The past year and a half, the world has watched an unrelenting genocidal war, including displacement and death by missiles and weaponized starvation of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel with the “ironclad” support of the United States. To add fuel to the fire, Israel has escalated conflict in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and heightened hostilities with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Since its inception as a state on May 14, 1948, Israel has flaunted political impunity and an “above the law” posture on the world stage. Backed by the military might, money, and global influence of the United States, critics of both countries argue that they are pariahs in the Middle East.
“If we look at the situation in its historical context, and this is an appropriate time to do that because a week from today (May 8) is Nakba Day,” said Richard Becker, author and political analyst with the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (Act Now to End War and Racism Coalition).
Nakba means “catastrophe,” when 750,000 Palestinians were evicted by means of terror from their homeland in 1948 to make way for the State of Israel, explained Mr. Becker.
May 15 marks Nakba Day, an annual observance of programs and mass demonstrations in memory of the settler colonial violation of Palestinians. The situation of Israel should be understood as a European settler project, Mr. Becker told The Final Call.
“But it was a settler project which could not have succeeded without the support of, first the British Empire, later France … down to today, it’s the United States that makes it possible for this situation to exist,” he added.
Israel acts with reckless impunity as the world witnesses daily atrocities since the war began raging on Oct. 7, 2023. Since then, the United Nations said 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced. In April 2025 alone, nearly 500,000 Palestinians were newly displaced as Israeli military operations intensified, said the Palestine Chronicle.
By Final Call presstime, Israeli occupier forces have slaughtered over 52,000 Palestinians and wounded over 188,000, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry provided by Al Jazeera tracking. Other reports said the figures may be much higher.
Notwithstanding the carnage and displacement, on May 5, Israeli lawmakers unanimously voted to allow a complete military takeover and the reoccupation of the entire Gaza Strip. The law authorizes the relocation of Palestinians to the southern part of Gaza.
However, the new law for Gaza mirrors similar laws enacted in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Observers, critics and human rights activists argue that the measure facilitates ethnic cleansing and forced transfer of Palestinians, which international law forbids.
Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other legal bodies have warned that forced transfers would constitute war crimes.
“It’s kind of what we’ve been saying all along … Israel wants every single inch of the land,” said Husam Marajda, co-chair of the Chicago chapter of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN). “They want more … Lebanon … Syria … there’s no really stopping them if it wasn’t for the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance,” he added.
In early May, Israel launched attacks in Syria, with one strike that landed 1,640 feet from the presidential palace in Damascus, reported Al Jazeera. Israel also recently struck the main airport in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on May 5. And, the Israeli government also continues its threats toward Iran.
The Palestinian resistance movement, from its beginning as an independent movement in the 1960s, always viewed their enemy as having three heads, said Mr. Brecker.
“One was the Zionist movement, which created the State of Israel. The second was the reactionary Arab regimes—the ones that are conservative (and) aligned with Washington. And third, and most importantly of all, was world imperialism headed by the U.S.,” Mr. Becker explained.
The Palestinians need the solidarity and support of Arab countries, which have been “divided artificially” over the years in the interest of imperialism. But the Arab people in the streets are with the Palestinians, and are opposed to Israel, America, and Arab governments.
“But in most cases, those (Arab) regimes, with the exception of a couple, are in the pocket of imperialism, and therefore they are also afraid of the masses,” reasoned Mr. Becker. The demonstrations will continue in the streets, he said.
Why marginalized Americans should pay attention
For its part, Washington continues its “proverbial wink” in the face of Israel’s violations. Its annual $3.8 billion subsidy check remains intact, and U.S. weapons transfers to Tel Aviv continue.
Besides the fact that U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, the scale of Israel’s atrocities should concern Black people in America, also a colonial settler state since its founding.
In words of warning and divine guidance, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, said the trouble seen in distant lands will come to the shores of America, particularly issues involving U.S. errant foreign policy.
“So, when you say, “I ain’t got nothing to do with what’s going on in the Middle East,” shh, shh, shh! You better listen! You better wake up! Because what you see over there is being planned over here,”
Minister Farrakhan warned in his Saviours’ Day 2024 message in Detroit titled, “What Does Allah, The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?”
During his message, Minister Farrakhan also explained why what is happening to the Palestinians is important. “Brothers and sisters, that is our family. You may not think that, but it’s okay; you have to grow beyond yourself, and you have to know there are people in this world that are connected to you far beyond your own Black skin,” he said.
