The Electronic Intifada Podcast 22 November 2025
On 17 November, the UN Security Council adopted the so-called Trump peace plan for Gaza.
UN Resolution 2803 effectively makes the United States and Israel the joint rulers of Gaza, aided by complicit governments from the region and around the world.
But ”the people of the world, the whole world, is on the side of Palestine – now more than ever,” Mokhiber said.
He emphasized the need for more grassroots organizing given the large gulf between peoples, on the one hand, and governments and international institutions, on the other.
The resolution authorizes the creation of a so-called International Stabilization Force controlled by the United States and Israel, with assistance from local vassals, especially Egypt.
The force will be empowered to take “all necessary measures” to disarm Palestinian resistance groups.
Palestinian resistance groups have warned that they will treat it as an occupying force.
The resolution has been roundly condemned by Palestinian human rights organizations as a grave violation of international law and Palestinian rights, including self-determination.A “bailout” for Israel
The resolution calls for Gaza to be ruled by a so-called Board of Peace, which US President Donald Trump has said he will head.
”It’s not even colonial, it’s King Leopoldesque. It’s his private domain,” Mokhiber said of Trump’s role – invoking the notoriously brutal 19th-century rule of the Belgian monarch over Congo.
Mokhiber noted that Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former British prime minister Tony Blair are likely to be in charge of Gaza reconstruction funds – creating enormous opportunities for corruption.
He described this as a “bailout” for Israel, which should be liable for the destruction it has caused.
According to the resolution, a local group of Palestinians will be appointed to take orders from the Board of Peace, but otherwise Palestinians will have no role in their own governance.
”This resolution is a real direct assault on the Palestinian people, on their human rights, on their hopes of liberation. It is an atrocity with the UN insignia on it. I’ve never seen anything like that in all the years that I’ve been following the UN,” said Mokhiber.
He and other experts have pointed out that this resolution goes against international law, including the right of an occupied people to use armed resistance.
The Palestinian Authority backed the resolution and 13 of the 15 Security Council members voted for it.Russia and China fail to cast veto
Russia and China, two veto-wielding permanent members, abstained – in effect allowing the resolution to pass.
Executive director Ali Abunimah predicted that on The Electronic Intifada Livestream for 6 November.
Abunimah said then and on the latest Livestream that China and Russia would follow the lead of the PA and Arab and Muslim states supporting the resolution. But he argued Russia and China had a responsibility to block it nonetheless.”The Chinese and the Russians aren’t naive. They know that the Palestinian Authority, although they recognize them, that they’re puppets of Washington,” Abunimah explained.
Abunimah said the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are vassals of the US. And neither they, nor Pakistan and Algeria – both currently on the Security Council – have the right to surrender Palestinian rights either.
Therefore, Abunimah argued, Russia and China should have taken the position that “This resolution is so damaging to the basic principles of the United Nations and to international law that, notwithstanding what those countries say, we cannot let this pass.”
Mokhiber agreed.
“Russia and China have, for transactional reasons, thrown the Palestinian people under the bus, thrown international law under the bus and abdicated their responsibility as P5 members in the UN Security Council. They could have and they should have vetoed it.”
The P5 are the permanent members of the UN Security Council – US, Britain, France, China and Russia – with the power to veto resolutions.
The US has regularly used its veto to block ceasefire resolutions since the start of the genocide more than two years ago.
Despite the serious problems arising from the resolution, Mokhiber said there are also reasons to doubt the plan will be implemented.
There are, he said, ”so many points at which it could come completely unraveled. But it can do a lot of damage in the meantime.”
Some initiatives meant to help Palestinians in Gaza are on hold as various actors wait to see what will happen with the implementation of the resolution.
Mokhiber emphasized the need for grassroots organizing such as direct action, civil disobedience, education, strikes, boycotts, divestments and sanctions.
These tactics “are increasingly showing themselves to help,” he said.
“ The Security Council is the problem. It’s not going to be fixed. Let’s use what we have to try to challenge it, including in the UN General Assembly, but especially in the streets.”
Israel massacres Palestinian children
Israel has continued killing and injuring Palestinians in spite of the 10 October so-called ceasefire, associate editor Nora Barrows-Friedman reported in her news briefing at the start of the program.
Meanwhile, desperately needed humanitarian aid, including shelter materials, medicine, basic food items and supplies for infrastructure repair remain blocked, entrenching multiple catastrophes for Palestinians as winter rains come.
Israel’s destruction of houses and buildings across the vague and invisible so-called yellow line is ongoing, posing threats for Palestinians trying to return home.
Watch the full news report on YouTube and read it here.
Sexual torture by Israeli captors
Palestinians from Gaza recently released from Israeli detention have reported horrific incidents of rape and sexual torture by their Israeli captors, Abunimah reported during the Livestream.
He detailed these accounts in a 13 November article, “Palestinians recount gang rapes by Israeli soldiers, dogs.”
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which collected the testimonies in recent weeks, said they reflect a systematic policy as part of Israel’s genocide, rather than isolated incidents. During the Livestream Abunimah shared a clip from a recent interview by Canadian journalist Samira Moyheddin, of Israeli lawyer Ben Marmarelli who concurred with this assessment.
