Month: October 2025

While the World Watches Gaza: The Unreported Israeli War for the Annexation of the ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED West Bank

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

This article, published in The Guardian is the logical followup to my last post The Apostolic Manifesto: The Major’s Seal—From a Canadian Jail to Gaza’s Cry

While the eyes of the world are on Gaza, Israeli settlers in the West Bank still behave with impunity

As the harvest season begins, attacks on Palestinian farmers and their land are spiralling. The words of peace following the Gaza ceasefire ring hollow.

Last Monday, when the US president, Donald Trump, addressed the Knesset alongside the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, my compatriot lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner calling them to “Recognise Palestine”. We were brutally expelled by force from the parliament’s plenum, revealing the fragile state of the supposed “only democracy in the Middle East”. How can Trump and Netanyahu speak of peace in the Middle East without recognition of the people deprived for decades of their basic liberties and rights under vicious occupation?

Nowhere is the deceit more clear than in the occupied West Bank. There, the words of peace are but a weak and distant voice, but the horrifying sounds of settler violence and terror still echo loudly. More than 30 occurrences of settler violence against Palestinians have been documented since the announcement of Trump’s 20-point plan at the end of September, including physical assaults, theft of agricultural produce and torching of vehicles and property.

The rise of settler terrorism is not coincidental. This period marks the start of the harvest seasons. More than a vital economic event, it is an important social and national moment that exhibits endurance under occupation. Precisely for these reasons, year after year settlers target Palestinians during this precious time. During the 2024 harvest period, Yesh Din (an Israeli human rights group that collects and disseminates information regarding violations of Palestinians’ human rights in the West Bank) documented 113 separate incidents of violence, harassment, harvest-thwarting or damage to olive trees and crops involving Israeli civilians and soldiers, which took place on lands belonging to 51 Palestinian villages, towns and communities.

Yesh Din also found that “Israeli security forces appeared to have played a greater role in obstructing the olive harvest”. In about 70% of forceful prevention of access to lands, soldiers, border police officers and settlement civilian security coordinators (CSCs) were actually present. They either personally prevented Palestinians from accessing and harvesting in their own lands, or failed to stop settlers who harassed or assaulted them.

This comes as no surprise, as the leader of the settlers’ political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional minister in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). In Umm al-Khair, for example, a special COGAT unit uprooted private olive trees of Palestinians, citing lack of permits, but ignored violations of an illegal nearby settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to halt all building work in the outpost, which was built on lands seized by Israel and unlawfully transferred to settlers.

In the occupied West Bank, settler terrorism is nothing but a tool by the government to pursue de-facto annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich led a march of thousands of settlers in support of annexation of the West Bank. He was quoted as saying, “We are continuing to take hold with our feet of the Land of Israel with many pioneers, many heroes, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who live in this part of the land … we need to normalise it and make it eternal.”

The settlers and their supporters in the Knesset are clear on their motives and intentions. Why, then, do political leaders in the west refrain from meaningful sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was sanctioned by the UK in June, but the effect of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be able to travel to the UK and tour the West End, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to grab lands in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of sanctions, the UK highlighted they take place “in his personal capacity” solely.

If the UK government acknowledges the reality of settler violence and its grave implications on Palestinian life, why does it still allow settlement produce to be sold in markets and shops in Britain? If Starmer is serious about recognition of Palestine as a state, how come it allows the Israeli government to violate its sovereignty with such violent means? Or was the recognition an empty ploy to shut down dissenting voices in the UK, a hollow act only to be realised in the rebranding of some maps?

A just peace must respect the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, sovereignty and liberty from military occupation and siege. Only when every human being’s dignity between the river and sea is respected can we truly say peace has been achieved.

True peace requires an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel: this is the sole formula that enjoys consensus among the international community, the Palestinian national movement and the Israeli peace camp.

Trump may have inflicted pressure on Netanyahu to halt the genocide, but he probably only did so because the burden of his relationship with the pariah regime of Netanyahu had become too great. The mass protests across the globe for the liberation of Palestine, and the unwavering anti-government demonstrations inside Israel, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this enormous civil movement that a ceasefire has been signed, the hostages released and the people of Gaza can enjoy safeguard from annihilation. After the ceasefire agreement has been signed, it is vital to keep applying this pressure. The world has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in Gaza for too long; it must not repeat the same mistake in the West Bank.

