Tag: Gaza

Israel’s Murderous Collective Psychosis

Expulsion: How Israel’s Undefined Borders, Messianic Ideology, and Permanent War Economy Manufacture Consent for Genocide

The 82%

In March 2025, a Penn State University survey published in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper delivered the following article: 82% of Israeli Jews support the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, with 47% endorsing the killing of all inhabitants in conquered enemy cities—referencing biblical conquest narratives .

A separate Israel Democracy Institute poll found that over 80% of Israeli Jews believe Israel should consider Palestinian civilian suffering in Gaza only “to a very small extent” when planning military operations .

These figures represent not a spontaneous reaction to October 7, 2023, but the culmination of a 76-year project since the Nakba of 1948 of historical erasure, legalized discrimination, and ideological indoctrination.

Israel’s refusal to define its borders, its dependence on permanent war, the systematic theft of Palestinian land, and the rise of messianic religious extremism have all converged to create what researchers call a “state of permanent potential expansion”—where ethnic cleansing is not an aberration but a structural necessity. A murderous ideology combining white supremacism , ancient Yiddish messianist texts , the collective trauma response to the Holocaust and extreme violence and sadism.

Part I: The Foundation of Erasure—1948 and the Nakba

The Template of Dispossession

The Nakba—the 1948 expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians—established the blueprint for Israeli land acquisition that continues today. Immediately after that expulsion, Israel controlled 20 million dunams (20,000 km²) of Palestinian land—over three-quarters of all land in Palestine . This was not merely military occupation but the beginning of a legalized system of dispossession.

The “Transfer Committee,” headed by Jewish National Fund (JNF) director Yosef Weitz and approved by David Ben-Gurion, implemented a plan to destroy Palestinian villages and prevent refugee return . Between 360-429 villages were destroyed, with 345 new Jewish communities established on refugee land by 1953 .

The 1950 Absentee Property Law transformed de facto seizure into de jure ownership. This law defined “absentees” so broadly that it included Palestinians who were inside Israeli-controlled territory but temporarily away from their homes . The law allowed the Custodian of Absentee Property to sell confiscated land to the Development Authority, which then transferred it to the Jewish National Fund (JNF)—whose charter restricts land to Jewish ownership only .

The Absence of Borders: A Strategic Choice

When David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s establishment on May 14, 1948, he deliberately refused to specify borders . This was not administrative negligence but strategic design. To this day, Israel has never defined its international borders beyond those with Egypt and Jordan, while state maps—including those presented by Prime Minister Netanyahu at the United Nations—show Israel covering the full expanse from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea .

The 1949 Armistice Lines were explicitly designated as “without prejudice to future territorial settlements” , creating legal ambiguity that Israel has exploited for 76 years. This refusal to define borders creates what scholars call a “state of permanent potential expansion”—where territory is never finally acquired, only temporarily held, with further expansion always justified as security necessity.

Part II: The Architecture of Discrimination—Legal Apartheid from 1948 to Present

Phase 1: Military Rule (1948-1966)

Palestinian citizens of Israel were subjected to military government until 1966, living under the same British Mandate Defense Laws that Zionists had previously denounced as “inhuman and unjust” . During this period, Israel stripped Palestinian Arabs of a further estimated one million dunams of land through “security” designations and cultivation laws .

Phase 2: The Dual Legal System (1967-Present)

After 1967, Israel described capturing the West Bank and Gaza as “finishing the job”—the job being the ethnic cleansing begun in 1948 . The same pattern of dispossession was repeated, but without even the pretense of equality:

  • Jewish settlers in the West Bank live under Israeli civil law with full rights and protections
  • Palestinians are governed by over 1,800 military orders enforced through military courts with conviction rates exceeding 99%
  • This meets the legal definition of apartheid: an institutionalized regime of systematic racial oppression

The JNF’s Role in Structural Discrimination

The Jewish National Fund(JNF) owns 13% of Israeli land and manages another 80% through the Israel Land Administration, giving it control over 93% of all land in Israel . Its policies explicitly restrict land to Jews only. A 1961 Covenant between the JNF and Israeli government formalized this apartheid structure . Even when the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that this discrimination was illegal (Katzir-Qaadan case), the state simply offered to compensate the JNF with equal amounts of land to maintain Jewish-only ownership .

The 2018 Nation-State Law: ‘Legalising’ Supremacy

The “Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People” (2018) constitutionalised the hierarchy established in 1948.

