US Plans for Indefinite Division of Gaza, Leaving Palestinian Side in Ruins

A US official said that keeping Gaza whole is “aspirational” and “not going to be easy.”

By Sharon Zhang , 

Truthout

November 17, 2025

Displaced Palestinian children search for plastic to use for cooking near Gaza's port in Gaza, Palestine, on November 13, 2025.Majdi Fathi / NurPhoto via Getty Images

The U.S. and other world powers are reportedly preparing for an indefinite division of Gaza along the Israeli-occupied yellow line, as the U.S.’s plans falter and millions of Palestinians are set to pay the price.

Currently, under the ceasefire agreement that Israel is repeatedly violating, all of the Palestinians in Gaza have been forced into a small zone adjacent to the sea. This zone makes up less than half of Gaza’s land, with Israeli forces occupying a large area entirely surrounding the designated area for Palestinians that makes up 53 percent of the enclave.

U.S. news sources, citing U.S. and European officials, report that there isn’t a set plan for the current division to end, with the lives of millions of Palestinians — living in tents set up amid the rubble — currently in limbo.

The Guardian reports that the U.S. is planning to enclose Palestinians in a “red zone,” as established by the yellow line, where Palestinians would be forced to live among the ruins of Israel’s genocide. Meanwhile, reconstruction would begin in the “green zone,” which is occupied by the Israeli military.

“Ideally you would want to make it all whole, right? But that’s aspirational,” a U.S. military official told the outlet of the U.S.’s plans. “It’s going to take some time. It’s not going to be easy.”

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Reuters reports, citing six European officials, that plans to move on from the initial phase of the ceasefire under President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan have stalled, leaving no pathways past the current division.

Negotiations regarding the role of the Israeli military, Hamas’s armaments, and an “International Stabilisation Force” are at an impasse. International governments are resisting pledging to send troops for the force, and advocates for Palestinian rights are criticizing the plan for an international force as a push for a colonial land grab. Meanwhile, Israel is vehemently resisting wording in Trump’s plan to create a “credible pathway” for a Palestinian state.

For weeks, the U.S. was promoting an idea for “alternative safe communities,” under which Palestinians would live in camps within the Israeli-occupied portion of the Strip. But those plans were dropped last week, The Guardian found.

Meanwhile, Palestinians are facing continued Israeli violence. Israel has broken the ceasefire agreement nearly 300 times in just the first month of its implementation, Gaza officials have said, killing at least 242 Palestinians and injuring 622 others.

Soldiers are still carrying out attacks on a near-daily basis. This includes Israeli incursions past the yellow line, as well as killings of Palestinians who, sometimes unknowingly, cross the yellow line the other way. Israel is still only allowing a fraction of the aid it’s supposed to under the ceasefire agreement, continuing to starve Palestinians and deprive them of basic needs.

An indefinite standstill in negotiations would inflict yet more violence and suffering upon Palestinians. Numerous officials have warned against maintaining this scenario.

“We don’t want to reach a situation of no war, no peace,” said Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson and adviser to the prime minister, last week.

“Gaza must not get stuck in a no man’s land between peace and war,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at a Middle East forum last week.

Health Care Workers Spoke Out for Their Peers in Gaza. Then Came Backlash.


Medical institutions are silencing their staff and impeding efforts to build solidarity with medical workers in Gaza.

By Marianne Dhenin ,

Truthout

November 17, 2025

A person dressed in medical scrubs participates in a pro-Palestine march to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 5, 2025.BRYAN DOZIER / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Chandra Hassan, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Medicine, spent three weeks in Gaza in January 2024, treating patients who had survived tank shelling, drone strikes, and sniper fire amid Israel’s ongoing genocide. When Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis came under siege, Hassan and the MedGlobal doctors he was serving with were forced to flee. “We were evacuated when they bombed just across the street from the hospital [and] tanks were rolling in,” Hassan told Truthout.

When Hassan returned home to Chicago, he was eager to share his experiences and advocate for an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed an estimated 68,000 Palestinians since October 2023. Among the dead are over 1,500 health care workers, including doctors and nurses Hassan worked alongside.

But instead of being welcomed like he had been after previous missions to conflict zones in Ukraine and Syria, Hassan soon found himself on the receiving end of a doxxing and harassment campaign. StopAntisemitism, a pro-Israel group that doxxes people it accuses of antisemitism, shared screenshots of some of Hassan’s LinkedIn posts to its X account. Hassan said his employer received around 1,500 emailed complaints the day StopAntisemitism posted his information.

“I was speaking up for the human rights of Palestinians [because] it’s like, you’re witnessing another genocide, you need to talk about it,” Hassan told Truthout. But StopAntisemitism “put my picture, and they wrote that I’m [an] antisemite.”

Hassan is one of more than 15 health care workers in eight states who told Truthout they faced silencing, harassment, or workplace retaliation for Palestine-related speech, including giving a talk on health issues in Palestine, endorsing statements condemning the killing of health care workers in Gaza, or wearing a keffiyeh or other symbols of Palestine solidarity at work. Many said they felt that their hospitals, clinics, or professional societies had become increasingly hostile working environments since October 2023.

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The experiences that health care workers shared suggest that organized campaigns of complaints and harassment from pro-Israel groups against health care workers have intensified, and that anti-Palestinian racism is entrenched across health care institutions nationwide. In a 2024 survey, the Institute for the Understanding of Anti-Palestinian Racism (IUAPR) also found widespread anti-Palestinian racism in health care: More than half of the 387 health care provider respondents “reported experiencing silencing, exclusion, harassment, physical threat or harm, or defamation while advocating for Gaza and/or Palestinian human rights.” Half said they were “afraid to speak out.”

Many of those who spoke to Truthout shared that fear and expressed concerns for their patients and profession: “The reality on the ground is that racism is running unchecked throughout our medical institutions, and as a result, health care workers don’t have the training they need, accountability is not happening at the level of the medical institutions, and our communities are not being served,” Asfia Qaadir, a psychiatrist specialized in trauma-informed care for BIPOC youth, told Truthout. “Racism is about erasure, and ultimately, our patients are paying the price.”
A Pattern of Censorship

Reports of health care workers being silenced for Palestine-related speech began to emerge almost as soon as Israel launched its attack on Gaza in October 2023, even in spaces with a stated commitment to anti-racism or health equity.

At the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, a group of medical residents on a social justice committee began planning an on-campus discussion about Gaza that November. “We have done so without any kind of second thought for things like trans rights, abortion rights, Black Lives Matter, a lot of other social justice issues,” Heather, a UCSD medical resident who is using a pseudonym for fear of reprisal, told Truthout.

But when she and colleagues approached their faculty advisers about securing space to host a forum, they were told “that no conversations around Palestine should be occurring in the workplace, so if it’s on campus or during work hours, we were not allowed to use that time and space to even have conversations around Palestine at all.”

The following May, faculty at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School (HMS) invited Alice Rothchild to speak on their campuses. Rothchild, a retired obstetrician-gynecologist, has visited Gaza several times and grew up in a traditional Jewish family, experiences that she said strengthened her commitment to speaking out against Israel’s genocide: “The horrific thing for me as a Jew is that it’s being done by a country that quote, unquote ‘speaks for the Jews,’ although it obviously doesn’t speak for all Jews,” she told Truthout. “I grew up shortly after the Holocaust ended with ‘never again, never again, never again,’ and here it is happening.”

