European Commission goes on the offensive in NGO accusations case

Copyright EbS Archive

By Maïa de La Baume

Published on 07/06/2025 - 

The European Commission on Saturday denied German media reports that it had signed ”secret contracts” with environmental NGOs to promote the bloc’s climate policy.

The European commission on Saturday denied German media reports that it had signed ”secret contracts” with environmental NGOs to promote the bloc’s climate policy. 

”Contrary to media allegations, there are no secret contracts between the European Commission and NGOs,” a commission spokesperson told Euronews. ”The Commission exercises a high degree of transparency when it comes to providing funding to NGOs.

The commission’s denial comes after German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag claimed that the EU’s Executive arm had allegedly secretly paid environmental NGOs up to €700,000 to promote the bloc’s climate policy. 

The paper said it got hold of ”secret contracts” from 2022, which involved well-known NGOs like “ClientEarth,“ and ”Friends of the Earth.” In the Welt Am Sonntag claims, the former allegedly “received €350,000 ”and was supposed to “entangle German coal-fired power plants in court cases in order to increase the operators' financial and legal risk,” the paper said. 

On the other hand, in a statement the Head of ClientEarth’s German office Dr. Christiane Gerstetter "ClientEarth" clarified that the funding is being used "to partially support staff and operations in its German office" adding "no amount of the LIFE grant is used to fund external litigation costs."

The paper also reported that EC officials commissioned the latter to fight against the Mercosur free trade agreement between Europe and South America – ”even though colleagues in their own house were pushing it forward at the same time,” the paper reported.

In its statement to Euronews on Saturday, the European Commission underlined that “NGOs play a crucial role in shaping, monitoring, and enforcing legislation. NGOs also remain fully autonomous and free to establish their own views on all policy matter

'Inappropriate' funding in LIFE programme conceded in January

The German report comes at a time when the issue of NGO funding has become an extremely divisive political issue in Brussels. The conservative European People’s Party (EPP) has claimed that the Commission instructed NGOs to lobby members of the parliament to further specific policies within the Green Deal, a central political agenda of president Ursula von der Leyen’s first term between 2019 and 2024.

MEP Monika Hohlmeier (Germany/EPP), told Euronews back in January that her concerns were raised when she examined some 30 funding contracts from 2022 and 2023, as part of the parliament’s annual scrutiny of EU budget spending. 

Related

• Use of EU funds to lobby MEPs was ‘inappropriate’, commissioner says

In January, Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin conceded that some financing from the EU’s €5.4 billion environmental programme LIFE may have been inappropriate. “I have to admit that it was inappropriate for some services in the Commission to enter into agreements that oblige NGOs to lobby members of the European Parliament specifically,” he said. But he also defended the role of NGOs in EU policy making. 

In April, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) also concluded following a lengthy probe that the Commission’s funding of NGOs was “opaque” and exposed the executive to “reputational risk.” But the court did not find any breach of EU values from NGOs.

'Further measures' planned to safeguard transparency

To overcome ambiguities, the European Commission issued clear guidance last year to streamline how it provides funding to NGOs.

On Saturday, the commission spokesperson told Euronews that EU funding to NGOs was provided ”based on grant agreements, which are complemented by work programmes whose preparation falls under the responsibility of NGOs.”

“As per the guidance, the Commission has instructed its services not to sign off on work programmes if those contain overly specific activities directed at EU institutions or their representatives,” the EC statement added.

The institution will take ”further measures,“ the spokesperson said, to strengthen transparency and include appropriate safeguards.

“We have been working closely with the European Parliament and the European Court of Auditors to improve this transparency even further. Information on recipients of EU funding, including the names of recipients and amounts, is publicly available on the Commission´s Financial Transparency System website,” the statement said.

Mystery of British tourist's heart "stolen" in Turkish hospital not resolved

The late Beth Martin with husband Luke. / GoFundMe

Feedly

By Akin Nazli in Belgrade June 7, 2025

The mystery of what happened to the heart of Beth Louise Eileen Martin, a 29-year-old UK mother who passed away during a holiday with her husband and two young children in Turkey, is yet to be resolved. Speculation that the organ had been stolen was published by British media after a UK autopsy on the body flown to England showed it was missing.

The culmination of a shocking sequence of events is captured by a description on a GoFundMe page set up for the grieving family: “The UK autopsy began. And then the final blow: Beth’s heart was missing.

“The Turkish hospital has removed it. No explanation. No consent. They have invaded her body and they have TAKEN her heart.”

It was on April 27 that the Martin couple together with their eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, from Portsmouth, southern England, flew to Turkey for a family holiday. On arrival, Beth began feeling unwell, according to the outline of the tragedy provided on GoFundMe.

On the morning of April 28, Luke struggled to get an ambulance to take Beth to hospital. In the end, he managed to take his wife to hospital by himself. After night fell, Beth was moved into intensive car, but her husband was not allowed to see her.

“Concerns with her heart”

On April 29, Beth’s mother and friend arrived in Turkey. Luke and the mother said they were told that Beth had been transferred to another hospital overnight.

Later on, however, Beth was transferred back to the first hospital and Luke was told that the move during the night took place due to “concerns with her heart”. The family was again not allowed to see her.

Quizzed by police

Meanwhile, police officers interrogated Luke at his hotel. They did not bring along a translator. Hotel staff assisted. Luke was told to sign a document.

Dead or alive?

When he later got a translation of the document he signed, Luke became informed that Beth had died at around 9am. And that the Turkish authorities were treating him as a suspect in the poisoning of his wife.

Then another strange turn of events. Beth’s mother later that day managed to see her daughter – she was still alive on life support.

The doctor asked if Beth had allergies. Luke said he had already told the paramedics when Beth got in the ambulance that she was allergic to penicillin. When told again, the doctors were shocked to hear this information.

