Bulletin N°56 avril 2025 Zionists continue assassinations and arbitrary arrests
Two journalists murdered
Al-Jazeera correspondent Hossam Shabat and Palestine Today reporter Mohammad Mansour were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon, March 24.
Mohammad Mansour was killed in an Israeli bombing of a house near Khan Younis in the south of the enclave. Hossam Shabat had announced his colleague's death before being killed himself.
Hossam Shabat's car was targeted by a drone in Beit Lahia (northern Gaza Strip). It bore the TV stamp and the channel's logo, and was hit in the back. The journalist's body was found lying on the ground nearby.
The Palestinian Journalists' Union " condemns in the strongest terms the heinous crime perpetrated by the Israeli occupation " against these journalists " through direct targeting . " " This atrocious war crime aims to suppress the truth and terrorize all those who carry the message of freedom of expression , " the union's statement continued .
On March 15, four journalists were killed in an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, where they were working for a charity. Since October 7, 2023, more than 206 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip. Despite the increasing liberation of Zionist genocidal speech, the colonial state does not want the world to see it and systematically attacks journalists to prevent "live genocide" from being seen.
In a final message he wrote in case he was killed (he had been targeted by the colonial occupation army), Hossam Shabat said in part: " If you are reading this, it means I have been killed, probably targeted, by the Israeli occupation forces. When all this started, I was only 21 years old, a student with dreams like everyone else. For the past 18 months, I have dedicated every moment of my life to my people. I have documented the horrors of northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they were trying to bury. I slept on sidewalks, in schools, in tents, wherever I could. Every day was a battle to survive. I endured hunger for months, but I never left my people ."
The Revolutionary Communist Party salutes the memory of Hossam, Mohammad, and all the other Palestinian journalists who died for wanting to practice their profession when so many parasites on Western TV sets ignore them or spit in their faces without ever being anything other than relays of Zionist propaganda in particular and the dominant ideology in general.
A filmmaker lynched
His beating and kidnapping are similar to those suffered by many Palestinians. But the symbolism behind the disappearance of filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, co-director of the documentary No Other Land , makes him one of the new symbols of the repression instituted by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians . Two of them, along with the director, suffered the same fate at the same time. On Monday, March 24, a group of settlers attacked Hamdan Ballal's house. The attackers were armed with sticks, knives, and an assault rifle. Five American activists present at the scene managed to reach their vehicle, all of whose windows were shattered by stones . Hamdan Ballal was beaten and, while he was injured and bleeding, soldiers entered the ambulance he had called and arrested him. " Hamdan spent the night handcuffed and blindfolded in an (Israeli) military base, while two soldiers beat him, leaving him on the ground ," said his lawyer, Leah Tsemel, after speaking with him. He was then detained at the police station in Kiryat Arba , an Israeli settlement. On Tuesday, March 25, the film's other co-director, Yuval Abraham, announced his release. The footage shows him being treated in a medical unit.
Why was he so targeted, both by fascist settlers and the colonial army? Simply because the film No Other Land recreates the reality of the atrocities committed by the occupying army and settlers in the West Bank village of Massafer Yatta, and the fierce resistance of Palestinians rebuilding at night the homes destroyed during the day by colonial bulldozers. The film, which received an Oscar on March 2, is a slap in the face to the Zionists and their narrative. Once again, showing the truth in any way is an affront to the Zionist colonialists because it helps shed light on who they are and what they do. No Other Land contributed to the ostracism of nations within the Zionist entity, and from their perspective, this is unforgivable.
Repression and silence continue in the USA
Mahmoud Khalil, born in Syria to Palestinian refugee parents and a graduate of Columbia University's School of International Relations, was one of the spokespeople for the movement last spring, which made Columbia University the epicenter of the wave of pro-Gaza encampments.
A legal permanent resident of the United States, he was taken into an unmarked car on the evening of Saturday, March 8, by plainclothes officers without an arrest warrant. They indicated that his student visa had been revoked, but when it was pointed out to them that he had a green card, which signifies permanent residence on American soil, they said that this was the document that had been canceled, as if they were unaware of their target's status. Although Mahmoud Khalil has not been charged with any crime, he was transferred to a Louisiana prison, far from his lawyers and his American wife, who had not heard from him for nearly two days. He came from Syria, under deportation proceedings, even though his green card was supposed to protect him against such an eventuality.
His arrest sent shockwaves through civil liberties advocates and supporters of the Palestinian cause, and prompted protests outside the campus.
The arrest was followed by retaliatory measures against other Columbia students. Sanctions were imposed against several student protesters, ranging from multi-year suspensions to temporary revocation of degrees and expulsion. These extremely severe sanctions followed closely on the heels of Mahmoud Khalil's arrest. They resulted from a decision by the Columbia University Judicial Council, which issued its findings on March 13, 2025, five days after the arrest.
The new US administration has cut funding to the university by eliminating $400 million in federal funding. To be able to negotiate, Columbia's management must show its credentials. In addition to these sanctions, the government's prerequisite, as stated in a long letter published by the New York Times, is the following:
― to “ abolish the University Judicial Council, centralize all disciplinary procedures within the Office of the President, which must be empowered to suspend or expel students with an appeal procedure. ”;
― to “ promulgate a definition of anti-Semitism ”;
― to “ ensure that Columbia’s Security Service has full law enforcement powers, including the arrest and expulsion of agitators who promote an unsafe or hostile work or study environment, or who interfere with the operation of the university ”;
― and finally to “ place the MESAAS (Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies) department under academic receivership for a minimum of five years and to provide a comprehensive admissions reform plan, with specific dates, which must include a strategy to reform undergraduate, international, and graduate admissions practices to comply with federal law and policy .”
Although the university president claims that Columbia will maintain its "values," any observer understands that this is a form of supervision and the organization of a ban on thinking, speaking, and acting contrary to the doctrine of US Big Capital, particularly with regard to Palestine and colonization.
An article by Gideon Levy
On March 21, the Haaretz columnist wrote a courageous and powerful article challenging his country's media . We quote extensively from it.
“ To the list of crimes, we must now add, more than ever, those of the Israeli media. Israel knowingly and maliciously violates a signed international agreement and launches a savage and unbridled attack on the Gaza Strip. In its first move, Israel killed more than 400 Palestinians, including 174 children. Israel recognizes that this time the targets are not terrorists but civilians, which constitutes an explicit war crime. It kills for the sake of killing, with the aim of restarting the war and preserving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, long after the quota of revenge and punishment for the October 7, 2023, attack has been met. None of this will be covered by the Israeli media. […] Amputees in makeshift wheelchairs drag themselves in the sand, while elderly people lie on car hoods. Families who lost loved ones in the initial fighting are now losing those who remain. The terror of the bombings and the fear of death weigh on everyone. None of this has appeared in the bulk of Israeli media coverage over the past two days. Only the hostages and the dangers they face in Gaza have been mentioned. Concern for them is understandable and justified, but more than two million other people live in Gaza. What about these people? Are their lives expendable simply because they are not Israeli? Are they all terrorists, even the unborn children of pregnant women fleeing for their lives? Shouldn't their suffering be reported? Shouldn't their fate be known ?
But the most striking and realistic part of the article is the passage before the end where Gideon Levy discusses not only the media , but the whole of Israeli society.
" If the Israeli media had fulfilled their fundamental role and shown the reality of Gaza over the past two days, it is unlikely that the sky would have fallen or that opinions would have changed. The Palestinian child—the orphan, the amputee—has not yet been born to touch the heart of the Israeli mainstream, which finds justification and legitimacy in every injustice.
Many Israelis believe that Gaza deserves all this, that no one there is truly innocent, that Gazans are responsible for their own fate. But the privilege of looking the other way—and especially of refusing to show—can no longer be tolerated. You have killed, you have destroyed, you have expelled, you have razed, at least show it. Where does this audacity to conceal come from? From this brazen refusal to look ?
He ends with a poignant appeal that speaks volumes about the state of Zionist society.
“ Go ahead, celebrate in front of every traumatized Gazan orphan, rejoice in front of every destroyed home, laugh in front of every father kissing the body of his dead son, rejoice in front of every amputee in a wheelchair, sing your songs of victory. But at least show—and see—what we have done. Show what we continue to do to them. ”
We are presented with a completely realistic picture of the damage caused by Zionist ideology within the very society it has built and shaped.
In conclusion
Gideon Levy's text confirms that the fundamental problem, the very source of the colonial conflict, of the war of national liberation, is indeed Zionism. All the focus on "far-right Netanyahu" is a mistake or a distortion of reality. The desire to eradicate the Palestinian people is not only that of Netanyahu, but of all Zionists, since the founding project.
A just peace means the dismantling of settlements, the return of refugees, and an independent Palestinian state. The existence of a colonial state prevents such a peace. The workers of Israel cannot be free if they do not break with Zionism and continue to find themselves objectively and actively in the camp of the colonizers.
We need a state where all people enjoy equal rights and can live together, regardless of their origins - in this case, a democratic Palestinian state.
The Revolutionary Communist Party supports more than ever the fundamental demands of the Palestinian national liberation movement: a complete end to Zionist military aggression, the right of return for refugees, and the formation of a Palestinian state on the territory of Mandatory Palestine.