The Shift: Palestinian asylum seeker challenges ICE detention

By Michael Arria

December 18, 2025 

MONDOWEISS


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations’ (Wikimedia)


A Palestinian asylum-seeker is challenging his indefinite detention by ICE.

Last month, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Texas A&M Legal Clinics filed a habeas petition on behalf of Mohammed Abushanab, a 27-year-old who fled Israeli harassment in the West Bank only to end up detained by ICE in Texas for over 17 months.

In February, a judge granted Abushanab withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) because he could face further mistreatment in the West Bank, but he has been held in post-removal detention since March.

Abushanab’s lawyers say he’s been harassed by prison guards and protested his treatment through a hunger strike before being threatened with solitary confinement.

“Mr. Abushanab should have been released from immigration detention months ago, but because he is Palestinian the government is punishing him and illegally subjecting him to indefinite detention,” said CCR staff attorney Samah Sisay in a statement. “The law requires that Mr. Abushanab have access to due process and is quickly granted his freedom to reunite with his family.”

“I escaped detention and abuse in Palestine only to be treated terribly and detained indefinitely in the U.S.,” said Abushanab in his own statement. “I submitted the habeas petition to secure justice and my freedom, and I hope the judge quickly gives me my freedom.”

There’s a lot of commentary about the economic and military relationship between the U.S. and Israel, but less attention paid to the societal parallels.

Interestingly, Abushanab’s legal challenge comes just days after Muhammad Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American accused of throwing rocks at soldiers in the West Bank, was released from an Israeli prison.

Ibrahim was detained for 10 months, and his 20-year-old cousin was killed by settlers while he sat behind bars. Ibrahim’s relatives say that he was beaten during his detention and held in solitary confinement.

Ayah Ziyadeh, a Palestinian human rights scholar and advocate who worked on Americans for Justice in Palestine Action’s campaign to have Ibrahim released, recently spoke to Mondoweiss about the ordeal.

“He was placed in two different facilities during his arrest, and the conditions were really awful. He was beaten up constantly by soldiers,” said Ziyadeh. “We heard from lawyers that when he would meet with the lawyer, and then they would leave, they would abuse him.”

“There was a moment when he was in court, and he knew that his parents were watching from the camera,” she continued. “So he waved at them. He was beaten up after that. The conditions were so bad that he lost over 30% of his weight. He contracted scabies because of the prison conditions. And so they put him in solitary confinement for that, which also declined his mental health.”
Ya’akub Vijandre gives first interview

Last week, Ya’akub Vijandre, a Muslim photojournalist and Palestine activist, who was detained over social media posts, gave his first interview from Georgia’s Folkston detention center.

Vijandre, a DACA recipient who has legally lived in the United States since 2001, was arrested at gunpoint in October. The Department of Homeland Security said the “Dallas Joint Terrorism Task Force” targeted Vijandre because he allegedly made a social media post that quoted Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006. They also claim that he posted in support of the Holy Land Five and Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently serving an 86-year sentence for attempted murder.

Vijandre told The Guardian that the government is “attacking my faith” and expressed concerns about his safety.

He says prisoners are treated “like animals” at the facility and yelled at for not speaking English. When he asked a guard if he could visit the bathroom, he was “just piss on yourself.”

“I never expected anything like that … being accused of ‘glorifying terrorism’; they attacked my religion, my faith,” he said, referencing his detention hearing. “They boxed me in, cornered me. I’ve seen this in movies …but was not expecting my faith to be attacked.”

“This is a rehearsed tactic of Islamophobia,” Vijandre added.
Fetterman lobbies for Netanyahu

Democratic Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has consistently celebrated Israel’s destruction of Gaza, but a new revelation shows just how deep that support runs.

In a letter, obtained by TPM, Fetterman asked Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was on trial for bribery and fraud.

“In a world this dangerous, I question whether any democracy can afford to have its head of government spending valuable hours, day after day, in a courtroom rather than the situation room,” Fetterman wrote to Herzog.

“It seems that the legal proceedings against the Prime Minister, dragging on year after year, have become a drain on the nation’s spirit and its focus,” he continued. “In a world this dangerous, I question whether any democracy can afford to have its head of government spending valuable hours, day after day, in a courtroom rather than the situation room…I believe there is a strong case to be made for a pardon — not to erase the past, but to secure the future.”

When asked about the request, Fetterman referred to the Netanyahu trial as a “pointless distraction.

“I stand on the letter,” he added.

ZIONIST FEMICIDE

After the Rape: The challenges of monitoring sexual violence in Gaza

Palestinian women in Gaza have faced widespread sexual violence during the Israeli genocide. Despite mountains of evidence, human rights groups face difficulties pursuing justice, as women live in fear of social stigma and reprisal from Israel.

By Majd Jawad 

 December 20, 2025 

MONDOWEISS

Gaza Community Mental Health Program staff providing psychological support to displaced children, women, elderly people, and people with special needs in evacuation camps in Deir Al-Balah and Rafah, in April 2024.

 (Photo: Gaza Community Mental Health Program/Facebook)


The story of N.A., a Palestinian woman detained and allegedly raped by four Israeli soldiers, sent shockwaves through a community already ravaged by war. Detailed in the shocking report by The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) last month, N.A.’s story was one of many, revealing the systematic rape and sexual torture of Palestinian detainees in Israeli captivity.

Her subsequent refusal to seek follow-up medical care after her release, retreating back into a circle of silence, highlights a pervasive and devastating reality in the Gaza Strip. Despite repeated attempts by human rights organizations to document her case and provide support, N.A. declined any further interviews, embodying the fear that paralyzes countless survivors.

“The cases that do speak to us fundamentally do not feel safe disclosing their experiences,” says Yasser Abdel Ghafour, deputy head of the documentation unit at a local human rights center. “They prefer not to expand the circle of people who know about their situation, which would further expose their identity.”

