Connect with us

Featured

The un-Islamic Islam of the Saudi ruling Family

Published

on

The Saudi Ruling Family

Most people in the non-Muslim world as well as many ordinary Muslims all over the world may be tempted to think that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Saudi ruling family more or less represents the true face of  Islam as preached by the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) and later taught and propagated by his faithful companions and followers. However, the truth of the matter is that there is a light year-gap between the Saudi “Islam” and the true Islam, as enshrined in the Holy Quran and Sunna or traditions of God’s final messenger to mankind.

By “Saudi Islam” I don’t mean in any way the honourable Hanbali school of Jurisprudence followed by most Saudis and numerous other Muslims around the world. What I do mean is the scandalous misuse and abuse of Islam by the decadent and unimaginably corrupt Saudi ruling family to perpetuate their virulent dictatorship and grip on power, mainly in the service of their parochial selfish interests and the interests of their foreign protectors, who are enemies of Islam. 

Serious deviation from Islam 

The Kaʿbah, the holiest shrine in Islam

In this article, I will try to pinpoint some of the most scandalous contradictions between true Islam and the notoriously “sham Islam”, practised by the tribal Saudi dictatorship which claims rather shamelessly that its  “legitimacy” is derived from its strict adherence to Sharia, a claim fraught with dishonesty and mendacity.

Read also: 2Billion Muslims Must Send A Stern Warning To India’s Nazi-Like Government To Stop Its Anti-Islam Discourse

I don’t deny that the Saudi regime’s rule of the vast Arabian peninsula has always contained and continues to contain some superficial aspects of Islam such as the organization of the annual Haj pilgrimage to Macca and the maintenance of the holy places.  However, if we examine the nature of the Saudi rule more meticulously, without resorting to complacency and sycophancy, we will be undoubtedly affronted with grave violations that are absolutely antithetical to the letter and spirit of Islam.

Medieval feudal dictatorship

The Saudi ruling family
Royal bodyguards waiting in a hallway outside a room where King Faisal of Saudi Arabia has a meeting, 1967. (Photo by Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

To begin with, the ruling  Saudi dynasty is a medieval kind of tyrannical dictatorships whereby the unelected king is viewed, de facto at least, as a sort of god, with absolute and unlimited authority. Thus the King, can, theoretically at least, kill any citizen, rape any woman, and arrogate any amount of money from the public treasury with total impunity and without any modicum of accountability. Needless to say,  any gesture of dissatisfaction by the people, however faint or innocuous, is punishable by death or life imprisonment.  

This contradicts rather sharply the clear principles of Islam which make it amply clear that a religous Muslim ruler must be chosen by the people,  either directly or through their elected representatives, namely Ahlul Hall wal’aqd“(literally, people who tie and untie).   Moreover, Islam states unequivocally that obedience to the ruler is contingent upon and subject to his absolute dedication and commitment to the Sharia.

Kleptocracy: A government of thieves, run by thieves, for the benefit of thieves 

The Saudi ruling family
The Saudi Royal Family is the ruling family of Saudi Arabia’s kingdom and is worth over $1 trillion, making them the wealthiest royal family on earth.

As we all know, the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) said “By Allah, if Fatema,  the daughter of Muhammed, stole, I would cut off her hand.”

However, we see that the Saudi rulers view the wealth of the entire country as their own wealth. Hence, it is no coincidence that all Saudi kings since King Faisal, who was assassinated by his nephew in 1975 arrogated tens of billions of dollars from the public treasury. This explains the fact that Saudi kings, Princess and hundreds of other members of the ruling family devour a large chunk of the Saudi treasury. 
 

In 1988,  Fortune Magazine estimated former King Fahd’s wealth to be around $18 billion (making him the second-richest person in the world at that time). Forbes estimated Fahd’s wealth to be $25 billion in 2002. In addition to residences in Saudi Arabia, he had a palace on Spain’s Costa del Sol which made Marbella a famous place. Current estimates of Crown Prince Muhammed Ibn Salman’s wealth are put at $23 billion.  All in all, estimates of the Saudi ruling family’s wealth measure their net worth at $1.4 trillion. This figure includes the market capitalization of Saudi Aramco, the state oil and gas company, and its vast assets in fossil fuel reserves. In light, one can quite safely argue, without the slightest exaggeration,  that the Saudi regime is actually a government of thieves, run by thieves, for the benefit of thieves.

