When I tell Israelis I’m not Arab nor Qatari Servant but Here to Spread the Truth, Grown People Cry
October 7 Chronicle
What happened on October 7, 2023
"On October 7, 2023, the Islamic Resistance Movement (better known by its Arabic-derived acronym, Hamas) launched a multifaceted surprise attack on Israel that as of this writing has killed more than 900 Israelis and injured at least 2,500 others. The attack has tactically diminished Israel’s image as a country possessing military superiority. In what was a colossal failure of Israel’s military intelligence, Hamas fighters were able to cross the border between Gaza and Israel seemingly undetected, and to infiltrate dozens of military and civilian sites, including 22 towns and settlements. They were able to destroy military targets and equipment, and to take prisoner as many as 150 Israeli military personnel and civilians". (ACW)
"Israel’s political and military response to the attack showed confusion, incredulity, and quick calls for an overwhelming response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced a declaration of war against Hamas and a state of emergency. As expected, the Israeli air force began launching attacks against targets across the Gaza Strip, killing some 700 Palestinians, injuring around 4,000 others, and displacing at least 200,000. Battles against Hamas infiltrators continued on Israeli territory, arguably the first such battle since 1948, for more than three days". (ACW)
"Hamas’s operation is politics by other means. It might not be easy to convince its many critics at this frenzied moment, but Hamas was essentially telling Israel and the world, “Enough is enough.” Palestinians under Israeli occupation, whether in the West Bank or Gaza, are not the children of a lesser god. Seventy-five years of an ongoing Nakba, including 56 years of brutal military occupation and siege must end right now. The clearest political message of all is the one addressed to the “Camp of Normalizers”—be they Israeli, Arab, Americans, or Europeans—that their plans to forge a “New Middle East” without Palestine shall not pass unopposed. History alone will be able to answer whether the military aspects of the Hamas attack and the Israeli response it has generated will help or hinder these political objectives". (ACW)
"As the world woke up to extensive and nonstop western media coverage of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel, which was labeled “unprovoked,” it was not surprising to see yet another example of the complete dehumanization of the Palestinian people. Palestinians experience this and many other forms of violence at the hands of the Israeli military and Israeli settlers daily, including home raids and the killing and kidnapping of civilians, women, and children, not to mention a crippling 16-year siege of the Gaza Strip that has rendered it essentially an open-air prison. Once again, the double standards are evident: the world has ignored Palestinian suffering for more than five decades and only pays attention to violence when the victims are Israeli. While Hamas’s attack from Gaza was indeed a surprise, it was anything but unprovoked. The decontextualization of the current situation and the ignorance of the reality of Palestinian suffering constitute dehumanization and anti-Palestinian racism, and must be called out for what they are. Moreover, the world cannot hold these two unequal parties to the same standard and maintain the illusion of a false equivalence. The reality is that one force is an occupying power commanding one of the world’s most powerful armies and exercising full control over land, borders, and resources, while the other is a besieged and occupied population with no rights to statehood, freedom, self-determination, or even the resources to satisfy basic needs". (ACW)
"The Arab perspective on October 7, 2023, was deeply affected by the Hamas-led attack on Israel. The attack, which included a barrage of rockets, paraglider incursions, and the seizure of kibbutzim, resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, and the abduction of 250 hostages. The attack was described as a "massacre" by many Arab leaders and governments, who condemned it as terrorism. The Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Arab nations, expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause and called for a ceasefire and the return of hostages. However, the conflict has also led to increased tensions and violence in the region, with some Arab nations supporting Israel's actions in response to the attack. The situation remains complex, with differing opinions and perspectives on the events of October 7". (NBC News)
The comprehensive report, Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: A Cruel System of Domination and a Crime Against Humanity REPORT LINK "sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law. This system is maintained by violations which Amnesty International found to constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention". (Amnesty)
Occupation That Had Progressed into a Genocide
The Gaza Genocide
The Gaza genocide is a case study of a long-standing occupation that has escalated into a genocide. The Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip has been characterized by systematic destruction, mass killings, and systematic denial of self-determination. The International Court of Justice has affirmed the illegality of the occupation, and the Gaza Health Ministry has reported significant casualties. The ongoing conflict has led to a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of uncounted dead bodies and a high number of injuries. The situation is a stark reminder of the consequences of prolonged occupation and the need for accountability and action to protect the rights of the Palestinian people. (OHCHR)
Report from UNSR on OPT: From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide
Report of the Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
Summary:
This report investigates the corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory. While political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now, genocide. The complicity exposed by this report is just the tip of the iceberg; ending it will not happen without holding the private sector accountable, including its executives. International law recognizes varying degrees of responsibility – each requiring scrutiny and accountability, particularly in this case, where a people’s self-determination and very existence are at stake. This is a necessary step to end the genocide and dismantle the global system that has allowed it.