According to Abdel Ghafour, this is not an isolated incident. “We are aware of many cases that have endured similar experiences,” he explains. “We have approached them repeatedly to share their stories, but they have flatly refused, believing it would endanger their lives even more violently. This is especially true for women.”
Sexual violence as a weapon of war

Local and international human rights organizations indicate that the use of sexual violence by occupation forces is not a collection of isolated incidents but part of a repeated pattern of behavior within detention centers. While no international body has yet conducted a full investigation, the recurring patterns in testimonies, especially from female detainees, reflect a systematic practice of sexual humiliation, degradation, and identity destruction.

“What is required is not just documenting violations, but establishing a neutral international mechanism to investigate the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war,” Abdel Ghafour insists. “What is happening to women in detention is part of a widespread and systematic attack, not individual transgressions by soldiers.”

In a statement, the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights asserted that Israeli sexual assault must be treated as a political and societal issue, not an individual one. “As a political-societal issue connected to colonial policies of oppression,” the statement reads, “it is akin to assassinations or the use of extreme force. The victim must not be isolated or degraded; rather, she should be embraced, her struggle honored, and all necessary support provided.”

Persistent threat of retaliation

For released detainees, the psychological and physical devastation is immense. The trauma of their experience lingers long after they return home. One testimony documented by the PCHR captures this despair: “In terms of my mental health, I am not myself anymore. I am talking to you now about my tragedy and I feel unstable, I cry and laugh at the same time. I have become soulless when I look at my children and fear that one day they will go through what I went through.

Another survivor describes her shattered mental state: “They violated our dignity and destroyed our spirits and our hope for life. I had wanted to continue my education; now I am lost after what happened to me”

According to professionals, despite such profound trauma, very few survivors seek medical or psychological care. The constant threat of reprisal from Israeli occupation forces for speaking out prevents them from fully disclosing their experiences.

This fear is corroborated by the May 2025 GBV Trends Analysis: Gaza report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which noted that survivors “are often reluctant to name armed perpetrators due to fear of retaliation.”

This climate of fear extends beyond gender-based violence to all forms of documentation. Munir al-Bursh, a director within the Gaza health ministry, confirms this trend to Mondoweiss. He says he has encountered cases where individuals repeatedly insisted that their identity and medical details remain confidential, citing direct threats of revenge from the Israeli occupation if their stories were made public.

The threat is not limited to survivors. Human rights workers, monitors, and local civil society organizations—such as PCHR, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Women’s Affairs Center, are also systematically targeted for their work exposing Israeli crimes. These organizations, already struggling to operate, face constant intimidation by Israel.

This includes direct physical attacks, such as the complete destruction of Humanity & Inclusion’s (HI) office in Gaza City in January 2024, despite its coordinates being registered with the UN’s notification system. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also documented at least eight Israeli strikes on aid worker convoys and premises, even after their locations were provided to Israeli authorities.

Silent hotlines

While reported cases of rape and sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) remain low, these incidents are severely underreported. GBV case managers on UNFPA in Palestine have shared concerning testimonies in task force meetings and trainings, including cases involving adolescent girls and women with disabilities raped by family members and strangers.

Despite rape appearing as 0% in the data, there has been severe underreporting due to fear of retaliation, stigma, and lack of awareness about available services and the collapse of justice system, with survivors not consenting to the recording of their cases. “Many women prefer silence,” says Zainab Al-Ghunaimi, director of Hayat Center for the protection of battered women, considered the primary safe house in Gaza, “not because their experience is any less real, but because speaking out can mean exposing themselves and their families to renewed violence, social ostracism, and practical ruin.”

This challenge cripples reporting mechanisms. An August 2025 report from the Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBV AoR) “reported severe disruption to women’s specialized service centers, with the majority either non-operational or only partially functioning,” while access to what remains of reproductive and mental health services is fraught with danger.

No safe shelters

In the absence of formal systems, some organizations have sought alternative justice and protection methods. Al-Ghunaimi, describes their efforts.

“We tried to find alternative ways to protect abused women during the war,” she says. “We established a tent to shelter women facing first-degree threats, meaning those at risk of being killed. We resorted to temporary solutions like a mediation system instead of the judiciary.” This system, she explains, involves committees of respected community figures, such as displacement center managers and family elders—to resolve conflicts and offer protection.

However, Al-Ghunaimi refuses to call these shelters completely “safe.” In the presence of the occupation, there is no real safe place. Recently, as this report was being written and despite a ceasefire, an Israeli strike hit a house next to the Hayat Center’s camp, destroying more than half of it. While no one in the camp was physically harmed, the bitter trauma of losing shelter was felt once again.

A void of accountability

International investigations into sexual violence in Gaza cannot proceed without witnesses. Yet, those who might testify live under constant fear, persistent threats, displacement, and deep psychological trauma.

The relentless insecurity, compounded by the destruction of homes and essential services, has made it nearly impossible for survivors to safely come forward. This creates a staggering gap between the sheer scale of the violations and the ability of human rights organizations to document and pursue justice for them.

“We have collected numerous testimonies over the years, but we lack witnesses willing to step forward,” says Abdel Ghafour, deputy head of the documentation unit at PCHR. “The silence forced by fear and social stigma means that files on rape and sexual torture remain some of the most challenging, and heartbreaking—to work on. Without witnesses, accountability remains almost entirely out of reach, and survivors continue to bear the weight of these crimes alone.”

Israeli minister proposes keeping Palestinian detainees in facility ’surrounded by crocodiles’

IMITATION IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF FLATTERLY

December 21, 2025 

Middle East Monitor

Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, gestures during the Parliament session in Jerusalem on October 28, 2024 [DEBBIE HILL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has proposed establishing a “detention facility surrounded by crocodiles” to hold Palestinian prisoners, local media reported on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

“The Israel Prison Service is examining an unusual proposal put forward by the National Security Minister (Itamar Ben-Gvir), which calls for setting up a detention facility for security prisoners surrounded by crocodiles in order to prevent escape attempts,” Channel 13 said.

According to the channel, Ben-Gvir, who leads the far-right Jewish Power Party, presented his proposal during a situation assessment meeting he held last week with Israel Prison Service Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi.

It noted that the proposed site is located near the Hamat Gader area in northern Israel, near the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the border with Jordan, and includes a crocodile farm and a zoo.

The proposal came as the Israeli Knesset is expected to vote in the coming days on a bill proposed by Ben-Gvir to execute Palestinian prisoners accused by Israel of planning or taking part in attacks against it.

The Knesset Plenum, the supreme authoritative body of the parliament, approved the bill in its first reading on Nov. 11. It must pass the second and third readings to become law.

Israel currently holds more than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners, including children and women, amid reports of torture, starvation, and medical neglect that have claimed the lives of many, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights reports.

Violations against Palestinian prisoners have escalated during Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 70,900 people, mostly women and children, and injured nearly 171,200 others since October 2023 in a brutal assault that also left the enclave in ruins.

Palestinian boy injured in hit-and-run amid settler rampage in West Bank

A Palestinian teenager was injured in Nablus after settlers ran him over, as attacks were also reported in Ein Yabrud and clashes broke out in Jerusalem.


The New Arab Staff
19 December, 2025


A Palestinian teenager was injured after being run over by Israeli settlers during a predawn incursion into the area around Joseph’s Tomb in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, as separate incidents of settler violence and internal unrest unfolded across the West Bank and Jerusalem.

An Al Jazeera correspondent reported that settlers entered Nablus in the early hours of the morning in an apparent attempt to reach the Joseph’s Tomb shrine, located in an area under Palestinian administrative control.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, settlers drove into the eastern part of the city and struck the boy as he was crossing Amman Street, leaving him with fractures to both legs. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

The Israeli army later said it had arrested settlers who "deliberately entered Nablus without authorisation, ran over a Palestinian, and fled".

Anadolu Agency, citing eyewitnesses, reported that two settler vehicles entered the area, one car overturned as the settlers fled on foot.


Settler incursions into the Joseph’s Tomb site are frequent and typically take place under Israeli military protection, despite the shrine being located within a Palestinian-controlled zone.

While Jewish tradition has regarded the site as religious since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967, researchers and historians have disputed the claim, saying the shrine is more likely the tomb of a Muslim cleric named Yusuf Dweikat.

The incident in Nablus came amid a series of reported settler attacks elsewhere in the West Bank. Earlier this week, Israeli settlers were reported to have torched a Palestinian vehicle and sprayed graffiti during an overnight attack on the village of Ein Yabrud, northeast of Ramallah.

The war on the West Bank: Israel's deepening spiral of violence
West Bank
Ines Gil

Settlers entered the village, set a vehicle on fire, and vandalised property before fleeing, and while Israeli police said they had opened an investigation, no arrests have been made.

Images circulating online showed damage to the vehicle and graffiti left at the scene.

The Ein Yabrud attack is part of a broader pattern of settler violence targeting Palestinian villages, which has intensified since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

Palestinian officials and human rights groups have repeatedly accused Israeli authorities of failing to prevent such attacks or hold perpetrators accountable.

Meanwhile, in occupied Jerusalem, clashes erupted on Thursday night between Israeli police and members of the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, leaving at least 13 police officers injured.

The unrest began in a Haredi neighbourhood after a municipal inspector issued a traffic citation to a young Haredi man, according to Israeli media reports. When police arrived, officers reportedly discovered that several of those present were evading compulsory military service and attempted to transfer them to military police custody.

Hundreds of Haredim then gathered at the scene, with Israeli media reporting that alerts were circulated warning that "the kidnappers have arrived", a reference used by some Haredi groups for police officers enforcing conscription-related arrests.


Clashes escalated as protesters overturned a police vehicle, threw stones and rubbish, and damaged additional police cars.

Israeli police said they deployed large forces, including Border Police units, to restore order, using crowd-control measures such as tear gas and water cannons. Four people were arrested.

After police briefly withdrew, protesters reportedly attacked investigators and a bus carrying Israeli soldiers, prompting police to return and use stun grenades to extract them.

The clashes highlight growing internal tensions in Israel following a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that ended long-standing exemptions for Haredi men from military service and barred state funding for religious institutions whose students refuse to enlist.

Haredim, who make up roughly 13 percent of Israel’s population, argue that compulsory service threatens their religious way of life.

Israeli settlers raid Hebron’s Old City under Israeli army protection

December 20, 2025

Middle East Monitor

Israeli soldiers block roads and restrict Palestinian movement as illegal Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, carry out a raid in the Old City of Hebron in the southern West Bank on December 20, 2025. [Amer Shallodi – Anadolu Agency]

A group of illegal Israeli settlers stormed the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Israeli soldiers provided protection and escorted the settlers during the raid on the Old City area, imposing heavy security measures.

Such raids are a recurring practice, with Israeli settlers carrying out raids under the protection and escort of Israeli army forces.

The Israeli army has escalated its attacks in the occupied West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,097 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, injured nearly 11,000, and detained around 21,000 since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Israel has continued its assassination campaign in Gaza despite the ceasefire

Since mid-October, Israel has carried out an assassination campaign in Gaza targeting resistance leaders. Contacts within the resistance say Israel is trying to lure them back into direct confrontation to avoid fulfilling its ceasefire obligations.

By Tareq S. Hajjaj 

 December 18, 2025 

MONDOWEISS

Palestinians participate in the funeral procession for Raed Saad, a prominent commander in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and three of his aides, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on December 14, 2025. 

(Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)


On December 13, the Israeli army assassinated Raed Saad, a senior commander in the Qassam Brigades and head of its weapons production. It was not the first strike deep into Hamas’s military wing or that of other resistance factions in Gaza. In fact, it was a continuation of Israel’s policy in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement was signed in October 2025.

Since the first days of the ceasefire, Palestinian civilians have been targeted for crossing the “yellow line,” which demarcates Israeli-controlled areas but is not clearly delineated. Later, beginning in mid-October, a clear pattern of assassinations began to emerge. The assassination of five fighters from the Qassam Brigades’ elite unit on October 17 marked the beginning of Israel’s assassination campaign during the ceasefire, which has not eased since.

On October 19, Yahya Al-Mabhouh, the commander of an elite unit, and Ahmad Abu Mutair, a broadcast engineer, were assassinated. Both were affiliated with the Qassam Brigades.

On October 29, several Qassam commanders were assassinated, including Hatem Al-Qudra, along with other martyrs.

On November 17, a field commander in Gaza City, Wisam Abdelhadi, a commander in the Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, was assassinated.

On November 20, five senior leaders in Hamas were assassinated, including Ahmed Abu Shammala, head of the naval unit, Nihad Abu Shahla, head of intelligence, Fadi Abu Mustafa, and others.

Likewise, on November 22, the Israeli army announced the assassination of five additional commanders.

And then, on December 13, Raed Saad.

“Sa’ad was one of the last remaining veteran senior militants in the Gaza Strip and a close associate of Marwan Issa, the deputy head of Hamas’ military wing. He held several senior positions and was a central figure within the organization’s military leadership,” the Israeli army said in a statement following the assassination, making no mention of its violation of the ceasefire.

During the ceasefire, the Israeli army has targeted all Palestinians in Gaza engaged in resistance activities, regardless of their political affiliations—whether with Hamas or other factions—just as they had during the war. These assassinations have been in addition to the 386 civilians whom Israel has killed in Gaza during this period as well.
Instigating the resistance

The resistance in Gaza believes that the Israeli army is trying to fabricate pretexts in order to target Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, especially political and military figures. It is also attempting to push the resistance back into direct confrontation to evade the ceasefire, using all available means to achieve its objectives in Gaza.

“The Israeli occupation army is working to create pretexts in the areas under its control classified as yellow zones in order to target our people, particularly political and military leaders, and to drag the resistance into a new confrontation that would lead to the resumption of the war and evasion of the ceasefire agreement, as well as international and U.S. pressure to adhere to the agreement,” a security source in the resistance in Gaza City told Mondoweiss.

“We have monitored new methods for tracking military leaders at both the technological and human levels,” he said. “The occupation is using highly advanced technology and spying devices planted in various areas of the strip, as well as human intelligence through cooperation with armed militias allied to the Israeli army. It also assigns these groups the task of targeting security leaders inside the Gaza Strip.” Investigations taken by the resistance have revealed links between cells inside Gaza and the occupation, whose main mission is to carry out assassinations. As for the assassination of senior leaders, they were carried out directly by the occupation, according to the same source.

The source noted that the pretexts cited by the army are flimsy and unfounded excuses to carry out assassinations, most notably claims that its soldiers were subjected to gunfire and military operations in areas fully under its control.

“The resistance has no contact with those present in these areas, does not carry out any military operations there at the present time, and does not issue any instructions to any of its members to carry out such operations,” the source said.

The source described what is happening as a blatant violation by the occupation of the ceasefire, a disregard for regional and international mediators, and an attempt to evade the obligations of the agreement and delay the start of the second phase of the ceasefire. “For our part,” the source said, “we will not give the occupation any pretext to achieve its objectives.”

The source indicated that the resistance in Gaza will not accept the occupation imposing its equations and rules on Gaza, its population, and its resistance. “The Netanyahu government is seeking to do so, but we have sent several messages to the mediators, from whom we received assurances that such rules would not be imposed under any circumstances, especially from the United States, which confirmed to all parties its determination to implement the ceasefire in all its stages.”

He also pointed out that the political leadership remains in constant communication with the mediators to compel the Israeli occupation to adhere to the ceasefire agreement, and that “we continuously affirm our right to respond in the manner and at the time we deem appropriate to the occupation’s violations and breaches, and that we will not remain silent for long in the face of the occupation’s aggression and violations.”
A strategy to avoid the second phase of the ceasefire

The Israeli pattern of assassinating leaders and turning the Gaza Strip into an open area for Israeli military operations has been clear to any observer of the situation on the ground in Gaza. The assassinations, bombardments, seizure and destruction of large areas inside what are referred to as the “yellow line” zones are all taking place as negotiations over the second phase of the ceasefire agreement are being carried out. These actions appear to be Israel’s attempt to create a new reality on the ground while it can.

Political analyst and writer Ahed Farwana told Mondoweiss that “the occupation is attempting to establish new tactics through clear assassination operations or armed actions, through which it seeks to perpetuate a state of tension in Gaza and make it the prevailing condition.”

Farwana says Israel is periodically increasing the pace of assassinations and trying to normalize the situation, similar to what it has done in Lebanon, but is now carrying out this strategy on a much larger scale in the Gaza Strip.

He says the Israeli government wants to avoid the second phase of the ceasefire agreement because of the obligations it would carry with it.

“These include the withdrawal of the army, the opening of crossings, and reconstruction, and Netanyahu does not want to pay their political cost—especially as the coming year is an election year in Israel. Accordingly, they are doing everything possible to maintain the status quo,” he says. Farwana confirms Israel is expanding the yellow zone and destroying everything east of the yellow line on a daily basis, stressing that “the Israeli government is not prepared at all to move to the second phase.”

Farwana believes that international pressure—particularly from U.S. President Donald Trump—is what could make a difference. He says that if Trump wants to pressure Netanyahu to move to the second phase, he will do so. However, if there is no real pressure on Netanyahu, he will continue to do as he has during the first phase – grabbing land in Gaza, and killing any Palestinian who stands in their way.

