NEW FROM FMEP
FMEP Legislative Round-Up September 5, 2025 (Lara Friedman)
- Bills, Resolutions; 2. FY26 NDAA – House & Senate Versions; 3. Letters; 4. Hearings & Markups; 5. Selected Members on the Record; 6. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements
Weaponizing Antisemitism to Advance Authoritarianism with Lara Friedman and Yousef Munayyer (Political Research Associates podcast)
“Political commentators and rights advocates Lara Friedman and Yousef Munayyer discuss ongoing efforts to suppress criticism of the Israeli government’s oppression of Palestinians under the guise of fighting antisemitism—efforts which are fueling authoritarianism and pushing shared safety further from grasp. Lara and Yousef lay out how the Israeli government and its supporters have championed a contentious definition of antisemitism in order to dismiss criticism of Israel and conflate said criticism with prejudice against Jews. They also explain how the increasingly fraught conversation about antisemitism is doing little to actually make Jews safer—and is being exploited to distract from Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, annexation of the West Bank, and expansionist war across the region.”
GAZA
The Genocide in Gaza (Drop Site 9/5/25)
“The Israeli military launched intensified attacks across Gaza on Friday, killing at least 44 people, including seven children in attacks on Gaza City, according to Al Jazeera. Gaza’s Ministry of Health reports at least 69 Palestinians killed and 422 injured in the past 24 hours. Six Palestinians were killed and 190 injured while seeking aid. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 64,300 killed, with 162,005 injured. Three more deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours due to starvation and malnutrition, bringing the total since the start of the war to 376, including 134 children. The Israeli military destroyed a high-rise building in a densely populated part of Gaza City on Friday…The Israeli army said it now controls 40% of Gaza City and signaled that its offensive will grow even more ferocious in the coming days. UNICEF warned that “the unthinkable” is unfolding in Gaza City as Israel intensified its assault on homes and displacement camps. To mark 700 days of genocide, Gaza’s health ministry released an updated breakdown of the death toll in Gaza: more than 19,000 children have been killed—among them over 4,800 under the age of five and more than 1,000 infants. For nearly two years, on average, a child has been killed every 52 minutes.” See also Israel intensifies attack on Gaza City (Drop Site Daily 9/4/25); Gaza Officials Say 98 Palestinians Killed by IDF in Past Day, Including 9 From Hunger and 46 Waiting for Aid (Haaretz 9/1/25); Medics say 73 Palestinians in Gaza killed by IDF since morning (Haaretz 9/2/25); Children killed by Israeli strike while getting water in area Palestinians were told to go (NBC 9/3/25); Israel says it killed longtime spokesman of Hamas’s military wing (WaPo 8/31/25);
Hamas to Trump: We Are Ready to Release All Israeli Captives in Comprehensive Ceasefire Deal (Jeremy Scahill//Drop Site 9/4/25)
“Hamas’s political leadership is reaffirming its willingness to make a deal that would see all Israeli captives released immediately in return for a ceasefire agreement that would bring an end to Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians of Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli troops. “The movement reiterates its readiness to enter into a comprehensive deal under which all enemy prisoners held by the resistance will be released in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners held by the occupation,” Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday night. The statement added that Hamas has made clear its willingness to relinquish governance of Gaza to pave the way for “an independent national administration of technocrats to manage all Gaza Strip affairs and assume its responsibilities immediately in all areas.” Hamas’s statement came hours after President Donald Trump posted a message on TruthSocial. “Tell Hamas to IMMEDIATELY give back all 20 Hostages (Not 2 or 5 or 7!), and things will change rapidly. IT WILL END!” Trump wrote.” See also After Trump Comments, Hamas Says It’s Ready for Deal on All Hostages (NYT 9/4/25); Israeli Official Calls Hamas Statement on Willingness to Accept Comprehensive Hostage Deal a ‘Trivial Event’ (Haaretz 9/5/25); Hamas took 251 hostages from Israel into Gaza. Where are they? (WaPo 9/2/25)
Gaza postwar plan envisions ‘voluntary’ relocation of entire population (WaPo 8/31/25)