The Basic Law:

  • Declares Jewish settlement a national value that the state must encourage and promote
  • States that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people”
  • This makes racially segregated housing official state policy, completing the trajectory from the 1950 Absentee Property Law to constitutional apartheid

Part III: The Permanent War Economy

Israel’s economy is structurally dependent on military conflict.

  • Military spending reached 30.46% of GDP in 1975 and averaged 11.8% from 1960-2024—nearly triple the world average of 2.2%
  • In 2024, military spending hit $46.5 billion (8.78% of GDP), second only to Ukraine globally
  • Defense exports reached $13.1 billion in 2023, representing 2.5% of total GDP and 100% growth since 2018

The Gaza Laboratory

Gaza serves a dual economic function: testing ground and showroom for Israeli military technology. As one analysis notes, “Gaza has become the world’s largest laboratory for drone assassinations and mass killing,” where Palestinians serve as “human test subjects” for commercialized cruelty . Each military offensive—from Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009) to Operation Protective Edge (2014) to the current genocide—acts as a product demonstration for international buyers.

Weapon Diplomacy

Arms exports function as foreign policy tools. Between 2014-2018, Israel was the world’s 8th largest weapons exporter (3.1% of global arms exports) . After the 2020 Abraham Accords, military exports to Arab states surged, reaching record highs of $12.5 billion in 2022 . This creates a feedback loop: military operations against Palestinians generate “combat-proven” technologies that are exported globally, with profits funding further military development.

The Constant War Machine

Israel has maintained continuous military operations since 1948, with major invasions and campaigns occurring in every decade:

Lebanon: Six Invasions in 50 Years :

  • 1978: Operation Litani—20,000 troops occupied southern Lebanon
  • 1982: “Peace for Galilee”—full invasion reaching Beirut, 60,000 troops, 800 tanks
  • 1993: Operation Accountability—displacing 500,000 civilians
  • 1996: Operation Grapes of Wrath—Qana massacre killed 106 civilians in UN compound
  • 2006: July War—34-day conflict with Hezbollah
  • 2024: Third Lebanon War—ground invasion following pager attacks
  • 2025/2026 Current ground invasion with recent temporary cease-fire (April 2026)

Gaza: The Never-Ending Campaign:
Since Hamas’s 2006 election, Israel has conducted Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), Operation Pillar of Defense (2012), Operation Protective Edge (2014), Operation Guardian of the Walls (2021), Operation Breaking Dawn (2022), and Operation Swords of Iron (2023-present—ongoing genocide).

Part IV: Paramilitary Settler Violence

Settler violence is not random criminality but systematic, politically-motivated terrorism designed to expand territorial control and increasingly formally supported by Israeli Defence Force personel and weaponry.

Historical Evolution:

  • 1980s: Settler violence emerged as a “key factor undermining Palestinian security and livelihoods”
  • 2005-2008: The “price tag” strategy emerged after Israel’s Gaza disengagement, with settlers exacting “prices” against Palestinians in retaliation for any restrictions on settlement expansion
  • 2023-2024: Massive surge in violence. Since October 2023, The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented 1,536 settler attacks resulting in 152 Palestinian casualties and 1,226 property damage incidents

The Pattern of Violence:
Settler attacks follow a clear template: physical assaults, arson of homes and mosques, uprooting olive trees, stealing harvests, and blocking access to land. Between January and October 2024, settlers vandalized over 26,100 Palestinian-owned trees . In March 2024 alone, at least seven Palestinians were shot and killed by settlers—the highest monthly fatality count in a decade .

State Complicity:
Israeli forces are frequently present during attacks but refuse to intervene until Palestinians defend themselves . The Israeli government has accelerated the legalization of outposts that serve as bases for violence—regulating 30 illegal outposts in a single day in March 2025 . Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has explicitly called for annexation and dismantling the Palestinian Authority, which has unsurprisingly emboldened settler groups who view displacement as a religious duty .

Part V: The Rise of Messianic Power—Theological Extremism as State Policy

The Demographic and Political Transformation

Over the past ten years Israel has experienced a profound demographic and political shift driven by the explosive growth of religious populations:

Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Growth:

  • The Haredi community numbers 1,335,000 (13.6% of the population) with a 4% annual growth rate—nearly triple the general Jewish population’s 1.4%
  • Due to a fertility rate of 6.4 children per woman, half of the Haredi sector is under age 16
  • Projections indicate Haredim will constitute 16% of Israel’s population by 2030, and 32% of all Israelis by 2065

Religious Zionist Radicalization:
While Haredim are growing demographically, Religious Zionism has undergone ideological radicalization. The movement that began with Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook’s messianic theology has transformed from a moderate political force into the driver of relentless territorial expansion .

