soon returned and carried out a series of violent raids, which included the burning of four homes, theft and killing of livestock, destruction of agricultural assets, and assaults on residents of Sinjil town. These incidents resulted in the death of a 48-year-old man on 21 April from a heart attack, reportedly triggered by tear gas inhalation, and injuries to at least 35 others, including four children, with Israeli forces present in multiple cases, firing live ammunition and tear gas cannisters and conducting arrests.

Developments in the northern West Bank

• Over 90 per cent of the 118 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces across the West Bank between 1 January and 30 April 2025 were in the six northern West Bank governorates of Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalqilya and Salfit. Seven Israelis, including five members of Israeli forces, were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank so far in 2025, all of them in the northern West Bank.
• Israeli forces continue to impose access restrictions and conduct raids in and around the northern West Bank cities as part of their ongoing operations. On 29 April, Jenin Municipality reported that Israeli forces raided the eastern neighbourhood of Jenin city, damaged an estimated 200 metres of roads, and detained five people, including one woman. According to the Tulkarm Municipality, for the second week in a row and despite initial approval by Israeli authorities, Israeli forces prevented the rehabilitation of the Nablus-Tulkarm Road, near Nur Shams refugee camp, and blocked the road using tires and earth mounds. These measures, combined with the ongoing military presence and reconfiguration of camps’ infrastructure, risk further preventing the return of displaced residents, with Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps currently remaining largely empty. In February, the Israeli Defence Minister instructed Israeli forces to remain in the refugee camps for an extended period, with military posts already being established within camps alongside major bulldozing of infrastructure.
• As tens of thousands of displaced people continue to be prevented from returning to their homes and communities in Tulkarm and Jenin, displacement by Israeli forces continues in the neighbourhoods surrounding the refugee camps in Tulkarm and Jenin. According to the Jenin Municipality, on 26 April, Israeli forces ordered more than 20 families to leave their homes in Az Zahra’ neighbourhood, on the northern side of Jenin refugee camp. The forces then reportedly searched houses and permitted residents to return after about three hours. On 30 April, Tulkarm Municipality reported that more than 10 families from the eastern neighbourhood near Tulkarm refugee camp were ordered to leave by Israeli forces, some of whom have begun returning as of the time of reporting.
• On 25 April, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), released a statement on the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, noting that settler violence and operations conducted by Israeli forces continue to kill or injure Palestinians and are resulting in the forced displacement of Palestinians in many areas. Regarding the ongoing operations in the northern West Bank, OHCHR stated that “Israeli security forces [continue] to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes in the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarm, while carrying out widespread destruction coupled with the creation of pathways and barriers inside the camps and conducting daily raids on Palestinian towns and villages.” Additionally, they warned of the prospect of permanent displacement: “With every day this operation continues, the prospect that Palestinians in affected camps will be able to return to their homes is diminishing, risking the permanent displacement of Palestinians from key West Bank population centres, amounting to forcible transfer.”
• The UN and its partners continue to respond to the deepening needs of displaced families in affected areas in the northern West Bank, including by providing food, water and sanitation assistance, health services, psycho-social support, and multi-purpose cash assistance. Since the beginning of the Israeli forces’ operation in the northern West Bank on 21 January, and as of 30 April, 6,853 households – including 3,498 in Jenin refugee camp, 2,271 in Tulkarm refugee camp, and 1,084 in Nur Shams refugee camp – have received their first multi-purpose cash assistance through Cash Working Group (CWG) partners.

Key figures for the first quarter of 2025

• Between 1 January and 31 March 2025, Israeli forces and settlers killed 102 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, compared with 109 fatalities in the last quarter of 2024. During the same period, Palestinians killed seven Israelis in the West Bank (including five members of Israeli forces and two settlers), compared with one Israeli killed in the previous quarter. In Israel, 14 Israelis were killed by Palestinians from the West Bank in attacks that also resulted in the killing of six Palestinians, compared with six Israelis killed in the previous quarter.
• Settler violence resulting in casualties and property damage remained high, with 356 incidents documented in the first quarter of 2025, compared with 439 incidents in the previous quarter. These attacks contributed to the displacement of 38 Palestinian households comprising 223 people, including 113 children, primarily from Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities, citing settler violence and access restrictions as key drivers.
• In parallel, 431 Palestinian structures were demolished, confiscated, or sealed by Israeli authorities during the first quarter of 2025, displacing 554 Palestinians, including 263 children, compared with 421 structures demolished and 813 people displaced in the last quarter of 2024. Of the total, 335 structures were demolished by Israeli authorities in Area C and 55 in East Jerusalem, for lacking Israeli-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain, displacing a total of 390 Palestinians, including 221 children.
• For additional breakdowns of casualties, displacement and settler violence between January 2005 and March 2025, please refer to the OCHA West Bank snapshot.

1310.

1 mei 2025

Muslim Advocates Clash with War Criminals on Capitol Hill

Delegates from 27 states met in Washington, DC, for the 10th Annual Muslim Advocacy Day, organized by the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), of which AMP is a founding member. Over a span of three days, more than 750 advocates held 210 meetings with congressional offices in the House and the Senate. The meetings addressed both domestic and foreign policy concerns, with a specific focus on Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip and the U.S. government’s complicity in it. Discussions related to Gaza centered on the following key demands:

Legislation to Support:

1. Sen. Peter Welch’s (VT) UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act (S.898): Supports humanitarian relief and emergency restoration efforts in Gaza.
2. Ongoing Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (House and Senate): Block the sale of billions of dollars in weapons to Israel due to violations of international humanitarian law.

On the domestic front, the Muslim advocates loudly supported freedom of speech by demanding the protection of students and the nonprofit sector.

While walking the halls of Congress, Muslim Advocates confronted Israeli Minister Ben Gvir. The viral videos show Ben Gvir viciously accosting Muslim Advocacy Day participants as they chanted “Free Palestine.” The Israeli minister, who had once been tried for terrorism in Israel, was on tour in the United States, which abruptly ended after the confrontation with the Muslim advocates

This is the largest number of participants to join a Muslim Day on the Hill event since its inception. This further reinforces the necessity of continuing vociferous political engagement despite the climate of fear and intimidation. The numbers also show incredible strength and act as an expression of defiance against the current administration's efforts to attack and dismantle our movement.
 

In solidarity,
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)

1309.

1 mei 2025

Today's headlines

Violent mobs from Brooklyn to the West Bank are united in the fascism of Zionism

Violent attacks by a mob of Itamar Ben-Gvir supporters in New York City cannot be separated from the violence that Palestinians have been facing for decades. They are all reflections of the same fascist violence of Zionism.

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Federal judge orders release of Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi from ICE detention

Michael Arria

A federal judge in Vermont ordered Mohsen Mahdawi be released from detention and compared the administration's crackdown on dissent to the Red Scare. Upon his release, Mahdawi declared, “To President Trump and his cabinet: I am not afraid of you.”

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In the West Bank, the media describes relative ‘calm’. Our reality couldn’t be more different.

Qassam Muaddi

What is regarded as "calm" in the West Bank is a daily reality of settler and army violence, home demolitions, and arrests. It is as if for Palestinians to exist in the media, they have to be killed.

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