Lubna Masarwa
18 December 2025 14:28 GMT

Earlier this year, a United Nations inquiry accused Israel of using sexualised torture and rape as "a method of war... to destabilize, dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people".

The Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has described the Israeli prison system as a "network of torture camps" within which prisoners were subjected to "repeated use of sexual violence" including "gang sexual violence and assault committed by a group of prison guards or soldiers".

Last year, Israel's Channel 12 published a leaked video which appeared to show Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee.

In response to questions from MEE, the Israeli Prison Service said it "categorically rejected" the allegations of abuse described by the prisoners.

Activists have shown how the nonprofit industrial complex (NPIC) co-opts grassroots social movements, and how the dependence on donors limits what nonprofits can say or do—especially concerning Palestine. Yet the NPIC is rarely analyzed as a whole system. This article analyzes the massive funding network of the NPIC, reconstructed from tax forms, and highlights Zionism’s place within it. I show how the NPIC’s funding web binds many organizations to Zionist nonprofits that directly fuel settler-colonialism in Palestine. The links between these organizations are facilitated by donor-advised funds, which form the “hubs” in the interconnected funding network. I explain the political implications of this finding using two “activist” nonprofits: the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation (BLMGN) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). I argue that being a major player in the NPIC not only limits what an organization can do but also normalizes the broader funding networks driving colonial projects.

Wtrmln - Explore Palestinian brands

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>> Our mission is to
amplify the success of Palestinian businesses by creating a centralized platform that connects shoppers worldwide with businesses in #Palestine and the diaspora. Plus you'll find brands donating to Palestine.

See also a blog post from «Tech for Palestine»:
https://updates.techforpalestine.org/announcing-wtrmln-your-marketplace-for-discovering-palestinian-brands/

By Hannah. Smith
Published date: 18 December 2025 15:40 GMT

At a protest outside the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday, four people were arrested for “racially aggravated public order offences” for their use of the Arabic word “intifada”, meaning uprising.

The move comes in the wake of the Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney on Sunday, in which two gunmen targeted a Hanukkah event, killing at least 15 people.

Several public figures have sought to link the shootings to Palestine activism, specifically referencing the chant.

A commission of top United Nations human rights watchdogs sent a series of blistering letters to the heads of five U.S. universities raising sharp concerns over the treatment of pro-Palestine students, The Intercept has learned.

The letters, which were sent on October 14 to the presidents and provosts of Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Minnesota State, and Tufts universities, called out school officials and U.S. law enforcement agencies for cracking down on student protesters and subsequently using immigration authorities to single out foreign students for detention and deportation.

“We are highly concerned over reports that students were arrested, suspended, and expelled, and lost their university accommodation, campus access, and their immigration status merely because of assembling peacefully to express their solidarity with victims of the conflict in Gaza,” wrote the group of U.N. special rapporteurs, independent experts who monitor human rights violations. “We fear that such pressure and public attacks on scholars and institutions can result in repression of free expression and in self-censorship, thus damaging academic freedom and the autonomy of universities.”

The letters suggest the international body has taken notice of domestic protest repression on U.S. campuses. Since President Donald Trump returned to office, his administration has weaponized immigration authorities against international students and investigations over alleged antisemitism at universities across the country — ratcheting up a crackdown on student protests for Palestine that began under former President Joe Biden.

The letter to Columbia highlighted the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Leqaa Kordia, as well as the attempted arrest of Yunseo Chung. (Columbia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Khalil and Mahdawi both spent months in detention earlier this year. Kordia, a Palestinian student who was arrested on March 8, was still in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as recently as December 8, according to a report by Drop Site News.

“It has been reported that the conditions of Ms. Kordia’s detention are particularly severe. Due to overcrowding, she sleeps on the floor where cockroaches and other bugs abound, and many showers and sinks do not work,” the authors wrote. “She is also not given materials her faith requires to have to pray, and she is not allowed to wear a hijab in the presence of men as her religion requires.”

The authors of the letter include Mary Lawlor, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Farida Shaheed, the special rapporteur on the right to education; Irene Khan, the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Gina Romero, the special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and Gehad Madi, the special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. Representatives of the U.N. rapporteurs who drafted the letters did not immediately respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment.

The U.N. letter also highlighted the cases of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts who was snatched by masked ICE agents on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, on March 25; Badar Khan Suri, the Indian-born researcher at Georgetown arrested on March 17; Momodou Taal, a Cornell grad student with dual citizenship from the United Kingdom and Gambia who was ordered to turn himself in to ICE agents on March 22; and Mohammed Hoque, a Minnesota State student arrested at his home on March 28. (Cornell, Minnesota State, and Tufts did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)

[

Related

How Columbia’s Leadership Refashioned the University in Trump’s Image](https://theintercept.com/2025/08/07/columbia-gaza-student-protests-expulsions-trump/)

In the letter, the authors singled out Columbia for bowing to pressure from the Trump administration, which they said set a standard that chilled speech nationwide.

“The restrictive measures at Columbia University reflect nationwide structural changes at universities to suppress Palestine solidarity movements,” the authors wrote.

In each letter, the authors asked the universities to provide information on the allegations of mistreatment, any measures taken by the schools to protect the rights of its students and scholars, and details on how the schools plan to safeguard the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

“Students report self-censoring political expression, and particularly international students are withdrawing from activism due to deportation fears,” the authors wrote. “Campus organizing has diminished significantly, with activists reporting less attendance from international students who had to quit their activism because of the potential risk of repercussions. This intimidating effect extends beyond issues concerning Israel and Palestine, with students reporting reluctance to engage in any political activism.”