The Report in its entirety you can READ HERE
The Special Rapporteur Mandate
The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to follow and report on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The task of the Special Rapporteur is to assess the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, report publicly about it, and work with governments, civil society and others to foster international cooperation. The Special Rapporteur undertakes regular visits or missions to the Occupied Palestinian Territory and reports annually to the Human Rights Council. OHCHR provides the mandate holder with logistical and technical assistance.
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur derives from the 1993 resolution from the Committee of Human Rights. The mandate calls on the Special Rapporteur:
To investigate Israel's violations of the principles and bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967; To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate; and to report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the Israeli occupation of those territories.
Current Mandate Holder
Ms. Francesca Albanese was appointed the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, by the Human Rights Council at its 49th session in March 2022 and has taken up her function as of 1 May 2022. Ms. Albanese is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, as well as a Senior Advisor on Migration and Forced Displacement for a think-tank, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD). She has widely published on the legal situation in Israel and the State of Palestine and regularly teaches and lectures on international law and forced displacement at universities in Europe and the Arab region. Ms. Albanese has also worked as a human rights expert for the United Nations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Forever-Occupation, genocide, and profit: Special Rapporteur’s report exposes corporate forces behind destruction of Palestine
GENEVA – Israel’s genocide against Palestinians is being sustained by a system of exploitative occupation and profit, a UN expert warned today in a new report to the Human Rights Council that reveals how corporate profiteering and monetary gain has enabled and legitimised Israel’s illegal presence and actions.
“In the past 21 months, while Israel’s genocide has devastated Palestinian lives and landscapes, the Tel Aviv stock exchange soared by 213 percent (USD), amassing $225.7 billion in market gains—including $67.8 billion in the past month alone. For some, genocide is profitable,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
Albanese’s report exposes the corporate infrastructure profiting from Israel’s economy of occupation — and its deadly transformation into an economy of genocide. The report underscores how Palestine has become the epicentre of a global reckoning, exposing the failure of international business and legal systems to uphold even the most basic rights of one of the world’s most dispossessed peoples.
“Corporate actors are deeply entwined in the system of occupation, apartheid and genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory,” the Special Rapporteur said. “For decades, Israel’s repression of Palestinian people has been scaffolded by corporations, fully aware of and yet indifferent to, decades of human rights violations and international crimes.”
Forty-eight separate corporate actors, along with their parents, subsidiaries, franchisees, licensees and consortium partners across sectors are identified in the Special Rapporteur’s report, including weapons manufacturers, technological corporations, financial institutions and construction and energy firms.
Albanese found that these entities have failed their most basic legal responsibilities to exercise their leverage to bring an end to the violation at stake or terminate relations and disengage. Instead, they have treated Israel’s illegal enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory as ordinary economic activity—wilfully ignoring documented, systemic abuses, even as atrocities mounted after 7 October 2023.
“These actors have entrenched and expanded Israel’s settler-colonial logic of displacement and replacement – and this is not accidental,” the Special Rapporteur said. “It is the function of an economy built to dominate, dispossess, and erase Palestinians from their land.”