Passed away

In the evening, the hospital called Luke. Beth, they said, had passed away. This time, it was true.

Next came continuing problems with the insurance company and the hospital. The family were asked for a payment.

Burial attempt in Turkey

Later on, the police called Luke to tell him that they planned to bury his wife the following evening. He strongly refused to agree to such a burial, telling the officers that he planned to take his wife’s body home. The police then told him to return to the hospital at 8am the next day to be interviewed by a prosecutor.

Police interview in back of a van

On April 30, he waited for the police to come and conduct the second interview. At 2pm, he was interviewed in the back of a van in the hospital car park. The chief investigator was sat at a desk bolted to the vehicle.

Eventually, the husband was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Body handed over

The body of Beth was handed to Luke, the mother and the friend in a zipped body bag.

On May 2, the family managed to arrange a flight for the body to be flown home. On May 6, the body arrived in the UK.

Autopsy finds heart missing

The results of the autopsy in the UK included the finding that Beth’s heart was missing. The Turkish hospital had removed it with no explanation and no consent. 

Beth’s death is now being investigated as a case of potential hospital negligence.

Heart found

After the story broke across the international media, Turkey’s government-run Anadolu Agency reported on May 24 that the heart was inspected at laboratories of a local forensic medicine institution with the aim of identifying the cause of death.

The official story

According to Anadolu, Beth Martin on April 28 told Marmara University Hospital Prof. Dr. Asaf Ataseven that she suspected she had contracted food poisoning from a meal.

She is said to have passed away on April 29 during treatment. The forensic medicine institution on April 30 conducted an autopsy and the body was rendered to the husband on May 1.

Officials talk of no notification option available to indicate missing organ

Information obtained by an Anadolu reporter, indicated that officials at the forensic medicine institution took the heart for further analysis after they failed to determine the cause of Beth’s death.

The institution is to release its final opinion within seven to 15 days, with the heart together with tissue samples and solutions to be delivered by the prosecutor’s office to the family.

Since in the health ministry system for notification of a death there is reportedly no option for inputting an explanation, involved officials are said to have later on in the process not reported that the heart in the body delivered to the family was not present.

UK
Tory failure to check viability of PPE has cost taxpayer £762million

Basit Mahmood 

2 June, 2025 
Left Foot Forward 

"The Chancellor has been clear that she wants this money - that belongs to the British people, back in our public services."

The failure of the last Tory government to check the viability of faulty PPE, which was left gathering dust in shipping containers and storage facilities has cost the taxpayer £762million.

The findings were made by the Covid counter-fraud commissioner Tom Hayhoe who Chancellor Rachel Reeves had tasked in December with trying to claw back public money lost to fraud and waste during the pandemic.

The Mirror has revealed that after Boris Johnson’s government panicked and ordered mountains of PPE, ‘long delays on checking the surplus surgical gowns, masks and visors meant that warranties had expired by the time the faulty PPE was found’.

The paper adds: “This means that taxpayers’ cash cannot be recovered through the courts and must be written off”.

So much for being the party of sound finances, not only did the last Tory government award PPE contracts to its cronies through the so called ‘VIP lane’, it’s incompetency also cost us hundreds of millions of pounds.

A Treasury source told the Mirror: “The Chancellor has been clear that she wants this money – that belongs to the British people, back in our public services.

“Tom Hayhoe is gripping the carnival of waste that we saw under the Tories and has already uncovered millions of taxpayer pounds wasted on PPE that was left to gather dust.

“Unlike the Tories, Labour won’t let fraudsters who sought to profit off the back of a national emergency line their pockets.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

Revulsion for Israel surges worldwide, new survey finds


Ali Abunimah 

Rights and Accountability 

4 June 2025

ELECTRONIC INTAFADA

A protester holds a banner during the “Move for Palestine” demonstration in Madrid on 10 May 2025. Angel PerezZUMA Press Wire

Twenty months into its livestreamed and accelerating genocide in Gaza, it would hardly be controversial to conclude that Israel is one of the world’s most hated countries.

But a new global survey from the US-based Pew Research Center indicates just how unpopular it has become, especially in the North American and European states where Tel Aviv has always drawn its main sources of financial, military and political support.

“In 20 of the 24 countries surveyed, around half of adults or more have an unfavorable view of Israel,” Pew reported on 3 June. “Around three-quarters or more hold this view in Australia, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.”

Pew says it last asked the question in 10 of the countries included in its new survey in 2013. “In seven of these countries, the share of adults with a negative view of Israel has increased significantly.”

Israel was most unpopular in Turkey, with 93 percent of respondents viewing it unfavorably. Turkey was the only country in the immediate region of Palestine to be surveyed by Pew

.

Israel is viewed negatively by wide majorities in most countries surveyed by Pew Research Center.

Among European publics surveyed, Israel was viewed most negatively in the Netherlands (78 percent), a remarkable fact in a country whose governments have traditionally been staunchly pro-Israel.

Even in Hungary – whose leader Viktor Orban welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu to Budapest earlier this year in spite of the international arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister – 53 percent of the public views Israel negatively.
Historic shift in US

In the United States – Israel’s biggest financier and arms supplier – 53 percent of those surveyed now have a negative view of Israel – an 11-point surge since 2022, according to Pew.

In recent years, surveys have consistently found that Israel is overwhelmingly unpopular with majorities of Democrats, younger Americans and people of color.

But it is an entirely new phenomenon for a majority of the US population overall to view Israel negatively.

The erosion of support for Israel in the United States – particularly among younger people – has long worried Israel and its lobby groups as a potential threat to long-term US support for Israel.

That likely explains why the Trump administration has focused its unconstitutional crackdown on free speech critical of Israel on college campuses, in an effort to scare the younger generation into line.

