I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.
Palestinian-Spanish activist Saif Abukeshek (centre) a member of the
Global Sumud Flotilla, is escorted by prison service guards to a hearing
at the District Court in Ashkelon, Israel, on Sunday, May 3, 20
A PALESTINE solidarity activist deported from Israel today has vowed to keep mobilising “for a free Palestine.”
Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Swedish dual
national, and Thiago Avila of Brazil’s deportation was announced by the
Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Mr Abu Keshek posted a defiant video
following his arrival in Athens, Greece, pointing out that his comrades
were still sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla determined to get aid
into Gaza.
“Mobilise in every corner of the world, on land and at sea, for a free Palestine,” he urged.
Israel attacked the flotilla in
international waters near Greece on April 30, kidnapping 175 people but
only taking Mr Abu Keshek and Mr Avila back to Israel for interrogation.
They both reported ill treatment by
Israeli authorities — Mr Avila that he was beaten unconscious, while Mr
Abu Keshek was reportedly forced to lie face down blindfolded on the
boat all the way to Israel.
In his video, Mr Abu Keshek drew attention
to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, over 3,000 of
whom are in “administrative detention,” having never been tried. These
military orders can be renewed indefinitely.
“I am sure that the treatment I faced is nothing compared to the suffering they are going through,” he said.
Human rights and prisoner advocacy groups
have accused Israel of systematic abuse of prisoners, including rape and
setting dogs on them.
In March, Israel dropped charges against five soldiers accused of sodomising a Palestinian prisoner with a “sharp object.”
Footage of the notorious incident was
leaked by former Israeli military advocate-general Major General Yifat
Tomer-Yerushalmi, resulting in her resignation and disgrace.
Although this step would not have changed
much – if anything- as the Zionist entity would have retained its
privileged access to the European market, in another shameful, unmasking
reaction, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul declared the three countries’ move to be “inappropriate“,
saying: “We have to talk with Israel about the critical issues… that
has to be done in a critical, constructive dialogue with Israel.”
“Inappropriate!”
After two and a half years of genocide in Gaza and the blockade of all aid? In light of the unprecedented brutality in the West Bank, committed by the “scum of Zionist settlers” who, with the help of Israeli occupation forces, are perpetrating a “second Nakba”? After months of slaughtering civilians in Lebanon, destroying all infrastructure just as the inhuman settler colonial fanatics of a Greater Israel did in Gaza, and bombing the Iranian population?
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Instead of finally taking action against
all these repulsive massacres, Wadephul offers nothing but empty talk
about Germany’s supposed historical responsibility for the Zionist mass
murderers and the mantra-like repetition of a “constructive dialogue”
with them being necessary.
In 19 months, this “constructive dialogue”
has yielded no results for the victims of the Zionists, but as Wadephul
insists on continuing it, it is high time to take a closer look at what
this kind of dialogue actually entails.
Constructive dialogue
“Constructive dialogue is a form of
conversation where people with different perspectives seek to understand
one another – without abandoning their own beliefs – in order to live,
learn, and work together. It is especially well-suited for grappling
with important, complex issues that often divide people.”
As Gaza becomes a death camp, German complicity reveals the West’s racist ‘biopolitics’
If this is a definition provided by experts, such a dialogue between Germany and Israel is completely unnecessary.
When it comes to genocide, settler violence, the decades-long ongoing Nakba, the destruction of southern Lebanon
and the bombing of Lebanese and Iranian residential neighbourhoods,
Berlin and the Zionists do not have a single “different perspective”
that needs to be clarified. They “understand each other”; they do not
even have to “abandon their own beliefs”, and none of these crimes
would “divide” them.
We learn even more:
“At its core, constructive dialogue prioritises mutual understanding:
the shared effort to understand others’ views while knowing that others
are making the same effort toward yours. Through this process,
participants may enrich their own perspectives, clarify differences,
uncover common ground, or even create opportunities for future
collaboration that once seemed out of reach.”
This helps us understand why such a dialogue is actually pointless.
In light of all the crimes against
humanity that the Zionists continue to commit, there already exists
“mutual understanding” between them and Germany. And it goes without
saying that for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whatever his best
friends have announced to do, have done and continue to do in Gaza and beyond is anything but a genocide.
In a “constructive dialogue”, Berlin and
the Zionist entity cannot “enrich” their perspectives or “clarify
differences”, since they are in complete agreement on everything the
Zionists do.
They cannot “uncover common ground”, for they are brothers in arms and allies in genocide.
And they cannot even “create opportunities for future cooperation”
because, as much as the murderous genocide project of the Palestinian
people is a joint one, so was the following annihilation of the Lebanese and Iranians. None of them has ever “seemed out of reach”.
Throwing smoke bombs
Wadephul, who came under pressure from the
three EU member states, responded by resorting to a tried-and-true
tactic that is nothing more than a large-scale deception, as another
look into what “constructive dialogue” does not mean.
“Constructive dialogue is not about
persuading others or winning an argument, and it is not about proving
the other side wrong. While these may be reasonable goals for other
forms of conversation, these are not the aims of constructive
dialogue.”
And that is why Germany wants to continue
the “constructive dialogue”. By definition, it rules out everything that
actually needs to be done.
This hypocritical “constructive dialogue”
is intended to prevent the German foreign minister from doing what he
actually ought to do: convincing the Zionists to stop their heinous
crimes and putting pressure on them. He would have to do everything in
his power to stand up to the killing machine known as Israel, to save
the lives of those it slaughters.
Actions rather than empty words would
simply be the duty – and indeed, the historical responsibility – of a
German foreign minister. How constructive would that be? It would
directly serve the cause of life, not Zionist necropolitics.
Yet can one imagine a German foreign minister not only delivering empty “constructive” talk
without consequences? Who would even dare to impose sanctions on the
Zionist regime that commits an almost infinite list of barbaric crimes
on a daily basis?
‘Israel First’
Certainly not, but there is much to be learned from Wadephul’s call for a “constructive dialogue”.
To call for such a “constructive dialogue”
now – after Germany has unreservedly supported and encouraged the
genocide for two and a half years, as well as the ongoing wars of
aggression against Lebanon, Syria, and Iran – is in fact putting “Israel First”.
Israel is gripped by messianic fervour for a biblical war
Another “constructive dialogue” will lead
nowhere, because it is not meant to and must not lead anywhere. Nothing
is supposed to change. The eradication of the Palestinian and other Arab
peoples is to continue. It is an expression of the barely concealed contempt, rooted in white supremacy, that both Germany and the Zionists harbour towards Arab and Persian civilisation.
Germany, on the other hand, honours
Zionism’s contribution to western civilisation, which essentially
amounts to developing some of the most advanced military technologies
and the most sophisticated surveillance technologies for the purpose of
killing and controlling people. Both are expressions of the Zionist
cult of death, which Germany supports and seeks to profit from.
“Israel First” – that is a very German doctrine and has been for decades.
Today, we see the consequences: while the
German government, even in the face of genocide, attempts to appease and
deceive its own people and the world by calling for a “creative
dialogue”, it is simultaneously paving the way for the messianic-Zionist horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The “constructive dialogue” that Wadephul
suggests is nothing more than another coffee-table chat in which
Germany, in a thoroughly constructive manner, assures the Zionists of a
free hand and support for the continuation of their barbaric campaigns
of extermination.
As there will never be any consequences, such talks, to borrow Wadephul’s phrase, are utterly “inappropriate”.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Jurgen Mackert is Professor of Sociology
at the University of Potsdam, Germany. He was a temporary Professor for
the Structure of modern societies at the University of Erfurt, Germany
and a visiting professor for Political Sociology at Humboldt University
Berlin. His latest books include On Social Closure. Theorizing
Exclusion, Exploitation, and Elimination (Oxford University Press 2024).
Siedlerkolonialismus. Grundlagentexte und aktuelle Analysen (edited
with Ilan Pappe; Nomos 2024).
Note: Greg Maybury is a writer and blogger from Australia. He has
compiled the following historical information and presented it in a
condensed form for all. It is of paramount importance to comprehend the
savage and murderous colonialism of France in Africa, and the
information he has gathered is verifiable.
-
Another slice of our past narrative
missing from those not-so-reliable tomes that we call history books.
Fact check this mes cheries. ===
France gathered 400 Muslim scholars and
beheaded them. In 1917 AD, during the occupation of Chad. In 1852, when
France entered the city of Laghouat in Algeria, it killed two-thirds of
its population in a single night and burned them alive.
France occupied Algeria for 132 years. In
the first 7 years after their arrival, the French eliminated 1 million
Muslims, and in the last 7 years before their departure, they eliminated
1.5 million Muslims. The French historian Jacques Gorky estimated that
the total number of Muslims killed in Algeria from France’s arrival in
1830 to its departure in 1962 was 10 million.
France occupied Tunisia for 75 years, Algeria for 132 years, Morocco for 44 years, and Mauritania for 60 years.
When France entered Egypt during its
famous campaign, French soldiers on horseback entered mosques and raped
free women in front of their families. They drank wine in the mosques
and turned them into stables for their horses.
It is strange to see some people boasting
about and defending French civilization, forgetting all its dark
history. This is France; remind them of its history.
When France entered the city of Aghwat (Laghouat) in Algeria in 1852,
it burned two-thirds of its inhabitants to death in just one night.
France conducted 17 nuclear tests in Algeria between 1960 and 1966,
resulting in an unknown number of deaths estimated between 27,000 and
100,000 and the effects persist to this day.
When France left Algeria in 1962, it left behind 11 million landmines more than the total population of Algeria at the time.
France occupied Algeria for 132 years. In just the first seven years of
their occupation, they massacred one million Muslims, and in the last
seven years, they martyred another 1.5 million Muslims.
France is the fourth largest holder of gold reserves in the world, with
2,436 tons of gold stored at the Bank of France, even though France has
no active gold mines.
In contrast, Mali one of the world’s largest gold producers with 14 official gold mines has no gold reserves of its own.
Similarly, the Republic of Congo, which ranks seventh among
gold-producing countries, also has no gold reserves in its central bank.
On 7 May 2026, Trita Parsi and I were on
the podcast of the “Community Alliance 4 Peace and Justice” hosted by
Mehlaqa Samdani. It provided us with an excellent opportunity to talk
about President Trump’s “Project Freedom,” which he announced on 3 May
2026 and launched the following day, 4 May 2026, only to pause it the
following day, 5 May 2026.
It is clear that the president is
desperately searching for a way to bring the war to an end on favorable
terms for the US and Israel, but just can’t find a workable strategy.
Trita and I believe there is no way he can win this war in any
meaningful way, and indeed, the US and Israel have lost it. Trita,
however, is a bit more optimistic than I am about getting a meaningful
ceasefire and working out a deal that ends the war. Let’s hope he is
right.
THE entire peace movement opposed the
US/Israeli war against Iran. Opposition went well beyond those normally
opposing US actions. It is widely understood that resistance by the
peoples of Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, together with the war’s unpopularity
in the US, led to Trump losing the first rounds of the conflict.
Even the Wall Street Journal, a fervent
supporter of the war, admitted this: “Trump screamed at aides for hours.
The Europeans aren’t helping, he said repeatedly. Gas prices averaged
$4.09. Images of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis… had been looming large
in his mind, people who have spoken to him said. ‘If you look at what
happened with Jimmy Carter…with the helicopters and the hostages, it
cost them the election,’ Trump had said in March. ‘What a mess.’”
But it is a misjudgement to believe that
because the US and Israel lost the first battle, therefore they have
lost the war and are resigned to this. Instead, the peace movement must
prepare for a prolonged struggle to defeat US and Israeli attacks on
Iran.
Some genuinely taking the right side in
this war have written that the US has already suffered its biggest
defeat since Vietnam, or even that this is a bigger defeat.
Unfortunately, this is a misanalysis. To
prepare for the prolonged anti-war tasks to come, the situation must be
seen accurately.
Precisely because if the US loses the war
against Iran it would be its biggest defeat since Vietnam, it has no
intention of giving up because it lost the first battle.
US ruling circles understand perfectly
that US loss of the war would mean significant erosion of the
credibility of its international threats, significantly weakening its
global position.
They therefore simply conclude that the
wrong tactic was chosen, and the US must change this to win the
struggle. Even some forces in the US who believe launching the war was a
tactical mistake believe that now it has started it must be won.
The Institute for the Study of War put it
specifically: “Any US settlement or resolution of the conflict that
enables Iran to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would
represent a major US defeat.” As the Wall Street Journal summarised: “As
the president said in his first term, the US shouldn’t start a war it
doesn’t intend to win. His challenge now is to prove to Iran’s regime he
meant what he said.”
The new US tactics to attempt to win the
war can be clearly grasped if it is understood why it lost the first
battle. Prior to the first military attack on Iran in June 2025, and the
widespread assault launched in February, US policy under Trump had been
to force Iran to capitulate to US demands by prolonged
economic sanctions.
The US has now intensified this attack,
after its defeat in the first round of the war, via its blockade of
Iranian ships, with Trump claiming: “Iran is collapsing financially!
They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately… Starving for cash!”
Such sanctions genuinely damaged Iran’s
economy, creating a priority for Iran to attempt to break out of them,
while the US can return to bombing anytime it chooses.
Israel, and some in the US, considered
sanctions strategically inadequate. Iran is a huge country, 80 times
Israel’s size geographically, larger than the EU’s four largest
countries put together. Iran’s population is 90 million, compared to
Israel’s 10 million. In real economic terms, parity purchasing powers
(PPPs), Iran’s GDP is three times Israel’s.
Faced with larger states, Israel’s policy
has been, where it is unable to help create governments favourable to
itself, to attempt to disintegrate and weaken them — as shown in Iraq
and Syria. Israel, judging it unlikely there will be a compliant
Iranian government, has long sought to disintegrate that country.
Therefore, Iran faces an existential threat from Israel.
The US itself turned to a military assault
on Iran, as opposed to sanctions, because of its and Israel’s victories
in its genocidal attack on Gaza and also in Syria — where reactionary
forces, which Israel and the US supported, came to power.
Israel and the US miscalculated that they
could now achieve the same in Iran. The US supplied thousands of
Starlink systems and, as Trump publicly admitted, guns to demonstrators
in Iran in December and January.
But not only did this fail to overthrow
Iran’s government but when the US and Israel launched their full-scale
military attack on Iran in February, as even Western media admitted,
there was a “rallying around the flag” in Iran — in political terms, the
great majority of Iran’s population, whatever their differences on
other issues, or their attitude to Iran’s government, united in
opposition to the US attack. This was the basis of the US defeat in the
first round of the war.
But the US cannot retreat from this
conflict due to the role west Asia plays in its strategy. A mistaken
analysis was put forward a few years ago that because, due to fracking,
the US has become self-sufficient in oil, it would be less interested in
controlling west Asia.
The facts show the opposite. The US has waged more wars in the region — against Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iran.
The US is no longer being itself dependent
on West Asia, but constantly waging wars there, has led some to claim
that this is because Israel controls US foreign policy — that the tail
wags the dog. Any analysis of the relation of forces between the two
makes clear this is untrue. Israel cannot produce the weapons it relies
on to carry out military terror; the US merely has to threaten to cut
off arms and Israel would immediately be brought to heel.
This reality was made clear for all to see
when Trump, for short-term tactical reasons, openly enforced an end to
Israel’s bombing of Beirut, declaring: “Israel will not be bombing
Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the US.” The US
does not support Israel because it is controlled by it but because the
US finds Israel useful for its own strategy.
Although the US does not need west Asia’s oil for itself, its strategy is to be able to deny it to others, particularly China.
Because this is key for the US, it will
not give up its attack on Iran, only the forms will change. Therefore,
the peace movement must prepare for a prolonged struggle against US
aggression against Iran.
John Ross is senior fellow at the
Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China,
and a member of No Cold War Britain.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
awards the Order of Civil Merit to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca
Albanese, on 7 May 2026 [sanchezcastejon/X]
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez
awarded on Thursday the Order of Civil Merit to UN Special Rapporteur
Francesca Albanese, recognizing her work documenting violations of
international law in the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports.
Sanchez received Francesca Albanese in
Madrid, where they discussed the situation in Palestine, the importance
of international law and “the need for an immediate end to the violence
and the building of a lasting peace based on dignity and humanity,”
according to a government statement.
“Public responsibility also implies the
moral obligation of not looking away,” Sanchez wrote on social media,
praising Albanese as “a voice that upholds the conscience of the world.”
The Order of Civil Merit is one of Spain’s
highest civilian honors and is awarded to Spanish and foreign citizens
for extraordinary services benefiting the state or society.
Albanese, an Italian legal scholar, has
served since 2022 as the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. She has become one of
the most prominent international voices criticizing Israel’s military
operations in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Sanchez also sent a letter to
the European Commission calling for the activation of the EU’s Blocking
Statute to counter US sanctions imposed on Albanese as well as judges
and prosecutors from the International Criminal Court.
“It’s like an international mafia — they
want to silence everyone who demands an end to genocide, an end to the
crimes,” Albanese told Spanish broadcaster RTVE, referring to the
sanctions against her.
Also on Thursday, Spanish Foreign Minister
Jose Manuel Albares criticized Israel’s continued detention of
Spanish-Palestinian activist Saif Abukeshek, calling it “inadmissible
and unacceptable.”
Jose Manuel Albares told the Spanish
parliament that he summoned Israel’s top envoy in Spain on Wednesday to
discuss the situation and had also spoken with Israeli Foreign Minister
Gideon Saar.
Albares said Abukeshek was “illegally”
detained in international waters where Israel had “no jurisdiction”
while traveling with a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla.
“Spain reacted without hesitation, with
complete clarity and firmness, in response to violations of
international law,” Albares said.
It has now emerged that Trump’s decision to pause the operation was driven by complaints by Saudi Arabia, two US officials told NBC News.
Saudi Arabia’s leaders had been angered by
the announcement and the government told the US it would not allow
American military forces to fly aircraft through Prince Sultan Airbase,
located southeast of its capital, Riyadh.
Officials said the Kingdom denied access for any US aircraft to fly through Saudi airspace as part of Project Freedom.
A call is reported to have taken place between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but the pair were unable to reach a resolution – forcing the US president to axe the operation.
Trump has ruffled feathers across the Gulf with seemingly unilateral decisions (Reuters)
The leaders “have been in touch regularly” and officials are also in touch with vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, a Saudi source told NBC News.
“The problem with that premise is that
things are happening quickly in real time,” the source said about the
announcement, adding that the country was “very supportive of the
diplomatic efforts” by Pakistan to guide the countries towards an
agreement.
A White House official told NBC News that “regional allies were notified in advance.”
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
A diplomat in the region said that the
operation was not coordinated with Oman either. “The US made an
announcement and then coordinated with us,” they said, adding, “We were
not upset or angry.”
Trump’s project is said to have angered the Saudi leadership (Getty)
“Because of geography, you need
cooperation from regional partners to utilise their airspace along their
borders,” one US official explained about the success of the scheme.
The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping
route for global supplies of oil, fertiliser and other commodities that
has been virtually closed since the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28
February, causing global price rises.
Palestinian-Spanish activist Saif Abukeshek (centre) a member of the
Global Sumud Flotilla, is escorted by prison service guards to a hearing
at the District Court in Ashkelon, Israel, on Sunday, May 3, 20
When France entered the city of Aghwat (Laghouat) in Algeria in 1852,
it burned two-thirds of its inhabitants to death in just one night.
![Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez awards the Order of Civil Merit to UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, on 7 May 2026 [sanchezcastejon/X]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/pedro-sanchez-francesca-albanese-award.jpeg.webp?fit=920%2C615&ssl=1)
