the Palestinian ceasefire is a lie and Israel is expanding its ethnic cleansing.
the so-called ceasefire is a scam—don’t be fooled into complacency.
Good day, spectators,
And I had planned to publish a couple of interesting articles this weekend, but as I read the news and saw a new worrying reality unfolding, it became clear that more urgent work had to take priority.
Let me be explicitly clear: Israel has not stopped its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. There is no ceasefire.
the myth.
In the past week, much of the world has been lulled into a false sense of calm by the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza. The bombs may have stopped—for now—but that illusion of peace has allowed our attention to drift. This distraction is exactly what Israel needed to continue its mission with even less scrutiny and to be quite honest, it’s exactly what it wanted.
The reports and footage I’ve seen coming out of the occupied West Bank tells us of a horrifying development. Israeli forces have ramped up their assaults, escalating what was already a brutal crackdown into an even deadlier offensive. At the same time, the so-called ceasefire in Gaza has been broken repeatedly. Videos of civilians being picked off by Israeli snipers in broad daylight are chilling proof that the violence has not stopped, only shifted.
This article offers no closure, because there is no closure to be had. It is a warning. The ethnic cleansing continues, and it will continue until it is stopped.
the reality.
To start with, the so-called ceasefire in Gaza has been anything but. While the bombs may no longer be falling, the bloodthirsty snipers have taken their place. There are numerous videos of Israeli snipers casually taking potshots at Palestinian civilians.
Video: Israeli sniper targets a civilian trying to recover a loved one who has been killed in Gaza.
Even more horrifying is that these snipers seem to be going out of their way to target those who wish to recover the bodies of their loved ones.
Video: More civilians being targeted trying to recover loved ones in Gaza.
These killings are calculated acts of terror designed to send a clear message: no place is safe when Israel is in town.
But Gaza, devastated and largely flattened, isn’t where the main focus of Israel’s genocidal project currently lies And it's not the main focus of this article either. I just wanted to let you know.
So as the world became distracted by the promise of peace, Israel shifted its operations to the occupied West Bank. Here, we see a different but equally horrifying pattern: increased raids, bombings, and relentless assaults on civilians.
Just days ago, a bombing in the West Bank targeted what Israel claims were ‘terrorists,’ though no evidence of this has been presented. The precision strikes they boast about are anything but, and the casualties, as always, include civilians.
Video: Bombing in the West Bank near Jenin refugee camp.
The most tragic and recent example of this ongoing brutality is the death of Layla Khatib, a two-year-old girl shot in the head by Israeli gunfire in the village of Al-Shohda, southern Jenin during a raid. Her life was robbed just days ago as of writing this, and her funeral, held this morning, serves as a harrowing reminder of who bears the heaviest burden of this violence.
What Israel is targeting in the West Bank is simply a population that dares to continue to exist. And it is a population that has been inflamed by watching the genocide of its compatriots for the past year. This isn’t counter-terrorism; it’s straight up ethnic cleansing under the guise of security.
it doesn’t end in Palestine.
Sadly, the Palestinian ceasefire is not the only ceasefire that Israel is making a mockery of. Breaking news from Lebanon as I write this reveals yet another sabotage of peace. Israel was supposed to withdraw from southern Lebanon by 27 January 2024. Instead, it has escalated the conflict. Today, Israeli forces began shooting Lebanese soldiers stationed in the area. Let that sink in, not Hezbollah but Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers. I am well aware that, for many of my readers, this is no surprise but I also know that not everyone is familiar with the depths to which Israel will sink in order to cement its control over the region. (See related articles at the bottom.)
What are we to make of this? For decades, Israel has operated with impunity, emboldened by unwavering support from the United States Empire. Agreements are shat upon and violations are so easily excused. Israel’s ultimate goal is a Greater Israel with no Arabs, a vision that the world continues to ignore and one that is scarily on track to being realised.
And then there’s Donald Trump to compound everything. Recently, the former U.S. president suggested that the entire population of Gaza should be relocated to Jordan or Lebanon. This proposal is both laughable and dangerous, exposing a grotesque lack of understanding of Middle Eastern geopolitics. It’s a stupid idea: uprooting over two million people from their homes and dumping them into neighbouring countries already stretched thin by decades of war and displacement.
As absurd as it sounds, such remarks aren’t just the insane ramblings of a man out of his depth. They reflect the West’s broader disregard for the humanity of Palestinians. Instead of discussing rebuilding or justice, the conversation shifts to displacing an entire population—as if that were a normal or moral thing to do. The West’s disregard for Palestinian lives becomes even starker when you imagine, for one second, that they were white. It just would not happen.
But even in the face of this neverending violence, there is hope. Palestinians have proven time and again that their resilience is unmatched. Their fight is not just against occupation—it’s against colonialism, imperialism and the normalisation of ethic cleansing. They have the support of billions of people worldwide. Working-class people across the planet are standing in solidarity with Palestine, demanding justice and an end to this genocide.
This is why you and me matter. Consistent pressure on governments to act has shifted the conversation in ways we couldn’t have imagined just a year ago. It’s not perfect but the masks have fallen, and people are tired of the lies. We simply must keep up the momentum and demand accountability. The Palestinian people are counting on us for it.
We, the billions, are their only hope.
And on that thought, I will let you go for today. Please let me know what you think in the comments below, I love the discussion.
(As always, thanks for reading and please give this post a ❤️ and restack below.)
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Read more from the spectacle…
There was never any reason to expect anything less of the most moral army in the world.
And those evil, rotten israelis and trump think that Gazans should emigrate to Egypt while they “clean up” Gaza? Of course they do. And trump, along with his waxen faced son in law is in what business? Oh, that’s right. Real estate development.