Category Archives: Mideast

London: ‘We will continue protesting for Palestine, and we will win’

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Shabbir Lakha from Counterfire

Amid the state clampdown on Palestine solidarity, hundreds of thousands marched through London in defiant opposition to the genocide, reports Shabbir Lakha

Recently, The Economist remarked that the “Starmerites thought they had defeated the politics of Palestine. It may defeat them.” To prove how correct this assessment is, on Saturday, [August 9] an estimated 300,000 people marched through central London for the 28th national demonstration for Palestine since October 2023.

Video of march

It was an objectively huge demonstration, but even more impressive considering it was called with two-weeks’ notice, in the middle of August, and despite the police’s best efforts to intimidate protesters and to delay the coalition from announcing the route.

The demonstration was emotionally charged, angry and militant. Along with the usual array of placards taking aim at Starmer and calling for action, there were noticeably more signs relating to the clampdown on our democratic rights and civil liberties. The huge number of banners of local groups from across the country showed the truly national character of the march. The one noticeable absence was any significant presence of trade union flags or banners.

Over 800 people also gathered in Parliament Square to defy the proscription of Palestine Action, and the Met Police arrested 466 people – including a blind man in a wheelchair and a 90-year-old woman. The Met Police had set up field arrest-processing sites at the top and bottom of Whitehall, and swarms of them and their reinforcements from forces around the country trotted about in stormtrooper formations throughout the day.

As Lindsey German, Convenor of Stop the War Coalition said in her speech,
“We are bitterly opposed to the proscription of Palestine Action. It is not terrorism to carry out direct action. It is not terrorism to support the Palestinians… There is something deeply, deeply wrong when a society allows Israel to commit genocide but cannot allow protests on the streets of London… We will continue protesting, and we will win.”

The weekend’s mobilisations come after weeks of horrifying images of Palestinian children starving to death, of seeing desperate Palestinians being shot dead while queueing for aid in cattle-pens, and following Netanyahu’s announcement of his plan to launch a full military invasion and total re-occupation of Gaza.

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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Keir Starmer’s pathetic statement in response offers only the mildest criticism to an open declaration of intent to commit further war crimes and to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people. His ‘threat’ of recognising a Palestinian state rings hollow while he continues to arm the genocidal Israeli state, train its soldiers on RAF bases and provide intelligence from RAF spy flights.

But his meek words are nonetheless a departure from his October 2023 claim that Israel ‘has the right’ to cut off food, water and electricity for Gaza’s civilian population. Starmer is reacting to the persistent groundswell of opposition his government is facing over its role in facilitating genocide.

The backbone of this has been the consistent mass mobilisations that have repeatedly brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of the capital. Polling shows that a growing majority of the population back a ceasefire, arms embargo and sanctions on Israel. In recent weeks, there has been a noticeable sea change in the coverage and editorial lines of mainstream media outlets, including the Daily Express, the Financial Times and The Economist.

This is coupled by a rapidly expanding list of celebrities and cultural figures speaking out in all forums against the genocide and the British government’s actions. Saturday’s national demonstration was addressed by Bafta-nominated actor Denise Gough, comedian Ivo Graham, and Danni Perry, a dancer who held up a Palestinian flag at the Royal Opera House and successfully campaigned to get the Royal Ballet and Opera to cancel its production in Tel Aviv.

Denise Gough told Counterfire,
“I’m here at the rally because if I don’t spend my time in spaces where people have care for the rest of the world then I feel very, very alone. It’s important for all of us to come here so that we can get re-energised, because genocide is exhausting.”

When the situation in Palestine is as dire as it is, when there is growing support among some of the most influential figures in society for an end to British support for Israel, and when the government is on the backfoot, is precisely the time to escalate the movement to put an end to Starmer’s support for genocide and to defend our right to protest.
Upcoming mobilisations:

Saturday 16 August: Stop Arming Israel – protest at RAF High Wycombe

Saturday 6 September: National demonstration for Palestine – central London

Saturday 27 September: National demonstration at Labour Conference – Liverpool

Sunday 5 October: International Meeting against the War – Paris

Shabbir Lakha is a Stop the War officer, a People’s Assembly activist and a member of Counterfire.

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Europe, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY,

Australia: Pro-Palestine demonstration shuts down Sydney Harbour Bridge

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Nick Dobrijevich from the Peoples Dispatch (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Hundreds of thousands rallied on Sunday, August 3, calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people marking one of the largest political mobilizations in Sydney for decades. Organized by the Palestine Action Group (PAG), organizers estimated that 300,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge – one of the most recognizable landmarks in Australia.

video of the march

The State Premier of New South Wales (NSW), Chris Minns, publicly opposed the action earlier this week saying it would, “allow Sydney to descend into chaos”. The NSW police also attempted to shut the protest down by challenging organizers in the Supreme Court. NSW has one of the harshest restrictions on the right to protest introduced under recent anti-protest laws.

