The Rise of the Thielverse & the Surveillance State US on the way to technofascism

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Tucumán, Argentina: The Zionist octopus extends its tentacles in all directions, from the Jewish community to State institutions

 Rubén Kotler, 30/10/2025

Rubén Kotler (b. 1974) is an Argentine historian, Jewish anti-Zionist, and specialist in the recent history of Tucumán. He is cofounder of the Argentine Oral History Association and coadministrator of the Latin American Oral History Network. He also co-wrote and conducted the historical research for the documentary El Tucumanazo, which explores the workers’ and students’ uprisings in Tucumán. https://www.deigualaigual.net/

Israeli historian Ilan Pappé defines a lobby as “the influence exerted to change a government’s policy or to alter public opinion.” In his recent book, Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic , he analyzes the history of the Zionist lobby between the United States and the United Kingdom. Zionist penetration in Latin America dates back to the first half of the twentieth century and has been essential to the survival of the State of Israel and its policies of genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, colonialism, expansionism, racism, and Islamophobia—the backbone upon which the self-proclaimed Jewish state is built, to the detriment of the Palestinian people.
This colonial framework is sustained by Jewish-Zionist communities worldwide. Such dynamics can be observed, under closer inspection, in local communities such as that of Tucumán, Argentina.

Argentina’s smallest province hosts a small but influential Jewish-Zionist community, where both Ashkenazi and Sephardic heritages coexist. Its institutions range from several synagogues and schools to a club called Unidad Sionista (“Zionist Unity”) and a cemetery. The main community school—where I myself studied during my school years—maintains a dual curriculum, and its Jewish-Zionist education is a key element in maintaining and reinforcing communal support for Israel.

The Jewish educational programs, far removed from religious orthodoxy, are designed to foster a deeply Zionist identity.Argentine national holidays are celebrated with equal emphasis to Jewish holidays, imbuing them with a nationalist narrative that rivals that taught in schools in the colonial enclave of Israel itself. Zionist influence in the religious Jewish world has been so profound that even Reform congregations  have included a prayer asking God to protect the Israeli army in their religious services.

 

Images from a “Patriotic Israeli” School Ceremony in Tucumán
(Author’s Archive)

At the same time, a scholarship system funds initiation trips to the self-proclaimed Jewish state—as if to a kind of Disney World. Combined with a tightly woven network of local institutions, this reinforces a sense of Israel as a “second homeland,” and for some, as an imagined nation that serves as refuge from a potential apocalyptic repetition of a “second Holocaust.”

The bombings of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires (1992) and the AMIA (1994) strengthened the narrative of a possible “Holocaust” in Argentina. Since 1994, Jewish-Zionist institutions have maintained external walls around their buildings “to prevent car bomb explosions.” For thirty years, Argentina’s Jewish-Zionist community has awaited a “third attack” as though waiting for the Messiah.

The oath sworn by soldiers of the world’s most criminal army at Masada, in occupied Palestine—pledging that Zion will never fall again—is replicated with equal fervor in Jewish-Zionist schools.

In Argentina, there exists a notorious pro-Zionist lobbying institution known as the Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA)—the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations—whose initial purpose was to protect Jewish interests in Argentina. Nothing could be further from reality: DAIA defends Zionist interests in the country. It is also one of the key promoters of the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism, as we will see later.

Kirchnerist José Jorge Alperovich (b. 1955) served as governor of Tucumán three times between 2003 and 2015. In November 2019, he was criminally charged with sexual abuse, and in 2024 he was sentenced to sixteen years in prison and permanently disqualified from holding public office.

To understand Zionist penetration in Tucumán over recent years—functioning as a kind of fifth column that justifies and accompanies genocide—we must consider the political landscape. Provincial governments since 2003 have maintained firm economic, cultural, political, and social ties with Israel.

Alperovich, the son of a Jewish-Zionist family from Tucumán belonging to the commercial elite, became a paradigmatic case in a country whose official religion is Roman Catholicism. His election was as novel as his alliances with Zionism at a global level. These ties predated his governorship but were reinforced by the inclusion of local Jewish community members in the provincial cabinet. Prominent community figures embraced Peronism as a political vehicle through which they anchored their influence and linked the provincial state to the State of Israel via a series of economic agreements.

Juan Luis Manzur (b. 1969), later governor and today the wealthiest official in the national administration, continued this line of submission to Zionism. With close, even affectionate ties to sectors such as Chabad Lubavitch, Manzur quickly made business deals with Israel in one of the colonial enclave’s most specialized areas: security.

