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TPQ
Frankie Quinn with a poem from his expansive body of work. 

Songbird

Beneath bird’s wings she sleeps
Questioning Humanity
Head bowed, hunger ravaging her delicate body
The sunbird collects nectar 
For her sustenance
Protecting her from the Inhumane inhabitants planted on homeland.
♞♜♝
She sings in different dialects as the oppressed Artists paint the beauty in rebellion
Enemy can’t clip the wings of freedom
The lark rose from a dark H block cell
carried freedom’s voice to millions
The Tiny sunbird whispers truth in the ears of Palestine.
♞♜♝
As she opens her gentle hands
The sunbird flutters her wings 
Warbles the freedom song from the river to the sea
In death we are free. 
She curtsies, closes her eyes
Falls to her knees in the roots of an olive tree
Embraces it becoming one with her origins forever

⏩ Frankie Quinn is a former republican prisoner who is now a community activist. He is the author of Open Gates, a book of poetry.   

Songbird

A Digest of News ✊ from Ukrainian Sources ⚔ 5-January-2026.

In this week’s bulletin

⬤ Ukraine & Venezuela.
⬤ Russia’s Idée Fixe.
⬤ Abramovich & Tories.
⬤ Soldiers slaughtered civilians & POWs.
⬤ Children abducted.
⬤ Kazakh crackdown on mercenaries.

News from the territories occupied by Russia

Ukrainian POWs and civilians gunned down by Russian invaders near Pokrovsk (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 30th)

Weekly update on the situation in occupied Crimea (Crimea Platform, December 30th)

Russia subjects Ukrainian political prisoner with multiple sclerosis to medical torture for serving her country (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 29th)

Neo-Nazi sadist wanted for war crimes in Ukraine invited to give ‘lesson on courage’ to Russian children (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 29th)

The Face of Resistance: The Story of Crimean Tatar Activist Yanikov Asan (Crimea Platform, December 26th)

Russia sentences tortured Melitopol journalist to 15 years for pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 26th)

Analysis of Toretsk Satellite Images (Tribunal for Putin, December 24th)

Russian invaders abduct 52 civilians, including children, from Sumy oblast (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 24th)

Imprisoned Crimean Solidarity activist Tofik Abdulgaziev needs urgent operation for a malignant brain tumour (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 23rd)

Russia’s supreme court OKs illegal charges & faked 'evidence' against Crimean Tatar political prisoners (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 22nd)

News from Ukraine

Few politicians are interested in Anti-Corruption Court's effective work, court's head says (Kyiv Independent, December 15th)

Ukrainian military intelligence says it faked neo-Nazi militia commander’s death (Meduza, 1 January)

Defiance & denial: residents of besieged Sloviansk resist surrender to Moscow (Observer, Dec 28th)

Oil Spill Report in the Black Sea near Odesa Following Russian Attacks on Port Infrastructure (Crimea Platform, December 24th)

War-related news from Russia

‘Your power is based on lies and violence.’ Three years for sharing Ukrainian songs (People & Nature, 4 January)

Ukrainian drones mysteriously “attack” Putin’s residence: The chronology of yet another Kremlin lie (The Insider, January 1st)

Gordey Nikitin’s story: 17 years for “high treason” (Ivan Astashin, The Russian Reader, 31 December)

Five years for enlisting. Kazakhstan prosecutes hundreds of citizens for fighting in Ukraine (Mediazona, December 30th)

Predatory recruitment is sending Indians to their deaths on the Ukraine front (Scroll.in, Dec 30th)

Russia’s Descent Into Tyranny (Nina Khrushcheva, Foreign Affairs December 30th)

Russian army in 2025: “meat grinder” continues (Mediazona, 30 December)

Banking on repression: How Russia weaponized its “terrorist” list against political dissidents (The Insider, December 28th)

Banking on repression: how Russia weaponised its “terrorist” list against dissidents (Ivan Astashin, The Insider, 28 December)

We need to change our view of the Arctic as a frontier (Valentin Zemlyansky interviewed at Posle.Media, 24 December)

Free Daria Egereva! (Russian Reader, December 24th)

