VANTEX

How Australia’s media used to report Israeli atrocities. (with credit to Jose Teixeira) A 1948 account of the Jewish ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ronald Monson, Daily Telegraph (Sydney) correspondent in Jerusalem. The tone of Monson's reporting was remarkably different to much of the Western media reporting from Palestine and Lebanon today. Monson did not try to downplay Zionist crimes and he humanised the Palestinian victims. Reporting when journalists were carrying through with their mission, to out the truth and did not succumb to pressure from lobbies with $$$ and threats. Report: They massacred Arab babies From RONALD MONSON In Jerusalem Jewish mortar bombs were coming over the Damascus Gate, bursting with shuddering explosions in narrow alleys when I visited the Jacob E. Spofford Memorial Hospital - American institution — close by the Gate today (Wednesday). I had come to visit the Arab orphans from Deir Yassin. I carried no sweets, because their nurse, Miriam Bedrossian, doesn't think sweets are good for year-old babies. Miriam had cared for these 15 babies since they were brought to the refuge a few days after the massacre of their parents last March. There were 16, but one died of wounds - aged nine months….

Rising tide of anti-Christian violence in occupied Jerusalem as French nun and researcher brutally assaulted by Israeli settler —— A 48-year-old French nun and researcher was violently assaulted this week near the Cenacle on Mount Zion, a site holy to both Christians and Jews in occupied East Jerusalem. Local sources reported that the assailant threw the woman onto a rock with "full force" before repeatedly kicking her while she was on the ground, leaving her with significant facial bruising and injuries. While Israeli police eventually arrested a 36-year-old suspect following widespread media coverage, the incident has intensified international condemnation, with the French Consulate and local religious leaders denouncing the "gratuitous assault" as a symptom of a much deeper crisis. The attack is not an isolated event but part of what the Hebrew University of Jerusalem describes as a "troubling pattern of rising hostility" toward the Christian community in West Asia. According to Middle East Eye, data from the Rossing Centre for Education and Dialogue documented 155 incidents of anti-Christian aggression in 2025 alone, including 61 physical assaults and 52 attacks on church property. These figures are described by researchers as the "tip of the iceberg," occurring within a sociopolitical climate that increasingly favors exclusivist national-religious claims over the region’s traditional religious pluralism. The atmosphere of intolerance has extended beyond physical violence to systemic institutional pressure, including the recent blocking of Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa from performing Palm Sunday Mass and new education policies threatening the closure of Christian schools. The Latin Patriarch has warned that sacred spaces are being transformed into "battlegrounds of identity," where religious texts are weaponized to justify occupation and violence.

One in four people in Lebanon face acute hunger as Israeli aggression continues —— The humanitarian situation in Lebanon has reached a critical breaking point, with over 1.2 million people—nearly 25% of the analyzed population—projected to face acute hunger between April and August 2026. A joint report by the UN’s FAO, the World Food Program, and Lebanon’s Ministry of Agriculture warns that food insecurity has hit crisis levels or worse as the direct result of ongoing conflict. This represents a staggering surge in suffering compared to the start of the year. Prior to the Israeli escalation in March, approximately 874,000 people were experiencing food instability. The rapid descent of an additional 360,000 people into hunger underscores the "significant deterioration" of the nation’s stability, driven by a volatile mix of forced mass displacement, Israeli attacks, and relentless economic pressure. The findings, backed by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), highlight the urgent need for intervention as the population struggles to access basic necessities. With one in four residents now unable to reliably feed themselves, the combined weight of the US-backed Israeli war and financial collapse continues to hollow out the country’s food security.