By the end of 2018, the provincial government purchased 4,000 semi-automatic Jericho 9mm pistols with polymer frames, developed by Israel Military Industries (IMI)—a company privatized that same year and absorbed by Elbit Systems. The nine-million-dollar deal brought to Tucumán weapons identical to those used against Palestinians in the West Bank. One of these guns, in the hands of the provincial police, killed Luis Espinoza during the pandemic lockdown, when police raided a social gathering on May 15, 2020. Espinoza was kidnapped and disappeared for seven days before his body was found in another province.

But the agreements didn’t stop there. Two years before Espinoza’s death, on August 13, 2018, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra performed in one of Tucumán’s main theaters under the sponsorship of the provincial government. I titled my commentary at the time “A Concert of Gunfire” to highlight how cultural events were being used to normalize the embrace of the Zionist state and the oppression of the Palestinian people.
The normalization of colonial structures through culture and sports is a distinctive feature of this global pattern of Zionist influence.

Peronism as an ally of Zionism

Today, Argentina’s far-right president Javier Milei is openly allied with Zionism, supporting the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Yet part of the Peronist movement hypocritically remains silent or looks away when it comes to the state’s agreements with Zionist institutions. Visits to Israel by Argentine officials have continued from one administration to another.
From Tucumán, local governments and university authorities have repeatedly signed agreements with Israel, regardless of political turnover.

Let us recall that the first international trip of Peronist president Alberto Fernández, just before the pandemic, was to Israel—to shake hands with war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. His minister Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro, himself the son of victims of Argentina’s last civil-military dictatorship, brought the Israeli company Mekorot to Argentina to manage a strategic resource: water. De Pedro could not have been unaware of international accusations against Mekorot for its role in Israel’s apartheid system and its control of water resources in occupied Palestine.
Today, these agreements are being expanded as Milei’s ultra-liberal government seeks to privatize Agua y Saneamiento Argentino (AYSA), the national water and sanitation company. Will Mekorot take over AYSA? It is highly probable.

Health and the Hadassah Network

On October 13, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health of Tucumán signed a cooperation agreement with Israel’s Hadassah Medical Network. The agreement was signed by then-Minister of Health Rossana Chahla, now the mayor of the provincial capital.

According to the ministry’s website, “this agreement aims to share medical knowledge developed at Israel’s Hadassah Medical Center, to provide access to training sessions, symposiums, and lectures by professionals, as well as to integrate hospitals and health centers in Tucumán into the Hadassah Health Network.”
The objective is explicit: sharing provincial health data with an Israeli institution—an unprecedented step in such a sensitive public sector. The ministry’s note also confirmed that this relationship between the provincial government and Hadassah has existed for over fifteen years, dating back to Alperovich’s administration.

The local academy strengthens the Zionist narrative

The Zionist narrative requires its scribes. The Hasbara—Israel’s state-sponsored propaganda apparatus—deploys a wide range of tools, from funding mass media outlets to flooding social networks with influencers who mold public perception. As war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu recently declared, “Israel should buy TikTok.”

Within this strategy, academia plays a crucial role. Agreements between Argentine public universities and Zionist or pro-Zionist institutions are particularly notable.

Returning to Tucumán: on July 23, 2025, the Faculty of Law at the National University of Tucumán hosted a Hasbara-style event clearly intended to reinforce Zionist narratives—the presentation of the book Antisemitismo: Definir para combatir (“Antisemitism: Define to Combat”) by Ariel Gelblung, director of the controversial Simon Wiesenthal Center, a defender of the Zionist narrative.

The event was supported by the local DAIA and attended by university authorities, provincial government officials, and members of the judiciary—including Supreme Court justices Claudia Sbdar and Daniel Posse, journalist Álvaro José Aurane of La Gaceta, and officials Raúl Albarracín and Hugo Navas.

Notably, Gelblung’s presentation was part of a postgraduate diploma program on Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity offered by the Faculty of Law—one that makes no mention whatsoever of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

On July 25, a follow-up talk was given to local students, again promoting the conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. In an interview with the local newspaper, Gelblung declared:

“We are living through the worst moment of anti-Semitism since the end of World War II. The conflict in the Middle East has placed Jewish communities around the world in real danger. Allowing certain masks to fall and aligning with terrorism is truly dangerous.”

