Author: Brett Wilkins

Palestine defenders hopeful that the United Kingdom’s announcement of a partial suspension of arms export licenses to Israel were left disappointed on Tuesday after a U.S. State Department official said the Biden administration was not considering any similar move.

Asked by CBS News national security reporter Olivia Gazis during a daily press conference if the U.K.’s decision “changed the U.S.’ position on whether international humanitarian rights have been violated” by Israel or if the U.S. is “rethinking any of its arms exports,” Miller said “no.”

Continue reading “Is US Rethinking Arms Exports to Israel After UK Halt? Biden Official Says ‘No’”

At least a dozen police officers raided the home of British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson on Thursday over “content that she has posted online” that allegedly ran afoul of the United Kingdom’s anti-terrorism law.

“The police came to her house just before 7:30 am,” Wilkinson’s son, Jack Wilkinson, said on social media. “There were 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counterterrorism police… Her house is being raided and they have seized all her electronic devices.”

Police – who later freed Wilkinson on bail – did not disclose what content she posted that led to her arrest. Wilkinson has been a tireless critic of the U.K. government’s support for Israel and has posted many images of the death and destruction in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed and wounded more than 144,000 Palestinians. Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Continue reading “UK Continues Use of Anti-Terrorism Law to Arrest Palestine Defenders”

In an investigation focusing on a pair of Israeli massacres of forcibly displaced Palestinians in Gaza, Amnesty International on Monday urged the International Criminal Court – whose chief prosecutor has already applied for warrants to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders – to open a war crimes probe of the attacks, which it said were likely “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate.”

“On May 26, 2024, two Israeli airstrikes on the Kuwaiti Peace Camp, a makeshift camp for internally displaced people in Tal al-Sultan in west Rafah, killed at least 36 people – including six children – and injured more than 100,” noted Amnesty, which early in the assault on Gaza found “damning evidence” of Israeli war crimes including indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Continue reading “Amnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of ‘Indiscriminate’ Israeli Attacks on Gaza Camps”

Richard Medhurst, a Syrian-British independent journalist who defends Palestinians’ right to resist Israeli apartheid, occupation, and other crimes, said this week that he was recently arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport and held for nearly 24 hours for allegedly running afoul of a highly controversial anti-terrorism law critics say is used to silence legitimate dissent.

Medhurst – who is known for his work opposing U.S., British, and Israeli war crimes in the Middle East and for his advocacy for formerly imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – said on social media Tuesday: “I criticized the Terrorism Act before getting on the plane, then got arrested under the Terrorism Act upon landing. Can’t make this up.”

Continue reading “‘Can’t Make This Up’: Journalist Arrested Under UK Anti-Terror Law Hours After Criticizing It”

As human rights defenders marked the 75th anniversary of the Fourth Geneva Convention and its prohibition on collective punishment, hundreds of legal experts and groups on Monday urged the global community – and the United States government in particular – “to comply with international law by ending the use of broad, unilateral coercive measures that extensively harm civilian populations.”

In a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, the jurists and legal groups wrote that “75 years ago, in the aftermath of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history, nations of the world came together in Geneva, Switzerland to establish clear legal limits on the treatment of noncombatants in times of war.”

Continue reading “Hundreds of Legal Experts Push Biden To Drop ‘Punitive and Deadly’ Sanctions”

The recent rescue of a newborn from the womb of his mother after she was killed by an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza refugee camp has renewed focus on the horrors endured by Palestinian children and their families during Israel’s nine-and-a-half-month onslaught.

Ola Al-Kurd was nine months pregnant and “wanted to hold her child and fill our home with his presence,” Adnan Al-Kurd, the slain woman’s father, told Reuters.

Continue reading “Gaza Newborn Saved From Womb of Mother Killed in Israeli Airstrike”