The Shadow Network: Epstein, Mossad, and the Global Elite

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Admin

Phalapoem editor, 11/10/25

Jeffrey Epstein was a Jewish American whose story is one of power, privilege, and predation. The financier and convicted sex offender moved easily among the world’s elite — from presidents to princes — until his arrest in 2019 exposed the dark underbelly of his global network. Though his death in custody that same year officially ended the criminal case against him, the mystery surrounding his operations only deepened.

A Network of Power and Access

Epstein’s social circle included an astonishing roster of influential men. His flight logs and visitor records from his private island and New York mansion have revealed connections to:

• Bill Clinton, former U.S. President, who flew several times on Epstein’s jet for philanthropic trips;

• Donald Trump, U.S. President, who knew Epstein socially in Florida during the 1990s;

• Prince Andrew, Duke of York, accused by Virginia Giuffre of sexual abuse — allegations he denied but later settled in a civil case;

• Les Wexner, billionaire founder of L Brands, who was Epstein’s primary financial client;

• Bill Gates, who met Epstein several times after Epstein’s 2008 conviction, later calling those meetings “a mistake”;

• Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel, who acknowledged visiting Epstein’s properties but denied any wrongdoing;

• Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor, who represented Epstein legally and was accused by one of Epstein’s accusers — allegations he has consistently denied.

These names come from publicly available documents, flight logs, and testimony, but it is crucial to note: being associated with Epstein does not necessarily mean participation in his crimes.

Kompromat and Intelligence Allegations

One of the most persistent theories about Epstein’s power is that he acted as a collector of kompromat — blackmail material used to control or influence powerful men.

Several former intelligence officers and investigative journalists have suggested that Epstein’s pattern of recording guests, his unusually lenient legal treatment, and his ties to figures in Israel, the U.S., and Europe may indicate intelligence involvement, likely linked to Mossad and other services.

No conclusive evidence has verified these claims, but they have persisted because of the structure of Epstein’s network: an operation that mixed money, sex, politics, and secrecy — the ideal conditions for leverage and manipulation.

The Money Trail

Epstein’s financial empire was equally suspicious. Despite lacking a major investment firm, he controlled vast sums of money through offshore accounts, shell companies, and real estate holdings. He managed funds for Les Wexner and reportedly moved money for other ultra-wealthy clients, leading some investigators to believe he was a money-laundering conduit for global elites or intelligence-linked financial channels.

The Scandal’s Reach

Court filings and unsealed documents have revealed the existence of a broader network of enablers — assistants, pilots, socialites, and corporate figures — who facilitated Epstein’s lifestyle or benefited from his access. Ghislaine Maxwell, a Jewish American was his close associate, was convicted in 2021 for sex trafficking minors, confirming that a deliberate system of recruitment and exploitation existed. Her father, Robert Maxwell, a former Labour Party member, faced accusations of disloyalty to Britain because of his alleged connections with Israel and Mossad.

Unanswered Questions and Continuing Investigations

Epstein’s death in a federal detention center — ruled suicide but surrounded by anomalies — left behind troves of documents, recordings, and witness testimony. The “Epstein Files,” still being processed and released through ongoing lawsuits, continue to raise unsettling questions:

• How did Epstein avoid serious consequences for decades?

• Who protected him — and why?

• What happened to the alleged blackmail materials he reportedly kept?

Jeffrey Epstein’s downfall exposed a world where wealth insulated criminal behavior, where connections could obscure justice, and where the boundaries between power and exploitation blurred beyond recognition. Whether he was acting as a lone manipulator or as part of a larger intelligence-linked web, the Epstein case remains a chilling example of how secrecy, sex, and power can converge — and how little the public still knows about what really happened.

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Miriam Margolyes “Hitler Won”

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Admin

See this video

Source: https://aja.ws/ia22ie


The British-Australian Jewish actress Miriam Margolyes said that “the one who has won in Gaza is Adolf Hitler,” the leader of “Nazi” Germany, because “he made us like him — killing a defenseless people who have no guilt for our Holocaust in Europe.”