For this propagandist, “Zionism is not a bad word; it is the movement for the national self-determination of the Jewish people in their ancestral land. Someone cannot claim to support self-determination for all peoples except one. That is discrimination. One cannot say, ‘I’m not anti-Semitic, I’m just anti-Zionist.’ That’s a fallacy.”

For Gelblung—and indeed for the entire Jewish-Zionist establishment—no genocide is being committed in Gaza, despite reports to the contrary from Israeli human-rights organizations such as B’Tselem. Neither Gelblung nor Tucumán’s academic or judicial authorities seem to have read the report titled “Our Genocide”. By echoing the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, they equate it with anti-Zionism—nothing could be more false.

Since October 7, 2023, these circles have loudly insisted that the world is witnessing a surge in anti-Semitism—a claim unsupported by evidence. In Argentina, even members of parliament have been prosecuted for mentioning genocide in Palestine, accused of anti-Semitism, as happened to Vanina Biassi, deputy of the Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores (Left and Workers’ Front).

Rossana Chahla (1966), intendenta (alcaldesa) de Tucumán, justicialista (peronista/kirchnerista)

Rossana Chahla (b. 1966), physician of Syrian-Lebanese origin and now mayor of San Miguel de Tucumán, has written yet another chapter in the province’s alliance with Zionism. She signed a security-training cooperation agreement with the Israeli agency Mashav for the municipal staff.

Despite protests from the group Tucumán por Palestina, the municipality proceeded with the agreement. At the height of an ongoing genocide, the mayor deepens ties with Zionist institutions.

According to the municipal website,

“The course, conducted in Spanish at the Beit Berl Institute campus near Tel Aviv, covers key topics such as coordination between municipalities and police forces, the creation of community police units, emergency management, youth work with at-risk populations, and cooperation with educational institutions, community organizations, and the private sector.”

Such agreements, mirrored throughout Latin America, exemplify what journalist Antony Loewenstein has called ‘The Palestine Laboratory’—Israel’s use of its repressive systems against the Palestinian people as showcases for its “technological advances” in security and warfare. Israel remains one of the world’s major arms exporters [8th largest exporter and 15th largest importer in the world] , selling to regimes of all kinds, including dictatorships.

A Phantom Haunting Tucumán: The Phantom of Genocide

The collective Tucumán por Palestina, made up of Palestinians, anti-Zionist Jews, artists, political and trade-union activists, and academics, has for years denounced Zionism and exposed Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. Yet not a single line about their work has appeared in Tucumán’s main newspaper. On the contrary, whenever the Jewish-Zionist community holds public events, the same paper devotes lavish coverage to them.

In general, local media—barring rare exceptions—ignore the persistent activism that fills the capital’s streets. It is evident that Zionist influence in Tucumán extends across all three branches of government, the hegemonic press, and parts of academia.

As a son of that same Jewish community, I once again raise my voice in opposition to Zionism and genocide. Like the comrades of Tucumán por Palestina, I speak out wherever possible.

The penetration of that ghost called genocide in the province has names and faces—many of them descendants of Syrian-Lebanese families, such as the current mayor of the provincial capital. Breaking the dominant narrative, making as much noise as possible, and convincing Jewish communities around the world that Israel does not represent Judaism—in any of its religious or cultural forms—may help weaken the colonial enclave.

Withdrawing communal support, as several anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian Jewish organizations are already doing, could contribute to the fall of a regime that for over a century has waged war, committed crimes against humanity, and perpetuated genocide and ethnic cleansing in historic Palestine and other strategic parts of the Middle East.

Demonstration in Extremadura Against Rheinmetall Death Factory: A Universal Message

Tlaxcala, 23 October 2025

From the depths of rural Spain rises a cry of anger, of violated dignity, of appeal to the conscience of old Europe: stop the manufacturers and merchants of death! On Saturday 25 October, for the second time, a demonstration will take place in front of the Rheinmetall arms factory in Navalmoral de la Mata, province of Cáceres, Extremadura, called by the collectives La Vera con Palestina and Extremadura con Palestina. Below is a summary of the documents we published in Spanish and German.

The call is titled “No al rearme, stop genocidio”—No to the rearmament of Spain and Europe, stop the genocide. Within the framework of the European Commission’s “Rearm Europe” plan, the Madrid government has committed itself to NATO’s target of 2% of GDP in military spending. The goal—dividing the governing coalition—is to reach a budget of more than 40 billion euros by 2029.
“Os parece ético trabajar para esta empresa cómplice del genocidio?” – Do you think it’s ethical to work for this company complicit in genocide?

Linking Anti-Armament Struggles and Solidarity with Palestine

The central demand: to link the struggle against rearmament with solidarity for the Palestinian people, victims of a genocide perpetrated by Israel with Western complicity. The organizers call for the creation of an internationalist social movement against militarization and the war economy.

Critique of the Western Model and a Call for Disobedience

The appeal paints an apocalyptic portrait of the modern world: the West is a decadent empire led by selfish elites (USA and Europe) who, faced with ecological and energy crises, turn to war and conquest. Rearmament is seen as a strategy to sustain the hyper-consumerist model and seize the South’s resources. Germany, once the land of “poets and thinkers,” becomes again that of “judges and executioners,” following the USA, abandoning its energy autonomy (Russian gas) to relaunch itself through arms production.

The appeal advances an economic and moral argument: every increase in military spending results in a decrease in social spending. The authors denounce a new era of austerity, comparable to that of the 2010s, and accuse Spanish governments, including socialist ones, of privatizing the common good for the benefit of the military-industrial complex.

A direct appeal is addressed to Rheinmetall workers in Extremadura:

The demands include: withdrawal of public aid to the arms industry, total embargo on weapons to Israel, breaking diplomatic relations, prosecuting involved leaders, ending European rearmament, and initiating a program of degrowth.

Rheinmetall: Symbol of Modern Warfare

The article by José Luis Ybot (El Salto, 17 September 2024) traces the history of Rheinmetall, Germany’s largest arms company, founded in the 19th century, associated with the Nazi regime, later converted to civilian production, and since 1956 again a pillar of rearmament. Since 2000, it has refocused on the military: Leopard tanks, Eurofighter Typhoons, drones, lasers, defense systems, and more.

In 2022, Rheinmetall bought Expal, a subsidiary of the Spanish group Maxam, owner of the El Gordo and Navalmoral de la Mata plants. These sites, involved in the manufacture and dismantling of antipersonnel mines, make Extremadura a “sacrificed” region in service of the war economy.

Since the war in Ukraine, Rheinmetall’s value has quintupled. Its shareholders include BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America. The company profits from global arms demand, particularly through its Ukrainian subsidiary created in 2023.

Investigation: Rheinmetall in El Gordo and Navalmoral

A report by Luis Velasco San Pedro (El País, 1 November 2024) shows how the village of El Gordo lives off Rheinmetall: 200 residents work there, salaries exceed 1,600 euros, and unemployment is nearly zero. But secrecy reigns. Employees sign confidentiality agreements and say: “Lo que se hace allí es top secret.”

Deputy Nerea Fernández (Unidas por Extremadura) denounces regional complicity and public funding of Rheinmetall (58,060 euros of European funds). She calls for the conversion of these factories to civilian production. For her, “the genocide in Gaza begins in Extremadura.”

Popular Mobilizations and Global Critique

The communiqué calling for the previous demonstration on 6 October 2024 urged boycott of Israel and civil disobedience: “La única forma de buscar la paz es no fabricar la guerra.” – The only way to seek peace is not to manufacture war.

Europe was described as a militarized “mega-Israel,” built on fear and dependence on the war economy.

The dossier combines investigation, manifesto, and moral plea. It denounces war capitalism and links the local struggle against Rheinmetall to the Palestinian cause. The authors assert a conviction: the fight for peace begins where weapons are made.

The message applies urbi et orbi—in Europe, North and South America, and Asia: we must stop the manufacturers and merchants of death, wherever they are, “by any means necessary.” To date, only one arms factory—Elbit Systems in Bristol, UK—has ceased operations. Credit goes to the courageous militants of Palestine Action, now banned as a “terrorist” group, with members prosecuted. The same fate befalls Palestine Action Germany, whose activists carried out symbolic actions against Elbit Systems in Ulm; five are now on trial.

Another aspect of necessary mobilization concerns the transport of arms to Israel—either ready-to-use weapons or components destined for Israeli arms factories. Protests have occurred in Marseille, Genoa, and Tangier, with others ongoing.