The report named companies supplying F-35s, drones, and targeting tech that enabled 85,000 tons of bombs – six times the amount of Hiroshima – to be unleashed on Gaza. It highlighted tech giants that have set up R&D hubs and data centres in Israel, using Palestinian data for AI warfare, fueling what Albanese calls a ‘livestreamed genocide.’ The report points to energy giants having fuelled Israel’s blockade, while construction companies continued to supply the equipment that has turned Gaza to rubble and prevented the return and reconstitution of Palestinian life. Even seemingly neutral actors – tourism sites, supermarkets, and universities are normalising apartheid and the systematic erasure of Palestinian life, the Special Rapporteur’s report found.
“This report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” Albanese said. She warned that the International Court of Justice 2024 rulings and the ICC arrest warrants should have put all actors—including corporations—on notice.
“The serious, structural and sustained nature of Israel’s crimes and violations triggered a prima facie responsibility to disengage — one that many corporations ignored,” she said. “Corporate fixation on narrow technicalities and isolated violations rather than confronting the structural illegality of their ties to Israel’s occupation is disingenuous,” she said.
Albanese urged member states to impose a full arms embargo, suspend trade and investment agreements, and hold corporate entities accountable for violations of international law.
“Meanwhile, corporations cannot claim neutrality: they are either part of the machinery of displacement—or part of dismantling it.”
“Palestine is a mirror held up to the world’s moral and political failures,” she said. Recalling reckonings over corporate complicity in apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, Albanese said Palestine today represents a defining moment of whether global markets can exist without promoting and profiting from injustice and impunity.
“Ending this genocide requires not only outrage but rupture, reckoning, and the courage to dismantle what enables it.” (OHCHR)
Gaza Ceasefire Talks Underway as World Marks Anniversary of October 7 Attack While Israel Continues to Shell Gaza
"CAIRO (AP) — Israeli and Hamas officials launched indirect talks Monday at an Egyptian resort on a U.S.-drafted peace plan to end the ruinous war in Gaza on the eve of its second anniversary.
The talks, which went on for several hours, unfolded amid many questions about the plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump last week, including the disarmament of the militant group — a key Israeli demand — and the future governance of Gaza. Trump has indicated that an agreement on Gaza could pave the way for a Middle East peace process that could reshape the region.
Despite Trump ordering Israel to stop the bombing, Israeli forces continued to pound Gaza with airstrikes, killing at least 19 people in the last 24 hours, the territory's Health Ministry said.
An Egyptian official with knowledge of the talks said the parties wrapped up Monday’s round of negotiations at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, and the discussions were set to resume Tuesday afternoon. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the parties have agreed on most of the first-phase terms, which include the release of hostages and establishing a ceasefire". (AP)
"Israeli tanks, boats and jets pounded parts of Gaza on Tuesday, giving Palestinians no respite on the anniversary of the Hamas attack that led to two years of war and underlining the challenges at talks on Donald Trump’s plan to halt the conflict.
With no ceasefire in place, residents said Israel pressed on with its offensive, after Hamas and Israel began indirect negotiations on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on key issues such as Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’ disarmament.
The talks on the US president’s plan are widely seen as the most promising yet for ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza since the October 7 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people.
But Qatar, which has mediated in previous attempts to secure a ceasefire with the US and Egypt, said many details still had to be ironed out". (AP)
So, here is what happened — and why — on October 7th in the Middle East. As the title of my post states, I am neither Arab nor a servant of Qatar. I am here to document the truth, not to incite animosity. This post is dedicated to all the victims of the brutal two-year-long war between Palestine and Israel — a war we’ve all witnessed unfolding on our mobile phones and TV screens.
This war has changed me as a person. My lens has been cleared, and my thoughts sharpened. Even though I believe that all the shouting in this digital world means little to those determined to obscure the truth — those who deflect responsibility, hide behind divine authority, and accuse people like me of antisemitism simply for speaking outside their narrative, a narrative that history begins on October 7 — it still means something to me. It means something to my spirit.
