UK has billions in contracts with firms tied to illegal Israeli settlements

Al Jazeera investigation reveals UK public money flowing to companies linked to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

By Caolán Magee

28 Aug 2026

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/28/uk-has-billions-in-contracts-with-firms-tied-to-illegal-israeli-settlements

At least 17 companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank hold United Kingdom public-sector contracts worth more than 2.1 billion pounds ($2.85bn), an Al Jazeera investigation reveals.

The findings come as more than 140 UK Labour MPs are calling on the government to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, a move Prime Minister Andy Burnham is considering.

Our analysis of procurement records, company filings and corporate disclosures found that businesses named by the United Nations over their involvement in illegal Israeli settlements – and companies those businesses ultimately own or control as subsidiaries – have secured contracts across the British public sector, including in areas such as road maintenance, transport, emergency services and driving licensing.

“Evidence is growing that the UK may be in breach of its international obligations … by continuing to contract with entities identified by the UN as providing assistance of this sort,” Stephen Humphreys, professor of international law at the London School of Economics, told Al Jazeera.

Data compiled by public procurement analysts Tussell, and shared with Al Jazeera, shows the 17 companies and entities hold 125 public-sector contracts with a combined award value of 2.129 billion pounds ($2.89bn).

Companies owned by Motorola Solutions, the United States technology and communications giant, account for more than 1.7 billion pounds ($2.3bn) of the total – the vast majority through its British subsidiary Airwave Solutions. Other contracts we reviewed are held by firms within four other corporate groups including Heidelberg Materials, a German multinational building materials company; the French engineering group Egis; the Spanish train manufacturer CAF and Chinese conglomerate Fosun.

A report by the United Nations Human Rights Office identifies the five corporate groups as involved in business activities related to illegal Israeli settlements.

Heidelberg Materials’ Israeli subsidiary owns a quarry on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, while Motorola is embedded in the security infrastructure of illegal settlements. Egis and CAF are involved in Jerusalem’s expanding light-rail network – a project activists say entrenches Israel’s control by integrating settlements into the city while further fragmenting Palestinian neighbourhoods.

Fosun International, whose subsidiary Breas Medical receives UK public money, also owns the controversial Israeli cosmetics manufacturer Ahava, which operates in the Mitzpe Shalem illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. Civil rights groups, including the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in the UK, decry Ahava as a firm that is “complicit” in the theft of Palestinian land and livelihoods.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice found Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful and said it must end “as rapidly as possible”. The court also placed obligations on other states “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

That raises questions over Britain’s continued commercial relationships with the companies identified in Al Jazeera’s investigation, observers said.

‘UK government is propping up apartheid’

Humphreys believes that Britain may also be failing to meet its legal obligations by “failing to launch its own investigation into their activities, with a view to preventing them if necessary”.

The UK has also warned businesses against bidding for construction tenders in illegal settlements.

“Businesses should not consider bidding for construction tenders,” a government statement issued this month said, warning of “legal and reputational consequences” and the risk of involvement in “serious breaches of international law”.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Al Jazeera’s findings expose a contradiction between the UK’s stated position and its economic ties.

“Quite simply, the UK government is propping up apartheid,” Corbyn told Al Jazeera. “Every day, the UK deepens its complicity in Israel’s economy of occupation and, in turn, Israel’s economy of genocide.”

The Cabinet Office told Al Jazeera that individual public authorities make decisions to exclude suppliers case-by-case for each contract. It said public procurement in the UK should not be used to boycott suppliers linked to other countries unless formal UK sanctions, embargoes or restrictions are in place.

Here’s what we found about some of the companies involved in settlement trade:

Motorola Solutions: Tech embedded in illegal settlements

The UN identifies Motorola in connection with two settlement-related activities: the “supply of security services, equipment and materials to enterprises operating in settlements” and the “provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport”.

Al Jazeera contacted the Motorola Solutions group for comment but received no response.

It is the largest beneficiary of UK public money that we investigated.

Motorola’s subsidiaries are entrusted with providing communications equipment to the emergency services in the UK. The largest contract identified by Al Jazeera is held by Airwave Solutions, a Motorola subsidiary. The Home Office awarded Airwave an extension worth 1.562 billion pounds ($2.13bn) to provide the secure communications network used by police, fire and ambulance services across England, Scotland and Wales. Motorola Solutions UK separately holds contracts worth 123.9 million pounds ($170m), including a 36.5-million-pound ($49.8m) Ministry of Defence contract for Airwave radios, accessories and airtime.

