Good, Bad, Ugly in 2025 — Year in Review

Good in 2025 — Lawyer stands up against Israel Genocide

The real Nobel Peace Prize should have been awarded to attorney and UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, if we lived in a world that honors peace and social justice.

Instead, her reports on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) has earned her contempt by the US-Israel state regimes and state media apparatus. Never mind that she was especially appointed by the U.N. Secretary General himself to report on the “Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” Her appointment by Antonio Guterres is because he used to visit the UNRWA facilities and UNICEF schools inside the oPt during tours through Africa.

But shortly after her report, “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide,” was published on June 30, 2025, the United States placed a no-travel ban and sanctions against her. This has affected Albanese’s effectivity in attending meetings in person and networking at the United Nations. It has barred her from receiving payment from her work for the U.N. and made extremely difficult the use of any electronic payment system. Her bank accounts are “frozen” as if she had committed a crime.

Her only crime, as the US-Israel accuses her of, is one of waging “economic warfare” against the United States, as detailed in a recent interview at Middle East Eye‘s “The Big Picture.” In this interview, however, she explains that while the West views her as jeopardizing the profitability of corporations doing business with Israel, her actual intention is to explain and expose the institutionalized systems of apartheid, and now genocide, and how this has operated to enslave, and now eradicate, Palestinians.

“The role of corporate entities in sustaining the illegal Israeli occupation and its ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza is the subject of the present investigative report, which is focused on how corporate interests underpin the Israeli settler-colonial twofold logic of displacement and replacement aimed at dispossessing and erasing Palestinians from their lands. The Special Rapporteur discusses corporate entities in various sectors: arms manufacture, tech firms, building and construction companies, extractive and service industries, banks, pensions funds, insurers, universities and charities. These entities enable the denial of self-determination and other structural violations in the occupied Palestinian territory [oPt], including occupation, annexation and crimes of apartheid and genocide, as well as a long list of ancillary crimes and human rights violations, from discrimination, wanton destruction, forced displacement and pillage to extrajudicial killing and starvation.” —- Report A/HRC/59/23, “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” 

If we really want to take a stand for human rights, according to the United Nations Charter, then we need to recognize genocide for what it is, and take actions to stop it. Albanese asserts that these type of “mafia-style intimidation techniques” will not dissuade her from continuing her work. In fact in October 2025, she published another ground-breaking report, “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime.” In this report she underscores that the genocide is preventable; instead, it is enabled by many states including “Third States” i.e. transnational corporations. The United Nations is obliged to review and assess the impact of all parties to the crime and extend enforcement to Third States through such means as forcible measures, arms embargoes, trade embargoes, denial of safe passage, prosecutions and punishment.

“Under existing law, the extent of Israel’s unlawful actions renders any distinction between Israel and the oPt legally and practically impossible. According to the due diligence tests outlined in the 2024 Advisory Opinion [ICJ, OHCHR], if Israel itself is unwilling or unable to distinguish between its territory and the oPt, as is the case, Third States must presume indistinguishability, which requires a comprehensive boycott of Israel.”  —- Report A/80/492, “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime”

Although the United States-Israel appears oblivious at best or vindictive at worst, the evidence of the ongoing genocide is explicit, live-streamed, and most well-documented. Bear in mind that Israel through their criminal PM has also sought to incriminate and harass ICJ and ICC judges and staff; while the U.S. has repeatedly labeled the ICJ court hearings regarding the Palestine genocide as “ridiculous.” The world now recognizes whom Trump regards as “blood-brothers”: Israel PM Netanyahu and Ukraine President Zelensky both vacationed at Mar-a-Lago during Christmas. By now the Israel PM visits the U.S. on a bimonthly basis, never mind travel restrictions due to ICC warrant for arrest.

The adage “You become who you associate with” is not far from true: the Israel PM, with his eschatological fascination since his anointment by Chabad Rebbe in the 1980s, can accomplish more in private visits to the United States with President Trump and his son-in-law, long-time family friend, Jared Kushner, than through pompous standing ovation speech in Congress, even if most of Congress is AIPAC-bought. Besides they need to arrange favors for club members hoping to buy into Project Sunrise or seeking guarantees of profitability from “rebuild Gaza” contracts.