From Fringe to Mainstream: The Messianic Takeover

The January 28, 2024 “Victory Conference” marked a watershed moment. At Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, 10 cabinet ministers and 27 Knesset members (nearly one-quarter of parliament) gathered to call for:

  • The conquest of Gaza
  • Expulsion of its Palestinian population
  • Renewal of Jewish settlement in Gaza and Northern Samaria

Speakers quoted the Book of Numbers: “Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land”—a Blibical Old Testament ‘commandment’ interpreted literally to justify ethnic cleansing .

Netanyahu’s Transformation of Likud:
Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately transformed Likud from a secular nationalist party into a vehicle for religious extremism. As Hebrew University political scientist Gayil Talshir documents, Netanyahu “took a right-wing, national-oriented, liberal party and pulled it hard to the edge,” introducing “extremist religious and messianic elements into the heart of Likud” .

The Temple Mount Movement: Eschatology as Foreign Policy

The Temple Mount movement exemplifies how messianic ideology has been weaponized for territorial expansion. Once considered radical fringe, it has become mainstream through government support:

Ideological Evolution:

  • Pre-1967: Visiting the Temple Mount was forbidden by all leading rabbis as violating Jewish law
  • 1996: The Committee of Yesha Rabbis ruled that Jews “are permitted and even encouraged to enter the Temple Mount” to prevent territorial compromise
  • 2005: The Gaza disengagement caused “the final breakdown of the Kookist interpretation,” making the Temple a “substitute for the messianic vision”
  • 2020s: Support among Likud MKs grew “from virtually nil to almost half”

Government Funding and Support:

  • The Temple Institute received approximately $361,000 from the Ministry of Education and $210,000 from the Ministry of Culture and Sports between 2010-2015
  • Israeli public schools “indoctrinate children” into the movement, “forcefully exposing students to the Temple movements’ versions of history, ideology and Jewish law regarding the Temple Mount”
  • By 2016, Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau publicly declared he wanted to see a temple built in the Noble Sanctuary

Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Ascent:
The appointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir (former disciple of Meir Kahane) as Minister of National Security represents the ultimate fusion of messianic ideology and state power. Ben-Gvir, who was convicted of supporting terrorism and inciting racism, now oversees the police force that once investigated him .

In June 2024, Ben-Gvir declared: “We say in the simplest way, it’s ours” regarding the Temple Mount, adding “We are the masters of Jerusalem and all of the land of Israel” . This is not religious fundamentalism but ultra-nationalism using religion as justification—what scholar Motti Inbari calls “theocratic post-Zionism” .

Part VI: Manufacturing Consent—Education, Media, and the Psychology of Denial

Educational Indoctrination

Israeli education systematically suppresses the Nakba and cultivates militarized nationalism:

  • Military jargon penetration: Classrooms use military terminology that “trivializes military discourse and mode of thinking”
  • Pseudo-military memorial services for fallen soldiers socialize children into militarized nationalism
  • School excursions to military bases and the “Next Generation” (HaDor HaBa) programs cultivate “civilian soft militarism”
  • Textbooks that mention massacres like Deir Yassin justify them because “the slaughter of friendly Palestinians brought about the flight of other Palestinians which enabled the establishment of a coherent Jewish state”
  • The 2011 Nakba Law criminalizes historical truth in educational settings

State-Sponsored Historical Revisionism

Benny Morris, the Israeli historian who documented Nakba atrocities, revealed that Israel’s Defense Ministry operates a secret department (Malmab) that systematically removes historical documents from archives to prevent documentation of 1948 atrocities . Morris himself was denied access to documents he had previously quoted, with archivists stating simply: “now the documents are closed” . This represents what scholars term “memoricide”—the systematic destruction of collective memory .

Media Manufacturing Consent

Research from UCLA’s Study of Hate demonstrates how media framing reinforces educational indoctrination :

  • British media used emotive terms like “atrocities,” “slaughter,” and “massacre” 11 times more frequently for Israeli victims than Palestinian victims, despite disproportionate death tolls
  • 80% of British media articles framed the conflict as “Israel-Hamas war,” aligning with Israeli-preferred narratives that obscure the occupation’s structural violence
  • Israeli attacks were described vaguely while Palestinian actions included weaponry specifications in 99.3% of articles versus 20.5% for IDF attacks

Israeli domestic media has become even more extreme. Channel 14 has been accused by human rights organizations of “incitement to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity” .