The episode showed a video clip of the Jewish actress saying:

“Because I know the extent of the evil and cruelty that befell the Jews in my lifetime, I cannot bear to think that my people are doing exactly the same thing to another nation. And the people to whom this is being done are the Palestinians.”

She added that the Palestinian people were not responsible for what she called “the Holocaust” and had nothing to do with it.

Miriam continued: “I think the terrible thing I have to face is that Hitler has won… He changed us and made us become like him.”

The host of the program “Fawq al-Sulta” (Above the Authority), Nazih Al-Ahdab, commented on the actress’s statements, saying that “the words of Miriam Margolyes are more valuable and profound than all the studies and analyses that could be written about what happened in Gaza.”

Posted in Gaza, Miriam Margolyes, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mawtini

Posted on October 10, 2025 by Admin
Posted in Gaza, Media, Palestinian art & culture, Songs, Videos | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Racist (White Supremacist) Balfour Declaration

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Admin

The ill-fated Balfour Declaration, issued in November 1917, remains a contentious historical document that significantly impacted the Middle East. Crafted by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, the declaration expressed support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine at a time when Palestine was still under the British mandate. However, its implementation led to a series of conflicts, massacres, and disputes, resulting in the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people from their villages and cities in 1948.
The promise made by the British government failed to consider the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian majority population already residing in Palestine, leading to decades of tensions and hostilities.
The Balfour Declaration stands as a symbol of racism (white supremacy) and an ill-fated event that Palestinians consider a catastrophic episode in their lives. 

Who wouldn’t be happy to have their home unexpectedly handed over to someone else as a generous gift?! How generous it was for someone to arbitrarily pledge a “national home for the Jewish people” in a land already rich with diverse and vibrant communities.

Surely, Balfour’s legacy will remain a dark spot in the annals of time.

Read more: https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/232119

Find more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/guardian-backing-balfour-declaration-among-papers-worst-errors-of-judgment/

Posted in Palestinian history, UK | Tagged | Leave a comment

From Looters to Gatekeepers: How Empire Still Holds the Keys

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Admin

Phalapoem editor, 26/09/25

For centuries, the great powers of Europe—Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and later the United States—swept across Africa, Asia and the Middle East with armies, missionaries and merchants. Behind the banners of “civilisation” and “progress,” they invaded, occupied and partitioned lands that had their own rich histories and political systems.

The record is brutal.

• In the Congo Free State, millions perished under King Leopold’s private regime of forced rubber extraction.

• In India, British economic policies contributed to famines that killed tens of millions in the 18th and 19th centuries.

• In Algeria, Kenya, Vietnam, Indonesia and elsewhere, uprisings against colonial rule were met with massacres, scorched earth tactics, and concentration camps.

• The Sykes–Picot Agreement and similar deals carved up the Middle East into artificial states whose borders still fuel conflict.

Raw materials—gold, diamonds, oil, cotton, spices, labour—were shipped to Europe and North America to fund the industrial revolutions that made these states the richest and most powerful in human history. Colonies were left with shattered economies, distorted borders, and political systems designed to divide rather than unite.

After Independence: The “Invisible Empire”

Formal empires collapsed after World War II, but the structures of control endured.

• Western powers propped up friendly dictators, armed rival factions, and toppled governments that resisted Western economic or strategic interests.

• Structural adjustment programmes from the IMF and World Bank kept many post-colonial economies tied to foreign creditors.

• Weapons and covert funding turned local disputes into civil wars, while global corporations continued to extract oil, cobalt, coffee, and rare earths.

The Great Reversal

Ironically, the same countries that devastated the global South became beacons of opportunity. Their wealth—built on centuries of plunder—created welfare systems, strong currencies, and technological innovation. For people trapped in poverty or war, migrating to Europe or North America often meant the difference between survival and despair.

Yet migrants arriving in London, Paris, Berlin or New York were no longer “subjects of empire.” They were immigrants, labelled outsiders and often met with racism, discrimination and political scapegoating. They cleaned hospitals, drove buses, and staffed essential industries, while hearing lectures about “integration,” “freedom,” and “democracy”—values long denied to their own ancestors.