Rothchild’s scheduled talks, titled “Health and Human Rights Consequences of the War on Gaza,” at Dartmouth on May 16 and “The Impact of War on Maternal and Newborn Health in Gaza” at HMS-affiliated Brigham & Women’s Hospital on May 21, 2024, had to be moved off campus just days beforehand after administrators at the institutions withdrew support for the events, according to emails reviewed by Truthout.

Geisel School of Medicine did not respond to a request for comment before deadline. HMS and Brigham & Women’s Hospital declined to directly answer questions about their involvement.

Christine Harb, a family medicine doctor, had a similar experience when she was invited to speak about Palestinian culture and health care in Gaza at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minneapolis on June 7, 2024. On June 4, just a few days before the event was scheduled, the hospital’s chief health equity officer told organizers that the talk had to be postponed because the Health Equity Department had “received significant concerns … from several team members, particularly those of the Jewish faith,” according to an email reviewed by Truthout. That email also specified that Harb would need to submit her notes and slides in advance if the talk were rescheduled; it never was.

“Never had we been censored in such a way,” Eiko Mizushima, an occupational therapist and former executive co-chair of HCMC’s Asian Collective, an employee group organized under the hospital’s Health Equity Department, told Truthout. “It was unprecedented, [and] it was because it’s about Palestine.”

Organizers told Truthout that they had only been made aware of one email questioning the event from an HCMC employee and no complaints. That email, which Truthout reviewed, asked organizers to share “specifically what Dr. Harb will be addressing” and said “radicalism has no place” at the hospital. Mizushima told Truthout she expressed concern to the chief health equity officer over the employee’s characterization of Harb, a Palestinian American, as radical and was accused of misrepresenting the email.

HCMC did not respond to a detailed list of questions about the cancellation of Harb’s talk before deadline.

Other health care workers who spoke to Truthout described having Palestine-related events quashed or disparaged by leadership at their institutions, including talks, film screenings, and training opportunities. Two said they were discouraged from sharing information about vigils to mourn health care workers killed in Gaza; one said a director forbid her from holding a moment of silence for slain Palestinian children at the beginning of a meeting of a diversity, equity, and inclusion council, which the interviewed health care worker chaired at the time, because the director said doing so would be “exclusionary.”

Many sources shared that they had to navigate restrictive codes of conduct not applied to other speakers or discussions of other topics.
Hostile Working Environments

For Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim health care workers, as well as other employees of color, racism and Islamophobia were issues in the workplace well before October 2023. “The whole weaponizing of the concept of what does it mean to be antisemitic is a narrative that’s very long-running and is pretty powerful,” Sarah, a California-based Muslim registered nurse who is using a pseudonym for fear of reprisals, told Truthout. “And I think that Islamophobia really dovetails with anti-Palestinian racism in American culture.”

Sarah told Truthout she experienced both when she was in nursing school more than a decade ago. After she told a colleague on their lunch break that she did not buy Coca-Cola because the Palestine solidarity movement had flagged the beverage company’s ties to Israel, the colleague notified leadership, who, according to Sarah, then conspired to prevent her from securing a job at the hospital after completing her fellowship program. “It became a conflict about whether or not I would be able to be hired there, [and] it turned out to be a dead end for me,” she said.

Now, the pace at which workers who express solidarity with Palestinians are being pushed out of the medical field seems to be increasing. Many of those affected have been women of color. Since October 2023, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has terminated the employment of violence prevention advocate Denise Caramagno and associate professor of internal medicine Rupa Marya and served nurse practitioner and midwife Bridget Rochios a notice of intent to terminate her employment in cases related to their public critiques of Zionism or expressions of solidarity with Palestinians or Palestinian allies.

Elizabeth Milos also left her job of 18 years as a medical interpreter at UCSF Health in August 2025, even though she had planned to stay at least another 14 months until she turned 65 and gained access to more affordable health care. But in June, a doctor filed a formal complaint against her, claiming she had “engaged in harassing conduct and created a hostile environment” when she “wore a keffiyeh and refused to remove [it],” on two separate occasions, according to records reviewed by Truthout.

After a months-long investigation, in October, an independent investigator concluded that Milos had not violated the university’s anti-discrimination policy but had violated the dress code. Fearing retaliation and a lack of support from her union, Milos had already left. “It was a very oppressive environment,” she told Truthout.

Following the cancellation of Harb’s talk at HCMC, Mizushima and two other chairs of the Asian and Muslim Collectives resigned from their roles. Mizushima also resigned from her job at the hospital later that year, in September 2024, citing the hostile working environment and retaliation. “I can’t work at a hospital where I can just experience racism and nothing’s done about it,” she told Truthout.

The stakes are particularly high for medical students and residents, who face a grueling path to professional certification and little recourse if expelled or terminated before completing their training. Gabrielle Wimer, a former student at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, told Truthout she was “going in circles” when she was penalized for participating in an hours-long sit-in at Barnard Library in March 2025 demanding divestment and an end to campus repression. Wimer was arrested and then suspended for five weeks. While the case against Wimer was later dropped and she completed her coursework, she told Truthout she worried about her future: “All I did was sit in a library and ask for my university not to contribute to genocide and apartheid.”
Outside Pressures

Right-wing and pro-Israel groups and individuals are driving censorship and harassment against health care workers, according to sources who spoke to Truthout. “There’s an alignment between right-wing extremists in the current government of the [U.S.] with the right-wing extremist government in Israel and pro-Israel supporters, [who] exercise a lot of state and economic power,” Jess Ghannam, co-founder of the Institute for the Understanding of Anti-Palestinian Racism and a professor at UCSF Health, told Truthout.

Recently, Ghannam has been on the receiving end of a doxxing and harassment campaign spurred by Mothers Against College Antisemitism, a national nonprofit founded soon after October 7, 2023. Ghannam was targeted after speaking at a campus screening of the documentary “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack.”

Like Hassan and Ghannam, other health care workers who spoke to Truthout described receiving threats and harassing messages after pro-Israel groups, such as StopAntisemitism, Mothers Against College Antisemitism, Canary Mission, Physicians Against Antisemitism, Accuracy in Media, and StandWithUs, posted their personal information online.

Harb told Truthout that when one such group targeted her while she was a medical resident at the University of Minnesota, she received dozens of threatening messages. But Harb said she could not afford to take time off without extending her residency. “I was nervous about not being able to finish my education,” she told Truthout. “I’m trying to be tough and take up space, [but] it’s hard when people are threatening to behead you.”

Some organizations are less public about influencing policies at medical institutions. Qaadir, who works at PrairieCare-Newport, one of the largest mental health systems in the Midwest, told Truthout she was reprimanded and barred from teaching after the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas wrote to PrairieCare-Newport to complain about a clinical training she gave on trauma-informed care for Black, Indigenous, and Palestinian patient populations. The recorded training was never published — a change from standard procedure, according to Qaadir.

“It’s unprecedented that an outside organization would pressure a hospital at the highest levels and then that, within less than a day, changes practice and policy,” Qaadir told Truthout. PrairieCare-Newport said via email that Qaadir’s “session included personal opinions and beliefs that were not shared by all and were not fully representative of PrairieCare’s mission,” but did not respond to questions about what content was at issue.

The influence of pro-Israel groups is strengthened by a federal administration eager to crack down on political speech, particularly on college campuses. This August, the House Committee on Education and Workforce launched investigations into antisemitism at UCSF, UIC, and UC Los Angeles (UCLA) medical schools. Letters announcing the investigations and demanding internal documents from campus leadership repeatedly cite posts from StopAntisemitism’s social media accounts.

Health care workers who spoke to Truthout also expressed concern about the role of donors in influencing decision-making around crackdowns on speech. Several pointed to examples of board members and executives at companies that profit from the genocide who also serve in administrative or advisory roles at their hospitals or universities, such as Debra Reed-Klages, who sits on the boards of directors at UCSD’s Rady Children’s Hospital, Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, and Chevron. Lockheed Martin and Caterpillar sell weapons and military machinery to Israel, while Chevron provides the natural gas that fuels Israel’s military bases, prisons, and police stations, as well as illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Some hospitals and medical schools also receive substantial funding from philanthropists known to back pro-Israel groups and efforts. UCSF’s system of children’s hospitals, for example, is named after Marc Benioff, whose company, Salesforce, has significant investments in Israel’s tech scene. Meanwhile, the Helen Diller Family Foundation, the largest contributor to the UC system and sponsor of a hospital under construction at UCSF Health, donates to Canary Mission and several groups linked to Israeli troops. These include Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces and the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, which facilitates exchanges between U.S. and Israeli police and military agencies.

Sherene Razack, co-chair of UCLA’s Task Force on Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim Racism, which published an investigation into conditions at the medical school in January 2025, said the result of these outside forces is an environment where “The administration consistently ignores incidents of racism against Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, and anyone associated with them,” while reports against students and faculty for Palestine-related speech are “taken all the way to the top.”

Qaadir told Truthout this sort of pressure is a violation of professional ethics. “As a physician, our basic oath is to protect life, and it’s not restricted to a certain geographic area [or] a certain population of people. It’s to speak up and to do everything we can to protect life,” she said. “If physicians are retaliated against for speaking up, if we can’t do that…that sounds like a bankrupt profession, and we need to take it back for the sake of our communities.”



This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Marianne Dhenin is an award-winning journalist and historian. Find their portfolio or contact them at mariannedhenin.com.

UN Security Council set to vote on international force for Gaza


By AFP
November 16, 2025


The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a US-drafted resolution endorsing President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza - Copyright POOL/AFP/File CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS

The UN Security Council is set to vote Monday on a US-drafted resolution bolstering Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, especially the deployment of an international force, as Washington warns that a failure to act could lead to renewed fighting.

The draft, which has been revised several times as a result of high-stakes negotiations, “endorses” the plan, which allowed for a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to take hold on October 10 in the war-wracked Palestinian territory.

The Gaza Strip has been largely reduced to rubble after two years of fighting, sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The latest version of the text, seen by AFP, authorizes the creation of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) that would work with Israel and Egypt and newly trained Palestinian police to help secure border areas and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.

The ISF also would work on the “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups,” protecting civilians and securing humanitarian aid corridors.

In addition, it would authorize the formation of a “Board of Peace,” a transitional governing body for Gaza — which Trump would theoretically chair — with a mandate running until the end of 2027.

Unlike previous drafts, the latest version mentions a possible future Palestinian state.

Once the Palestinian Authority has carried out requested reforms and the rebuilding of Gaza is underway, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” the draft says.

That eventuality has been firmly rejected by Israel.

“Our opposition to a Palestinian state on any territory has not changed,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday.

The UN Security Council vote is set for 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) Monday.


– Russian objections –


Veto-wielding Russia has circulated a competing draft, saying the US document does not go far enough towards backing the creation of a Palestinian state.

Moscow’s text, seen by AFP, asks the Council to express its “unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution.”

It does not authorize a Board of Peace or the deployment of an international force for the time being, instead asking UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to offer “options” on those issues.

The United States has intensified its campaign to earn support for its resolution, hitting out at “attempts to sow discord” among Council members.

“Any refusal to back this resolution is a vote either for the continued reign of Hamas terrorists or for the return to war with Israel, condemning the region and its people to perpetual conflict,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, wrote in The Washington Post.

The US has made known that it has the backing of several Arab and Muslim-majority nations, publishing a joint statement of support for the text signed by Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and Turkey.

Several diplomats told AFP that despite Russian criticism and hesitance on the part of other member states, they expect the US draft to be adopted.

“The Russians know that while a lot of Council members will go along with the US plans, they share concerns about the substance of the US text and the way Washington has tried to fast-track it through New York,” Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group told AFP.

He however said he doubts that Moscow will use its veto on a resolution backed by Arab nations.

“I think it is more likely that China and Russia will abstain, register their skepticism about the plan and then sit back and watch the US struggle to put it into action,” Gowan said.

The World Community Recognizes The Moroccan Identity Of The Sahara – Analysis


His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco reacts to the Security Council resolution and extends a hand to the Algerian President

November 2, 2025
By Dr. Mohamed Chtatou


“By the grace of the Lord and with His help, after fifty years of sacrifices, we are opening a new and victorious chapter in the process of consecrating the Moroccan identity of the Sahara, intended to definitively close the case of this artificial conflict through a consensual solution based on the Autonomy Initiative.” — Address by His Majesty King Mohammed VI on October 31, 2025


Introduction

For several decades, the question of the Moroccan Sahara has been one of the major issues in the foreign policy of the Kingdom of Morocco, as well as a matter of stability and national identity. It is part of a historical and legal framework that goes beyond the simple logic of territorial claims: it touches the very heart of national sovereignty, territorial unity, and the collective memory of Morocco. From the moment of independence in 1956, the Kingdom affirmed its desire to reintegrate the southern territories, which had remained under Spanish rule since the late 19th century.

This claim was always based on the continuity of the Makhzen’s political and religious authority over the Saharan tribes, attested to by acts of allegiance (bay’a) and official historical documents. The advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of October 16, 1975, confirmed the existence of ties of allegiance between the Sultan of Morocco and the tribes of Western Sahara, rejecting the terra nullius thesis (ICJ, 1975). This opinion was one of the cornerstones of the Green March, a symbol of Moroccan pacifism and popular support for a just national cause. Since then, Moroccan diplomacy has consistently combined historical legitimacy, political realism, and international commitment, resulting in increasing recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara.

Today, through the explicit recognition of several world powers and the opening of more than 30 consulates in Laayoune and Dakhla, the Moroccan identity of the Sahara has become an irreversible geopolitical reality. This article aims to analyze the foundations and manifestations of this recognition along three lines:

– (I) the historical and identity-based foundations of Moroccan sovereignty,

– (II) the diplomatic strategy that has led to international consolidation, and



– (III) the growing recognition of the Moroccan identity of the Sahara in the economic, political, and cultural spheres.
I. The Historical and Identity-Based Foundations of the Moroccan Identity of the Sahara
1. The Historical Continuity of Moroccan Authority

The political identity of the Moroccan Sahara is deeply rooted in the historical structure of the Kingdom. Since the Almoravid, Almohad, and Saadian dynasties, the Saharan territories have constituted a natural extension of Morocco. The caravan routes linking Sijilmassa, Smara, and Timbuktu bear witness to this long-standing integration. According to historians, the Saharan region was never a political vacuum, but rather an area of ​​spiritual and economic exchange under the protection of the Makhzen.

The bonds of allegiance (bay’a) were the legal and symbolic foundation of this unity: Saharan tribes swore oaths of loyalty to the Sultan in exchange for the Makhzen’s religious and political protection. The ICJ recognized these bonds as “legal relations of allegiance between the Sultan of Morocco and certain tribes living in the territory of Western Sahara” (ICJ, 1975, §162). This recognition, while not conferring exclusive sovereignty before decolonization, invalidated the thesis of a legal vacuum upon which Spanish colonization was based.

Moroccan documents, such as an 1886 dahir appointing a representative of the Sultan in the Smara region, or letters addressed to tribal chiefs, confirm Morocco’s administrative presence in the Sahara. These archives demonstrate that the Makhzen’s authority extended well beyond the borders of the Souss region, reaching the southern Atlantic shores.
2. The Cultural and Religious Foundations of National Unity

Beyond historical evidence, the Moroccan identity of the Sahara is also expressed in the religious and cultural coherence that unites the north and south of the Kingdom. The Saharan tribes belong to the same Maliki school of law, share the same Hassaniya Arabic language, and the same loyalty to the Commander of the Faithful (Amîr al-Mu’minin). The 2011 Moroccan Constitution, in its Article 41, enshrines the monarchy as the guarantor of the faith and religious unity of the country. This spiritual dimension is essential, because it links the temporal authority of the sovereign to the religious legitimacy shared across the Sahara.

Historians remind us that Morocco has always been a multicultural state where linguistic diversity (Arabic, Amazigh, Hassaniya) coexists under a unified political system. Article 5 of the 2011 Constitution stipulates:

“Arabic remains the official language of the State.

The State works to protect and develop the Arabic language, as well as to promote its use.

Similarly, Amazigh constitutes an official language of the State, as a common heritage of all Moroccans without exception.

An organic law defines the process for implementing the official status of this language, as well as the modalities for its integration into education and priority areas of public life, in order to enable it to eventually fulfill its function as an official language.

The State works to preserve Hassaniya, as an integral part of the unified Moroccan cultural identity, as well as to protect the cultural expressions and dialects spoken in Morocco.” Similarly, it ensures the coherence of national linguistic and cultural policy and the learning and mastery of the most widely used foreign languages ​​in the world, as tools for communication, integration, and interaction with the knowledge society, and for openness to different cultures and contemporary civilizations.

A National Council for Moroccan Languages ​​and Culture is established, tasked in particular with the protection and development of the Arabic and Amazigh languages ​​and the various Moroccan cultural expressions, which constitute an authentic heritage and a source of contemporary inspiration. It brings together all the institutions concerned in these areas. An organic law defines its responsibilities, composition, and operating procedures.’’

This constitutional recognition reinforces the place of the Sahara in Moroccan identity: Hassani culture is not peripheral; it is constitutive of the nation.
II. From the Green March to Morocco’s Proactive Diplomacy
1. The Green March: A Founding Moment in Regained Sovereignty

On November 6, 1975, King Hassan II launched the Green March, bringing together 350,000 volunteers who marched peacefully toward the Sahara to demand the return of the Southern Provinces. This historic moment symbolized the convergence of historical legitimacy and popular mobilization. The King affirmed that there was no other objective than to recover our territories, peacefully, without violence, with faith in God and in the justice of our cause (Hassan II, 1975).

Shortly thereafter, the Madrid Agreement (November 14, 1975) ended Spanish colonial administration. Spain transferred the administration of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, in accordance with the right to self-determination and territorial integrity (UN, 1975). Contrary to a colonial vision, Morocco chose the path of pacifism and legal legitimacy, supported by the ICJ advisory opinion.

The Green March thus embodied an act of national faith, rooted in a diplomacy of non-violence and the rule of law. It marked the shift from a historical claim to a symbolic and legal reconquest of the territory.
2. The Autonomy Proposal: A Diplomacy of Realism

Faced with the impasse in negotiations under the auspices of the UN, Morocco proposed a broad autonomy initiative in 2007. This plan grants the Saharan provinces significant local executive, legislative, and judicial powers under Moroccan sovereignty. The UN, in its resolution 1754 (2007), described this proposal as “serious and credible.”

This approach illustrates Moroccan pragmatism: rather than maintaining the status quo or engaging in confrontation, it seeks to reconcile national sovereignty with internal self-determination. The proposed autonomy “transforms a regional conflict into an opportunity for democratic and decentralized governance.”

Furthermore, the 2011 Constitution reinforces this approach by enshrining advanced regionalization (Title IX, “Regions and Territorial Communities”), granting regions, including those in the South, a role in development planning. Thus, Morocco has integrated the principles of subsidiarity and local political participation into its internal legal framework.
3. Royal Diplomacy and the African Roots

Since King Mohammed VI ascended the throne, Moroccan diplomacy has reoriented itself towards Africa, resting on three pillars: development, cooperation, and historical legitimacy. Morocco’s return to the African Union (2017) marked a major diplomatic victory: it transformed the Western Sahara issue from a source of division into a lever for integration.

Today, more than 30 African, Arab, and Latin American countries have opened consulates in Dakhla and Laayoune—an explicit diplomatic recognition. This dynamic reflects a tacit recognition of Moroccan sovereignty by states that value stability and economic cooperation.
III. Growing International Recognition: From Diplomacy to Geoeconomics
1. Support from Major Powers

On December 3, 2020, US President Donald Trump issued an official proclamation recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara (U.S. Proclamation, 2020). This decision, confirmed by the subsequent administration, marks a major geopolitical milestone: a permanent member of the Security Council endorses Morocco’s position.

Other powers have followed suit:

• In March 2022, Spain described Morocco’s autonomy proposal as “the most serious, realistic, and credible basis” for resolving the conflict.

• Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Senegal, Jordan, and Qatar have expressed their clear support for Morocco’s sovereignty.

This support reflects a strategic convergence between regional stability, the fight against terrorism, and Morocco’s diplomacy of moderation.
2. The Sahara, an Engine of Development and African Integration

The Moroccan Sahara is today a hub for integrated development. The Southern Provinces Development Program (2015–2030), with a budget of 77 billion dirhams, aims to transform the region into an African economic hub (CESE, 2021). The Atlantic port of Dakhla, the Tarfaya wind farms, and the trade corridors to Mauritania and Senegal embody this vision of a Morocco firmly rooted in its African environment.

This policy is part of the New Development Model (NDM), which considers the Sahara as a lever for national and continental growth. The Moroccan identity of the Sahara is now expressed in economic dynamism as much as in political legitimacy.
3. Cultural and Institutional Recognition

Moroccan unity has also been strengthened by the institutional recognition of Saharan cultures. Article 5 of the 2011 Constitution recognizes the Hassani language and culture as an integral part of the national heritage. The royal address of November 6, 2021, reaffirms this dimension:

“The Moroccan identity of the Sahara is a truth as immutable as the Atlas Mountains and as clear as the desert sun” (H.M. the King Mohammed VI, 2021).

The educational institutions of Laayoune and Dakhla, as well as the programs of IRCAM, play a central role in preserving Hassani heritage.
Conclusion

The Moroccan identity of the Sahara is now an undeniable historical, legal, and political truth. The historical foundations of Moroccan sovereignty—bay’a (oath of allegiance), administrative presence, and cultural unity—have been consolidated by decades of diplomatic action based on law, pragmatism, and cooperation. Morocco has succeeded in transforming a decolonization issue into a project of national and continental integration, linking the Sahara to its major development initiatives. International recognition, illustrated by the opening of consulates and the support of major powers, confirms a geopolitical reality that is now irreversible. In a regional context marked by instability, Morocco offers a vision based on stability, legitimacy, and shared prosperity.

