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The 1967 Arab-Israeli War revisited

Published

3 years ago

June 9, 2023

I was ten years old after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War when Israel occupied the West Bank in June 1967. Then, I didn’t fully grasp what was happening to us. Arab radio stations transmitting from Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad had been galvanizing us into believing that Israel’s days were numbered and that Arab nationalism, which nearly replaced Islam as our de facto religion, would soon tear up the Zionist entity to smithereens.

We virtually worshipped Gamal Abdul Nasser, the legendary Egyptian president, who became a god-like figure among most Arabs from Bahrain to Casablanca.

It was far more abominable to curse the ultimate leader of Arab nationalism than to curse the Almighty. Under such circumstances, achieving victory over Israel, the darling of the West, was tantamount to indulging in day-dreaming.

I remember I once asked Professor Hamed Algar, Professor of Ottoman History at the University of California at Berkeley, for his opinion of Nasser.

He described him as “the second major disaster to hit the Muslim world after Mustafa Kemal Attaturk“.

So you can imagine the gigantic shock and disappointment we suffered when all of our dreams were crushed when all these charismatic leaders proved to be mere contemptible little men who excelled in rhetoric and in repressing their peoples but failed utterly in the confrontation with Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

A Narrative Story pre-the 1967 Arab-Israeli War

Four years before I was born, a great calamity had befallen my family.
The Israeli army murdered three of my four paternal uncles, Hussein (28), Mahmoud (25), and Yousuf (23). The three, all simple and impoverished shepherds, were grazing their flock of sheep and goats near the village of Al-Burj along the so-called armistice line, 22 kilometers south-west of the West Bank town of Hebron. Together with my three uncles, a number of other relatives, including a woman, were also shot dead. In fact, the Israelis not only nearly wiped out my entire family, but also seized our sheep herd, upon which our total livelihood depended to a large extent.

This calamity condemned us to a life of misery and abject poverty for many years to come. The Red Cross and the Red Crescent didn’t run active services in our region at that time, so we were left to endure our fate alone. I remember my late father telling me that the Jordanian government gave us two goats free of charge, as compensation for the tragedy. My family viewed this as a kind of insult added to injury.

Thus, my family had to live in a cave for 21 years. The misery, the suffering, the poverty and the harshness of daily living were conspicuous aspects of our life. Interestingly, to this day, the Israeli government has neither apologized for the crime nor compensated us for our stolen property.

The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Would zionist jews say “mea culpa”?

Imagine, just imagine, how rabid and vitriolic Jews would be if they were in my shoes. None the less, these self-absorbed and self-worshiping Zionists still have the Chutzpah to accuse their victims of being ” terrorists and anti-Semites.” Isn’t this discourse tantamount to fornicating with truth and history? Well, in the final analysis, shamelessness has always been and will always be the main feature of being a Zionist Jew!

I don’t know when these Jews will say mea culpa to their Palestinian and other victims. Perhaps when kosher pigs fly!!

Well, I do realize that it is too premature, probably naïve, to even evoke such a question. After all, Israel is still murdering Palestinian children nearly on a daily basis.

Many stories to tell!

Of course, our tragedy didn’t stop at losing three men and a number of other relatives murdered and hundreds of sheep stolen by the Israeli government. Much more had been seized from us six years earlier, in 1948, including our farming land in al-Za’ak, in what is now Israel. We were not even allowed to retrieve our belongings, such as bed coverings, household utensils and probably some money that had been left prior to the expulsion at the hands of armed Jewish gangs.

Anybody who might have tried would have been shot on the spot. I heard of several people who had ventured to reach their former homes just across the border, only to be shot dead after having dug their graves.

The take-no-prisoners policy was consistent with the Israeli strategy of ‘cleansing the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants who constituted the vast majority of the population in mandatory Palestine.

To implement this Nazi-like policy, various Israeli gangs, which came later to form the so-called Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), committed numerous wanton massacres against the Palestinians. Some of the most outrageous massacres included Deir Yassin, Dawaymeh, Tantura, Lud and Qastal, but there were many others. The atrocities, carried out knowingly and deliberately by the Jewish leadership, were aimed at terrorizing the Palestinians into leaving. The message was as clear as it was gruesome. “If you want to stay alive, you’ve got to leave.”

Israeli propaganda during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War would tell the world later that the ‘Arab refugees’ left their homes willingly and were not forced into leaving by the Jude-Nazi gangs. I say Judeo-Nazi because when Jews think, behave and act like Nazis they become Nazis.

Interestingly, the Zionists continue to shamelessly generate such big lies to deceive and mislead world public opinion. I strongly believe that Zionist Jews are God’s lying people.

They lie as often as they breathe; dishonesty seems to be a built-in Zionist character. You can not be Zionist and honest at the same time.

Moreover, you can’t support Israel unless you are either completely ignorant or irredeemably unconscionable or both.

Israel itself wouldn’t be able to survive five minutes in an environment ruled by truth, honesty and justice.

Zionist Jews would never admit that Israel and Jews ever did any wrongdoing or committed any crime.

A Zionist would even tell God Almighty “you’re a liar.” Didn’t Jews carry signs in the US reading “Allah is on my ass”? ( I got this quote from Alfred Lilienthal’s famous book The Zionist Connection).

Zionist Jews may not be the most murderous people under the sun. However, they are certainly the most dishonest and mendacious.

Moreover, there is no doubt whatsoever that Zionist Jews are the most racist people under the sun. For these Jews, the life of a single Jew is far more important than the lives of a million non-Jews. For them, non-Jewish life has no sanctity.

The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Jordanian era

Under Jordanian rule (1951-67), i.e. pre the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the most important concern for the Jordanian authorities was loyalty to King Hussein and his family. The King was nearly ‘a demi god’ and the entire country, including the media, the security forces and the people revolved around his figure. Hence, the claim often made that Jordan was a king with a country, rather than a country with a king, had a substantial degree of veracity.

Connections to the King and his Mukhabarat (intelligence apparatus) and immediate coterie would automatically put one in a preferential position.

Shouting “Ya’ish Jalalat al Malik al-Muaazam” (Long Live The King), would give one an automatic certificate of good conduct. No wonder, it was a despotic regime based on sycophancy, favouritism, and nepotism.

King Hussein never really made genuine efforts to push back recurrent Israeli incursions, forays and raids on Palestinian population centres in the West Bank pre the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, let alone liberate occupied Palestine. Indeed, the Commander-in-Chief of the Jordanian army in the late 1940s, when Israel was created, and up until March 1, 1956, was a British officer by the name of John Baggot Glubb who came to be known among Palestinians and Jordanians as Glubb Pasha, an honorary title. So, who in his right mind would have expected a British officer to fight the Jews on behalf of the Arabs?

As far as Palestinians were concerned, the most immediate priority for the Jordanian regime i.e. King Hussein was to make sure that they and other Jordanians didn’t pose a threat to the survival, security and stability of the Hashemite monarchy. A Palestinian would get a six-month prison term if an empty bullet cartridge was found in his possession.

And as the Israelis would do later, the Jordanians enlisted the ‘Makhatir’ (clan notables) to inform on every gesture of opposition to the Hashemite rule within their respective clans and areas. This in turn created a kind of police-state atmosphere all over the country.

Free-minded Palestinians who insisted on voicing their conscience were persecuted and dumped into the notorious El-Jafr prison in eastern Jordan where they were often tortured savagely, even to death. I know of a person from my town (Dura) who was tortured to death for his affiliation with the Communist Party.

Torture is still practiced in Jordan with the knowledge, blessing and encouragement of the United States and Britain. Some of the so-called ‘terror suspects’ held by the CIA were secretly flown to Jordan in order to be ‘softened up’ by Jordanian interrogators.

In the mid1950s, the Jordanian security forces on several occasions shot and killed demonstrators who were protesting the pro-Western policies of the government and the regime’s failure and inability to stop recurrent Israeli attacks. Some of these demonstrators were affiliated with or instigated by the Ba’ath party and the Communists who openly called for overthrowing the monarchy.

As a counterbalance to the leftists, who were quite active, especially in the West Bank, King Hussein allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to operate relatively freely. So it was a kind of divide-and-rule policy.

The leftists would accuse the Brotherhood of being British agents and the Brotherhood would retort by accentuating the atheism and enmity to Islam of the Communists and Ba’athists. Hussein’s relations with the Brotherhood remained relatively stable until the final years of his life when he introduced the one-man-one-vote law, aimed primarily at reducing to the minimum the number of parliament seats the well-organized Islamists could win.

Notwithstanding, the Muslim Brotherhood, or the Islamic Action Front, remains Jordan’s largest opposition party, despite government harassment and constant persecution.

The Muslim Brothers were not British agents or agents of any power. They only wanted to create an Islamic state in accordance with the Sharia. In other words, their strategy and goals were diametrically incompatible with those of the Communists and the Ba’athists. Hence, the mutual sullen hostility.

However, to be honest, the Jordanian regime, especially with regard to how the state treated its citizens, was not as bad and harsh as other Arab regimes, e. g., Syria, Iraq and Egypt. In non-political and non-security matters, the rule of law was generally observed and applied. In general, an individual’s dignity was upheld as long as he or she didn’t criticize the regime or undermine the ‘security of the kingdom.’

More to the point, King Hussein was truly an astute leader. Far from behaving with vindictiveness and vengefulness toward his political opponents, even those who sought to assassinate him and overthrow his regime. The King nearly always pardoned them, showing magnanimity and gallantry unmatched in modern Arab history.

Despite its authoritarianism and despotism, the Jordanian regime never persecuted us in any way even remotely comparable to what the Nazi-like Israelis have been doing to us since 1967. The Jordanians never demolished a home, bulldozed a farm or arrested people for years without charge or trial as Israel has been doing to us.

Yes, ‘wrongdoers’ were arrested and tried and often tortured, but their families wouldn’t be detained, their homes wouldn’t be bulldozed and their farms, orchards and olive groves wouldn’t be decimated as the Israelis routinely do. Jordan actually granted us full citizenship until the late King Hussein severed legal and administrative ties with the West Bank in 1988.

An outstanding exception occurred in 1970, during the so-called Black September events when the Jordanian army battled with PLO guerrillas who The King claimed were planning to take over Jordan and end the monarchy. Some atrocities were committed during these confrontations and many people, Palestinians and Jordanians, were killed. Nonetheless, the ‘September events’ should be considered a kind of anomaly in The King’s relations with the Palestinians.

In general, one can safely contend that there is no comparison between the Nazi-like Israeli occupation rule and the Jordanian era. The Jordanians were not really occupiers, they never behaved as occupiers. In many ways, The King was our king and the Kingdom was our kingdom. Yes, the regime was authoritarian and generally repressive, but, in all honesty, it cannot be compared to the Israelis whose barbarianism, brutal oppression, racism and savagery transcend reality.

Nonetheless, Jordan was (and still is) a weak and poor kingdom, economically, politically and especially militarily. The Israeli army routinely carried out cross-border incursions into the West Bank prior to 1967, murdering innocent villagers, and the Jordanian army was generally too weak and too unequipped to repulse the Israeli aggressors.

King Hussein must have calculated that maintaining a peaceable or even quasi-friendly modus vivendi with Israel was the best insurance policy for retaining his kingdom and the rule of his Hashemite dynasty. I think he was wrong in thinking this way. His non-hostility towards Israel didn’t prevent the Jewish state from pursuing its aggressive policies, which culminated in the occupation of the West Bank in 1967.

King Hussein did make a lot of contacts with Israel even before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. For example, on September 24, 1963, the director-general of the Israeli prime minister’s office, Yaacov Herzog, met the King in the London clinic of the King’s Jewish physician, Dr. Emmanuel Herbert.

Another meeting took place in Paris in 1965 and Israel was represented by Golda Meir, who was accompanied by Herzog.

It is also believed that Hussein had lots of contacts with the Israeli state through the alumni offices of Boston University.

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

Published

6 days ago

July 27, 2026

Syed M Sarmad Kazmi

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.

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

Published

6 days ago

July 27, 2026

Syed M Sarmad Kazmi

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.

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Gaza’s Genocide Hits 1,000 Days

Published

2 weeks ago

July 19, 2026

Syed M Sarmad Kazmi

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.

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