Author: Brett Wilkins

As the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians since the end of the second intifada draws to a close, a group of United Nations human rights experts on Thursday condemned the “rampant violence” perpetrated by Israeli security forces and settlers against residents of the illegally occupied territory.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that “150 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces so far this year, including 33 children,” making 2022 the “deadliest in this area of the occupied Palestinian territory since the United Nations started systematically documenting fatalities in 2005.”

Ten Israelis, including five settlers, a guard, and four members of Israeli state forces, were killed so far this year.

Continue reading “UN Experts Decry Record Year of Israeli Violence in Occupied West Bank”

The Biden administration is considering an offer from military-industrial complex giant Boeing to supply Ukraine with long-range precision-guided bombs capable of striking targets up to nearly 100 miles away, Reutersreported Monday.

The Pentagon is reviewing Boeing’s proposal to send Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB) – manufactured jointly with Sweden’s SAAB – to Ukrainian forces, a move that would enable them to hit targets deep behind enemy lines as they fight to repel invading Russian troops.

The GPS-guided GLSDB combines the GBU-39 bomb and the M26 rocket motor, both of which are cheap and relatively abundant. GLSDB is compatible with existing launchers used by Ukrainian forces and could be added to Kyiv’s arsenal by early next year.

Continue reading “Biden Mulls Sending Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine”

Peace advocates on Thursday said that the near-unanimous vote by United Nations member states to demand an end to the US economic embargo of Cuba underscores the imperative for the Biden administration to lift the crippling 60-year blockade.

For the 30th straight year, UN General Assembly members voted in favor of a Cuban resolution condemning the embargo, first enacted during the administration of then-President John F. Kennedy, who according to close confidant and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., wanted to unleash “the terrors of the Earth” on Cuba following Fidel Castro’s successful overthrow of a brutal U.S.-backed dictatorship.

Thursday’s vote was 185-2, with only the United States and Israel dissenting, and Ukraine and Brazil abstaining.

Continue reading “US, Israel Only ‘No’ Votes as UN Members Condemn Cuba Embargo for 30th Straight Year”

Prominent antiwar voices including Medea Benjamin, Noam Chomsky, Abby Martin, and Roger Waters on Monday joined over 220 groups around the world in calling for the cancellation of Lockheed Martin’s $1.7 trillion F-35 fighter plane program.

The women-led peace group CodePink is spearheading an international effort to urge President Joe Biden and members of the U.S. Congress to cancel the manufacturing and training of the F-35 fighter jet, which has been dogged by serious technical and operational problems since it first flew in 2006.

“I joined over 200 organizations from around the world in calling on the US government to end the disastrous F-35 fighter jet program because as a global community we need to drastically change our priorities.” Waters, co-founder of the iconic rock band Pink Floyd, said in a statement.

Continue reading “Peace Activists, 220+ Groups Demand US Cancel F-35 Fighter Program”

The death on Monday of a 12-year-old boy wounded by Israeli gunfire last month brought the number of Palestinian teens and children who have died at the hands of Israeli occupation forces since Friday to five.

Middle East Eye reports Mahmoud Mohammad Samoudi, 12, succumbed to wounds sustained on September 28, when Israeli forces shot him in the stomach with live ammunition during an Operation Break the Wave raid on the Jenin refugee camp, where armed resistance to the occupation has mounted in recent months.

Continue reading “12-Year-Old Succumbs to Injuries as Israeli Forces Kill Four Palestinian Teens”

Human rights defenders on Friday welcomed a move by Chile’s progressive president to put off accepting the new Israeli ambassador’s credentials in response to the killing of a Palestinian teenager earlier in the day.

A spokesperson for the Chilean Foreign Ministry confirmed to Reuters that the decision to delay a meeting between President Gabriel Boric and Israeli Ambassador Gil Artzyeli was made “because of the death of a minor.”

Israeli occupation forces fatally shot 17-year-old Odai Trad Salah in the head during a Thursday morning raid in the village of Kufr Dan outside Jenin in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine.

According to The Palestine Chronicle, Artzyeli was inside the Chilean presidential palace awaiting his scheduled meeting with Boric when Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola informed him that his credentials would not be accepted that day, and that the formal ceremony would be delayed until next month.

Continue reading “Chile Refuses Israeli Ambassador Over Killing of Palestinian Teen”