Five companies now ultimately controlled by Motorola Solutions Inc – Airwave Solutions Ltd, Motorola Solutions UK Ltd, CRFS Ltd, 3TC Software Ltd and Noggin IT Ltd – hold 91 active UK public-sector contracts worth 1.726 billion pounds ($2.3bn), according to the latest Tussell data.

Motorola Solutions Inc and its Israeli subsidiary, Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd, were included when the UN Human Rights Office first published its database of businesses involved in specified settlement-related activities in 2020. Both remain in its latest version.

Official records provide a glimpse of how the company’s technology has been embedded in settlements.

Tenders from Mateh Binyamin Regional Council and the municipal corporation of Ariel, both illegal settlements, show Motorola command-and-control technology being used in security and surveillance infrastructure.

Motorola equipment has also been bought by the Israeli Civil Administration, the military body through which Israel administers civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank.

In 2005, the UN reported that Motorola supplied surveillance systems to settlements including Hebron, Karmei Tzur and Bracha.

Motorola’s relationship with the Israeli authorities continues today. An Israeli government procurement document obtained by Al Jazeera shows Motorola Solutions Israel was awarded a 25.5-million-shekel ($8.7m) contract in May 2026 to maintain approximately 19,000 police radios and provide encryption licences until April 2028.

Heidelberg Materials: A controversial quarry on occupied land

The UN has listed Heidelberg Materials over the commercial use of natural resources in occupied Palestinian territory.

In Britain, five Heidelberg Materials companies hold 25 public-sector contracts worth 184.79 million pounds ($252m). Almost all of that – 179.03 million pounds ($244m) – is held by Hanson Quarry Products Europe Ltd. Its contracts include 60 million pounds ($81.9m) from Westmorland and Furness Council for road surfacing and highway works between 2024 and 2027, and a 50-million-pound ($68.3m) surfacing maintenance contract with Somerset Council.

Its Israeli subsidiary, Hanson Israel, owns the Nahal Raba quarry, south of Qalqilya in the West Bank. The quarry sits on land belonging to the Palestinian villages of az-Zawiya and Rafat, according to Who Profits.

An official Civil Administration planning notice reviewed by Al Jazeera shows a proposal was approved to expand the site.

Who Profits, a group that researches links between the private sector and the economy in the Israeli-occupied territories, said the approval was granted on May 28, 2025.

Heidelberg told Al Jazeera that in 2023, Hanson Israel “ceased all activities at the Nahal Raba quarry and the associated asphalt plant and ready-mix concrete plant”, adding that only security personnel are present on site.

Egis: Selling transport infrastructure that supports settlements

French engineering group Egis provides another type of connection via transport infrastructure linking illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem with the rest of the city.

The UN lists Egis in connection with the “provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport”.

Egis’s own material shows that its involvement in Jerusalem’s expanding light-rail network continues today, with the company website advertising a job for an engineering expert based in Jerusalem on its light-rail projects.

Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan procurement documents from 2017 also identify Egis Rail as its general consultant, responsible for supervising and coordinating planning and design work on the Blue and Green lines.

Jerusalem’s light rail crosses into occupied East Jerusalem and links illegal Israeli settlements there with West Jerusalem. UN reports have described the railway as “additional infrastructure serving the illegal settlement network” and said it further isolates occupied East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied West Bank.

Egis told Al Jazeera it “formally expressed its disagreement with this inclusion” in the UN database.

In Britain, five companies and entities controlled by Egis hold six public-sector contracts worth 133.60 million pounds ($182.4m). Almost the entire amount comes from a single contract, with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency awarding Egis Projects UK Ltd a 133.23-million-pound ($181.9m) contract for enforcement services across Britain. Egis businesses also hold UK public contracts, including Galson Sciences, Helios Technology, Egis Transport Solutions and architecture practice WestonWilliamson+Partners.

CAF: Constructing project to continue into 2027

Spanish train manufacturer CAF is also involved in Jerusalem’s light-rail network. The company has disclosed that the 1.8-billion-euro ($2.10bn) Jerusalem project was awarded in 2019 to TransJerusalem J-Net Ltd, a firm owned 50 percent by CAF and 50 percent by Israeli construction business Shapir.