  • Dr Ofer Cassif is a member of the Knesset, representing the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) since 2019

Israel kills 11 Palestinian family members in Gaza’s deadliest truce breach

The Apostolic Manifesto: The Major’s Seal—From a Canadian Jail to Gaza’s Cry

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

Preface: This 13th Day of October, 2025—Canada’s Day of Thanksgiving—arrives as history converges.
This 13th Day of October, 2025—Canada’s Day of Thanksgiving, so different from America’s later feast on November 27—arrives as history converges. Today, Israel ends its seven days of Sukkot, the divine remembrance it has forgotten, even as it imposes a permanent Sukkot upon the people of Gaza. On this same day, Israeli hostages return to homes and families—yet tens of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, many held without charge, emerge to find no homes left, no families waiting, and no shelter from the ruins of a man-made wilderness.

Jewish Sukkot Booth

Gaza Sukkot Booth

A Watchman’s Testimony of Confinement, Covenant, and the Call to Loose the Chains of Injustice
October 13, 2025 — Canadian Thanksgiving

The world again teeters on a knife’s edge—between Destruction and the Universal Brotherhood of Man. My voice, calling for peace with Russia and justice for Gaza, is not a political stance but a divine mandate— a calling that started on February 1, 1975 and forged in Kansas City in 1976 and sealed in a Canadian jail in 1977. This is the hidden key to my authority as a Watchman. Ezekiel 33

The Prelude: The Sparks of Faith in Ottawa
In 1976, I stood in Kansas City, warning in the Kansas City Times that America was “found wanting,” its hubris paving the path to war with Russia—a divine call to peace. Deported to Canada as an Alien, (I’m in the World, but not of the World) I arrived in Ottawa in early September 1977—a sojourner with only Faith as my shield. Hitchhiking from Montreal, a restaurant owner’s kindness—a simple shared meal—became my first sign of God’s provision. The Restaurateur, Kamal, was kind enough to drive me to the Governor-General’s residence, signing the Guest Book with my city as “New Jerusalem”—a prophetic claim of eternal citizenship. 

Pacing the cold streets all night long, I reasoned with God as I prepared to speak on the Sparks Street Mall to the lunchtime crowd. Would my words spark light or provoke chains? Matthew 21’s call to humility anchored me: I would stand.On Sparks Street, Ottawa’s pulsing heart, I proclaimed America’s decline and the need for repentance. An icy wind  scattering passersby, and I nearly faltered. Then I reasoned inwardly, “It has to be done in Faith.” 

The icy cold wind howled, and with these words coming out of my mouth, ” Citizens of Bytown, (Ottawa’s name in 1855) Romans roaming around, and Russians rushing around, lend me your ears! To may surprise and wonder, on those words, the wind died down, the clouds parted, and the warm sun rolled down The Sparks Street Mall, and a crowd gathered—as if heaven itself had sparked the Mall to life. 

But the state struck back. Arrested for “shouting causing a disturbance,” I was locked up in maximum security, solitary confinement for 5 days before appearing in front of a Judge. At trial I had 12 charges of “shouting causing a disturbance. I faced a court order to silence my voice. Convicted, I was put on probation for 1 year. Not 1 standard condition of probation was checked off. Typed in at the bottom of the form was these explicit words, “not to attend on The Sparks Street Mall, or any other Street in Ottawa for the purpose of SPEAKING or shouting.”  I was jailed for the 1st time in my Life at 32! In that test of liberty, Canada’s democracy revealed both its strength and its fragility.

The Apostolic Commissioning: Black Velvet and the Seal
In jail, I began a hunger fast—not defiance, but obedience, an enacted prayer echoing Isaiah 58’s call to “loose the chains of injustice.” Each morning, I faced the nursing station’s weigh-in, my body weakening but my spirit ablaze. In that shadowed cellblock, a miracle unfolded. A fellow prisoner, spending his own canteen money, painted The Last Supper on black velvet. The stark light of Christ and his disciples glowed against the darkness—a silent sermon of communion and resistance. During a visit with the Salvation Army Major, the divine seal was set. As we parted, he placed his hand on my shoulder and declared, “I’ll pray God bless your Apostleship.” Those words pierced the court’s gag and the prison’s bars. This was no human title; it was heaven’s charge. My calling became generative: within weeks, 3 other prisoners took up canvases, painting by numbers, the same Last Suppers as the 1st prisoner. I preached no words; my fast, my presence, was the sermon, kindling sacrifice and light in others.

The Prophetic Through-Line: From Confinement to Covenant

That jail cell was my spiritual observatory, where the prophetic arc from 1975 to today took shape. The hubris I decried in Kansas City—America’s march toward war with Russia—has ripened, as NATO’s refusal to negotiate 2021 expansion terms proves. But the deeper issue is covenantal failure, embodied in two truths:

  • The Law of the Sojourner (Leviticus 19:34): God commands, “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself.” To displace and target the innocent, as seen in Gaza, is to shatter this covenant—a sin against God and humanity.
  • The Permanent Sukkot: While Sukkot recalls God’s protection in fragile booths, Gaza’s people live a permanent Sukkot—unprotected, vulnerable, under siege by powers meant to shield them. A festival of remembrance has become a cry of endurance.

