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Collective Punishment

The Invisible Weapon: Sanctions, Overcompliance, And The Human Cost

July 19, 2026 Carmen Navas Reyes, BreakThrough News. , , , ,
The fear of Unilateral Coercive Measures, or sanctions, is not unfounded. For example: since 2018, the Office of Foreign Assets Control has imposed sanctions against Iran’s use of cryptocurrencies; the decentralized nature of the blockchain no longer offers any immunity. Any exchange or virtual asset service provider with any connection to the United States – whether by being incorporated there, having US customers, or processing transactions in dollars – is required to block transactions, verify IP addresses, and report frozen assets, under threat of multimillion-dollar fines and exclusion from the dollar-based financial system; the same happened with the Petro in the Venezuelan case.

Sanctions Are Murder

July 6, 2026 Rev. Frederick Morris, Popular Resistance. , , ,
On January 1, 1959, I was in Kankakee, Illinois, spending New Year’s Day with my brother and his family. I was home for the Christmas holidays from Drew University, where I would graduate in June and continue my career as a Methodist preacher. We had planned to watch a football game, but what came over the airwaves were black-and-white TV views of Fidel Castro, Che Guevarra and their band of guerrillas riding victoriously into Havana. This was the first time a Revolution had actually been shown on TV, and the people of the United States were thrilled.

US Sanctions On Venezuela Continue: Corporate Beneficiaries And A Targeted Society

March 24, 2026 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. , , ,
In the wake of Washington’s January 3 military attack and then problematic détente with Caracas, corporate media suggest a meaningful shift in Venezuela policy, implying relief for a country long subjected to economic coercion. However, far from dismantling the sanctions regime, the US has merely adjusted its application through licensing mechanisms, leaving the core structure of coercive measures fully intact. Reuters reported “US lifts some Venezuela sanctions,” followed by news of sanctions being further “eased.” Both NBC News and ABC News likewise reported sanctions “eased,” while the Financial Times wrote that Washington “relaxes sanctions.”

Israel To Allow ‘Basic Quantity’ Of Aid Into Gaza After Total Blockade

May 19, 2025 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , , ,
The Israeli government has approved the entry of “basic” amounts of aid into Gaza following three months of total blockade that has significantly compounded the humanitarian crisis in the strip, coinciding with the start of Tel Aviv’s new military operation. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on 19 May that the flow of aid is being renewed “at the recommendation of the IDF and due to the operational need to enable the expansion of intense fighting to defeat Hamas.” Netanyahu’s office added that Israel “will allow the entry of a basic quantity of food for the population in order to prevent the development of a hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip,” given that such a crisis “would endanger the continued operation to defeat Hamas.”

How NYT Reports On Weaponized Famine So You Don’t Have To Give A Damn

May 18, 2025 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , , , , , , , ,
More than two months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a complete blockade of aid—including food, water and medical supplies—from entering the besieged Gaza strip. It’s a severe escalation of Israel’s now 19-month genocide against Palestinians in Gaza—and what the World Health Organization (5/12/25) has described as “one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time.” With no replenishing stock, aid groups have begun running out of supplies to distribute to families in need. The UN Relief and Works Agency (5/16/25) reports that their “flour and food parcels have run out,” and that “one third of essential medical supplies are already out of stock.”

The Obscenity Of Collective Punishment In Gaza

May 11, 2025 John Feffer, Counter Punch. , , , ,
Maybe you remember an incident like this from your schooldays. Someone in your class has done something wrong, like pass around a caricature of the principal, and the teacher decides to punish the whole class by taking away your recess. Maybe this is done to force the culprit to confess, or to pressure you and your classmates to point the finger. It’s a clever method of drafting students to help police the classroom. Such tactics of collective punishment have fallen out of favor for obvious reasons. They’re unfair. They don’t change behavior. They teach all the wrong lessons and make kids hate school.

Trump’s Yemen Surge: How DC Think Tanks Brought Famine Roaring Back

April 25, 2025 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. , , , , , , ,
President Donald Trump’s new Yemen campaign is driving what experts call a spiraling humanitarian disaster, nearly doubling the previous administration’s costs while slashing aid and intensifying airstrikes. Under pressure from powerful Washington think tanks, Trump has sharply increased airstrikes, cut $107 million in aid, and designated Yemen’s Ansar Allah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO )—all steps that experts and aid groups say are deepening famine, displacement, and collective punishment. The latest moves target Ansar Allah-controlled northern Yemen, home to roughly 70% of the population and 80% dependent on food imports.

Legal Experts: US Unilateral Economic Sanctions Violate International Law

August 13, 2024 National Lawyers Guild International Committee. , , ,
New York, NY — A new letter from legal groups, legal scholars, and attorneys calls on the Biden administration to end the use of broad unilateral economic sanctions, noting their civilian harms and illegality under international law. The letter, sent to the White House today, is signed by 38 organizations and 200 individual attorneys, including dozens of legal scholars. The letter notes that, 75 years since the signing of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the collective punishment of civilian populations as a war crime, “collective punishment is a standard practice of US foreign policy in the form of broad, unilateral economic sanctions, such as those imposed on Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.”

Venezuelan Children Under The US Blockade: A Conversation

December 6, 2023 Cira Pascual Marquina, Resumen English. , , , ,
The unilateral coercive measures have a physical and a psychological component, and that’s why we talk about a “5th generation war.” In addition to the damage to people’s bodies, particularly the bodies of children and adolescents, so-called sanctions are part of a colonial endeavor in which the colonists feel entitled to dictate the lives of others. Additionally, the use of the term “sanctions” implies that if someone or some country is targeted, it must be because they did something wrong. So what is our sin? To struggle for our liberty and our independence as a nation. During the 2015 to 2019 period, even UNICEF bought into the US government’s discourse. They would say: It’s okay to sanction the Venezuelan government, but children should be protected. But that is simply not possible!

Israel Is Using Starvation As A Weapon Of War Against Palestinian People

October 13, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , , ,
After Hamas launched more than 2,000 missiles from Gaza and sent hundreds of fighters into Israel on October 7, killing hundreds of civilians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas. But Israel’s retaliation, including massive bombing from the land, air and sea, and its collective punishment of Gazans — denying them food, water, electricity and gas — reveals that Netanyahu has actually declared war on the Palestinian people, especially those in Gaza. Israeli warplanes are conducting indiscriminate bombings throughout Gaza, targeting homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and civilian buildings.
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