During the 12-day war between the U.S, Israel, and Iran, Western media relied heavily upon a U.S.-based “human rights organization” when it came to counting the dead from Israeli strikes, and classifying them as either civilian or military casualties.

During the conflict, the group published civilian-to-military casualty ratios that consistently suggested impressive precision by Israeli forces, a precision called into question by emerging videos of Israeli strikes on civilian areas. Yet Drop Site could not find a single Western news outlet that disclosed the source of funding.

The organization is called Human Rights Activists in Iran but is based in suburban Virginia. That organization, according to its own website, is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, which was created by Congress and is funded annually to be an arm of American foreign policy.

The AP referred to the group simply as “the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists,” while the BBC called them “a Washington-based human rights organisation that has long tracked Iran.” Time, France 24, the Wall Street Journal, Politico, the Washington Post, and dozens of other outlets relied on HRAI without disclosing its link to the US government.

It appears that in Israel they believe that it's sufficient to attach the label "humanitarian" to convert every act into a legitimate one. Just like the term "the most moral army in the world", which is no longer connected to what IDF soldiers are doing, they're now trying to present a concentration camp to be used for the transfer of population as the most moral one in the world.

An Israeli source said Wednesday that "the plan is to move all civilian Gazans southward to a large tent city in Rafah, in which they'll have hospitals and plenty of food." He added: "Just like the prime minister said, as far as I'm concerned, they can be given Ben & Jerry's ice cream." A source of blue-and-white pride: In our concentration camp they have ice cream.

In Israel, you're not allowed to make comparisons, and when you do compare to benighted periods, something always "goes wrong in the translation." As long as the concentration camp isn't a waystation on the way to gas chambers, it's easy to refute the comparison and thereby normalize almost any evil. As long as it's not a Holocaust, everything's okay. Thus the historical comparison, which was meant to be cautionary, becomes a tool for muzzling critics and for normalizing the evil.

More than 20 countries are convening in Bogota next week to declare “concrete measures against Israel’s violations of international law”, diplomats told Middle East Eye.

The “emergency summit” is due to be held on 15-16 July, co-hosted by the governments of Colombia and South Africa as co-chairs of The Hague Group, to coordinate diplomatic and legal action to counter what they describe as “a climate of impunity” enabled by Israel and its powerful allies.

The founding members of the group included Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa.

States due to take part in the summit include Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Portugal, Spain, Qatar, Turkey, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Palestine.

The warning was direct, blunt and left no room for doubt. "We expect all ICC actions against the United States and our ally Israel – that is, all investigations and all arrest warrants – to be terminated," said Reed Rubinstein, legal adviser at the US State Department, before delegates of the 125 member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, July 8, at a meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York from July 7 to 9.

If the ICC arrest warrants for crimes against humanity and war crimes issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on November 21, 2024, as well as ongoing investigations into crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and the settlement of Palestinian territory, are not dropped, "all options remain on the table," he declared.

This remains relevant as Ukraine has never apologized for these atrocities, continues to reject that these attacks constituted "genocide," and has criticized Poland for establishing July 11 as a day for commemorating the victims. And of course, it still uses the same slogans ("Slava Ukraini"), the same symbols (such as the red and black flag), and reveres Stepan Bandera (who was the head of the OUN, which in turn founded the UPA which carried out these attacks).

The Trump administration is imposing sanctions on the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, an outspoken critic of Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio linked the move to her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), some of whose judges have already been sanctioned by the US.

Rubio said the US was sanctioning Ms Albanese for directly engaging with the ICC in its efforts to prosecute American or Israeli nationals, accusing her of being unfit for service as a UN Special Rapporteur.

NATO member Poland scrambled fighter jets overnight as Russia launched record numbers of drones and missiles at neighboring Ukraine.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/32936322

Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini - Opinion
9 July 2025 10:42 BST
Last update: ~5:45 EDT

"Across the UK and around the world, the tide has turned. From musicians chanting at Glastonbury, to students occupying campuses, to doctors’ unions passing motions of solidarity, public opinion has shifted. People are demanding an end to active participation in genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The votes two weeks ago at the British Medical Association’s annual representative meeting - the largest gathering of doctors in the UK - are a powerful symbol of that shift."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/32935852

Dr. Victoria Rose spent 21 days in the territory in May, treating people who were shot trying to get food and children with life-changing injuries from Israeli bombs.

By Lizzie Dearden
Reporting from London
July 9, 2025 Updated 3:12 p.m. ET

"Dr. Rose went straight to the emergency room at Nasser Hospital where she was based, arriving around 8 a.m. It is the last major hospital still functioning in southern Gaza.

“There were ambulances coming in, just bringing dead people, and then there were donkey-drawn carts bringing dead people,” she recalled in an interview in London. “By about 10 o’clock, we had 20 or so dead bodies, and then easily a hundred or so gunshot wounds.”"

https://archive.ph/wip/gysio

💪 💪 💪 💪

The Eternity C and Magic Seas were part of commercial fleets whose sister vessels have made calls to Israeli ports over the past year.

Ellie Shafik of Vanguard Tech, a UK-based maritime risk management company, said: “The pause in Houthi activity did not necessarily indicate a change in underlying intent. As long as the conflict in Gaza persists, vessels with affiliations, both perceived and actual, will continue to face elevated risks.”

Bullets:

• China is the world leader in the development and deployment of hypersonic missile systems.
• Russia and Iran also have successfully built and recently used hypersonic platforms in conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
• The United States is racing to close the gap, and hopes to build systems for some Army units next year.
• But the problem is that no air defense platforms can intercept inbound hypersonic munitions.
• This is the reality that confronts career politicians and military officers in Western countries: an armed conflict against any country with hypersonic missiles invites catastrophic losses to ground bases and naval fleet assets.
• Those risks will be deemed unacceptably high, and in the event of potential conflict in the Western Pacific or Persian Gulf will likely result in disengagement and withdrawal of American naval forces.