“A postwar plan for Gaza circulating within the Trump administration, modeled on President Donald Trump’s vow to “take over” the enclave, would turn it into a trusteeship administered by the United States for at least 10 years while it is transformed into a gleaming tourism resort and high-tech manufacturing and technology hub. The 38-page prospectus seen by The Washington Post envisions at least a temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population, either through what it calls “voluntary” departures to another country or into restricted, secured zones inside the enclave during reconstruction…Called the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust, the proposal was developed by some of the same Israelis who created and set in motion the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) now distributing food inside the enclave. Financial planning was done by a team working at the time for the Boston Consulting Group.” See also Leaked ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan dismissed as ‘insane’ attempt to cover ethnic cleansing (The Guardian 9/1/25); Egypt vows to block Palestinian displacement, hardens rhetoric on Gaza (Reuters 9/5/25);
‘The Winter Will Be a Catastrophe’ | Gaza Faces Deadly Respiratory Outbreak Amid War, Hunger, and Medicine Shortage (Haaretz 9/31/25)
“In Gaza, health officials are warning of a sharp rise in respiratory infections – likely flu or COVID – that have already sickened thousands. The outbreak is spreading fastest among displaced families crowded into tents and shelters without sanitation, where children and the chronically ill are especially vulnerable. The Hamas-run Information Ministry said Sunday the surge comes amid severe shortages of medicine and deteriorating sanitary conditions. Hospital directors warned that the lack of medical equipment, blood, clean drinking water and food is driving up death rates, especially among children.” See also Gaza’s Last Functioning Children’s Hospital (Abdel Qader Sabbah//Drop Site 9/2/25)
Seven common tropes used to deny Gaza’s famine, debunked by an expert (Jeremy Konyndyk//The Telegraph 8/26/25)
“For months, a chorus of denial has sought to drown out the reality of famine in Gaza. The Israeli government and an online army of arm-chair “experts” have insisted that images of emaciated children in Gaza are staged, reports of hunger are exaggerated, and claims of famine are hyperbolic. As someone who has directed famine response efforts for South Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, I can tell you plainly: this is more than false, it is active disinformation. Last week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system (IPC) formally confirmed famine in Gaza for the first time. Famine is a technical classification under the IPC, the gold-standard system used by governments, aid agencies, and the UN for decades to assess hunger emergencies. It relies on rigorous data and established benchmarks from malnutrition screenings, mortality surveys, market analyses, and food availability studies. When famine is declared, it means large numbers of people are unable to access enough food, child malnutrition is rising sharply, and people are dying as a direct result. That is the reality of Gaza today. A famine declaration is not an anticipatory warning; it means that a deadly trajectory has already taken hold. Here are seven common tropes the famine deniers are parroting – and why they’re wrong.” See also Google’s $45 Million Contract With Netanyahu’s Office to Spread Israeli Propaganda (Jack Poulson & Lee Fang//Drop Site 9/3/25); LEAKED: Israel Is Considered a “Genocidal, Apartheid Country” Abroad, According to Israel’s Own Research (Ryan Grim//Drop Site 9/5/25); Trump on Israel: ‘They’re not winning the world of public relations’ (The Forward 9/3/25); Gazans are starving. Here’s what lack of food does to the human body. (WaPo 9/4/25);
Israeli intelligence data: Militants account for only 1 in 4 Gaza detainees (Yuval Abraham//+972 Magazine 9/4/25)
“Only one in four Palestinians captured by Israeli forces in Gaza were identified by the army as militants, with civilians making up the vast majority of “unlawful combatants” detained in Israeli prisons since October 7, a joint investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and the Guardian can reveal. This is what emerges from figures obtained from a classified database managed by Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate (known by the Hebrew acronym “Aman”), in addition to official Israeli prison statistics disclosed in legal proceedings. Testimonies from former Palestinian detainees and Israeli soldiers who served in detention facilities further indicate that Israel has knowingly abducted civilians en masse and held them for long periods in appalling conditions.”