October 7 Chronicle
What happened on October 7, 2023
"On October 7, 2023, the Islamic Resistance Movement (better known by its Arabic-derived acronym, Hamas) launched a multifaceted surprise attack on Israel that as of this writing has killed more than 900 Israelis and injured at least 2,500 others. The attack has tactically diminished Israel’s image as a country possessing military superiority. In what was a colossal failure of Israel’s military intelligence, Hamas fighters were able to cross the border between Gaza and Israel seemingly undetected, and to infiltrate dozens of military and civilian sites, including 22 towns and settlements. They were able to destroy military targets and equipment, and to take prisoner as many as 150 Israeli military personnel and civilians". (ACW)
"Israel’s political and military response to the attack showed confusion, incredulity, and quick calls for an overwhelming response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced a declaration of war against Hamas and a state of emergency. As expected, the Israeli air force began launching attacks against targets across the Gaza Strip, killing some 700 Palestinians, injuring around 4,000 others, and displacing at least 200,000. Battles against Hamas infiltrators continued on Israeli territory, arguably the first such battle since 1948, for more than three days". (ACW)
"Hamas’s operation is politics by other means. It might not be easy to convince its many critics at this frenzied moment, but Hamas was essentially telling Israel and the world, “Enough is enough.” Palestinians under Israeli occupation, whether in the West Bank or Gaza, are not the children of a lesser god. Seventy-five years of an ongoing Nakba, including 56 years of brutal military occupation and siege must end right now. The clearest political message of all is the one addressed to the “Camp of Normalizers”—be they Israeli, Arab, Americans, or Europeans—that their plans to forge a “New Middle East” without Palestine shall not pass unopposed. History alone will be able to answer whether the military aspects of the Hamas attack and the Israeli response it has generated will help or hinder these political objectives". (ACW)
"As the world woke up to extensive and nonstop western media coverage of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel, which was labeled “unprovoked,” it was not surprising to see yet another example of the complete dehumanization of the Palestinian people. Palestinians experience this and many other forms of violence at the hands of the Israeli military and Israeli settlers daily, including home raids and the killing and kidnapping of civilians, women, and children, not to mention a crippling 16-year siege of the Gaza Strip that has rendered it essentially an open-air prison. Once again, the double standards are evident: the world has ignored Palestinian suffering for more than five decades and only pays attention to violence when the victims are Israeli. While Hamas’s attack from Gaza was indeed a surprise, it was anything but unprovoked. The decontextualization of the current situation and the ignorance of the reality of Palestinian suffering constitute dehumanization and anti-Palestinian racism, and must be called out for what they are. Moreover, the world cannot hold these two unequal parties to the same standard and maintain the illusion of a false equivalence. The reality is that one force is an occupying power commanding one of the world’s most powerful armies and exercising full control over land, borders, and resources, while the other is a besieged and occupied population with no rights to statehood, freedom, self-determination, or even the resources to satisfy basic needs". (ACW)
"The Arab perspective on October 7, 2023, was deeply affected by the Hamas-led attack on Israel. The attack, which included a barrage of rockets, paraglider incursions, and the seizure of kibbutzim, resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, and the abduction of 250 hostages. The attack was described as a "massacre" by many Arab leaders and governments, who condemned it as terrorism. The Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Arab nations, expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause and called for a ceasefire and the return of hostages. However, the conflict has also led to increased tensions and violence in the region, with some Arab nations supporting Israel's actions in response to the attack. The situation remains complex, with differing opinions and perspectives on the events of October 7". (NBC News)
The comprehensive report, Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: A Cruel System of Domination and a Crime Against Humanity REPORT LINK "sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law. This system is maintained by violations which Amnesty International found to constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention". (Amnesty)
Occupation That Had Progressed into a Genocide
The Gaza Genocide
The Gaza genocide is a case study of a long-standing occupation that has escalated into a genocide. The Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip has been characterized by systematic destruction, mass killings, and systematic denial of self-determination. The International Court of Justice has affirmed the illegality of the occupation, and the Gaza Health Ministry has reported significant casualties. The ongoing conflict has led to a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of uncounted dead bodies and a high number of injuries. The situation is a stark reminder of the consequences of prolonged occupation and the need for accountability and action to protect the rights of the Palestinian people. (OHCHR)
Report from UNSR on OPT: From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide
Report of the Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
Summary:
This report investigates the corporate machinery sustaining Israel’s settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory. While political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now, genocide. The complicity exposed by this report is just the tip of the iceberg; ending it will not happen without holding the private sector accountable, including its executives. International law recognizes varying degrees of responsibility – each requiring scrutiny and accountability, particularly in this case, where a people’s self-determination and very existence are at stake. This is a necessary step to end the genocide and dismantle the global system that has allowed it.