‘What is the Christian word in the face of genocide?’: new Kairos Palestine document calls for repudiation of Zionism

“What is happening [in Palestine] today is the true face of Zionist ideology . . . turning Palestinian existence into an unbearable hell,” declares the recently released Kairos Palestine document, "A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide."

By Jeff Wright 

 December 20, 2025 

MONDOWEISS

Displaced Palestinians continue their daily lives under difficult conditions inside displacement tents scattered amidst the destruction in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, on December 9, 2025. 

(Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)


Last month, 300 people—led by the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Palestine— gathered in Bethlehem to launch the second Kairos Palestine document: A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide. 140 Palestinians and 160 internationals spent the day unpacking the theological and political descriptions of the conditions that Palestinians face and attending to the indigenous church’s call for Palestinian resistance and Christian solidarity. The conference was hosted by Kairos Palestine, the largest Palestinian Christian ecumenical nonviolent movement for freedom and justice.

Mays Nassar, Kairos Palestine staff, introduced the 14-page document, saying, “With the beginning of the genocidal war on Gaza and the worsening reality of apartheid and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, we reached a decisive moral and theological turning point. Our hearts were compelled to reflect on the meaning of faith in such a time of horror. We asked ourselves what must we say to our people now? What is the Christian word in the face of genocide?”

In the first part of the document, “The Reality: Genocide, Colonization and Ethnic Cleansing”, the authors lament, “We raise this cry from the heart of the assault on Gaza — a war that has left behind hundreds of thousands of martyrs and wounded, and nearly two million displaced people. Many were buried beneath the rubble, burned alive, tortured to death in prisons or forcibly displaced more than once. Others endured starvation, targeted even as they ran in search of food. Tens of thousands of children were killed in the most horrific ways. Gaza’s health, education, economic, and environmental sectors—indeed, every component of life—have been destroyed.”

“Exposed today,” the document states, “is the true face of Zionist ideology: a system that over decades has entrenched an organized and sophisticated regime of apartheid supported by advanced technologies that exercise total control over every aspect of Palestinian life—fragmenting the land, dividing its people, and turning Palestinian existence into an unbearable hell.”

Genocide is both a cumulative process, according to the document, “one that began in the minds of the settler-colonial powers of Europe when they denied the image of God in others and legitimized death, domination and slavery,” and a “structural sin against God, against humanity, and against creation.”

“We consider the State of Israel, established in 1948,” Kairos II maintains, “to be a continuation of that same colonial enterprise built on racism and the ideology of ethnic or religious superiority.”

Authors of the document charge that “the genocidal war has laid bare the hypocrisy of the Western world, its hollow values and its empty boasts of commitment to human rights and international law. In truth, the Western world has sacrificed us, revealing racism and double standards toward our people.”

Palestinian Christians decorate the Latin Monastery Church in hardships Gaza City ahead of New Year celebrations, continuing their preparations despite the hardships facing the besieged enclave, on December 9, 2025.

(Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

Turning to the global reality of Christian Zionism, the document describes the ideology as a “theology of racism, colonialism and ethnic supremacy… a theology that has produced apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide of indigenous people.”

“Christian Zionism calls on a tribal, racist god of war and ethnic cleansing, teachings utterly alien to the core of Christian faith and ethics,” Kairos II continues. “Christian Zionism must therefore be named for what it is: a theological distortion and a moral corruption.”

In what some may consider the document’s most controversial call, Kairos II insists that religious conversations and interfaith dialogue with Christian Zionists must be ended.

“After all efforts to invite Christian Zionists to genuine repentance have been exhausted,” Kairos II reads, “moral, ecclesial and theological responsibility requires that they be held accountable and that their ideology be rejected and boycotted. The time has come for the churches of the world to repudiate Zionist theology and to state clearly their position on Palestine: this is a case of settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing of an indigenous people.”

The document goes on to describe the increasingly violent actions of settlers: “Across the occupied West Bank… [t]hey wreak havoc upon the land, destroy crops, poison or seize water resources and attack residents—all under the protection, support and even participation of the Israeli army in acts of violence, killing, home demolitions and forced displacement.”

Regarding the Palestinians living within the state of Israel, the document states, “blatant racism and discrimination persist. Palestinian communities face intimidation, criminalization of free expression, and persecution of any effort to defend Palestinian rights, along with [Israel’s] deliberate neglect of rampant organized crime in Palestinian towns. Those displaced within Israel in 1948, whose lands were confiscated, are still denied the right to return to their villages and rebuild their homes. Bedouin communities remain victims of systematic displacement and ethnic cleansing….”

The document doesn’t hesitate to name challenging internal conditions that have been increasingly exacerbated over Israel’s 77-year-long dispossession and occupation:


Political division, rivalry and exclusion have deepened. The majority of Palestinians have lost confidence in their political leadership. As a result of the Oslo Accords and their aftermath, the Palestinian Authority has been trapped in serving the interests of the occupier….

Signs of disorder have… become part of our reality, largely due to the absence or weak enforcement of the rule of law. This has led to a rise in intimidation, land encroachment, tribalism, favoritism and corruption in its various forms at the expense of the common good, deepening people’s frustration and despair. Amid the vast destruction and genocide in Gaza, acts of violence, revenge, chaos and theft have only added to the suffering of the Palestinian people.

The document also describes a worrying external reality.


In recent years, our region—the Middle East—has undergone major political and regional transformations shaped by a deliberate plan to impose Israeli military dominance over the entire area with the support of Western powers, drawing a new political and demographic map. Backed systematically by its allies, Israel has attacked many countries of the region, violating their sovereignty and that of their peoples, flouting international law and entrenching itself as an aggressive, bullying state as if it stands above all laws and conventions—pushing the region and indeed the world to the brink of catastrophe.