The Psychological Mechanism of Selective Trauma

The system operates through what researchers call “competing historical truths” where empathy is systematically directed toward one group and denied to another . By suppressing the Nakba and framing Palestinians as eternal enemies, Israeli society maintains what psychologist Vamik Volkan terms “chosen trauma”—the selection of historical wounds (the Holocaust) that justify present aggression, while denying the other’s trauma (the Nakba) .

The Penn State study found that 65% of Israeli Jews believe in a modern-day “Amalek” (biblical enemy), with 93% believing the commandment to “wipe out the memory of Amalek” applies today . This transforms ethnic cleansing from a historical crime into a divine obligation, with Palestinians cast as successors to biblical enemies.

Part VII: The Self-Perpetuating Cycle—Connecting All Threads

Each element of Israeli/Zionist ‘lore’ reinforces the others:

1. Undefined Borders Enable Constant Expansion

Without defined borders, every military operation can be framed as border security rather than foreign invasion. The messianic belief in “Greater Land of Israel” sanctifies the entire territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean as divine judgement, making border definition not just politically difficult but theologically impossible .

2. Permanent War Requires Permanent Enemies

The military economy requires constant conflict to maintain funding and test technologies. As the Security in Context analysis notes, “Israel has positioned itself as a global exemplar in urban militarism and securitization, leveraging its experience in the Palestinian territories” . This creates an incentive for military escalation rather than diplomatic resolution or de-escalation.

3. Discrimination Legitimizes Dispossession

The 82% support for expelling Palestinians connects directly to the economic system. When Finance Minister Smotrich states that Ben-Gurion’s “mistake” was not “finishing the job” in 1948 , he articulates the logical conclusion of the permanent war economy: complete territorial control requires demographic transformation.

4. Settler Violence as Paramilitary Enforcement

Systematic settler attacks are used as irregular forces for territorial expansion, operating with state complicity. The 1,536 attacks since October 2023 are not aberrations but policy implementation by other means.

5. Messianism Provides Theological Justification

The messianist right has captured the education system, media, and legal structures to produce the 82% consensus. As Gayil Talshir, professor of political science at Hebrew University observes, Netanyahu has become both master and marionette of this system—using messianists for political survival while being forced to conform to their agenda .

6. The Feedback Loop to Maintain the Murderous Onslaught

The feedback loop is complete: military operations generate “combat-proven” technologies for export → export revenues fund further military R&D (4.5% of GDP—highest in OECD) → military service socializes citizens into militarized nationalism → this produces public support (82%) for further military operations → which justify further territorial expansion under “security” pretexts.

The Unbroken Chain from 1948 to 2024

The 82% support for expulsion, the settler violence, the media complicity, and the educational indoctrination are not aberrations but the logical culmination of a system established in 1948. The Nakba was not a historical event but a template for ongoing dispossession—legalized through the Absentee Property Law, normalized through education, justified through religious ideology, and enforced through settler violence.

As the Penn State researchers noted, October 7 “unleashed demons that have been nurtured over decades in the media and in the legal and educational systems” . Those demons were born in 1948, when Israel chose not to define its borders, and have been fed by every military operation, every land confiscation, and every act of discrimination since.

The “Victory Conference” warning was clear: if Netanyahu compromises on territory, he will be replaced by someone who won’t. The messianists have “cracked the genetic code of how to control the political system in Israel,” offering Netanyahu “great respect and the role of leader of the people” while receiving “dramatic control of the deeper structures of society: the education system, the media, the judiciary, the economy and of course the occupied territories” .

The 82% are not naturally evil individuals. They are the product of a system that has, for three generations, taught them that Palestinian suffering is instrumental to Jewish security, that ethnic cleansing is divine commandment, and that permanent war is the only possible condition.

Until this system is dismantled—its borders defined, its military economy transformed, its messianist ideology challenged, and its historical truths acknowledged—the cycle of dispossession will continue, with each generation finding new justifications for the ancient crime of 1948.

While the U.N. and the West push for a ‘two-state solution” and a return to the 1967 borders, the reality is that a new Palestine is no longer a viable economic or security option because of the destruction caused by Israel in the intervening years. Only a single state solution is now possible. A state where Palestinians and Israelis live side by side in peace, and where democratic rights for all citizens are respected and upheld.

That will require a comprehensive re-education programme for the 80% Israelis who currently favour genocide to learn how to respect those who they have been conditioned to consider as ‘other”. It can be done, and post-apartheid South Africa can serve as a somewhat imperfect model for this process.