During another portion of his pivotal message, he stated, “Who could do to another human being what is being done to our Palestinian family, and let it happen and not think of a humanitarian crisis? The crisis is not just what is happening to the Palestinians.
The crisis involves what is happening to you, what is happening to me; what is happening to human beings who are more concerned with what they will lose by standing up, rather than standing up and facing the consequence of their stand, knowing that God will bring them out victorious.”
Minister Farrakhan and his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, said these times were foretold in the scriptures, which say there is no peace for the wicked and the world is in a time of reaping what it has sown.
Israel and America have sown trouble and are reaping the whirlwind of trouble. Israel has a goal for “Greater Israel (Eretz Israel)” that is emboldened by international inaction and America’s unfettered support. Minister Farrakhan also explained the plans of Israel and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu has a vision of Eretz Israel. Several states over there, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, they intend to annex that to what is called ‘Greater Israel.’ Do you know about that?
That man already has over 400 nuclear bombs sitting in the desert in Dimona, Israel, under where my Hebrew Israelite family stayed,” Minister Farrakhan said.
“That’s a lot of weapons. And they, now, feel that they are the power in the Middle East, and they are. They feel that they can manipulate America, because they don’t respect (former President) Joe Biden. And they have not respected any American president; in the last 40 years, they have manipulated every president of the United States of America,” he continued.
“It’s not a decision that they just made,” said Mr. Marajda about Israel’s plans to expand its territory. “It’s a decision they made a long time ago,” he added.
Israeli officials vowed to implement the Gaza takeover after the scheduled three-nation visit to the region by U.S. President Donald Trump, scheduled to take place between May 13-16.
It was reported that the president was slated to go to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Israel is not included, and the three Gulf nations have aligned themselves with America on ceasefire talks concerning Gaza and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Netanyahu government has summoned tens of thousands of military reservists to shore up the expanded offensive in Gaza. In response, human rights experts slammed Israel’s takeover plan as widening the door for more slaughter and not adding to Israel’s supposedly stated goal of retrieving Israeli captives taken at the war’s inception.
“There is no reason to believe that doubling down on military strategies, which, for a year and eight months, have not led to a durable resolution, including the release of all hostages, will now succeed,” insisted United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
In a joint statement released May 7, UN experts demanded immediate international intervention in the Palestinian situation. “While States debate terminology—is it or is it not genocide?
Israel continues its relentless destruction,” the statement said. “No one is spared—not the children, persons with disabilities, nursing mothers, journalists, health professionals, aid workers, or hostages,” said the experts.
They noted that since breaking a ceasefire agreement signed in January, Israel killed hundreds of Palestinians, many daily, peaking on March 18 with 600 casualties in 24 hours, with 400 of them children. “This is one of the most ostentatious and merciless manifestations of the desecration of human life and dignity,” the experts said.
Weaponizing food, medicine and life-sustaining aid
The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues deteriorating due to ongoing Israeli airstrikes and a tight blockade, leading to significant casualties and displacement. Israel has blocked the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies for more than two months, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
“For nine weeks now, Israeli authorities have blocked all supplies from entering Gaza, no matter how vital to people’s survival,” said a statement issued on May 5 by HTC, the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“Bakeries have shut. Community kitchens have closed. Warehouses stand empty. Children have gone hungry,” the statement said.
Hamas rejects the Israeli claim that the blockade was to stop looting by the resistance group.
HTC advocates for “principled aid delivery” in Gaza and for Israel to cease all obstruction. Israeli officials sought to shut down the existing aid distribution system run by the UN and its affiliated partners to “have us agree to deliver supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the Israeli military,” once the government agrees to re-open crossings, read the HTC statement.
The plan means that large parts of Gaza and the most vulnerable people will continue to go without supplies. It defies fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic and military strategy.
In early May, Tom Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, said Israel is inflicting “cruel collective punishment” on the Palestinians, flagrantly flouting international law.
He argued that international law is unequivocal: As the occupying power, Israel must allow humanitarian support in. “Aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip,” he said.
Blocking aid starves civilians, leaves them without medical support, strips them of dignity and hope, and inflicts a cruel collective punishment. “Blocking aid kills,” said Mr. Fletcher.
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