The second part of Kairos II, “A Moment of Truth for Us”, is focused inwardly on Palestinian society. “In the face of this harsh reality and at this decisive moment we raise this cry—first to ourselves, to the sons and daughters of our churches and congregations, and to our entire people in the homeland and the diaspora.”

The document calls “for a comprehensive national reevaluation of our reality to draw lessons and insights leading to a unified, collective vision and a clear strategy for future action… within a legitimate representative framework” and warns “against giving our national struggle a religious character or turning it into a religious issue that pits religions against one another.”

In almost lyrical prose, Kairos II addresses:the Palestinian woman, “the unbending backbone, partner in the struggle, holding together home, land, memory and future all at once… There can be no true liberation without her full participation at every level of decision-making and nation-building.”
the Palestinian Church: “We are the sons and daughters of the first Church… those who cultivated this land, built its cities and villages and drank from its waters. We do not live on the margins of this land. We are woven into its fabric. We carry its history and heritage. Its very soil knows us as its own. Many empires have passed over this land and disappeared, buried in the dust of history, yet the bells of our churches continue to ring—bearing witness to the truth and proclaiming resurrection every day.”“our youth”: “You are the living Church…. We see your anger, your sorrow, your fear. We also see your strength…. We do not call you to naïve optimism, but to hope that is rooted in action…. Express yourselves. Write. Sing. Create. Organize. Resist through your humanity in a world that seeks to strip it from you.
“our people in the diaspora”: “You may be geographically far from Palestine, but Palestine lives within you…. Your voice has the power to shift realities. Share our suffering and our stories of steadfastness and success…. We will not lose our dream of reunification, nor will we abandon our right of return.

In the third part of the document, “A Call to Repentance and Action”, the authors make their appeal to persons around the world.

To Christians: “working together with both religious and secular coalitions… pressure [your] governments to isolate Israel, hold it accountable… press for the prosecution of war criminals whoever they may be… ensure reparations for the Palestinian people… work for the immediate return of the displaced through the reconstruction of Gaza and the strengthening of its people’s steadfastness.

To people of conscience: “believers in God from every faith and persons of conviction… join together in coalitions that safeguard humanity from further descent into the reality of injustice, tyranny and domination.”

“We call for a global theological movement built on the pillars of God’s Kingdom — a movement that arises from the contexts and struggles of peoples suffering from colonialism, racism, apartheid and the structural poverty produced by corrupt economic and political systems that serve the interests of the world’s empires.”

To the Jewish voices that oppose the war and confront Zionism from moral, faith-based and human conviction: “[W]e find [in you] partners in our shared humanity and in the struggle for freedom and human dignity—partners also in religious and political dialogue.

Rejecting the conflation of Jew and Zionist, the document draws a clear distinction. It declares, “Not every Jew is a Zionist and not every Zionist is a Jew.”

At the heart of the document’s plea to all is a clarion call to costly solidarity, the risking of one’s self for the sake of the other. “By its very nature,” the document insists, “true solidarity is costly. It has a price. It is a faith-based stance, a human commitment and a moral responsibility. True solidarity is also the embodiment of our shared humanity and fraternity. Either we live together—or we perish together. Today it is Palestine. Tomorrow it will be other marginalized and oppressed peoples.”

The final section, “Faith in a Time of Genocide”, is the briefest, and offers a reaffirmation of the Palestinian Christians’ steadfast faith and this honest assessment of the possibilities for peace:


To speak of a political solution today is futile unless we first undertake the serious work of acknowledging and rectifying past wrongs—beginning with recognition of the historic injustice done to Palestinians since the rise of the Zionist movement and the Balfour Declaration. Any genuine beginning must involve dismantling settler colonialism and the apartheid system built on Jewish supremacy…. What is required is international action and protection…. Enduring solutions will not rest on the logic of force, but on the foundations of justice, equality and the right to self-determination.

In her address at the conference, Dr. Muna Mushahwer, an ophthalmologist and member of the board of Kairos Palestine, acknowledged, “Yes, we are angry, furious even. Jesus himself got angry at the Temple as we read in Matthew 21:12-13. He got angry because the house of the LORD was to be a house of prayer, but it was turned into a den of thieves. How angry do you think he is now that the land of the LORD has been turned into a place of death and desolation? But from this anguish and pain comes this moment of truth for us. As we write in Kairos II, we raise this cry… a cry of steadfastness.”

“Faith in a Time of Genocide” will stand alongside Chrisian confessions written in other times of crisis, such as the Barmen Declaration during the rise of Nazism (1934), MLK, Jr’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement (1963), and The South Africa Kairos Document during the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa (1985).

Jeff Wright
Jeff Wright is an ordained minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The Classroom as a Battleground: Italy’s Students Rise Against Genocide

By Michael Leonardi

December 21, 2025

Source: Counter Punch

Photo by: Michael Leonardi

In Italy, the bell that signals the start of the school day has recently sounded like a call to arms—not for war, but against it.

While the Italian government actively supports the geopolitical machinery enabling the genocide in Gaza, a different kind of politics is being forged in the corridors of the nation’s historic licei (high schools). From Milan to Palermo, a wave of student occupations has swept the country, reviving a deeply rooted tradition of resistance. But this time, the banners hanging from the windows don’t just demand better school funding; they demand an end to the slaughter of Palestinians and a reckoning with the West’s complicity.

The Tradition of Occupation

To understand the gravity of this moment, one must understand the unique DNA of Italian student activism. Since the “Hot Autumn” of 1969 and the movements of 1977, the occupazione has been a rite of passage. It is not merely a strike; it is an act of reclaiming space. Students physically take over their schools, sleeping in gymnasiums, replacing state-mandated curriculum with self-organized debates, and turning the institution into a fortress of political thought.