As H.M. King Mohammed VI stated: “The Sahara is Moroccan, and Morocco will remain in its Sahara until the end of time” (Royal Address, November 6, 2022).

The Moroccan Sahara is therefore no longer merely a territorial issue: it has become a symbol of national unity, a driver of regional development, and a key to the Kingdom’s African projection.

You can follow Professor Mohamed Chtatou on X: @Ayurinu
Appendices:ROYAL DECREE OF HIS MAJESTY ABDELAZIZ BEN EL HASSAN

“Praise be to God alone! May God bless our lord Muhammad and his family! (Seal of His Majesty Abdelaziz Ben el Hassan, God is his protector and master.) To our esteemed servant, Caid Harmmadi Ech-Chbani. May God guide you! And to you, divine greetings and mercy!” After this preamble, We have charged Our servants: Caid Brahim Ben M’barek Ech-Chtouki Et-Tecni and Caid Mohamed Ben el Bellal Boussaïdi, with the care of the coasts of Our fortunate subjects from Tarfaya to Ras Bogador, and with protecting them from anything that might be created there by land and sea. We inform you so that you may be vigilant. Greetings! ‘’

The 1st of Muharram 1319 (corresponding to April 20, 1901).

Cf. https://mjcc.gov.ma/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/40.pdf TEXT OF A LETTER FROM MA EL AININ

(Here is the text of a reply addressed by Ma el Aïnin – may God perpetuate his life! – to Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz.)

“Praise be to God alone!” May God bless our master Muhammad, his family, and his companions! In the shadow of God over the universe, to the soul of the Muslims’ actions, and to the Commander of the Faithful. May God strengthen your reign and grant you the same victory as that given to the best of divine emissaries! And to you be the greetings and mercy of God, for as long as the cosmos, its movements, and its rests, endure! It has come to the attention of the Commander of the Faithful that our son, sent to the Ouled Dlim, has now returned. He has brought us the good news so desired by Your Majesty, namely, the severing of all relations with the Christians, where—by divine power and will!—no repercussions remain, and there is no harm, indeed, by divine will, there will be no harm except what you decide in the correct manner and the sound path. Among other things, he wrote to us this: “We inform you that the instructions you gave to your son El Wali concerning the Christians, and in particular the Spaniards, will be carried out according to your wishes, after we have resolved to establish relations with them involving receiving their weapons and ceding this territory to them. We have definitively abandoned this plan, to your satisfaction, and we will never carry it out, especially after your disapproval and objection. Friendly greetings! As for the French, they said they had little dealings with them. They say they have not engaged in any discussions with them concerning a sale, a purchase, territory, or anything else. It is hoped that everyone will act only according to your will and approval. We pray to God that He will receive you only with what you fully desire, with a long life full of good health and a happy end. Greetings with our affection!’’

2 Ramadan 1321 (corresponding to November 22, 1903).

Cf. https://mjcc.gov.ma/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/40.pdfDAHIR OF H.M. ABDELAZIZ BEN EL HASSAN

“Praise be to God alone! May God bless our lord and master Muhammad, his family, and his companions! (Seal of H.M. Abdelaziz Ben el Hassan Ben Muhammad.) To our esteemed servants, to the people of El Mouissat and the Ait Mohamed Lahssen, and to half of Yaggout, of the Tekna tribe. May God guide you! And to you, divine greetings and mercy! After this preamble, we have entrusted your administration to your brother, our esteemed servant, the caid Muhammad al-Amin Ben Ali al-Tekni al-Hassani, and have charged him with taking care of your affairs. For this, we command you to listen to and obey what we have invested him with the power to recommend and prohibit within the scope of our Sharifian service. May God grant you mutual happiness and guide you to what pleases Him! Greetings!’’

21 Rajab 1314 (corresponding to December 25, 1896).

Cf. https://mjcc.gov.ma/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/40.pdfDAHIR OF H.M. ABDELAZIZ BEN EL HASSAN

“Praise be to God alone! May God bless our lord Muhammad and his family! (Seal of H.M. Abdelaziz Ben el Hassan Ben Muhammad, may God be his protector.) To our esteemed servants Ouled Moussa, Laabobat, and Ouled Ali of the Tidrarin of the Sahara. May God guide you! And to you, divine greetings and mercy! After this preamble, we have entrusted your administration to our esteemed servant, the caid Muhammad el Amine Ben Ali At-Tecni, and have charged him with taking care of your affairs. Therefore, we command you to listen to and obey what we have entrusted to you with the power to recommend and prohibit within the sphere of our Sharifian service. May God grant you mutual happiness and guide you to what pleases Him! Peace be upon you!’’

The 3rd of Ramadan, the year 1316 (corresponding to January 15, 1899).

Cf. https://mjcc.gov.ma/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/40.pdf DAHIR OF H.M. ABDELAZIZ BEN EL HASSAN

“Praise be to God alone! May God bless our master Muhammad, his family, and his companions!” (Seal of His Majesty Abdelaziz Ben el Hassan.) To our esteemed servants, the Chtouka and their allies, the Mejjat, the Fouigat, one-third of the Ait Lahssen, one-third of the Zergat and their allies among the Toubalt, as well as their allies from the Meir, of the Tekna tribe, may God guide you! And to you, greetings and divine mercy! After this preamble, We have entrusted your administration to your brother, our esteemed servant, the caïd Brahim Ben M’Barek Ech-Chtouki, and charged him with taking care of your affairs. Therefore, we command you to listen to and obey what We have invested him with the power to recommend and prohibit within the scope of our Sharifian service. May God grant you mutual happiness and guide you all to what pleases Him. Peace!’’

20 Kaada 1313 (corresponding to May 3, 1896).

Cf. https://mjcc.gov.ma/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/40.pdfDAHIR OF H.M. ABDELAZIZ BEN EL HASSAN

“Praise be to God alone! May God bless our lord and master Muhammad and his family! (Seal of H.M. Abdelaziz Ben el Hassan Ben Muhammad, of whom God is the protector and master.) To Our esteemed servants (members of the Mnassir tribe [of the Azerguiyine confederation]). May God guide you on the right path! And to you, divine greetings and mercy! After this preamble, We have entrusted your administration to your brother, Our esteemed servant, the caid Brahim Ben M’Barek Ech-Chtouki Er-Rouifi, and have charged him with taking care of your affairs and all your comings and goings. Therefore, we command you to adhere to its recommendations and prohibitions within the scope of our Sharifian service. May God grant you mutual happiness! Greetings!’’

23 Rabi’ al-Awwal 1317 (corresponding to August 1, 1899).

Cf. https://mjcc.gov.ma/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/40.pdf

Sultan Moulay ABDELHAFID (Reign 21 August 1908 – 13 August)DAHIR OF H.M. ABDELHAFID BEN EL HASSAN

‘’Praise be to God alone! May God bless our master Muhammad and his family! (Seal of H.M. Abdelhafid Ben el Hassan.) To our esteemed servants, all the tribes of the Ait Hasine and the Ait Ikkou, Ouled Tidrarin, Yaggout, Mouissat, who are Ait Lahssen, tribes of Tekna Oued Noun. May God guide you! And to you, divine greetings and mercy! After this preamble, We have entrusted your administration to our esteemed servant, Caid Mohamed el Amine, and charged him with taking care of your affairs. We command you to listen to him, obey him, and adhere to his recommendations and prohibitions in all that we have invested him with our service and our Sharifian orders. May God grant you mutual happiness and guide you all towards what pleases Him! Peace!’’

