Disinformation And Fake Videos To Justify The Killing Of Palestinian Children

Ex-Mossad Chief Says Israeli Government Is In The Grip Of Extreme Lunatics.
The former head of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad said that his country’s government is in the grip of extremist factions that are “a lot worse” than the Ku Klux Klan.
Tamir Pardo told Kan radio that he believed government ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich represented “horrible racist parties” that are “a lot worse” than the U.S. white supremacist group.
Tamir Pardo, who served Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as head of Mossad from 2011 to 2016, said that by inviting Ben Gvir, Smotrich and other far-right politicians to join his coalition, Netanyahu had taken the Israeli equivalent of the “Ku Klux Klan and brought it into the government”.
( Middle East Eye, 27.07.2023 )  ..  middleeasteye.net

A senior U.S. politician said Israel had received an official warning from Egypt of a possible attack from Gaza three days before the Palestinian resistance group Hamas launched its cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.
( Dan Sabbagh, 12.10.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

Pro-Israel Groups Support Donald Trump’s Policies.
Several pro-Israel groups have come out in support of United States President Donald Trump’s push to expel and deport students for participating in pro-Palestine protests on U.S. campuses.
One of the most prominent among them is Betar U.S., a group that says it is sharing the names of pro-Palestinian protesters with the Trump administration.
Trump has promised to deport students who protested last year against Israel’s war on Gaza and who demanded that U.S. universities divest from companies linked to Israel.

Betar U.S. is a branch of Betar, a Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who promoted the idea of strong Jewish militarism and territorial expansion.
The group says it has branches across the world, including chapters throughout the U.S.
Zionism is a nationalist and political ideology originating in 19th-century Europe that called for the creation of a Jewish state.
( Al Jazeera, 25.03.2025 )  ..  aljazeera.com

A Jewish man in Miami Beach, USA, is facing charges of attempted murder following accusations that he opened fire on two men he believed were Palestinians but reportedly turned out to be Israeli visitors.
While in custody, the accused man told detectives that while he was driving his truck, “he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both”.
( Edward Helmore, 17.02.2025 )  ..  theguardian.com

17,004 Potential Victims Of Modern Slavery Identified In The UK In 2023.
The number of people referred to the Home Office’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM) was up slightly from 16,921 in 2022.
It is the highest annual number since the NRM began in 2009, though the rate of growth has slowed.
And a total of 4,929 potential adult victims were identified who did not consent to being referred into the NRM – the highest number since the Duty to Notify (DtN) process began.
Since November 2015, specified public authorities must inform the Home Office via the DtN of suspected adult victims of modern slavery who do not consent to enter the NRM.
Potential victims may be fearful of presenting themselves to authorities, preventing them from engaging with the NRM and accessing support.
Another factor may be First Responders’ (those referring potential victims into the NRM) capacity and delays in accessing legal advice.
( Rosalyn Roden, 08.03.2024 )  ..  hopeforjustice.org

Israel Has Become A Sanctuary For Jewish Sexual Predators.
Disgraced Hollywood director Brett Ratner, who stands accused by multiple women of rape and sexual harassment, revealed he relocated to Israel just days after being a special guest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly in New York.
Ratner has followed in the footsteps of other sexual predators who have fled to Israel in recent years, including another Hollywood director, Bryan Singer, who moved to Israel several years ago after being accused of rape and sexual assault of several minors.
Thanks to lax extradition laws and the so-called “law of return” known as ‘Aliyah’ – which grants citizenship to Jews across the world based on ancestral claims that are two millennia old – Israel has become a sanctuary for Jewish sexual predators as well as countless fraudsters, money launderers, and war criminals.
According to Jewish Community Watch, an organisation that tracks accused pedophiles, over 60 U.S. citizens accused of pedophilia have successfully fled to Israel in the past few years.
( The Cradle, 04.10.2023 )  ..  thecradle.co

Eight out of 10 people in the UK caught with images of children being sexually abused avoid going to jail, the head of the National Crime Agency says.
The NCA assesses that up to 830,000 adults in the UK, 1.6% of the population, pose a threat to children.
( Vikram Dodd, 13.12.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

Disinformation And Fake Videos To Justify The Killing Of Palestinian Children.
Israel’s propaganda and disinformation machine is finding new ways to justify the killing of children and the bombing of medical facilities.
Usually, Israel’s first response to accusations of atrocities is denial.
When that fails, the second strategy is to blame Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups for Palestinian deaths.
It hasn’t given up on those strategies, but is also trying to directly link Palestinian children to Hamas, and thereby seek to portray them – and the places where they are sheltering – as legitimate targets.

On November 11, the official Arabic account run by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a video of a nurse, apparently agitated, talking about Hamas overrunning the al-Shifa Hospital, and taking all the fuel and morphine.
She claimed that because Hamas had stolen morphine, she couldn’t use it on a five-year-old with a fracture.

The video, which was retweeted thousands of times, was a clear fake.
No staff in the vicinity appear to recognise the individual featured, casting doubt on her identity and role.
Robert Mackey, a journalist with the research agency Forensic Architecture, spoke to three Doctors Without Borders staff members working at the al-Shifa Hospital, none of whom recognised her.
The video was almost comic in its absurdity.
The nurse spoke with a non-Palestinian accent, and her dialogue seemed to perfectly echo Israeli military talking points about Hamas stealing all the fuel from hospitals.