Today, that fortress is flying the Palestinian flag.

Photograph by Michael Leonardi

Inside the Fortress: A Visit to Occupied Tasso

To understand the heart of this movement, one must go inside. Lara greeted me at the heavy wooden doors of the Liceo Tasso in Rome, one of the capital’s most prestigious and historic high schools. She guided me past the barricades—walls constructed from piled school desks and chairs, a physical rejection of business as usual—to introduce me to the protagonists of this uprising.

In the occupied halls, I met Salvatore, Maria, Enrico, and Marcos, the coordinators of the student committees from both Tasso and the nearby Liceo Righi. These are not the “mindless vandals” described by the right-wing press; they are articulate, fierce, and politically sophisticated.

“The government is in direct violation of the Italian Constitution,” Salvatore told me, his voice cutting through the noise of the assembly. “Article 11 states that Italy repudiates war, yet our government is a servant to the war economy, funneling arms and diplomatic cover to a genocidal regime in Gaza. They do not represent the people; they represent the defense contractors.”

Maria expanded on the intersectionality of their struggle. “You cannot separate Gaza from the class war happening here,” she explained. “The same system that enforces class stratification in Italy and ignores the climate catastrophe—the same system we fight on Fridays for Future—is the system dropping bombs on Palestine. It is a singular machinery of oppression.”

Photograph by Michael Leonardi

The Rejection of Mainstream Lies

What became clear in speaking with Enrico and Marcos is that the state has lost its ability to control the narrative. The students possess a sophisticated understanding of Zionism, viewing it not through the lens of European guilt, but through the clear reality of settler-colonialism.

“We don’t get our news from the mainstream media anymore,” Enrico said, dismissing the pile of establishment newspapers and mainstream TV outlets. “We know they serve the criminal war economy and the power structure. We see the reality on the ground in Gaza through direct sources. We know that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, despite how desperate the Zionist forces are to weaponize that charge to silence us.”

Lola Serrante of Liceo Righi, a 16-year-old student activist, offered a searing diagnosis of this democratic failure in a written reflection. “Although on paper ours remains a democracy,” she writes, “the representatives of this country omit their own faults… weighing their words to confuse, cover up, and once again look away.” She concludes with a defiance that characterizes her generation: “We will not let ourselves be intimidated: we will remain on the right side of history and, if necessary, on the right side of the barricade.”

Photograph by Michael Leonardi

Teachers Breaking the Silence: The Example of Liceo Plinio

Crucially, the students are not alone. In a quiet but powerful act of defiance, a growing number of teachers are refusing to be neutral. Defying the chilling effect of Ministry circulars, educators are turning their classrooms into spaces of critical inquiry.

A prime example occurred at the Liceo Plinio, where teachers and students organized “Palestine Days” together. They transformed the school into a center for truth, inviting representatives of the Palestinian community, human rights lawyers, journalists, and participants from the Global Sumud Flotilla to speak about the reality of the occupation.

When critics in the community complained that these assemblies were “one-sided” and “biased,” activist and film director Michela Occhipinti, who participated in the events, delivered a devastating rebuttal: “Inviting a Zionist perspective would be like inviting a Nazi perspective during the Holocaust.”

Photograph by Michael Leonardi

Direct Action and the State’s Panic

This refusal to be silenced spilled into the streets of Torino during the last countrywide General Strike on the 28th of November. Students broke into the headquarters of a national newspaper called La Stampa, spray-painting slogans against the “media escort” of the genocid, for Palestinian liberation and for the freedom of a Muslim Imam who has lived in Italy for over 20 years. Mohamed Shahin has been threathened with extradition from the country by the Meloni government for having said that “October 7th was an act of resistance”. They called out the Italian press for whitewashing Israeli crimes. While President Mattarella and the media unanimously labeled them “violent criminals,” the students see themselves as truth-tellers exposing the complicity of the state and media establishment.

The state’s fear is palpable. While Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, spoke via video feed to student assemblies in recent weeks, the reaction from the Meloni government has been repressive. Giuseppe Valditara, the neofascist Minister of Education, has launched an investigation into the schools that hosted her. The government is terrified that students are learning the legal framework of genocide from a UN expert rather than accepting the propaganda of the state.

Photograph by Michael Leonardi

A New Resistance

The students I met—Lara, Salvatore, Maria, Enrico, Marcos and Lola —cite the Global Sumud Flotilla as a major inspiration. They see themselves as the “motor” of the movement together with, Palestinains of the diaspora, the port workers from Genova and grassroots unions like USB — the energy that drives the general strikes and the national marches.

Walking back out past the barricades of Liceo Tasso, it becomes clear that the media has it wrong. These are not naive kids. They are the moral conscience of a nation that has lost its way. They understand that when the state is complicit in genocide, the only honorable place to be is in the resistance.

AOC Dismisses Premature 2028 Polls, But Says ‘I Would Stomp’ JD Vance

A survey this week showed the congresswoman leading the vice president 51-49 in a hypothetical presidential matchup.


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks during a mark up meeting with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce committee on Capitol Hill on May 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Dec 18, 2025
COMMON DREAMS

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave a cheeky reaction after a poll suggested that she’d slightly edge out Vice President JD Vance in a hypothetical presidential election in 2028.

The survey of over 1,500 registered voters, published Wednesday by The Argument/Verasight, showed Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) leading Vance 51-49 and winning back several key voting demographics that propelled Trump’s return to the White House last year.


AOC Leads JD Vance For First Time in 2028 Election Matchup: Poll


AOC Rallies for Progressive Aftyn Behn in Surprisingly Close Race in Tennessee’s Trump Country

As she walked out of the Capitol building Wednesday evening, the Bronx congresswoman was asked about the poll by Pablo Manríquez, the editor of Migrant Insider.

