Israel Heavily Involved in Human Organ Trafficking

Posted on February 11, 2024 by Keld Bach

Concerns about ‘organ theft’ by Israel’s forces from dead Palestinians were raised by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

Israel’s army has been accused of stealing organs from the dead in Gaza by an NGO, which called for an independent international investigation.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Sunday it had “concerns” about possible organ theft from Palestinian corpses, following reports by medical professionals in Gaza who examined some bodies after they were released by Israel.

The NGO claimed it has documented Israeli forces confiscating dozens of dead bodies from the al-Shifa and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza, alongside others in the south.

Medical professionals reportedly found vital organs, such as livers, kidneys and hearts, alongside cochleas and corneas, were missing, which the Euro-Med Monitor called “evidence” of potential organ theft.

They also claimed Israel exhumed and confiscated corpses from a mass grave that was dug more than 10 days ago in a courtyard at al-Shifa.

[…]

Reports have circulated in recent years that Israel is unlawfully using Palestinian corpses.

In her book Over Their Dead Bodies, Israeli doctor Meira Weiss claimed organs were taken from dead Palestinians between 1996 and 2002 and used in medical research at Israeli universities and transplanted into Israeli patients’ bodies.

Jewish teachings permit organ transplantation and harvesting, with the need to save lives paramount over all other religious commandments.

A controversial Israeli television investigation in 2014 included confessions from high-ranking officials that skin was taken from the bodies of dead Palestinians and African workers to treat Israelis, such as soldiers with burn injuries.

In it, the director of the Israeli Skin Bank revealed the country’s reserve of “human skin” reached 17 square meters – a huge number relative to Israel’s population.

Israel is thought to be the biggest hub for the illegal global trade in human organs, according to a 2008 investigation by the American CNN network.

Euro-Med Monitor claimed Israel is one of the “world’s biggest hubs for the illegal trade of human organs under the pretext of ‘security deterrence’”.

It urged the country to abide by “international law” and reiterated the “necessity of respecting and protecting the bodies of the dead during armed conflicts.”

The 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel has not ratified, requires combatants to respect the dignity of the dead, including preventing despoiling, mutilation, or any disrespectful treatment of their bodies.

Full story at: Euronews.

Original image is courtesy of The Ugly Truth.

Posted in Culture & Society, Health & Medicine, Human Rights & Justice, Imperialism & Colonialism, War & Terror | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Mr. Bean Blamed for Slow Electric Car Sales

Posted on February 10, 2024 by Keld Bach

The Green Alliance thinktank tells peers in the House of Lords the actor’s views are “damaging” to the government’s plans for phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles.

The pressure group told peers in a letter that was shared: “One of the most damaging articles was a comment piece written by Rowan Atkinson in The Guardian which has been roundly debunked.

The 69-year-old actor’s piece was headlined: “I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped.”

Atkinson wrote that EVs were “a bit soulless” and criticised the use of their lithium-ion batteries.

He suggested solutions like drivers keeping the same car for longer periods of time and increased use of synthetic fuel would negate the need for EVs, saying: “Increasingly, I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing.”

Source: Sky News.

Images are courtesy of Sky News and The Exposé, compiled by me.

Posted in Climate Change, Humour & Satire, Nature & Environment | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Tucker Carlson: Our Duty is to Inform People

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Keld Bach

Full story at: RT International.

Watch the full interview here.

See also: Oliver Stone: The Putin Interviews.

Background image is courtesy of CNN, modified by me.

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Amnesty International Condemns Israel’s Use of Unlawful Lethal Force

Posted on February 6, 2024 by Keld Bach

Shocking spike in use of unlawful lethal force by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank

With the world’s eyes fixed on Gaza, Israeli forces have over the past four months unleashed a brutal wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings, including by using lethal force without necessity or disproportionately during protests and arrest raids, and denying medical assistance to those injured, said Amnesty International.

The organization investigated four emblematic cases where Israeli forces used unlawful lethal force– three incidents in October and one in November – which resulted in the unlawful killing of 20 Palestinians, including seven children. Researchers remotely interviewed 12 people, 10 of them eyewitnesses, including first responders, and local residents. The organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab verified 19 videos and four photos in examining these four incidents.

Amnesty International’s research also found that Israeli forces obstructed medical assistance to people with life-threatening wounds and attacked those attempting to assist injured Palestinians, including paramedics.

Over the past few months Israel has stepped up deadly raids across the West Bank and tensions have skyrocketed. In one recent incident Israeli forces carried out a raid masquerading as medical staff. At least 507 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in 2023, including at least 81 children, making it the deadliest year for Palestinians since the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) began recording casualties in 2005.

“Under the cover of the relentless bombardment and atrocity crimes in Gaza, Israeli forces have unleashed unlawful lethal force against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings and displaying a chilling disregard for Palestinian lives. These unlawful killings are in blatant violation of international human rights law and are committed with impunity in the context of maintaining Israel’s institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination over Palestinians,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Director of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy.

“These cases provide shocking evidence of the deadly consequences of Israel’s unlawful use of force against Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli authorities, including the Israeli judicial system, have proven shamefully unwilling to ensure justice for Palestinian victims. In this climate of near total impunity, an international justice system worth its salt must step in. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court must investigate these killings and injuries as possible war crimes of wilful killing and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury. The situation in Palestine and Israel is a litmus test for the legitimacy and reputation of the court. It cannot afford to fail it.”

Since 7 October, across the West Bank, Israeli security forces’ use of unlawful force during law enforcement operations has been unrelenting, sowing fear and intimidation among entire communities; it has also been used to disperse rallies and protests held in solidarity with Gaza and demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Source: Amnesty International.

Header photo via Getty Images, modified by me.

Posted in Anti-War & Non-Violence, Human Rights & Justice, Imperialism & Colonialism, War & Terror | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Friends Till the End of the World

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Keld Bach

Benjamin Netanyahu shows Joe Biden who’s the boss. If Netanyahu plays his cards right, he might be able to convince the United States to attack Iran.

By Philip Giraldi

Speaking at a press conference on January 22nd, Netanyahu insisted that “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of the Jordan River”. His statement also prefigures an assault on the West Bank and the seizure of all Palestinian-held territory. War would “continue until the end, until the victory, until the elimination of Hamas” and “nothing will stop us.” Ending the war prematurely “would harm Israel’s security for generations,” he said, suggesting this could mean military action continuing until next year.

Netanyahu has said that there will be no Palestinian state with actual sovereignty and that Israel will control all of the former historic Palestine “From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” Yes, Netanyahu is using the very words that Israel’s friends have condemned as “antisemitic” when used by Palestinian demonstrators in the US objecting to the slaughter in Gaza.

[…]

US President Joe Biden followed up on the recent Netanyahu statements with what was reportedly his first phone call with Netanyahu for a month, after which he suggested that the Israeli leader might consider some “type” of two-state solution. But Netanyahu’s spokesman dismissed Biden’s claim on the following day, saying that “In his conversation with President Biden, prime minister Netanyahu reiterated his policy that, after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel, a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty.”

Netanyahu then personally expanded on the message, saying how “I emphasized to President Biden our determination to achieve all the goals of the war, and to ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.” Under his leadership, Netanyahu pledged that Israel would go beyond that to wage a far wider regional war “on all fronts and in all sectors. We are not giving immunity to any terrorist: not in Gaza, not in Lebanon, not in Syria, and not anywhere.”

Netanyahu and his generals have repeatedly stated that Israel is waging war not just on the Palestinians but also against Iran and its allies, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant explaining that Israel is confronted by a war on seven fronts: Gaza, the West Bank, and Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. Replying to a question from a reporter asking why Israel is not attacking Iran directly, Netanyahu responded, “Who says we aren’t attacking Iran? We are attacking Iran.” Indeed, Israeli forces have repeatedly bombed Syria’s capital, Damascus, targeting Iranian forces allied to the Syrian government. In the most recent incident, Israeli missiles fired from the occupied Golan Heights killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Syria intelligence chief and four more IRGC members.

Source: The Unz Review

Original image of Netanyahu and Biden via AP Photo, manipulated by me.

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When the Human Race Becomes Extinct

Posted on January 28, 2024 by Keld Bach

Mother Nature will take back Planet Earth and make it a natural Paradise.

The village was established in the 1950s and was once home to more than 2,000 fishermen. By the 1990s, the population began to rapidly decline due to lack of adequate connection to the mainland, education, and job opportunities. By 2002, the village had been completely depopulated. Since its abandonment, the once-bustling village has been overtaken by greenery, and is now a popular tourist attraction (Wikipedia).

Header image is courtesy of Johannes Eisele, Scanpix, slightly enhanced by me. It shows the Chinese fishing village Houtouwan completely abandoned by humans and taken over by Nature. Click image to view at full screen.

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Axis of Resistance

Posted on January 17, 2024 by Keld Bach

Photo (Reuters) showing a Houthi military parade, cropped and resized by me.

Tehran has spent decades building its Axis of Resistance, exploiting internal Mideast conflicts and U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This network includes Hamas, Hezbollah, and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria. But the Houthis are unique in that they’ve largely focused on fighting the U.S.’s Sunni Arab allies — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE — and have so far been removed from the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Houthis now have perhaps the most sophisticated arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones among Iran’s regional allies and proxies, known as the Axis of Resistance, according to Middle East analysts. But the militia’s geographical position makes it a particular threat to global commerce and energy shipments. Yemen sits astride the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait that serves as a choke point for ships entering the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The Houthis also are in range of the Persian Gulf through which as much as 30% of the world’s oil passes.

The Houthis have displayed in recent years a willingness to strike major commercial targets, particularly in its war against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. These operations include the 2019 drone attack on Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil refinery in eastern Saudi Arabia; a January 2021 strike on the UAE’s Abu Dhabi commercial center; and attacks on commercial ships transiting through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Source: Semafor.com.

The resistance axis is a collection of groups loosely connected to Iran. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp has trained these groups. But it did much more than the usual U.S. military training would do. The IRGC encouraged the groups to contact each other and to exchange knowledge. They now cooperate on all levels. Iran brought in new technologies and weapons and taught each group on how to make their own copies. Today Hizbullah intelligence people teach Houthi how to systematically interpret U.S. actions. Houthi and Iraqis exchange missile and drone building plans.

The axis of resistance has become an assembly of quite autonomous entities who no longer depend on deliveries or orders from Iran. But they all follow the same anti-colonial ideology.

The U.S. tried to interrupt the resistance development by, in 2020, killing Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC and founder of the resistance axis. It was in vain. The resistance was already too developed. It continued to grew on its own despite U.S. attempts of interference. After Soleimani’s death Iranian support for its resistance partners increased.

Source: Moon of Alabama.

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Silencing the Lambs — How Propaganda Works

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Keld Bach

Leni Riefenstahl, center, filming with two assistants, 1936. (Wikimedia Commons)

Leni Riefenstahl said her epic films glorifying the Nazis depended on a “submissive void” in the German public. This is how propaganda is done.

By John Pilger

In the 1970s, I met one of Hitler’s leading propagandists, Leni Riefenstahl, whose epic films glorified the Nazis. We happened to be staying at the same lodge in Kenya, where she was on a photography assignment, having escaped the fate of other friends of the Fuhrer.

She told me that the “patriotic messages” of her films were dependent not on “orders from above” but on what she called the “submissive void” of the German public.

Did that include the liberal, educated bourgeoisie? I asked. “Yes, especially them,” she said.

I think of this as I look around at the propaganda now consuming Western societies.

Of course, we are very different from Germany in the 1930s. We live in information societies. We are globalists. We have never been more aware, more in touch, better connected.

Or do we in the West live in a Media Society where brainwashing is insidious and relentless, and perception is filtered according to the needs and lies of state and corporate power?

The United States dominates the Western world’s media. All but one of the top 10 media companies are based in North America. The internet and social media – Google, Twitter, Facebook – are mostly American owned and controlled.

In my lifetime, the United States has overthrown or attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, mostly democracies. It has interfered in democratic elections in 30 countries. It has dropped bombs on the people of 30 countries, most of them poor and defenceless. It has attempted to murder the leaders of 50 countries. It has fought to suppress liberation movements in 20 countries.

The extent and scale of this carnage is largely unreported, unrecognised, and those responsible continue to dominate Anglo-American political life.

[…]

In our systems of corporate democracy, war is an economic necessity, the perfect marriage of public subsidy and private profit: socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor. The day after 9/11 the stock prices of the war industry soared. More bloodshed was coming, which is great for business.

Today, the most profitable wars have their own brand. They are called “forever wars” — Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and now Ukraine. All are based on a pack of lies.

Iraq is the most infamous, with its weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist. NATO’s destruction of Libya in 2011 was justified by a massacre in Benghazi that didn’t happen. Afghanistan was a convenient revenge war for 9/11, which had nothing to do with the people of Afghanistan.

Today, the news from Afghanistan is how evil the Taliban are —not that U.S. President Joe Biden’s theft of $7 billion of the country’s bank reserves is causing widespread suffering. Recently, National Public Radio in Washington devoted two hours to Afghanistan — and 30 seconds to its starving people.

At its summit in Madrid in June, NATO, which is controlled by the United States, adopted a strategy document that militarises the European continent, and escalates the prospect of war with Russia and China. It proposes “multi domain warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitor.” In other words, nuclear war.

Full article at: Consortium News.

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The Ultimate Genocide

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Keld Bach

Israel ordered Palestinians to leave parts of the main southern city in the Gaza Strip on Monday even as its bombs rained down on areas where it had told them to go.

Israeli troops and tanks also pressed the ground campaign against Hamas militants in the south of the enclave after having largely gained control of the now-devastated north.

Israel’s military posted a map on social media platform X on Monday morning with around a quarter of the city of Khan Younis marked off in yellow as territory that must be evacuated at once.

Three arrows pointed south and west, telling people to head towards the Mediterranean coast and towards Rafah, near the Egyptian border.

Desperate Gazans in Khan Younis packed their belongings and headed towards Rafah. Most were on foot, walking past ruined buildings in a solemn and silent procession.

But Rafah itself was coming under Israeli fire. The head of the United Nations agency in Gaza (UNWRA), Thomas White, said people there were themselves being forced to flee.

“People are pleading for advice on where to find safety. We have nothing to tell them,” he said on X.

Source: Reuters.

Header image via Reuters, modified by me.

Posted in Imperialism & Colonialism, War & Terror | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Israel Reopens the Gaza Slaughterhouse

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Keld Bach

Phase One of Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza has ended. Phase Two has begun. It will result in even higher levels of death and destruction.

The skies over Gaza are filled — after a seven-day truce — with projectiles of death. Warplanes. Attack helicopters. Drones. Artillery shells. Tank shells. Mortars. Bombs. Missiles. Gaza is a cacophony of explosions and forlorn screams and cries for help beneath collapsed buildings. Fear, once again, is coiling itself around every heart in the Gazan concentration camp.

By Friday evening, 184 Palestinians — including three journalists and two doctors — had been killed by Israeli air strikes in the north, south and central Gaza, and at least 589 injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Most of them are women and children. Israel will not be deterred. It plans to finish the job, to obliterate what is left in the north of Gaza and decimate what remains in the south, to render Gaza uninhabitable, to see its 2.3 million people driven out in a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing via starvation, terror, slaughter and infectious diseases.

[…]

The savagery of the air strikes and indiscriminate attacks, the cutting off of food, water and medicine, the genocidal rhetoric of the Israeli government, make this a war whose sole objective is revenge. This will not be good for Israel or the Palestinians. It will fuel a conflagration throughout the Middle East.

Israel’s attack is the last desperate measure of a settler colonial project that foolishly thinks, as many settler colonial projects have in the past, that it can crush the resistance of an indigenous population with genocide. But even Israel will not get away with killing on this scale. A generation of Palestinians, many of whom have seen most, if not all, of their families killed and their homes and neighborhoods destroyed, will carry within them a lifelong thirst for justice and retribution.

This war is not over. It has not even begun.

Read the full article at: The Chris Hedges Report.

Illustration (Slaughterhouse) by Mr. Fish, slightly enhanced by me.

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