Starting in Lang Park in Sydney’s CBD, the rally was addressed by Palestinian writer and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah and refugee rights advocate, Craig Foster. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was also in attendance.

Federal Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi told the rally, “they [the government] parroted Israel’s propaganda. They demonized anyone who stood up and spoke out…Now because of your pressure, because of you protesting week in, week out, they are moving inch by inch. We cannot stop now.”

Jewish writer and journalist Antony Loewenstein said, “we are the majority, not the people who support what is happening in Palestine today. The only way this will stop is isolation for Israel. There is only one way: sanctions, boycotts and divestment.”

Growing opposition to Israel

Since October 7, 2023, there have been weekly rallies in Sydney and across Australia. Yet Sunday saw broadener sections of the population mobilize in support of Palestine. Historic numbers of community groups, trade unions and political organizations endorsed the action while a number of NSW politicians – including from the Minns government – backed the historic “March for Humanity”.

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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In the lead-up to Sunday’s action, images of Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinians in Gaza featured regularly on Australian mainstream media. The government’s staunch and ongoing backing of the Israeli regime further pushed a groundswell of support for Palestine.

Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong made minor criticisms of Israel and followed other imperialist countries in backing a future Palestinian state. Finance Minister Jim Chalmers was widely quoted saying, “from an Australian point of view, recognition of the state of Palestine is a matter of when, not if.”

This came after minor sanctions on far-right extremist politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in June. However, the Australian state has so far failed to adopt any of the movement’s demands including an end to all military ties with Israel, immediate sanctions, an end to weapons manufacturing – particularly deals with Elbit Systems and production of parts for F-35 fighter jets – and the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador.

Pushing forward

In recent decades, Australia has seen large mobilizations in support of progressive causes at home and against imperialism abroad. Some of these campaigns have forced the government to capitulate to the demands of the movement.

The 1960s and 1970s Moratorium Movement, for example, forced an Australian military withdrawal from Vietnam while the movement for East Timor’s independence forced the Australian state to abandon its decades-long backing of the Indonesian military government in the 1990s. Large rallies against the US invasion of Iraq and Australian involvement in that, however, did not succeed.

It remains unclear whether the Australian state can be pushed to abandon its unequivocal support of Israel’s genocidal war and force Wong and Albanese to adopt concrete action instead of empty slogans. Sunday’s rally is a clear indication of the broadening opposition to Israel’s genocide among broader sections of the Australian population This growing momentum could force further political changes.

Nick Dobrijevich is an Asia Pacific solidarity activist, translator and researcher based in Sydney, Australia.

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East Asia, Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY,

Colombia: At Hague Group Emergency Summit, 30+ Nations Seek to ‘Halt the Genocide in Gaza’

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article by Brett Wilkins in Common Dreams (reprinted according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Ministerial delegates from more than 30 nations gathered in the Colombian capital Bogotá Tuesday [July 15] for an emergency summit focused on “concrete measures” to end Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza and other crimes against occupied Palestine.

(Editor’s note: According to a followup article, “On the second and final day of an emergency summit in Bogotá, Colombia—which co-chairs the Hague Group with South Africa—the coalition announced a six-point plan for “coordinated diplomatic, legal, and economic measures to restrain Israel’s assault on the occupied Palestinian territories and defend international law at large.”)


Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, speaks during the emergency conference of The Hague Group at the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá on July 15, 2025. (Photo: Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images)

The two-day Hague Group summit ultimately aims to “halt the genocide in Gaza” and sois led by co-chairs Colombia—which last year severed diplomatic relations with Israel—and South Africa, which filed the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) joined by around two dozen countries. Progressive International first convened the Hague Group in January in the eponymous Dutch city, which is home to both the ICJ and International Criminal Court (ICC), whose rulings the coalition is dedicated to upholding.

“This summit marks a turning point in the global response to the erosion and violation of international law,” South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said ahead of the gathering. “No country is above the law, and no crime will go unanswered.”

Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir said before the summit: “The Palestinian genocide threatens the entire international system. Colombia cannot remain indifferent in the face of apartheid and ethnic cleansing. The participating states will not only reaffirm their commitment to opposing genocide, but also formulate concrete steps to move from words to collective action.

That action includes enforcement of ICC arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation in a war that has left more than 211,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Hague Group members Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, and Senegal will attend the summit. Algeria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Venezuela will also take part.

Notably, so will NATO members and U.S. allies Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and Turkey. Like Israel, the United States denies there is a genocide in Gaza, despite growing international consensus among human rights defenders, jurists, and genocide experts including some of the leading Holocaust scholars in Israel and the United States.

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Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department—which has sanctioned ICC judges and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese for seeking accountability for Israeli crimes—told Jewish News Syndicate Monday that the United States “strongly opposes efforts by so-called ‘multilateral blocs’ to weaponize international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas.”

The spokesperson added that the Trump administration “will aggressively defend our interests, our military, and our allies, including Israel, from such coordinated legal and diplomatic warfare,” even as U.S. allies take part in the summit.