Accident or Strategy?

Was this a master plan? Did imperial powers deliberately devastate other regions to ensure permanent dominance and a captive labour force?

Historians debate intent. Some argue it was calculated economic design: monopolise resources, impose dependency, and reap profits for generations. Others see a series of opportunistic decisions driven by short-term greed, not a grand conspiracy.

Either way, the outcome is clear:

• The wealth gap between former colonisers and former colonies remains staggering.

• Borders drawn in colonial capitals still ignite wars.

• Migration flows continue to follow the old imperial trade routes.

The Moral Question

Western governments now position themselves as global arbiters of human rights and democracy. They condemn coups, corruption, and war crimes abroad—often in countries destabilised by their own historical actions. Migrants, despite enduring racism and exclusion, still find these societies more liveable than the homelands left fractured by colonial rule.

This is the great paradox of the modern world:

Those who broke the global South now hold the keys to its escape routes.

Whether this was a deliberate “master plan” or the long shadow of empire hardly changes the lived reality. The descendants of colonisers live in nations built on extraction and violence; the descendants of the colonised navigate a world order still tilted against them, yet often choose to build new lives in the very capitals that once ruled their ancestors.

History may not offer a tidy conspiracy, but it does reveal a system: conquest, exploitation, enrichment—and then the power to define morality itself.

Posted in Massacres & genocides, Palestinian art & culture, Palestinian history, Phalapoem editor, UK, USA | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The World’s Shame: How Global Leaders Chose Silence Over Gaza’s Children

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Admin

Phalapoem editor, 8/10/25

As of this writing, over 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza. Among them are 1,000 infants — babies who never had a chance to take their first steps or speak their first words. This is not a tragedy that unfolded in darkness. It happened in full view of the world — livestreamed, documented, undeniable. And yet, the response from global leaders has been an appalling silence, broken only by carefully crafted statements of “concern” that mean nothing to the slaughtered.

The world has failed Gaza. Not through ignorance, but through moral cowardice and political calculation.

A System Built to Protect the Powerful

If the killing of twenty thousand children had been committed by any other state, the reaction would have been immediate and severe. Sanctions, travel bans, arms embargoes, and international trials would follow. Yet Israeli apartheid and occupation , shielded by its Western allies, continues to enjoy full diplomatic, economic, and cultural privileges.

It still competes in football tournaments, Eurovision, and global sporting events — spectacles meant to celebrate peace and unity. The hypocrisy is grotesque. A nation accused of grave breaches of international law continues to sing, play, and trade as though nothing has happened.

The “rules-based international order,” so often invoked by Western governments, has been exposed as a selective fiction. Rules apply only to the weak, never to the well-armed or well-connected.

Western Complicity

The governments most vocal about democracy and human rights have stood by, providing weapons, diplomatic cover, or strategic silence. Washington continues to send military aid. European capitals, while shedding crocodile tears, refuse even the mildest sanctions. Some have gone further, criminalizing protests, censoring journalists, and intimidating those who dare to call the genocide  what it is.

The message is unmistakable: the lives of Palestinian children are negotiable — expendable collateral in a geopolitical alliance.

The Failure of International Institutions

The United Nations, paralyzed by American vetoes and political cowardice, has become a theatre of impotence. Humanitarian agencies have been bombed and starved of funds. War crimes investigations stall. The International Criminal Court moves at a glacial pace, hesitant to anger powerful states.

Every structure designed to prevent mass atrocities has either collapsed or been corrupted. The moral infrastructure of the post-war world — the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, the principle of universal human rights — lies in ruins in Gaza’s rubble.

The Collapse of Moral Authority

How can Europe lecture the Global South on human rights after this? How can the United States claim to defend democracy abroad while funding the Israeli genocide, destruction of hospitals, schools, and refugee camps? The answer is simple: it can’t. Gaza has destroyed whatever moral credibility these powers once claimed.

In the face of genocide-scale violence, silence is not neutrality — it is endorsement. The refusal to act, to sanction, to even condemn unequivocally, is a form of complicity that history will not forget.