The turn to heavy-handed censorship, not just in the US but across Europe, is also an admission that efforts to equate disapproval of Israel’s crimes with anti-Semitism, or to burnish its brand with expensive PR campaigns, can do nothing against the horrific reality streamed daily from Gaza to peoples phones.
Break on the American right?

In many of the countries where it conducted surveys, Pew observes that “people who place themselves on the left have a more negative view of Israel than those on the right.”

But that ideological gap is most pronounced in the US, according to Pew, where “74 percent of liberals have a negative view of Israel, compared with 30 percent of conservatives.”

Still, in an April survey of Americans, Pew found a sharp rise in the number of Republican voters who view Israel unfavorably – from 27 percent to 37 percent – indicating that Israel is losing support across the political spectrum.

In recent years, there has been a notable new phenomenon of prominent right-wing commentators, like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Judge Andrew Napolitano, voicing skepticism and sometimes harsh criticism of Israel and US support for it that once seemed unthinkable.

The rise of Israel skeptics within the Trump administration and the US right more generally has reportedly led Netanyahu to confide in close aides that “that he misjudged the direction the US was taking on Israel and the broader Middle East,” Israel’s Ynet reported.

With notable standouts like Napolitano, a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights on moral grounds, the break in the pro-Israel consensus on the American right is driven more by disagreements about where Israel fits into an “America First” vision and a perception that Israel pushes for the US to engage in disastrous wars on its behalf.

To be sure, whatever ill feeling there may be in the White House toward Israel and its leader has not resulted in any US pressure on Israel to halt the genocide.
Israel’s reputation tanks in Europe

Public pressure does nevertheless seem to be having an effect in other Western countries, where staunchly pro-Israel governments are stepping up their criticism of Israel.

In May, France, the United Kingdom and Canada threatened Israel with unspecified “concrete actions” if it does not end its starvation siege of Gaza.

And just last week, Ireland became the first Western country and member of the EU to declare at the highest level that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza.

The European Union is also “reviewing” its Association Agreement with Israel, amid growing calls to suspend the lucrative trade deal.



Given that the EU recently bragged about adopting its 17th sanctions “package” against Russia since 2022, these declarations about Israel appear woefully late and inadequate.

With Israel openly exterminating Palestinians, through relentless bombing and starvation, Brussels has yet to impose anything other than token sanctions on Tel Aviv.

And yet, there are signs of movement. Spain this week canceled a $310 million arms purchase from Israeli weapons company Rafael amid reported moves by Madrid “to reduce Spain’s reliance on Israeli defense technology in light of Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza.”

In Spain, according to Pew, 75 percent of the public holds a negative view of Israel.

These moves may be little and late, but they would likely not have happened at all without constant, vocal public outrage at Israel’s crimes and the complicity of European and other governments.

They are signs that public pressure and protest matter and are more important than ever to bring a halt to this genocide.

polls
Pew Research Center

Ali Abunimah's blog

Revealed: British public overwhelmingly support Israeli arms embargo, new polling finds

Olivia Barber

4 June, 2025 

Left Foot Forward


Brits back a full arms embargo on Israel by a four-to-one margin.

Bombshell new polling shows overwhelming support for full arms embargo on Israel, with four times more people in favour than against it.

The Opinium poll, conducted on behalf of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) found that 57% of the British public support ending arms sales to Israel, while only 13% oppose doing so.

Support for an arms embargo increases to 71% among those who voted for the Labour Party at the 2024 general election.

Last September, the government suspended around 30 arms export licences after it assessed that the items might be used to facilitate serious violations of International Humanitarian Law.

Over 90% of the arms export licenses to Israel have still not been suspended.

The polling revealed similar levels of support for imposing sanctions on the Israeli government.

Out of 2,050 respondents, 53% said they would back government sanctions against Israel’s finance minister, who has called for Gaza to be “cleansed” and the destruction of “what’s left”.

In addition, a clear majority (54%) was in favour of Israel being expelled from the United Nations, while just 16% opposed the expulsion.

In regard to boycotting Israeli products, twice as many people supported supermarkets taking Israeli goods off its shelves as opposed it.

Today, thousands of PSC activists will surround Parliament with a red line when Prime Minister’s Questions will be taking place in the Commons.

They plan to hold a kilometre-long stretch of red fabric to symbolise the call for the UK to take meaningful action on Gaza by ending military support and imposing sanctions on Israel.

Two weeks ago, Foreign Secretary David Lammy called Israel’s latest offensive “morally unjustifiable” in Parliament, yet the UK continues to provide Israel with military and diplomatic backing.

The legality of UK arms sales to Israel is currently being reviewed by the High Court.

Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said: “The polling released this morning speaks to Israel’s growing isolation and the significant public support for sanctions.

“By continuing to arm and support Israel even as it enacts a genocide and a policy of forced starvation, the British government is holding on to an increasingly fringe position, completely out of sync with public opinion, and with the views of those who supported it at the last Election.

“Those bringing the demand for an arms embargo to Parliament today in a symbolic red line are doing so knowing that the demand is supported by the majority of their fellow citizens.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

 

Tens of thousands gather in Rome for demonstration against the war in Gaza

Copyright Alessandra Tarantino/Copyright 2025 The AP. All rights reserved

By Fortunato Pinto

Published on 07/06/2025 - 

Up to 300,000 people, according to the organisers, took part in the demonstration led by opposition parties in Rome to demand an end to the war in Gaza. Many criticised the governments of Giorgia Meloni and Benjamin Netanyahu. Among the flags flown were those of Israel.

The march, organised in Rome by the opposition forces Partito Democratico (Democratic Party), Movimento 5 Stelle (M5s) and Alleanza Verdi Sinistra Italiana (Avs), started from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and finished before the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.