Undaunted by U.S. sanctions, Albanese is among several U.N. experts who spoke at the summit, which she hailed as “the most significant political development in the past 20 months.

In prepared remarks, Albanese—who earlier this month said that “Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history”—told attendees that “for too long, international law has been treated as optional—applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful.”

“This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order,” she argued. “That era must end.”

According to Albanese:

The world will remember what we, states and individuals, did in this moment—whether we recoiled in fear or rose in defense of human dignity. Here in Bogotá, a growing number of states have the opportunity to break the silence and revert to a path of legality by finally saying: Enough. Enough impunity. Enough empty rhetoric. Enough exceptionalism. Enough complicity. The time has come to act in pursuit of justice and peace—grounded in rights and freedoms for all, and not mere privileges for some, at the expense of the annihilation of others.

The Israeli Mission to the United Nations told Jewish News Syndicate that “what the event organizers, and perhaps some of the countries attending, forget is what triggered this conflict—namely, the butchering of 1,200 innocent souls on October 7, and how 50 Israelis remain in brutal captivity to this day by Hamas in Gaza.”

“Attempting to exert pressure on Israel—and not Hamas, who initiated and are prolonging this conflict—is a moral travesty,” the mission added. “The war will not end while hostages remain in Gaza.”

In addition to the ICC warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the ICJ—whose ruling in the genocide case is not expected for years—has ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, to stop blocking lifesaving humanitarian aid from entering the strip, and to halt its assault on Rafah. Israel has ignored all three orders.

“The choice before us is stark and unforgiving,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote in The Guardian last week. “We can either stand firm in defense of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics.”

“While we may face threats of retaliation when we stand up for international law—as South Africa discovered when the United States retaliated for its case at the International Court of Justice—the consequences of abdicating our responsibilities will be dire,” Petro continued. “If we fail to act now, we not only betray the Palestinian people, we become complicit in the atrocities committed by Netanyahu’s government.”

“For the billions of people in the Global South who rely on international law for protection, the stakes could not be higher,” he added. “The Palestinian people deserve justice. The moment demands courage.”

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global, HUMAN RIGHTS, Latin America, Mideast, ,

Israel: Tens of thousands of protesters at Hostages Square call for an end to the Gaza war

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An article from Arab News

Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Israel on Saturday [June 28] to demand that the government secure the release of 49 hostages still held in Gaza.


A crowd filled the “Hostages Square” in central Tel Aviv. Image: Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency/IMAGO

It was the first rally by hostages’ relatives since Israel agreed a ceasefire with Iran on June 24 after a 12-day war, raising hopes that the truce would lend momentum to efforts to end the Gaza conflict and bring the hostages home.

Emergency restrictions in place during the war with Iran had prevented the normally weekly rally from taking place.

A crowd filled “Hostages Square” in central Tel Aviv, waving Israeli flags and placards bearing the pictures of Israelis seized by Palestinian militants during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The deadly attacks prompted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a fierce military offensive in Gaza, vowing to crush Hamas and free the hostages.

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How can we be sure to get news about peace demonstrations?

How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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Twenty months and several hostage exchanges later, 49 of those seized are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead — raising pressure on Netanyahu’s government.

“The war with Iran ended in an agreement. The war in Gaza must end the same way — with a deal that brings everyone home,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main body representing the relatives, in a statement to mark the rally.

Some demonstrators called on US President Donald Trump to help secure a ceasefire in Gaza that would see the captives freed, hailing his backing for Israel in the conflict with Iran.

“President Trump, end the crisis in Gaza. Nobel is waiting,” read one placard, in reference to a possible peace prize for the US leader.

“I call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump,” one released hostage, Liri Albag, said at the rally.

“You made brave decisions on Iran. Now make the brave decision to end the war in Gaza and bring them home.”

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Other sources about the demonstration include the following: Haaretz, Times of Israel and France 24
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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Mideast

Hundreds of Thousands March Against US-Backed Israeli Aggression in Tehran

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An article by Jake Johnson from Common Dreams (reprinted according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran on Friday to protest Israel’s illegal and escalating assault as the U.S.—Israel’s top ally and arms supplier—considers entering the war, which killed or wounded more than 2,600 Iranians during its first week.


Iranians protest Israeli attacks in Tehran on June 20, 2025. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi called Friday’s demonstrations “unprecedentedly large.”

“We have to keep in mind that a considerable proportion of Tehran’s population has decided to get out of the city amid the attacks, but still we see huge numbers,” said Asadi. “Since day one of these strikes, we’ve seen this strong sense of anger from ordinary citizens. Now they’re taking to the streets to express that.”

Protests also broke out in the capitals of Iraq and Lebanon as Israel and Iran traded missile strikes, and Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, arrived in Geneva for talks with European Union and United Kingdom officials.
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In an interview ahead of the talks, Araghchi called the United States “a partner in this crime” and said that Iran is unwilling to engage in negotiations “until this aggression stops.”

