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Israeli forces have abducted over 500 peace activists over the past week who were sailing to Gaza in an effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged territory. Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla say most of the participants were sent to Ktzi'ot Prison, notorious for harsh and abusive conditions. Some have reported physical abuse, humiliation and inhumane treatment by Israeli soldiers.?
Jewish American activist David Adler, co-general coordinator of the Progressive International, says he faced additional abuse because of his background.
"They reached down and saw my passport, which had my full name, David Rashi Kremen Adler, and asked if I was Jewish. I said I was Jewish. They ripped me by the ear and forced me to bend down and stare at the flag of the state of Israel," says Adler, who also describes being confronted in prison by the far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called Adler a "terrorist."
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President Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to the "first phase" of a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal for Gaza. The 20-point roadmap includes a swap of captives and a phased Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, though details on many of the planks remain sketchy. Democracy Now! spoke with Palestinian and Israeli analysts on how to interpret the peace plan.
"We're now at a fork in the road," says Mouin Rabbani, a Palestinian Middle East analyst. "While it's very welcome, of course, that the genocide may be coming to an end … this is a renewed Oslo process with an even lower political ceiling." He says there are calls around the globe for a "different paradigm … in which Israeli accountability for its actions replaces these meaningless, endless negotiations about nothing."
Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza, is critical of the deal, saying that "as soon as a ceasefire deal is signed, nobody bothers with the details. Gaza disappears, and it's back to this slow, latent, invisible violence of starvation and engaging people in a permanent state of nonlife."
Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political analyst and scholar, says that the deal was politically advantageous for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Netanyahu can now be the complete package," says Goldberg. "Netanyahu was the fearless leader who fought the difficult, inevitable war, but he is now the fearless leader who brings the difficult, inevitable deal."
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Two Democratic senators from Arizona confronted Speaker Mike Johnson over his refusal to swear in a newly elected House Democrat, Adelita Grijalva, who had won a special election in their state last month. They also fought over the government shutdown and the Epstein files.
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President Trump says he is designating the decentralized anti-fascist movement known as "antifa" as a terrorist organization, as conservatives blame left-wing groups and ideas for creating the conditions that led to conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination. The Trump administration is "using this as a catch-all to go against the broader left and anyone who speaks out against fascism right now, while at the same time giving continued unchecked authority to the FBI to ignore the rise of right-wing violence," says writer Will Potter. "The intention is to capitalize on this to crack down on their opponents and to consolidate authoritarian power."
Potter is the author of Little Red Barns, an investigation into the state repression of those who attempt to expose the harms of the factory farming industry, with mechanisms to criminalize journalism and label civil disobedience as terrorism through its crackdown on citizen journalists, environmentalists and animal welfare activists, says Potter.
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