Jonathan Cook

Julian Assange is not on trial simply for his liberty and his life. He is fighting for the right of every journalist to do hard-hitting investigative journalism without fear of arrest and extradition to the United States. Assange faces 175 years in a US super-max prison on the basis of claims by Donald Trump’s administration … Continue reading “The Guardian Is Silent About the US Using the Paper To Jail Assange”

Court hearings in Britain over the US administration’s extradition case against Julian Assange begin in earnest next week. The decade-long saga that brought us to this point should appall anyone who cares about our increasingly fragile freedoms. A journalist and publisher has been deprived of his liberty for 10 years. According to UN experts, he … Continue reading “For Years, Journalists Cheered Assange’s Abuse. Now They’ve Paved His Path to a US Gulag”

When the Palestinian actor Mohammed Bakri made a documentary about Jenin in 2002 – filming immediately after the Israeli army had completed rampaging through the West Bank city, leaving death and destruction in its wake – he chose an unusual narrator for the opening scene: a mute Palestinian youth. Jenin had been sealed off from … Continue reading “How Israel Wages War on Palestinian History”

If there is one conclusion to draw from the agreement this week between Israel and the United Arab Emirates – with Israel temporarily “suspending” its threat to illegally annex parts of the West Bank in return for “full normalization” with the Gulf state – it is this: the peace industry is back in business. But … Continue reading “How the Israel-UAE Deal Puts the Bogus Peace Industry Back in Business”

Israel is roiling with angry street protests that local observers have warned could erupt into open civil strife – a development Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be encouraging. For weeks, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been the scene of large, noisy demonstrations outside the official residences of Mr. Netanyahu and his public security minister, … Continue reading “Can Israelis Broaden Their Protests Beyond Netanyahu?”

The Jewish National Fund, established more than 100 years ago, is perhaps the most venerable of the international Zionist organizations. Its recent honorary patrons have included prime ministers, and it advises UN forums on forestry and conservation issues. It is also recognized as a charity in dozens of western states. Generations of Jewish families, and … Continue reading “Israel’s Jewish National Fund Is Uprooting Palestinians – Not Planting Trees”

An Israeli diplomat filed a complaint last week with police after he was pulled to the ground in Jerusalem by four security guards, who knelt on his neck for five minutes as he cried out: “I can’t breathe.” There are obvious echoes of the treatment of George Floyd, an African-American killed by police in Minneapolis … Continue reading “Chokehold on Diplomat Exposes Israel’s Special Type of Apartheid”

In the near-two decades since the International Criminal Court was set up to try the worst violations of international human rights law, it has faced harsh criticism for its highly selective approach to the question of who should be put on trial. Created in 2002, the court, it was imagined, would act as a deterrent … Continue reading “Israel and the US Step Up Efforts To Intimidate the Hague War Crimes Court”

The Palestinians of Gaza know all about lockdowns. For the past 13 years, some two million of them have endured a closure by Israel more extreme than anything experienced by almost any other society – including even now, as the world hunkers down to try to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. Israel has been carrying out … Continue reading “If Coronavirus Overwhelms Gaza, Israel Alone Is to Blame”

Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party, abandoned the central plank of his platform at the weekend – that he would never sit in a coalition with Benjamin Netanyahu, who has led Israel continuously for the past 11 years. A former military general, Gantz justified his dramatic change of course under cover of … Continue reading “Gantz Fears Something More Than Coronavirus or Netanyahu: Palestinians”