From the river to the sea...

There is a huge global campaign to ban Israel from all international sports and cultural meets, including football, as it was done during apartheid in South Africa. Football stadiums are erupting with Palestine flags.

By Amit Sengupta

As Trump’s unilateral 20-point peace plan on Gaza unfolds, the sinister shadow of Tony Blair has suddenly come to loom large on the ravaged landscape. Meanwhile, the Israelis shot a nurse on the forehead, according to reports.

Doctors, nurses and para-medics, apart from journalists, have been IDF’s chosen objects for target practise. Several doctors have been kidnapped, and while the Israeli hostages must be freed, does Trump’s peace plan include the 10,000 plus Palestinian prisoners rotting in Israeli torture chambers, including women and kids?

So why is Trump in such a hurry? Why has he declared that the occupied West Bank, will not be allowed to be annexed?

And why is Belligerent Bibi so suddenly gracious and magnanimous, when he has loved every bit of it?

On November 21, 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, charging them with the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity. For a leader of a western-backed nation, especially the US, this is a rare first case. Considering the fact that the US and UK, especially, have wrecked bloody mayhem on several human civilisations, from Vietnam to Chile to Iraq, Bibi is the unlucky one.

France and UK are among the 125 ICC member states, who, theoretically, should arrest these two Israelis if they enter their territory. Country after country are moving to use sanctions, ban, or boycott Israel, starting with Ireland and Spain. And Bibi seems to be in a quagmire of his own making.

So what happened?

It’s mass pressure from the ground, from inside homes and hearts, every heart that beats. Relentless, ceaseless, endless people’s collective outrage and mass movements -- on campuses, schools, cafés, local trains, subways, packed rock and solo shows, packed open-air music shows, packed football stadiums, international film festivals, classical music concerts, pavements and public squares, during lightening protests in conferences and award-ceremonies, in songs and soliloquies, on social media, with paintings, drawings, cartoons, animations, masks, drums, violins, guitars, posters and placards.

Since the Global Flotilla was forcibly abducted and detained by the Israeli murder machine, relentless and huge protests have rocked Europe, the US and other parts of the world. It’s a global uprising led by Italy, Spain, Ireland and the people of Europe, inspired by the brave crew of the 44 ships of the Flotilla, over 500 doctors, activists, journalists, celebrities, among others. Greta Thunber is a global icon, an inspirational role model for the world.

The incredible thing is, despite the Israeli blockade, one ship was able to enter the Palestinian waters. This is a great victory, and proves that no blockade ever works – it can be penetrated and broken one day.

More ships and boats are now moving towards Gaza – in what seems a great inspiring movement waged on international waters. Many governments have condemned this Rogue Murderous State of Israel – which is increasingly being isolated into an apartheid genocidal state which violates international laws ritualistically, and which has crossed all limits of  barbarism and inhumanity. Sanctions, arms embargo, bans and boycotts seem to becoming a global trend.

The Flotilla was carrying food, baby formula, water, medicine and humanitarian aid for the starving people of Gaza.

Since then, hundreds of thousands, young and old, men and women, have seized streets and public places, protesting night and day. While the Flotilla sailed towards Gaza, one million people came out in protests in Italy in the first instance when the Flotilla was forcibly abducted by the IDF -- schools, colleges, docks, ports, trains, subways, marketplaces. A nation-wide strike followed.

Since then, more than 2 million people have protested on the streets of 100 cities in Italy, and another general strike has crippled the country. Rome is refusing to sleep.

Sections of the big media is camouflaging or not reporting the truth on the ground. But the social media is full of it – videos of protests, interviews with analysts, short films, music concerts, conversation with activists, ground reports, talk shows, songs and music. The truth cannot be hidden.

Most governments are supporting the ocean of people on the streets – they have no choice really. Others, like the Italian Right-wing regime, or Keir Starmer in UK, are facing a tough choice  -- they will fall if they continue to back the genocide. Even Bibi seems to be in a fix at the global outrage – which refuses to relent or stop.

The answer, literally, is blowin’ in the air.

 In Bavaria, Germany, a global slogan was banned: ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’. Cops have been exceptionally brutal, especially in Berlin. (This is where the victorious Red Army entered, the fascists were defeated, and Hitler committed suicide, in a bunker.)

But the people kept coming back.

One persistent school girl has become a household name. Her videos have gone viral. She has been dragged by the cops and arrested umpteen times; but in typical satyagraha mode, she comes back, to be dragged and detained again, while she shouts: Stop the genocide!

Old people, some in their 90s, some on wheelchairs, defied the British government, which banned Palestine Action, a solidarity direct action group. So, they all came out, old and young, holding placards, saying, yes, we support Palestine Action. They were arrested by the London police. Reports say that some cops seem to be suffering from guilt and remorse.

British PM Keir Startmer’s government, while backing Israel, refused to call it genocide. He hosted the Israeli president in early September despite protests. His public image has taken a real beating.

The Guardian reported (September 9, 2025): As many as 61 parliamentarians wrote to Keir Starmer expressing concerns over Herzog’s visit. “At a time when more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, the overwhelming majority women and children, such a visit risks suggesting that the UK is indifferent to its international legal responsibilities,” the letter said.

Finally, the Labour Party Conference held in Liverpool, backed by the biggest trade unions in UK, declared that it is indeed genocide, and that a full arms embargo should be declared. Earlier, the UN Commission of Enquiry had called it genocide – which it is – and not a war.

Besides, Berlin, which has faced brutal police repression, said enough is enough: more than 100,000 marched this week.

Sydney, London, New York, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Scandinavian countries, city after city have exploded across the West. Entire Italy came to a standstill with a nation-wide strike. Dock workers in Italy blocked all ships loaded with arms to Israel. The Italian Right-wing regime, has been compelled to send a Navy squad along with the Sumud Freedom Flotilla carrying baby formula and humanitarian aid.

Spain has joined, and so has, reportedly, Greece and Turkey, even while the 44-nation Flotilla with over 50 ships entered the Gaza waters. Several celebrities, doctors, lawyers, including Nelson Mandela’s son, are on board.

Many big brands, including in food and cosmetics, doing business with Israel, have been boycotted, their fancy stores raided, their losses running into millions; many shut down their outlets. US campuses rose in protest -- no alliance with the Israeli murder machine.

Students wore the Palestine keffiyeh in convocations across the country, some of them were expelled and jailed – they refused to succumb.

At the UN General Assembly, speech after speech, especially by the president of Columbia, called Israel out. He said he is ready to send troops to Gaza. The Indonesian president said, “If and when the UN Security Council and this great assembly decide, Indonesia is prepared to deploy 20,000 or even more of our sons and daughters to help secure peace in Gaza." Other countries like Canada have started to speak of a peace-keeping force.

Despite strong opposition by the US, France, Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Portugal, Malta and San Marino have recognized Palestine. That is, a majority of nations now recognize Palestine – barring the US, Germany and Italy.

Bibi had to criss-cross across the globe to avoid ‘unfriendly’ international air space. His speech in the UN General Assembly, New York, witnessed an empty hall. Majority of the countries walked out. Zohran Mamdani has said, he will follow the ICC orders, if he becomes the Mayor of New York.

Ireland and Spain have led from the front, along with South Africa and others. Both Ireland and South Africa trace their freedom struggle in synthesis with the liberation movement of Palestine. Ireland has imposed a ban on certain Israeli ministers. It will not participate in Eurovision 2026 if Israel joins. A global boycott campaign is on.

There is a huge campaign to ban Israel from all international sports competitions, including football, as it was done during apartheid in South Africa. Football stadiums are erupting with Palestine flags.

Thousands of actors, directors and others in Hollywood have pledged to not work with anyone or anything linked to Israel. Brad Pitt and Jaoquin Phoenix, among other big shots, have produced The Voice of Hind Rajab, about a little girl in Gaza, crying for help, trapped in a car with her dead relatives, while the car was riddled with 335 bullets. The paramedics who reached her were killed. So was she.

Indeed, it was little Hind Rajab, just about 5, who became a symbol in the first campus protests in the US, starting from Columbia University. “I am so scared, please come, get me,” she pleaded to the helpless woman on the helpline, surrounded by tanks, with bullets flying all around her.

Her voice will haunt the world for all time to come.    

 Spain has locked its bases, Rota in Cadiz and Moron de la Grontera in Seville –American planes and ships are forbidden to transit to Israel.

The spineless dictators and monarchs in the Middle-East seem to have woken up after the Israelis bombed Qatar. Now, led by Qatar, trade deals with Israel worth billions, are being cancelled – including bilateral relations. Sanctions, arms embargoes, trade deals, total boycott of Israel, the isolation of this Rogue State might be marking a changed global strategy.

 Majority global opinion would want this genocide to stop, the release of hostages (and Palestinian prisoners), and a two-state solution. The irony is that between the US-Israel-Hamas, who is speaking for the people of Palestine?

 And if Tony Blair comes to call the shots in Gaza, it might become even worse. Dissident labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has tweeted:  “Blair’s catastrophic decision to invade Iraq cost thousands upon thousands of lives. He shouldn’t be anywhere near the Middle East, let alone Gaza. It is not up to Blair, Trump or Netanyahu to decide the future of Gaza. That is up to the people of Palestine.”

Indeed, Corbyn is right. Blair is bad news. It’s like getting another Bibi in disguise.

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The article was first published in lokmarg.com

This is an updated version.

Except picture 2, all pictures from social media.