Sources and Further Reading

Polling Data and Public Opinion:

Historical Documentation:

Economic Analysis:

Messianism and Politics:

Education and Media:

Settler Violence:

Demographic Data:

This article synthesizes peer-reviewed research, UN reports, and investigative journalism to present a comprehensive analysis of the structural factors behind current Israeli public opinion. All statistics and claims are linked to verifiable sources.

Demonic Israel and the Savage West

Israel has only 3 months till September to launch a new aerial attack on Iran.In September Iraqi airspace will be closed to the US and its allies, as US troops are required to leave Iraq by then. Given that Israel and the US clearly did not achieve it s objectives in this most recent attack on Iran, we can expect further surprise attacks on Iran in the near future.

Will Iran finally go nuclear? will they have learnt their lesson and build a full military alliance with Russia China and North Korea? – we shall have to wait and see…

There is clear evidence of the UK, Germany and France providing the air-refuelling tankers for Israeli F35s to reach the Iranian border, fire their missiles, and return to base. Undoubtedly Five Eyes (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK and US) have also provided the intelligence targeting data for the Israelis both for the Iran war and for the Gaza genocide.

Germany France and UK have thus been intimately involved in supporting this unprovoked war while they and the EU have continued to pretend such an attack is legal in international law.

International law is very clear-Israel had absolutely no legal grounds to attack . Its excuse was that Iran was about to possess nuclear weapons- a claim Netanyahu has been making for 40 years. Alistair Crooke (below) however claims that Palantir’s AI predictive software created a false impression of a sudden surge in Iranian enrichment, which contributed to the urgency to attack by the Americans and Israel.

80% of Israelis support Palestinian genocide- its Jewish citizens have been indoctrinated into a bizarre ideology that says they are the chosen ones and therefore they have the right to act with total impunity- sadistic brutal murder torture and starvation- any thing goes- and the US and the rest of the West have fostered and enabled that savagery to blossom and erupt into its demonic current state. Over $150 billion in mostly military aid from the US alone since 1948, has enabled Israel to continuously expand its territories.

Israel has violated at least 30 UN Security Council resolutions and over 100 resolutions from other UN bodies, totalling more than 130 violations of international consensus.

Nevertheless it is very clear- despite an Israeli security blackout, that Israel’s economy, already fragile, has been significantly impacted by Iranian missile strikes. Bloomberg estimates the economic costs alone to Israel caused by Iran’s missile strikes at $3.5 billion. Although Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a press conference the total cost of war could be as high as $12 billion. The Israeli Haifa oil refinery will take at least a month to repair and its major shipping port, Haifa, significantly damaged and a number of military facilities either destroyed or damaged.

Unlike Israel with its drone terror attacks in Iran, its assassinations of Iranian civilians and terror bombings in Iranian cities, Iran has displayed remarkable circumspection in its attacks-minimal civilian Israeli deaths (despite the repeated images from Israeli propaganda of little Israeli children unscathed and perfectly clean, being held by Israeli soldiers after being ‘rescued” from the rubble) have been very small- indicating Iranian precise targeting of military targets.

Clearly this was a regime change operation. The West expected the Islamic regime in Tehran to fold quickly and rapturous joy would break out in the streets at Iran’s ‘liberation”. In fact, most (but not all) Iranians rallied round the flag and its likely that -despite 40 years of Western sanctions , Iranian infrastructure will be quickly rebuilt -especially with Chinese assistance (Iran is a vital node in China’s Belt and Road transport network to and from the West to China with a major rail network recently completed from China).

Iranian International, with enormous funding from the US and Israel (and likely other funding sources in European governments) had been poised to insert the Shah of Iran’s son Reza Pahlavi as the new “king” of Iran once the regime capitulated. The fact that Reza Pahlavi was heir to his father’s bizarre and corrupt reign (with his brutal SAVAK secret police trained by Mossad, Mi6 and CIA in torture techniques), and is entirely in the pocket of the genocidal Israelis and corrupt Americans and British who would then steal Iranian oil, wasn’t deemed to be a problem somehow. Israel’s title for their war with Iran , ‘Rising Lion’ is both a reference to Talmud texts, but also to the flag of the late Shah.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Israel

Like everything associated with the state of Palestine and the history of Israel since the Nakba , Zionists have attempted to revise history and pretend that Palestinians never occupied or owned the land that was stolen from them by the Zionists, starting with the Nakba of 1948 and progressing to the present day. aijac.org.au

Thankfully, Trump’s bombasity, lies and stupidity have fed into the perception of many in the South of a steady decline in American power and influence. The recent bizarre events at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands of Trump being called ‘Daddy ‘and all the NATO states kowtowing to Trump in pledging 5% military spending by 2035, a pledge which would undoubtedly bankrupt many of the EU states.