A Rogue Force Operates in Gaza Under IDF Cover, Endangering Soldiers and Unarmed Palestinians (Haaretz 9/3/25)
“You can see them across the Gaza Strip, almost everywhere. Teams of people operating heavy equipment for one purpose: demolition. They aren’t part of a regular military unit, but rather small groups that form through independent initiatives. They are civilians, many of them settlers, who are mobilized into the reserves through contracting companies. The goal is to destroy buildings and tunnels, or in the common words of those involved: “to flatten Gaza.” Conversations with many commanders, officers and reservists reveal that the road to implementing their mission is wide open. There’s little or no supervision. The army doesn’t always know who these people are, they don’t take security precautions and, on more than one occasion, they have endangered the lives of soldiers or unarmed Palestinians.” See also Israeli military says it controls 40% of Gaza City, plans to expand operation in coming days (Reuters 9/2/25); New Satellite Images Show: Gaza City Neighborhoods Have Already Been Destroyed (Haaretz 9/3/25); Israel bombs high-rise buildings in Gaza City ahead of massive offensive (Axios 9/5/25)
REGION//GLOBAL
US sanctions Palestinian rights groups who asked top court for Israel war crimes investigation (CNN 9/4/25)
“The US State Department has imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights groups that asked the International Criminal Court to investigate and arrest Israeli leaders over accusations of war crimes in Gaza…Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday the US will sanction the three NGOs – Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan), and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) – for engaging in what he called the ICC’s “illegitimate targeting of Israel.”…In November 2023, the three groups filed a lawsuit with the ICC asking the prosecutor to investigate Israel for airstrikes on densely populated areas in Gaza, the siege of the territory, the forced displacement of its population, the use of toxic gas and the denial of necessities, including food and water. The organizations also urged the ICC to issue arrest warrants for the Israeli leaders involved in actions they said amounted to “war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide.” In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense chief Yoav Gallant for war crimes, including “starvation as a method of warfare” and crimes against humanity…Al Haq, Al Mezan Center, and PCHR condemned the “draconian” sanctions in their joint statement, which was posted to each of their X accounts. “Only states with complete disregard to international law and our shared humanity can take such heinous measures against human rights orgs working to end a genocide,” the organizations said. “As the world moves to impose sanctions and arms embargoes on Israel; its ally, the US is working to destroy Palestinian institutions working tirelessly for accountability for the victims of Israel’s mass atrocity crimes,” the statement went on.” See also State Department sanctions NGOs tied to International Criminal Court’s Israel probe (Politico 9/4/25); US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry (The Guardian 9/5/25);
UAE warns White House that Israeli annexations could unravel Abraham Accords (Axios 9/3/25)
“The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has told the Trump administration that Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank would harm the Abraham Accords and undermine the president’s hopes of expanding them, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter…Israel is considering annexing large portions of the West Bank later this month in response to the recognition of a Palestinian state by several western countries. President Trump is likely the only foreign player who could stop it. The UAE message is that if he doesn’t, a key aspect of his foreign policy legacy could unravel.” See also UAE warns Israel: Annexing West Bank is a ‘red line’ that would ‘end regional integration’ (TOI 9/3/25); Israel weighs West Bank annexations in response to Palestine recognition push (Axios 8/31/25); Huckabee: ‘The US has never asked Israel to not apply sovereignty’ to the West Bank (TOI 9/5/25); Rubio: US warned recognizing Palestine would lead to ‘reciprocal’ Israeli response (TOI 9/5/25); Palestinian FM: US visa bans will not derail statehood drive (Al Monitor 9/4/25); Far-Right Israeli Minister Calls for West Bank to Be Annexed (NYT 9/3/25);
Scotland bans arms companies that supply IDF from receiving financial aid (The Guardian 9/3/25)
“The Scottish government has banned arms companies which supply the IDF from getting grants and investment support, and will freeze support for trade with Israel. John Swinney, the first minister, said on Wednesday any defence contractors who wanted financial help in Scotland would have to prove their products would not be used by the Israel Defense Forces. He said governments around the world needed to take urgent action in response to the humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza, where there was now plausible evidence of genocide…After urging the UK government to support the genocide case against Israel at the international court of justice, Swinney said his devolved government in Edinburgh had decided to change its rules on financial support for defence companies.” See also Senior EU official says Israel’s war in Gaza is genocide (Reuters 9/4/25); Finland joins declaration on two-state solution between Israel, Palestinians (Reuters 9/5/25); Belgium to recognise Palestinian state at UN and sanction Israel (The Guardian 9/3/25); ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ Stuns Venice With Its Longest Standing Ovation of 22 Minutes Amid Tears and ‘Free Palestine’ Chants (Variety 9/3/25)
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, leading scholars’ association says (WaPo 9/1/25)
“The resolution, by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, added to a growing chorus from human rights organizations and academics concluding that Israel is committing genocide, a crime outlined in a 1948 convention and defined by acts intended to “destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”…The resolution states that the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas against Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and prompted the Israeli military campaign in Gaza “constitutes international crimes.” But it also concludes that Israel’s response violates all five conditions set out in the 1948 convention, including “killing members of the group” and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” according to Emily Sample, a member of the association’s executive board. Any one of the conditions would be sufficient for a finding of genocide…“If we wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon,” [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] told Israeli reporters in August.”
Houthis detain at least 11 UN workers in raids on two agencies in Sana’a (The Guardian 8/31/25)
“The Iranian-backed Houthis raided offices of the UN’s food, health and children’s agencies in Yemen’s capital, detaining at least 11 employees, as the rebels tightened security across Sana’a after the Israeli killing of their prime minister and several cabinet members.” See also Houthi missile, 3rd in 24 hours, falls short of Israel; [Israeli Defense Minister] Katz threatens ‘all 10 plagues’ (Times of Israel 9/4/25); Yemen health crisis spikes after aid cuts and U.S., Israeli airstrikes (WaPo 9/5/25); Inside Israel’s Yemen operation that decapitated Houthi leadership (Al Monitor 9/5/25);
How Israel’s arms exports have made it sanctions-proof (The Economist 9/4/25)
“Nowadays, though, its most ubiquitous product is not a gun but its missile-defence system widely known as Iron Dome (though this is the name of just the lowest of its layered defences). These systems have also become a major source of income for its defence contractors, contributing to what was a record-breaking year of $14.8bn of arms export deals in 2024. This puts Israel, a country of only 10m, in the eighth place of the world’s arms-exporters’ league, just one spot behind Britain and well ahead of the other rising stars of weapons sales, South Korea and Turkey. Israeli figures don’t disclose the total sales to each country, but according to its defence ministry, over half were to Europe. Israel’s arms exports offer the country far more than just commercial benefits. They also help shield it from arms embargoes or other penalties over its conduct of the war in Gaza. “These deals tie countries into a long-term relationship with Israel which helps curb moves towards sanctions against Israel,” says an Israeli diplomat. “These countries are invested in Israel for their national security.” Israel’s main competitive advantage is that its weapons are battle-tested and in production.” See also Lebanon to move on Hezbollah disarmament after testy cabinet meeting: What to know (Al Monitor 9/5/25); Attack, concede, stall: Hezbollah’s options as Lebanon advances disarmament plan (Al Monitor 8/30/25)
RIVER TO THE SEA
Armed settlers said to injure at least 14 Palestinians, including infant, elderly couple (TOI 9/5/25)
“Extremist settlers injured at least 14 Palestinians in a raid on a West Bank village overnight Thursday-Friday, Arabic outlets reported. According to the reports, armed settlers entered the village of Khallet al-Daba in the South Hebron Hills and assaulted residents with pepper spray, sticks and sharp tools…Among the Palestinians reportedly hurt were a three-month-old infant girl and an elderly couple. The infant had been exposed to the pepper spray, while the elderly man and his wife both sustained fractures, cuts and trauma to the head, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency…Five others had sustained bruising, bone fractures and lacerations as a result of the attack, including the infant girl’s parents and two older brothers, the agency reported.” See also Reports: Around 30 Israeli Settlers Wound at Least Three Palestinians in Raid on West Bank Village (Haaretz 9/5/25);
Hundreds of IDF Reservists Sign Statement Opposing Gaza City Takeover, Saying They Won’t Report to Duty (Haaretz 9/2/25)
“Some 350 IDF reservists on Tuesday signed a statement opposing the security cabinet’s decision to capture Gaza City, further escalating their opposition to the government. At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Ron Feiner, a reservist and member of the organization Soldiers for the Hostages, said, “The decision to launch a military operation for the complete occupation of Gaza City is blatantly illegal and will put hostages, soldiers and civilians at risk.”’ See also ‘We are dying for no reason’: Israeli reservists face fresh call-up for a war dividing their nation (The Guardian 9/2/25); Hostage families rally to demand deal on 700th day of loved ones’ captivity (TOI 9/5/25); Hamas publishes video of hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Alon Ohel ahead of IDF’s Gaza City op (TOI 9/5/25);
Israel arrests Hebron mayor, launches West Bank crackdown: What to know (Al Monitor 9/2/25)
“Israeli forces conducted a series of raids across the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, arresting several Palestinians — including the mayor of Hebron — as Israel weighs the annexation of parts of the territory…Meanwhile, the Israeli military intensified its raids across the West Bank on Tuesday, arresting dozens of Palestinians…Elsewhere, in Nablus, Israeli forces arrested 13 Palestinians during large-scale raids across the governorate on Tuesday. WAFA also reported a series of Israeli measures on Tuesday to obstruct the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank, reporting that Israeli forces closed the main entrance to the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, with an iron gate.”
Israel Has Seen Extremists in High Office. But Nothing Like Netanyahu’s Shin Bet Pick (Haaretz 9/4/25)
“This is Netanyahu’s most alarming appointment to date. Anyone familiar with the environment in which his prospective Shin Bet chief David Zini was raised knows exactly why” See also Top IDF Commander Opted Not to Boost Security After Visiting Nova One Hour Before October 7 Hamas Massacre (Haaretz 9/2/25);
U.S. SCENE
U.S. Suspends Visas for Palestinian Passport Holders, Officials Say (NYT 8/31/25)
“The Trump administration has enacted a sweeping suspension of approvals of almost all types of visitor visas for Palestinian passport holders, according to American officials. The new policy goes beyond the restrictions announced by U.S. officials recently on visitor visas for Palestinians from Gaza. Last week, the State Department also said it would not issue visas to Palestinian officials to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York next month. The more sweeping measures, laid out in an Aug. 18 cable sent by State Department headquarters to all U.S. embassies and consulates, would also prevent many Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Palestinian diaspora from entering the United States on various types of nonimmigrant visas, according to four U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. The new measures affect visas for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives and business travel, at least temporarily.” See also A 22-Year-Old Palestinian Has Been Locked Up in ‘High-Security’ ICE Detention for 16 Months
Harvard secures win in fight with Trump over federal research funding (Politico 9/3/25)
“A federal judge ruled Wednesday the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze more than $2 billion in federal research grants from Harvard University was illegal. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, a Barack Obama appointee, in an 84-page opinion, acknowledged the university “could (and should) have done a better job of dealing with” antisemitism on campus. But Burroughs said research grant terminations and antisemitism are not particularly connected. “A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities,” Burroughs wrote.” See also Jewish judge overturns Trump administration’s Harvard funding freeze, ruling antisemitism allegations were a ‘smokescreen’ (The Forward 9/4/25)
President of Northwestern, a School Attacked by the G.O.P., Will Resign (NYT 9/4/25)
The president of Northwestern University, Michael H. Schill, announced Thursday that he would resign, ending a difficult tenure that included attacks on the school from Republicans in Congress and cuts in funding by the Trump administration that forced the university to lay off hundreds of employees…Mr. Schill faced withering questions during a Congressional hearing last year, when Republicans accused the university of not doing enough to address antisemitism during campus protests over the war in Gaza. They have argued that the school was still not aggressive enough in protecting Jewish students from harassment. Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center have called for Mr. Schill to resign, faulting him for negotiating with the protesters. In April, the federal government abruptly froze at least $790 million in federal research funding that had been planned for Northwestern, a Big Ten school with campuses in Evanston, Ill., and downtown Chicago.”
PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS
In Gaza, Israel has turned food aid into a death trap (Hani Almadhoun//The Hill 9/2/25)
“My cousin Sameeh Mohamad Hilmi Almadhoun was just 18 when an Israeli soldier allegedly killed him at an aid site in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. He was a young man searching for food, a simple act that became his death sentence… Israel blocks access as part of its forced takeover and weaponization of aid, while foreign governments fixate on airdrops that make for good headlines but leave families starving. The real problem is not the humanitarian actors — over 400 aid workers have been killed since October 2023. The true enablers are those who, through their silence, allow a far-right Israeli government to deliberately starve children and turn lifesaving aid into a death trap…Now, with Israel recently approving a plan to fully occupy Gaza City and expel its residents to the south, the largest concentration of displaced Palestinians is trapped between the Mediterranean coast and the city itself. Nearly 1 million people live there, families paralyzed by fear of what’s still to come. After 22 months of relentless bombing, destruction and forced displacement, the threat of yet another displacement — for some, the 20th — hangs heavily over them. Families don’t know where to flee, if anywhere is safe, or if they will survive another round of violence. The U.S. government is actively aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza…The administration’s failure is not one of inaction, but of active complicity. With every veto and every new arms shipment, Washington makes a statement: Palestinian lives are expendable, and the pursuit of a meal is a valid pretense for murder.”
We Israelis Are Part of a Mafia Crime Family. It’s Our Job to Fight Against It From Within (Michael Sfard//Haaretz 8/31/25)
“So how can one go on living as part of a collective that is carrying out annihilation? How do you wake up in the morning and look in the eyes of the grocer just back from reserve duty, the soldier at the café, or the neighbor hanging up a “Together We Will Win” sign?…Like recruits to the mafia, who at the boss’s command must shoot a shopkeeper who didn’t pay protection money, thereby sealing a blood pact – with someone else’s blood – with “the family,” so too did hundreds of thousands of Israelis rally to the calls to bomb, crush, erase and starve. Hundreds of thousands on whom the responsibility for the annihilation rests directly, and millions indirectly, bound by the criminal pact, bound to its denial, and – when denial is no longer possible – to its justification. Today, there is no doubt, and there cannot be any doubt, about what is happening in Gaza. Israel is committing crimes against humanity on a spine-chilling scale. It is wiping out all infrastructure that enables life in the Strip and starving its people. It officially declares its intent to ethnically cleanse Gaza, or, as Netanyahu – the Israeli Darth Vader, who has surrendered completely to the dark side of the force – calls it, to implement “Trump’s vision.” And even now, when everything is already clear, when the claim that we are committing genocide has become very difficult to reject, Israelis as a whole draw the curtain and continue with daily life. Note this: not a single Israeli professional association dares to cry out morally against the annihilation of Gaza…One does not choose his or her family, and Israel is my family. And it is a crime family. So how does one go on living with such a family? Everything is contaminated. Rot has consumed all…But – and this is crucial – there are also rebellious family members…We are few, but not insignificant… In today’s terms: support refusers, encourage international investigations and call for sanctions and political isolation.”
