The three-year commemoration of the October 7 attacks saw ugly manifestations around the world of the growing atmosphere of polarization and dogmatism on the Israel-Palestine dilemma. There is, alas, the grave potential for everything to get much worse. Benjamin Netanyahu, under siege politically within Israel, is seeking not only a re-occupation of Gaza, but to extend the eliminationist project to the West Bank. In Episode 349 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes stock. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.

Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem issued a comprehensive report last month charging that Israel is carrying out an "elimination project" on the occupied West Bank, seeking to dismantle Palestinian "collective existence" there to establish a permanent, contiguous Jewish presence and Israeli sovereignty. A campaign of "ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover" is effected through violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, and criminalization of Palestinian political organizing.

The foreign ministers of eight Musilm countries—Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia—issued a joint condemnation Sept. 6 of remarks by Israeli cabinet ministers announcing plans for the mass displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. (ToI)

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on July 27 condemned Israel's announcement of plans to accelerate the authorization of settlement outposts under Israeli domestic law in the occupied West Bank, warning that the move constitutes a "flagrant violation" of international law.

Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian rights activist, filed a lawsuit July 14 in US federal court in Manhattan alleging a "coordinated" conspiracy between senior Trump administration officials and three private organizations to target him for deportation over his advocacy work. Khalil is a former Columbia University graduate student who became the public face of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activism.

A cyber-attack targeting the World Food Program has exposed sensitive personal information belonging to some 600,000 households in Gaza, the UN's food agency has confirmed, in what may be the largest-known breach of humanitarian beneficiary data to date. WFP is investigating a "security-related incident" in which "unauthorized actors" accessed personal information submitted by Palestinians in Gaza, the agency said in a statement sent to aid recipients via Telegram on May 31. The exposed information included names, ID and mobile numbers, and location data, the statement said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said May 28 that he had ordered the Israeli military to take over 70% of the territory of the Gaza Strip. "Let's start with that," he added. A day earlier, Minister of Defense Israel Katz said the government is planning for large numbers of Palestinians to leave the enclave "at the right time and in the right manner," which rights groups say amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Israel's treatment of detained flotilla activists is "appalling" and "unacceptable" during a call between the two on May 25.