Sha’ban 1325 (corresponding to September 10, 1907).

Cf. https://mjcc.gov.ma/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/40.pdfDAHIR OF H.M. ABDELHAFID BEN EL HASSAN

‘’Praise be to God alone! May God bless our lord and master Mohamed and his family! (Seal of H.M. Abdelhafid Ben el Hassan.) To our esteemed servants, Ait Moussa ou Ali, Yaggout, Ouled Driss, Rguibat, and Ouled Tidrarin. May God guide you (on the right path)! And to you, greetings and mercy. And to you be greetings and mercy from God, the Most High! After this preamble, We have entrusted your administration to Our esteemed servant, the Caid Brahim el Khail Ben el Habib Ben Birouk el Ouadnouni, and charged him with taking care of your affairs. Therefore, We command you to listen to and obey the recommendations and prohibitions We have entrusted to him within the scope of Our Sharifian service. May God grant you mutual happiness! And guide you all to what pleases Him! Peace!’’

14 Rabi’ al-Thani 1327 (corresponding to May 5, 1909).

Cf. https://mjcc.gov.ma/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/40.pdf

Dr. Mohamed Chtatou

Dr. Mohamed Chtatou is a Professor of education science at the university in Rabat. He is currently a political analyst with Moroccan, Gulf, French, Italian and British media on politics and culture in the Middle East, Islam and Islamism as well as terrorism. He is, also, a specialist on political Islam in the MENA region with interest in the roots of terrorism and religious extremism.

A Mahdi-Messianic Era Or A Hot As Hell Climate Disaster – OpEd



October 26, 2025 
By Rabbi Allen S. Maller


Electricity consumption from data centers will more than double globally by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. The U.S.A. accounts for by far the largest share of the projected increase, followed by China.

Our planet has entered a ‘new reality’ as it hits its first climate tipping point. Humans have pushed up temperatures so far they risk triggering a series of climate ‘tipping points,’ which would bring catastrophic changes and could be irreversible on human timescales. First in a series of catastrophic and potentially irreversible climate tipping points is the widespread death of coral reefs, according to a landmark report produced by 160 scientists across the world.

As humans burn fossil fuels and ratchet up temperatures, it’s already driving more severe heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires. But there are even bigger impacts on the horizon. Climate change may also be pushing Earth’s crucial systems — from the Amazon rainforest to polar ice sheets — so far out of balance they collapse, sending catastrophic ripples across the planet.

“We are rapidly approaching multiple Earth system tipping points that could transform our world, with devastating consequences for people and nature,” said Tim Lenton, a professor at the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter and an author of the report.

Warm water corals are the first, according to the report. Since 2023, the world’s reefs have been enduring the worst mass bleaching event on record as oceans reach record high temperatures, with more than 80% affected. “We have now pushed (coral reefs) beyond what they can cope with,” said Mike Barrett, chief scientific advisor at the World Wildlife Fund UK and co-author of the report. Unless global warming is reversed “extensive reefs as we know them will be lost.”

The impacts will have far-reaching consequences. Coral reefs are an essential habitat for marine species, vital for food security, contribute trillions to the global economy and buffer coastal areas from storms. There’s even worse to come if temperatures continue to rise. Our planet is on the brink of several more tipping points as it’s all but certain to breach the globally agreed goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to the report.



One of the most alarming of these is the potential collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a crucial network of ocean currents. This would have catastrophic global consequences, pushing parts of the world into a deep freeze, heating up others, disrupting monsoon seasons and rising sea levels.

The target of keeping long-term global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) is moving out of reach, climate experts say, with nations failing to set more ambitious goals despite months of record-breaking heat on land and sea. Countries agreed in Paris in 2015 to try to keep long-term average temperature rises within 1.5C, but there is now a 66% likelihood the annual mean will cross the 1.5C threshold for at least one whole year between now and 2027, the World Meteorological Organization predicted in May.

Global average sea surface temperatures hit 21C in late March and have remained at record levels for the time of year throughout April and May. Australia’s weather agency warned that Pacific and Indian ocean sea temperatures could be 3C warmer than normal by October.

A warming world is transforming some major snow falls into extreme rain over mountains instead, thus worsening both dangerous flooding like what devastated Pakistan last year, as well as long-term water shortages, a new study found.

Using rain and snow measurements since 1950 and computer simulations for future climate, scientists calculated that for every degree Fahrenheit the world warms, extreme rainfall at higher elevation increases by 8.3% (15% for every degree Celsius), according to lead author Mohammed Ombadi, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory hydrologist and climate scientist in a study in the journal Nature.

Since 1992, global temperatures have increased on average almost 1.1°F (0.6°C), shattering the annual high-temperature record eight times, resulting in extreme weather disasters. Worldwide there have been nearly 8,000 climate, water and weather disasters, killing 563,735, according to the EMDAT disaster database.

NatureServe, a leading conservation research group, found that 40% of animals and 34% of plants in the United States are at risk of extinction, because 41% of ecosystems are facing collapse. Everything from crayfish and cacti to freshwater mussels are in danger of disappearing.

And sperm quality appears to be declining around the world, reported the BBC on the 27th of March 2023. Male infertility contributes to approximately half of all cases of infertility and affects 7% of the whole male population. For most men with fertility problems, the cause remains unexplained and stigma means many men suffer in silence.

Insects pollinate more than 80% of plants and are a major source of food for thousands of vertebrate species—but insect populations are collapsing all around the globe, and they continue to be overlooked by conservation efforts.

And the rate of ground-breaking scientific discoveries and technological innovation is slowing down despite an ever-growing amount of scientific knowledge, according to an analysis of 45 million scientific research papers and patents seeking disruptive discoveries that “break away from existing ideas” and “push the whole scientific field into new territory.” according to results published in the journal Nature.

For Muslims, who especially during Ramadan despair about the terrible state of the modern world, Allah has revealed that prior scriptures were guides for the societies to which they were sent: “He has sent down the Book to you with truth, confirming what was there before it. And He sent down the Torah and the Gospel, previously, as guidance for mankind.” (Qur’an 2:3-4)

“Allah reveals this in another verse about the Torah: “We sent down the Torah containing guidance and light, and the Prophets who had submitted themselves gave judgment by it for the Jews–as did their scholars and their rabbis–by what they had been allowed to preserve of Allah’s Book to which they were witnesses. (Qur’an 5:44) For that reason, Muslims can find in this book, the passages relating the End Times from the Torah and the Gospels as well as the Qur’an.”

“The subject of the Mahdi” has occupied an important place in the Islamic world. Hoping that Hazrat Mahdi will be instrumental in making the afflictions Muslims suffer, the intellectual systems based on denial, unfair and unjust practices, conflicts and wars pervading the world will come to an end, believers have always awaited the coming of this blessed individual in their own times.”

As a Reform Rabbi who also believes that the world wide upheavals we see are part of the birth pains of the Messianic Age, I offer Muslims some insights from the Jewish Prophets and Rabbinic Sages. Many Jews, Christians and Muslims believe the war of Gog and Magog (Gog u-Magog in Hebrew and “Yajuj and Majuj” in Arabic) is coming in the 21st century.