The cargo ship Marianne Danica, carrying 155 mm shells for Elbit Systems from Chennai, India, to Haifa, diverted from Gibraltar to Casablanca to avoid Spanish protests. Another vessel, Ocean Gladiator, carrying 163 tons of brass cartridge cases from the Wieland factory in Buffalo, USA, recently passed through the Strait of Gibraltar en route to Ashdod, with its next stop scheduled in Limassol (Cyprus) on 3 November [track it here]. We'll await it there. 

From one to another Nobel Open Letter from Adolfo Pérez Esquivel to María Corina Machado

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Página12, 13/10 /2025
Translated by Tlaxcala

 

I send you the greeting of Peace and Good, so greatly needed by humanity and by peoples living amid poverty, conflict, war, and hunger.
This open letter is meant to express and share a few reflections.

I was surprised by your designation as Nobel Peace Prize laureate, awarded by the Nobel Committee. It brought back memories of the struggles against dictatorships across our continent and in my own country — the military dictatorships we endured from 1976 to 1983. We resisted prisons, torture, and exile, with thousands of disappeared persons, abducted children, and the death flights, of which I am a survivor.

In 1980, the Nobel Committee awarded me the Nobel Peace Prize. Forty-five years have passed, and we continue working in service of the poorest, alongside the peoples of Latin America. In their name, I accepted that high distinction — not for the prize itself, but for the commitment shared with the peoples who struggle and hope to build a new dawn.
Peace is built day by day, and we must be consistent between what we say and what we do.

At 94, I remain a student of life, and your social and political stances concern me. Therefore, I send you these reflections.

The Venezuelan government is a democracy with its lights and shadows. Hugo Chávez charted the path of freedom and sovereignty for his people and fought for continental unity — a reawakening of the Great Homeland. The United States attacked him constantly: it cannot allow any country in the Americas to escape its orbit and colonial dependence. It still views Latin America as its “backyard.”
The U.S. blockade against Cuba, lasting over 60 years, is an attack on freedom and the rights of peoples. The Cuban people’s resistance stands as a lesson in dignity and strength.

I am astonished by how tightly you cling to the United States: you must know that it has no allies or friends — only interests.
The dictatorships imposed in Latin America were orchestrated to serve its aims of domination, destroying the social, cultural, and political life of peoples striving for freedom and self-determination.
We, the peoples, resist and fight for our right to be free and sovereign, and not colonies of the United States.

The government of Nicolás Maduro lives under the constant threat of the United States and its blockade — one need only recall the U.S. naval forces stationed in the Caribbean and the danger of invasion.
You have not uttered a word, nor condemned this interference by a great power against Venezuela. Yet the Venezuelan people are ready to face the threat.

Corina, I ask you: why did you call on the United States to invade Venezuela?
Upon learning of your Nobel Peace Prize, you dedicated it to Trump — the aggressor of your own country, the man who lies and accuses Venezuela of being a narco-state, a falsehood akin to George Bush’s claim that Saddam Hussein possessed “weapons of mass destruction.”
That was the pretext to invade Iraq, plunder it, and cause thousands of deaths among women and children.
I was in Baghdad at the end of the war, in a children’s hospital, and saw with my own eyes the destruction and death caused by those who proclaim themselves defenders of freedom.
The worst form of violence is the lie.

Do not forget, Corina, that Panama was invaded by the United States, causing death and destruction to capture a former ally, General Noriega.
The invasion left 1,200 dead in Los Chorrillos.
Today, the U.S. once again seeks to reclaim control of the Panama Canal.
It is a long list of U.S. interventions and suffering inflicted upon Latin America and the world.
The veins of Latin America remain open, as Eduardo Galeano once wrote.

I am troubled that you dedicated your Nobel not to your people, but to the aggressor of Venezuela.
I believe, Corina, you must reflect and understand where you stand — whether you are merely another piece in the U.S. colonial system, submissive to its interests of domination, which can never serve the good of your people.
As an opponent of the Maduro government, your stances and choices create much uncertainty, especially when you call for a foreign invasion of your homeland.

Remember that building peace requires great strength and courage for the good of your people — a people I know and deeply love.
Where once there were shantytowns clinging to the hills, surviving in poverty and destitution, there are now decent homes, healthcare, education, and culture.
The dignity of a people cannot be bought or sold.

Corina, as the poet* says:

“Traveler, there is no path; the path is made by walking.”

You now have the chance to work for your people and build peace, not provoke greater violence.
One evil cannot be cured by a greater evil: we would have two evils and never a solution.

