French mayor Bernard Baudoux (78), of Aulnoye-Aymeries, says masked Israeli state sponsored terrorists aka settlers attacked him and a European diplomatic delegation while they joined Palestinian farmers picking olives near the Christian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. Baudoux, who was wearing his French tricolor sash, said the settlers kicked him and beat him with iron bars, throwing him to the ground. He was hurt but did not require hospital care. A Belgian diplomatic vehicle had a window smashed. Palestinian harvesters were also assaulted earlier in the attack. “I think that if settlers are behaving like this, there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government,” Baudoux said. “The whole world needs to know what’s happening. For me, I’ll go back to my country and everything will be fine. Those who continue to suffer the most are those who are here.” The delegation has lodged a protest with the Israeli government. French officials have called for those responsible to be arrested. This took place during the olive harvest, a period when attacks on Palestinian farmers have intensified.

In January 1948, Golda Meir (then Meyerson) flew to the US on an urgent mission for the Jewish Agency. At the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds conference in Chicago (around 21–25 January), she told American Jewish charity leaders the Yishuv needed $25–30 million in cash immediately—not next month, “now.” She was not raising money for food, housing, or refugees. She was raising it for weapons. The funds went to arm the Haganah ahead of the war that followed the UN partition vote. Palestinian and Arab forces rejected the partition; the Jewish side prepared for, and then fought, the conflict that created Israel and displaced over 700,000 Palestinians in the Nakba. American Jewish federations and welfare funds—whose core purpose was local charity and aid—were asked to divert large sums into guns, ammunition, and military equipment. Many leaders were ambivalent or non-Zionist; Meir’s speech overcame much of that resistance and helped raise tens of millions (ultimately contributing to ~$50 million on her tour). That money bought arms (including from Czechoslovakia) used in the fighting that emptied hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns. Charity money became weapons money. The result was not only a Jewish state but the permanent displacement of the Palestinian people. The same pattern—American Jewish institutional fundraising for Israel’s military—has continued for decades.

Israel’s own Mossad, in a 2024 summary published by the Intelligence Heritage Center (Mabat Malam), openly stated that facial recognition systems it supplied scanned people at Gaza’s crossing points. According to that account, the scans flagged thousands of people who were then seized and interrogated. No independent oversight, no transparent criteria, and no due process for those pulled out of lines of displaced civilians. This is mass biometric surveillance used to round people up in an occupied territory under blockade and bombardment. Israeli media (Haaretz) reported the Mossad’s own description. #Palestine #Gaza #Surveillance #HumanRights