Are they planning the Year of 2026 as the Year of Chaos and all-out wars? The PM has no fear of using the Samson Option or using any number of goyim as human shields. He just needs to coax his U.S. bosom buddies to follow his lead. Probably these are the themes:  “Your troops must become more like the IDF!” “Forget the Bill of Rights, kill first and throw the family in jail!” “Make your jails more like Israeli Prison Service, so they do not survive to trial!” “Martialize your economy even more!” “Send us more ICE and police and security to train!” “Jail all pro-Palestine supporters! Dox and surveil them so they die young!” “Let us help you by hiring more of our dual citizens and honeypot hasbara!” “Brainwash your citizens using our neurolinguistic programming methods beginning from babyhood!” “Focus the culture only on sex and micro-politics!” “Allow open-carry and enforce two-years mandatory service in the National Guard or equivalent military service!” “Establish stronger ties between departments of war, academia, and governance!” “Cut down services for American poor people, so they die faster, just like Palestinians!” 

Bad in 2025 – Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

The award for “Bad” in 2025 goes to the misnamed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which President Trump chose to provide relief services after Trump characteristically bad-mouthed then decided to cut funding for the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), which has decades of relief works dedicated to aiding Palestinian refugees. Undoubtedly, he was advised by his bosom buddy on this matter. Never mind that since 1949, UNRWA has provided critical wrap-around services for many Palestinians displaced from their homes and villages in Palestine and forced to flee to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and even as far as Turkiye. Many recipients of those services had successfully transitioned to attend college and university overseas and become working professionals. But as usual, all Trump notices are deficiencies, likely blown up by Israeli hasbara.

In the opinion of the capitalists, the GHF could do a far better job, never mind that the leaders had practically zero experience running such a large-scale charitable food provisioning operation. Their backgrounds are even questionable—contractors picked out of the favorites crowd at Mar-a-Lago—members affiliated with motorcycle gangs and the “Gaza Riviera” Project. Their hiring and partnering with IDF and mercenary soldiers says it all: the IDF would not even recuse itself as a mass-murdering racist entity.

No wonder soon videos emerged on social media including Tik-Tok (which Trump-Netanyahu has openly targeted for takeover by David Ellison’s Skydance media) of the practical survivability based on the food provision boxes: small bags of uncooked rice, noodles, beans, and dry goods. People wondered, do they not know that in Gaza, where people live in tents, there is hardly any clean fresh water, any electrical service, any heating service, and people no longer have anything besides makeshift stoves? It is why even before October 7th, UNRWA (with over 400 distribution centers) and aid agencies were proud of being able to provide an array of hot-meal and soup-kitchen services. Anyone who survives on less than 20 gallons of water a day (now down to 2 gallons a day) understands that clean water is so hard to come by that children cherish such hot meals.

It is painful to rewatch for the umpteenth time the Fault Lines documentary, “Investigating killings of Palestinians at GHF sites in Gaza,” and the AJ+ documentary, “I Didn’t Think Anybody Could Be That Evil,” interview with whistleblower Anthony Aguilar. The former U.S. soldier describes in harrowing detail the weaponization of food being conducted via the GHF. In the Fault Lines documentary, the families also describe the GHF food distribution sites and loved ones who were killed or wounded fetching food. One child whose gravelly voice reminds one of a street urchin out of “Oliver Twist,” describes how his mother was felled on her way carrying a sack of flour home. With no wife and several children, the father now sits in his tent and advises the children to tolerate their pangs of hunger. One father who opted not to enter the GHF has a son who has developed a crippling disease similar to palsy due to malnutrition, and must cart him around in a wheelchair. The little boy somehow remains most cheerful and hopeful.

According to hospital records and many observers, there are mass casualty incidents (MCI) that coincide with the days that the GHF are open. As Aguilar and others describe, there were only 4 food distribution sites in all of Gaza Strip. 3 of them were located in South Gaza, while 1 of them was located in Central Gaza but south of Gaza City. There are no sites in North Gaza. It is also very difficult for anyone traveling North to South because of the Netzarim Corridor running east to west as a separation easement. Previous articles explain the harrowing attempts to travel past the checkpoint because of arbitrary detention and arrest or separation from families. The geographical placement of sites appears to be designed to entice people to move South since most people must travel on foot.