Citing an unnamed senior Iranian official,  Reuters reported that Iran “was ready to discuss limitations on uranium enrichment but that any proposal for zero enrichment—not being able to enrich uranium at all—would be rejected, ‘especially now under Israel’s strikes.'”

The mass demonstrations came as U.S. President Donald Trump weighed options—including the use of a nuclear weapon—to directly join Israel’s attack on Iran. The White House said Thursday that a final decision from the president will come within two weeks.

Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council, said in a statement Friday that “the use of nuclear weapons to prevent the mere possibility of nuclear weapons is not strategy—it is a waking nightmare.”

“A nuclear strike would massacre Iranians indiscriminately and unleash devastating radioactive fallout across Iran and the region, spreading terror, panic, and irreversible harm,” said Costello. “We should never have come to this point. But we are here. And we must raise our voices, urgently, against Netanyahu’s war of aggression and the warmongers cheering it on. The path forward is diplomacy, not devastation. We must shut this Pandora’s box before more horrors are unleashed.”

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Mideast

The Hague: Rally against Gaza genocide June 15

. . HUMAN RIGHTS . .

An article from the New Arab

Tens of thousands of people dressed in red marched through the streets of The Hague on Sunday (June 15) to demand more action from the Dutch government against Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza, calling it a genocide.

(Editor’s note: the following video of the three-mile march supports claims that there were 150,000 people and that it was the largest demonstration in the Netherlands in this century.)



Video copied from twitter account of Rutger Bregman

Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Oxfam organised the demonstration through the city to the International Court of Justice, creating a so-called “red line”.

Many waving Palestinian flags and some chanting “Stop the Genocide”, the demonstrators turned a central park in the city into a sea of red on a sunny afternoon.

Protesters brandished banners reading “Don’t look away, do something”, “Stop Dutch complicity”, and “Be silent when kids sleep, not when they die”.

Organisers urged the Dutch government – which collapsed on 3 June after a far-right party pulled out of a fragile coalition – to do more to rein in Israel.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

(continued from left column)

“People in Gaza cannot wait and the Netherlands has a duty to do everything it can to stop the genocide,” they said in their call to action.

Dodo Van Der Sluis, a 67-year-old pensioner, told AFP: “It has to stop. Enough is enough. I can’t take it anymore.”

“I’m here because I think it’s maybe the only thing you can do now as a Dutch citizen, but it’s something you have to do,” she added.

A previous protest in The Hague on 18 May drew more than 100,000 people, according to organisers, who described it as the country’s largest demo in 20 years.

Police did not give an estimate for that demonstration.

Israel began waging a war on the Gaza Strip on7 October, 2023, in response to a surprise attack launched by Hamas. Israel’s actions have been decried globally over the months, with many experts labelling it as a genocide against the Palestinian people.

Israel’s military operation has killed at least 55,207 people, the majority of them civilians.

The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a case brought by South Africa against Israel, arguing its actions in Gaza breach the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

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Europe, HUMAN RIGHTS, Mideast,

Final declaration of NADA (Regional Democratic Women’s Coalition in the Middle East and North Africa) congress

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from Women Defend Rojava

The first congress of the Regional Democratic Women’s Coalition in the Middle East and North Africa (NADA) took place in Suleymaniya [Iraq] on May 15th, 16th, and 17th, 2025. Around 200 women from 19 different countries participated, including representatives from Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Palestine, Iran, and others.

This congress was a strategic event for women and society in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as an important step toward building a global women’s confederation. Below is the final declaration of the congress.

“We are currently undergoing a period of significant transformation, marked by dramatic changes in all areas and unfolding amid intense developments at both the regional and international levels. While unjust policies and practices have deepened the devastating impact of these transformations on women, they have also opened up new and significant opportunities.

In this context, the NADA Alliance held its first post-foundation congress on May 15–17, 2025, in the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, under the slogan ‘Towards a Democratic Society Based on Women’s Revolution.’ The congress brought together hundreds of women activists, organizations, and institutions from across the Middle East and North Africa (including Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Mauritania, Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan). The participation of women from Arab, Kurdish, Syriac, Assyrian, Armenian, Amazigh, Persian, Afghan, and Yazidi (Êzidî) communities represented the unity of women across the region’s immense cultural diversity.

The congress sessions focused on core theoretical issues related to the exclusion and injustice faced by women in the Middle East. The third world war currently unfolding in the region was described as a silent genocide against women: massacres, forced displacement, abduction, and the use of women as tools of war, as seen in the atrocities committed against Yazidi women in Shengal in 2014, or in the ongoing devastation in Palestine over the past year and a half. Similar atrocities are taking place in Sudan and Yemen. These brutal wars are not only the product of democracy-deprived nation-states, but also the result of global capitalism’s alliance with local political-religious powers. These dynamics, compounded by patriarchal laws, constitutional frameworks, and regressive social values, have further marginalized women.

