TV News LIES

An Israeli court has extended by two days the detention of two activists arrested aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters, their lawyer said on Sunday.

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish-Swedish national of Palestinian origin, and Thiago Avila, a Brazilian national, were detained by Israeli authorities late on Wednesday and brought to Israel, while more than 100 other pro-Palestine activists aboard the Global Sumud flotilla were taken to the Greek island of Crete.

According to the Brazilian embassy, Avila said he had been subjected to torture, beatings and mistreatment in Israeli detention.

During a monitored visit in which he was separated by glass and unable to communicate freely, embassy officials observed visible marks on his face. He also reported significant pain, particularly in his shoulder.

Abu Keshek was "subjected to torture and severe abuse while detained aboard the military vessel prior to transfer", the Global Sumud flotilla said, citing eyewitness testimony.

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For decades, two irreconciliable narratives about Israel and its motivations have existed in parallel. 

On the one side, an official western narrative portrays a plucky, besieged "Jewish" state of Israel, desperate to make peace with its hostile Arab neighbours. Even to this day, that story dominates the political, media and academic landscape. 

Time and again, or so we are told, Israel has held out an olive branch to "the Arabs", seeking acceptance, but is always rebuffed. 

A largely unspoken subtext suggests that supposedly irrational, bloodthirsty, Jew-hating regimes across the region would have completed the Nazis’ exterminationist agenda but for the West’s humane protection of a vulnerable minority.

It presents Israel as an ethnic supremacist, highly militaristic state - armed by the US and Europe - bent on expansion, mass expulsions and land theft.

On this view, the West implanted Israel as a colonial military outpost, there to subdue the native Palestinian population, and terrorise neighbouring states into submission through relentless and overwhelming displays of force. 

Palestinians cannot make peace, or reach any kind of accommodation, because Israel pursues only conquest, domination and erasure. No middle ground is possible.

The proof, note Palestinians, is Israel’s long-standing refusal to define its borders. As its military power has grown decade after decade, ever more extreme political agendas have surfaced, demanding not just Israel’s takeover of the last remnants of the Palestinian territories it illegally occupies but expansion into neighbouring states like Lebanon and Syria.

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Amy Nash-Kille knows that not everyone would choose a polyamorous family like hers. But she called it the “greatest blessing” of her life.

Nash-Kille said she has spent the last 17 years in a committed relationship with “two gentle, loving men”, sharing the costs and responsibilities of raising four kids.

But she’s concealed her family arrangement from her graduate school adviser, co-workers and even her hairdresser. She said someone harassed her family for more than a year, and she took out a restraining order to stop it before moving her family from a Colorado suburb to Portland, Oregon, in 2011.

In March, the city became the largest in the US to pass an ordinance protecting polyamorous people and multipartnered households from discrimination in housing, jobs and public accommodation. For Nash-Kille and her partners, it was “one of the greatest relief moments of our lives”.

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In April, a new flotilla set off for Gaza, once again attempting to break the Israeli siege. Late Thursday, Israeli forces intercepted 22 vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla. More than 170 participants were detained before being taken to the Greek island of Crete. Two participants were taken to Israel for questioning.

Journalist Noa Avishag Schnall covered last year’s flotilla for Drop Site, before it was illegally boarded in international waters, all participants were abducted by Israeli forces, and Noa was abused in Israeli detention. On board the Conscience, she met German journalist Anna Liedtke. Liedtke, too, was abducted by Israeli forces and raped by female guards during her time in Israeli custody, abuse she first made public in December 2025 via the women’s organization ZORA.

The brutal treatment came despite—or, perhaps, because of—the fact that Liedtke is from Germany, a country unapologetically supportive of Israel no matter what it does to Palestinians or even to Germans, and Schnall is American and Jewish, a fluent Hebrew speaker of Yemeni descent who had renounced her Israeli citizenship. The detention of those aboard the Conscience straddled negotiations over the so-called ceasefire, likely also contributing to the increasingly violent mood of the Israeli guards.

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The bomb struck the busy market area of al-Nafaq Street in broad daylight.

Along that same street, three-year-old Yahya al-Malahi was leaving a relative's home with his father, dressed in new clothes for a wedding they were about to attend. They had been visiting to help prepare for the celebration. Moments later, a missile targeted a nearby police vehicle. Yahya was killed instantly.

The bombing stands as yet another reminder that the United States, once seen as a beacon of hope and humanity, is today one of the most untrustworthy nations on earth. Fn the aftermath of the attack, dust-covered vendors emerged from the smoke, scrambling to salvage what they could of their goods. Others ran towards the wounded, pulling bodies, some lifeless and others still breathing, from the wreckage. Nearby taxis screeched to a halt as passengers, many of them women, fled in panic.

It was a scene of chaos and terror, laying bare the total devaluation of Palestinian lives and echoing what the United Nations High Commissioner has described as "continuing disregard for Palestinian lives, enabled by sweeping impunity".

The people who live, walk and work along al-Nafaq, like the two million Palestinians confined to Gaza's concentration camp, have been subjected to countless, relentless attacks by the Israeli air force. This persists despite the ceasefire entered into last October, underscoring how little it has altered the conditions of daily life.

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The United States has criticised its allies for failing to stop a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that was raided and seized by Israeli naval forces earlier this week.

US Department of State spokesperson Tommy Pigott on Thursday described the flotilla as a “baseless, counterproductive stunt”.

He said Washington expects allies to "take decisive action", including denying port access, docking, departure and refuelling to vessels involved in the mission.

"This flotilla circumvents mechanisms designed to ensure humanitarian assistance is received by civilians," Pigott said in a statement.

"The United States will explore using available tools to impose consequences on those who provide support to this pro-Hamas flotilla and supports our allies’ legal actions against."

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