When my posts are glitched or silenced online, it echoes that 1977 court order. Yet the Major’s blessing endures—no system, digital or judicial, can mute a call sealed by heaven.

The Call and the Benediction
We stand at a spiritual precipice. The choice is not geopolitical but eternal: domination or compassion. I challenge the world to honour the Law of the Sojourner, to see Gaza’s cry as a divine summons. My 1976 vision of America’s numbered days looms closer, hastened by its own hand.This memory of 1977 is no nostalgia; it is a spiritual weapon. From that cell, the charge is clear: Loose the chains. Shelter the displaced. Speak, though silenced. As one blessed in confinement and sent into freedom, I pass the Major’s words to every heart that still dares to speak light into darkness: “I pray God bless your Apostleship.”On this Thanksgiving Day in Canada, may gratitude rise not only from full tables, but from hearts that remember the hungry, the homeless, and the unheard. May the blessing once spoken in a jail cell resound through every open door.— Ray, The Watchman along the WatchTower
Ezekiel 33

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? Hebrews 2:4

Epilogue: The Living Word in Motion

The Apostolic Manifesto does not end—it proceeds. The Word that was sealed in confinement now walks openly among the powers of this age, speaking not from theory but from faith made visible. What follows is not commentary, but continuation: a Watchman’s response to the highest spiritual office on Earth, affirming that peace without justice is illusion, and fraternity without truth is a lie. This exchange stands as the living seal of the Manifesto—a dialogue where Scripture meets power, and the Spirit speaks again through the servants of the Covenant.

Doing what God called me to do, yesterday I responded to Pope Leo’s comment in X: Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex

Peace is unarmed and disarming. It is not deterrence, but fraternity; it is not an ultimatum, but dialogue. Peace will not come as the result of victories over the enemy, but as the fruit of sowing justice and courageous forgiveness.

Ray Joseph Cormier @RayJC_Com

Like Micaiah, God moved me to speak Truth to Power with this X to PM Netanyahu in the morning before the Gaza Ceasefire was made Public Wednesday night: 

Benjamin Netanyahu, You speak of the “horrific slaughter” of October 7 and invoke God’s help. Yet you create a permanent, man-made hell for 2 million image-bearers of that same God in Gaza. As Jews observe Sukkot—a holy feast commemorating God’s temporary shelter and protection of His people in the wilderness—you, a Genocidal psychopathic TERRORIST, are imposing a PERMANENT SUKKOT on the people of Gaza. You have turned their lives into a perpetual state of exposure, terror, and desperation, utterly desecrating the memory of the divine shelter you claim to honour. This is not strength. This is a spiritual blindness so profound it echoes the very powers Christ indicted. 

You have eyes that WILL NOT see the stranger you are commanded to love (Leviticus 19:34). You have a heart that WILL NOT show the mercy your own scriptures demand (Micah 6:8). You quote scripture while violating its core: “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the foundation. Gaza is your neighbor. The “unprecedented crushing strikes” you boast of are not a sign of God’s favor. They are the actions of a king trusting in chariots and horses, not in the Lord—a king who has forgotten that the land belongs to God, and all who live upon it are but sojourners (Leviticus 25:23). You are not securing Israel’s perpetuity. You are writing its indictment. Cease this madness. If you want to see his comment and the 3 images I posted with my script, go here: https://x.com/RayJC_Com/status/1976041325645697402

Almighty Eternal God moved me to reply to PM Netanyahu again after declaring, “This has been our land for 3,500 years.” Ray Joseph Cormier @RayJC_Com

Mr. Netanyahu, you cite 3,500 years of history, but you ignore the Owner of the deed. The Torah you claim to uphold states clearly in Leviticus 25:23: ‘The land is MINE,’ says the Lord, ‘and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.’ 

Your claim of permanent ownership is the same logic condemned by the prophet Ezekiel. You are repeating the error of those who said, ‘The land has been given to us as our possession,’ which God called an abomination.” “The earth is the Lord’s. 

You are a sojourner, as are the Palestinians. Your divine mandate is not to dominate, but to exemplify justice for the stranger, as commanded in the very same Law (Leviticus 19:34). You are in violation of your lease agreement.

You violate daily, the fundamental essence of Judaism – the Sanctity of ALL LIFE, not just Jewish Life. You may not realize it because of 2:9 & 3:9 in the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

GOD LIVES AND ACTS WITH THOSE WHO SEEK GOD