The congress also addressed the historical legacy of women’s resistance and their struggle to uphold this legacy amid today’s crises. Women have never stepped back; on the contrary, they have forged a powerful connection between the matriarchal culture of the past and the goals of contemporary struggle. The women’s revolutions in Rojava, Sudan, Yemen, and Tunisia, as well as the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” (Woman, Life, Freedom) uprising in Iran and Eastern Kurdistan (Rojhilat), are vivid examples of this continuity. The congress emphasized that a society based on women’s freedom must be built upon a shared life rooted in equality between men and women.

Participants thoroughly evaluated the current state of the women’s struggle, the challenges it faces, and the opportunities that lie ahead. The discussions emphasized the importance of seizing available resources and historical openings to strengthen efforts toward building peace and establishing a democratic society rooted in the women’s revolution. It was also stressed that regional alliances among women must be reinforced, and the need for collective resistance against patriarchal and anti-woman neoliberal coalitions was highlighted. The congress further underlined that women must have access to legal, constitutional, and security-based protection and defense mechanisms, particularly in times of war and conflict.

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Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

(Article continued from left column)

The congress emphasized that in response to the political dynamics of the third world war, it is essential to develop a unified political struggle led by women and to build global women’s networks that can carry forward the universal legacy of women. The NADA Alliance was highlighted as a driving force in continuing the passionate women’s revolution under the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî”.

On the third day of the congress, participants reviewed the past activities of the NADA Alliance, defined its strategic objectives, and established seven specialized committees to implement the alliance’s projects.

Participants reached a consensus on the following points:

– To strengthen the NADA Alliance as a comprehensive women’s platform grounded in human rights, embracing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Istanbul Convention, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, and relevant regional protocols.

– To adopt the Rojava and North and East Syria Women’s Revolution Document and the Charter of the Global Democratic Women’s Confederation as core references of the NADA Alliance, thereby reinforcing international solidarity among women.

– To enhance women’s organization and resistance for a society based on freedom, a life shared in equality between women and men, democracy, and social justice.

– To struggle for a democratic society and peace built on individual freedom, free from extremism, and from ethnic, religious, or sectarian divisions.

– To support Abdullah Öcalan’s Call for Peace and Democratic Society, which centers on women’s freedom.

– To demand the release of women prisoners held in the jails of occupying forces and authoritarian regimes.

– To stand in solidarity with the resistance of Yazidi women and offer support for their struggle.

– To provide both national and international support to women’s resistance in the face of war, occupation, genocide, displacement, demographic engineering, and sexual violence occurring across the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

– To establish networks among women’s organizations, promote the sharing of ideas, visions, and experiences, and address women’s issues as a transnational human cause.

– To ensure women’s active participation in political decision-making processes and to strengthen their intellectual and social capacities.

– To expand the work of the NADA Alliance through its local committees in each country and to reinforce joint actions on both local and regional levels.

– To build a women-centered, independent media that amplifies women’s issues and counters the male-dominated media narrative that degrades women.

Long live the free women’s struggle in the Middle East and North Africa!

Long live the women’s revolution! (Woman, Life, Freedom – Jin, Jiyan, Azadî)

Regional Democratic Women’s Alliance (NADA Alliance)”

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Mideast, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Global March to Gaza

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An article published June 12 in Sharing.org Reprinted according to  Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0

Meeting in Cairo, Egypt, over 30 countries are coming together for a historic international march  in solidarity with Gaza.

In a first-of-its-kind step, a coalition of unions, solidarity movements, and international human rights organizations from over 32 countries has announced the launch of the “Global March to Gaza” — a plan to enter the Gaza Strip on foot in response to the catastrophic humanitarian conditions endured by its population under an Israeli siege that has lasted nearly 20 months.

The march aims to directly stop the genocide against the Palestinian people, facilitate the immediate entry of humanitarian aid, and demand an end to the siege on Gaza.

Participants are from Western countries, not just from Arab or Muslim communities, with more than 10,000 people having expressed interest in joining. Task forces have been formed geographically to ensure effective logistics and multilingual media communication.

The march follows an Israeli plan to delegate aid entry to a private company, which the UN has rejected, arguing it would worsen displacement, restrict aid access, and tie humanitarian aid to political and military agendas.

Key objectives of the march

Around 3,000 aid trucks loaded with food, medicine, and fuel have been waiting for months at Rafah. The march’s primary goal is to break the inhumane blockade imposed since 7 October 2023.

According to the organizers, other goals include:

1. Stop the genocide

Collective, practical action to halt ongoing Israeli crimes, especially the use of starvation as a weapon and the systematic killing of children.

2. Immediate humanitarian aid access

Demand for direct and urgent entry of food, medical supplies, and essentials through the Rafah Crossing, where thousands of trucks have been stuck at the border.

3. End the siege

Call for the unconditional opening of a stable humanitarian corridor and removal of restrictions preventing access to food, clean water, fuel, and medicine.

4. Mobilize international opinion

Unite civil societies across countries to expose war crimes, pressure governments, and engage global media in supporting justice and Palestinian human rights.