Putin Uses End-of-Year Presser to Send Message to Trump (Carnegie Politika, December 23rd)

What We Learned from a Hacker Attack on the Russian Military Registry Developer (iStories, 22 December)

While others are celebrating, Ukrainian POWs are being tortured in Russian prisons (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 22nd)

Siren songs (Novaya Gazeta, December 17th)

Analysis and comment

‘What’s wrong with US aggression against Venezuela’ (Sotsialnyi Rukh / European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine, 3 January)

Retrieving History: Ukrainian People’s Republic (Vladyslav Starodubtsev, Against the Current, January 2026)

The Russian Idée Fixe (Andriy Movchan, Counterpunch, January 1st)

Money talks: Abramovich, the Tory peer and the Trump adviser (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, December 31st)

Generating pushback: Eastern European countries are turning away political asylum seekers from Russia and Belarus (The Insider, December 24th)

The EU blinks: When capital’s inviolability trumps geopolitical necessity (Labour Hub, December 21st)

A Ukrainian view of Nathan Gill’s prison sentence for taking pro-Russian bribes (Nation Cymru, November 22nd)

Research of human rights abuses

Michael O’Flaherty published a report on Ukraine (Zmina, December 31st)

A court for Russian propagandists: how to prove their complicity in international crimes? (Ukrainska Pravda, December 24th)

International solidarity

Street singer Diana Loginova’s first interview in exile: “I thought, what could they do to me?” (Meduza, 2 January)

Annual Report of Solidarity Collectives 2025 (Solidarity Collectives, 31 December)

Green Party conference to hear Ukraine solidarity motion (Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, 23 December)

Ukraine-Sweden: Upholding Human Rights for Victims of the Russian War (Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, December 23rd)

Upcoming events

Wednesday 7th January, 5.0 pm. No to Business as Usual with Putin’s Oligarchs: Protest at Tory HQ, 4 Matthew Parker Street, London SWIH 9NP, called by USC.

Thursday 15th January, 7.0 pm. Webinar: Russia’s War on Ukraine, US Security Review – Stopping the authoritarians. Organised by By Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland

Thursday 5th February, 6.30 pm. Try Me For Treason: readings from speeches by anti-war protesters in Russian courts, and discussion. Clore Lecture Theatre, Birkbeck College Clore Management Centre, Torrington Square, London WC1E 7JL.

 

🔴This bulletin is put together by labour movement activists in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance. More information at Ukraine Information Group.

We are also on twitter. Our aim is to circulate information in English that to the best of our knowledge is reliable. If you have something you think we should include, please send it to 2U022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com.


We are now on Facebook and Substack! Please subscribe and tell friends. Better still, people can email us at 2022ukrainesolidarity@gmail.com, and we’ll send them the bulletin direct every Monday. The full-scale Russian assault on Ukraine is going into its third year: we’ll keep information and analysis coming, for as long as it takes.

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News From Ukraine 💣 Bulletin 177

Christopher Owens 🎵 with the 59th in his Predominance series.

“Made to lay down in a stone pasture/We were made to to lay down in a pasture of stone/Besidе dark waters and some steel tanks/By your side I rеst my head” - Easterhouse


Horns up 

New Horizons

Foetus – Halt

Supposedly J.G Thirlwell’s final album under the Foetus banner and if it is, he’s gone out with a bang. His deranged mixture of Frank Zappa orchestration, King Crimson power and Fela Kuti beats sounds mightier than ever but there is genuine drama in the music (such as ‘Polar Vortex’). Simply put, the man is a genius and we should all bow down to Foetus.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Zu - Ferrum Sidereum

With the title being Latin for ‘cosmic iron’, it’s no surprise that the Italians continue to be inspired by the esoteric. Going for a sound that King Crimson and Tool pioneered in the mid 90’s, it’s a proggy take on industrial rock with tight and precise riffage that allows for a more trippy, esoteric vibe throughout.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Xiu Xiu - Xiu Mutha Fuckin' Xiu: Vol. 1