Tens of thousands of people, according to the organisers, marched waving Palestine, peace and party flags and anti-war placards. But a number of Israel and peace flags with the Star of David in the centre could also be seen.

The banner reading "Gaza stop the massacre. Enough complicity" opened the procession, behind a stream of people arriving from all over Italy. According to the local authorities, at least ten thousand people lined the streets of Rome, thousands more were in the square where the procession ended.

Leading the demonstration were the leaders of the three parties, Giuseppe Conte for the M5s, Elly Schlein for the PD and for Avs, Angelo Bonelli and Nicola Fratoianni.

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Speaking to reporters, PD secretary Schlein said: "It is a huge response of participation to say enough to the massacre of Palestinians and the crimes of the Netanyahu government. It is another Italy that does not remain silent, as the Meloni government does. It is an Italy that wants the recogniton of the Palestinian state and this is the Italy we want".

"This is the square of humanity against the systematic extermination that has been going on for twenty months, starting with the Italian government that is pretending not to see and is still babbling,' said Conte of the M5s.

Related

• Dozens of protesters gather in front of Italian parliament in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza

This was not the only demonstration to end the war in Gaza. Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva and Carlo Calenda's Azione parties organised the meeting "Two peoples, two states, one destiny" at the Parenti theatre in Milan on Friday.

The second demonstration arose after a disagreement between the two centrist parties and the organisers of the procession in Rome, because Italia Viva and Azione had requested a reference to anti-Semitism in the manifesto.

This request was refused by Avs, M5s and Pd, because they considered the condemnation of the 7 October 2023 massacre carried out by Hamas in Israel to be already clear.

In recent days, deputy minister Matteo Salvini criticised the opposition for organising the event in Rome on the eve of the referendum on work and citizenship. "I hope that no one will use the deaths in Gaza to push people to go and vote", Salvini said.

‘From the river to the sea’ — Celebrities remember Palestine’s plight on Eidul Azha

Actor Nadia Jamil said the world failed Palestine as it “watched them suffer an illegal occupation and genocide for over 77 years.”





Images Staff
07 Jun, 2025
DAWN

As people celebrate Eidul Azha around the world, Palestinians continue suffering at the hands of the Israeli occupational forces, with at least 22 people killed across Gaza since dawn on Saturday.

Amid the onslaught, celebrities are reminding their followers to think of Palestine as they commemorate Eid.

Nadia Jamil

Actor Nadia Jamil, in a detailed caption on Instagram, said the world failed Palestine as it “watched them suffer an illegal occupation and genocide for over 77 years.”

“We have traded and brought goods from countries that are a part of this genocide,” she said, adding that over 50,000 children were murdered in the region.

“The elderly have been murdered. Entire families have been murdered. People sleeping have been murdered. People going to get aid have been trapped and murdered. Hospitals, schools, have been blown up, and doctors, journalists, teachers have been murdered.”




According to the Behadd actor, the world witnessed children and families starving to death, as well as “whose hand is raised to veto an end to this slaughter.” Jamil was referring to the United States after it vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza earlier this week.

“We have watched and witnessed the utter impotence of all humanitarian agencies, groups and the world’s governments, in the face of this holocaust, barring a few courageous nations and people.”

Jamil continued that the world witnessed students being bullied, harassed and penalised for speaking up for Palestine, and saw who was on the “right side and who is complicit in this genocidal, ethnic cleansing and Holocaust of the Palestinian people.”

“And we will not let the world or history forget… ever. From the river to the sea. Palestine forever and always will be free.”

Talha Anjum




Rapper Talha Anjum, part of the Young Stunners, wished his followers on Eid and said, “As sacrifices are being made and blood is being spilled, don’t forget to say a prayer for the victims of genocide in Palestine.”

Anjum also urged people to be “generous when helping the ones in need.”

Saint Levant



Palestinian singer Saint Levant requested that people keep Palestinians in their thoughts as they celebrated Eid.

“It’s coming close to two years of genocide. We will one day see liberation,” he wrote on his Instagram story.

Forlorn Gaza — the world’s shame

Abbas Nasir 

abbas.nasir@hotmail.com

Published June 7, 2025

DAWN

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.

EXACTLY a month ahead of her country’s independence day, the US representative to the UN Security Council was vetoing a resolution demanding, “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza” to be respected by all parties, and the “immediate, dignified and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups”.

The draft resolution vetoed by the solitary US vote received 14 in favour. It also called for the “immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, calling for safe and unhindered access for UN and humanitarian partners across the enclave”, said a UN release.

In what appeared to be a move coordinated with the veto, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the US was sanctioning four judges of the International Court of Justice for ‘targeting’ with arrest warrants Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier, the US had sanctioned the ICJ prosecutor for the same ‘crime’.

These US actions came as the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, described Gaza as “worse than hell on earth”. In an interview to the BBC at the ICRC Headquarters in Geneva, she said “humanity is failing” as it watched the horrors of the Gaza war.

The systematic destruction of any and all infrastructure that supports human life is near complete.

Israel’s policy, backed by its US-led Western allies and the acquiescence of the regional Arab governments, has always been aimed at the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, and its governing coalition leaders have been unequivocal in explicitly stating their military objectives.

The systematic destruction of any and all infrastructure that supports human life is near complete, with water, power, homes, schools, universities and even hospitals bombed to rubble. Of the number of functioning hospitals in Gaza, only two remain.

The UN has called for the protection of these last two hospitals, particularly providing emergency services to the Strip, which is being bombed and hit by missiles daily, causing dozens of casualties, young and old. The UN also says the percentage of malnourished children is rising by the day.

This malnourishment is due to the Israeli food blockade on Gaza. Israel has brushed aside all aid organisations’ protestations to introduce its own ‘food distribution’ points, where dozens of starving Palestinians, including women, have been killed by Israeli tank-mounted machinegun fire.

The Conservative member of the UK parliament, Kit Malthouse, defied his party’s pro-Israel policy to offer the most apt description of what is happening. Speaking in the Commons, he said Gaza has become “an abattoir where starving people are lured out through combat zones to be shot at”.

“If the situation were reversed, we would now be mobilising the British armed forces as part of an international protection force,” Mr Malthouse said, exposing Western hypocrisy and his own government’s inaction.

Adding another twist to the food crisis in Gaza is the Israeli prime minister’s confirmation — after Israeli defence sources had earlier told local journalists that accusations made by the opposition politician Avigdor Lieberman were correct — about the arming of a group that many believe comprises criminals.

Mr Lieberman, according to the BBC, told the state broadcaster that the prime minister had unilaterally approved the arming of the Abu Shabab clan and transferred weapons to it. “The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with the Islamic State group.”

Sources in the know say the group is led by Yasser Abu Shahab, who was an IS commander, and is an Israeli intelligence asset. His band of about 300 men, according to the Israeli Occupation Forces, has been armed to “protect food trucks” trickling into Gaza. But sources on the ground say the group is doing the opposite in commandeering the trucks and looting the vital food supplies for the malnourished, starving Palestinians.

It is this one-sided ethnic-cleansing, being facilitated by the US and its envoy Steve Witkoff — who has been accused more than once of being economical with the truth after agreeing one thing with Hamas and then reneging on his promise and blaming the armed militant group — that may be impacting public opinion in Europe at least.

The public opinion is shifting, which is also reflected in the robust questioning of the Israeli Hasbara spin doctors in the media. These advocates for the Israeli cause are outraged even by some basic questions a few journalists are beginning to ask because they have had a free pass to spin their lies since October 2023.

The European government leaders are beginning to express unease, only in words and not deeds, in calling the Gaza situation intolerable and unacceptable but stopping well short of any concrete measures such as an arms embargo.

This rhetoric too is driven by the changing public mood reflected in a recent YouGov poll across Europe. The poll showed Israel as being viewed most unfavourably since they started polling on this issue in 2016. And Israel’s actions in Gaza are seen as disproportionate and unjustified.

Even then, President Trump is likely to be convinced his Gaza Riviera plan is on course and in the end the Palestinians will be displaced. With few friends in the Arab world, whose leaders generously opened up their cheque books for the US president and applied little, if any, pressure to secure an end to the genocide, the Palestinians seem to be on their own.

The (resource-starved) government of the ummah’s most potent military power may have co-sponsored the vetoed UN resolution, but its powerful elite queued up at the embassy gate for hours to be able to have the honour of celebrating US Independence Day inexplicably on June 4, a month earlier than July 4.

The ethnic cleansing in Gaza and, don’t forget, the West Bank will continue. The collective conscience of the people around the globe will not be able to stop it on its own. This is the world we inhabit.


Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2025

ISLAMOPHOBES

India’s sinister alliance with Israel



Mohammad Asif Khan 

The Electronic Intifada 

7 June 2025

India’s Narendra Modi is a staunch ally of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Lalit KumarZUMA Press

In Gurez Valley, a remote corner of Indian-administered Kashmir, 26-year-old Ejaz Dar often sits on a weathered bench outside his mud-and-timber home, his eyes fixed on the rugged peaks 12 kilometers away.

Those peaks mark the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border dividing the disputed territory of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Dar’s home lies dangerously close to this volatile line, but his thoughts drift elsewhere, to the day in 2019 when his aunt left the family’s bunker to fetch food for her child during a round of intense shelling.

A mortar blast tore through the silence, leaving nothing behind.

“There was nothing left of her,” Dar says quietly. “When I hear talk of war on the radio, her memory hits hard.”

In Kashmir, grief isn’t new. But the recent flare-ups between the two nuclear-armed states have revived fears, especially for those living near the border.

The recent escalation followed a deadly attack on 22 April, in Pahalgam, a town in Indian-administered Kashmir. Twenty-six tourists, mostly Hindus, were killed.

The Resistance Front, an insurgent militia, initially claimed responsibility, then retracted the statement, saying that its account on a digital platform had been hacked.

India blamed Pakistan and promised retribution. Pakistan denied involvement in the attack and called for an international investigation.

Days later, India launched Operation Sindoor, a wave of air strikes, describing them as “non-escalatory” in nature.

Many of the drones used in the operation were Israeli-made.

Among the systems deployed was the Harop, a “suicide drone” developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Designed to hover above a target area before diving for impact, the Harop carries a 10-kilogram warhead and can remain airborne for nearly six hours.

Since acquiring the Harop, India has increasingly relied on it.

Oshrit Birvadker, a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told The Times of Israel that India’s use of Harop drones reflects “Israel’s growing footprint in Indian defense.”

Pakistan claimed that it intercepted numerous Harop drones during the recent exchange. Photographs of charred wreckage circulated online, though it’s unclear if they were destroyed before or after impact.

One fragment reportedly bore markings linked to Enercon Technologies, an Israeli defense contractor based in the Barkan settlement industrial zone in the occupied West Bank. Enercon is now owned by US-based firm Bel Fuse.

Pakistan also claimed to have shot down a Heron drone – another Israeli product India has used for high-altitude surveillance.

India insisted the targets were “terrorist infrastructure.” However, Pakistan has contested this narrative, labeling the strikes an “act of war” and reporting 31 civilian deaths, including at least two children, across six locations, with attacks hitting civilian areas like mosques in Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Israel has used similar “justifications” in Gaza while bombing hospitals, schools and encampments of displaced people.

As Azad Essa, author of Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel, notes, “The nonstop drone noise reminds Kashmiris they’re being watched constantly. One wrong move, and they could be killed.”

For India’s right-wing government, Israel is more than a supplier; it’s a model: a state that has institutionalized occupation and normalized apartheid.

Israel’s exported surveillance and military systems now serve as tools of control for India.

In addition to Harop drones, India used the Israeli-made Barak 8 missile defense system to intercept potential retaliatory strikes from across the border.

Developed jointly by Israel Aerospace Industries and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Barak 8 played a significant role in neutralizing aerial threats during the recent flare-up, according to reports.

The recent showdown illustrates that Israeli weapons are woven deeply into the Indian military’s operations.
Sinister alliance

India and Ukraine are the world’s two largest arms importers.

Over recent years, India has become Israel’s most dependable buyer. Between 2001 and 2021, India imported $4.2 billion worth of Israeli arms.

India’s support for Israel has also grown during the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

In May 2024, Spain denied docking rights to the Marianne Danica ship carrying 27 tonnes of explosives bound for Haifa, a port city in Israel. The cargo had originated in Chennai, India.

The incident underlined India’s role not just as a buyer but also as a supplier of arms.

Companies such as Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems India (a joint Israeli-Indian venture), Premier Explosives and the state-owned Munitions India have emerged as key actors in this trade. During Israel’s genocide in Gaza, fragments of a missile marked “Made in India” were found in the ruins of a bombed UN shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

This arms flow has become crucial for Israel. With some European countries facing growing public pressure to suspend military support to Israel, India has emerged as a stable, less scrutinized partner.

Israel, in turn, has maintained a steady supply of arms exports to India during this period. This is noteworthy, as arms shipments to other parties have faced delays.
From covert ties to public embrace

The India-Israel military relationship wasn’t always this open.

For decades, India avoided formal ties with Israel out of solidarity with Palestine. India opposed the UN’s 1947 partition plan of Palestine and was among the first countries to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In 1975, India supported a UN General Assembly resolution equating Zionism – Israel’s state ideology – with racism.

As a former British colony like Palestine, India suffered under British rule. Following its independence, India was seen as a leader of the post-colonial world and played a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement (a collective of nations that advocated for neutrality during the Cold War).

Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, central figures in India’s freedom struggle, viewed Zionism through the lens of anti-colonial politics. Gandhi once stated, “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French.”

But even during decades of diplomatic distance, arms flowed quietly. In 1962, during India’s war with China, Israel supplied weapons on the condition that its flag be visible on the delivery ships.

In 1999, during the Kargil War with Pakistan, Israel rushed in drone systems and laser-guided bombs that played a pivotal role in India’s response.

India formally established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992, following the end of the Cold War, and sought closer ties to the United States. Indian leaders soon realized that “the road to Washington passes through Tel Aviv.”
Ideological bond

Under Narendra Modi, the India-Israel relationship has taken on a distinct ideological tone. Modi was the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel in 2017.

His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finds resonance in Israel’s ethno-nationalist politics. Zionism’s vision of a Jewish “homeland” in historic Palestine has become a model for Hindu nationalist ideology, Hindutva, which advocates for the establishment of a Hindu-supremacist nation in India.

The ideological overlap is more than symbolic.

In 2019, Indian diplomat Sandeep Chakravorty suggested that Hindu settlers in Kashmir could emulate Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Indian scientist Anand Ranganathan last year called for an “Israel-like” solution to the Kashmir conflict.

In 2019 India revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy. Since 2022, the authorities have issued residency permits to more than 80,000 non-local settlers, a policy reminiscent of Israel’s settlement expansion in Palestinian territories.

As Apoorvanand, a Hindi professor at Delhi University puts it, “Hindutva admires Israel’s methods in Palestine as a guide for how to deal with Muslims in Kashmir.”

After the Pahalgam attack, Indian forces detained more than 2,000 people and demolished homes said to belong to militants’ families.

At the heart of this arms-for-ideology relationship stands the Adani Group, owned by billionaire Gautam Adani, the second richest person in India, with close ties to Narendra Modi.

In 2018, Adani partnered with Israel’s Elbit Systems to build drones in Hyderabad. By early 2024, this joint venture had reportedly delivered more than 20 Hermes 900 drones to Israel.

Adani has also acquired most of Haifa Port.

Adani’s ventures have benefited from favorable policy changes under the Modi government. Adani’s drones have reportedly been used in fueling the genocide against Palestinians.

A US-brokered ceasefire on 10 May halted the India-Pakistan crisis.

Despite the truce, the situation between India and Pakistan remains volatile. Modi maintains that Operation Sindoor against Pakistan has not ended, with mock drills still taking place.

Pakistan, for its part, has chosen to honor the truce, expressing a desire to avoid additional bloodshed and loss of life.

But for Gaza, where Israel’s genocide continues unabated, there is no respite.

Mohammad Asif Khan is an independent journalist based in New Delhi.

Opinion

The empire’s playpen: Nukes, nationalism, and manufactured madness in South Asia

Tourists flock near the clock tower as an Indian paramilitary soldier guards the commercial hub of city center lal Chowk in Srinagar, India-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir on April 29, 2025.Tensions escalate between two nuclear powers India and Pakistan after a deadly attack which took place on April 22, 2025 in Baisaran area of Pahalgam in which 26 people mostly tourists were killed. [

Faisal Khan – Anadolu Agency]

by Junaid S. Ahmad
June 7, 2025 

MEMO

More than a month has passed since the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, deep in the restive terrain of Indian-occupied Kashmir. Yet, the region has not exhaled. That attack was the spark; the explosion was narrowly averted—this time. Fighter jets scrambled, missiles were mobilized, and once again the world held its breath as two nuclear-armed rivals, each armed with doomsday in their back pocket, flirted with mutual annihilation.

While the episode may have slipped from international headlines, its implications remain radioactive. South Asia is not a playground, though its leaders often behave like unruly children with grenades. If the world needed a reminder that nuclear deterrence is not a fail-safe, rationally managed insurance policy but a glorified gamble with apocalyptic stakes—this was it.