America and Israel and NATO/Five Eyes had expected an easy victory over Iran- decapitate the military leaders through assassinations, disable the Iranian neural networks for their missile defence systems and radars , blitz Tehran and then demand capitulation. The assassinations were largely successful, the hacking of the networks worked- but only for 8 hours-( the West had not anticipated how fast Iranian engineers could get the system back up and running)- and then the Iranian missile response began..

Indisputably Iran has suffered major but not irreparable losses in this war; the assassinations of some key military leadership and nuclear scientists, military facilities and missile systems destroyed.

However the genocide in Gaza by the Israeli “Defence” Forces (IDF) continues at the same brutal pace- with continued support form the US and the West. Every day Palestinians are being shot and killed by snipers , tanks and artillery as they try and negotiate the gate-pens to get some food ‘ provided’ through Israeli and US agencies for their starving families . While condemned by the UN and many in the South, Western nations are silent and complicit in this total inhumanity: a massive indictment of all that the West has pretended to stand for in the last 70 years- freedom, safety, democracy and the rule of law.

And for those who would like to believe this total absence of humanity and human rights for Palestinians is a recent phenomenon, please look at the following data below of the deaths and displacements by Israel since the Nakba of 1948. The state of Israel is an abomination, a pariah state fully supported by the West.

1. Displacement and Refugees

  • 1948 Arab-Israeli War (Nakba) :
    • Approximately 700,000 Palestinians were displaced or became refugees, including many women and children.
    • The UN estimates that 75% of Palestinian refugees today are women and children.
  • 1967 Six-Day War :
    • Another 300,000+ Palestinians fled or were expelled from the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
    • Women and children made up a significant portion of these refugees.
  • Total Palestinian Refugees Today :
    • Over 7 million Palestinians are registered as refugees or displaced persons globally (UNRWA and UNHCR data).
    • The majority are women and children due to generational displacement and high birth rates.

2. Casualties in Conflicts

  • Major Conflicts Since 1948 :
    • 1948–1956 : Exact numbers for women and children are unclear but likely high due to mass displacement.
    • 1967 & 1973 Wars : Limited data exists, but civilian casualties included many women and children.
    • First Intifada (1987–1993) : ~1,000 Palestinian children killed; women’s deaths unrecorded.
    • Second Intifada (2000–2005) : Over 3,000 Palestinian children killed; women also died in airstrikes and shootings.
    • Gaza Wars (2008–2009, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2023–2024) :
      • 2023–2024 Gaza War : As of April 2024, over 10,000 women and 18,000 children reported killed (Palestinian Health Ministry). Independent experts warn underreporting due to chaos and blocked aid.
      • 2014 Gaza War : ~2,200 Palestinians killed, half of them children (UN OCHA).

3. Incarceration and Detention

  • Since 1967 , Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians, including:
    • Women and Children :
      • Over 10,000 Palestinian women have been imprisoned since 1967 (Addameer, a Palestinian rights group).
      • Children : Thousands detained annually for alleged “security offenses.” In 2023 alone, over 8,000 children were arrested (UNICEF and DCIP reports).

4. Demographic Impact

  • Population Growth : Despite displacement and casualties, Palestinian populations in the West Bank, Gaza, and refugee camps have grown due to high birth rates.
  • Vulnerability : Women and children face disproportionate risks in poverty, restricted movement, and limited access to healthcare/education.

CategoryApproximate Numbers (since 1948)
Refugees/displacedMillions (majority women/children)
Casualties (conflicts)Hundreds of thousands (exact numbers disputed)
IncarceratedTens of thousands of women/children

Resources

  • United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
  • Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
  • Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
  • Israeli human rights groups (e.g., B’Tselem)
  • Reports from Al Jazeera, BBC, and Reuters

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/06/mark-sleboda-what-the-hell-just-happened-in-the-middle-east-you-may-ask.html#more

The Yemen Tragedy

Now that Trump ( as of May 2025) has made the decision not to continue U.S. air attacks on targets in Yemen (for now), the following semi-legal analysis of the strikes below is perhaps somewhat moot. However it does provide a glimpse into the legalities of the multiple aggressions by Western countries in the past 75 years since World War 2.

After an almost shootdown of an ‘invisible’ US F35 aircraft, and the loss of 2 (possibly 3) F18s (valued at $70 million each) that had ‘fallen off’ US aircraft carriers in the Gulf, along with about 10, 30 million dollar MQ9 drones shot down by Ansar-allah (what the West MSM as one voice like to call “Iran backed rebel Houthis”-all in one breath), it must have been clearly apparent, even to Trump, that the billion dollar US bombing campaign against Yemen was going nowhere.