The Report in its entirety you can READ HERE
The Special Rapporteur Mandate
The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to follow and report on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The task of the Special Rapporteur is to assess the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, report publicly about it, and work with governments, civil society and others to foster international cooperation. The Special Rapporteur undertakes regular visits or missions to the Occupied Palestinian Territory and reports annually to the Human Rights Council. OHCHR provides the mandate holder with logistical and technical assistance.
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur derives from the 1993 resolution from the Committee of Human Rights. The mandate calls on the Special Rapporteur:
To investigate Israel's violations of the principles and bases of international law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967; To receive communications, to hear witnesses, and to use such modalities of procedure as he may deem necessary for his mandate; and to report, with his conclusions and recommendations, to the Commission on Human Rights at its future sessions, until the end of the Israeli occupation of those territories.
Current Mandate Holder
Ms. Francesca Albanese was appointed the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, by the Human Rights Council at its 49th session in March 2022 and has taken up her function as of 1 May 2022. Ms. Albanese is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, as well as a Senior Advisor on Migration and Forced Displacement for a think-tank, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD). She has widely published on the legal situation in Israel and the State of Palestine and regularly teaches and lectures on international law and forced displacement at universities in Europe and the Arab region. Ms. Albanese has also worked as a human rights expert for the United Nations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Forever-Occupation, genocide, and profit: Special Rapporteur’s report exposes corporate forces behind destruction of Palestine
GENEVA – Israel’s genocide against Palestinians is being sustained by a system of exploitative occupation and profit, a UN expert warned today in a new report to the Human Rights Council that reveals how corporate profiteering and monetary gain has enabled and legitimised Israel’s illegal presence and actions.
“In the past 21 months, while Israel’s genocide has devastated Palestinian lives and landscapes, the Tel Aviv stock exchange soared by 213 percent (USD), amassing $225.7 billion in market gains—including $67.8 billion in the past month alone. For some, genocide is profitable,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
Albanese’s report exposes the corporate infrastructure profiting from Israel’s economy of occupation — and its deadly transformation into an economy of genocide. The report underscores how Palestine has become the epicentre of a global reckoning, exposing the failure of international business and legal systems to uphold even the most basic rights of one of the world’s most dispossessed peoples.
“Corporate actors are deeply entwined in the system of occupation, apartheid and genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory,” the Special Rapporteur said. “For decades, Israel’s repression of Palestinian people has been scaffolded by corporations, fully aware of and yet indifferent to, decades of human rights violations and international crimes.”
Forty-eight separate corporate actors, along with their parents, subsidiaries, franchisees, licensees and consortium partners across sectors are identified in the Special Rapporteur’s report, including weapons manufacturers, technological corporations, financial institutions and construction and energy firms.
Albanese found that these entities have failed their most basic legal responsibilities to exercise their leverage to bring an end to the violation at stake or terminate relations and disengage. Instead, they have treated Israel’s illegal enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory as ordinary economic activity—wilfully ignoring documented, systemic abuses, even as atrocities mounted after 7 October 2023.
“These actors have entrenched and expanded Israel’s settler-colonial logic of displacement and replacement – and this is not accidental,” the Special Rapporteur said. “It is the function of an economy built to dominate, dispossess, and erase Palestinians from their land.”