The Reckoning to Come

Gaza will not be remembered only as a humanitarian catastrophe, but as the moment the world’s conscience died. The image of lifeless children pulled from the rubble will haunt every leader who chose political convenience over human decency.

No amount of diplomatic spin or televised empathy can erase the reality: the global order failed to stop the mass killing of children. And in doing so, it failed itself.

Posted in Admin, Gaza, Massacres & genocides, Palestinian art & culture, Palestinian history, Phalapoem editor | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

In Handala’s Playground: Season 2, Episode 5a: Handala and the Mirror of Silence

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Admin

Phalapoem editor, 08/10/25

Scene:

A cracked mirror under a red sky.

The faint hum of drones replaces birdsong.

A barefoot boy — Handala — stands with his back turned, arms folded, forever ten.

Before him stands the reflection of Israeli Society, wrapped in flags, screens, and silence.

Between them — a sea of smoke, bones, and unfinished prayers.

⸻

Handala:

You keep asking, “Why do they hate us?”

But never, “What have we done?”

You look into mirrors that only show your pain —

while mine lies buried under your rubble, unnamed, unseen.

⸻

Israeli Society:

We are mourning.

Our children were taken.

Our people slaughtered.

We live surrounded by enemies.

We defend ourselves, because the world never did.

⸻

Handala (voice like flint):

You defend yourselves with phosphorus and famine?

With walls higher than guilt and hearts harder than memory?

You do not defend — you erase.

You erase until only your fear remains to fill the silence.

Your empathy is fenced like Gaza —

a checkpoint at every feeling,

a permit required for every tear not your own.

⸻

Israeli Society (sharply):

We are victims of terror.

We remember the Holocaust.

“Never Again” is our vow — our shield, our right.

⸻

Handala (turns slightly, the air trembles):

Yes.

You remember the gas chambers —

but you forget who filled them with silence first.

You remember the ghettos —

but not the hands that built them brick by brick, believing themselves pure.

“Never Again,” you chant —

but what you mean is never again for us.

You carved universality into tribal stone

and made suffering your flag.

Tell me — what is the value of your memory

if it teaches you only how to become what you once feared?

⸻

Israeli Society (angered):

How dare you compare!

We are not Nazis.

We fight monsters who hide among civilians.

We do not kill — we target.

We do not starve — we control supply lines.

We do not bomb — we neutralize threats.

⸻

Handala (voice rising, fierce and cold):

Ah, yes — the language of moral anesthesia.

The poetry of denial.

You do not kill — you “eliminate.”

You do not occupy — you “secure.”

You do not dehumanize — you “other.”

Your bullets have learned the grammar of excuses.

Your missiles speak fluent justification.

Your journalists count your tears but lose their tongues when asked to count ours.

You’ve mastered a terrifying art —

to feel deeply only for yourself.

⸻

Israeli Society (quietly, uncertain):

But we are human too.

We want peace.

We want safety.

We want normal life.

⸻

Handala (turning slightly, the light flickering):

Then why does your peace demand genocide and our graves?

Why must your safety taste like our ethnic cleansing and starvation?

You build “normal life” upon the ruins of ours

and call it coexistence.

You speak of “shared humanity”

while your soldiers film our dying for their feeds.

You cry for your hostages

and cage two million of mine without trial.

You call yourselves moral-

yet your bombs never ask for names before they burn.

⸻

Israeli Society (pleading):

It is complicated…

War is never clean.

We warn civilians before we strike.

We drop leaflets.

We have the most moral army in the world.

⸻

Handala (voice soft but cutting):

Morality that needs a publicist is already dead.

A warning before destruction is still destruction.

A leaf of paper does not shield a child from fire.

Your moral army marches over graves of innocence,

and your silence applauds every step.

⸻

Israeli Society (barely audible):

We lost empathy somewhere along the way.

We had to harden our hearts —

otherwise, how could we live beside so much hate?

⸻

Handala:

You mistake numbness for strength.

You mistake apathy for survival.

But a society that kills feeling to stay alive

has already buried its soul.