Additionally, because the US had (and has) very little accurate information on where Ansarallah weapons and military was on the ground they were in fact predominantly (and accidentally?) hitting civilians. In addition the long-standing U.K air support for the Americans on the Arabian peninsula was entirely without targeting or strategy, but largely an attempt to try and demonstrate that Britain was still a force to be reckoned with in the Gulf.

One cannot however be so charitable about Israeli bombings of civilian Yemen targets-(civilian ports and airports), who used their traditional methods of terror and brutality to try and intimidate Ansarallah.

What follows is an analysis of the legalities of this bombing campaign, supposedly initiated by first Biden and then Trump, to stop Ansarallah closing the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea to shipping bound for the Israeli Red Sea port of Eilat (top right hand section of map)

Legal Analysis of US/UK Strikes in Yemen and Potential Violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL)

The US and UK military interventions in Yemen, particularly against Houthi targets, raise significant legal questions under international humanitarian law (IHL)—also known as the laws of war. Below is a deeper examination of their compliance with key legal principles.

Analysis of the Legal Framework Governing US Strikes against Yemen

A. Applicable Law

  • Geneva Conventions (1949) & Additional Protocol I (1977): Govern the conduct of hostilities, including distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack.
  • UN Charter (Article 2(4) & Article 51): Prohibits the use of force except in self-defense or with UN Security Council authorization.
  • Customary IHL: Binding on all parties, including non-state actors like the Houthis.

B. Justifications for US/UK Strikes

  • Self-Defense Argument (Article 51, UN Charter): The US and UK argue strikes are necessary to protect maritime security (Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping).
  • Legal Debate: Some scholars argue this stretches self-defense doctrine, as Houthi attacks may not constitute an “armed attack” justifying unilateral force.
  • Collective Self-Defense (Supporting Saudi Arabia & UAE): Previously invoked, but less relevant post-2022 since the Saudi-Houthi truce.

2. Key IHL Principles & Potential Violations

A. Principle of Distinction (Civilian vs. Military Targets)

  • Rule: Attacks must only target military objectives, not civilians or civilian infrastructure.
  • Concerns in Yemen:
  • Urban Warfare: Houthis embed military assets in densely populated areas, increasing civilian risk.
  • Reports of Civilian Harm: NGOs (e.g., Mwatana, Amnesty) allege US/UK strikes hit homes, farms, and markets, suggesting possible indiscriminate targeting.

B. Principle of Proportionality

  • Rule: Civilian harm must not be excessive relative to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
  • Challenges:
  • “Double-Tap” Strikes: Some reports suggest follow-up strikes hit first responders, which could be a war crime if deliberate.
  • High Civilian Toll in Past Strikes: Even if targets are legitimate, large-scale civilian casualties (e.g., 2022 Saada prison strike by Saudi coalition) raise proportionality concerns.

C. Precautions in Attack

  • Rule: Parties must take all feasible measures to verify targets and minimize civilian harm.
  • US/UK Practices:
  • Use of precision-guided munitions (reduces but does not eliminate risk).
  • Lack of Transparency: Few public investigations into alleged civilian harm, unlike in Iraq/Syria.

3. Accountability & Legal Consequences

A. Mechanisms for Accountability

  1. Domestic Investigations (US/UK):
  • The US has a Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) but rarely discloses Yemen investigations.
  • The UK has no independent Yemen strike review body, unlike its Iraq/Syria oversight.
  1. International Criminal Court (ICC):
  • Yemen is not an ICC member, but if nationals of member states commit crimes on Yemeni soil, the ICC could theoretically investigate.
  1. Universal Jurisdiction:
  • Third countries could prosecute war crimes under universal jurisdiction (e.g., Germany’s case against Syrian officials).

B. State Responsibility & Reparations

  • Under IHL, states must provide reparations for unlawful strikes, but neither the US nor UK has a compensation program for Yemeni victims.
  • Contrast with US payments for civilian harm in Afghanistan/Iraq.

4. Broader Implications & Legal Precedents

  • Escalation Risks: If strikes are seen as disproportionate, they could fuel further Houthi attacks, creating a cycle of violence.
  • Erosion of IHL Norms: Repeated civilian harm without accountability weakens global adherence to laws of war.
  • Potential for Future Cases: If evidence of systematic violations emerges, legal challenges could arise in international courts or via sanctions.

Conclusion: Are US/UK Strikes Lawful?