The report named companies supplying F-35s, drones, and targeting tech that enabled 85,000 tons of bombs – six times the amount of Hiroshima – to be unleashed on Gaza. It highlighted tech giants that have set up R&D hubs and data centres in Israel, using Palestinian data for AI warfare, fueling what Albanese calls a ‘livestreamed genocide.’ The report points to energy giants having fuelled Israel’s blockade, while construction companies continued to supply the equipment that has turned Gaza to rubble and prevented the return and reconstitution of Palestinian life. Even seemingly neutral actors – tourism sites, supermarkets, and universities are normalising apartheid and the systematic erasure of Palestinian life, the Special Rapporteur’s report found.
“This report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” Albanese said. She warned that the International Court of Justice 2024 rulings and the ICC arrest warrants should have put all actors—including corporations—on notice.
“The serious, structural and sustained nature of Israel’s crimes and violations triggered a prima facie responsibility to disengage — one that many corporations ignored,” she said. “Corporate fixation on narrow technicalities and isolated violations rather than confronting the structural illegality of their ties to Israel’s occupation is disingenuous,” she said.
Albanese urged member states to impose a full arms embargo, suspend trade and investment agreements, and hold corporate entities accountable for violations of international law.
“Meanwhile, corporations cannot claim neutrality: they are either part of the machinery of displacement—or part of dismantling it.”
“Palestine is a mirror held up to the world’s moral and political failures,” she said. Recalling reckonings over corporate complicity in apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, Albanese said Palestine today represents a defining moment of whether global markets can exist without promoting and profiting from injustice and impunity.
“Ending this genocide requires not only outrage but rupture, reckoning, and the courage to dismantle what enables it.” (OHCHR)
Gaza Ceasefire Talks Underway as World Marks Anniversary of October 7 Attack While Israel Continues to Shell Gaza
"CAIRO (AP) — Israeli and Hamas officials launched indirect talks Monday at an Egyptian resort on a U.S.-drafted peace plan to end the ruinous war in Gaza on the eve of its second anniversary.
The talks, which went on for several hours, unfolded amid many questions about the plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump last week, including the disarmament of the militant group — a key Israeli demand — and the future governance of Gaza. Trump has indicated that an agreement on Gaza could pave the way for a Middle East peace process that could reshape the region.
Despite Trump ordering Israel to stop the bombing, Israeli forces continued to pound Gaza with airstrikes, killing at least 19 people in the last 24 hours, the territory's Health Ministry said.
An Egyptian official with knowledge of the talks said the parties wrapped up Monday’s round of negotiations at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, and the discussions were set to resume Tuesday afternoon. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the parties have agreed on most of the first-phase terms, which include the release of hostages and establishing a ceasefire". (AP)
"Israeli tanks, boats and jets pounded parts of Gaza on Tuesday, giving Palestinians no respite on the anniversary of the Hamas attack that led to two years of war and underlining the challenges at talks on Donald Trump’s plan to halt the conflict.
With no ceasefire in place, residents said Israel pressed on with its offensive, after Hamas and Israel began indirect negotiations on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on key issues such as Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’ disarmament.
The talks on the US president’s plan are widely seen as the most promising yet for ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated Gaza since the October 7 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people.
But Qatar, which has mediated in previous attempts to secure a ceasefire with the US and Egypt, said many details still had to be ironed out". (AP)
So, here is what happened — and why — on October 7th in the Middle East. As the title of my post states, I am neither Arab nor a servant of Qatar. I am here to document the truth, not to incite animosity. This post is dedicated to all the victims of the brutal two-year-long war between Palestine and Israel — a war we’ve all witnessed unfolding on our mobile phones and TV screens.
This war has changed me as a person. My lens has been cleared, and my thoughts sharpened. Even though I believe that all the shouting in this digital world means little to those determined to obscure the truth — those who deflect responsibility, hide behind divine authority, and accuse people like me of antisemitism simply for speaking outside their narrative, a narrative that history begins on October 7 — it still means something to me. It means something to my spirit.