Jamie Stewart and co. take time out to fuck up (in the best way) some songs that mean a lot to them. The minimal take on ‘Warm Leatherette’ highlights the grotesquely visceral lyrics, ‘In Dreams’ is even more nostalgic and ‘Sex Dwarf’ is transformed into an industrial techno dancefloor filler. An interesting diversion but towers over most cover albums.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Bloody Head – Bend Down and Kiss the Ground

The Nottingham based noise rockers return with their finest album to date. With a cleaner production that allows little intricacies (such as bass lines) to shine through and make the songs much more powerful (see the title track for such an example). One of the albums of the year and it’s only the end of January.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Golden Oldies


Alan Vega – Alan Vega

Probably responsible for manys a confused rockabilly seeking out synth punks Suicide, front man Alan Vega’s debut solo record sees him fully indulge his love of rock n roll through hip shaking classics like ‘Jukebox Babe’ while ‘Love Cry’ feels like a tip of the hat to John Cale’s version of ‘Heartbreak Hotel.’



The Sound – All Fall Down

Written to get out of their record contract, retrospective listening finds this to be a solid follow-up to the band’s first two albums. While it may lack the pathos of later releases, songs such as ‘Monument’ and 'Glass and Smoke’ are fine slabs of earnest post punk that display an optimism that can be overlooked upon first listen.



Warning – Watching from a Distance

20 years on, the power and emotion radiating from this LP is second to none. While very much traditional doom metal, the emotion radiating from Patrick Walker combined with the seriously slow and heavy riffing, makes this a record for those long dark nights of the soul.



The Smashing Pumpkins – Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

30 years on, the album that Billy Corgan declared would be the equivalent of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ for Gen X has held up remarkably well. From aggressive number ‘Jellybaby’ through to lush orchestral beauties like ‘Tonight Tonight’ and the krautrock influenced ‘1979’, it’s overblown but never sags and it does bring you into a different world.



⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist.

Predominance 59

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Sixty Six

 

A Morning Thought @ 3043

Brendan Curran 🍺The cage search came a week early.

It was usually every six weeks, but they brought it forward two weeks to catch us out for Christmas and catch the predicted poitin run. They were right. Daithi and myself had been running through the wash for 3 days previous to create the required amount of drink for both Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day, enough drink, both scrumpy and poitin needed for all 3 huts, 72 men in all. We had it brewing weeks in advance. 

The brewing started the very afternoon of the last cage search. It was planned to allow for maximum fermentation time. We brewed the batch in 3 huge plastic dustbins, 30 lbs of sugar to each bin, bags of powdered baking yeast and every bit of fruit and surplus dinner vegetables available that you could create alcohol from. 

The bins were raised off the floor on wooden planks to allow the required heat to get it to ferment to perfection. Each bin had a sealed plastic pipe sticking out from the bin lid into a jam jar full of water to allow it to vent and expel air but importantly not allow fresh air back to interrupt the brew. The lid of the bin was sealed with bread soaked in milk like a poultice treatment, which when cured and dried out it would form a seal so hard that it was air tight around the lid and body of the bin. 

The yeast in each bin was bubbling and gurgling away, changing the fruit and anything else we could muster into pure alcohol. The yeast was smuggled into the cage on the visits weeks ahead and well in advance of the “run”. The Cage Christmas drinks committee had ordered all the prisoners to buy extra sugar from the prison tuck shop to feed the yeast and also to get extra fruit in their weekly family food parcel> the increase of the fruit now appearing in each parcel I’m sure sent out the alarm bells to the prison authorities that drink was on the menu.

Making drink in the cages was a process which was complicated but was also simply enough. It was a well rehearsed practice. In each of the huts there were two toilets at the end of the hut. Immediately outside the toilets was a small single tap handwashing basin, the perfect location and installation for distilling alcohol from the wash (well fermented drink mix) well away from the smell and eye of both the prison screws and the soldiers in the watch tower which was only yards from and towering over our 4 huts. 