You speak of hate —

but you taught it first,

in classrooms where maps forgot my name,

in newsrooms where my death is just a number,

in living rooms where you change the channel when Gaza burns.

⸻

(Handala finally turns halfway — his face shadowed, his eyes unseen.)

Handala:

Germany too once built its strength upon denial.

They called their cruelty necessity,

their silence patriotism,

their propaganda truth.

their victims terrorists,

They too believed the world would never judge them —

until the world walked through their ashes.

History is not repeating —

it is evolving in your image.

You are writing a new chapter of “Never Again” —

this time, as the oppressor’s pledge.

⸻

Israeli Society (voice trembling):

Then what must we do?

What do you want from us?

⸻

Handala:

I want you to look.

Look at what you’ve done without filters,

without flags,

without excuses.

Turn your gaze from your dead to ours —

and realize they are the same size,

the same weight,

the same color when the dust settles.

True safety is not built on another’s ruin.

True mourning is not selective.

True humanity cannot live behind a wall.

Turn around, not to me —

but to your reflection before the mirror shatters completely.

Because when the last shard falls,

you will not see enemies or terrorists —

only the ghost of who you might have been

if empathy had survived.

⸻

(Silence. The mirror cracks again — a sound like thunder in a graveyard.)

Handala (fading, whispering):

You cannot bomb your way to peace.

You cannot starve your way to safety.

And you cannot lie your way out of history.

When you finally remember that,

I will turn around.

Until then — my back is your judgment.

⸻

Posted in Admin, Evidence of Israeli Fascism and Nazism and Genocide, Gaza, In Handala’s Playground, Massacres & genocides, News from the apartheid, Palestinian art & culture, Palestinian diaspora, Palestinian history, Phalapoem editor, Uncategorized, Voice of Palestine | Leave a comment

7 Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Admin

Art can change the world, and as these Palestinian artists are proof, it can also unravel the path to healing, transformation and greater understanding

By Maghie Ghali 

October 31, 2023

Palestinian artist you need to know Malak Mattar

With the humanitarian crisis that has engulfed Gaza for decades, it’s easy to forget that the region is blessed with incredible Palestinian artists who are using their canvas for change. From emerging young talents to established award-winning masters, here are some of the artistic voices from Palestine you need to know about.

Khalil Rabah

Born in Jerusalem in 1961, Ramallah-based conceptual artist Khalil Rabah is known for his engaging artworks centring on themes of identity, displacement and history. He graduated with a degree in fine art and architecture from the University of Texas and has since participated in numerous exhibitions around the world, as well as several biennials, including the São Paulo Biennial, Venice Biennale and Istanbul Biennial.

Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About Khalil Rabah

Over the years, his work has been acquired by major institutions including The British Museum, The Guggenheim and The Sharjah Art Foundation. Rabah is also the co-founder of Al-Ma‘mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem and ArtSchool Palestine in London, as well as artistic director of the Riwaq Biennial. Most notable he is the founder of the Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind, an ongoing project based on a fictitious institution which challenges conventional western notions of museology. Recreated differently in every location, its form and content vary; indeed, its very instability suggests the difficulty of creating an identity in the face of an occupation and displacement.

Malak Mattar

Malak Mattar, born in 2000 and raised in Gaza, quickly became a fixture of the Palestinian art scene, when at the age of 13 she began painting her everyday reality during the 2014 Gaza War, as a way to express her emotions and heal her trauma, with the encouragement of her uncle and fellow painter Mohammed Musallam.

Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About Malak Mattar

In 2017, Mattar was given the opportunity to study abroad, after graduating high school with the second-highest GPA in Palestine. She attended university at Istanbul Aydin University in Turkey, where she studied Political Science and International Relations and in 2023 began studying at London’s Central St Martins for master’s degree.

Her paintings are bold and colourful despite the tragic events that inspire them and often deal with her personal feelings and experience as a woman in Palestine. Her work has been shown in 80 countries around the world. Often, her style is likened to that of Picasso or Frida Kahlo, with Palestinian symbols of oranges, birds, olive trees and pomegranates featuring in her artworks.