Open your mind and your heart to dialogue, to meeting your people.
Empty the jug of violence and build peace and unity among your people, so that the light of freedom and equality may finally enter.

*Another Machado, named Antonio (no relation to Mrs. María Corina) [Transl. n.]

Rejection of the Nobel Committee’s Decision to Award the Peace Prize to María Corina Machado

We, the undersigned, reject the decision of the Nobel Committee to award the Peace Prize to María Corina Machado, and we consider this decision an act that promotes war in Latin America and encourages terrorism.

We believe it is no coincidence that this decision was made at a time when a U.S. fleet stationed in the Caribbean threatens Venezuela. The decision to exalt a figure such as María Corina Machado is part of the media offensive preparing world public opinion to bring war to Latin America.

Those who made this decision are neither innocent nor confused. They are promoting a figure who has been involved in every attempted coup d’état, in terrorist activities, who has openly called for military aggression against Venezuela, and who represents the worst of the Venezuelan right — directly linked to international Zionism, having explicitly supported the genocide against the Palestinian people, and to the warlike wing of the Trump administration, led by Marco Rubio.

Five hundred years after the invasion of the Americas, European governments and institutions such as the Nobel Committee reaffirm through such acts their colonialist and racist practices.

We, the undersigned — who have upheld the Bolivarian Revolution and, in recent years, have held differing opinions regarding the Maduro government — today reaffirm our support for its decision to mobilize and arm the people in the face of imperialist aggression.

For us, there is no other stance than to support the Venezuelan people’s decision to rise up and defend their sovereignty and their government.

👉See first signatures and add yours

Over 30 Human Rights Experts Demand UEFA Expel Israeli Soccer Teams

European soccer’s governing body reportedly paused a vote on suspending Israel after Trump released his 20-point 'peace plan' for Gaza.

Prem Thakker, Zeteo, 3/10/2025

 

Celtic fans unveil an anti-Israel banner in the stands during the UEFA Europa League match at Celtic Park, Glasgow. Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images

More than 30 international human rights experts have submitted a letter to the president of European soccer’s governing body on Thursday, demanding that the league move forward to expel Israeli soccer teams from competition until “justice and accountability” are achieved for Palestinians.

“UEFA must not be complicit in sports washing such flagrant breaches of international law, including but not limited to the act of genocide,” the rights experts write in the letter, which was shared exclusively with Zeteo.

The letter is signed by leading human rights lawyers, academics, and former UN officials, including Richard Falk, the former UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories; John Dugard, also a former UN special rapporteur on Palestine and a former member of the International Law Commission; and Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, executive director of the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.

It adds to a similar letter that Amnesty International sent to FIFA and UEFA on Wednesday, calling on the leagues to suspend the Israeli Football Association from competition.

UEFA reportedly paused a vote on suspending Israel from competition after President Donald Trump, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced a 20-point “peace plan” to end the war, which appears to have included no official input from Palestinians. The US, which is co-hosting the World Cup next year, has previously said it will “absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup.”

Banning Israel from soccer competition is imperative despite Trump’s announcement, “because, while the plan purports to offer a pathway to peace, in reality it undermines international law, Palestinian sovereignty, and the principles of self-determination,” the letter argues.

The human rights experts add that Trump’s plan “does not impose any obligations” on Israel as the occupying power in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Pro-Palestinian activists call on UEFA and FIFA to ban Israel outside of Wembley Stadium on Oct. 2, 2025, in London. Photo by Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images

Craig Mokhiber, who signed the letter, told Zeteo the group is aware of mass support within UEFA and European soccer at large for suspending Israel, and is wary of Trump’s plan being used as cover to curb the momentum.

“All of it comes packaged in this threat from Donald Trump, who said, ‘either you accept this or we’re going to let Israel continue and complete its genocide in Gaza.’ That’s not negotiation. It’s gunboat diplomacy,” said Mokhiber, who is the former director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“So we need to make sure that they’re not using this as an excuse not to do what they are morally obliged to do, and potentially legally obliged.”

https://www.gameoverisrael.com/en

The letter was organized by the #GameOverIsrael campaign, which is calling on soccer federations to boycott Israel’s national and club teams in order to effectively force FIFA and UEFA to suspend the country from competition, as was done with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

UEFA did not respond to a request for comment. FIFA Vice President Victor Montagliani has previously said the decision to suspend Israel lies with UEFA “first and foremost.”

