Middle

A money-saving expert has shared a simple two-minute Ryanair middle seat hack that could help you avoid being assigned the worst seats on your flight – and it won’t cost you a penny

A savvy deals expert has revealed his top trick for dodging extra seat selection charges on a Ryanair flight with a straightforward two-minute technique. Ryanair is frequently praised by travellers for its budget-friendly fares, as tickets to destinations across Europe can often be snapped up for less than €20.

However, costs can rapidly mount up if you’re not clued up on Ryanair’s various add-on charges, such as bringing additional baggage on board, or opting to check in at the airport rather than online. The fee that frustrates passengers the most, though, is forking out anywhere between €4.50 to €36.50 just to select a specific seat. Prices differ depending on which seat you’re after, and whether you’re keen on extra legroom.

And while the airline recently updated its Family Seating Policy following an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), you’ll still need to pay if you wish to sit alongside someone aged over 11 — or simply want to steer clear of a middle seat.

Now, money-saving guru Jordon Cox, who has featured on ITV’s This Morning and is widely known online as The Coupon King, has unveiled a nifty two-minute hack that stops the airline from lumping you with a middle seat — without spending a single penny.

“Never sit in the middle seat again with this easy trick!” Jordon said at the start of his TikTok video. “There is a way to avoid those awful middle seats on Ryanair without paying for it.”

For the initial stage of his trick, Jordon advises checking the seating chart to identify which seats remain unoccupied roughly five to six hours before the flight’s scheduled departure, and pinpointing those you’d rather avoid. For most travellers, these could be middle seats, or ones close to the toilets.

After you’ve identified your least desirable seats, Jordon proposes opening a second tab on your laptop or phone and creating a fresh booking on the same flight you’re travelling on.

Next, enter some fictitious passenger names, matching the number of seats you’re trying to dodge, and assign the imaginary travellers to those particular seats.

“These seats are then frozen for a few minutes while they’re in someone else’s basket,” Jordon explained.

He noted in the post’s caption: “Hopefully the only ones left are the aisle and the window.”

Following this, simply return to your original booking and opt for random seat allocation. “And boom, you’ve avoided the middle seat for free!” Jordon declared.

Folk quickly flocked to the comments section to express their views on the trick, with one person noting: “Only works if the flight isn’t full.”

Another remarked: “They’ll cop on to this and we won’t be able to do it.”

This isn’t the sole trick Ryanair passengers have discovered to sidestep the carrier’s numerous charges, as many frequently turn to social media platforms to reveal the methods they’ve used to dodge baggage fees, or secure entire rows to themselves for extra legroom.

A Palestinian family in the northern Gaza town of Jabalia has been reunited with their son after believing for a year that he had been killed by Israeli army fire, only to discover he had been held in an Israeli prison throughout that time.

Inside the family’s home, which was damaged by Israeli bombardment, relatives broke down in tears of joy as 23-year-old Hamada Al-Banna returned unexpectedly after they had lost hope of ever seeing him again.

His family had believed that Hamada and his brother, Adham, were shot dead by Israeli forces while on their way to collect food aid during the peak of the famine that hit the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2025.

On Monday, Israeli authorities released Hamada along with 16 other Palestinian detainees. The International Committee of the Red Cross transferred them to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza before he returned to his family in the north of the territory.

His mother, Widad, fainted after hearing her son’s voice for the first time in a phone call following his release. Hours later, she collapsed again as she embraced him when he arrived home.

An Anadolu correspondent witnessed the family’s emotional reunion, in a story reflecting the suffering of hundreds of Palestinian families who remain unaware of the fate of their relatives since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza on 8 October 2023.

EVERYONE dreams of heading to the beautiful Maldives with its bright blue waters and incredible resorts.

But did you know, there’s a very similar destination which has all the qualities and luxury of the tropical escape? And it even has an extra perk – it’s much quicker for Brits to get to.

Saudi Arabia is in the process of developing its new luxury destination called The Red Sea Project, which also includes a significant residential component.

It has everything you need from a holiday escape from beautiful islands to coral reefs, beaches, desert and even mountains.

Talking about the destination, Stephen Cheesebrough, Head of Development at Red Sea Global told EuroNews: “It’s true that the islands may remind you of the Maldives, with crystal-clear water and white-sand beaches. But that’s where the similarities end.

“Our landscapes are far more diverse. In addition to the islands, we have mountains, volcanoes, deserts and kilometres of virtually untouched coastline.

ISLE GO

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“A visitor can spend the morning scuba diving among coral reefs and that same afternoon head into the desert or dine in the mountains. Very few destinations in the world offer such a variety of experiences in such a compact area.”

For Brits who dream of a holiday to somewhere like the Maldives, but don’t like the idea of a long flight – the Red Sea is much quicker to get to.

From the UK to the Maldives takes a minimum of 10 hours, and when you factor in seaplane or boat transfers to the hotel, can often exceed 12 hours in total.

But to get to The Red Sea Project from the UK takes around eight hours.

A direct flight from the UK to Riyadh will take six hours 30-minutes, followed ay a short domestic flight from Riyadh to RSI Red Sea Airport.

There could eventually be direct flights to RSI Red Sea Airport however, after it launched its first flights from Italy back in November 2025.

The Red Sea is under construction but lots of hotels are open for business with the first opening in 2023.

Currently, The Red Sea Project has 11 resorts with more set to open in the coming months.

At its centre is Shura Island which once completed will have hotels, shops, a marina and an 18-hole golf course.

In total there will be 50 hotels on the Red Sea resort including the Four Seasons, Six Senses, Rosewood Resort and Equinox.

The St Regis Resort even has overwater villas – some with private pools and butler service.

A seven-night stay in a One Bedroom Dune Villa in September is £1,512.

By 2030, the Red Sea aims to welcome around one million visitors each year.

For those keen on exploring the ocean, the Red Sea is home to one of the ‘world’s largest barrier reef systems’ – so it will be a sought-after diving destination.

Stephen Cheesebrough added that the destination is set to be open year-round for guests who want “luxury” as well as “exceptional experiences.”

To get there, guests can fly into Red Sea International Airport (RSI) which is in the Tabuk Province of Saudi Arabia.

It’s purpose- built for those visiting The Red Sea Project.

It connects to cities like Riyadh, Jeddah and Dubai, but is yet to expand to Europe – however, that is in the works.

Stephen Cheesebrough said “there would be no point in creating a destination of this scale without ensuring that travellers can reach it easily.”

If the UK is added to the roster of direct flights, Brits could reach the Red Sea on a direct flight in up to seven hours.

A 6ft9in man who was allocated a middle seat on a Ryanair flight back to Rome found a genius solution after simply doing one thing at the boarding gate and it was free

Flying is rarely a comfortable experience unless you’re fortunate enough to bag a first-class seat. To make matters worse, being assigned the middle seat can feel very much like you’ve drawn the short straw – and more so when you’re extremely tall.

Sure, you may technically have a claim to both armrests, but that’s little comfort when you’re wedged between two fellow passengers. And if you’re travelling solo, chances are you won’t know either of your neighbours. But what makes the middle seat an absolute nightmare is being exceptionally tall, which is precisely why one 6ft9in man was far from thrilled when he was handed this dreaded spot on a “Ryanair flight back to Rome”.

Ben Davies admitted he “barely fits with two seats” let alone when squeezed between a passenger on either side.

“If I only have a middle seat, I’m quite literally not going to fit,” he shared, revealing he was hopeful of tracking down an alternative seat on the aircraft.

Upon reaching the boarding gate, Ben said he suspected the plane would be “full”. Nevertheless, he had the bright idea of asking a Ryanair member of staff whether they could locate two seats together, given his towering height.

“Do you know if there are any two seats next to each other? Could you check for me, please?” he asked a member of staff after they questioned his height.

He said he’d “really appreciate it” if they could find him two seats next to each other, because when he flew last time, he “didn’t fit”. The staff member informed him that seats A, B and C were available in row 19.

So when he stepped onto the aircraft, he could secure the entire row for himself if fortune favoured him.

“So there’s a full empty row. Y’all know I’m taking that,” Ben enthused, revealing his strategy was to simply “go to 19” and if they requested him to shift, he’d comply.

Ben made his way to 19 without any issues, explaining he’d lie horizontally to feel more at ease during the journey.

So it just demonstrates that if you engage directly with airline staff at the airport, you might just secure yourself a superior seat without incurring any extra charges.

However, not everyone was won over by the travel tip. In the comments, someone questioned: “Being that tall, why would you not just book extra leg room?” Others highlighted that “if he can get it for free, why would he?”

Another concurred, stating: “Why should he pay more? He has no control over being tall.”

Meanwhile, another tall man remarked: “I’m 2m tall and have just accepted that I’m always gonna have to pay extra for leg room on any flight”.

In response, a travel enthusiast argued: “You shouldn’t have to, though. Airlines should be more accommodating, instead they treat us like cattle and try to squeeze as many in as possible.”

Ten European and Western countries have barred Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich from entering their territories, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

The ministry said the ten countries had imposed entry bans on the two far-right ministers, who have faced widespread criticism over statements seen as advocating the extermination of the Palestinian people.

In a statement, the ministry said it was monitoring the diplomatic development and urged the countries to reconsider what it described as their “unjustified” decisions.

The countries that have imposed the bans are the UK, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Ireland, New Zealand and France.

Ben-Gvir was already banned from entering France and Ireland at the end of May after publishing a video showing detained activists from the Gaza-bound aid flotilla kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs following the interception of their vessel at sea. The activists were later held in southern Israel, prompting international condemnation.

READ: Smotrich announces retaliatory measures against Palestinian Authority after ICC developments

Several countries, including France, Spain and Italy, have called for European sanctions against Ben-Gvir. Judicial authorities in both France and Italy have also opened investigations into allegations that he was responsible for the torture of the activists.

On Tuesday, Ben-Gvir cancelled a planned trip to New York to attend the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit amid concerns over planned protests by human rights groups, as well as growing calls for his arrest and investigation.

The Hind Rajab Foundation had previously asked the US Department of Justice to launch an urgent criminal investigation into the Israeli National Security Minister and arrest him upon his expected arrival in New York next month.

The legal request was backed by a broad case file prepared by the pro-Palestinian rights organisation, which said it was presenting the case to US judicial authorities as a test of Washington’s commitment to upholding international law.

READ: Ben Gvir attacks Trump-Iran deal: Israel ‘not bound by US agreement’

China has raised its purchases of oil from the Middle East in recent days, with deep discounts offered by its main supplier Saudi Arabia expected to further boost its buying, the Financial Times reported Monday.

China bought at least 26M

The world is witnessing one of the most horrific onslaughts and siege against Palestinian civilians in Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces, which show no end to their appetite for death and destruction. As we watch helplessly while the people of Gaza search for food and water, amid Israeli air strikes destroying building after building, town after town, including civilian infrastructure, we are reminded of an earlier genocide and siege in the early 1990s. Sarajevo and Srebrenica are bywords for siege and genocide during the Bosnian War of 1992-1996, and carry striking similarities to what is happening in the “complete siege” of Gaza. The siege of Sarajevo lasted for four years, and while the siege in Srebrenica lasted for “only” three years, it proved to be more detrimental due to the genocidal killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. These prolonged sieges, including the one in Gaza (which has actually been blockaded by Israel and its allies since 2006), serves as a sobering reminder of how oppressive powers use such tactics to inflict collective punishment on whole populations.

While it is essential to recognise the specific histories, approaches and geopolitical factors that contribute to each situation, both the war in Bosnia and the war in Palestine remain a struggle for control over land.

In Palestine, the occupation of the land in question took place within living memory.

What is unfathomable is the “genocidal conduct” committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group by military forces involved in these conflicts. The actions of the Bosnian Serb army in Bosnia and the Israel Defence (Occupation) Forces in Gaza have an unsettling resemblance, particularly in imposing a blockade and restricting the movement of civilians. In both cases, civilians faced (and in Palestine continue to face) immense human rights violations, including indiscriminate shelling, sniping, the demolition of religious buildings and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, including homes, schools and medical facilities. As this reign of terror is unleashed, the entire territory is cordoned off and people are unable to seek safety elsewhere. Mass graves tend to be a common factor. When Israeli soldiers left Gaza’s Al-Shifa and Nasser Hospitals after ransacking and destroying both, hundreds of decomposed dead bodies were dug-up in the hospital compounds. In Bosnia, mass graves were found across the country.

READ: Bodies of 73 more Palestinians found in Nasser Hospital mass grave

During the Bosnian War, the Serb army used hunger as a tactic to create unbearable conditions before launching a final offensive. Similarly, in Gaza, Israel has weaponised starvation against civilians. The task was made easier by the occupation state being in a position to cut off water, food and fuel supplies completely, and block humanitarian aid.

Moreover, humanitarian workers are often attacked. Since 7 October, at least 249 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, including 181 UN staff. In Bosnia, thousands of humanitarian workers were killed. Such killings are deliberate, and intended to deter NGOs and their staff from entering conflict zones, exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe affecting the local population in desperate need. EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell blamed Israel for blocking aid and closing land crossings used for transporting essential supplies. Such acts reduce the potential for peace and security.

Another disturbing aspect witnessed in both Bosnia and Palestine is the dehumanisation of the people. For instance, Bosnian Muslims were often called “balijas” (“dogs”) that must be left to die without food and water. After announcing the “complete siege” of Gaza and cutting off the food, fuel and water supplies, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced that, “We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly.” Such abuse exposes deep-seated religious and racial hatred. Moreover, the denial of the very existence of an “undesirable population” of Muslims in Bosnia and Palestine is common among hyper-ethnonationalist forces; the Serbs and Israelis share this characteristic.

The targeting of journalists in Palestine is yet another common feature shared with Bosnia. Local and foreign journalists are often harassed, intimidated and physically attacked while doing their job. Such actions perpetuate a culture of fear and censorship, making it increasingly difficult for the international community to gain on the ground knowledge and a comprehensive understanding of what is going on.

Whether in Bosnia or occupied Palestine, the displacement of millions of people has far-reaching consequences.

They include not only the immediate loss of homes, belongings and security, but also the long-term challenges of rebuilding lives and addressing the physical and psychological effects on displaced individuals. The war in Bosnia displaced at least 2.2 million people, and the ongoing war in Gaza has already displaced 80 per cent of the population: that’s 1.8m people.

READ: Pro-Palestine protests at US universities reach UK shores across Atlantic

In any war, women face a higher risk of sexual and physical violence, which has severe and long-lasting physical and psychological consequences. Although, the violence in Gaza mirrors that in Bosnia with civilians targeted disproportionately, it is the vulnerable sections of society such as children, pregnant women and the elderly and sick people who are most at risk. This, of course, is entirely deliberate on the part of the aggressors.

Thirty years after Bosnia, we are again seeing a world watching as genocide unfolds. Political and diplomatic bias, as well as military support for one side or the other, makes members of the international community complicit in what is happening. In Bosnia, the West was determined to make sure that a Muslim state did not materialise in Europe after the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. In occupied Palestine, the settler-colonial state of Israel acts as a “bastion of European civilisation in a sea of barbarism”, to quote its early proponents. The latest crisis is entirely man-made.

Although, the US Congress and the EU have condemned starvation as a weapon of war, both have failed to take strong action to hold Israel accountable for its actions in Palestine. Similarly, the US and Europe condemned the genocide in Srebrenica but failed to take any measures while the mass slaughter was going on. In fact, the US responded very differently to the situation by saying that, “We are not and we cannot be the worlds’ policeman.”

As a Senator, Joe Biden openly blamed the West for its failure to intervene with air power in Bosnia. He also visited the country at the time of the siege and expressed his anger over the atrocities: “Shame on the West,” he railed. As US president, though, he has an altogether different stance towards Bosnia, whereby he favours Bosnian Serb and Croat hardliners while side-lining the Muslims. Palestinians and Bosnians alike have called Biden’s foreign policy ‘hypocritical’ and ‘deeply flawed’. Unquestioned US support for Israel echoes Senator Biden’s 1986 statement that, “If there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.” He repeated that in October, as America’s commitment to uphold international law and its own federal law flew out of the window in order to protect the Zionist state.

OPINION: Every university should divest from the military-industrial complex

The genocide in Srebrenica was recognised by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice as such, but the ICJ failed to classify the entire conflict as genocidal in nature. The current appalling situation in Gaza also raises the same questions about the international community’s responsibility to prevent genocide occurring, whether in Gaza or elsewhere. It also challenges the credibility of the West in claiming to uphold international laws and conventions in the pursuit of peace and justice around the world, not least in Bosnia and Palestine.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

The price of Brent crude has reached its lowest since February 27, before the war started.

Oil prices have extended their decline to levels last seen before the start of the Iran war, as expectations of rising supply from the Middle East outweighed demand concerns.

Prompt-month Brent crude futures for August delivery fell $1.06 (1.44 percent) to $72.68 a barrel by 06:39 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost 76 cents (1.08 percent) to $69.58 a barrel.

Both contracts hit their lowest since February 27.

August Brent was trading lower than September, which was priced at $73.59, signalling ample short-term supply.

Brent had fallen by more than $3 on Wednesday as supply concerns eased, while WTI settled down nearly $3.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a forum that flows through the Strait of Hormuz were close to those before the start of the Iran war, with at least 20 million barrels having exited the strait in the past 24 hours.

A return to complete normality would take a few weeks, however, because the strait needs to be cleared of mines, he added.

Rising Middle East supply, together with Iran set to boost sales after a temporary reprieve from US sanctions, drove down prices of physical crude oil cargoes around the world.

New routes

An initial accord last week to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, which began on February 28, has allowed the resumption of traffic through the strait.

The accord set up a 60-day period of negotiations to tackle tougher issues, such as Iran’s nuclear programme.

Wright said oil would continue to flow through the strait even if the deal did not hold, and that Iran would not be able to close it again.

Tehran has said it plans to impose what it calls maritime service fees, as opposed to tolls, while the United States argues it is an international waterway and therefore should not be charged.

Oman opened temporary routes on Wednesday to ease tanker departures from the strait, with the International Maritime Organization and Omani authorities coordinating movements.

On Thursday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned against any crossings of the Strait of Hormuz without authorisation, saying vessels not complying “will be dealt with” and condemning the new routes.

Just past noon, a young man appeared on the north side of San Vicente Boulevard, a block west of Hauser, and eyeballed the flow of westbound traffic.

When he saw an opening, he slid across to the median strip, where he waited for eastbound traffic to let up before crossing over to the south side of San Vicente to pick up some takeout food. And then he retraced his steps across the 150-foot wide thoroughfare that knifes through the heart of the city along what once was the Red Car line of the Pacific Electric Railway.

He should have used the nearby crosswalk, but there aren’t enough of those on the boulevard, so pedestrians routinely skitter and scoot across the street like they’re in a game of Frogger.

I watched this drama the other day from Dam Good Coffee, where I met with two guys who live in the neighborhood and, in their spare time, have been doing a lot of thinking. They’re fine-tuning a pitch to reengineer the boulevard, reduce traffic, improve access to two new transit lines and transform the Mid-City portion of San Vicente Boulevard — from the Beverly Center on the west to just past La Brea on the east — into a 3-mile, 30-acre linear park.

Ambitious. Outlandish. Insane.

From left, Catherine Geanacouras, Oren Hadar and Michael Wacht of the San Vicente Park Foundation have a plan to turn a stretch of San Vicente Boulevard into a greenway.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

It’s all of that and a longshot undertaking, given the countless obstacles that can derail their dream. But Oren Hadar, a sound engineer, and Michael Wacht, an architect, are serious, along with a small coalition of neighborhood believers.

“One of the things I always say is L.A. needs to get back into the business of taking big swings,” Hadar said. He is motivated in part by the fact that his two young kids don’t have a nearby park to play in.

The big swing comes at a time when Los Angeles has just fallen from 90th to 93rd in terms of park acreage, investment and accessibility in the annual Trust for Public Lands ranking of the 100 largest cities in the U.S. You’d think a city with great weather and thousands of apartment dwellers with little or no outdoor space would fight its way into the top 10 rather than settle for sinking to the bottom of the heap.

“What if L.A.’s next great park was already here, hiding in plain sight?” a narrator asks in a video that appears on the group’s San Vicente Park website.

Local resident Jo and her dog Elle carefully cross San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 17, 2026.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Sun-baked asphalt would give way to turf. Pedestrians and cyclists would have more breathing room. There’d be far less traffic.

“You can put in micro forests,” Wacht said. “You can do farmers markets. You can do growing areas. You can do fountains. Playgrounds.”

Catherine Geanuracos, a CicLAvia board member who was an advocate for turning the Silver Lake Reservoir into an aquatic park, joined our conversation and called the idea “eminently feasible.”

“I think this is what makes L.A. great,” Geanuracos said. She’s lived in New York City and San Francisco and thinks there’s greater opportunity here for engaged residents to advance their civic improvement ideas.

The advocates said they’d gotten some encouragement from Councilmembers Heather Hutt and Katy Yaroslavsky, whose districts include the area of the proposed park. Hutt’s office sent me a statement saying she supports “effrorts to create more walkable, green communities.” She said she has encouraged the group to keep exploring the vision, and she looks forward to hearing input from various other neighborhood groups.

Hadar writes a blog called The Future Is L.A., which is part love letter to Los Angeles and part lament on unmet potential.

“Just about every other major American city has a policy and research think tank dedicated to pursuing ideas that could make the city better,” Hadar recently wrote, calling for L.A. to have its own.

I don’t want to say the park idea’s chances are slim, but let’s look at a few hurdles.

Traffic passes through the intersection of San Vicente Boulevard and La Brea in Los Angeles on.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

L.A. city government has trouble managing existing parks and even the open spaces around City Hall, so how can it build and care for another 30 acres of greenery?

The cost would be in the millions, and the cup does not runneth over.

And then there’s the biggest pothole of all on the road to pastoral wonder:

Creating the park would mean squeezing off one or two lanes of traffic in each direction of San Vicente. That would dump more cars onto surrounding streets and set up another road diet clash that pits car culture against growing demand for a city that is safer and more inviting for those who walk, bike and use transit.

All of this would be examined in a feasibility study the advocates are raising money for. But the supporters claim San Vicente is lightly traveled compared to Wilshire, Pico and Olympic, so stealing traffic lanes wouldn’t be catastrophic.

I mentioned that I’d think twice about sending kids to play in a median strip park. But the supporters said San Vicente would become more of a neighborhood service street than a thruway, with safer crossings into the new park, which by the way already has plenty of full-grown trees.

When I took a walk and polled people on the park idea, I got mixed reactions.

“That’s a bad idea,” said a man who was walking along the median strip. He said he thought that after the addition of bike lanes a few years ago squeezed vehicular traffic, San Vicente became more dangerous, and the idea of a park between lanes of traffic sounded disastrous to him.

Miguel Lopez looked like he was trying to bring the park vision to life. He sat on the median strip reading a book and smiled when he was shown a rendering of San Vicente Park.

Blanca Vanburian practices tai chi in her yard along San Vicente Boulevard on Wednesday.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Blanca Vanburian, who was doing a variation of Tai Chi on the lawn outside her apartment building, had several good questions, including one about whether the city could be trusted to maintain a new park. She said a lot of residents would be concerned about new traffic flows through side streets, and she wondered if the park would attract more homeless people.

Hadar told her the feasibility study would probe all of that, and the more she heard, the more Vanburian came around to the idea of the park.

“It’s up to us how we use public space,” Wacht said, looking out on a particularly unattractive stretch of roadway that generates so much exhaust and serves as a barrier, dividing two neighborhoods. “I get disappointed when I see so much of it devoted to this, and it’s keeping us from being more of a cohesive neighborhood.”

Margaret Free walks three basset hounds, named Bob, Doris and Ruth, along San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Margaret Free was walking three Basset hounds — Bob, Doris and Ruth. She said she and the dogs could be counted as four votes in favor of the park.

A woman named Jo safely managed a Frogger crossing with her dog, Elle. Jo said she was absolutely in favor of a park and doesn’t think losing lanes of vehicle traffic is a bad thing, but she feared backlash from drivers who disagree and asked me to withhold her last name.

Joshua Mock, owner of Dam Good Coffee, said everyone would benefit from the park, especially neighborhood children. “It’d be dope,” he said, “and good for business.”

For all the doubters, the advocates point to several projects around the country where public spaces were repurposed, including the New York City High Line. And they note that several local projects are in the design or construction phase, including the L.A. River master plan, the Broadway-Manchester streetscape project and the park under the Sixth Street bridge.

If you have ideas for remaking your neighborhood, send them my way.

And take big swings.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

June 10 (UPI) — Iran said it launched strikes against U.S. military bases in neighboring countries in and around the Persian Gulf early Wednesday in retaliation for American “aggression” after U.S. forces conducted strikes on targets in southern Iran.

Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s central command, said in a statement published by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency that the “brave Army of the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps” carried out a “powerful assault” on U.S. military assets in the region.

“The criminal U.S. military should know that if aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran is repeated, even more severe and widespread attacks will be carried out against the designated target bank in the region, it added.

The statement was accompanied by a photo showing six ground-launched ballistic missiles blasting off from an undisclosed desert location but it was unclear if it was of Wednesday’s strikes as the image was undated and uncredited.

The IRGC claimed missiles were fired at Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti airbase, where U.S. F-35 fighter jets and other aircraft operate out of, and that facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain were also attacked.

It said that the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain was targeted with drones.

The attacks had yet to be verified but Jordan’s armed forces said they downed five Iranian missiles targeting the country’s al-Azraq district, 60 miles east of the capital, Amman.

The Kuwaiti military, in a post on X just after 3 a.m. local time, said its air defenses were “currently intercepting hostile aerial targets.”

Bahrain’s interior ministry issued multiple alerts around the same time, advising residents that the air-raid siren had been sounded, urging them not to panic and to move to the nearest safe place to shelter immediately.

No deaths or injuries were reported.

The escalation came almost immediately after U.S. Central Command announced that it had completed “self-defense strikes” ordered by President Donald Trump in response to the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter earlier Tuesday.

CENTCOM said in a statement early Wednesday that U.S. Air Force and Navy fighter jets struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz “with precision munitions’ in an approximately four-hour-long operation.

“The operation was a proportional response to recent attacks on U.S. forces and international commercial ships transiting regional water,” said CENTCOM.

The ratcheting up of tensions prompted Beijing and Moscow to call on both sides to apply the brakes.

“China is deeply concerned over the latest developments regarding Iran. Relevant parties need to remain calm, exercise restraint, stop exacerbating confrontation and escalating tensions, take concrete actions to ease the situation, stick to political and diplomatic means for resolving disputes, and work for an early realization of a comprehensive and lasting cease-fire,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Wednesday.

In a post on X, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Moscow was very worried about what she called “the new spiral of U.S.-Iran armed confrontation.”

She called on both parties to show restraint and halt military attacks immediately, adding that Russia stood ready to assist in finding and implementing “mutually acceptable negotiated solutions” to the crisis.

Italians who took part in a humanitarian aid flotilla for Gaza said Wednesday that when the Israeli army attacked them last month in the Mediterranean in violation of international law, they abducted some activists, and subjected them to ill-treatment amounting to torture, Anadolu reports.

“This time, the Israeli army responded to the flotilla much more violently” than in past humanitarian efforts, Antonio La Piccirella, who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla’s 2026 Spring Mission, told a press conference in Rome.

“There were two attacks, one of them off the coast of Europe. In the attack between Italy and Greece, they abducted two of our members, further violating international law. The other intervention was carried out in broad daylight and lasted for one-and-a-half days.”

La Piccirella said Israel last year allocated $180 million to anti-flotilla propaganda in order to fight them and build up a sense of “impunity,” and that this year they spent far more, some $760 million.

This propaganda was carried out through disinformation and aimed to create communities sympathetic to Israel in Europe and the US, he said.

Emphasizing that they would continue to take action in the future, La Piccirella said: “We are concerned with actions against the naval blockade of Palestine (and promoting) humanitarian aid, and international law.

“The international situation is constantly changing, and so is our strategy. So we repeat that we will definitely continue to do something,” he said.

– Forced to kneel and be humiliated

Italian journalist Alessandro Mantovani, who also took part in the spring mission, stressed that after being detained he was not even allowed to say that he was a journalist.

“From the very beginning, we were beaten and forced into humiliating positions. When we were taken to their military ships, we were pushed down face-first onto the deck, tied up, then forced to kneel and kept in the same extremely uncomfortable position for hours. When we were brought to the ship that we all called the prison ship, we were systematically beaten,” he said.

The face-down positions he described fit video footage posted online by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which the activists were forced to kneel and were subjected to abusive language, mistreatment which drew fierce criticism from numerous countries.

Mantovani said he still has problems with his jaw because of the blows he received and that his jaw may have been dislocated.

The Italian journalist said the Israeli army treated Turkish activists especially badly.

“I think I can say that the Turks were treated even worse than the others; torture also has a geopolitical dimension,” he said.

Turkish leaders have been at the international forefront of condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza as well as the famine and near-starvation of its populace due to a long-standing blockade of food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. The blockade was due to be relaxed in recent months, but many rights groups and international observers say the situation has improved little if at all.

Mantovani pointed out that the Global Sumud Flotilla was detained at night during its first voyage last year, while during this latest voyage it was detained in broad daylight.

He stressed that the Israeli army was not ashamed to show that it attacked unarmed people with weapons.

The Palestinian Authority condemned Israel’s decision to build 2,162 illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank, calling for US intervention to halt the Israeli “madness.”

“All settlement activity is illegal under international law and does not confer legitimacy to anyone,” the authority said in a statement carried by the official news agency Wafa.

It said the Israeli decision constitutes a “blatant challenge to international law and UN resolutions,” particularly UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which affirms the illegality of the Israeli settlements in all occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

It held the Israeli authorities responsible for the “serious consequences” of the settlement policies, warning that they would push the region toward “further cycles of violence and escalation.”

READ: Situation worsening in West Bank, warn Italy, UK, France, Germany

The authority called on the US administration to intervene immediately “to stop the Israeli madness if it genuinely seeks to promote security and stability in the region and globally.”

It stressed that the Palestinian people would remain “steadfast on their land and committed to their legitimate national rights,” saying the illegal settlement plans would not deter them from continuing their struggle to establish an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The statement came after Israel’s Higher Planning Council approved the construction of 2,162 new settlement units across several illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The plans include 1,006 units in the Gevaot settlement within the Gush Etzion bloc south of Bethlehem, 922 units in the Har Brakha settlement south of Nablus, and 234 units in Kiryat Arba settlement built on land belonging to the city of Hebron.

Palestinians view the new plans as part of an accelerated Israeli policy aimed at expanding illegal settlements, confiscating Palestinian land and creating new facts on the ground.

READ: Israeli authorities issue order to seize 74 acres East of Bethlehem

A mushroom farm in Jericho, an heirloom seed library, a project to introduce Kale to the Palestinian market and a local farmers’ cooperative – these small agricultural projects are the latest weapon in the fight against the Israeli occupation. They aim to tackle the policies that make Palestine dependent on the Israeli market and offer alternatives for Palestinians who find themselves forced to buy Israeli products.

After returning to Palestine for the first time in five years, Vivien Sansour noticed changes in her homeland. “All the things I had missed, like the delicious tomatoes and cheese, the things old ladies would come and sell at the front of our house, they were gone,” says Sansour. “I thought I was coming home and I found myself coming back to a place that was foreign to me where I was buying Israeli broccoli in the supermarket and that was what was available.”

In June, she officially launched Palestine’s first heirloom seed library as a way to preserve the knowledge of generations of farmers who have cultivated varieties of organic vegetables, fruits and herbs adapted for the region’s climate and soil. Due to Israeli policies and neo-liberal farming techniques, these varieties, and traditional Palestinian farming as a whole, are facing extinction. These tiny seeds, she says, have the power to stop this from happening. Anyone can borrow a packet of the library’s seeds and grow the local varieties of produce, returning seeds from the next harvest.

“The heirloom seed gives us power to resist our dominance, though our heirlooms seeds we can truly eat what we grow and stop having to be slaves to our master,” she says.

Under the Oslo Accords, around 63 per cent of agricultural land in the West Bank was designated as “Area C”, which means it fell under the control of the Israeli military. As a result, farmers whose land fell in that 63 per cent were unable to farm their land freely, as is still the case. Meanwhile, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have mushroomed, and settlement farms are able to produce a large quantity of crops at low cost using pesticides, leaving traditional farmers unable to compete. Unequal water resources allocated to Palestinians and Jewish settlers living in the same territory makes keeping up almost impossible.

According to the Israeli occupation authorities, the value of goods produced in settlements and exported to Europe amounts to approximately $300 million a year. Israel is flooding the Palestinian market with cheap Israeli products whilst simultaneously controlling the Palestinian exports and imports. Restrictions on the importation of fertilizers has cut agricultural output in the OPT by an estimated 20-33 per cent. This pressure is forcing Palestinian farmers to leave their land, with many having to work on the settlement farms that displaced them on as little as half the Israeli minimum wage, in unsafe working conditions, and without holiday or sick pay.

“Oslo has been a disaster for agriculture in Palestine,” says Sansour. Aside from the restrictions placed on farmers as a result of the agreement, it also brought foreign donations to the agricultural section, she explains. “The aid was designed in a very neo-liberal way on the production of certain items and the elimination of people – that’s the idea of agribusiness.” This sort of funding pushed farmers away from sustainable agriculture to mono-cropping (the production of one type of crop) designed for consumer export or selling to the Israeli market, using methods relying on chemicals, she says.

Sansour highlights the Paris Protocol, an annex of the Oslo Accords, which tied the Palestinian economy with the Israeli economy. This has led to a situation, she says, where the tobacco industry is renting Palestinian land for prices small-scale producers cannot compete with. “We went from producing food to producing poison,” she poignantly adds.

The same factors motivated Lamya Hussain to implement The Kale Project – Palestine, a joint venture by organisations MAAN Development Center and Refutrees to introduce kale to the Palestinian market. Two years on and two solid harvests of three types of kale and the project is looking to expand. “There are many ways Israel controls what is produced and why and how, and we want to challenge this,” says Hussain. “We are challenging the occupation through cross diversity because one of the things the Israeli occupation has done to the agricultural sector is that it’s reduced it to a few basic crops.”

“One key issue facing small-scale Palestinian producers is the challenge to work around previously negotiated economic agreements via which Israeli goods are dumped in the local market,” she explains. “To this end, there is always the risk that Israeli producers can take advantage of the rising demand for kale and flood the market with larger quantities and cheaper prices.” Hussain continues, “It’s very difficult for people like myself or for the project, and even more difficult for smaller scale farmers who are competing against not only consumer market prices and local competition, they’re actually competing with an occupied-led system in the market.”

Fareed Taamallah was one of these small scale farmers struggling to sell his produce in this system. Tired of selling his olives and olive oil in bulk to a trader who then sells it to the consumer while taking most of the profit, he co-founded Sharaka. The organisation links Palestinian farmers and consumers directly, promoting Baladi food, a word for local, seasonal and Palestinian produce.

“In Occupied Palestine, the matter of keeping the farmer in his land cultivating and producing is more important than any other place because it is not only a matter of producing, but also a matter of food sovereignty,” says Taamallah. “Sharaka is trying to tackle part of these problems and help small-scale farmers to stay in their land by helping them to market their product at good prices, and in this way support them to remain steadfast in their groves. On the other hand, we try to help the consumer to have access to the good, healthy food and not depend on the Israeli products that are found in the local market.”

For the Palestinian farming industry, the Israeli occupation has been deadly. But these agricultural efforts are seeking to change the status quo by offering Palestinians alternatives to the Israeli products that fill up their local supermarkets. As Sansour puts it, buying the produce of the occupation is like smoking; “you pay for your own poisoning”.

Images courtesy of The Kale Project – Palestine.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Ever since leading pro-Israel lobby financier Sheldon Adelson intervened in the 2016 election heavily in favour of Donald Trump, the now-president’s Middle East policies (if you can even call them that) have become more and more openly in favour of the Zionist state.

To call casino tycoon Adelson an “Israel first” financier is misleading, as it implies that he has second, third and fourth priorities. With a net worth of almost $34 billion at his disposal, though, his one and only cause is Israel, so “Israel only” financier would be a more accurate description.

Adelson has ploughed hundreds of millions of dollars into funding anti-Palestinian groups. He has, for example, donated a reported $410 million to Birthright Israel, a pro-Israel propaganda organisation which takes young Jews on brainwashing tours to occupied Palestine, inculcating in them the idea that the country forms part of their “birthright”.

Although nobody should delude themselves that such a huge amount of money does not have the intended effect on many impressionable young people, money isn’t everything and, thankfully, largely left-wing and liberal Jews are increasingly rejecting Israel. Last year, media outlets reported a number of walk-outs from Birthright tours, with participants reacting against the heavy-handed propaganda that always forms the basis of such trips.

READ: US comedian Roseanne, shunned since racist tweet, visits Israel

Left-wing and anti-Zionist Jews have for many years now been organising against Birthright, even putting on a “Birthwrong” tour celebrating diasporic Jewish life in ancestral Jewish homelands, such as Spain, France, Brazil, Germany, the USA and Britain.

Such efforts are now paying off. Birthright walk-outs are part of a broader trend in which Israel is haemorrhaging support from the base of the Democratic Party in the US. Once upon a time, Sheldon Adelson funded the Democrats. However, in a 2012 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal (the in-house organ of America’s billionaire business class), Adelson explained: “I didn’t leave the Democrats. They left me.” In that article it emerged that the main, if not the only, reason he switched his substantial financial support from the Democrats to the Republicans was that the Democrats’ base is now largely hostile to Israeli war crimes and apartheid.

Since then, Adelson has apparently made it his mission in life to fund the worst of the worst right-wing Republicans. As the late, lamented website Gawker reported, “In 2012 he spent $20 million supporting Newt Gingrich, nearly derailing [Mitt] Romney’s primary run.”

President Donald Trump answers questions during a meeting with military leaders in the Cabinet Room on 23 October, 2018 in Washington [Win McNamee/Getty Images]

During the course of the race for the 2016 White House, every Republican candidate did their best to net Adelson’s support and, of course, his money. Marco Rubio was reportedly calling Adelson every other week at one stage, and “when Jeb Bush hired a foreign policy advisor who was critical of Israel’s diplomatic actions, Adelson forced Bush to issue an apology.”

With President Donald Trump now leading the most anti-Palestinian White House of all time, it’s easy to forget that at one stage, his non-interventionist instincts in matters of foreign policy seemed, for a brief moment, to extend even to Palestine. That’s when Adelson started to plough cash onto the Trump bandwagon and ended up being Trump’s number-one backer. The White House is now more pro-Israel than ever, with each new advisor seemingly more fanatically Zionist than the last.

READ: Media hypocrisy puts pressure on Arabs but not Israeli activists

The Trump-appointed US Ambassador to Israel not only tolerates illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, for example, but also actively funds them out of his own money. Trump has also followed through on a promise to Adelson to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the face of international law, which still considers the latter to be an occupied city, the annexation of which by Israel is illegal.

While the pro-Israel lobby seems to have the White House sewn up for now, its propagandists look at the new crop of progressive and left-wing Democrats in Congress with some trepidation, for Israel no longer has the universal, bipartisan support in the House and Senate that it once had. This week, news emerged that its lobby has even had to establish a new group, aiming to shore up its floundering support among Democrats.

“Democratic Majority for Israel” is supposedly set to make the “progressive case for Israel”. The fact that such a move has had to be made now is a serious indication of how much US support for Israel has slipped. Indeed, in the secretly filmed words of Eric Gallagher, a leading “liberal” pro-Israel lobbyist when he referred to the lobby’s flagship organisation, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: “The foundation that AIPAC sat on is rotting… There used to be actual widespread public support for Israel in the United States. So I don’t think that AIPAC is going to remain as influential as it is.”

READ: How AIPAC-Israel agenda became US priority

One establishment policy wonk conceded this week that the passage of a bill through the Senate targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, while seemingly a victory for Israel, was “actually a pretty significant loss. Because only one serious presidential candidate voted for it.”

Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, two corporate Democrats who have thrown their hats into the presidential ring for 2020, both failed to show up for the vote, despite speaking at previous AIPAC policy conferences. Even they don’t want to enrage their support base, much of which is likely to opt for Bernie Sanders should he decide to run again.

With the situation in Congress changing rapidly, the pro-Israel lobby is going for broke to take advantage of its position in the White House while it lasts.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

The first recorded use of smoke as a weapon of asphyxiation against civilians in the MENA region dates back to the mid-19th century, when French general Bugeaud adopted this “new method” against thousand of people in Algeria: “If they [Algerians] take refuge in their caves”, Bugeaud argued, “then smoke them out like foxes [renards]”.

Seventy years later, the Middle East witnessed its first recorded use of chemical weapons. This occurred during the 1917’s Third Battle of Gaza, when the troops led by General Edmund Allenby fired about 10,000 cans of asphyxiating gas. Their limited impact did not meet Allenby’s expectations. However, the use of gas attracted much attention to the point that – right after the 1920 Iraqi Revolt against the proposed British Mandate of Mesopotamia – Secretary of State for the colonies Winston Churchill noted of being “strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against the uncivilised tribes […] it would spread a lively terror”.

One century and many wars later, the UK, France and the US (whose support for Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons during the Iraq-Iran War has now been ascertained), launched a “US-led humanitarian intervention to protect [Syrian] civilians” against a chemical attack allegedly carried out by the Syrian regime in East Ghouta. Yet, their humanitarian intentions raise serious questions yet to be answered.

The cost of ‘non-intervention’?

The suspected chemical attack of 7 April has been denied by a number of sources, including the doctors serving at the field hospital were the victims have been treated. Nothwithstanding the recurrent war crimes perpetrated by the Syrian regime, the latter’s interest in using chemical weapons in a phase in which Bashar Al-Assad’s forces are advancing and winning the war appears unclear.

It should also be added that conventional weapons (not chemical weapons) are responsible for over 90 per cent of the mass killing of Syrian civilians by the regime and its allies (including Iran and Russia). If anything, the “US-led humanitarian intervention” confirmed that external powers are not so much troubled by the fact that dozens of Syrians die every day. It is mainly how they do so that seems to deserve a special attention, or “reaction”.

Read: Air strikes send a message to the Russians not to Assad

And it is indeed in the alleged lack of an earlier “reaction” – the so called “non-interventionist policy” in Syria – that many observers see as a key-component to assess what Syria is currently experiencing. If there was an opportunity for Western powers to make a difference for the better, pointed out British author Andrew Rawnsley, “chance was missed many, many deaths ago”.

London and its allies had indeed plans already before 2011 to use the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood to curb a regime that has been considered by them as a thorn in their sides for decades. In 2011 strategy shifted to West’s allies funding proxies. If anything, the US, Britain and their allies intervened too much and too early, largely to the benefit of Bashar Al-Assad, but also Hezbollah and Iran.

A regional order in the making

It has been noted that in our age of “politics as reality show”, even geopolitics and military raids are often done for show. There is much truth in these words. In this sense it should be noted that a  possible chemical attack occurred already in April 2017. Then as today, the US-led strike was preceeded by an announcement made by US President Donald Trump regarding his will to withdraw from Syria and followed by the bombing of an empty Syrian airfield.

A Syrian man receives medical treatment after the Assad regime conducted a poisonous gas attack in Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria on 7 March, 2018 [Dia Al Din Samout/Anadolu Agency]

And yet, the ongoing “geopolitical show” is underpinned by two very practical aims. The first one might be linked to the 2017–18 Qatar diplomatic crisis. Both the outbreak of the Qatar crisis and the recent US-led strike are in fact meant to provide a clear sign to regional actors to show the consequences that will be faced by those unwilling to align themselves with the anti-Iran front and the tacit agreement that binds Israel to Saudi Arabia and its allies.

#WarInSyria

In recent months also a number of Saudi sources have come forward contending that Saudi-Israeli relations are “the main gateway” to understanding the “transformations in the region and the backstage deliberations over the Palestinian cause”, including the recent and upcoming developments concerning Jerusalem.

Fostering fragmentation

The second aim is rooted in the will to weaken the link between Iran, Turkey and Russia; the three guarantors of the Astana peace process. The latter, in which Russia has played a key role, is perceived by many as a key tool to overcome the fragmentation of Syria and, more generally, the division of large Arab states into small and mostly homogeneous entities incapable of posing any threat.

This political goal is actively supported, directly andor indirectly, by a number of key-figures within the Trump administration, and has been advocated by several influential think tanks in Washington, including Project for the New American Century (PNAC), since the early 2000s.

Read: US admitted only 44 Syria refugees in the last 6 months

Among the 25 political figures who signed PNAC’s founding statement of principles in 1997, ten went on to serve in the administration of former US President George W. Bush. Some of them – including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz – were charged with highly influential positions that had direct repercussions on key-aspects pertaining to the region. The then president expressed his support for the remodeling of the “greater Middle East” also in his State of the Union speech on 20 January 2004.

Whose humanitarism?

The image of a “civilised world” that was witnessing yet another clash in the context of an inherently fanatic “Islamic Orient” was very much present in the articles published in England and France in the early 1860s. Western observers were then describing the massacres which occurred between Christians and Muslims during the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war.

Then, as today, external (and particularly Western) powers felt the necessity to intervene in the region justifying this through “humanitarian considerations”, and by adopting a self-imposed mission civilisatrice. They were, however, much less ready to acknowledge their own roles and responsabilities, or to ease the humanitarian burden faced by local actors.

Not much has changed in this respect. It is enough to mention that, according to the US State Department, Washington has admitted a total of 11 Syrian refugees in the all 2018. Despite playing a leading role in Syria and the broader region, Russia has granted refugee status to “only one Syrian national since 2011”. These examples represent the rule rather than the exception. Orwell’s celebrated prophecy – “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength” – could not have found a better manifesto.

Caricature of Syrian President sending air strikes in Syria – Cartoon

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Like the other Silicon Valley monopolies, Google habitually takes the side of Israeli occupation and war crimes in Palestine – the very term Palestine is not used by their highly influential maps app.

A new report by a Palestinian human rights group last month exposed the depths of Google’s dedication to the Israeli occupation.

With a known history documented back more than 3,200 years, the name “Palestine” is the only term continuously used for the entire territory of the country lying between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Palestine is the most historically accurate term. But since 1948, when Zionist militias expelled the majority of the Palestinian population from the country by force, a new state, “Israel”, was established.

That state has never declared its borders.

Consequentially, when speaking about “Israel” it is unclear exactly what territory is being referred to. But Zionists of both the right and the “left” commonly claim the entire historic territory of Palestine as the “Land of Israel.”

The new report, by 7amleh (Hamleh), a Palestinian organisation advocating online rights, details how Google seems to almost go out of its way to eradicate the reality of Palestinian life.

In 2016, Google came under fire from Palestinians on social media when the terms “West Bank” and “Gaza” disappeared from Google Maps. Google said that the removal of these terms was down to a glitch and that they had never used the word Palestine in the first place.

(The West Bank and Gaza Strip are regions of Palestine that are important, since they represent the remaining Palestinian territories which Israel failed to occupy in 1948. In 1967, however, Israel took over those too.)

“Through its mapping and labelling,” the 7amleh report explains, “one can deduce that Google Maps recognises the existence of Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital, but not Palestine.”

There are further aspects of the way Google has wiped Palestinian life off the map though. As the 7amleh report maps in some detail, Palestinian villages in the Naqab (Negev desert) deemed “unrecognised” by Israel (inside of what is sometimes termed “Israel proper” – the territories of Palestine occupied in 1948) are not properly mapped by Google.

These villages are only visible in Google Maps “when zooming in very closely,” the report explains, “but otherwise appear to be non-existent. This means that when looking at Google Maps, these villages appear to be not there.”

The report details how small Israeli villages are “displayed even when zoomed-out, while unrecognised Palestinian Bedouin villages, regardless of their size are only visible when zooming in very closely.”

Israel demolishes Al-Araqeeb for 135th time, arrests residents

This is despite the fact that there “are in total 46 Bedouin villages in the Naqab, the majority of which existed before Israel’s creation in 1948. Some claim to have existed since the 7th century.”

Israel has repeatedly attempted to physically remove these villages, but has repeatedly failed, thanks to the resistance of the Palestinians who live there, and thanks also to national and international solidarity shown to those villages.

Their Israeli (lack of) status as “unrecognised” also means that the state refuses to connect the villages to basic services like water and electricity – despite the fact that nearby Israeli-Jewish settlements are given all the support possible.

As Basma Abu-Qwaider, one Palestinian Naqab villager, explains in the report:

Google Maps acts in a discriminatory manner towards the unrecognised village the same [way] as the Israeli government does. Google ignores the existence of these villages just like Israel and for me if you do not exist on the map it means that you are invisible and that’s exactly what Israel wants us to be.

This solidarity with Israeli racism expressed by Google’s helpful attitude towards Israel’s wiping of Palestinians quite literally off the map extends across the 1967 “Green Line” ceasefire boundary.

Palestinian villages even within the “West Bank” area of the Jordan Valley are not properly mapped by Google either. The report documents that while Israeli settlements “can be seen when looking at the larger area of the map” some Palestinian villages are only visible when zoomed in – and even that only as a result of pressure being put on by a human rights organisation.

Google also refuses to recognise or map the reality of Israel’s apartheid roads system for Palestinians.

Khan Al-Ahmar resident: ‘We are imprisoned here’

As part of Israel’s ongoing settler-colonisation of Palestine, large parts of the West Bank – which is ruled by Israeli military decree – are prohibited access for Palestinians. Many roads are reserved for the use of Jews only.

Despite the illegality of these practices under international law, Google’s route-planning apps do not designate Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.

7amleh’s report concludes: “Google Maps, as the largest global mapping and route planning service, has the power to influence global public opinion and therefore bears the responsibility to abide by international human rights standards and to offer a service that reflects the Palestinian reality.”

Google should be compelled to end its complicity with Israeli racism and apartheid.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Travel insurance for Turkey has jumped almost 50 per cent in just a year, according to new data

Five European and Mediterranean destinations including some hotspots much loved by British tourists have been named as having seen big rises in insurance costs, directly caused by the Middle East crisis. Travel insurance for Turkey has jumped 46% in just a year, according to new data analysing 5,000 policies across popular destinations near conflict zones.

There is no sign of the Middle East conflict calming down – today Iran fired ballistic missiles and drones towards Bahrain and Kuwait, Bahrain’s government said, adding that they were intercepted.

Bahrain’s government called on Tehran to immediately cease attacks on Gulf neighbours that it deemed a “serious escalation”. Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the US early Saturday attacked surveillance facilities on Qeshm Island and near Sirik that it said were used to protect borders and “ensure the security of navigation in international waters”.

The latest exchange of fire came as the Trump administration pressed Iran to make a deal to end the war that has strained the global economy and threatened a hunger crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

The US military earlier said it shot down several Iranian missiles and drones launched towards the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies, and struck some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response.

It has had a big impact on the region with some popular destinations seeing big rises in premiums. Quotezone travel insurance expert Helen Rolph warned travellers not to assume last year’s prices still apply and urges holidaymakers to compare policies carefully, buy cover as soon as they book, and check Foreign Office advice before travelling.

Industry experts compared 5,000 travel insurance premiums across five popular tourist destinations close to conflict zones, revealing which countries have seen the biggest price increases over the past year.

Prices in Turkey have been affected the most despite it traditionally being considered one of the most popular and cost-effective destinations for UK holidaymakers over recent years.

Standard travel insurance premiums to the country have jumped from £40.56 in early 2025 to £59.19 just a year later – a rise of 46% or almost £20 per trip – which may be due to the fact it shares a border with Iran.

Holidaymakers travelling to Bulgaria are also seeing a sharp rise with prices up 19%, possibly down to its proximity to Ukraine.

Premiums for Cyprus have increased by 6%, Egypt by 4% and Poland by 8%. To gather the data, popular holiday destinations for British tourists were cross-referenced with countries geographically close to conflict zones, namely Ukraine and Iran, creating a dataset of major holiday hotspots in relative proximity to areas of geopolitical tension.

Insurers regularly reassess risk when global tensions rise, particularly in destinations close to areas where travel complications might become more likely.

Destinations situated close to areas experiencing heightened tensions – such as Iran and Ukraine – could see premiums shift as insurers reassess the likelihood of travel disruption, delays or emergency evacuation should issues escalate.

Helen Rolph, travel insurance expert at Quotezone.co.uk said: “Travel insurance prices change constantly as insurers respond to global events, the number of claims made and healthcare costs.

“Even if a destination remains popular despite its proximity to ongoing conflict, premiums can rise when the wider region becomes more uncertain.

“Travellers and holidaymakers shouldn’t assume last year’s prices will still apply and make sure they’re comparing policies carefully rather than opting for the cheapest option, as cover can vary significantly.

“It’s also sensible to arrange insurance as soon as a trip is booked, check government travel advice before departure, and ensure any medical conditions are fully declared.

“Travel disruption insurance can also be useful as it covers a wider range of issues while travelling but it’s important to remember that travel insurance won’t provide cover if the foreign office advises against travel to that region and most travel insurance policies won’t cover war related incidents. It’s crucial for holidaymakers to check what is and isn’t covered on their policy and add any extras or specialised cover they might need.”

Travel Insurance Premiums

Country // Average 2025 // Average 2026 // Average Price Change // % Change

Turkey £40.56 £59.19 £18.63 46%

Bulgaria £32.70 £38.82 £6.11 19%

Poland £10.50 £11.32 £0.82 8%

Cyprus £43.21 £45.80 £2.59 6%

Egypt £68.52 £71.30 £2.78 4%

An acclaimed biopic about Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel, who has dedicated her life to representing Palestinian defendants charged by Israeli authorities, has been shortlisted for an Oscar.

“Advocate” is one of 15 films shortlisted in the Documentary Feature category, out of an original 159 submissions. The final five contenders will be announced next month.

The award-winning documentary, co-directed by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche, has been vociferously attacked by right-wing Israeli groups and Israel’s Culture Minister Miri Regev.

READ: Israel’s flirtation with football stars won’t stop cultural boycott

When “Advocate” won Best Picture at the DocAviv festival in Tel Aviv, Regev condemned “the choice to make a movie focusing on a lawyer who represents, supports and speaks in the name of many who undermine the State of Israel’s existence, [and] use terrorism against its soldiers and people”.

In awarding the film, DocAviv judges wrote that “Advocate” is “a thought-provoking project that addresses an important subject and demonstrates impressive cinematic skills, especially the innovative and intelligent use of animation… [It] sketches out a complex portrait of a strong and inspiring woman who believes in the justness of her path with all her heart.”

The award was greeted with outrage, and following an organised campaign, Israel’s state lottery company subsequently announced “it would be pulling its funding for future grants given to best picture winners at Tel Aviv’s documentary film festival”.

Israel’s balancing act that allowed it to reap America’s unconditional and, often, blind support, while slowly benefiting from China’s growing economic influence and political prestige, is already floundering.

Thanks to the heated cold war between the US and Chinese economic superpowers, the Israeli strategy of playing both sides is unlikely to pay dividends in the long run.

Soon enough, Tel Aviv might find itself having to make a stark choice between Washington and Beijing.  When US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, visited Israel on May 13, two items topped his agenda: Israel’s imminent illegal annexation of Palestinian land and the growing Israeli-Chinese economic ties.

Pompeo communicated his country’s stand on both issues, reflecting Washington’s long-standing policies regarding Palestine and China. In the case of Palestine, as with the rest of the Middle East, Washington seems to adhere to Tel Aviv’s agenda, often to the letter.  China is a different story.

READ: China rejects Israel’s planned annexation of West Bank

Two significant historical examples come to mind: one, is Israel’s attempt to sell China Israeli-made Phalcon airborne radar system, which relied heavily on American technology in the 1990s; a similar event transpired in 2005, this time concerning Israel’s Harpy anti-radar missile. On both occasions, Israel succumbed to American pressure and canceled both deals.

For the Chinese, Israel matters for two different reasons. One, Israel is a strategic stop in China’s Belt and Road initiative, China’s most significant economic project to date, ultimately aimed at turning Beijing into a center of global trade and financial activities. Two, China is hoping to fight the US on its own political turf in the Middle East – partly in response to the American ‘pivot to Asia’ strategy, which was initiated by the Barack Obama administration.

But the world – in terms of political and economic balances of power – after the coronavirus pandemic is likely to prove a different one when compared with previous years. China’s rise has been in the making for many years and the US political retreat and declining global outreach has been quite evident for some time. The isolationist policies of the Donald Trump Administration, coupled with Washington’s many China-related tantrums in recent years, are all indicators of the vastly changing political realities of a once-unipolar world.

“I will not miss the opportunity to annex the West Bank”- Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

A few years ago, Beijing had the time, patience, and resources to play a long-drawn geopolitical game in order for it to challenge the US’s global influence, whether in South America, Africa, or Israel.

The visit by China’s Vice President, Wang Qishan, to Israel in 2018, to “boost business ties”, was part of this Chinese strategy. That visit followed the signing, one year earlier, of the China-Israel Innovative Comprehensive Partnership. As of 2018, China-Israel trade has jumped to $14 billion and has grown exponentially ever since.

China would have been happy to carry on with that strategy for many years to come. Israel, too, would have played along, considering the lucrative financial returns from its China partnership.

READ: Israel ties to China may risk our ability to work with Tel Aviv

Indeed, despite Washington’s warnings against and, at times, explicit demands on Israel to refrain from giving Chinese companies access to fifth-generation infrastructure (5G) projects in the country, Israel labored to make China feel welcomed.

However, the global response to the coronavirus pandemic is likely to change this, as it has already accelerated the cold war between the US and China, pushing the latter to adopt a more aggressive form of diplomacy and pour massive sums into other countries’ economies to help them in their desperate fight against the COVID-19 disease.

The Chinese strategy is predicated on two main pillars: fortifying existing ties and solidarity with China’s allies or potential allies anywhere in the world, while pushing back against China’s foes, especially those who are participating in Washington’s anti-Beijing campaign.

The latter phenomenon is known as ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’. The ‘wolf warriors’ are Chinese diplomats who have, for months, pushed back with unprecedented ferocity against what they perceive to be US and Western propaganda.

READ: China’s ambassador to Israel found dead in Tel Aviv home

“We never pick a fight or bully others,” China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, told reporters in Beijing on May 24, while explaining China’s novel approach to diplomacy. “We will push back against any deliberate insult, resolutely defend our national honor and dignity, and we will refute all groundless slander with facts,” the top Chinese official said firmly.

China’s new aggressive diplomacy, especially if it continues to define the country’s approach to foreign policy in the coming years, is unlikely to permit Israel to maintain its balancing act for much longer.

China’s ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, who was entrusted with implementing Beijing’s soft-diplomacy with Tel Aviv, died in his home only a few days following Pompeo’s visit to the country. Although Wei’s death was not – at least publicly – perceived to be the result of foul play, his absence, especially in the age of coronavirus and ‘wolf warriors’, might signal a shift in China’s approach to its economic and political interests in Israel.

On May 26, under American pressure, the Israeli Finance Ministry denied China a massive $1.5 billion desalination plant contract, awarding it to an Israeli company, instead.

This is the first time that the US has used its political and economic sway over Israel to curb Chinese influence in the country. China must be anxiously watching events unfold,   to see if US pressure on Israel will continue to undermine Beijing’s long-term strategy.

Deal of the century, embassy relocation, and the Golan Heights – Israel surely can’t believe their luck? – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

The world’s quickly shifting balance of power and the US-Chinese unmistakable fight for dominance is likely to, eventually, force countries like Israel to make a choice, of wholly joining the American or the Chinese sphere of influence. It is all reminiscent of the American-Soviet Cold War, where much of the globe was divided into zones of influence operated by proxy from Washington or Moscow.

Balancing acts in politics only work if all parties are willing to play or, at least, tolerate the game. While this form of politics suited Israel’s interests in the past and was played, quite successfully for years by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s balancing act is, possibly, over.

Between Washington’s precise demands to Israel to keep Beijing at bay, and the latter’s aggressive ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy, Israel is facing a stark choice: remaining loyal to a fading superpower or diving into the uncharted waters of an emerging one.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Shimon Peres, who passed away Wednesday aged 93 after suffering a stroke on 13 September, epitomised the disparity between Israel’s image in the West and the reality of its bloody, colonial policies in Palestine and the wider region.

Peres was born in modern day Belarus in 1923, and his family moved to Palestine in the 1930s. As a young man, Peres joined the Haganah, the militia primarily responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian villages in 1947-49, during the Nakba.

Despite the violent displacement of the Palestinians being a matter of historical record, Peres has always insisted that Zionist forces “upheld the purity of arms” during the establishment of the State of Israel. Indeed, he even claimed that before Israel existed, “there was nothing here”.

Over seven decades, Peres served as prime minister (twice) and president, though he never actually won a national election outright. He was a member of 12 cabinets and had stints as defence, foreign and finance minister.

He is perhaps best known in the West for his role in the negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords which won him, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yet for Palestinians and their neighbours in the Middle East, Peres’ track record is very different from his reputation in the West as a tireless “dove”. The following is by no means a comprehensive summary of Peres’ record in the service of colonialism and apartheid.

Nuclear weapons

Between 1953 and 1965, Peres served first as director general of Israel’s defence ministry and then as deputy defence minister. On account of his responsibilities at the time, Peres has been described as “an architect of Israel’s nuclear weapons programme” which, to this day, “remains outside the scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”

In 1975, as secret minutes have since revealed, Peres met with South African Defence Minister PW Botha and “offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime.” In 1986, Peres authorised the Mossad operation that saw nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu kidnapped in Rome.

Targeting Palestinian citizens

Peres had a key role in the military regime imposed on Palestinian citizens until 1966, under which authorities carried out mass land theft and displacement.

One such tool was Article 125 which allowed Palestinian land to be declared a closed military zone. Its owners denied access, the land would then be confiscated as “uncultivated”. Peres praised Article 125 as a means to “directly continue the struggle for Jewish settlement and Jewish immigration.”

Another one of Peres’ responsibilities in his capacity as director general of the defence ministry was to “Judaise” the Galilee; that is to say, to pursue policies aimed at reducing the region’s proportion of Palestinian citizens compared to Jewish ones.

In 2005, as Vice Premier in the cabinet of Ariel Sharon, Peres renewed his attack on Palestinian citizens with plans to encourage Jewish Israelis to move to the Galilee. His “development” plan covered 104 communities – 100 of them Jewish.

In secret conversations with US officials that same year, Peres claimed Israel had “lost one million dunams [1,000 square kilometres] of Negev land to the Bedouin”, adding that the “development” of the Negev and Galilee could “relieve what [he] termed a demographic threat.”

Supporting illegal settlements in the West Bank

While Israel’s settlement project in the West Bank has come to be associated primarily with Likud and other right-wing nationalist parties, it was in fact Labor which kick-started the colonisation of the newly-conquered Palestinian territory – and Peres was an enthusiastic participant.

During Peres’ tenure as defence minister, from 1974 to 1977, the Rabin government established a number of key West Bank settlements, including Ofra, large sections of which were built on confiscated privately-owned Palestinian land.

Having played a key role in the early days of the settlement enterprise, in more recent years, Peres has intervened to undermine any sort of measures, no matter how modest, at sanctioning the illegal colonies – always, of course, in the name of protecting “peace negotiations”.

The Qana massacre

As prime minister in 1996, Peres ordered and oversaw “Operation Grapes of Wrath” when Israeli armed forces killed some 154 civilians in Lebanon and injured another 351. The operation, widely believed to have been a pre-election show of strength, saw Lebanese civilians intentionally targeted.

According to the official Israeli Air Force website (in Hebrew, not English), the operation involved “massive bombing of the Shia villages in South Lebanon in order to cause a flow of civilians north, toward Beirut, thus applying pressure on Syria and Lebanon to restrain Hezbollah.”

The campaign’s most notorious incident was the Qana massacre, when Israel shelled a United Nations compound and killed 106 sheltering civilians. A UN report stated that, contrary to Israeli denials, it was “unlikely” that the shelling “was the result of technical and/or procedural errors.”

Later, Israeli gunners told Israeli television that they had no regrets over the massacre, as the dead were “just a bunch of Arabs”. As for Peres, his conscience was also clean: “Everything was done according to clear logic and in a responsible way,” he said. “I am at peace.”

Gaza – defending blockade and brutality

Peres came into his own as one of Israel’s most important global ambassadors in the last ten years, as the Gaza Strip was subjected to a devastating blockade and three major offensives. Despite global outrage at such policies, Peres has consistently backed collective punishment and military brutality.

In January 2009, for example, despite calls by “Israeli human rights organisations…for ‘Operation Cast Lead’ to be halted”, Peres described “national solidarity behind the military operation” as “Israel’s finest hour.” According to Peres, the aim of the assault “was to provide a strong blow to the people of Gaza so that they would lose their appetite for shooting at Israel.”

During “Operation Pillar of Defence” in November 2012, Peres “took on the job of helping the Israeli public relations effort, communicating the Israeli narrative to world leaders,” in the words of Ynetnews. On the eve of Israel’s offensive, “Peres warned Hamas that if it wants normal life for the people of Gaza, then it must stop firing rockets into Israel.”

In 2014, during an unprecedented bombardment of Gaza, Peres stepped up once again to whitewash war crimes. After Israeli forces killed four small children playing on a beach, Peres knew who to blame – the Palestinians: “It was an area that we warned would be bombed,” he said. “And unfortunately they didn’t take out the children.”

The choking blockade, condemned internationally as a form of prohibited collective punishment, has also been defended by Peres – precisely on the grounds that it is a form of collective punishment. As Peres put it in 2014: “If Gaza ceases fire, there will be no need for a blockade.”

Peres’ support for collective punishment also extended to Iran. Commenting in 2012 on reports that six million Iranians suffering from cancer were unable to get treatment due to sanctions, Peres said: “If they want to return to a normal life, let them become normal.”

Unapologetic to the end

Peres was always clear about the goal of a peace deal with the Palestinians. As he said in 2014: “The first priority is preserving Israel as a Jewish state. That is our central goal, that is what we are fighting for.” Last year he reiterated these sentiments in an interview with AP, saying: “Israel should implement the two-state solution for her own sake,” so as not to “lose our [Jewish] majority.”

This, recall, was what shaped Labor’s support for the Oslo Accords. Rabin, speaking to the Knesset not long before his assassination in 1995, was clear that what Israel sought from the Oslo Accords was a Palestinian “entity” that would be “less than a state”. Jerusalem would be Israel’s undivided capital, key settlements would be annexed and Israel would remain in the Jordan Valley.

A few years ago, Peres described the Palestinians as “self-victimising.” He went on: “They victimise themselves. They are a victim of their own mistakes unnecessarily.” Such cruel condescension was characteristic of a man for whom “peace” always meant colonial pacification.