They Make a Wasteland and Call It Peace

Israel Still Occupies Most of Gaza; Still Holds Thousands without Charge

They Make a Wasteland and Call It Peace. Palestine will free us all. All these Orwellian states will fall.

Given that much of major media propagandizes the public through Orwellian photo ops in conjunction with criminal government actors, I figured that the general public doesn’t understand that Israel is still in Gaza and that thousands of Palestinians are still being held without trial. And this problem is getting worse with Larry Ellison effectively taking over much of media, from CBS to TikTok.

Is there a bottom to the mega corruption? Reuters reported: “A live microphone captured Indonesian President Prabowo asking Donald Trump if he could meet his son Eric, an executive vice president of the Trump Organization. ‘I’ll have Eric call. Should I do that? He’s such a good boy,’ Trump said.”

I put out this news release this morning via accuracy.org to address some of this:

Israel Still Occupies Most of Gaza; Still Holds Thousands without Charge -- Interviews Available

In “While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home -- to a wasteland,” Nesrine Malik writes in the Guardian: “Devastation’s perpetrators disqualified themselves long ago from any mandate over the people they have aided in killing and shattering. ... The crimes that have been committed cannot be redressed, or even prevented from recurring, if the conditions that enabled their perpetrators continue.” She notes the absurdity of Jared Kushner telling Israelis: “Instead of replicating the barbarism of the enemy, you chose to be exceptional” when Israeli leaders are wanted at the ICC.

The declaration signed Monday is devoid of specifics.

Israel still retains control of 58 percent of Gaza. The U.N. passed a resolution on September 18, 2024, overwhelmingly demanding that Israel end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza within a year.

Drop Site News reported late Monday: “55 healthcare workers from Gaza were released today in the prisoner exchange, according to Healthcare Workers Watch. The group includes 24 nurses, seven doctors, and two paramedics -- most abducted directly from hospitals and held up to 22 months in detention and torture facilities.”

MondoWeiss reports in “Palestinians freed from Israeli prison denied reunion with families as Trump claims a ‘forever’ peace“ that: “At the end of the prisoner exchange, between 9,000 and 10,000 Palestinians will remain behind bars, including around 5,000 Palestinians who are being held without charge or trial, and without clear release dates, under Israel’s system of ‘administrative detention.’” In addition, many of those released “were devastated to learn that Israel had deported them instead.”

On Tuesday, Israel was still killing civilians in the Shejaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City.

Common Dreams reports: “Ceasefire Sparks Fresh Calls for Global Media Access to Gaza“.

JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN, sarinj111@gmail.com
Loewenstein is former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies and senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has lived in and reported extensively on the Mideast.

She recently wrote the article “If Hannah Arendt lived today, she’d name Israel’s genocide in Gaza for what it is: ‘Radical evil’“ Her other recent pieces include “Letters From Rafah: A Life Under Siege” and “Weaponizing Antisemitism.”