It is true that human society changed more rapidly, violently and fundamentally in the last 150 years than ever before in history. Doctors saved the lives of millions. Dictators sacrificed the lives of millions. Populations are exploding in Africa and populations are declining in Europe. Technology produces both worldwide prosperity and worldwide pollution at the same time.

Should we look upon the future with optimistic hope or with fatalistic trepidation? Is the world and our society heading towards a wonder-filled new age, or toward a doomsday? Or are both occurring almost concurrently because breakdown is always a prelude to breakthrough?

Jews, whose Biblical prophets were the ones who first wrote about a future Messianic Age, recognize that the birth of a Messianic Age must be preceded by its birth-pangs. But the prophets of Israel also emphasize the glories of a future world living in peace and prosperity with justice for all.

Ancient Jewish prophecies did proclaim that there would be an end to the world as we know it. But they did not prophesy that the world will come to an end, nor did the Prophets of Israel offer an exact date for the transition. The exact advent of the Messianic Age is not knowable because humans have free will and thus the exact time and manner of redemption cannot be determined in advance. Much depends on what we humans do.

The beginning of the Messianic Age is a time of transition from one World Age into another. How we move through this transition, either with resistance or acceptance, will determine whether the transformation will happen through cataclysmic changes or by a gradual reform of human society; which will lead to a world filled with peace, prosperity and spiritual tranquility.

The Prophets of Israel conceived redemption as a transformation of human society that would occur through the catalyst of the Jewish community.

This transformation, which will take place in this world at some future time, is called the Messianic Age. The transition to the Messianic Age is called the birth pangs of the Messiah. The birth of a redeemed Messianic world may be the result of an easy or difficult labor. If everyone would simply live according to the moral teachings of his or her religious tradition, we would ourselves have helped bring about the Messianic Age.

But, if we do not do it voluntarily, it will come about through social and political upheavals, worldwide conflicts and generation gaps. The Messiah (Mahdi) refers to one or more human agents of God who help bring about this positive transformation.

The Jewish tradition teaches that this agent of God (together with several forerunners and many disciples) will be a human being, a descendant of Prophets Abraham and David, with great qualities of national leadership similar to Prophet Moses and Prophet Mohammed. The arrival of the Messianic Age is what’s really important, not the personality of the agents who bring it about, since they are simply the instruments of God, who ultimately is the real Redeemer.

The Islamic 1400s we are now living in, is the age of the coming of Hazrat Mahdi. Prophet Jesus will also return to Earth in this century, Hazrat Mahdi will appear, and the moral values of Islam will rule the world. As Prophet Micah proclaims: “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.

“The Torah will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD GOD has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we (Jews, Christians and Muslims) will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.” (Prophet Micah 4:1-5)

And Prophet Malachi states: “See, I will send Prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful [Judgement] day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”(Malachi 4:5-6)

One of the signs of the End of Days is the arrival and defeat of Gog and Magog (Ya’juj and Ma’juj or Ajuj and Majuj). Gog and Magog appear in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Islamic Quran as individuals, tribes, or lands.

The Quran mentions Gog and Magog twice: “He said: “This (barrier) is a mercy from my Lord: but when the warning of my Lord comes to pass, He will reduce it to dust (and Gog and Magog—the Colonialist Empires, the Nazis, and the Communists would be released into the world); and the promise of my Lord is true.” (18:98) So Gog and Magog are destructive groups like the Colonialist Empires, the Nazis, and the Communists, who near the time of the end of days will penetrate into every part of the world.

And Prophet Ezekiel states: “God says to Gog (of the land of Magog ), “You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a mighty army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land.” (38:15–16)

Prophet Joel (2:20) provides further details about the demise of the northern alliance of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Lebanon and most of northern Russia. The Lord promises to repel the northern army and have the defeated northern army face the east sea (the Dead Sea) and its rear end towards the utmost sea (the Mediterranean Sea): “But I will remove far off from you (Israel) the northern army, (of the northern alliance of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Lebanon and most north of all, Russia) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his rear end toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, because he has done great (destructive) things.” (Joel 2:20)

The other mention of Gog and Magog in the Quran is: “But there is a ban on a town which We have destroyed: that they (the people of the town) shall not return (to reclaim that town as their own); until Gog and Magog are let through (the barrier), and swiftly spread out in every direction.” (21:95-96)

This verse refers to Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, and only reclaimed 18 1/2 centuries later as the State of Israel’s capital, during the era of the defeat of of the Nazis, the Communists, and the Colonialist Empires, who had been Gog and Magog for generations.

Thus, humanity has so far passed through the most devastating era of human history. However, we have not yet reached the goal of the Messianic Age when “They (all nations) will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD GOD has spoken.” (Prophet Micah 4:2-4)

This era will come about when Israelis and Palestinians make a long lasting two state partnership peace; thus fulfilling the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. On that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.” (Isaiah 19:23-5)

Then, an ancient Jewish legend predicts that when the Messiah-Mahdi comes and resurrection day occurs; the Kaab’a in holy Mecca, will go to join the Temple Mount’s Foundation Stone in holy Jerusalem, bringing with it the inhabitants of Mecca, and they shall all be joined together.

When the Foundation Stone sees the Kaab’a approaching, it shall cry out, “Peace be to the great guest”. (Zev Vilnay, Legends of Jerusalem)
.


Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Allen Maller retired in 2006 after 39 years as Rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, Calif. He is the author of an introduction to Jewish mysticism. God. Sex and Kabbalah and editor of the Tikun series of High Holy Day prayerbooks.

 When Ceasefire Finally Arrived Here in Gaza, What Poured Out of Me Was Grief

Now that the airstrikes have stopped, we face a new devastation, assessing our ruined homes and mourning our loved ones.

By Dalia Abu Ramadan , 

Truthout

October 16, 2025

Palestinians rally around aid trucks which entered from the Karem Abu Salem crossing, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 12, 2025.OMAR AL-QATTAA / AFP via Getty Images


Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.

Ithought that joy would keep me awake after the ceasefire in Gaza was confirmed in the hours before dawn on October 10, but instead, tears did. I opened my phone to check on my people, only to find sorrow spreading everywhere. After two years of endless war, what poured out of many of us was not joy — it was the grief we had buried too long.

There was no true cry of joy around me as there was at the start of the previous 60-day truce in January, which had ended quickly and was followed by the return of war. That painful experience was enough to break our spirits, making the celebration of the current ceasefire muted, cautious, and heavy with grief.

By the time the news of the ceasefire came, the Israeli military had killed 67,806 people in Gaza and left 170,066 more wounded and 9,500 missing. It had erased entire cities, leaving them uninhabitable and destroying every trace of life.

On the morning of October 9, 2025, I woke up in my tent in Khan Younis, the part of southern Gaza that I had fled to on September 23, after my life in the north was stripped of everything human.

Living in that tent, I was trying to hold on to the hope of graduating — finishing what I had started despite it all. I studied through power outages and internet blackouts, inside a tent that barely shielded me from the cold, just to prove to myself that the war hadn’t defeated me yet. It was a daily struggle between the will to live and the feeling of helplessness.

Related Story

In Gaza City, I Have Been Rendered Homeless in My Homeland
After our apartment was bombed, we tried to flee south but failed, returning to our ruined home only to be bombed again. By Dalia Abu Ramadan , Truthout September 24, 2025

I was surprised to hear ongoing airstrikes and shelling in the area I had fled to, despite the news of an imminent ceasefire. The situation was terrifying.