 Hence the question, what sort of Islam are these master hypocrites and liars talking about when they claim they are ruling the country in accordance with the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet?  Their malicious, pernicious lies are crying to the seventh heaven.!  

The truth of the matter is that these depraved thieves are only using Islam as a pretext to hide their rapacity, corruption and criminality.

 Indeed, One doesn’t go too far by arguing that the Saudi dynasty and Saudi ruling family is an incurable malignant cancer upon the conscience of Islam and Muslims as they constitute the ultimate antithesis of the religion of justice. This is because they knowingly commit grand treachery against Allah, His messenger and the religion of Islam while claiming that they rule according to Sharia! Islam is not an enigmatic religion. It is the Saudi ruling family that is corrupt beyond imagination.

Jamal Khashogji

Jamal Khashougji
Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018

The hair-raising murder of Jamal Khashogji at the Saudi  Consulate in Istanbul in 2018 epitomizes the un-Islamic Islam of the feudal Saudi regime. And as we all know, the murderous crown Prince and de facto king (MBS), who ordered the grisly murder,  has eventually emerged unscathed from that eternal stigma.

Open-ended incarceration for God-fearing Ulema and rights activists 

Persecuted Ulama in Saudi
Prominent Islamic scholars tortured to death in Saudi jails

Today, MBS is incarcerating in shocking conditions thousands of Saudi intellectuals, Ulema, and activists for voicing non-conformist views. Some of them have died in their cells. Others are agonizing as a result of physical and psychological torture.

The draconian justice system in the Kingdom of fear and darkness sentenced two Saudi women for 35 and 45 years respectively for using the social media. This week, it was reported that a Saudi court sentenced Noura bint Said al-Kahtani to 45 years in prison for social media posts. The  woman was convicted of “using the internet to tear the (Saudi) social fabric” and for “violating public order by using social media.” A few weeks earlier, the same court sentenced  Salma al-Shehab, a mother of two and doctoral candidate at the University of Leeds in Britain, to 35 years in jail for following and retweeting dissidents and activists on Twitter.

Saudi woman given 34-year prison sentence for using Twitter

Yes, a 45-year imprisonment sentence for writing a simple tweet! What sort of Islam is that? Would the Prophet of Islam and his companions have condoned this outrageous absurdity and preposterousness?

Eternal subservience to America

MBS and Biden
Biden effort to rehabilitate US-Saudi relations likely to include normalization with Israel

Ever since Britain withdrew from the region in the early 1960s, Saudi Arabia has been a de facto American protectorate. The unholy bond goes like this: The U.S, sustains the Saudi dynasty in power in exchange for Saudi Arabia serving and doggedly guarding American and Israeli interests in the entire Middle East.

 In the last two decades, Saudi Arabia spent tens of billions of dollars to prop up dictatorial rulers in the region. It is widely believed that the Saudi monarchy paid more than 20 billion dollars to overthrow the first democratically-elected President of Egypt, Muhammed Mursi,  in 2013. The advent of the visibly ignorant Egyptian dictator, Abdul Fattah Sissi, who is Israel’s No.1 lover in the Arab world, was preceded by huge massacres of pro-democracy activists, at the Rabaa and Nahda squares in Cairo where between 7000 -10,000 men, women and children  were either slaughtered en mass by machinegun fire or incinerated alive by Egyptian forces. 

Read also: Is America Embracing Dictatorship In The Arab World?

Needless to say, The Saudis funded these hideous crimes and the concomitant bloody coup, which put a tragic end to  Egypt’s brief democratic experiment.  The King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah, congratulated Sissi for his great victory over “the apostates.”  Soon after these events, the Saudi government issued a plethora of laws and decrees criminalizing any individual calling for democracy, human rights and civil liberties in Saudi Arabia. Thus, anyone convicted of indulging in these “crimes” would be guilty of apostasy,” a grand felony punishable by death.! Yes, this is the Islam of Saudi Arabia. Does it look like the rule of Umar Ibn al Khattab and Abu Bakr and Ali ibn Abi Talib, let alone the rule of the Almighty’s final messenger to mankind?

Moral decadence

MBS
Thirty-five-year-old Mohammed bin Salman’s sudden rise stunned the world

MBS is reportedly suffering from a host of personality defects including a clear mental disability which he often seeks to conceal by displaying exaggerated aggressiveness and intimidation. This is the reason why he always insists on receiving written questions by journalists and TV interviewers especially when visiting foreign countries.