She responded to the question with a laugh: “These polls three years out, they are what they are. But, let the record show I would stomp him! I would stomp him!” she said before getting into her car.

Neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Vance has officially announced a presidential run. But Vance is considered by many to be a natural successor to President Donald Trump. The president and his allies have suggested he could run for an unconstitutional third term.

Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, is reportedly mulling either a presidential run or a bid to take down the increasingly unpopular Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

More than two years out from a Democratic primary, Ocasio-Cortez is considered a likely choice to fill the progressive lane in 2028, with support for increasingly popular, affordability-focused policies, including Medicare for All.

However, despite her strong support among young voters, early polls show her behind California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.

Wednesday’s poll showed that in a hypothetical contest against Vance, Newsom had a 53% to 47% edge, a margin only slightly larger than Ocasio-Cortez’s.

To Reach the White House, AOC Needs a Focused Class Message

Over the years, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been torn between different approaches to identity and class. She’s no stranger to a universalist approach that emphasizes economic inequality and common struggle. If she runs for president, that’s the ticket.

By Ben Burgis

December 19, 2025

Source: Jacobin

Image by Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons 2.0

In an interview with the New York Times after the 2020 election, democratic socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) said she was surprised by the “share of white support for Trump.” Going forward, she said, Democrats would have to learn to “actively disarm the potent influence of racism at the polls.”

There’s a clear sense in which her premise is correct. White voters who are primarily moved by fear of immigrants, for example, are going to vote for demagogues like Donald Trump. But that leaves open the question of how to disarm the Right’s appeal.

Given that AOC has been widely discussed as a possible candidate for the 2028 presidential nomination, it’s important to see how she addresses this core issue. If she’s going to be the Left’s standard-bearer, we need to know that she’ll offer a winning message.

Back in 2016, she’d gestured at one possible answer about how to disarm xenophobic appeals in her comments on Trump’s first win. While she “did not wish (nor vote) for this outcome,” she said back then, she did “seek to understand it.” And she said that the way to understand it starts with an acknowledgment that social instability “is a direct result of wealth inequality.”

In 2016, she even argued that “racism, sexism and xenophobia did not win last night.” She wasn’t denying that racism, sexism, and xenophobia were in the mix. But she said these prejudices were “attendants” to larger problems, and that the solution was to take “poverty and economic inequality seriously.”

This aligns with the historical view of the socialist left, which is that the most important way to blunt the appeal of social prejudices among the working class is to appeal to working people of all races on the basis of their shared material interests. Everyone needs health care, housing, higher wages, and more free time to spend with their loved ones. That appeal is “intersectional” in the truest sense. It intersects distinctions of background and identity, binding together the majority of members of every group.

In the 2020 interview, though, AOC gave a far more confusing answer, saying that progressives “need to do a lot of anti-racist, deep canvassing in this country.” That makes it sound like election canvassers can somehow hold conversations at every door so “deep” that people harboring racial animus will be convinced to start working on themselves and becoming better people.

The very different things the congresswoman has said about this subject over the years are best understood less as a matter of personal inconsistency than as a reflection of different lines of thought that have exerted influence within the Left as a whole at different times.

Many of us have been torn between different approaches at different times. In New York City, for example, many of the same grassroots progressives who have embraced identity politics in the past got excited this year by the successful mayoral candidacy of Zohran Mamdani, who was laser-focused on bread-and-butter issues.

Indeed, the mayor-elect likes to brag about the tens of thousands of former Trump voters around the city who he managed to win over in last month’s election. In an appearance on MSBNC earlier in the race, he explained his theory of the case, saying that “if you have a relentless focus on an economic agenda and you welcome people back, and you turn the political instinct from lecturing to listening, you can still have people come home to the Democratic Party.”

Indeed, AOC, who aggressively campaigned for Mamdani, has often hit similar rhetorical notes this year. She spent much of the year co-headlining “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies around the country with Bernie Sanders. AOC and Sanders made a point of spending a lot of the tour in states that voted for Trump, and their message focused on uniting working-class people against wealthy “oligarchs” by emphasizing economic issues.

This approach doesn’t entail neglecting marginalized groups or being indifferent to prejudice or mistreatment. A universalist economic agenda disproportionately benefits the demographics that are doing the worst right now, often because of the effects of past discrimination.

It also creates conditions in which it’s easier for groups that might be victimized by prejudice or retrograde cultural practices to stand up for themselves today. In a less precarious and more economically equal society, for example, women are less likely to be economically trapped in relationships defined by sexist cultural norms about the distribution of domestic labor. Workers whose bosses make racist jokes at work are more likely to say something about it if they enjoy strong unions and better labor laws, so they’re less worried that standing up for themselves on the job will mean they’ll lose their livelihood.

And the history of the labor movement has often involved workers of different backgrounds who may have previously harbored prejudices about one another joining forces because of their shared interests and developing a greater appreciation of their shared humanity through the experience of shared struggle. That history suggests that appealing to people on the basis of shared interests is more likely to pay off as a first step than “anti-racist, deep canvassing.”

The good news is that, in 2025, there have been many signs that AOC is moving in the right direction. In a CNN Town Hall appearance with Sanders during the government shutdown, for example, she spoke about the young men who have been radicalized by the online right. She said that bigoted right-wing rhetoric of the kind that’s common on social media seeks to “divide us” so that “the same people who own those platforms — people like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg — can continue to get away with highway robbery in tax cuts, and in order to fleece all of our pockets, cut our health care, keep our wages low, so that we remain . . . fighting amongst ourselves while they make themselves richer.”

Striking a healthy universalist note, she said that the way to “fight back against that” is to “stand in solidarity with each other” across all sorts of divisions of identity and background. Even when we don’t “entirely understand each other,” she said, we need to value one another as “fellow Americans.”

That’s a message that could defeat the Right. And if AOC decides to run for president, that’s the version of her we need to see.