The former Special Operations soldier describes how appalled and the sickening feeling he felt seeing the post-apocalyptic destruction everywhere. In his 25-years of service, Tony Aguilar had never encountered anything like it. Although he refused to believe it at first, the GHF sites are literally designed to be “death traps.” Because of the limited number of sites, on the days that the GHF sites are open, many tens of thousands of people are streaming to these sites and the roads are packed by crowds of people jammed along the roads leading to the huge square stockade surrounded by high berms. As the roads near the sites, as seen in the typical photo plan view, the roads become walled with barbed wire fence to keep herding the crowd towards the stockade. As others have testified, because of such high numbers of hopeful aid recipients, the sites only need to be open for less than half an hour before the stockade area is filled up, packed with people, and they cannot let anymore in. At the four corners of the stockade there are watchtowers and on top of the berms are Merkava battle tanks driving by and “firing at positions.” An ordinary Gazan notes, “When I got to the American site, there were two tanks that started shooting at people.”

“There’s a battle going on. Meanwhile there are people lined up to get in along the barbed wire fenced in corridor.” —- Tony Aguilar, former veteran

As the interview with Deena reveals, which even here nobody is going to say outright, the IDF soldiers and GHF security contractors are firing upon the civilians standing inside waiting in their long dense queues to receive aid boxes. In fact, if one listens to these videos, one can hear a constant rat-tat-tat sound of automatic gun-fire, and it is obvious it cannot be at anyone else except the Palestinians. But being dishonest, of course Aguilar is told that there is “actual fighting going on” and that the civilians must past through the fighting area to behind the “front line.” When Aguilar asks about protection for unarmed civilians and the Geneva Convention, he is told by the GHF boss or Safe Reach Solutions contract lead that “We’re going to do it anyway. We’re doing it. It doesn’t matter. We’re fighting Hamas. Geneva Convention doesn’t apply.”

The attitude of the IDF and the Safe Reach Solutions and GHF is one of extreme callousness. No matter the summer heat and the fact that people have walked long distances and stood in line for hours, there is no water. The contract, designed and owned by Israel, does not provide for water, so no water is provided. To keep people moving in the right direction, the contractors and IDF are directed to shoot their guns like snipers, no concern for who is shot or injured. Again and again, Aguilar received the impression that directly and otherwise the Israelis did not want to feed the Palestinians. He was asked why he would be feeding the enemy. He heard soldiers say, “They are all the enemy! Every Palestinian is our enemy!” while calling them dehumanizing names such as “animals” “zombies” and “zombie horde.”

Perhaps this cruelty was the IDF and Safe Reach Solutions methodology to desensitize the contractors so they are encouraged to shoot at anyone they are told to. However it did not work with Aguilar. At some point he realized this was a contract with the Devil. He was told to get rid of a small boy standing on a concrete barrier block, because the father put him there so he would not be trampled to death. When Aguilar refused to, he was reprimanded by his superiors.

“Never say no to the client. The IDF are our client. We work for them. They’re in charge…What decisions they make and how they want to fight this…who they decide to kill or not is not our decision. This is a contract! This is business! Don’t say no to our client!” —- Safe Reach Solutions Leader regarding shoot to kill as directed by IDF

While Aguilar did not stay for his 90-day contract, he knows that many do stay because the pay is lucrative, ranging from $1200 to $1600 per day, meaning quite a nest egg for the ordinary contractor. However Aguilar not only had moral qualms, he was able to identify that the American security contractor boss is the national president for the Infidels Motorcycle Club, a U.S.-based veterans motorcycle club whose charter includes a mission to “fight Jihad, and the elimination of all Muslims from the Earth.” In other words many, hundreds of the hired contractors, have no qualms about being as ideologically racist and genocidal as the IDF. Further, the GHF is also affiliated with the Boston Consulting Group, which developed highfalutin plans for “Gaza Riviera,” a sample of which has been aired in video showing the future industrial complex resort that will earn its investors billions of dollars.

“If we stand by and we allow it to happen there, it’s going to happen here. And when it does, don’t say you didn’t see it coming!” — Tony Aguilar, former veteran

Whether it is “Gaza Riviera” or “Project Sunrise” or whatever smart sustainable privatized freedom city, the core group, headed by President Trump’s Peace Board, must ensure that this design for displacement, removal, destruction, ethnic cleansing, in a word, genocide, takes place so that Big Profitable Business can move into Gaza. As people of conscience realize, there are now hundreds of bodies buried outside these GHF distribution sites, carelessly bull-dozed or tractored into huge mass graves, and thousands upon thousands have been buried in the ground or the rubble like everywhere else inside of Gaza. This is why Israel has banned so many altruistic organizations such as UNRWA and Medecins Sans Frontieres—-they need time to now try to remove the evidence of their dastardly crimes —- before letting in a carefully vetted pro-hasbara Western media apparatus to propagandize on the “New Gaza” meme.

Ugly in 2025 – Israel disqualifies international relief organizations 

UNRWA, established by the United Nations in 1949, is the agency that has provided wrap-around refugee services from housing, food, social services, education, medical clinic, micro-banking, emergency services, and more. But in the genocidal psychopathic view, it is precisely because it has been effective, that it must be gotten rid of. For a long time, Israel has made disparaging statements about UNRWA and especially its schools, criticizing and forcing amendment of its education and cultural programs to ensure “there is no Hamas” teaching inside the schools. It is as if the memory of any persecution or Nakba must be expunged even if the Palestinians are merely sharing facts from the ground.

“Despite the obstacles, UNRWA has resumed educational services for 300,000 students, 70,000 of whom attend in-person classes. Makeshift learning spaces have been created in destroyed schools and shelters in collaboration with local communities.”  —- “UNRWA: Gaza enters 2026 amid catastrophic conditions as Israeli restrictions deepen humanitarian crisis,” Dec 2025, PalInfo.com 

Obviously UNRWA, which also has a policy of encouraging Palestinians to serve their own community by hiring from within, is viewed as a threat. The IDF began attacking UNRWA facilities, even targeting schools and clinics, once the October 2023 onslaught of revenge began. No matter the difficulty, UNRWA, with its base of educated impassioned Palestinian workers, would not give up. Every time the IDF bombed, they rebuilt. Every time they harassed and killed workers, more volunteers showed up. UNRWA also provided a hub for respectable international charitable agencies to work out of, including Save the Children, Red Crescent, Doctors without Borders, Engineers without Borders, and so on. Not content with severe budgetary cutbacks from the United States and other Western nations following accusations that UNRWA was infiltrated by Hamas, the Knesset recently passed a bill specifically banning UNRWA from Israel and the oPt permanently.

According to the New Arab:

“Israel has passed legislation stripping the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) of its diplomatic immunity, cutting its access to water and electricity, and authorising the expropriation of its offices in East Jerusalem. The bill passed 59-7 in the Knesset on Monday and took effect immediately, allowing Israeli authorities to seize UNRWA properties, block banking and payment services, and criminalise cooperation with the agency.”

This occurred as Israel has passed new rules requiring stiff application procedures for international aid organizations including disclosure of all Palestinian employees, something which many aid organizations are unwilling to do for fear of their safety. At least 37 aid organizations are being forced to suspend operations or not having their permits renewed. It is not just the number of these organizations that matter but their historic and cultural contributions to the Palestinian community. Smaller organizations without such connections can be as indicated above, like the GHF, scam organizations or organizations with a Christian-Zionist agenda that is culturally callous and disrespectful.

Among the named organizations: Doctors without Borders, Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE International, International Rescue Committee, Danish Refugee Council, Japan International Volunteer Center, various chapters of Medecins Sans Frontieres, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, World Vision International, Relief International, American Friends Service Committee, Save the Children, Medico International, Palestine Solidarity Association in Sweden, Defense for Children International, Caritas International, UNRWA, etc

“Children in Gaza have entered another calendar year forced to live in conditions that are unfit for any human. Instead of having the rights they deserve, Palestinian children and their families do not even have the means to survive — they are not treated as human….It is unacceptable that we begin another year pleading for the world not to look away from Gaza. Every child should have access to the essential humanitarian aid and services they need to survive and thrive. The denial of humanitarian aid is a serious violation of humanitarian laws and a grave violation against children — and yet it is still happening on our watch.” —- Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children Regional Director

“In October, the ICJ restated that the State of Israel is obliged under international law to facilitate UNRWA’s operations, not hinder or prevent them. This new legislation is an unacceptable rejection of the ICJ’s findings. Israel is obliged to act within the UN framework and not take unilateral action contrary to its obligation under the UN Charter. Should Israel dispute the actions of UNRWA, it must refer the issue to the UN’s deliberative bodies and seek a decisive ruling from the ICJ. A failure to do so disrespects the procedures critical to the operation of the UN system. Despite Israel’s obligations, these legislative steps have been accompanied by unilateral actions on the ground that show a repeated disregard for international law…Israel’s unilateral actions are having a direct operational and legal impact on UNRWA’s services in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in Gaza, where the Agency is the backbone of the international humanitarian operation. As Gaza, the West Bank, and the wider region continue to face conflict and turmoil, UNRWA —more than ever — is irreplaceable.”  — Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General

“The rights of Palestine Refugees exist separate to UNRWA, under international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and UN General Assembly resolutions, including Resolution 194, adopted in 1948, a year before UNRWA was created in Resolution 302. Even if UNRWA no longer existed, these rights would endure.” —- Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General

It is as if Israel deliberately wants to exclude those experts and international observers who have archived, documented, can assess, analyze, compare, and evaluate the extent of destruction that has taken place, and who know or would recognize or be able to help establish networks of Gazans able to offer cogent testimony useful for mediation. The world’s most famous psychopath was even recently suspected of perhaps using henchmen to take out Benny Sagi, one of the main Israeli judges standing upon his corruption cases, in a suspicious motorcycle death. Apparently it does not matter that bosom-buddy Trump was just awarded the Israel Prize, in another possible bid to win international absolution for his corruption and numerous other crimes against humanity. But the whole Israeli political system of genocidal apartheid is so toxic that the world must speak out.

Conclusion

The good, the bad, the ugly in 2025 centers around Israel because it is its ambition to not only fulfill the Greater Israel Project, but to fulfill the Pax Judaica vision shared by Chabad and many Zionists whether Christian or Jew. This year alone, Israel attacked more territories than any other country: 8,332 strikes against Gaza and the West Bank; 1,653 strikes in Lebanon; 379 strikes against Iran; 207 strikes against Syria; 48 strikes against Yemen; and 1 strike against Qatar.

What is truly horrifying is the huge amounts of indifference especially from programmed conformists inside the Beltway. They would rather sacrifice their sense of empathy, objectivity, and self-determination in exchange for playing the benumbed misinformed Consumer. But what psychologists, such as Dr. Mattias Desmet, recognize is that perhaps these citizens are behaving so robotically because they suffer from Mass Formation Psychosis. They eagerly await the next word from Herr Trump because they are neuro-linguistically programmed to believe that he is the God who will Make America Great Again through his haphazard foreign policies. No matter that it is providing Make Israel Great Again a rationale to throw the world into chaos and confusion, because they view America as the handmaiden for the Great Zionist Project. Desmet believes that taken to extremes, people under Mass Formation Psychosis adapt to hypnotic suggestion, just like Party Members did during the Age of Stalin, when they frequently incriminated themselves rather than admit Stalin was wrong.

Suggested Resources
1) “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, Human Rights Council, Fifty-ninth session, 16 June-11 July 2025, A/HRC/59/23, 30 June 2025, UN.org

2) “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime,” Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, Eightieth session, Promotion and protection of human rights, Report A/80/492, 20 October 2025, UN.org

3) “I Didn’t Think Anybody Could Be That Evil,” interview with Anthony Aguilar, service in Gaza, Oct 2025, AJplus

4) “Investigating killings of Palestinians at GHF sites in Gaza,” Fault Lines Documentary, Oct 2025, Al Jazeera News

5) “UNRWA: Gaza enters 2026 amid catastrophic conditions as Israeli restrictions deepen humanitarian crisis,” Dec 2025, PalInfo.com

6) “Israel to halt operations of renowned aid agencies in Gaza,” Dec 2025, NewArab.com

7) “Children in Gaza face more storms and disease as new year starts,” Save the Children, Jan 2026, ReliefWeb.int

8) “UNRWA Commissioner-General on New Anti-UNRWA Legislation Passed by the Israeli Parliament,” Philippe Lazzarini, Dec 2025, UNRWA.org

9) “What is Mass Formation Psychosis,” interview with Prof. Mattias Desmet by Aubrey Marcus, Oct 20, 2021

Report by Christine H. Kroll, M.A.