(continued in right column)

Question related to this article:
 
How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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Video copied from twitter account of March to Gaza

5. Accountability for war crimes

Call for legal and ethical accountability for all parties contributing to or complicit in violations against the Palestinian people.

Solidarity as a principle

German lawyer Melanie Schweizer explained that this peaceful initiative also sends symbolic messages of international solidarity, aiming to:

° Represent civil societies of the participating countries.

° Involve unions, rights organizations, medical and humanitarian sectors, and individuals from all backgrounds to amplify the voice of global civil society.

° Emphasize the nonviolent and voluntary nature of the march — no government backing, and participants self-fund their journey.

March route and logistics

Because participants come from various countries, the plan is to converge in Cairo starting 12 June, then travel to Arish and proceed on foot to Gaza via Rafah Crossing.

Eduard Camacho, from the Catalan union IAC, confirmed that each person will cover their own expenses with minimal logistical support. The route involves:

1. Coordinating local start points and liaising with ground activities.

2. Dividing participants into national groups, each organizing in its own language and culture.

3. Reaching Cairo, traveling to Arish, and marching by foot to Rafah.

4. Engaging embassies and Egyptian authorities, formally requesting cooperation.

5. Staging a sit-in at Rafah Crossing to demand its opening and aid delivery.

More information: https://marchtogaza.net

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Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Gaza Floatilla Ship Madleen Begins Voyage to Gaza

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by Ann Wright in Peace and Planet News

The Gaza Flotilla sailboat Madleen set off from Catania, Sicily, Italy on June 1, 2025 for a 7-day voyage to Gaza  to break the 40-year illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and now to stop the 600 day genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The ship and her 12-person crew and participants departed at 4 pm Central European Summer Time following four very successful community events in Catania, each event having several hundred members of the local community attending.


Climate activist Greta Thunberg and Thiago Avila from the Freedom Flotilla Steering Committee meet with journalists in Catania, Italy.

The Madleen is named after Gaza’s first and only fisherwoman in 2014. The ship is a symbol of the unyielding spirit of Palestinian resilience and the growing global resistance to Israel’s use of collective punishment and deliberate starvation policies.

Her launch comes just one month after Israeli drones bombed Conscience, another Freedom Flotilla aid ship, underscoring both the urgency and the danger of this mission to break the siege on Gaza.

The Conscience had been in international waters off the European country of Malta as the flotilla coalition was ready to board around 35 participants onto the ship. The bombing occurred hours following the flight of an Israeli military C-130 Hercules aircraft around Malta.

In the afternoon of May 1, only hours before the Israeli military bombed the Conscience, the small Pacific island of Palau, which is dependent on U.S. funding through the Compact of Free Association, cancelled  the flag and certification of the Conscience, no doubt following pressure from the U.S. government.

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Question related to this article:
 
How can we best express solidarity with the people of Gaza?

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Madleen is carrying urgently needed supplies for the people of Gaza, including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition  emphasizes that this is a peaceful act of civil resistance. All volunteers and crew aboard Madleen are trained in nonviolence. They are sailing unarmed, united by the shared belief that Palestinians deserve the same rights, freedom, and dignity as all people.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition calls on:

Governments to guarantee safe passage for Madleen and all humanitarian vessels;

Media outlets to report on this mission with accuracy and integrity;

People of conscience everywhere to reject silence and take action for Gaza.

Those onboard the Madleen are:

Mark Van Rennes (crew) The Netherlands

2. Reva Seifert Viard (crew) France

3. Pascal Maurieras (crew) France

4. Sergio Toribio (crew) Spain

5. Thiago Ávila (Freedom Flotilla Steering Committee) (Brazil)

6. Yasemin Acar (Freedom Flotilla Steering Committee) (Germany)

7. Rima Hassan (European Parliamentarian) France

8. Greta Thunberg (climate activist) Sweden

9. Yanis M’Hamdi (journalist) France

10. Suayb Ordu (engineer) Turkey

11. Omar Fayad (Al Jazeera reporter) France

12. Baptiste Andre (Doctor) France

Donate to the Freedom Flotilla here

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Mideast, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal (28 May 2025)

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

An article by Richard Falk from the Transcend Media Service

The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal, a consensus document prepared in conjunction with participants in the first of two Public Sessions of the Gaza Tribunal, was released on 28 May 2025. The second session of the tribunal is scheduled for late October. The proceedings in Sarajevo consisted of survivor testimony from Gaza, invited expert speakers, a round-table on media complicity, and the reports of three chambers tasked with documenting evidence and consequences of alleged genocide and crimes associated with forcible application of the Settler Colonial Project to Gaza following 7 Oct, as well as the failure of the UN, growing public protests, and of leading governments to bring the genocide to an end in accordance with international law and hold the perpetrators accountable.