Stop David Lammy killing political prisoners! Release all Palestine protesters!es

The British government is starving to death eight young people it has imprisoned for protesting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians and UK complicity in the destruction of Gaza.

>> The incident, which occurred in October, involved an Israeli travel planner who customizes trips to Japan for Israeli clients reached out to Hakuba Lodge Co-op, which operates 17 lodges and ski resorts in #Nagano and other regions, to inquire about accommodation options for the upcoming winter.

>> She received a blunt reply from the manager, named Justin, who wrote: “We have made a business decision not to accept any booking from Israeli citizens going forward. We are not comfortable with what your country has imposed on the people of #Palestine, and we do not feel right that you could consider holidaying when people next door don't have anywhere to sleep and are starving. Maybe you could consider originating groups to go and help rebuild Palestine instead of going on an exotic holiday."

- Qatar’s PM confirms discussions in US around Gaza stabilisation force
- Germany approves $3.1 billion missile system deal with Israel
- hildren experiencing ‘horrendous’ living conditions in Gaza: UNICEF
- Gaza storm-related deaths caused by Israel’s genocidal policy: Amnesty

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Israel’s underlying objective in Gaza is to empty the territory of its Palestinian population, warning that only an international force can prevent what he described as a plan of forced displacement.

In a televised interview with Turkey’s TVNet channel on Saturday, Fidan stated that Israel “seeks to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian inhabitants,” stressing that the deployment of an international stabilisation force is essential to guarantee security, establish calm and prevent further escalation.

Fidan said Turkey has been working intensively to halt the genocide in Gaza, secure a ceasefire and turn it into a permanent end to hostilities through a political settlement. He noted that all branches of the Turkish state, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have been actively engaged in efforts to resolve the crisis.

Sat 13 Dec 2025 02.00 EST

The death knell for the Palestinian village of Atouf, on the western slopes of the Jordan valley, arrived in the form of a trail of paper, a series of eviction notices taped to homes, greenhouses and wells, marking a straight line across the open fields.

The notices, which appeared overnight, informed the local farmers that their land would be confiscated and that they had seven days from the date of their delivery, 4 December, to vacate their properties. A military road and accompanying barrier was to be built by Israel right through the area.

Lawyers for the Atouf village council have lodged an appeal, but long and bitter experience has taught Palestinians here to have low expectations of Israeli courts.

The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has rejected one of Israel’s legal challenges seeking to block an investigation into its actions in the genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza, dealing a blow to Israel’s efforts to derail the case.

In their decision issued on Monday, judges refused to overturn a lower court decision allowing the ICC prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes in Israel’s war on Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Nearly two months into the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Israel continues to bar journalists from freely entering the Gaza Strip to report, despite a longstanding petition brought by journalists seeking access to the territory.

On Sunday, the Israeli Supreme Court gave the government an extension in responding to the petition, the ninth such delay since the case was filed in September 2024.

The Israeli government, which has yet to fully explain why it continues to bar journalists, is slated now to give its latest response on Dec. 21, according to court filings, a delay that could be extended further.

- Lebanon Health Ministry confirms two killed, five wounded in Israeli strikes
- Hamas official condemns Israeli plans to make Jerusalem army hub
- Palestinian killed by Israeli settler gunfire near Bethlehem named
- Gaza’s Civil Defence recovers 30 bodies from building rubble

>> The [BBC's new antisemitism] training, ... says: "Antisemites frequently use the word 'Zionist' ..., when they are in fact referring to Jews, whether in Israel or elsewhere.

>> "Those claiming to be 'anti-Zionist, not antisemitic', should do so in the knowledge that many Jewish people consider themselves to be Zionists."

>> The course was made by the BBC Academy in conjunction with the Jewish Staff Network, the Antisemitism Policy Trust and the Community Security Trust (#CST).

>> The #BBC training also incorporates the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (#IHRA) definition of antisemitism ...

Jessica Corbett
Dec 14, 2025

“Obviously massacring unarmed men, women, and children at a Hanukkah celebration is antisemitic terror,” Nathaniel added in a separate thread. “Just like massacring unarmed men, women, and children in Gaza and the West Bank is anti-Palestinian terror. There are no moral exceptions regarding the slaughter of civilians.”

Electronic Intifada director Ali Abunimah said, “Basically Netanyahu is saying that Australia got what it had coming for not supporting his genocide in Gaza even more than it already does.”

Last Wednesday, Palestinian teenager Owais Hammam was on a walk near his home in the West Bank village of Kharbatha Bani Harith, when he was ambushed by a group of Israeli settlers, dragged to a hilltop outpost, and beaten unconscious. From his hospital bed in Ramallah, Hammam spoke to photojournalist Faiz Abu Rmeleh, recounting how both settlers and Israeli soldiers took part in his brutal torture.

from +972’s Sunday Recap
+972 Magazine [published in Israel]
Dec 14, 2025

Also:

• Israel preparing largest ever act of ‘archeological cleansing’ in West Bank
• Israel’s Gaza proxy strategy is collapsing
• After Israel-Hamas prisoner deal, ‘48 Palestinians ask when their turn will come
• Netanyahu’s pardon request is a lens into Israel’s political psyche
• The GOP fed the antisemitism monster. Now it’s turning on its masters