Hunger, looting and lost childhoods: Gaza’s engineered collapse (Ahmed Abu Artema//Middle East Eye 9/3/25)
“t seems that here in Gaza, we have been changed forever. Could something in the anatomy of our brains have shifted over two years of living beyond the limits of human endurance? Whenever a friend from outside Gaza asks me how we are doing, I answer: our situation defies words…I ran into a friend on the street, once a university professor before this genocidal war. His face was pale, and his clothes looked as though they hadn’t been changed in months. His expression bore the weight of a lifetime of burdens. I greeted him: “How are you?” It was a banal, hollow question, just to start a conversation. He replied: “Our dignity has been humiliated. We live in a time where thieves and looters thrive, while the honourable die of hunger and despair.”’
A Map to a Place That No Longer Exists (Abdullah Hany Daher//Jewish Currents 9/5/25)
“In Gaza, the landscape changes faster than memory can keep up. Every neighborhood carries its own scars, some fresh, some already fading into dust. Places once familiar become unrecognizable overnight; streets you walked yesterday may not be there tomorrow. On this shifting ground, home is not just a structure. It is a fragile anchor to a previous version of life, one that can vanish without warning. Losing this place means losing the map inside you.”
I Fought in Gaza. Here Is Why I Would Not Go Back. (Yotam Vilk//NYT 8/30/25)
“Our own state had lost its way. If we went to war on Oct. 7 to save what was dearest to us, it soon became clear to me that we were fighting because our leaders were never planning to stop. It was a war waged by nationalist populists who refused to pay the political price necessary to make the decisions to bring an end to the war, and instead demanded that we, the soldiers, the hostages and the Palestinians, pay it in blood…Today, as the government calls on tens of thousands of reservists to participate in the cruel re-occupation of Gaza City, I implore my fellow soldiers: Refuse to report. Thousands have already stopped showing up. Some have been sent to prison. Many remain silent. This is the time to speak. It is your duty.”
What Killed the Two-State Solution? (Hussein Agha and Robert Malley//New Yorker 8/22/25)
“How deceit, delusion, and the inexorable pull of the past have transformed an idea once seen as a possible means to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a dangerous gimmick.”
How Zohran Mamdani Achieved Escape Velocity from Politics as Usual (Dania Rajendra and Rebecca Vilkomerson//In These Times 8/31/25)
“As we move into the general election season, the joy of primary night may already feel distant. But as Zohran Mamdani moves closer into not just winning campaigns but governing, it is worth looking at how the groundbreaking coalition building of his campaign can be a model for future governance — and open space for more Left power…Mamdani’s momentum suggests that only bold left visions can achieve escape velocity from politics as usual. The new model: discuss an optimistic left vision by way of concrete policy ideas with hundreds of thousands of unlikely voters. Invite them to join the canvass; thousands did. Finally, trust voters to understand consistent ethical positions, including around Palestine.”
2,500 miles from home, Gazan culture takes center stage (Alice Austin//+972 Magazine 9/5/25)
“A mini-festival at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe provided a rare space amid the genocide for Palestinian artists to connect, heal, and resist.”
Forget symbolic statehood — the world must recognize Israeli apartheid (Alaa Salama//+972 Magazine 8/29/25)
“The push to recognize a Palestinian state creates the illusion of action, but delays the real remedies: sanctioning and isolating Israel’s apartheid regime.”
“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed” (Reporters Without Borders & Avaaz 9/1/25)
“Hundreds of media outlets, brought together by the campaigning platform Avaaz and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), are waging a campaign calling for the protection of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, the emergency evacuation of reporters seeking to leave the Strip, an end to impunity for Israeli crimes against Gaza’s reporters and that foreign press be granted independent access to the territory. According to RSF data, 220 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip in less than 23 months. On the night of 10 August alone, the Israeli army killed six journalists in a targeted strike against Al-Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif. Less than a week ago, on Monday, 25 August, the Israeli army killed five journalists in two consecutive strikes. Today, hundreds of media outlets in over 50 countries are mobilising in solidarity with Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip, alongside RSF and Avaaz. This international operation consists of an entire or partial blackout of the front pages of print media, banners on online news sites, and audio or video messages broadcast by radio and television stations.”