Dima Srouji

Architect and artist Dima Srouji is based between Ramallah and London. Exploring the erasure of cultural heritage – especially through the lens of archaeology, history and traditions.

Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About Dima Srouji

After completing architecture degrees at Kingston University and Yale University, she began her own artistic practice Hollow Forms Studio and has taught design at London’s Royal College of Art in London. Through film, glass and plaster, her art projects are often developed closely with archaeologists, anthropologists, sound designers, and glassblowers.

Srouji was the 2022-2023 Jameel Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where she replicated Levantine glass artefacts taken by western archaeologists and institutions. Her clear glass forms are an attempt to reclaim Palestine’s lost heritage and comment on the history of western institutions claiming other culture’s historical treasures.

Abdul Rahman Katanani

Born in 1983 and raised in the Sabra refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, Abdul Rahmna Katanani is a third generation Palestinian refugee, who’s grandparents left Jaffa in 1948. He began his artistic career at the tender age of 15 as a cartoonist, creating satirical drawings about the corruption and misappropriation of United Nations subsidies and daily camp life.

Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About Abdul Rahman Katanani

When studying at the School of Fine Arts in Beirut, his artwork quickly developed a political language, created from barbed wire, corrugated iron, pieces of wood and oil barrels – whatever recycled materials might be found and used in refugee camp – to tell the story of the collective Palestinian experience. Some of his most famous works include massive waves made from barbed wire, taking over whole gallery space, comparing the displacement and suffering of Palestinians to a tsunami that sweeps away all hope and joy.

Samar Hussaini

Samar Hussaini’s work is deeply rooted in her Palestinian heritage and culture, blending mixed-media fine arts with traditional Palestinian embroidery known as tatreez. Born in the US, she graduated with a BFA in Art History and Studio Arts from the University of Maryland before pursuing a Master’s degree in communication design from Pratt Institute in New York.

Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About Samar Hussaini

Her artistic practice is colourful and contemporary, whilst still paying homage to the creativity of her homeland. Through stitched together paintings, sculptures and ready-to-wear garments, her multi-disciplinary approach speaks to the complexities of identity through the use of the traditional tatreez embroidery that has different patterns and designs for different regions of Palestine. Hussaini modernizes this stunning embroidery to represent the identity of those living in the diaspora, symbolizing new Palestinian identities.

In 2022, Hussaini achieved international acclaim for her participation in the Venice Biennale collateral group exhibit ‘From Palestine with Love’, sponsored by the Palestine Museum, with a dress-based installation featuring hand-dyed abayas with embroidery in modern colours and designs.

Taysir Batniji

Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About Taysir Batniji

Born in Gaza in 1966, Taysir Batniji now lives between his hometown and Paris. He studied art at Al-Najah University in Nablus and in 1994, was awarded a fellowship to study at the School of Fine Arts of Bourges in France. Since then, he tried several times to return to Gaza – unsuccessfully – and the constant instability directed his artwork towards themes of impermanence, loss and fragility, drawing from his deeply personal experiences, including the death of his brother.

In 2012 he was awarded the Abraaj Group Art Prize and became the recipient of the Immersion residency program, supported by Hermes Foundation, in alliance with Aperture Foundation in 2017. His works can be found in the collections of many prestigious institutions, such as Centre Pompidou, the Victoria & Albert and The Imperial War Museum in London.

Reem R.

Rounding off our list of Palestinian artists you need to know is the up and coming visual artist Reem R. (1995) who creates work inspired and influenced by daily observations, human interactions, personal experiences, and memories. Contrasting vivid colour palettes and carefully-composed paintings, the works capture the essence of her inner world, intertwining personal symbols with cultural references.

Palestinian Artists You Need To Know About Reem R

In 2017 she achieved her Bachelor of Science in Multimedia Design at the American University of Sharjah. Her work has been exhibited in Qatar and the UAE, and further afield in Croatia, France, Morocco, South Africa, and Spain. Her paintings usually transform pop-art like images of everyday items and icons into bizarre still lifes, inviting the viewers to engage their imagination to come up with their own interpretations or meanings behind the pieces. 