The purpose of the video was clear, to blame Hamas for the suffering of children and legitimise the Israeli military’s claims that Hamas is using civilians and children as human shields.
Eventually, as the Israeli government was called out over the video, the Foreign Ministry quietly deleted its post – without any explanation.
( Marc Owen Jones, 17.11.2023 )  ..  aljazeera.com

Palestinian children in Israeli-run prisons have told Save the Children of facing increasing hunger and abuse, including sexual violence, with conditions deteriorating markedly since the start of the assault on Gaza in October 2023 and contagious diseases such as scabies on the rise.
Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered an Advisory Opinion declaring the State of Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, directly challenging the legal status of Israeli policies and practices related to military detention.
Save the Children said the ICJ’s conclusion reinforces the need for an immediate end to the detention of hundreds of Palestinian children, many of whom have reported ill-treatment – a child protection concern that has persisted for decades.
( Save the Children, 22.07.2024 )  ..  savethechildren.org

Child Poverty In The UK Is Rising Again.
4.5 million children are in poverty across the UK.
That’s 31% of all children.
In the eleven years between 2012/13 and 2023/24, the number of children in poverty rose by 800,000 (from 27% to 31%).
Child poverty fell significantly during the 1990s and early 2000s but has been rising since 2013/14.
Child poverty levels fell back during the first year of the pandemic, largely because the temporary increase to Universal Credit helped to push up the average incomes of low-income families.
The withdrawal of that support, and the subsequent income shock caused by the cost of living crisis, means child poverty is rising again.
( Kelly Corcoran, 22.03.2024 )  ..  actionforchildren.org

Israeli Helicopter Opened Fire On Israeli Civilians.
A report revealed that an Israeli military helicopter opened fire on Hamas Palestinian Resistance Fighters but wounded Israelis participating in a festival during the October 7 attack by Hamas.
The Haaretz newspaper said an Israeli security assessment was based on an investigation by police with Hamas Fighters who were arrested on October 7.
Haaretz reported that the military helicopter arrived at the site of the festival and opened fire on the Hamas Fighters but also wounded several festival participants.
It said, according to the assessment, Hamas had no prior information about the festival which was held close to the Kibbutz Re’im, near the borders with Gaza.
Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper also published a report on Israeli Air Force helicopters intervening in the attack carried out by Hamas from Gaza on October 7.
The newspaper reported that the Israeli forces “found it difficult to identify Hamas militants,” adding that helicopter pilots “used artillery” against civilians at the festival.
( Middle East Monitor, 19.11.2023 )  ..  middleeastmonitor.com

Former UK Rabbi Sentenced For Having Hundreds Of Child Abuse Images.
Yuval Keren, 56, a former north London, UK rabbi, found with hundreds of “horrific” child abuse images was handed a meagre 20 month jail sentence suspended for two years at Amersham Crown Court after the National Crime Agency found 1,694 indecent images of children on devices at his home in July 2022.
Of those, 189 images were rated as Category A, the most extreme type of child abuse images.
Keren, previously a rabbi at Southgate Progressive Synagogue, had images dating back to 2010.
( Josh Salisbury, 13.12.2023 )  ..  standard.co.uk

Israeli Forces Kill Two Women, One Pregnant, In The Illegally-Occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military has expanded its assaults in the illegally-occupied West Bank, killing two women – one of which was eight months pregnant, during a raid in the Palestinian territory’s Nur Shams refugee camp.
The troops opened fire on a Palestinian family at the camp, killing Sondos Jamal Muhammad Shalabi and critically injuring her husband, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The ministry said medical teams were unable to save the 23-year-old woman’s fetus, because the Israeli military prevented them from transferring the injured couple to a hospital.
In a separate statement the ministry said that a 21-year-old woman, Rahaf Fouad Abdullah al-Ashqar, was also killed by Israeli forces in her home.
Palestine’s Wafa news agency said the Israeli army raided the camp in the illegally-occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem region and deployed heavy machinery and bulldozers, raiding dozens of homes as reconnaissance planes flew at low altitudes.
( Al Jazeera, 09.02.2025 )  ..  aljazeera.com

Former Israeli Military Officer Met With Britain’s Top Journalists To Promote Israel’s Onslaught On Gaza.
Israel’s former top military officer, General Aviv Kohavi held private meetings with the editors of major British news organisations one month after the Gaza onslaught began in October 2023.
The meetings took place with Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Richard Burgess, director of news content at the BBC, and Roula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times.
Further meetings were due to be held with Sky News chairman David Rhodes at the Israeli embassy, and then shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, between November 7 and 9, 2023, according to Kohavi’s itinerary.
By this time, Israeli forces had killed over 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and Israeli officials had made several public statements of genocidal intent.
Kohavi had only stepped down from running Israel’s military months earlier.
During his tenure, he justified attacks on journalists, saying the soldiers who shot reporter Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank “showed courage” and that he had not one “gram of regret” for flattening the Associated Press (AP) office in Gaza.
( Alex Morris and John McEvoy, 27.02.2025 )  ..  declassifieduk.org