Joan of Arc, 1412 - 1431. Joan of Arc was a teenage girl who became…

There Is No Palestinian History Says Israeli Finance Minister.
Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, delivered a speech in Paris saying the notion of a Palestinian people was artificial
“There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. There is no Palestinian history. There is no Palestinian language,” he said.
He spoke at a lectern draped with what appeared to be a map of Israel that included the occupied West Bank and parts of Jordan.
The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said Smotrich’s remarks were “conclusive evidence of the extremist, racist Zionist ideology that governs the parties of the current Israeli government”.
( The Guardian, 20.03.2023 ) .. theguardian.com
Throughout The Past Century, Anti-Semites And Zionists Have Worked Towards The Mutual Interest Of Concentrating Jews In Israel.
Zionism is a modern movement, which gained traction among a minority of secular Jews only in the late 19th century in response to Europe’s rising anti-Semitism and romantic nationalism.
Early Zionists syncretised many aspects of European fascism, white supremacy, colonialism and messianic Evangelism and had a long and sordid history of cooperating with anti-Semites, imperialists and fascists in order to promote exclusivist and expansionist agendas.
In fact, throughout the past century, anti-Semites and Zionists have worked towards the mutual interest of concentrating Jews in Israel; the former as a means of scapegoating and expelling an unwanted population, and the latter to combat the “demographic threat” posed by native Palestinians.
Further, both anti-Semites and Zionists construct Jews as a biological race, which needs to be segregated as part of a utopia of global apartheid.
Zionism is a racist and settler colonialist movement, which opportunistically co-opt aspects of Judaism in an attempt to justify its criminal practices of apartheid and genocide of indigenous Palestinians.
White supremacy is dominant within Israeli society, which privileges white-skinned Ashkenazi Jews at the expense of dark-skinned African Jews, Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews as well as African refugees.
African/black Jewish communities are often denied recognition by Israeli authorities with some members even deported.
Zionism is based on a distinctly secular outlook, which embraces aggression and expansion as an acceptable response to trauma and denounces the traditional Jewish pacifist approach of viewing hardship as divine punishment for sins.
The Israeli regime capitalises on a dynamic of violence and inequality reinforced by fear-mongering and the rewards of resource acquisition to promote a privileged ruling class at the expense of colonised Palestinian people.
Zionist strategists manipulate the past traumas Jews have endured to galvanise support for aggressive policies that disenfranchise Palestinians.
( Yoav Litvin, 09.01.2019 ) .. aljazeera.com
2030 Roadmap For UK-Israel Bilateral Relations.
The bilateral relationship has never been stronger.
Our two countries complement each other’s strengths.
As freedom-loving, innovative and thriving democracies, Israel and the UK are proud of our deep and historic partnership.
We are firm friends and natural allies.
In November 2021, the British Conservative government and the Israeli government, signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” elevating the UK-Israel bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership.
This represented a signal of intent for both countries to cohere, deepen and expand cooperation across our mutual priorities for our mutual benefit.
This roadmap, which defines our bilateral cooperation until 2030, will serve as a ‘living’ document.
Through regular high-level engagement, our bilateral relationship will continue to evolve as a more modern, innovative and forward-looking strategic partnership.
Our strategic partnership is underpinned by extensive security and defence cooperation that continue to safeguard the UK and Israel’s national security.
Throughout this roadmap, Israel and the UK will continue to cooperate, both bilaterally and through international fora, jointly to counter global challenges and threats.
We will cooperate in improving Palestinian livelihoods and Palestinian economic development.
We remain united in our shared concern towards Iran’s nuclear activities and tackling Iran’s destabilising and malign activity in the Middle East, whether engaged in directly or through proxies and terrorist groups.
( UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, 21.03.2023 ) .. gov.uk
Eleven Suspects Arrested In Turkey For Organ Trafficking.
Police in the Turkish city of Adana detained eleven suspects, five Israeli and two Syrian, on allegations of organ trafficking.
The Provincial Directorate of Security’s Anti-Smuggling and Border Gates Branch began investigating after examining the passports of seven individuals who arrived in Adana from Israel by plane for the purpose of health tourism.
The two Syrian nationals, ages 20 and 21, were found to have fake passports.
Further investigation revealed that the Syrian nationals had each agreed to sell one of their own kidneys to two of the Israeli nationals, ages 68 and 28, for kidney transplants in Adana. During searches at the suspects’ residences, $65,000 and numerous fake passports were seized.
Israel has long been at the centre of what Bloomberg newspaper described in 2011 as a “sprawling global black market in organs where brokers use deception, violence, and coercion to buy kidneys from impoverished people, mainly in underdeveloped countries, and then sell them to critically ill patients in more-affluent nations. Many of the black-market kidneys harvested by these gangs are destined for people who live in Israel.”