He is also a lecherous hedonist par excellance. He is said to have arranged a promiscuous orgy in the Maldives in 2015 to celebrate his appointment by his father as Crown Prince.  He reportedly paid 50 million US dollars for the party which was “attended” by 150 “women models” from several Western countries. A recently released book claimed that MBS  arrived at the resort only after the models were tested and found safe from sexually transmitted diseases. The book, titled  ‘Blood and Oil’ written by Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck,  exposes MBS’s scandalous lifestyle and ruthless quest for power. Predictably, the Saudi media wouldn’t report on this and similar scandals for obvious reasons. 

Allah will not be deceived

As we all know, such filthy promiscuity, obscene extravagance and wanton squandering of the Muslim Umma resources are absolutely Haram (strictly prohibited) according to the Book of Allah and the  Sunna of our beloved prophet.  However, these cardinal vices are obviously Halal and perfectly acceptable according to the pseudo-Islam of the Saudi ruling family. But Allah will not be deceived and His punishment will be very sever, indeed.

The de-Islamization in Saudi Arabia Society

Today, MBS is busy carrying out an aggressive campaign of de-Islamization in Saudi Arabia This campaign has permitted Saudi women to dress more or less like western women, effectively abandoning the Hijab, though gradually. The campaign also allowed inter-gender mixing with a clear prurient underpinning as well as a plethora of sex-oriented “recreational activities” which fly in the face of Sharia rules of modesty. One Saudi intellectual residing abroad intimated to this writer that “it is only a matter of time before MBS allows prostitution houses and bars serving hard liquor to operate openly in the kingdom, especially in the Red Sea resort town of Jeddah, not far from the Kaaba, the holiest Muslim place on earth.

Reacting to this combination of brutal dictatorship, rampant corruption and falsified Islam, some Saudi youngsters are leaving Islam altogether embracing other religions. Others have opted to embrace atheism. It is not exactly known how widespread is the phenomenon. However, unofficial estimates put the number of atheists in the kingdom at tens of thousands.  

The sinful Love relationship with Israel

MBS doesn’t seem to believe that the Palestinian issue ought to have a “veto impact” on Saudi freedom to pursue its national interests with other states, including Israel.

Saudi Arabia has displayed definitive signs indicating that the Kingdome is about to start a cordial relationship with the bellicose Zionist entity of Israel which is continuing to murder and savage fellow Palestinian Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on a daily basis.  Signs of this sinful relationship included allowing Israeli passenger aircraft to fly over the kingdom, instructing social media bloggers as well as Friday Jumaa speakers and media in general to malign Palestinians and their enduring cause.  

Read also:Biden effort to rehabilitate US-Saudi relations likely to include normalization with Israel

Officially, Saudi spokesmen claim the Kingdom’s traditional stance vis-à-vis the Palestinian issue has remained unchanged. However, the growing behind-the scene normalization between the kingdom and the evil apartheid Jewish entity suggests that the Saudis are effectively turning their backs on the Palestinian cause.  

Needless to say, this treasonous abandonment of the Muslims’ No.1 cause shows that Saudi Arabia is not only betraying the Palestinians and the Aqsa sanctuary but is actually betraying the very soul of Islam itself.  The Holy Quran warns Muslims repeatedly against taking hostile and belligerent enemies as allies.  “Whoever embraces them amongst you is one of them, “the Quran warns.

Indeed, the looming alliance between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, should be viewed as a sign of apostasy, which ejects that horrible, primitive regime from the realm of Islam.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured

Washington’s Invisible Hand: How US Power Connects Gaza’s Genocide to the Iran War

Published

on

Washingtons-Invisible-Hand-How-US-Power-Connects-Gazas-Genocide-to-the-Iran-War

Washington usually describes itself as a peacemaker. Yet behind that language lies a trail of weapons, aircraft, military budgets and political protection. Follow it from Gaza to Iran, and America’s role becomes difficult to hide.

The Pentagon estimates that the Iran war will cost $37.5 billion through 30 September, while the current government has sought almost $90 billion more. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme needs $420 million to prevent deeper aid cuts in Gaza.

Projected US spending on the Iran conflict is nearly 90 times Gaza’s WFP funding gap. Washington mobilises enormous resources for warfare, but Palestinians facing genocidal hunger are told that humanitarian agencies lack money.

The Alliance Behind Gaza’s Ruins

Unfortunately, Israel’s genocide has devastated the entire lifecycle in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been brutally killed, most residents displaced, and hospitals, schools, water networks, homes and farmland destroyed.