Posted in Palestinian art & culture | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Death of Empathy: How Israeli Society Turned Away from Genocide in Gaza

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Admin

Phalapoem editor, 07/10/25


After nearly two years of relentless Israeli bombardment, genocide, siege, and starvation in Gaza, much of Israeli society and media appear trapped in a bubble of selective empathy. News outlets and public discourse remain overwhelmingly focused on the pain of Israeli hostages and fallen soldiers, while the unimaginable suffering of millions of Palestinians just across the border is reduced to background noise,  if mentioned at all.

This selective moral vision is not accidental. It reflects years of dehumanization and separation, reinforced by a media system that rarely portrays Palestinians as equal human beings. As Gaza endures a humanitarian collapse with entire families wiped out, hospitals destroyed, and children dying from malnutrition, many Israelis consume a narrative centered solely on national trauma and military resilience. The silence about Palestinian lives is not just omission; it is a moral failure.

The phrase “Never again” , born from the world’s vow to prevent atrocities was meant to protect all peoples from mass suffering. Yet, for many observers, it now seems that this universal lesson has been reshaped into a narrow, tribal slogan. The deep historical context of this conflict dating back more than seven decades to the dispossession, ethnic cleansing and killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces largely erased from mainstream Israeli memory. The violence did not begin on October 7, 2023, nor will it end with another military victory speech.

Real justice requires confronting uncomfortable truths: that the same society demanding empathy for its captives often denies empathy to those it holds captive. True safety for Israelis will never come from the destruction of Gaza, but from a shared recognition of Palestinian humanity and a reckoning with history that has too long been denied.

Until that happens, Israel risks losing not only its moral compass but also the possibility of coexistence and peace.

Posted in Admin, Gaza, Massacres & genocides, Palestinian art & culture, Palestinian history, Phalapoem editor | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In Handala’s Playground: Season 2, Episode 4: Meeting in Downing Street

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Admin

Phalapoem editor, 07/10/25

Handala (the small boy with his back turned, bare feet on cold marble):

Two years of children buried in rubble, two years of mothers digging with their hands.

Twenty thousand little bodies.

And now—only now—you recognise my country?

Tell me, Prime Minister, did the paperwork comfort you while the bombs fell?

Starmer (tight smile):

Recognition is a step toward peace.

Diplomacy takes time; we must be responsible actors on the world stage.

Handala:

Time?

My people measure time in mass graves.

Your “responsibility” signs three hundred weapons licenses while you whisper the word peace.

Is that diplomacy—or arithmetic of death?

Starmer:

The United Kingdom maintains export controls.

All sales are subject to rigorous review.

We cannot simply abandon our strategic alliances.

Handala:

Strategic alliances.

Fine words to hide a dripping blade.

You send planes to spy on the children you claim to protect,

ban the protests that call their names,

and shake the hand of a man the world’s court calls a criminal.

Is this what Labour means by justice?

Starmer:

We condemn civilian suffering.

But Israel has the right to defend itself.

Handala (still facing away):

Defend itself from whom?

From the babies you help starve?

From the grandparents clutching photos under the dust?

Your “right to defend” is a license to erase us.

Starmer:

History is complicated.

Britain cannot rewrite the past.

Handala:

But Britain wrote the past—

inked the Balfour promise,

handed our home to strangers,

and now hides behind complexity while the descendants of that ink bleed.

You cannot rewrite it, but you repeat it.

Starmer:

Recognition is progress.

It opens a path to negotiation.

Handala:

Recognition without action is a flag planted in ashes.

Stop the weapons.

Lift the bans on speech.

Cut the strings that tie you to slaughter.

Until then, your “progress” is just another checkpoint on the road to our graveyard.

(Handala remains with his back turned—silent, unbowed. The Prime Minister adjusts his tie, searching for a word that does not exist.)

Posted in Gaza, Justice, Massacres & genocides, News from the apartheid, Palestinian art & culture, Palestinian diaspora, Palestinian history, Phalapoem editor, UK | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment