Martin Asser

Husband, father, freelance trainer, translator and editor. Mainly cancelled for my pro-Palestine X account. Formerly @BBCNews @BBCArabic @AUB_Lebanon etc.

[Martin Asser @martasser]

@Doylech The minister who resigned after being revealed to have had a dozen undisclosed meetings with Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, while on a family holiday in Israel? Surely not!

[Steve Sweeney @SweeneySteve]

1.2 million people - predominantly Shia Muslims have been forced from their homes

I$rael has repeatedly bombed Dahiye, a predominantly Shia populated area of Beirut and has threatened to level it

The large majority of the more than 3,400 killed in Lebanon since March 2 are Shia Muslims

It’s the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing. But according to Adam Parsons of Jerusalem it’s “incredibly complex”

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Israel is forcibly expelling a religious group from a geographic area through violence. That’s the definition of ethnic cleansing.

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Who keeps bombing and killing people @AP?

[Martin Asser @martasser]

@AssalRad People I know/knew and once rated actually put these words together, think 'yes, that works', and hit send. Incredible.

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Words have lost meaning.

[Martin Asser @martasser]

@abierkhatib I am very sorry for your loss. He must certainly have been very proud of you. البقية في حياتك

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

I can’t see you how you can possibly avoid using the term ethnic cleansing, without losing your last remaining shreds of integrity as a journalist, Adam.

Lebanon's internal displacement rate is now 22.6 percent — more than one in five of its people. Over 1.2 million people, including 350,000 children, have been forced from their homes, with the IDF launching more than 1,840 attacks on Lebanon since March 2, killing more than 1,497 people and injuring more than 4,639.

Moreover, the language used by Israel Katz to describe his aims in Southern Lebanon is extraordinarily explicit and self-incriminating. He has confirmed that Israel's military would establish a permanent "security zone" inside Lebanon up to the Litani River, that hundreds of thousands of displaced residents would be "completely prevented" from returning, and that "all the houses in the villages adjacent to the border in Lebanon will be demolished in accordance with the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model in Gaza."

The targeting of civilians for displacement specifically identified by their religion (Shia), combined with the destruction of their homes to prevent return, combined with the explicit statement that they will not be permitted to return — these are precisely the elements that international law identifies as forcible transfer and ethnic cleansing. Human Rights Watch has said that "the displacement of the Shia population looks less like a temporary military necessity and more like a move to permanently displace the civilian population based on their religion."

Its not complex, Adam. You just haven't got the balls to say it straight, and that failure makes your reportage worse than worthless. It makes it morally bankrupt.

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

In what lexicon is ethnically cleansing one quarter of a neighbouring state "taking a much tougher stance". Shameful complicity in war crimes by @SkyNews @adamparsons

[Hadi Hoteit | هادي حطيط @HadiHtt]

An urgent call for international medical organizations to act fast to rebuild the medical capabilities of Jabal Amel Hospital in Tyre, South Lebanon.
Please share this message.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Breaking news: a BBC journalist uses the word 'invasion' in relation to what Israel is doing in Lebanon.

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

The Guardian regurgitates British state propaganda by accusing a UK "influencer" of spreading "Iranian regime messaging". On a visit to Iran, Bushra Shaikh reported the effects of US-Israeli air strikes, including one on a girls' school that killed some 170 Iranians, mainly children.

That used to be called journalism – stuff the Guardian and BBC claim to do. The Guardian amplifies calls for Shaikh to be investigated for "sanctions violations".

The Guardian sees a particularly sinister agenda in Shaikh's posts because:

* They "appeared timed to coincide with critical events in Iran, including the intensification of the conflict, ceasefire talks and nationwide protests in January" – that is, her posts were topical and newsworthy.

* They showed a “highly calculated pattern of social media manipulation” – that is, she was good at promoting her posts.

* They attracted "disproportionately high engagement” – that is, lots of people were interested to read her posts.

* They "offer followers unmediated, at times citizen journalist-style access to a war zone" – that is, she didn't have to submit her reports to Guardian editors so they could edit out information that might embarrass western leaders.

Shaikh herself is reported as being "aligned with anti-imperialist, anti-colonial frameworks” – that is, she doesn't simply regurgitate British state propaganda, like the UK corporate media.

This Guardian hit-job isn't about getting to the truth. It's the paper desperately trying to protect its traditional information monopoly for "liberal-left" audiences, and thereby remain useful for the security services.

[Mohamad Safa @mhdksafa]

Betore Rome, there was Carthage. Before Carthage, there was Tyre.

Israel is currently demolishing Tyre—a city more than 5,000 years old and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

A former senior colleague of Raffi Berg, now the BBC's Middle East online editor, forensically analyses his output as a BBC writer.

It shows a consistent pattern of humanising Israeli soldiers and settlers while dehumanising Palestinians, and burying information that might place Israel in a bad light – talents that seem to have led to his promotion to BBC editor.

Martin Asser concludes: "The world Berg presents in his early BBC features is a rich source of misinformation and / or disinformation."

This article should prove useful to Owen Jones' legal team as they fight Berg's defamation case. Jones cited 13 BBC journalists who accused Berg of skewing the corporation's coverage to make Israel look good.

More here: https://t.co/IcsHVGiCNw

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

You don’t kill 133 healthcare workers by accident.

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

“Captured a strategic mountain”

At this point it sounds like AP is celebrating Israel’s unlawful occupation of Lebanon.

[Daniel Mayakovski @DaniMayakovski]

Esta es la madre del chico palestino autista Eyad Hallaq, gritando de dolor después de que el tribunal de "Israel" absolviera al soldado sionista que asesinó a tiros a su hijo en Jerusalén.

A pesar de la evidencia gráfica y de las declaraciones de la profesora, "Israel" absolvió al asesino de su hijo y lo dejó sin castigo, así es la justicia en el apartheid sionista contra los palestinos.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🎓 “Peace be upon you. From the students of Harvard, to the youth of Dahieh, to the sons of Nabatieh, and the people of Tyre.”

Harvard Medical School graduate Leen Ezzeddine, from the southern Lebanese town of Arabsalim, used her graduation speech to remind her peers of the students in Gaza and southern Lebanon who do not benefit from the same “arbitrary luck and circumstance” that she and her classmates have enjoyed.

Ezzeddine said her presence at that podium was “evidence of what survives the border, the bomb, and the exile,” and of “what becomes possible when people the world has tried to erase are allowed to live.”

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

Israel enforced an invisible “dog line” during its ground operations in Gaza, IDF soldiers tell The Economist:

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Who is killing children in Lebanon @Reuters?