This wasn’t officially a war. But it was close enough to provoke real questions about the sanity—or lack thereof—guiding the region’s leadership, and the broader geopolitics that embolden them.

No winners in a nuclear firestorm

Let us first dispense with the nationalist pageantry that follows every skirmish between India and Pakistan. There are no victors when nuclear states collide. This is not a cricket match where bragging rights are exchanged over biryani and Bollywood memes. It is a potential extinction-level event. The myth that one side can decisively “win” a war against the other is not just dangerous—it is delusional. In such a conflict, “victory” is synonymous with vaporisation.

Nuclear war is the only war where the “first strike” is also the “last mistake.” Both India and Pakistan have built narratives of strength around their capacity to deter one another, but those narratives assume their leaders are rational, stable, and immune to populist bloodlust. If recent history is any guide, that’s a deeply hazardous assumption.

Kashmir: The forgotten epicenter

Amid all the saber-rattling, missile-counting, and testosterone-soaked monologues from news anchors on both sides of the border, the most important reality—the brutalized lives of Kashmiris—vanishes into the fog of war games. It’s a remarkable trick of geopolitical distraction: the occupied become a footnote, the oppressed rendered invisible. Kashmir, the powder keg at the center of this madness, is not just a disputed territory—it is a living, bleeding reminder of unfulfilled promises and colonial leftovers. While Delhi and Islamabad perform their ritualistic chest-thumping, the people of Kashmir remain locked under surveillance, silenced by curfews, and suffocated by a military presence so pervasive it would make apartheid strategists blush. The right to self-determination, so casually championed in Western capitals when convenient, finds no champions here. Like the Palestinians, Kashmiris are expected to endure occupation quietly, their resistance mislabeled as ‘terrorism,’ their pain dismissed as background noise. In the nuclear theatre of South Asia, they are not even cast as actors—merely collateral set dressing for a show they never auditioned for.

India’s sub-imperial delusions

India, for all its economic swagger and Western endorsements, remains a sub-imperial power largely punching itself in the face. The notion that aligning with American hegemony has elevated its regional standing grows increasingly farcical. As a subservient junior partner in Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy, India plays sidekick to a declining empire, all while its internal fractures deepen.

Domestically, the country is a simmering pot of sectarianism and authoritarianism. Internationally, India has learned that buying Western military tech and mimicking Washington’s rhetoric doesn’t guarantee strategic supremacy. What good is a billion-dollar weapons cache if it cannot prevent a border incursion or a humiliating drone interception? Sub-imperialism may earn you applause in think tank panels, but on the battlefield, reality is a far less generous evaluator.

The Modi government’s chest-thumping in the wake of the Pahalgam attack, amplified by India’s hyper-nationalist media, was revealing. This wasn’t policy—it was performance art. A volatile cocktail of wounded pride and Hindutva paranoia turned the threat of war into spectacle. And spectacle into potential catastrophe.

Rational actors don’t start fires with gasoline

Following Pakistan’s successful deterrence and its calibrated military response, a comforting narrative began circulating: that deterrence had worked, that tensions would now cool, that the worst was over. This is the lullaby of rational-choice theorists who still believe men with nuclear buttons act like emotionless chess players—immune to ego, history, and political pressure.

But we’ve seen this movie before. And in South Asia, the villains never die—they just get re-elected.

India is a wounded tiger at present—its pride bruised, its media frenzied, and its ruling class under immense pressure to perform strength. That makes it more dangerous, not less. When regimes derive their legitimacy from dominance, any sign of parity becomes intolerable. The urge to “hit back harder” next time—to reassert superiority—lurks ominously in the background. This wasn’t an ending, merely an intermission.

Western arms, brown battlefields

Let us not forget the role of the great powers—the true puppet masters of this regional tragedy. For decades, South Asia has been a profitable theater for arms dealers, military contractors, and imperial strategists. Washington, in particular, has played both sides with a brazenness that would make a colonial viceroy blush. It preaches peace while selling India advanced military systems, lectures Pakistan about democracy while greenlighting Israeli spyware for New Delhi.

To the architects of global power, hundreds of millions of brown lives are nothing more than collateral calculus. Testing drones, radar jammers, and missile shields in Gaza was bad enough. But testing them in South Asia? Even better. Low-cost, high-reward. What better terrain to experiment in than among “superfluous” populations already deemed burdens on the global order?

The U.S. military-industrial complex doesn’t care whether Delhi or Islamabad survives. It only cares that both keep buying.

OPINION: Squabbling Siblings: India, Pakistan and Operation Sindoor

Chinese tech, Pakistani pride

One of the most consequential takeaways from this latest pseudo-conflict was the effectiveness of Chinese military technology. Under combat conditions, Pakistan’s Chinese-supplied radar and missile systems held their own, even outpacing some of India’s more expensive Western hardware.

This sent quiet shockwaves through Western capitals. For the first time, Chinese military exports weren’t just affordable—they were battle-tested. The implications are immense. It’s a shift not just in the Indo-Pak balance, but in the global arms market. A credible Chinese alternative is now firmly in the mix.

Predictably, Pakistan’s military elite rushed to take credit. Army Chief Asim Munir strutted like a peacock, casting himself as the mastermind behind Pakistan’s restraint and control. He even indulged in the farcical fantasy of self-appointing as “Field Marshal.” It would be amusing if it weren’t so tragic.

The reality is far less flattering. Pakistan’s deterrence held not because of Munir’s strategic genius, but thanks to the engineers—Pakistani and Chinese—who built dependable systems, and the disciplined air force officers who operated them. The generals, as ever, are more adept at plotting domestic coups than defending borders.