One of the few cases of a Palestinian victim drawing mainstream attention involved a detainee gang-raped and severely injured by a group of Israeli soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention camp.It came to light last year after several soldiers were arrested for the attack and leaked video of the assault was broadcast on Israeli television.
Marmarelli’s client is a different Palestinian political prisoner who he says is subjected to severe abuse, including repeated sexual violence.
The lawyer said his client has begged him to stop visiting, because Israeli personnel rape him after every such visit. When asked if he was surprised by the reports of sexual violence at Sde Teiman, Marmarelli said sexual violence is systematic there and at other facilities.
”Not only did they rape all of the prisoners, they have cameras filming 24/7. So if they really wanted to act against the rape and the beatings and the torture, they could have done this years ago. They don’t do it,” Marmarelli said.
Only because there was so much international attention to this one case of sexual violence at Sde Teiman did Israel decide to “scapegoat” the perpetrators, according to Marmarelli.
Even this case of token pursuit of justice enraged Israelis and prompted strong support for the accused rapists.
Associate editor Asa Winstanley noted that in stark contrast with the overwhelming evidence of systemic Israeli sexual violence against Palestinians, there is still no evidence of rape of Israelis on 7 October 2023.And yet that accusation is mentioned constantly in “every Israeli and Western article” about 7 October, said Winstanley.
Abunimah and Winstanley debunked a report by the Dinah Project on The Electronic Intifada livestream for 10 July.
But one of the operatives of the Israeli propaganda outfit, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, continues to give speeches promoting the genocidal lie about mass rapes.
Recently, she spoke at the London School of Economics and accused The Electronic Intifada of “denialism.”
Swiss official who banned Ali Abunimah took Israeli job
Winstanley provided an update on Abunimah’s arrest in Zurich in January.
Abunimah was arrested and detained for three days after entering Switzerland legally to speak out against Israel’s genocide. He was then expelled from the country.
Winstanley has been reporting on the incident and this is the first significant update since February.
“Swiss official tied to Israel ordered Ali Abunimah arrest, probe finds” is the title of Winstanley’s latest article.
Nicoletta della Valle, then director of Fedpol, the federal police agency, was directly involved in the affair and a new Swiss parliamentary investigation labels her actions “particularly problematic.”
The report came out on 11 November and Abunimah posted about it on the same day on X/Twitter.
“These grave violations of democratic and human rights were carried out to prevent me from speaking at lawful public events – organized by Swiss citizens and residents – calling for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” he wrote.
Back in January, the Zurich cantonal police requested that the Fedpol issue a ban before Abunimah entered Switzerland. But Fedpol determined Abunimah’s views were protected by freedom of expression and that he presented no security threat to Switzerland.As reported in February, Abunimah was banned from entering the country after he had already arrived.
The new report reveals it was della Valle who was responsible for this reversal.
Della Valle retired soon after, taking on a lucrative role with Israeli investment firm Champel Capital in spring 2025, stirring controversy in Switzerland.
“ Her name has been removed from the [Champel Capital] website. But it is unclear whether she’s actually resigned from the company or not. Or if they’re just trying to keep a low profile,” explained Winstanley.
Swiss publication Die Wochenzeitung reported last month that the company is currently raising $100 million for a new fund to invest in the Israeli arms industry. The group is thus directly profiting from the genocide in Gaza.
Abunimah said that he has several cases currently in the Swiss courts seeking accountability for what happened to him in January. Based on this new information, his lawyers have filed additional motions.
Abunimah emphasized that his motivation is to set a wider precedent in Swiss law and in Europe because Switzerland is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights.
”I think it’s important to put up a fight and to hold these people accountable so that they know that these attacks, whether it’s on me or any other journalist or activist or person, that they’re not cost free. That they will at least think twice about it,” he said.
Resistance report
Contributing editor Jon Elmer covered three topics during his resistance report: how the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, continues to fulfill its obligations under the ceasefire agreement by working to return bodies of Israeli captives; how the Israeli military is carrying out destruction on the eastern side of the yellow line; and recently released videos from the resistance.
Elmer said Israel has violated the ceasefire 400 times in 41 days, killing and wounding more than 1,000 Palestinians.
He shared images of Qassam fighters standing next to heavy machinery supplied by Egypt, which is being used to uncover Israeli bodies.In yet another violation of the ceasefire, Israel has barred such machinery to search for an estimated 10,000 Palestinians missing in the rubble across Gaza.
Qassam fighters “have been men of their word and they know they’re dealing with a duplicitous and dishonorable enemy, but are still carrying out their responsibilities in the first phase of the ceasefire deal,” said Elmer.
On 16 November, General Eyal Zamir, the Israeli army chief, visited Gaza.
“In the Gaza Strip, we maintain operational control of more than 50 percent of the territory, without controlling the civilian population,” he said.
In fact, Asem Alnabih, a frequent guest and contributor to The Electronic Intifada, now correspondent for Al Araby television, has calculated that Israel controls 62 percent of the Gaza Strip – another violation of the ceasefire agreement.
You can watch the program on YouTube, Rumble or Twitter/X, or you can listen to it on your preferred podcast platform.
Ali Abunimah contributed reporting for this article.
Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program. Michael F. Brown contributed pre-production assistance and this writer contributed post-production assistance.
Past episodes of The Electronic Intifada Livestream can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
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