  • Legally Defensible? The US/UK can argue self-defense and military necessity, but civilian harm incidents raise serious IHL concerns.
  • Accountability Gap: Lack of transparent investigations and reparations undermines claims of compliance.
  • Future Risks: If civilian casualties continue unchecked, legal challenges (e.g., ICC petitions, universal jurisdiction cases) could follow.

New Zealand Supports Gazans to Die Faster

The New Zealand government , unsurprisingly, has, along with 11 other Western countries, decided to withhold funding to UNRWA because of allegations by the Israeli apartheid regime in Tel Aviv that 12 of its thousands of staff in Gaza and the West Bank had been involved in the October 7th attack by Hamas on Israelis.

As Amnesty International makes exceptionally clear-‘At a time when Israel, the occupying power, continues to flagrantly violate its obligations vis-à-vis Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, UNRWA has long served as a sole lifeline, offering indispensable humanitarian aid, education and shelter. The agency also provides desperately needed aid for millions of other Palestinian refugees living in neighbouring Arab countries.”

As is made clear in the video below of an Israeli Knesset representative calling for the destruction of UNRWA several months ago-the elimination of aid to Gazans has long been a strategic goal of Israel as it continues to demolish and kill everything in its path in Gaza.

Please note that Noga Orbel’s statements are not the ravings of a lone psychopath, they are what passes for normal and acceptable in Israel’s parliament.

The United States, United Kingdom , Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands, Italy, Australia and Finland –and now New Zealand have all agreed that, despite the fact that they know Israel has been consistently lying for its 75 years of existence, to justify its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, that they should ‘suspend’ funding to the UNRWA which has been the literally sole lifeline of food and water to Gazans trapped in Gazan while Israel bombards them into oblivion and blockades and destroys all essential services to Gazans.

What additionally needs to be said about the pyschopaths coordinating this genocide?

What these 12 ‘white’ countries (Japan is an honorary obedient white country in their eyes) are doing is directly aiding and abetting the psychopaths in Tel Aviv, in the mass murder of Palestinians. Without UNRWA aid to Gazans, many many more Palestinians will die.

The Zionist’s bizarre ideology insists that only Jewish people can live in the land of Palestine, and anyone else who has lived there who is not Jewish must be removed one way or another- through murder, imprisonment in Israeli jails or the open air concetration camps of the West Bank and Gaza , or expelled to refugee camps in another country.

This 75 years old strategy, begun in 1948 by Israel’s military with the Nakba (the Palestinian ‘Catastrophe’), is apparently all kosher and ok with those 12 white countries.

That 2 million Gazans will now either starve to death, die by disease from polluted water, freeze to death from lack of shelter or lack of health services destroyed by Israel, is of course of no concern to these ‘civilised’ countries.

Purely coincidentally of course, the Israeli allegations and the very prompt response from Western nations to halt aid, comes just days after the interim ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which (despite the subsequent denials of Israel, its Zionist supporters and many of these same white nations) established a prima facie case of genocide by Israel against Gazans.

The so fondly quoted US “rule based international order”(which Scott Burchell  has aptly described as ” Washington’s confected alternative to international law, the so-called “rules-based international order”, is now exposed as nothing more than a hypocritical protection racket in free fall’.) and the western governments and their politicians and bureaucrats who so slavishly support it, has now been brutally exposed for what it is – the ghoulish face of racist psychopaths perfectly content to let millions die, in that so honorable cause of propping up their careers and profits.

Postscript

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/02/02/nz-eyes-aukus-pillar-two-what-is-it-and-how-could-it-impact-us/

One might have thought that NZ politicians were not quite so stupid as their Aussie colleagues in signing up to the U.S. inspired AUKUS protection racket-confronting non-existent threats from Russia & China & wasting millions in taxpayers money.

Perhaps they might have been better to consult with the new Argentinian president’s dead dog?

____________________________

Links

Parliament debates NZDF Red Sea deployment | RNZ News

https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/49030

Has International Law Survived, or Has the Western Political Class Killed It?

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israels-allies-accelerate-genocide-freezing-unrwa-funds

The Western club- with its own morals, rules and rewards

https://amnesty.org.nz/reverse-cruel-decision-to-withdraw-unrwa-funding

Gaza 2023 -Wikimedia
Gaza 2023 -Wikimedia
Gaza 2023 -Wikimedia
Gaza 2023 -Wikimedia
Gaza 2023 -Wikimedia
Gaza 2023 -Wikimedia
Gaza 2023 -Wikimedia

Fmr. UNRWA Spox Refutes Israeli Smears (usefulidiotspodcast.com)