The phantom of Imran Khan

While the generals preened, one man remained locked in a prison cell: Imran Khan. The wildly popular former prime minister, incarcerated on ridiculous charges, still casts a long shadow over Pakistan’s political landscape. His absence is not merely political—it is symbolic.

The message to the public is clear: loyalty to the military trumps public mandate. The message to the rank-and-file within the armed forces is worse: your service means little unless it aligns with elite interests.

This contradiction is unsustainable. Many in the military, offended by Khan’s treatment and disgusted by elite corruption, now view the top brass with suspicion, if not outright disdain. The chasm between soldier and general is widening—and no number of medals can plaster over that decay.

Toward real liberation

The only real victory awaiting Indians and Pakistanis alike lies not in missiles or dogfights, but in dismantling the internal tyrannies that keep both nations locked in cycles of fear, war, and dependency.

For India, that means rejecting the fascist Hindutva project and building a genuinely pluralist democracy before authoritarianism becomes permanent. For Pakistan, it means breaking the totalitarian grip of the military and dynastic mafias masquerading as governance.

For both, it means finally completing the project that began in 1947: true decolonisation.

Decolonisation is not merely about lowering a foreign flag. It is about rejecting the imperial operating system—one that teaches you to fear your neighbor more than your overlords, to worship Western power while loathing your own, to exchange your sovereignty for IMF loans and American weapons.

True sovereignty lies not in nuclear arsenals but in justice, dignity, and democracy.

The final lesson

This latest near-war was more than a border incident—it was a historical tremor. It served as a warning, not only to Delhi and Islamabad but to all of South Asia. As long as India and Pakistan remain trapped in the logic of empire—one fueled by Hindutva exceptionalism, the other by military feudalism—the region will continue to be a loaded gun aimed at its own temple.

The only escape lies in mutual reckoning. Not through grandiose gestures or naïve utopianism, but through a ruthless confrontation with internal decay and external manipulation. Until then, every ceasefire is but an intermission, every de-escalation a pause in the countdown.

And in the shadows, the arms dealers keep smiling.


The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Need for dialogue

Editorial 

Published June 6, 2025

DAWN

THE political leadership has lately been indicating that Pakistan is ready for dialogue with India in the interests of regional peace. Considering the dangerous escalation provoked by India’s aggression against Pakistan last month, this is a wise course to pursue. The role of the US as a possible interlocutor between the two South Asian nuclear powers has been mentioned, though it remains to be seen how willing America would be to wade into Indo-Pak bilateral disputes.

Speaking at the US embassy in Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hailed Donald Trump as a “man for peace” for the US president’s role in defusing last month’s hostilities. Similarly, PPP head Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is currently leading a multiparty delegation in the US, said it was “reasonable to expect” America to facilitate a “comprehensive dialogue” between Pakistan and India. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has also observed that whenever India is ready for talks, “they will find us ready”, though adding that Pakistan was not “desperate”.

Whether dialogue begins with US mediation or the involvement of some other third party, the goal should be for Islamabad and New Delhi to resolve their disputes at the negotiating table, and prevent another armed clash.

Sadly, while Pakistan’s political leadership is acting maturely on this count, similar statesmanship has not been witnessed in New Delhi. Much bellicosity and jingoism continue to be exhibited across the eastern border, including by those in responsible positions. Such rhetoric must go for there to be an atmosphere conducive to regional peace. Indian officials say that if there are talks, they must only be about ‘terrorism’. Limiting the scope of dialogue may doom the talks even before they begin. Negotiations should cover all the irritants that stand in the way of better ties. And if India is adamant that only terrorism be discussed, then it should be prepared to hear about the role malign actors connected to New Delhi have played in destabilising Pakistan, including through acts of terrorism.

To create a favourable atmosphere for talks, CBMs are needed from both sides. From Pakistan’s perspective, the biggest CBM India can take at this point is to fully honour the Indus Waters Treaty. For decades this treaty has survived wars and mutual hostility. But if India continues to hold the IWT in ‘abeyance’ or plans to torpedo it, it would set both states on a collision course, as Pakistan cannot give up its water rights.

True, emotions are still high in the aftermath of hostilities. But responsible states are not guided by emotions, and both capitals need to look to the future and restart dialogue. If mistrust continues to build up and ties remain frozen, the next conflict may only be a matter of time.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2025

UK and India discuss ‘counter-terrorism’ cooperation after South Asia tensions

Reuters 

Published June 7, 2025

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy attends an interview with Reuters at the British high commissioner residence in New Delhi, India, June 7. — Reuters


The United Kingdom and India on Saturday discussed expanding their “counter-terrorism” collaboration following recent fighting between the latter and Pakistan, Britain’s foreign minister told Reuters after meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

British FM David Lammy is the highest-profile Western official to have visited both New Delhi and Islamabad since the two agreed to a ceasefire last month after their worst fighting in nearly three decades.

The latest tensions began in April after the killing of 26 men in Indian-occupied Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on “terrorists” it alleged were backed by Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denied. India then attacked what it claimed was “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan, leading to escalation from both sides until a May 10 ceasefire.

“We want the situation to be maintained, but of course we recognise fragility, particularly in the backdrop of terrorism, terrorism designed to destabilise India,” Lammy said in an interview at the residence of the British high commissioner in New Delhi.

“We are keen to continue to work with our Indian partners on counter-terrorism measures.”

He said he discussed the next steps with both Modi and Indian FM S. Jaishankar, but gave no specifics.

Last year, India and Britain discussed combatting the financing of terrorism, cooperation between law enforcement and judicial bodies and information sharing.

Lammy said he also discussed boosting trade between the world’s fifth and sixth largest economies. The countries concluded talks for a free trade deal early last month.

“I know that Prime Minister Keir Starmer is very much looking forward to coming to India very soon to sign the free trade agreement,” Lammy said. “There is so much that our two nations can continue to do together.”