Author: Brett Wilkins

Academic freedom defenders around the world are rallying around a renowned French political scientist and Arabist who was detained by police Tuesday after voicing “respect and appreciation” for the militant Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

François Burgat, the 75-year-old research director emeritus at the French National Center for Scientific Research, was taken into custody Tuesday morning in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence as part of an investigation into “apology for terrorism,” his lawyer Rafik Chekkat said on social media.

Continue reading “Uproar Over Detention of Prominent French Scholar for Gaza Solidarity Posts”

A longtime Israeli lawmaker and former defense minister took to the airwaves and social media on Wednesday to suggest his country should do whatever it takes to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

“It is not possible anymore to stop the Iranian nuclear program with conventional means,” Avigdor Liberman of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party said during a Channel 12 interview. “And we will have to use all the means that are available to us.”

Continue reading “Senior Israeli Lawmaker Suggests Nuclear Attack on Iran”

Israeli prison officials are concealing information about reductions in food rations for Palestinians held in the Gaza Strip, where detainees – who have also reported horrific abuse including alleged rape and deadly torture – have been deliberately driven “to the point of starvation,” according to a report published Thursday.

Security sources told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) is intentionally cutting Palestinian prisoners’ caloric intake, a move confirmed by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called the policy a “deterrent.”

Continue reading “Israeli Officials Hiding Data About Forced Starvation of Gaza Prisoners: Report”

With more than 100 media professionals – nearly all of them Palestinian – killed in Gaza since October, a group of 50 reporters from 13 international organizations this week shared the results of a new investigative journalism initiative aimed at exposing the deadly toll Israel’s onslaught has taken on those reporting it to the world.

The Gaza Project – led by the Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories – “analyzed nearly 100 cases of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza, as well as other cases in which members of the press have been allegedly targeted, threatened, or injured since October 7,” when Hamas-led attacks on Israel left more than 1,100 people dead and over 240 others kidnapped.

Continue reading “The Gaza Project Exposes Israel’s ‘Chilling Pattern’ of Killing Journalists”

Some popular media outlets and international political figures came under fire Tuesday for falsely reporting the death of U.S. academic and social critic Noam Chomsky, who is fighting to recover in Brazil after suffering a massive stroke last year.

“Chomsky did not die. I just spoke to Valéria, his wife,” said Brazilian journalist Cauê Seigner Ameni.

“He is well,” Valéria Chomsky confirmed to ABC‘s Chris Looft.

Continue reading “‘Manufacturing Obituaries’: Media Falsely Reports Noam Chomsky’s Death”