The Sarajevo Declaration is a comprehensive text intended to convey the orientation, broad scope of the goals of civil society solidarity activation and reflecting the diversity of concerns among members of the Gaza Tribunal community. Sarajevo was our chosen site to express symbolic solidarity with an earlier genocide at Srebrenica that occurred 30 years ago. Encourage wide sharing of the Sarajevo Declaration. It is my honor to serve as president of the GTP in concert with dedicated scholars, witnesses, and activists from around the world, including the inspiring participation of our Palestinian sisters and brothers.

The Sarajevo Declaration of the Gaza Tribunal

28 May We, the members of the Gaza Tribunal, having gathered in Sarajevo from 25 to 29 May 2025, declare our collective moral outrage at the continuing genocide in Palestine, our solidarity with the people of Palestine, and our commitment to working with partners across global civil society to end the genocide and to ensure accountability for perpetrators and enablers, redress for victims and survivors, the building of a more just international order, and a free Palestine.

We condemn the Israeli regime, its perpetration of genocide, and its decades-long policies and practices of settler colonialism, ethno-supremacism, apartheid, racial segregation, persecution, unlawful settlements, the denial of the right to return, collective punishment, mass detention, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment and punishment, extrajudicial executions, systematic sexual violence, demolitions, forced displacement and expulsions, ethnic purges and forced demographic change, forced starvation, the systematic denial of all economic and social rights, and extermination.

We are horrified by the Israeli regime’s systematic devastation of Palestinian lives, lands, and livelihoods, including its intentional destruction of all sources and systems for food, water, healthcare, education, housing, culture, as well as mosques, churches, aid facilities, and refugee shelters, and its targeting of medical personnel, journalists, aid workers, and United Nations staff, and its direct targeting of civilians, including children and older persons, women and men,  girls and boys, persons with disabilities and those with medical conditions.

We demand an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end to the genocide, to all Israeli military action, to forced displacement and expulsions, to settlement activities, to the siege of Gaza and restrictions on movement in the West Bank. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners, including the thousands of Palestinian women, men and children held in abusive Israeli detention facilities. We insist on the immediate resumption of massive humanitarian aid to all of Gaza without restriction or interference, including food, water, shelter, medical supplies and equipment, sanitary equipment, rescue equipment, and construction materials and equipment. We call as well for a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from all Lebanese and Syrian territory.

We call for an end of the smearing of UNRWA and other humanitarian workers, for the free and unhindered access of UNRWA and all other United Nations and humanitarian organizations in all areas of Gaza and the West Bank, for full compensation by the Israeli regime for damage caused to UN and humanitarian facilities, alongside full compensation and reparations to the Palestinian people, and for full accountability for the harassment, abduction, torture, and murder of UNRWA and other humanitarian workers and their families.

We call on all governments and on regional and international organizations to end the historic scandal of inaction that has characterized the past nineteen months, to urgently respond with all means at their disposal to end the Israeli assault and siege, to uphold international law, to hold perpetrators to account, and to provide immediate relief and protection to the people of Palestine.

We denounce the continued complicity of governments in the perpetration of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Palestine, and the shameful role of many media corporations in covering up the genocide, dehumanizing Palestinians, and in the dissemination of propaganda fueling anti-Palestinian racism, war crimes, and genocide.

We equally denounce the wave of persecution and crackdowns on human rights defenders, peace activists, students, academics, workers, professionals, and others, perpetrated by Western governments, police agencies, the private sector, and educational institutions. We honor those who, despite this persecution, have had the courage and moral convictions to stand up and speak out against these historic horrors, and we insist on the full protection of the human rights of free expression, opinion, assembly, and association, as well as the right to defend human rights without harassment, retaliation, or persecution.

We reject the unjust tactic of smearing as “antisemites” or “supporters of terrorism” all those who dare to speak up and act to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and to condemn the injustices and atrocities of the Israeli regime and its perpetration of apartheid and genocide, or those who criticize the ideology of political Zionism. We stand in solidarity with all those who have been smeared or punished in this way.

We are convinced that the struggle against all forms of racism, bigotry, and discrimination necessarily includes the equal rejection of Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism, and antisemitism. It also includes an acknowledgment of the horrific effects that Zionism, apartheid, and settler-colonialism have had and continue to have on the Palestinian people. We commit to fighting all such scourges.

We also reject the destructive ideology of political Zionism, as the official state ideology of the Israeli regime, of the forces that colonized Palestine and established the Israeli state on its ruins, and of pro-Israel organizations and proxies today. We insist, in the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and that there are no exceptions to this rule. We call for decolonization across the land, an end to the ethno-supremacist order, and the replacement of political Zionism with a dispensation founded on equal human rights for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and others.

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Question related to this article:

How can war crimes be documented, stopped, punished and prevented?

How can a culture of peace be established in the Middle East?

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We are inspired by the courageous resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of over a century of persecution, and by the growing movement of millions standing in solidarity with them around the world, including the principled advocacy and nonviolent action of thousands of Jewish activists who have rejected the Israeli regime and its ethnonationalist ideology, and have declared that the Israeli regime neither represents them nor acts in their name.