The human rights experts’ letter is the latest in the growing calls to ban Israel from soccer competition. Alongside the #GameOverIsrael campaign, Turkey last month became the first member of UEFA to publicly call for Israel to be suspended. Spain’s prime minister has called on Israeli teams to be banned from international sports competition. Meanwhile, teams and associations in Ireland and Italy have also called for UEFA and FIFA to suspend Israel from global competition.

Israeli forces have killed more than 66,000 people in the past two years, though the number is feared to be much higher. This reportedly includes roughly 800 athletes in Gaza, with more than 400 soccer players killed. Israel has also destroyed or damaged the vast majority of sports infrastructure, including stadiums, gyms, and soccer clubs, in the enclave.

Read the full letter:

Dear President Čeferin,

We, the undersigned, are writing you to urge the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the Executive Committee and all UEFA members to fulfil their legal and moral obligations to uphold international law, and move forward with an immediate and complete ban of Israeli football, including banning their national teams, club teams and players, from participating in UEFA competitions until justice and accountability is achieved for Palestine and all Palestinians. We join UN experts in reminding UEFA that they are bound by international human rights law in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

A ban is imperative in response to the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s report, released on September 16, 2025, which provides irrefutable evidence that Israeli authorities have committed genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, all in violation of peremptory norms of international law.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli occupying forces have killed at least 421 Palestinian footballers while systematically destroying Gaza’s football infrastructure, including stadiums and the headquarters of the Palestinian Football Association. These acts have decimated an entire generation of athletes, eroding the fabric of Palestinian sport. The failure of the Israel Football Association (IFA) to challenge these violations implicates it in this system of oppression, rendering its participation in UEFA competitions untenable.

Banning the IFA aligns with precedents set by UEFA against nations committing similar grave breaches, ensuring the integrity of international sport.

UEFA must not be complicit in sports washing such flagrant breaches of international law, including but not limited to the act of genocide. The UN Commission of Inquiry’s findings, alongside the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of July 19, 2024, which declared Israel’s occupation since 1967 unlawful and a violation of fundamental principles of international law, underscore the systematic nature of Israel’s violations.

International human rights laws and UEFA’s obligations continue to apply despite the recent announcement by President Donald J. Trump’s of a 20-point plan for Gaza. This is because, while the plan purports to offer a pathway to peace, in reality it undermines international law, Palestinian sovereignty, and the principles of self-determination. It does not impose any obligations on the State of Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. It also fails to address the legal consequences of the genocide in Gaza or make any demands of Israel to provide reparations to the Palestinians. Peace cannot be achieved without justice and accountability.

A UEFA ban on the IFA remains necessary and urgent, and is required to ensure legal compliance. By continuing to host Israeli teams, UEFA risks becoming complicit in the normalisation of war crimes. We urge you to uphold the integrity of the sport and immediately suspend the IFA and all affiliated teams from UEFA competitions until Israel ends the genocide and its unlawful occupation, and fully complies with its obligations under international law.

Let football stand for justice, not impunity. UEFA can act now by imposing a sports ban on Israel’s national team, local clubs and players.

Sincerely,

Professor William Schabas, Professor of international law, Middlesex University, London, UK

Professor John Dugard, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Emeritus Professor of International Law, Leiden University and University of the Witwatersrand, former member of the International Law Commission, member of the Institut de droit international, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (2001-2008).

Professor Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice, Emeritus at Princeton University, US and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (2008-2014).

Professor Michael Lynk, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Law, Western University, London, Canada and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (2016 – 2022).

Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, Emeritus Fellow and Professor of International Refugee Law All Souls College, Oxford University, UK.

Professor Alex Neve, Visiting and Adjunct Professor, Faculties of Law and Social Sciences, University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University, Canada.

Craig Mokhiber, Former Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations. An international lawyer and a specialist in human rights law, policy and methodology.

Daniel Machover, Solicitor, co-founder of lawyers for Palestine.

Professor Susan M. Akram, Clinical Professor and Director, International Human Rights Clinic, Boston University, School of Law, Boston, US.

Professor Ardi Imseis, Associate Professor of International Law, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, Canada. Member, UN Commission of Inquiry on Yemen.

Professor Lynn Welchman, College of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. Commissioner, UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.

Professor Audrey Macklin, Professor of Law and Rebecca Cook Chair in Human Rights, Jackman Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Canada.

Professor Mohammad Fadel, Professor of Law, Jackman Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, Canada.

