In January, far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir left the Israeli government in protest of the Gaza ceasefire. Now that the genocide has fully restarted, Ben-Gvir is back and his shared interests with Benjamin Netanyahu have never been clearer.
Israel was backed into a corner on the eve of its return to war because Hamas was forcing Netanyahu to honor the ceasefire deal he had signed. Confronted with his own internal political challenges, Netanyahu’s only choice was to blow up the deal.
Mahmoud Khalil writes from an ICE detention facility: “The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.”
After two weeks of systematic Israeli violations of the tenuous ceasefire agreement, Israel has officially resumed its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. Despite Israel’s killing of over 400 people, Hamas remains committed to completing the ceasefire.
Hamas said that it would release Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander and the bodies of four deceased Israeli captives. The announcement has backed Israel into a corner in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations.
Palestinians in Gaza’s border areas have continued to be killed and injured on a daily basis since the ceasefire began in mid-January. A resident of Shuja’iyya tells Mondoweiss, “The war has not stopped, quite the opposite. The war intensified.”
Helyeh Doutaghi was placed on leave by Yale Law School after being falsely accused of “terrorism” over her support for Palestine. She says her case reflects the new era of Zionist McCarthyism and that this repression reveals an empire in decline.
The Trump administration’s direct negotiations with Hamas have broken precedent and angered Israel. Envoy Adam Boehler defended them to CNN saying the U.S. is “not an agent of Israel,” but how much daylight exists between the allies?
As part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Amir Abu Raddaha was freed from Israeli prison after 23 years. He spoke to Mondoweiss about his time behind bars, and the horrific conditions of Palestinian prisoners since October 7.
The fight to free Mahmoud Khalil is not merely about preserving First Amendment rights, it is about whether we will allow our government to criminalize resistance to its complicity in human rights abuses and genocide.