The process was simple. We used the bins to create the brew and when it was ready we began the “Run'. The timing of the run was so important - it had to be timed to as near to perfection as possible so as not to lose the “brew” in a routine cage search . . .  which was a balancing act to try and squeeze as many days out of the fermentation cycle as was possible. Each hut had a huge commercial type electric hot water boiler placed on a table at top of each hut on a large table, The boiler had a large shiny lid with a handle in the middle and a water tap spout on the front and a large numbered dial beside it to boil the water or decrease it in stages as required….the perfect modern day poitin still that they never suspected. The lid's central handle was removed to allow the copper pipe into the boiler to release the boiling steam rising up from the now percolating wash mix. The lid of the boiler was sealed onto the body of the boiler, once again with a mix of milk and bread held on with a strip of homemade bandage made from a bed sheet to create the perfect seal.The toilet plumbing and flushing pipes were stripped out of their housing and rearranged to connect to the boiler lid and fold past and under the hand basin cold water tap to instantly turn the heated steam and vapour in the pipe to pure alcohol… the very finest long kesh poitin. 

I didn’t drink so when we ran it through the still Daithi did all the tasting, and by the end of the run he had done enough sampling for the both of us. The other prisoners who entered or left the hut beside the still gave us their hearty greetings, some stood beside us to watch the ever slowly drip drip of the crystal clear liquid as it filled up the jam jar. Once the jar was filled it was transferred into a milk carton or plastic containers to be secreted into one of the hundreds of the huts sheets of tin that we hoped would draw the least attention or be too far up the roof for the trade screws to bother to search.

Anyway, unexpected or not at 7.15 Am the next morning the shout came the middle hut…curdach anois….the hated phrase …a cage search by the screws…the last thing we wanted or needed, a definite strike to kill off the Christmas spirit in more ways than one. The search went on and on for hours on end. We were all locked in the canteen which was the end hut but we could still hear all the banging and thumping of the tins as usual. Later on in the morning we were all taken one by one into the wash room to be humiliated and strip searched. 

The cage search was a serious one, all the screw trades men (joiners, plumbers and electricians) were all taken in to ensure a thorough raid and search of each hut to try acquire all our hidden escape or drink contraband. The raid was a success - they found all our poitin hidden behind the tins in two floor cleaning gallon drums. The screws were over the moon and they didn’t hide it - they strutted all around the place displaying the psychological victory of two plastic drums one in each hand. Once the raid was over everyone tidied up their wrecked cells and the now breached tins sticking out all over the place. 

That afternoon the cage OC told everyone that we would buy more sugar, that another batch was going down before Christmas. Everything needed to be fast forwarded, and it was. A roof heater was taken down rewired and pointed at the new bins of wash all day. This was to help the mix ferment faster and faster. At last the wash was ready. On Christmas Eve myself and Daithi ran the mix all day long, right up to lock up time. We distributed a share of the run to each of the huts just in the nick of time before lock up. 

Christmas was a was hard time for all prisoners but in particular for the married men, their wives and children, but also for young people missing their families and girlfriends. But lo and behold out of the blue at 11pm a drunken screw entered the cage with the 2 plastic containers full of poitin, captured 2 weeks earlier, offering us them back…a sign of Christmas peace…a bit like the football match in no man’s land during World War One….maybe. But the peace was rejected; the OC told him to stuff it, saying we had more than enough of our own. But St Stephen’s Day morning revenge was on its way: a snowfall had taken place during the night and the large cage yard behind the huts was covered with snow and a huge Union Jack now appeared made from a disgruntled screws heavy boots foot prints in the fresh virgin white snow… Merry Christmas everyone from the POW spirit of a Christmas past.

⏩ Brendan Curran,  Irish conflict poems 2020

The Spirit Of A Christmas Past . . . Cage 12

Anthony McIntyre ☠ reviews a podcast for Being Human.


The North’s nationalist community would not be considered as a hospitable repository for news or commentary deposited by the Daily Telegraph.

Throughout the violent Northern conflict that raged or simmered for the best part of three decades, the Daily Telegraph was viewed as a stanchion of British officialdom, colloquially referred to as the Daily Torygraph. It had never earned a reputation for searching under every stone, preferring instead to place stones over the graves of the many British army colonels and generals it glowingly obituarised, burying beneath the stone’s weight a candid account of the role of senior British military in the North.