Even the October 2025 ceasefire did not make Palestinians safe. Israeli strikes continued, and more than 1,160 Palestinians had reportedly been killed during the ceasefire period.

Although Israel is the principal perpetrator, American support sustains its impunity. Washington supplies weapons, military cooperation and diplomatic cover while refusing to impose consequences strong enough to stop the attacks. Its statements about protecting civilians are contradicted by support for the government inflicting their suffering.

When Support Became Direct Intervention

The connection became clearer when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February 2026. Iran retaliated, and what was presented as controlled military action developed into months of hostilities.

UN experts reported that unlawful operations between 28 February and early April killed at least 3,375 civilians. After an interim ceasefire collapsed, American forces conducted 13 consecutive nights of strikes.

Gaza created a dangerous precedent: mass suffering could be called self-defence while legal objections were ignored.

The Military Network Behind the Diplomacy

American involvement extends beyond money. By late June, 98 US military aircraft were stationed or operating in Israel. Additional aerial-refuelling planes were later deployed to military bases and commercial airports.

Ultimately, these tankers allow combat aircraft to fly farther and remain airborne longer. Their presence reduced activity at Ben Gurion Airport by about 70 percent.

The US House also passed a $1.15 trillion defence bill, highlighting expanded US–Israel military-technology cooperation. Thus, genocide in Gaza and escalation with Iran were being accompanied by plans to deepen the brutal alliance.

When Civilian Infrastructure Becomes a Target

President Trump threatened to destroy an Iranian bridge or power station whenever Iran was witnessed doing an unusual activity across the Strait of Hormuz. Such threats raise serious questions under international humanitarian law.

As per the international order, civilian infrastructure cannot lawfully be destroyed merely as punishment. Even where an installation has military use, an attack must meet the requirements of distinction, necessity and proportionality.

Gaza has shown what destroying essential systems means. Damaged electricity shuts down hospital equipment. Destroyed water networks spread disease. Blocked fuel stops ambulances, bakeries and sewage treatment. Civilians continue dying long after the aircraft leaves.

How the Conflict Reaches Across the Region

Iranian attacks have targeted US positions and facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. On the other hand, the Yemeni Houthis have attacked Saudi oil infrastructure at Jizan and Yanbu and threatened Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea.

Renewed hostilities could end Yemen’s fragile ceasefire and revive a devastating conflict. Insecurity around the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea also raises shipping, fuel and others costs.

The burden enters ordinary homes through expensive food, lost livelihoods and fear of further attacks. Muslim countries are being drawn into a confrontation shaped heavily by American and Israeli decisions, while the region’s civilians pay the price.

What Washington’s Priorities Look Like in Gaza

The contrast between military and humanitarian spending becomes clearest in Gaza through the following stats:

  • Around 1.4 million Palestinians would face acute hunger by December 2026.
  • Food rations for 220,000 households have already been halved by WFP.
  • Cash assistance for 75,000 people has been reduced by 25 percent only
  • WFP supports about 70 percent of Gaza’s population but requires another $420 million.

Gaza is not starving because food does not exist. Palestinians are hungry because Israel has devastated the enclave, restricted daily life and obstructed meaningful recovery through continued genocide.

Washington finds tens of billions for military operations. When Palestinian children need bread, water and medicine, the language changes to shortages and donor fatigue.

Making the Invisible Hand Visible

The US–Israeli partnership has produced neither justice for Palestinians nor security for the Middle East. It has enabled genocide in Gaza, protected occupation, widened conflict with Iran and increased the danger facing Yemen and the Gulf.

In a nutshell, Washington’s hand may be hidden beneath terms such as alliance and deterrence, but its effects are visible in Gaza’s empty kitchens, Iran’s damaged cities and civilian graves. Israel inflicts the principal violence on Palestinians, America provides vital power and protection, and ordinary families carry the loss.

Continue Reading

Featured

Israel’s Election Campaign Is Being Fought on Palestinian Land and Lives

Published

on

Israels-Election-Campaign-Is-Being-Fought-on-Palestinian-Land-and-Lives

On 17 July 2026, Israel’s parliament dissolved ahead of national elections scheduled for 27 October. As usual, Israeli politicians turned to alliances, opinion polls and political survival. However, in occupied Palestine, families faced a more urgent question: who would survive the next Israeli genocidal attack?