Professor Ilias Bantekas, Professor of Law, College of Law, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar.

Professor Andrew Dahdal, Associate Professor, Associate Dean, College of Law, Qatar University.

Dr. Elobaid Ahmed Elobaid, International Human Rights and Justice Expert, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University, former UN Staff.

Dr. Lex Takkenberg, international lawyer and former senior executive of UNRWA.

Diana Buttu, lawyer, Palestine.

Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Executive Director of the Lemkin Institution for Genocide Prevention.

Dr. Mandy Turner, Senior Researcher at Security in Context, Visiting Senior Fellow, International State Crime Initiative, Queen Mary, University of London, London, UK.

Dr. Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, US.

Dr. Nimer Sultany, Reader in Public Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK.

Dr. Mazen Masri, Senior Lecturer in Law, City St. George’s, University of London, London, UK.

Professor Craig Martin Scott, Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada.

Professor Hengameh Saberi, Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada.

Professor Faisal Bhabha, Associate Professor, Academic Director of the Anti-Discrimination Intensive Program, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada.

Professor Faisal Kutty, Associate Professor of Law Emeritus at Valparaiso University and affiliate faculty at the Rutgers University Center for Security, Race and Rights.

Professor Jillian Rogin, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Windsor University, Canada.

Professor Nicola Pratt, Professor of the International Politics of the Middle East, University of Warwick, UK.

Dr. Emilio Dabed, Governance Director, Legal Center for Palestine, Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Lena El-Malak, independent lawyer, London, UK.

Guevara ha muerto Guevara est mort Guevara died جيفارا مات

 

 1967

1959

كيف حولت زيارة غيفارا لفلسطين القضية للعالمية؟
El Che Guevara en Gaza: Palestina se convierte en causa mundial 
Che Guevara in Gaza: Palestine Becomes a Global Cause
Grâce à la visite de Che Guevara à Gaza la Palestine devient une cause mondiale

The People Without a Map: Diaspora, Conscience, and Palestinian Recognition

Two years after the onset of the Gaza genocide, the State has vanished, but the people remain. Across the world, the Palestinian diaspora embodies a conscience that refuses erasure.

François Vadrot, Oct. 7, 2025                           

Silhouette of Gaza, void at the heart of a sky saturated with stars. Around the darkness, the light — that of the living dispersed.

On October 7, 2023, what was first presented as a new “war” between Israel and Hamas marked instead one of the most violent episodes in a process that began in 1947: the progressive destruction of the Palestinian people. Two years later, the military fiction has collapsed. It was not a war, but an annihilation.

And yet, beyond the ruins, Palestine endures through its diaspora — a people without a map, but not without memory. This recognition, the acknowledgment of the Palestinian People on the same moral level as the Jewish People, now defines the century’s deepest moral fault line.

Gaza, Destruction, and the Return of the Real

Two years after October 7, 2023, the truth can no longer be evaded: Gaza did not endure a war but a genocide. The report of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry, published on September 16, 2025, formally concludes that Israel has committed, and continues to commit, acts constituting genocide as defined by the 1948 Convention. The experts document, with evidence, the four legal criteria: “killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its destruction, imposing measures to prevent births,” with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinian people of Gaza.

The report dismantles the fiction of a “war”: these are not “disproportionate operations,” but a systematic campaign of destruction. Civilians were the target — bombings on evacuation zones, executions inside shelters, hospitals and schools razed, water and power infrastructures annihilated, the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon (the blockade of infant formula, fuel, and water). The report details the targeting of children — “including toddlers shot in the head and chest” —, the destruction of Gaza’s only in-vitro fertilization clinic, and the repeated use of sexual violence as a tool of domination. Even symbols of continuity — mosques, churches, cemeteries, universities — were deliberately obliterated.

The numbers defy language: over 50,000 dead, 83% civilians, 200,000 homes destroyed, and 1.5 million people displaced in a strip rendered uninhabitable. A military expert cited by the UN notes that Israel “dropped in one week more bombs than the United States did in an entire year in Afghanistan.” The report concludes: “There was no military necessity to justify this pattern of conduct. The people of Gaza, as a whole, were the target.”

What has been destroyed is not merely life, but the very condition of living. What collapses under the ruins is not a political entity — it is the possibility of inhabiting the world.

Yet precisely in this total negation appears the trace of survival: where the land is destroyed, memory expands.

A Global Diaspora, Mirror of Erasure