Season Three of Bed of Lies has broken the mould. With Cara McGoogan narrating and Mick Brown fact checking Conflict takes the listener into the murky murderous world of British intelligence operations.

Broadcast ahead of the Kenova Report, Conflict raised both anticipation and scepticism about what Jon Boutcher’s team might reveal. One of its core themes is that Freddie Scappaticci, the agent known as Stakeknife, is only a small window on a much larger espionage world where the rule of law became displaced by the rule of law enforcement.

Conflict interviews an expansive body of state and non-state actors who played a violent hand during the North’s turbulence. Most tellingly, the candour with which some of the legacy investigators spoke will cause earache for those directing the British intelligence community. Their agencies had dirty hands in a dirty war.

In earlier seasons of Bed of Lies Cara McGoogan had exposed a scandal involving British police emotional and sexual exploitation of the agents they were handling, as well as calling out the behaviour of the NHS during the infected blood controversy.

As the violence of the conflict recedes into the distance, the reverberations are no longer from the bomb blasts and gun fire of republican and loyalist activists but pulsate from the shock waves at revelations about those who claimed to be working to stop such actions. With Conflict the sound of J’Accuse emanates from the most unlikely of sources.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Bed Of Lies 🪶 Conflict

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ Donald J. Trump may be a lousy war mongering President but one thing he is good at and that is taking candy from babies! 

His latest so-called initiative is the ‘Board of Peace’ which he will be Chairman of for life, unelected by any of those countries governments gullible enough to sign up. Even after he retires, if he ever does, from the Presidency his position on the ‘Board of Peace’ will not alter. Trump, like the late Idi Amin of Uganda will be ‘Chairman of the Board for life’, as Amin was ‘President for life’ of Uganda. 

How this scheme works is thus: countries are invited to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ and will remain members, or subordinates, for three years. When this period is over these countries must then pay, it appears, Trump one billion dollars per annum thereafter to remain on the Board. This is plainly a money-making racket which all but a seriously retarded person would see through. It is amazing how many retards qualify as governments! Only Trump will have the power of veto so, as can be gleaned, this body is ultra democratic even by the weak standards of liberal democracy. So far thirty-five countries have been idiot enough to join the cash for Donald scheme and they include regional powers in the Middle-East; Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Qatar. Other countries which have signed up include; Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan and Belarus. Russia and China have received invitations but have yet to confirm. It should come as no surprise Israel, Trump’s cohort in international war crimes, would be a willing participant in this farce and no doubt, behind the scenes, the Israelis will hold much more sway over the ‘Chairman for life’ than would Jordan or Egypt. If these two countries think by signing up they will have some kind of veto or say over Israeli actions they are deluded.

The ‘Board of Peace’ will have an Executive Board which will consist of the following: Nickolay Mladenov, US appointed High Representative to Gaza, the area of Palestine the Israelis - supplied by the US - obliterated, murdering thousands of civilians. Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, Steve Witkoff, US Special Envoy to the Middle-East, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son in law, and former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. 

There is something ironic about the Blair appointment to this so-called ‘Executive Board’ because he was the man who, under the directions of that other war mongering President of the USA at the time, George W. Bush, bombed - illegally - Iraq, claiming ‘weapons of mass destruction’ were present. This was despite an international commission appointed to search Iraq for WMD only finding a tractor trailer in an old barn. Hardly conducive to WMD! 

It might appear to some, me included, this ‘Board of Peace’ is just a way to mask the US and possibly Israel's real intentions on the global stage? It is the US who have supplied Israel with thousands of tons of ordnance to bomb Gaza and terrorise the West Bank. Now, the man responsible is setting up this joke. For Trump, who recently bombed Venezuela and kidnapped the countries socialist (in theory) President Nicolas Maduro, taking him to the US and a kangaroo court to face trumped up charges. For Trump of all the world's war mongers to set up this ‘Board of Peace’ is tantamount to Adolf Hitler establishing a body for restorative justice for Jewish people! This Executive Board is nothing more than an extension of the Trump Presidency and government along with his extended family. Blair just fits in nicely as a former war criminal himself. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is wanted under an international arrest warrant and is awaiting prosecution in Israel for numerous charges including corruption. A right motley bunch of criminals here. The Chairman for life is thought by many to be a rapist, and the rest are all Trump’s partners in crimes around the globe or family members! It is more like a mafia set up than anything to do with world peace.

The Twenty-Six County administration have not yet signed up to this laughable ‘Board of Peace’ but the fact they were/are even considering doing so beggars belief. Fine Gael TD and Chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, Jerry Buttimer, said; “it is unlikely we will join”, hardly an endorsing rejection of such a barmy notion! The British Government are still considering their position but have reservations over Vladimir Putin possibly coming onto the field of play. This is not the major reason Westminster should kick Trump and his farce into touch. The British are not concerned about the corrupt nature and makeup of this ‘Board of Peace’ but moreover the possible inclusion of the leader of a world nuclear power, which Russia, love or loath them, are. The British Government, if they dare, should be trying to expose this can of worms for what it is perceived by many as a Board for War and a cash cow for Donald. I sincerely hope the Twenty-Six- County Government see sense, that would be a first, and have nothing to do with this joke. Of course, that will depend how low they are prepared to go in order to arse lick Trump. The British, Harold Wilson exempted, are well known for their subordination to Washington ever since 1945. Let’s hope Dail Eireann kick this farce into touch.

There are many sensible people who see Trump as trying to usurp the United Nations. Many of the tasks his ‘Board of Peace’ will, in theory, undertake are those presently tasked to the UN Security Council. Admittedly they do not perform their duties very well as Trump and Netanyahu have repeatedly told them, in not so many words, to fuck off. Could Trump be trying to replace the UN with himself and this ‘Board of Peace’? Well, although he would deny it at this juncture, the signs for such a usurpation are not good. Is Trump crawling in this field before he can walk? Like Hitler’s intentions of global domination he started off with what seemed not unreasonable demands. Unifying all German speaking peoples was his first tentative move, after reoccupying the Rhineland, then greater, more ambitious plans were unveiled. By then it was a bit late to stop him. Could Donald Trump be adopting a similar, in principle, position? 

As this cash cow for Donald eventually leads to some form of global conflict will the world watch on, yet again, and let it happen? Just as Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler the European leaders are appeasing Trump in much the same way. So much for “never again” which really means in all probability, let’s hope it never happens again because we could do fuck all about it! Unfortunately, and if this is the case, it is already happening before our very eyes. This President of the US is a man who justifies his Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) agents killing US civilians for protesting against his racist policies, the latest victim of ICE being an ICU Nurse in Minneapolis. Is he really the ideal man to form this ‘Board of Peace’? I’ll leave that to the imagination!! One thing it will achieve and that is even greater wealth for Trump and his family as countries line up to pay their one billion dollars to stay friends with Donald, like taking candy from babies!
 
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Trump’s Latest Farce 🪶 Taking Candy From Babies

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Sixty Five

 

A Morning Thought @ 3042

Cam Ogie ✍ When the U.S. administration unveiled its Gaza “Board of Peace,” the name sounded cynical. 

With each new detail, it now sounds actively misleading.

Peace, under any serious definition, requires consent, accountability, and representation. This board offers none of the three. Instead, it concentrates power in the hands of political and financial figures far removed from Gaza, while excluding Palestinians from meaningful authority over their own future.

At the top of the structure sits Donald Trump, with Jared Kushner playing a central architectural role. Their approach to conflict has long favored leverage, securitization, and deal-making over rights and self-determination. Previous “economic peace” proposals explicitly sidelined Palestinian political agency, offering investment frameworks in place of sovereignty. The Gaza board reflects the same philosophy: development without democracy, rebuilding without consent.

To understand why this matters, it is necessary to look not only at Gaza, but at how this administration has exercised power elsewhere — including at home.

In the United States, under this same leadership, federal immigration agents have fatally shot American civilians during enforcement operations, with the administration defending those killings under contested self-defense claims even as video evidence and local officials raised serious questions. Oversight has been resisted, independent investigations delayed, and criticism framed as hostility to “law and order” itself. The message is clear: coercive force first, accountability later — if at all.