We recognize the right of the Palestinian people to resist foreign occupation, colonial domination, apartheid, subjugation by a racist regime, and aggression, including through the use of armed struggle, in accordance with and as recognized in international law and as affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly.

We recall that the Palestinian right to self-determination is jus cogens and erga omnes (a universal rule not subject to exception and binding on all states) and is non-negotiable and axiomatic. We recognize that this right includes political, economic, social, and cultural self-determination, the right to return and full compensation for all harms suffered in a century of persecution, to permanent sovereignty over natural resources, and to non-aggression and non-intervention. We respect Palestinian aspirations and full Palestinian agency and leadership over all decisions affecting their lives, and we stand in solidarity with them.

We are gravely concerned at the direction of international relations, international politics, and international institutions, and by attacks on those international institutions that have challenged genocide and apartheid in Palestine. We believe that the normative foundations of the global order, grounded in human rights, the self-determination of peoples, peace, and the international rule of law, are being sacrificed at the altar of ruthless political realism and obsequious deference to power, with the people of Palestine left undefended and vulnerable on the front lines. We insist that another world is possible and intend to fight to bring it about.

We fear that the nascent and flawed international normative order, built up since the Second World War, with human rights at its center, is at risk of collapse as a result of the sustained attack waged on the system by the Israeli regime’s Western allies in their quest to buttress Israeli impunity. We pledge to oppose this attack and to work to protect and advance the project of building a world in which human rights are governed by the rule of law, beginning with the struggle for Palestinian freedom. And we believe that the weaknesses and inequities hard-wired into the international system from the start, including the geopolitical right of exception codified in the United Nations Security Council veto, the disempowerment of the General Assembly, and the structural obstacles that mitigate against the enforceability of International Court of Justice (ICJ) decisions, must be reformed and rectified.

We demand immediate action to isolate, contain, and hold accountable the Israeli regime through universal boycott, divestment, sanctions, a military embargo, suspension from International organizations, and the prosecution of its perpetrators, and we commit ourselves to this cause. We equally demand individual criminal accountability for all Israeli political and military leaders, soldiers, and settlers implicated in war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, or gross violations of human rights, as well as accountability for all persons and organizational actors guilty of complicity in the regime’s crimes, including external proxies of the Israeli regime, government officials, corporations, arms manufacturers, energy companies, technology firms, and financial institutions.

We applaud the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its ongoing historic genocide case against the Israeli regime and for its landmark advisory opinion findings on the illegality of the Israeli occupation, of the apartheid wall, and of the Israeli practice of apartheid and racial segregation, and its findings that the rights of the Palestinian people are not dependent upon or subject to negotiation with their oppressor and that all states are obliged to abstain from treaty, economic, trade, investment, or diplomatic relations with Israel’s occupation regime. We celebrate the principled action of South Africa in bringing to the ICJ the historic genocide case against the Israeli regime.

We call on all states to ensure the implementation of all provisional measures adopted by the ICJ in the genocide case against Israel, to fully respect the findings of the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2024, to comply with all elements of the United Nations General Assembly resolution of 13 September 2024 (A/ES-10/L.31/Rev.1), ending all arms trade with and implementing sanctions on the Israeli regime, and to support accountability for all Israeli perpetrators.  We urge civil society organizations and social movements around the world to initiate and strengthen campaigns to support the ICJ’s decisions and opinions on Palestine, and to press their own governments to abide by them.

We similarly applaud the International Criminal Court for (albeit belatedly) issuing arrest warrants for two senior Israeli regime leaders and call on the ICC to both expedite action on these cases and to issue further warrants for other Israeli perpetrators, both civilian and military.  We call on all ICC State Parties to urgently act on their obligations to arrest these perpetrators and hand them over for trial, and we demand that the United States lift all ICC sanctions and cease all obstruction of justice.

We express our gratitude and admiration to the independent special procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council for their expert contributions and for their strong and principled voices in holding the Israeli regime to account and defending the human rights of the Palestinian people. They have shown themselves to be the conscience of the organization, and we call on the United Nations and all member states to defend and support these mandate holders without fail. We applaud, as well, the principled action of those United Nations agencies that have acted to defend the rights of the Palestinian people and to provide aid and relief to the survivors of genocide in Palestine in the face of unprecedented risks and obstacles, foremost among them, UNRWA.

We believe that the world is approaching a dangerous precipice, the front edge of which is in Palestine. Dangerous forces in both the public and private spheres are pushing us toward the abyss. The events of the past nineteen months, and our own deliberations, have convinced us that both key international organizations and most countries of the world, whether acting individually or collectively, have failed in defending the human rights of the Palestinian people and in responding to the Israeli regime’s genocide in Palestine.

We are convinced that the challenge of justice now falls to people of conscience everywhere, to civil society and to social movements, to all of us. As such, our work in the coming months will be dedicated to meeting this challenge. Palestinian lives are at stake. The international moral and legal order is at stake. We must not fail. We will not relent.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, global, Mideast,