( The Cradle, 05.05.2024 ) .. thecradle.co
Israel Is Killing At Least 67 Palestinian Children On Average Each Day.
The Israeli military is killing over five dozen children every day in Gaza, a UN official has reported, as Israel is worsening already unimaginable conditions in Gaza each day with no end in sight.
Israel is killing at least 67 Palestinian children on average each day amid its genocide, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) officer Louise Wateridge told Al Jazeera.
This is a show of the outsized toll of Israel’s violence against children, who account for the single largest group of those killed by Israel, according to a UN report.
According to the report, the age group most affected by Israel’s slaughter is those aged between 0 and 14 years old
In June 2024, Israel was officially added to a UN list of global violators of childrens’ rights, after the UN noted that 2023 saw the highest-ever level of recorded violations against children, due in large part to Israel’s assault on Palestine.
The true death toll is likely far higher, and it is possible that tens of thousands more children are dead, with children accounting for roughly 40% of deaths in Gaza.
On top of these horrific killings, Israeli forces have detained and tortured hundreds, if not thousands, of children from Gaza and the occupied West Bank amid the genocide.
These children are among the over 20,000 children in Gaza who are missing, according to an estimate from Save the Children earlier this year, either separated from their families, abducted by Israeli forces, trapped under rubble, buried in mass graves, or otherwise.
( Sharon Zhang, 08.11.2024 ) .. truthout.org
The Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921.
The U.S. Justice Department issued a report on the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, when as many as 10,000 white Tulsans murdered hundreds of Black residents and burned businesses and homes to the ground in an attack that federal investigators found “was so systematic and coordinated that it transcended mere mob violence.”
“The Tulsa race massacre stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility and its utter annihilation of a thriving Black community,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
“In 1921, white Tulsans murdered hundreds of residents of Greenwood, burned their homes and churches, looted their belongings, and locked the survivors in internment camps.”
“Until this day, the justice department has not spoken publicly about this race massacre or officially accounted for the horrific events that transpired in Tulsa. This report breaks that silence by rigorous examination and a full accounting of one of the darkest episodes of our nation’s past. This report lays bare new information and shows that the massacre was the result not of uncontrolled mob violence, but of a coordinated, military-style attack on Greenwood.”
( Equal Justice Initiative, 13.01.2025 ) .. eji.org
Former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant authorised the controversial Hannibal Directive during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 Gallant confirmed giving the order in certain areas. “I think that, tactically, in some places, it was given, and in other places, it was not given, and that is a problem,” he said.
This military protocol allows the use of force, even at the risk of killing hostages, to prevent captives from falling into enemy hands.
The policy has been highly controversial and is believed to have been used unofficially in multiple conflicts.
The directive prioritises preventing enemy leverage over safeguarding soldiers’ lives.
Israel has accused Hamas of killing approximately 1,100 Israeli soldiers and civilians during the attack.
But Gallant’s admission points out the Israeli military’s actions might have also killed some Israeli hostages and civilians.
During the attack, the Israeli army deployed helicopters, drones, and tanks on its territory, targeting Hamas fighters but also striking Israelis who were being taken captive.
Reports from the United Nations indicate that Israeli attack helicopters fired on civilians at the Nova music festival, near the Re’im military base, leading to further casualties.
( NDTV, 09.02.2025 ) .. hdtv.com
Palestinian-American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh Was Killed By Israel.
A new U.S.-made documentary has produced evidence pointing to the identity of an Israeli soldier who shot dead the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022.
The documentary, Who Killed Shireen?, concludes that a member of the Duvdevan Israeli special forces unit shot Abu Akleh while she was reporting for Al Jazeera in Jenin, on the West Bank.
The Israeli government, led by Naftali Bennett at the time, initially tried to cast blame on Palestinian militants for her death, but after a few months admitted that Israeli troops were probably responsible.
However, the Israelis never identified the unit or individual responsible, nor did they allow the Biden administration access to them.
The documentary, made by the Zeteo media organisation, sets out not only to identify the soldier responsible for the journalist’s death, but also to show the failure of the U.S. government to hold the Israeli military to account.
An unnamed Biden administration official said a U.S. team that investigated the incident came to the conclusion that an Israeli soldier intentionally shot Abu Akleh and should have been able to see that she was a journalist.
“The evidence as it stands, based upon the proximity of the reporters in the road and the soldiers from the Duvdevan units on the street, it was an indication that it was an intentional killing of Shireen Abu Akleh,” the official told the film-makers.
( Julian Borger, 08.05.2025 ) .. theguardian.com
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