The election will formally be decided at Israeli ballot boxes, but its campaign is already unfolding across Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are competing to appear tougher on Palestinians and more committed to permanent Israeli control.

Gaza’s “Ceasefire” Still Produces Graves

Israel continues striking Gaza despite the ceasefire that began in October 2025. The bombing may be less intensive than during earlier stages of the genocide, but Palestinians are still being killed in homes and tents.

For example, on 21 July, an Israeli strike hit the al-Masri family’s home in Gaza City. Firas al-Masri, his wife Salsabeel and their four children were killed while sleeping. Meanwhile, twelve Palestinians were killed across Gaza that day, while more than 1,160 had reportedly been killed since the ceasefire began.

Amnesty International and a UN Commission of Inquiry have concluded that Israel is still committing genocide in Gaza.

Palestinian Suffering as Political Strength

Genocidal mastermind Benjamin Netanyahu enters the campaign under pressure over the October 2023 security failure, corruption proceedings and opposition. On his right, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich demand more settlements, harsher military operations and permanent Israeli control over occupied Palestinian territory.

This competition has created a cruel political test: which leader can punish Palestinians more severely and surrender less land?

The problem is not that every strike is necessarily ordered for electoral advantage. It is that Israel’s political system rewards escalation and genocide. Violence against Palestinians is marketed as strength, while restraint is attacked as weakness. Palestinian suffering becomes evidence that a candidate is “tough on security.”

Gaza Is Not Empty Land for Israeli Settlers

In July, Israeli settlers and politicians marched towards Gaza demanding the restoration of settlements dismantled in 2005. Their language of “returning home” concealed a fundamental reality, while Gaza is already the homeland of more than two million Palestinians.

Re-establishing Israeli settlements would require further land seizures, military control and forced Palestinian displacement.

Additionally, Israel is also constructing an earthen barrier more than 23 kilometres long inside Gaza along the so-called Yellow Line. Its forces control more than half of the enclave, while Palestinians have been compressed into a smaller coastal area.

What is described as a temporary security boundary will become a permanent border imposed without Palestinian consent. Gaza is being divided while Israeli politicians discuss taking land from which Palestinians have been driven.

Al-Aqsa Becomes an Electoral Stage

Unfortunately, on 23 July, more than 4,200 Israelis, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under heavy police protection. Nationalist displays and religious rituals challenged the longstanding arrangements governing the site.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa is not a campaign backdrop. It is the first qiblah and one of Islam’s holiest places. Ben-Gvir’s repeated incursions demonstrate that Israel’s far right believes it can impose its will even within sacred Muslim space.

Each visit helps him appeal to extremists demanding greater Israeli control. Al-Aqsa is thus turned into a stage where provocation is performed for votes.

Settlers Attack, but Palestinians Receive the Punishment

The occupied West Bank shows how settler aggression and state power reinforce one another. In July, armed settlers entered the area around Tal, a Palestinian village near Nablus in Area A, where Israeli civilians are prohibited from entering. A confrontation followed in which four Palestinians were martyred, harming two Israeli soldiers.

Israel responded by sealing roads, raiding Palestinian homes and questioning approximately 80 villagers. Smotrich went further, calling for Palestinian villages to be cleared and settlements established in their place.

Moreover, recent UN figures show the wider crisis:

  • By 20 July, settler-related Palestinian deaths in 2026 had already exceeded the total recorded throughout 2025.
  • Settler attacks accounted for 55 percent of Palestinian injuries in the West Bank during 2026.
  • More than 2,300 Palestinians had been displaced by settler violence and related restrictions by early July.

The pattern seems familiar. Settlers enter Palestinian land and attack or provoke residents. Israeli genocidal forces arrive, but their overwhelming power falls upon Palestinians through arrests, closures and demolitions.

Buying Annexation Before the Election

Israel is using public money to make the occupation harder to reverse. The security cabinet approved 1.3 billion shekels, approximately $434 million, for 34 West Bank settlements.

These decisions brought the number of settlements initiated during Smotrich’s term to 103. Approximately 700,000 Israeli settlers now live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Roads, budgets and legal recognition create realities that may survive even if Netanyahu loses. Palestinian land is effectively being distributed as an electoral reward to the settler movement.

In fact, for Palestinians, this campaign is not a televised debate. It is experienced through drones over Gaza, armed settlers entering villages, police surrounding Al-Aqsa, and bulldozers approaching homes.