That governing logic has extended beyond U.S. borders and onto the open sea. In late 2025, U.S. forces conducting maritime counter-narcotics operations killed individuals aboard vessels designated as suspected drug-smuggling boats. Subsequent reporting revealed a serious internal controversy over a follow-up strike in which survivors from an initial attack were reportedly killed. Senior officials, including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, publicly denied giving any unlawful order to open fire on survivors, while anonymous military and defence sources told journalists that such an order had been issued or implicitly authorized. The administration defended the overall campaign as lawful, but the episode exposed a familiar pattern: lethal force deployed, responsibility disputed, and accountability absorbed into a fog of denials rather than clarified through transparent, independent review.

That same pattern is visible in the administration’s actions toward Venezuela. U.S. forces have seized multiple oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude in international waters, rerouting or confiscating them under sanctions and enforcement authorities. These actions were publicly justified as economic pressure and law-enforcement measures, even as senior U.S. officials openly acknowledged that the broader objective was to deprive the Venezuelan state of revenue and enable American access to its energy resources. While defended as lawful by Washington, the practice has been described by legal scholars and international observers as indistinguishable from maritime coercion: the use of naval power to expropriate another state’s resources without judicial process. When resource seizure becomes policy, the distinction between enforcement and piracy becomes a matter of power rather than principle.

This is the context in which the same administration now claims authority to shape Gaza’s future.

The inclusion of Benjamin Netanyahu on the Board of Peace deepens the legitimacy crisis. His government has consistently defended the killing of Palestinians, both during major military operations and in daily enforcement across the occupied territories. International organizations, UN bodies, and Israeli human rights groups have documented repeated cases in which Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli forces with little or no meaningful accountability.

This pattern is not limited to large-scale warfare. In the West Bank, settler violence against Palestinian farmers and communities is extensively documented: attacks during olive harvests, destruction of property, intimidation, and land seizures. These acts frequently occur with impunity and, in some cases, in the presence or protection of Israeli forces. At the same time, Netanyahu’s government has continued to authorize and expand illegal settlements, including recent announcements of new construction and the retroactive legalization of outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land. Violence clears the ground; policy formalizes the theft.

The conduct of the Israel Defense Forces reinforces these concerns. While Israeli authorities point to internal accountability mechanisms, those processes have been widely criticized by human rights organizations as opaque and ineffective. Investigations are slow, prosecutions rare, and convictions rarer still — creating what critics describe as a system that performs accountability without delivering justice.

Alongside Netanyahu sit figures such as Tony Blair, whose post-conflict governance record emphasizes security coordination and market-led development while deferring responsibility for past harm. Financial leadership on the board includes Ajay Banga, whose experience in global finance is tied to compliance and sanctions regimes that human rights groups have long criticized for disproportionately restricting humanitarian access in Muslim-majority contexts. There is no evidence of personal religious animus; the concern is structural. In Gaza, where aid access is already precarious, such frameworks risk turning reconstruction into another instrument of control.

What unites these figures is not accountability to Gaza’s people, but experience administering populations from above.

Palestinians themselves are excluded from the board’s highest decision-making authority. Advisory or technocratic bodies may exist downstream, but real power — mandates, money, enforcement — flows from an external executive dominated by those who have enabled, excused, or directly overseen Palestinian suffering.

Peace does not work this way.

A government that defends lethal force against civilians at home, denies responsibility for deadly operations at sea, and openly seizes another nation’s resources cannot plausibly present itself as a steward of peace. A board that excludes the governed, launders reputations, and substitutes control for consent is not a peace project — it is a management strategy.

If power can be exercised with such impunity in Minneapolis, in international waters, or against a sovereign state’s resources, it will not suddenly become benevolent in Gaza. And with Netanyahu on the board, Palestinians are being asked to trust the very system that has spent decades justifying their deaths and dispossession.

Calling this a “Board of Peace” does not make it one. It only exposes how far removed it is from peace itself.

⏩ Cam Ogie is a Gaelic games enthusiast.

If This Is How Power Is Used At Home, What Will It Do In Gaza?

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