CAF said the project includes construction of the Green Line and extension of the existing Red Line, “which partially run through East Jerusalem”. The construction phase is expected to continue until 2027.

The UN identifies CAF over the “supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements” and the “use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes”.

Al Jazeera contacted CAF for comment but received no response.

Meanwhile, CAF has an extensive relationship with Britain’s public sector, including supplying trams for one of the country’s major urban networks. The West Midlands Combined Authority awarded CAF an 83.5-million-pound ($114m) contract for a new generation of trams for the West Midlands Metro. The contract runs until December 2027, according to Tussell data.

Fosun: Owner of a cosmetics company accused of excavating Dead Sea mud in occupied territory

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International is identified by the UN under the category covering the commercial use of natural resources, particularly water and land.

Its connection to the occupied West Bank centres on Israeli cosmetics manufacturer Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories. Fosun itself announced in April 2016 that it had agreed to acquire Ahava for 290 million shekels ($76.8m).

Fosun’s subsequent statutory reporting recorded Ahava as 99.46-percent owned.

A European Commission statement in 2018 said Ahava “does have operations in the settlement Mitzpeh Shalem, located in Occupied Territories”.

According to the Quaker-founded organisation, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), repeated site visits confirmed that Ahava’s former factory in the illegal Mitzpe Shalem settlement remained operational as of 2026.

The group said Dead Sea mud was excavated in the occupied Palestinian territory and initially processed at the site before being transferred to Ein Gedi for further production.

In Britain, Breas Medical, which is ultimately owned through Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical by Fosun International, holds two public-sector contracts worth 1.29 million pounds ($1.76m). Fosun International is the controlling shareholder of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical.

Al Jazeera contacted Fosun for comment but received no response.

Islamophobia has become Israel's Trojan Horse to win over westerners

Andreas Krieg

26 August 2026 

Netanyahu and his ministers now work to turn European fear of Muslims into political capital

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/how-islamophobia-has-become-israel-trojan-horse-win-over-westerners

Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli has explained his own strategy more candidly than any critic could. 

Antisemitism, he told an interviewer, does not much interest the average European or American, whereas fear of "radical Islam" interests them "very, very much", and Israel therefore needs "to take advantage of that".

Here is a senior cabinet minister admitting that Islamophobia has become a Trojan Horse for Israel to win over European and American hearts and minds. 

And it is the clearest account yet of what his ministry has become under Benjamin Netanyahu; an office that once existed to protect Jewish communities abroad now works to turn European fear of Muslims into political capital for the Israeli government.

His ministry was built for the opposite work.

Diaspora affairs meant supporting Jewish communities, taking their guidance, defending them against the forces that genuinely threaten them. 

But while his predecessors asked what would keep Jews safe, Chikli asks what narrative can be weaponised to make an easier sell. The most effective selling point, he has concluded, is not Israel at all but fear of somebody else.

A civilisational war

Since its genocide in Gaza, the old case for Israel on its own merits has grown harder to make, and a new one has slipped into its place. Support Israel, the argument runs, because Israel is fighting the people coming for you next. 

In this narrative Israel becomes the forward operating base of a civilisational war, the frontier of what Chikli, in a 2024 interview with Jewish Insider, called the "Judeo-Christian world" set against a "red-green alliance" of the progressive left and Islam. 

He deliberately blurs the line between confronting violent groups and Islam tapping into the playbook of far-right populism, which is on the rise across the West. 

The company he keeps confirms as much.

Chikli has courted Marine Le Pen's National Rally in France, Spain's far-right Vox party, the Sweden Democrats, and Dutch populist Geert Wilders, every one of them a party built on hostility to immigration and to Islam. 

Paradoxically, the ministry designed to protect Jews from antisemitism has become a ministry of subversion, ripening the very audiences and networks on the far right that have been on the very forefront of Jew hate globally. 

In October 2025, days after two Jews were killed, one of them by police during armed response, outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, Chikli invited the English agitator Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and who has accumulated multiple criminal convictions and prison terms over the past two decades, to Israel, and hailed him as "a courageous leader on the front line against radical Islam".

Those protesting the visit at the time were not the progressive left Chikli likes to blame, but British Jews themselves.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council called Robinson "a thug who represents the very worst of Britain", and they dismissed Chikli as "a diaspora minister in name only" who had ignored the community he claims to serve. Jews in whose name he claims to act wanted no part in this endeavour. 

One prejudice in two coats

What Chikli followers often miss is that antisemitism and Islamophobia do not compete for a fixed ration of public sympathy.

They are the one prejudice in two coats. Each rest on the same premise that a minority may be judged and feared and shut out for its religion.

So a serious campaign against antisemitism would widen the taboo against demonising anyone at all, because that taboo is the only thing that has ever kept Jews safe.

Instead, Chikli has been narrowing it. His bargain invites his own minority to buy the illusion of a little safety by leasing itself to the forces massing against another.

History is unkind to any bargain with fascists. Minorities rarely prosper once a society begins sorting itself by who truly belongs, and the movement aimed at Muslims today has no reason to stop there.

Europe's far-right traditions have a habit of circling back to the Jews. Robinson proved the point within the week, railing online against "elitist Jews". My bogeyman’s enemy turns out to be still my enemy.

Then there are the values he claims to guard. Chikli casts Israel as the custodian of "Judeo-Christian civilisation", of truth, free choice and human dignity.

Take him at his word, and the case falls apart on his own terms. A state cannot preach the sanctity of civilisation while it normalises the dehumanising and mass slaughter of Palestinians.

It cannot raise the banner of religious liberty while it feeds movements whose appeal begins and ends in suspicion of another faith.

Israel’s "Ministry of Subversion" now sits closer to an illiberal, nationalist Europe than to the liberal order that once made Jewish life in the diaspora secure.

The useful idiots

Meanwhile, those on Europe’s far right are more than just useful idiots played by Israel. Europe's populists collect an asset money cannot buy - namely a Jewish endorsement that shields them from the charge of antisemitism and lets them dress hostility to Muslims as plain realism.

Netanyahu's government collects politicians who will defend its war in Gaza and stand against Palestinian advocacy. Fear of Muslims is the coin they trade in. 

In his interview Chikli did not suggest Europeans need to fight antisemitism but swap one fear for another to fill a deep-seated European yearning for a significant other against whom to define its identity.

An institution built to bind Israel to Jewish communities has decided that the easy road to defending the undefendable rhetoric and action of the Netanyahu's government runs not through making Israel more persuasive but through making Europeans more afraid.

And it asks Jews to hand their safety to the very politics of collective suspicion their own history should have taught the West to dread.

No one has ever defeated the hatred of one people by bankrolling the hatred of another. 

Sino-American Relations: From Fragile Thaw to Renewed Friction

by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Aug 27, 2026

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/sino-american-relations-from-fragile-thaw-to-renewed-friction/

While the tenor of U.S.-China relations cooled somewhat from the hysteria of Donald Trump’s first term and the Joe Biden years, recent events have made clear how thin that veneer of stability remains. President Trump’s May 2026 state visit to Beijing and the planned September 24 White House meeting with Xi Jinping briefly suggested a shift toward “strategic stability.” Reciprocal visits returned to the agenda, and open talk of full decoupling subsided. That moment already looks precarious.

This week the Trump administration expanded its Iran-related sanctions campaign—“Operation Economic Outcast”—and swept up dozens of smaller mainland Chinese and Hong Kong entities involved in oil shipping, logistics, procurement, and related networks. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the package as part of an effort to sever Iran’s remaining economic lifelines after months of military pressure failed to resolve cow Tehran. Beijing responded within hours. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian denounced the measures as “illicit” unilateral sanctions with “no basis in international law,” warned that they would heighten tensions and disrupt the global economic order, and declared that China would “take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests.”

This deterioration in relations after Washington moved against Beijing is regrettable and unnecessary, though frankly not surprising. Indeed, even as the rhetoric of constructive engagement passed back and forth, it did not really prevent the machinery of economic coercion from grinding forward on both sides. Restrictions on advanced technology, drones, robotics, rare earths, and other strategic goods remained in place. Washington continued to add Chinese firms to various lists; Beijing answered with its own export controls, procurement bans, and countermeasure lists.

Unfortunately, the softer language of summit coexisted with the same assumption that has driven Washington’s policy toward Beijing for years: that American security requires constraining China’s economic rise wherever possible.

To be sure, China is an authoritarian state whose leadership’s interests often diverge from those of Washington’s. But that does not make every Chinese commercial success a national-security threat, nor does it prove Beijing seeks global domination. Much of its behavior is the pursuit of prosperity, security, and regional influence—goals Washington itself pursued for decades. And for its efforts at containment, Washington’s pressure has frequently produced the opposite of its intended effect: accelerated Chinese technological self-reliance, deeper ties with Russia and other non-aligned states, and a domestic narrative that the United States seeks to keep China poor and subordinate. The cycle is self-reinforcing. Washington reads Chinese pushback as hostility; Beijing reads American containment as confirmation that a multipolar world order is unacceptable.

Washington—or rather, Trump—should wake up.

Beijing holds real leverage that Washington cannot wish away. China’s dominant position in rare-earth processing, critical minerals, and key manufacturing nodes gives it tools that bite American industry and allies far more quickly than secondary sanctions on mid-tier trading firms bite China. Youth unemployment and a slowing domestic economy are genuine problems for Beijing, yet they do not translate into leverage for Trump. Beijing has repeatedly shown it can absorb economic pain and retaliate asymmetrically—export restrictions, procurement blacklists, regulatory harassment of U.S. firms—while framing the conflict as American overreach. Domestic difficulties have not forced Xi to accept Washington’s preferred terms; if anything, external pressure strengthens the Party’s narrative of resilience under siege.

The Iran campaign illustrates the danger most clearly. China remains the largest purchaser of Iranian oil. Pressuring Beijing to abandon those purchases, or expanding secondary sanctions from smaller intermediaries to major Chinese banks or refiners, will not produce a more compliant Tehran. It risks converting an already costly Middle East confrontation into a fresh source of bilateral friction at the precise moment when both sides claim to seek stability and an end to conflict. One plausible side-effect is already visible in the diplomatic calendar: the September 24 White House visit, intended as the reciprocal high point after Trump’s Beijing trip, now hangs under a cloud. Beijing has every incentive to signal displeasure by postponing, narrowing, or canceling Xi’s travel if it concludes that Washington is simply exporting its Iran policy into the China relationship. Even if the meeting proceeds, the atmosphere will be colder and the deliverables thinner.

Great-power diplomacy does not require resolving every disagreement. It does require the ability to compartmentalize them. Washington’s simultaneous economic campaigns against Iran and against Chinese commercial actors make compartmentalization harder, not easier. The result is less strategic stability and more tit-for-tat escalation that neither side fully controls or wants.

None of this requires naïveté about the Chinese Communist Party. It requires recognizing that Washington cannot micromanage the energy purchases, technology policies, and commercial choices of a peer competitor halfway around the world without inviting reciprocal coercion. China is not disappearing. Relative power continues to shift in a multipolar direction. Washington’s post-unipolar habits of militarized economic pressure and maximalist demands are poorly suited to this reality.

A more stable relationship would begin with accepting that China will not be defeated or subordinated on American terms, and that peaceful coexistence, mutually beneficial commerce, and a narrower definition of vital interests are the realistic alternatives to perpetual friction. The late-August sanctions round and Beijing’s swift vow of retaliation suggest that path is narrowing, not widening. Whether the September summit survives intact—or becomes a casualty of Washington’s merging of its Iran war and China policy—will say more about the future of the relationship than any communiqué.

Mark Ruffalo and an Australian court decision reignite antisemitism debate

Khaled Al Khawaldeh

August 26, 2026

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2655917/world

DUBAI: Over the weekend, Mark Ruffalo, the American actor best known for his portrayal of the Hulk, made headlines worldwide with a post that pushed back against what he alleged was a smear campaign designed to paint him as an antisemite.

“The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people,” Ruffalo said in a post on X which has since garnered over 800,000 likes.

Ruffalo’s statement came in response to an exchange between himself and Paramount Skydance which, in a statement on Saturday, had accused him of invoking “antisemitic tropes” in his criticism of its controversial merger with Warner Bros. Discovery which would see it take control of major media institutions including CNN.

Paramount Skydance is led by CEO David Ellison, and Oracle, the technology company, is run by Ellison’s father, Larry, which has supplied software to the Israel Defense Forces, Ministry of Defense, air force, government, and police for decades.

Shmulik Hauser, head of Oracle’s sales division, told Israeli news site Ynet last year that supporting Israel was in their “DNA” and Oracle executive vice-chair, Safra Catz, is on video describing the “really profoundly scary technology” it provided to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, events.

Ruffalo had implied in a string of posts over the last week that the merger had the potential of stifling editorial freedoms and potentially introducing Israeli bias into public American discourse.

“Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts, and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary,” Ruffalo said.

The accusations against Ruffalo are only the latest in a long spate of incidents which have seen anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist sentiment labelled as antisemitic often resulting in the censure, removal and deplatforming of individuals from employment, academic postings and positions of power.

In Australia there has been mounting pressure following a December 2025 terror attack on a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s famed Bondi beach that killed 15 people. The attack prompted the launch of a nationwide inquiry which has made calls for increasingly harsher and more constrictive measures to combat rising antisemitism.

According to Ramia Abdo Sultan, a senior Australian lawyer and executive member of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, this has been part of a concerted effort by parts of the Australian Israeli lobby to stifle criticism of Israel.

“They’re very much trying their utmost best to conflate any criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and hence extend the definition, the traditional definition of antisemitism,” Sultan told Arab News.

However, last week in Australia, a New South Wales supreme court judge drew a clear distinction between the two.

Justice Desmond Fagan ruled that condemning or cursing Israel represents political commentary directed at a government rather than hostility toward Jewish people, noting that Israel and the global Jewish community are distinct entities.

Furthermore, the court firmly rejected the notion that displaying political slogans in an area with a prominent Jewish population inherently converted them into antisemitic acts.

Fagan went on to sharply critique the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, describing its drafting as “inept” and disconnected from the everyday legal and common understanding of the term.

The IHRA working definition of antisemitism includes 11 illustrative examples, several of which address political criticism of Israel.

While widely adopted by governments and public bodies to identify anti-Jewish bias, it has drawn fierce criticism from legal scholars and human rights advocates who argue its broad phrasing conflates opposition to Israeli state policies with antisemitism.

“This particular judge made it very clear that criticism of Israel does not at all deem anything or anyone as antisemitic. And it sort of goes against the lobby’s attempts to stifle criticism,” Sultan said.

“I guess positive for the movement it’s come up even at a good time in light of the ridiculous circus of the royal commission (national inquiry).”

The judgement was passed down as part of a case that looked into political vandalism by Kurdish-Australian Mohommed Farhat, who had spray-painted several expletives about Israel onto cars in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

It represented a rare rebuke of the increasing pressure applied by Australia’s national commission for antisemitism, led by its envoy in Australia, the Jewish lawyer Jillian Segal, which has been increasingly pushing for the definition to be utilized by institutions and public bodies.

“I think there’s a very clear, calculated effort by not only the antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, but also the lobby here to push as far as they can to integrate the IHRA definition across all government levels, including obviously the media and education institutions,” Sultan said.

“Even though governments and various institutions have already adopted the IHRA wording, it doesn’t actually change the meaning of a word ‘antisemitism,’ that’s been in use for over a century really.”

Sultan said that despite what appeared to be a win, the battle against censorship was ongoing. She said she was currently petitioning against the removal of a book from a public library in Sydney. 

The book "How to Sell a Genocide" by American media analyst Adam Johnson which looks into the media's complicity in helping downplay and whitewash Israel's crimes in Gaza was temporarily removed from the shelves of Waverley Library in the city's east under formal review. Sultan described it as another example of censorship. 

The case of Ruffalo and the current legal battles in Australia show the consistent reverberation of a debate that has exploded across Western countries since October 2023.

Famed Jewish writer, Peter Beinart, has argued that this widening definition of antisemitism has become politically consequential because it can shift attention away from the substance of criticism of Israel and toward the identity or motives of the critic.

He says the issue is not whether antisemitism exists or should be confronted, but whether the term is being stretched so far that it risks shielding a state and its leaders from the kind of scrutiny normally applied to governments, militaries and powerful institutions.

Beinart has warned that the conflation of Jewish identity with the actions of the Israeli state can be damaging in two directions at once.

It can delegitimize Palestinian advocacy by treating opposition to Israeli policy as hostility to Jews, while also implying that Jewish people collectively bear responsibility for decisions made by a government many of them may not support.

“Antisemitism isn’t wrong because it is wrong to denigrate and dehumanise Jews. Antisemitism is wrong because it is wrong to denigrate and dehumanise anyone,” he wrote in an opinion piece published in The Guardian in March 2019.

“Which means, ultimately, that any effort to fight antisemitism that contributes to the denigration and dehumanisation of Palestinians is no fight against antisemitism at all.”

UNIFIL Reports Israel Wiping Out Entire Neighborhoods in Lebanon

Civilian infrastructure being destroyed in ‘systematic’ operation

by Jason Ditz | August 25, 2026 

https://news.antiwar.com/2026/08/25/unifil-reports-israel-wiping-out-entire-neighborhoods-in-lebanon/

“Systematic not selective.” That’s how UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel described the Israeli operations to destroy civilian infrastructure and residences across southern Lebanon, during her interview Monday evening on UN Radio.

Ardiel said the UNIFIL peacekeepers were documenting the extent of destruction in southern towns like Naqoura, Khiam and Kfar Kila. The destruction began March 2 with the Israeli invasion, but it continues to this day.

“It’s hard to overstate the devastation that some communities have seen. Entire neighborhoods have been wiped out,” Ardiel noted, adding that “Homes and businesses, schools and hospitals and other critical infrastructure like roads, electricity and water networks” are being targeted in the Israeli campaign.

This is not incidental damage done in the course of an invasion. Rather there is substantial evidence that this destruction is broadly the point of the invasion and occupation, with Israel displacing well over a million civilians from southern Lebanon and Defense Minister Israel Katz saying in June that certain villages, which Israeli troops were actively burning to the ground at the time, “must disappear.”

How much of Lebanon is being made to “disappear” remains a matter of substantial contention rhetorically, but Israeli forces persistently are attacking civilian targets across Lebanon’s south and setting fires in towns and even forests in the area.

A more substantial concern is that occupied southern Lebanon seems to be facing a more or less permanent Israeli occupation, and the Israeli Foreign Ministry published a map earlier this month, on a totally unrelated issue, which showed Lebanon as a substantially smaller country and much of the south as effectively Israeli territory.

Demolitions continued today, and the Israeli military set fire to olive groves in the area of Bint Jbeil. That area, like much of southern Lebanon, is heavily dependent on an agriculture economy, and the invasion has focused its attention in part on destroying farmlands and orchards.

The UNIFIL mandate is currently scheduled to expire this year. Israel is keen to see them removed from the area, though other nations are suggesting either extending that mandate or replacing them with some other multinational forces. Italy was the most recent to propose such a force, which would monitor and facilitate the ceasefire. Lebanese officials made clear they prefer to extend UNIFIL’s mandate, but said they could also support the EU-centric multinational force. Israel has broadly opposed any force in the area.

 

Pitch for defense treaty and moving US military to Israel is insane

The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) is pushing a plan that would also include expanded integration and a new $38 billion MOU

Jennifer Kavanagh

Aug 24, 2026

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-israel-integration-mou/

On August 18, Israel bombed a non-operational Syrian air base, reportedly to derail Turkish plans to deploy military forces to the installation. The move drew swift condemnation from the United States, which did not receive prior notification despite its growing support for Syria, its alliance with Turkey, and the presence of thousands of U.S. military personnel based nearby, in Jordan and other parts of the region.

Is this the behavior of a “model ally”? The Jewish Institute for National Security of America seems to think so.

The group, which promotes "strategic cooperation" between the United States and Israel, tries to defend this position in its new report, “Shifting the Center of Gravity: Transforming the U.S.-Israel Security Partnership.” It also lays out an ambitious set of proposals JINSA hopes will be part of a renewed 10-year U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding (the current one expires in 2028). JINSA wants this "final" direct aid package to include $38 billion total and be "paired with new, mostly non-monetary initiatives that deepen and expand the U.S.-Israel partnership."

The recommendations in this report — which also include signing a mutual defense pact, basing U.S. military forces in Israel, and integrating Israeli technology into U.S. homeland defense — should be rejected as threats to U.S. national security. Not only would they cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, but the prescriptions would make the United States less safe than it is today, by institutionalizing U.S. military entanglement with (and even dependence on) Israel and increasing the risk of future wars.

The Trump administration should instead let the current MoU expire in 2028 with no replacement. With a strong military and nuclear arsenal, Israel can defend itself.

The JINSA report opens by heralding Israel as “America’s most important ally,” praising its military prowess, technological capability, and willingness to project military power in pursuit of supposedly shared goals. Missing from its account of Israel’s support during Operation Epic Fury, however, is any mention of Israel’s role in starting, escalating, or widening the war. These are certainly relevant details if we are judging whether the bilateral relationship is an asset or a liability to the United States.

The report sidesteps these realities and instead moves quickly to a set of 10 proposals that it argues will take the bilateral partnership to the “next level.” From the perspective of protecting U.S. national interests, these ideas range from bad to insane.

Among the more worrying recommendations are those that suggest the United States should form a mutual defense treaty with Israel and begin shifting U.S. assets away from current positions in the Persian Gulf to a wider and permanent force posture in Israel — including a new CENTCOM headquarters and a "regional U.S. prepositioned arsenal hub." These would break long-established firewalls in the U.S.-Israel relationship and undermine U.S. interests.

Since 1975, the United States has had a security commitment to Israel, formalized in a memorandum of agreement, that promises “remedial action” should Israel face external threat. In recent years, this commitment has functioned as a de facto security guarantee on par with Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Still, the United States has intentionally refrained from signing a more explicit mutual defense agreement with Israel or basing U.S. personnel inside Israel’s borders for two reasons.

First, it was Israel’s preference. Jerusalem has long prided itself on the fact that only its soldiers directly defend the country and that it could fight its own battles as long as the United States offered military support. Second, Washington feared a more formal defense obligation or forward bases in Israel would increase the risk that the United States would eventually become entangled in Israel’s ongoing border skirmishes or complicate relationships with U.S. Gulf state partners, like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, on whom the United States relied to keep oil prices low.

The recommendations by JINSA, which count 43 retired U.S. officers — including 24 generals and nine admirals — on its roster discard these redlines. The mutual defense agreement they describe is framed as a narrow one that would be triggered “by the high bar of existential threat to Israel or Iranian use of weapons of mass destruction against U.S. bases in the region.” But history tells us that, for Israel, the “existential threat” threshold is met easily and often.

In recent years, Israel has argued that Iran posed an existential threat while also claiming Hezbollah and Hamas as existential challenges to Israel’s security. In other words, signing onto this agreement would all but guarantee U.S. involvement in future Middle East wars against Iran or possibly even Turkey, which some in Israel have already identified as the next target despite the fact that it is a NATO ally.

Of course, this is the goal of the recommendation: to ensure that no matter how far Israel falls in U.S. public opinion, the United States will be obligated to come to its defense, or risk undermining the credibility of its other commitments.

Basing U.S military forces inside Israel would only worsen the moral hazard engendered by U.S. support to the country. With U.S. personnel as a tripwire, Israel’s leaders would feel assured that any attack would almost certainly drag in the United States, giving them little incentive to act with restraint. The risk that the United States might be ensnared in Israel’s future military adventures would be high.

The second major focus of JINSA’s recommendations covers the sharing of military technology and joint industrial projects between Israel and the United States. Most of these proposals demand that Israel gain the same level of access to U.S. technology as is enjoyed by the closest NATO allies who have spent years working to meet U.S. security standards. That Israeli officials are suspected of spying on the United States should be warning enough that giving Israel this type of access to sensitive U.S. technology would be a mistake.

The most dangerous of these tech sharing ideas, however, is one suggesting that Israeli technologies should be directly integrated into U.S. air and missile defense, specifically the Golden Dome project. This provision would mean that, if the Golden Dome project or something like it eventually covers the United States, Israeli technology would be part of its foundation, making the U.S. dependent on Israel for its own defense.

The United States tried something similar once before with Israel and the project had to be cancelled. The reason? Israel refused to allow the United States access to the source code needed to integrate the Iron Dome systems it planned to purchase into the U.S. air defense network. Experimenting with this type of cooperation a second time would be an act of self-harm on the part of the U.S. government.

Taken together, then, the JINSA proposals do not advance U.S. interests in the Middle East or elsewhere. In fact, they do just the opposite. They will increase the U.S. security burden and tie the United States down in the Middle East in ways that may quickly become irreversible while also undermining the physical security of the homeland. And they will do so at a cost of $38 billion from U.S. taxpayers in the form of annual military aid.

This outcome should be entirely unacceptable to any American president, regardless of the specific ally or partner in question and especially for a president who ran on promises to put U.S. interests first.

Elsewhere, President Donald Trump is pushing allies to defend themselves without so much (or any) U.S. support. He should do the same with Israel. The endless cycle of MoUs has run its course. The current one should be the last.