Continue Reading

Featured

Gaza’s Genocide Hits 1,000 Days

Published

on

Gazas-Genocide-Hits-1000-Days

Unfortunately, more than 1000 days have now passed since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched what has become one of the most thoroughly documented genocides of the modern era. Although a so-called “ceasefire” has technically been in place since October 2025, the brutal killings haven’t stopped. Neither has the destruction, the displacement, or the impunity.

The Numbers on Day 1,000

More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the genocide, over 21,000 of them children, an entire generation cut down before it had the chance to grow up. Thousands more remain missing, presumed buried under rubble that has never been cleared. Up to 90 percent of Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed.

Additionally, more than 200 journalists have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israel. It is the deadliest campaign against reporters anywhere in the world in decades — a body count that exists because Israel has worked to make sure the world sees as little of Gaza’s destruction as possible.

Even now, with a ceasefire nominally in force, Israel still occupies roughly 60 percent of the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu also ordered the Israel Defence Forces to push that to 70 percent or more.

A Ceasefire in Name Only

Officially on paper, the guns went quiet in October 2025 under a US-brokered agreement. Whereas in practice, Gaza’s own police force has been hunted since. The UN human rights office has documented more than a dozen separate Israeli attacks on Gaza’s police since January 2026 alone, killing at least 35 officers, alongside medics, local officials, and community figures.

Analysts studying the pattern describe it plainly as a deliberate strategy. A strategy to prevent any functioning Palestinian civil order from taking root, keeping Gaza too broken to govern itself and too dangerous for anyone else to try.

The “Peace Plan” That Was Never Allowed to Begin

The architecture proposed by the “Board of Peace” that was supposed to follow the ceasefire has collapsed into paperwork and stalled committees. Hamas formally dissolved its administration this month and handed authority to a transitional body of Palestinian technocrats. This body is also known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.

However, Israel has refused to let the committee’s own members enter Gaza; they remain stuck in Cairo. The International Stabilization Force (ISF) promised under the peace framework has never been deployed. The so-called Board of Peace, chaired by Donald Trump and meant to oversee reconstruction, has advanced almost nothing, and its funding mechanism holds no money at all.

Instead, the Board recently announced that UNRWA, the UN agency that has supported Palestinian refugees for 75 years, “has no place in the new Gaza”. This is a heinous move that the Palestinian leadership condemned as an attempt to erase the Palestinian refugees and, with it, the right of return.

Cruelty as Policy: The Crocodile-Moat Prisons

If anyone doubted that dehumanization remains official Israeli policy rather than genocidal excess, this month supplied the proof. Israel’s environmental protection minister has signed an order reclassifying crocodiles as “managed wild animals.” Resultantly, it cleared the last legal obstacle to a proposal from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to surround prisons holding Palestinian detainees with crocodile-filled moats.

To practice this, the Israel Prison Service has already begun visiting zoos to study crocodile handling. Israeli officials are defending the plan on cost grounds. For example, they said that a young crocodile runs about $8,000, and an adult up to $20,000. So, the deterrent value of a moat full of predators for human beings is a line item to be budgeted rather than a moral horror to be condemned.

Roughly 9,500 Palestinians are currently held in torturous Israeli prisons, including women and children, most without ever being charged. Palestinian and Israeli rights groups alike have documented conditions of starvation, torture, and medical neglect inside these facilities.

These conditions have already killed dozens of detainees before a single moat has been dug. This same season, Israel’s Knesset passed a law making the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts. These are the tribunals that operate with none of the due-process protections a civilian court would be required to provide.

Washington’s Fingerprints Are on All of It

The United States brokered the so-called “ceasefire” and takes credit for the peace framework built on top of it. It has been far quieter about everything that has happened since.

Washington’s statements demand that Hamas disarm, but say surprisingly little about the near-daily Israeli strikes that keep breaking the ceasefire, the blockades on humanitarian aid, or the gradual Israeli withdrawal that was supposed to happen and hasn’t. The US has stayed silent as Israel carried out what amounts to a de facto annexation of the West Bank, conducted deadly military raids, and displaced hundreds of communities, which could be called “ethnic cleansing”.

American weapons, funding, and diplomatic cover have underwritten every phase of this genocide, from the first month to the thousandth day. In fact, it is the support that continued even after the International Court of Justice warned, in early 2024, that Israel’s conduct plausibly amounted to genocide under international law.

In a nutshell, the number will keep climbing for as long as the world continues treating Gaza as a diplomatic inconvenience rather than what a thousand days of evidence have already shown it to be.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending