The Free

Israeli HQ “ordered own troops to massacre Israeli captives on 7 October”

from thefreeonline on January 25, 2024 by Luther Blissett at Desultory Heroics by Electronic Intifada

note: atrocity denial? -We share this NOT to hurt the bereaved but to lessen Israeli propaganda used to justify Gaza Genocide

Vehicles stacked up near the southern Israeli town of Netivot, near Gaza, in November. They were destroyed soon after Palestinian fighters began taking captives on 7 October. A new investigation by Israeli journalists has concluded that 70 such vehicles were blown up by Israeli fire.

At midday on 7 October Israel’s supreme military command ordered all units to prevent the capture of Israeli citizens “at any cost” – even by firing on them.

The military “instructed all its fighting units to perform the Hannibal Directive in practice, although it did so without stating that name explicitly,” Israeli journalists revealed last weekend.

The revelations came in a new investigative article by Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun, two journalists with extensive sources inside Israel’s military and intelligence establishment.

They also revealed that “some 70 vehicles” driven by Palestinian fighters returning to Gaza were blown up by Israeli helicopter gunships, drones or tanks.

We need to expose how Israeli false flag gave cover for genociding 2,4m in Gaza- and saved Netanyahu’s career-

Many of these vehicles contained Israeli captives.

The journalists wrote that “it is not clear at this stage how many of the captives were killed due to the operation of this order” to the air force that they should prevent return to Gaza at all costs.

“At least in some of the cases, everyone in the vehicle was killed,” the journalists explain.

The Hebrew piece has not been translated into English by its publisher, Yedioth Ahronoth, a newspaper which translates many of its articles. You can read HERE The Electronic Intifada’s full English version, translated by Dena Shunra.

The secretive “Hannibal” doctrine is named after an ancient Carthaginian general who poisoned himself rather than be captured alive by the Roman Empire.

The order aims at stopping Israelis from being taken captive by resistance fighters who could later use them as leverage in prisoner swap deals.

“Overpowered”

The latest revelations confirm The Electronic Intifada’s reporting since 7 October that many – if not most – of the Israeli civilians killed that day were killed by Israel itself, not Palestinian fighters.

A home in Kibbutz Be’eri, demolished by the IDF on October 7th to ‘get Hamas militants’

Initial claims stated that 1,400 Israelis were killed by Hamas in the Palestinian assault that began on 7 October. But Israel has repeatedly revised this figure downwards, so that it now stands at “over 1,000.”

It was also clear from the outset that hundreds of the dead and captured were in fact Israeli soldiers. (All Israelis are obliged to do military service and become army reservists. The border area is heavily militarized, with gated subsidized settlements and individual ‘safe room’ bunkers. ..)

Hamas maintains that they targeted military bases and outposts, and that their aim was to capture rather than kill Israeli civilians, and to kill or capture Israeli soldiers, and that they knew nothing of the music festival moved there just 2 days before.

Based on interviews with those present, the new article says that top officers at Israel’s underground military headquarters in Tel Aviv on 7 October declared in shock that “the Gaza Division was overpowered.”

One person present that day – referring back to earlier Israeli shocks such as the surprise counterattack by Egypt and Syria in October 1973 – told the journalists that,”We thought that this could never happen again, and this will remain a scar burnt into our flesh forever.”

Collective Action is the Only Answer to a Global Garment Industry Driven by Debt, Wage Theft and Coercion

from thefreeonline on January 25, 2024 by MASSolidarity.org

These are the findings from an investigation carried out between 2022 and 2023 by Transparentem, a US-based organisation that investigates workers’ rights.

factory full of lady garment workers sitting in front of sewing machines, one woman in front looks directly towards the camera

Alessandra Mezzadri, SOAS, University of London

Major fashion brands including Barbour and PVH (the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) have agreed to pay over £400,000 in compensation to migrant workers in Mauritius. These workers from Bangladesh, India, China and Madagascar had been forced to pay illegal recruitment fees and, alongside other indicators of forced labour, were allegedly subject to deception and intimidation.

Migrant workers across several Mauritian factories reported agreeing to pay fees ranging from a few hundred to several thousand US dollars to secure a good job. But, upon arrival, they discovered the job was poorly paid and expenses were higher than promised.

Exploitative practices like this are actually quite common. The Mauritius case is the latest example of the use of forced labour (the most commonly identified form of modern slavery) within company supply chains. But all garment workers – free and unfree – can experience unacceptable forms of exploitation that can only be countered through sustained labour organisation.

The coloniality of our wardrobe

In 2013, an eight-storey commercial building called Rana Plaza collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Over 1,100 people – mostly garment workers – lost their lives, leading to widespread protests and international scrutiny on working conditions in garment factories.

Since then, multiple reports have uncovered labour abuse in the garment sector, including several instances of forced labour.

Third-party labour contractors are also prevalent in many global supply chains. Contractors recruit and supply local or international migrant labour, and garment factories rely on them to manage and control their workforce.

But contract labourers are vulnerable to abuse. In the lower rungs of the supply chain (in informal workshops and homes), workers often work based on a system of advanced payments.

The labour contractor pays the worker an “advance”, which locks the worker into their employment. It prevents them from negotiating better salaries or working for others until the debt is repaid.

In India, there is evidence that this debt-based system is spreading to garment factories. In Bengaluru, for instance, women in garment factories work under constant debt to their employer. Missed daily targets, lost productivity or time off are turned into debt that workers must compensate through future labour.

Many forced labour practices have a long history, dating back to colonial relations. Both labour contracting and indebtedness characterised the indenture labour system that dominated the production of textiles for centuries. In 19th-century India, for example, indenture workers were managed by labour contractors who paid them advances.

Under this point of view, the contemporary garment supply chain is a modern avatar of the colonial labour plantation.

Illegal terminations and wage theft

Not every worker that stitches our clothing is forced to do so. In fact, the majority are not. But even workers that we would consider to be “free” – those who are not tied to an employer or labour contractor – can experience harsh forms of exploitation.

I recently wrote a report for the International Labour Organization (ILO) with labour activist and colleague Rakhi Sehgal that documents some of the industrial grievances garment workers filed individually or via unions in India.

The report is based on a project that contributes to the ILO’s Work in Freedom programme.

This programme aims to reduce vulnerability to forced labour in south Asia and the Middle East, particularly for women in the garment sector.

We analysed a total of 75 grievances across three of India’s export hubs – Gurugram, Bengaluru and Tiruppur – and found shocking patterns of labour abuse.

We discovered the widespread use of illegal terminations by employers, either through factory closures or relocation. We also found evidence of wage-theft. This usually involves not paying the worker’s final wages – a practice that escalated during the COVID pandemic. But it can also be the result of managerial tactics like imposing impossible targets or paying overtime rates that are lower than the legal threshold.

Our report also highlighted gender differences in labour abuse. Sexual harassment was consistently deployed as a tool to discipline women working on the assembly line. We found widespread evidence of sexual harassment in Bengaluru, but it was also present in garment factories surrounding Delhi.

Social justice on the shopfloor

Cases like the labour abuse in Mauritius are conspicuous and show new connections between modern slavery and migration. But these cases are enabled by centuries of colonial and neo-colonial organisation of production that has involved unacceptable forms of worker exploitation.

The analysis of the disputes in our study clearly suggests that social justice is only achievable through collective action. Most of the industrial grievances that were won by workers and their representatives were, unsurprisingly, collective grievances filed by unions.

In light of yet another sweatshop scandal, let us remember that upholding the freedom of association (the right to form and join trade unions) stands as the most effective means of fighting all forms of labour unfreedom – from Mauritius to India or Bangladesh.

Alessandra Mezzadri, Reader in Global Development and Political Economy, SOAS, University of London

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Houthis win missile battle as Maersk turns back US war supplies for Gaza.

from thefreeonline on 25 Jan 2024 by Support SouthFront

The Houthis (Ansar Allah) replied after yet another illegal US bombing attack and announced late on January 24 that they damaged a United States warship and forced two American commercial vessels to retreat after a two-hour missile engagement in the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier currently stationed with its group off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea .” A ‘sitting duck’ for a hypersonic missile”…Locations Of US Carrier Strike Groups – January 23, 2024

The shipping company Maersk admitted both its ships attacked were carrying cargo belonging to the U.S. Department of Defense and other U.S. government agencies.

The Maersk Detroit: fled the Red sea carrying US arms after Houthi attack, 24/1/24

The company also announced that it had suspended the operations of U.S.-owned ships in the Red Sea and nearby waters.

“In solidarity with the Palestinian people and in response to the American-British aggression on our country, clashes occurred with a number of American destroyers and warships in the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandab Strait,” Houthi military spokesman Brigade General Yahya Saree said in a video statement.

The spokesman said that the engagement occurred while the ships were providing protection for two American commercial vessels and lasted for more than two hours.

“The US Navy has turned both ships around and is escorting them back to the Gulf of Aden,” a Maersk statement said, adding that “following the escalation of risk, MLL is suspending transits in the region until further notice.”

2 US-Flagged Ships with Cargo for US Defense Department Come Under … 1 day ago The attacks on the container ships Maersk Detroit and Maersk Chesapeake further raise the stakes of the group’s ongoing attacks on shipping through the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The U.S. and the …

Top Israeli confirms Netanyahu’s genocidal intent. Plan to force Gazans to relocate to Sinai desert.

from thefreeonline on24 January, 2024 by Undercover1

Over 10,000 children have been killed as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza.

A document has been published that compiles statements by Israeli decision-makers, legislators and army personnel and officers, backing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal mission.

Meanwhile more details have been published about the leaked Israeli intelligence plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians to the Sinai desert.

Statements supporting genocide

The living document is here, published by Law For Palestine (L4P). L4P intends to regularly update the document.

L4P say they will also publish statements made in support of war crimes and genocide by journalists and influencers, former government officials, and public expressions.

While various Global South countries registered their support for South Africa’s case against Israel The USA and its ‘vassals’, including all the EU, were conspicuously absent, and Germany joined the case on Israel’s side.