We stand firmly against injustice in all its forms. Nothing can justify the current war crimes committed by Israel in occupied Palestine. Equally, nothing can excuse the continued support offered by other nations to this apartheid regime. If you believe in human rights, dignity, and justice, then we urge you to boycott this rogue state. Silence is complicity, do what’s right.
Background Journalism is in the process of being eradicated in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel’s refusal to heed calls to protect media personnel. The situation is dire for Palestinian journalists trapped in the enclave, where ten have been killed in the past three days, bringing the total media death toll in Gaza since the start of the war to 246.
Gaza's lament resounds, ink stifled in despair, 246 journalists fallen, a grievous share. In the grip of Israeli occupation's test, Pens laid to rest, truth suppressed.
Locked gates of Rafah, a plea to the world, Break the silence, let truth be unfurled. Occupation's weight on storytelling quills, A century's sorrow, the journalistic hills.
International eyes denied, entry's plea, Gaza's stories veiled, yearning to be free. No refuge, no escape, in this perilous dance, Reporters seeking safety, a fleeting chance.
A plea for protection in occupation's grasp, Journalism strives amidst a tumultuous rasp. Beneath the Palestinian sky, resilience thrives, Global voice, break the silence wide.
Handala: (still with his back turned, voice calm but piercing) You call yourself a chancellor of peace, Olaf, yet your hands are drenched in the blood of children. Gaza bleeds, and you supply the knives. How do you sleep? Or do you not see their eyes?
Olaf Scholz: Germany stands by its allies. Israel faces threats—
Handala: Threats? My children are unarmed. My homes are rubble. You call that a threat? You punish one nation for crossing borders, yet arm another that bulldozes them. You call it diplomacy, I call it murder in a suit.
Olaf Scholz: We must maintain balance. One cannot equate historical guilt with present policy…
Handala: Balance? You preach morality selectively. You remember Auschwitz but forget Gaza. You jailed your own citizens for protesting, accusing them of anti-Semitism, while turning a blind eye to the genocide you arm. You punish voices for truth, yet shield those who commit crimes against humanity. How deep is your hypocrisy? Deep enough to drown millions of innocent lives?
Olaf Scholz: The situations are different… Ukraine is one, Israel is another…
Handala: Ah, yes, selective outrage. Ukraine is sacred, Gaza is invisible. One deserves sanctions, the other deserves bombs. One deserves protest, the other deserves arrest. One deserves your voice, the other deserves silence. How comfortably dangerous hypocrisy tastes when served as policy!
Olaf Scholz: We are navigating complex international realities…
Handala: Complexity! The children do not negotiate reality. Your “complexities” are excuses. Weapons in their hands, starvation in their stomachs, death in their streets—your policies write the ledger. And you call it strategy. No. It is betrayal. The deeper your hypocrisy, the louder history will judge you.
(Handala slowly steps back, his small figure an immovable monument of defiance. His words echo like a verdict.)
Handala: Remember, Olaf: power without justice is cruelty. Alliance without conscience is complicity. History does not forgive, even if politicians try to bury it beneath speeches and treaties. You chose which lives matter, and the world remembers.
(He turns fully away, leaving silence heavier than any political statement. The weight of moral truth crushes the empty rhetoric of hypocrisy.)
Blair on July 13, 2023, in London. Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
There was a time when Donald Trump believed the issue of Israel and Palestine could only be solved by Jared Kushner. “If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can,” he told his son-in-law on the eve of his first-term inauguration in 2017, before bizarrely appointing the then-36-year-old property developer to lead on the issue.
Now, nine months into his second term, Trump is pinning his hopes for peace in the Middle East on a much more experienced but even more controversial figure: 72-year-old Tony Blair.
Yes, that Tony Blair.
In his 20-point “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,” released by the White House on Monday, the ninth point jumps out from the text:
“Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair.”
Sorry, what? Putting Tony Blair in charge of any kind of peace effort in the Middle East is like making the arsonist the head firefighter; the burglar the chief detective.
Born in ’49, with a heritage profound, A history etched, in israeli ground. In Eldridge town, where tales are spun, A leader rose, Netanyahu by name, begun.
In 2014, a grim toll was paid, Gaza’s anguish, where thousands laid. Indictments followed, charges of trust, Bribery and fraud, a legal thrust.
Then came October, a dark descent, Gaza’s attack, a fatal event. Gaza’s butcher, Erdogan’s mournful call, A title forged where compassion did fall.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and three leaders of Hamas, on the grounds of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prosecutor’s office announced on Monday.
Alongside Gallant and Netanyahu, the Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, its military wing’s commander-in-chief Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, better known as Mohammed Deif, and its political leader Ismail Haniyeh were named in a statement by chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
Gallant and Netanyahu face war crimes and crimes against humanity charges over the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare; wilfully causing great suffering; wilful killing; intentional attacks on a civilian population and extermination, alongside several other charges.
In his statement accompanying the charges, Khan wrote: “My Office submits that the evidence we have collected, including interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photo and audio material, satellite imagery and statements from the alleged perpetrator group, shows that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.”
He added: “Israel, like all States, has a right to take action to defend its population. That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any State of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.
The Hamas leaders also face charges related to extermination, murder, the taking of hostages, sexual assault and torture, alongside several more charges.
Regarding the charges, Khan said: “My Office submits there are reasonable grounds to believe that [Sinwar, Deif and Haniyeh] are criminally responsible for the killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians in attacks perpetrated by Hamas (in particular its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades) and other armed groups on 7 October 2023 and the taking of at least 245 hostages.”
“The Nazis also spoke in the name of “morality” even then there was nothing there but good old antisemitism as we have experienced in all generations. Haters of Israel come and go, Israel’s eternity will not lie.” Smotrich said.
“I would like to strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense. Their arrest warrants are the arrest warrants for all of us.” He added.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has also condemned the ICC decision to seek arrest warrants for Israeli leaders as “beyond outrageous.”
Diplomatic setback
The arrest warrants sought by Khan will be presented to the judges who sit at the ICC and they will decide whether to grant them.
Monday’s announcement is the most significant diplomatic setback for Israel in decades and comes as it tries desperately to protect its international reputation amidst its devastating war in Gaza.
More than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since Israel began military operations there on 7 October. The majority of those are women and children.
ICC condemns retaliation threats after Israeli arrest warrant reports.
For weeks there has been speculation amongst Israelis that ICC arrest warrants were in the works.
In late April, the Israeli media outlet Ynet reported that Israeli leaders were worried about arrest when travelling to Europe on the basis of secretly issued arrest warrants.
Another Israeli newspaper, Maariv, reported that Netanyahu was “frightened and unusually stressed” about the prospect of the ICC issuing a warrant for his arrest and was seeking US help to pressure the organisation.
Israel has threatened to retaliate against the Palestinian authority should the ICC issue warrants, while Republican members of Congress have threatened Khan directly with sanctions should he proceed with the case.
The state also faces separate charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after South Africa filed a case over the conduct of its war on Gaza
Musicians call on Keir Starmer to accept that genocide is taking place in Gaza in a video projected onto the entrance of the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool
