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.
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.
West Bank commander boasts about
high death toll and defends looser rules of engagement, including firing
at unarmed Palestinians
An Israeli soldier stands on guard during
an army raid at a cafe in the Rafidia neighbourhood of Nablus in the
occupied West Bank on 23 April 2026 (Nasser Ishtayeh / SOPA Images via
Reuters)
Published date: 4 May 2026 14:13 BST | Last update:2 days 20 hours ago
Israel’s top commander in the occupied West Bank has said the army is killing Palestinians at levels “not seen since 1967”, according to Haaretz.
Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli army’s
Central Command, made the remarks in a closed forum, where he also
defended looser rules of engagement allowing troops to fire at unarmed
Palestinians.
He acknowledged a discriminatory approach
whereby Jewish Israeli stone-throwers are not targeted while
Palestinians carrying out similar acts are fired at.
“In three years, we have killed 1,500 terrorists,” he said, referring to Palestinians.
“So how is there no intifada? Why aren’t
they taking to the streets? Why is the Palestinian public indifferent?
Why are there no disturbances?” Bluth, a settler who has been the
Israeli army commander in the West Bank since 2024, added.
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“The Arabs understand that ‘if someone
rises to kill you, kill him first’ is part of the rules of the Middle
East, and therefore we are killing like we have not killed since 1967.”
According to the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), since 7 October 2023,
Israel has killed 1,081 Palestinians in the West Bank and the occupied East Jerusalem, including at least 235 children.
Bluth attributed the high number of
Palestinian deaths to orders he gave, which made it easier for Israeli
soldiers to open fire at civilians.
He said troops are permitted to shoot, from the knee down, at Palestinians attempting to cross the West Bank separation barrier.
“Today, there are many ‘limping memorials’
in Palestinian villages of those who tried to infiltrate and got hit,
so there is a price that is paid,” Bluth said, according to Haaretz.
Preferential treatment for settlers
Bluth admitted that his subordinates do
not shoot Israelis who throw stones at army forces because of
“sociological implications,” while they kill Palestinians who do the
same.
He added that in 2025, Israeli forces killed 42 Palestinians accused of stone-throwing, which he described as terrorism.
When shown footage of settlers throwing
stones at troops, he cited an incident in which two masked Israelis were
shot, noting it caused a public outcry.
Bluth’s remarks come amid growing
discontent about his actions among hilltop youth, the settler militias
who terrorise Palestinians communities in the West Bank, who view him as
yielding to left-wing and international pressure.
Ex-Mossad chief says Israeli settler violence reminds him of the Holocaust
Last week, Haaretz reported
that Bluth labelled the growing numbers of settler attacks as “terror,”
and criticised hilltop youth who establish outposts without
coordinating it first with the army’s command.
Bluth added that the army, with the
coordination of the settlers, established some 150 outposts in Area C in
the West Bank in recent years, which he alleged helped prevent
Palestinian “terror” and building expansion.
Last week, Knesset Member Limor Son Har-Melech, a vocal supporter of the settler militias, called Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz to immediately fire Bluth from his post over his remarks.
Meanwhile, the Israeli NGO Peace Now reported
on Sunday that the Israeli government assigned some 130 million shekels
to those same settler groups under the guise of curbing settler
violence.
The funds were allocated towards “reducing
risk situations and expanding positive responses for youth in the Judea
and Samaria area,” using the Israeli name for the West Bank.
Peace Now said the funds will, in
practice, be used to strengthen the settlements and “channel millions”
to their regional councils.
“The government uses every excuse to
justify pouring more and more millions into settlements. This is a
programme to expand settlements under the guise of combating violence,”
Peace Now statement said.
“The government is directing a significant
portion of the funds to the same actors and activities that currently
serve as the main supporters of the outposts and farms from which the
violence originates,” the NGO added, calling on the government to stop
the funds and the army and police to stop the violent acts.
Amnesty International has called for the
release of abducted activists Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila, who have
been detained by Israel since its forces intercepted Global Sumud
Flotilla vessels while in international waters last week.
Abu Keshek and Avila are “at great risk of
human rights abuses, including torture and other ill-treatment,”
Amnesty said, citing its “previous documentation of the abuse inflicted
on flotilla activists detained in October 2025 at the hands of the
Israeli authorities”.
The NGO said it was especially concerned
about Abu Keshek, “a Palestinian-Spanish-Swedish national”, as he is
“being detained on suspicion of affiliation with a terrorist
organization given Israel’s discriminatory laws and persistent record of
harassment and oppression of Palestinians under Israel’s system of
apartheid”.
Amnesty International called on Israel to “immediately release them and ensure they are protected while in custody”.
As we reported earlier, Israeli rights
group Adalah said Israel’s Beersheba District Court had rejected an
appeal for the activists’ release, ruling instead to extend their
detention to Sunday morning.
Iran’s permanent mission to the UN has
urged member states to reject a resolution drafted by the US and its
Gulf allies pressing Iran to ensure safe passage for shipping through
Hormuz, calling it “flawed” and “politically motivated”.
“The only viable solution in the Strait of
Hormuz is clear: a permanent end to the war, the lifting of the
maritime blockade, and the restoration of normal passage,” said Iran’s
UN mission in a post on X.
It went on to accuse the US of using the
resolution to “advance its political agenda and legitimise unlawful
actions – not to resolve the crisis”.
Lawyers says two activists are being subjected to ‘psychological torture’ as their detention is extended for another week
Activist Thiago Avila, a member of the
Global Sumud Flotilla seized by Israel in international waters, sits at a
magistrate’s court hearing in Ashkelon, Israel, 3 May 2026 (Amir
Cohen/Reuters)
Published date: 5 May 2026 12:08 BST | Last update:21 hours 34 mins ago
Two activists seized by Israeli
forces in international waters while en route to deliver humanitarian
aid to Gaza have been threatened with death or lengthy imprisonment,
their lawyers said on Monday.
The legal centre Adalah, which represents Thiago Avila and Saif Abu Keshek, said the pair have been subjected to psychological abuse and held in solitary confinement since their capture last week.
On Tuesday, a court in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon extended their detention until Sunday.
Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Swedish national of
Palestinian origin, and Avila, a Brazilian national, were detained late
on Wednesday when Israeli naval forces raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla
in international waters off Greece.
They were taken to Israel and accused of
assisting the enemy during wartime, contact with a foreign agent,
membership of and providing services to a terrorist organisation, and
transferring funds to such a group. Both deny the charges.
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Since their detention, the men have been
held in cells under constant bright light, a practice intended to cause
sleep deprivation and disorientation, according to Adalah. They are also
blindfolded whenever taken out of their cells, including during medical
examinations, which it described as a serious breach of medical ethics.
Global Sumud Flotilla: When states fail, humanity sets sail
Avila reported being subjected to repeated
interrogations lasting up to eight hours, during which he was allegedly
threatened that they would be “killed” or “imprisoned for 100 years”.
He is also being held in very low temperatures, the group said.
The two men, now in solitary confinement,
have entered their sixth day of a hunger strike in protest at what legal
experts have described as an unlawful seizure outside Israel’s
territorial waters.
Lawyers Hadeel Abu Salih and Lubna Tuma of
Adalah told the court the case was “flawed and unlawful”, arguing there
is no legal basis for applying Israeli law to foreign nationals in
international waters.
During Friday’s raid, Israeli forces
intercepted at least 21 Gaza-bound vessels and detained 175 activists,
in what organisers from the Global Sumud Flotilla described as an act of
“piracy”.
The boats were seized about 600 nautical miles from Gaza’s coast, near the Greek island of Crete.
Spain and Brazil issued a joint statement on Friday describing the detention of Avila and Abu Keshek as illegal.
(L/R) US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
looks on as US President Donald Trump speaks to the press following US
military actions in Venezuela, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm
Beach, Florida, on January 3, 2026.
(Photo by Jim Watson/ AFP via Getty Images)
The president is using the power of the US
military to steal the wealth of Latin American countries to enrich
himself, his family, his closest business associates, and US
corporations.
Some lawmakers have grown so alarmed by the Trump administration’s actions in Latin America that they are beginning to accuse the administration of gangsterism.
Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) saw the possibility of gangsterism at the start of the second Trump administration when he warned that the United States could “join the ranks of gangster nations,” but there is a growing sense in Congress that the day has arrived.
At a congressional hearing last month, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) asserted that the Trump administration is exploiting the US military to take Latin American resources for US corporations. Castro seemingly channeled the anti-war critiques of Smedley Butler,
the US military hero of the early 20th century, who condemned war as a
racket and lamented his exploitation as a racketeer for capitalism.
“For decades, our men and women in uniform
who volunteered to protect our country became mercenaries ordered to
risk their lives to protect the profits of US corporations,” Castro
said. “Today, President Trump is ordering them to do so again.”
The Case of Venezuela
The Trump administration’s critics in Congress have been warning about the administration’s gangsterism due to its actions in Venezuela.
Since the Trump administration directed a military operation earlier this year to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and take control of the country’s oil
and minerals, several lawmakers have suggested that the administration
has begun to employ force and intimidation as its basic tools of
statecraft.
Lawmakers have condemned the
administration for conducting a military operation without congressional
approval, meddling in Venezuela’s internal politics, displaying
contempt for Venezuela’s political process, facilitating corruption in Venezuela and the United States, and using the US military to take control of Venezuela’s resources.
Now that the Trump administration has
moved against Venezuela, establishing new leadership and doling out
profits from its resources, lawmakers anticipate that it will move
against Cuba next.
“You are taking their oil at gunpoint,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year.
Although Congress has not held the
president accountable, as the Republican majority in each chamber
supports the president, critics have kept pressure on the White House, prompting officials to defend the administration’s actions.
At the congressional hearing last month,
State Department official Michael Kozak claimed that the intervention in
Venezuela advanced US interests. He cited the Monroe Doctrine,
which marks Latin America as a sphere of influence. Like the president,
he boasted that the United States now controls the country’s resources.
“We’ve got very significant control over the oil revenues at this point,” Kozak said.
Several Democratic lawmakers responded
with strong criticisms. They condemned the Trump administration for
acting so aggressively in the hemisphere, and they warned that its
actions would create a backlash against the United States.
Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove
(D-Calif.) described the administration’s approach as “shameful.” She
insisted that the United States should not be “reviving a policy of
domination and subjugation in the Western Hemisphere through the Monroe
Doctrine.”
Castro repeated his warning that the Trump
administration is focused on commerce and profits. He suggested that
the president is using the US military to enrich people close to him.
“What has happened now is that there’s a
group of folks that the president favors in his circle that is able to
commence commerce and make money off of, whether it’s valuable minerals,
oil, anything else in Venezuela,” Castro said.
Kozak expressed disagreement with Castro’s
analysis, but he acknowledged that the Trump administration has
established significant controls over Venezuela. Once again, he boasted
that the Trump administration controls the country’s resources.
“People can lift oil and sell it on the
open market, but all that money goes into an account that we have
control over,” Kozak said. “All the revenues that are coming from the mining
sector and everything, instead of going into their bank accounts, are
coming into the Treasury accounts, and then we can dole it out as we see
fit.”
The Case of Cuba
Now that the Trump administration has
moved against Venezuela, establishing new leadership and doling out
profits from its resources, lawmakers anticipate that it will move
against Cuba next.
For months, President Donald Trump has been openly threatening Cuba. He has moved to block oil shipments to the country, causing an economic crisis. Knowing that he has put tremendous pressure on the Cuban government, he has demanded that the country’s president leave office.
“I do believe I’ll be having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said in March. “I think I could do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth.”
Critics are giving serious consideration to the idea that Trump’s wars are a racket and that Cuba may be next.
Although the Trump administration’s
military intervention in Iran has shifted its focus away from Cuba, the
administration is maintaining an economic stranglehold over the island
nation, making its recovery impossible. The US military continues
blocking the free flow of oil to Cuba, even while Trump demands the free
flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. The few oil shipments that
have reached Cuba, for instance a recent tanker from Russia, have provided little relief.
At the congressional hearing last month,
several lawmakers argued that the Trump administration is a major reason
why Cuba is facing such tremendous hardship, including island-wide blackouts and preventable deaths at hospitals and health clinics.
“We cannot ignore our own country’s role in the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Cuba,” Castro said.
Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), who recently visited
the country, made the strongest criticisms. Warning that the
administration’s policies are causing tremendous harm to the Cuban
people, he indicated that the Trump administration is violating
international humanitarian law.
“We have engaged in collective punishment,” Jackson said.
The congressman also accused the Trump
administration of trying to make life so miserable for the Cuban people
that they would rise up and overthrow the Cuban government. He described
it as a failed “policy of starving” Cuba.
“It was one of the most cruel things I had ever seen in my life,” he said.
Just as the Trump administration has been
able to get away with its actions in Venezuela, however, it has been
able to continue its policies toward Cuba. The administration maintains
support among Republicans and some Democrats, few of whom oppose the administration’s goal of regime change.
The president, who knows that he faces
little opposition in Congress, continues threatening to direct a
military intervention in Cuba, even citing the operation in Venezuela as
a precedent.
“In January, our warriors flew straight
into the heart of the Venezuelan capital, captured the outlawed dictator
Nicolás Maduro, and brought him to face American justice,” Trump said
last month. “And very soon this great strength will also bring about a
day 70 years in waiting. It’s called, ‘A New Dawn for Cuba.’”
War Is a Racket
When Smedley Butler spoke against his
exploitation as a racketeer for capitalism nearly a century ago, he made
a criticism of the American way of war that was considered to be so
radical by US leaders that it has been largely excluded from mainstream
political discourse.
Only a few politicians, such as former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and Ron Paul
(R-Texas), have cited Butler and his warnings. Rarely, if ever, does
the mass media report on war as a racket in which the country’s leaders
are exploiting US military forces as gangsters for capitalism.
Today, however, some elected leaders are
beginning to issue the same kinds of warnings about the Trump
administration. Alarmed by the president’s insatiable lust for wealth
and power, they are starting to suggest that the president is engaging
in a kind of gangsterism across Latin America. The president, they say,
is using the power of the US military to steal the wealth of Latin
American countries to enrich himself, his family, his closest business
associates, and US corporations.
“By any measure, this is the most corrupt administration in American history,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said earlier this year.
Now that the Trump administration is openly pillaging
Venezuela and getting away with it, several lawmakers are warning that
it may apply the same approach to other Latin American countries.
“It’s making me think that the goal in
Cuba is going to be the same,” Castro said at the hearing in April.
“It’s who’s going to go over there that’s friends with the president to
make money and who’s going to profit off of Cuba and the Cuban people.”
Indeed, there is a growing sense in
Congress that the Trump administration is turning to gangsterism. Moving
beyond standard establishment critiques of the president’s contempt for
norms and traditions, critics are giving serious consideration to the
idea that Trump’s wars are a racket and that Cuba may be next.
![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)