That day, when I heard that Trump planned to announce a ceasefire, I didn’t believe it; he had made that promise many times before.

I was living through a despair I had never known before. I was surprised to hear ongoing airstrikes and shelling in the area I had fled to, despite the news of an imminent ceasefire. The situation was terrifying, especially during the final critical hours of the war, when we all felt unsafe. After enduring two years of conflict, it was difficult to imagine that civilians could still die even amid mentions of a coming ceasefire.

Despair took over, and I went to sleep — until a call from my uncle in northern Gaza woke me at 2 a.m., telling me that Trump had officially announced the success of the first stage of the ceasefire. The rest of my exhausted family woke up; we heard the news, said, “Alhamdulillah” (“thank god”), and went back to sleep. I stayed up crying, unburying my grief.

The ceasefire was officially implemented at 12 p.m. on October 10, 2025. I heard ululations echoing across the camps — cries of relief that the killing had stopped, yet not of true joy. We know that new wars await us — even if we no longer contend with weapons, we now contend with the enormity of our grief and loss.

Those who lost their families would face the devastation of absence — remembering the smallest details of a life that no longer exists. And I, like many others, face another devastation — that of losing my home. My house was destroyed. It wasn’t just walls that fell, but a space filled with safety, laughter, and memories. Now, I carry my home within me, not upon the land.

Wafaa Al-Astal, my father’s cousin’s wife, lost her son Abdullah Haider Al-Astal in an Israeli strike in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis. Israeli authorities had advised residents from northern Gaza to evacuate to that area, claiming it was safe. Yet Abdullah and his friends were targeted there. “I felt the depth of the pain when I heard the war had ended,” Wafaa told me. “My son, who was 21, had been waiting for that day. But as a mother, I still consider myself luckier than those who lost all their children, and have none left.”

Unfortunately, Israeli forces have not fully withdrawn from the Gaza Strip: Israel still controls about 58 percent of the territory. They only withdrew from central Gaza City and the Tel al-Hawa and Al-Rimal neighborhoods, while remaining in parts of northern Gaza such as Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and sections of eastern and western Shujaiya.

After this partial withdrawal, many people returned to the rubble of their homes, trying to assess what remained of their lives. But the ceasefire was only the beginning of another phase of pain.

All of my father’s friends who returned north found their homes completely destroyed. As for us, our house in Tel al-Hawa, a neighborhood in the northern part of Gaza, had already been reduced to ruins during the first month of the war.

Even in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where I was temporarily displaced after the escalation of fighting in the north, I saw many residents returning to Khan Younis City, the center of the governorate, carrying the same sorrow. Among them was my father’s cousin’s son, who went to Khan Younis City — one of the areas from which Israeli forces had withdrawn — only to find that all his property had been completely destroyed.


All of my father’s friends who returned north found their homes completely destroyed.

If the war had ended long ago, joy would have filled every home. But now, the situation is different: nearly every household, north and south, is mourning a family member killed by Israel during this genocide. All of us have lost a part of ourselves; no one has remained unchanged, especially after two years of this brutal extermination war.

Most of us have lost loved ones forever. Many have also lost limbs — hands or feet — and will suffer for the rest of their lives. Around 4,000 children are enduring these injuries.

The world thinks we are “happy” now, but how could we be? My city is dead in every sense: Israel has largely destroyed its homes, hospitals, universities, and schools. Two years of hell have turned our lives upside down. The question now is: when will we reclaim the old Gaza? And will we ever regain the 58 percent of the land that caused so many people to be displaced?

We continue to love Gaza despite its destruction, despite the ruins, despite all that we have lost. People abroad ask me, “Will you emigrate?” I answer, “How could I? I have lived two years of death, refusing to leave!”

We live here, amid the ruins and destruction, trying to get through each day as best we can. Gaza is our soul and our heart, even in the hardest moments. No matter how much the Israeli military tries to destroy us, it cannot break our will or kill our love for this land. We will stay, live, love, and resist!

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.

Dalia Abu Ramadan

Dalia Abu Ramadan is a Palestinian storyteller and aspiring graduate of the Islamic University of Gaza, sharing powerful narratives that reflect the strength, resilience, and challenges of life in Gaza.

The West’s Dehumanization Of Arabs Is Completely Unforgivable

These last two years have shown us that Western civilization doesn’t need protection, it needs redemption. It needs to save its soul.

by Caitlin Johnstone / October 17th, 2025

In October 2024, a Lebanese writer named Lina Mounzer wrote, “ask any Arab what the most painful realization of the last year has been and it is this: that we have discovered the extent of our dehumanization to such a degree that it’s impossible to function in the world in the same way.”

I’ve thought about that line a lot over the last year.

I thought about it as Israel hammered Lebanon with at least 20 airstrikes during a supposed “ceasefire”.

I thought about it during the Gaza ceasefire negotiations when the Western political/media class kept calling the Israelis held by Hamas “hostages” while calling the innocent Palestinians held captive by Israel “prisoners”.

I think about it as the IDF continues to murder Palestinian civilians every day during the Gaza “ceasefire” when they are deemed to be traveling into forbidden areas, because Palestinians are so dehumanized that Israel sees bullets as a perfectly legitimate means of directing civilian foot traffic.

I think about it as these daily ceasefire violations and acts of military slaughter barely make a blip in the western news media, while any time anything happens that makes western Jews feel anxious or upset, it dominates headlines for days.

I thought about it while the western political/media class solemnly commemorated the second anniversary of the October 7 attack, even as the daily death toll from the Gaza holocaust ticked along with its victims unnamed and unacknowledged by those same institutions.

I thought about it when all of Western politics and media stopped dead in its tracks and stood transfixed for days on the assassination of Charlie Kirk while ignoring the genocide he had spent the last two years of his life actively manufacturing consent for.

Day after day after day, we see glaring, inexcusable discrepancies between the amount of attention that is given to the violent death of an Arab and the attention that is given to the violent death of an Israeli, a Western Jew, or any Westerner.

These last two years have been a time of unprecedented unmasking in all sorts of ways, but I think that’s the one that’s going to stick with me the most. The way Western civilization came right out into the cold, harsh light to admit, day after day after day, that they don’t truly view Arabs as human beings.

Ours is a profoundly sick society.

One of the main arguments you’ll hear from rightists about why the West needs to support Israel is that Israel is helping to defend the West from the savage Muslim hordes — a sentiment that Israeli pundits and politicians have been all too happy to feed into of late. It’s revealing because it’s just coming right out and saying that slaughtering Muslims is a virtue in and of itself, so anyone who kills Muslims is an ally of the West.

But whenever I come across this argument, all I can think is, why would anyone want to defend the West if this is what it has become?

Even if we pretend that these delusions that Arabs and Islam pose some kind of threat to Western civilization are valid, why would it even matter? This civilization does not deserve to be saved. Not if we’re going to be living like this.

If we’ve become so detached from our own humanity that we can’t even see innocent children as fully human just because they live somewhere else and have a different religion, then we are the monsters. We are the villains. We are everything the craziest Zionist pretends the Arabs are.

These last two years have shown us that Western civilization doesn’t need protection; it needs redemption. It needs to save its soul.

Caitlin Johnstone has a reader-supported Newsletter. All her work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece and want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. All works are co-authored with her husband Tim Foley. Read other articles by Caitlin.