https://znetwork.org/author/chrishedges/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Sun, 21 Dec 2025 12:42:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/author/chrishedges/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/rebranding-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/rebranding-genocide/#respond Sun, 21 Dec 2025 12:42:14 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292597 First, it was Israel’s right to defend itself. Then it was a war, even though, by Israel’s own military intelligence database, 83 percent of the casualties were civilians. The 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, living under an Israeli air, land and sea blockade, have no army, air force, no mechanized units, no tanks, no navy, no missiles, no heavy [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/rebranding-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/journalist-chris-hedges-on-the-weaponization-of-kirks-killing/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/journalist-chris-hedges-on-the-weaponization-of-kirks-killing/#respond Tue, 16 Sep 2025 16:00:50 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1288663 Journalist Chris Hedges warns that President Trump and his allies are “weaponizing” the shocking assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to crush dissent. “We’ve reached a very frightening turning point,” says Hedges. “We’ve already seen an assault on civil liberties, on institutions, universities, the media, that are tasked with maintaining an open society. That will [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/journalist-chris-hedges-on-the-weaponization-of-kirks-killing/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-assassination-of-memory/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-assassination-of-memory/#respond Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1287796 As Israel ticks off its list of Nazi-like atrocities against the Palestinians, including mass starvation, it prepares for yet another – the demolition of Gaza City, one of the oldest cities on Earth. Heavy engineering equipment and gigantic armored bulldozers are tearing down hundreds of heavily damaged buildings. Cement trucks are churning out concrete to fill tunnels. Israeli tanks and [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-assassination-of-memory/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/abolishing-the-first-amendment/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/abolishing-the-first-amendment/#respond Sat, 02 Aug 2025 15:21:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286861 Itestified at the New Jersey state capital in Trenton last week against Bill A3558, which would adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. “This is a dangerous assault on free speech by seeking to criminalize legitimate criticism of Israeli policies,” I said. “The Trump administration’s campaign to ostensibly root out [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/abolishing-the-first-amendment/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-persecution-of-francesca-albanese/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-persecution-of-francesca-albanese/#comments Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:46:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286039 When the history of the genocide in Gaza is written, one of the most courageous and outspoken champions for justice and the adherence to international law will be Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, who today the Trump administration is sanctioning. Her office is tasked with monitoring and reporting on human rights violations that [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-persecution-of-francesca-albanese/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/profiting-from-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/profiting-from-genocide/#respond Thu, 03 Jul 2025 15:58:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285770 The latest United Nations report names hundreds of corporations, banks, technology firms, universities, pension funds and charities that profit from the Israeli occupation and genocide. War is a business. So is genocide. The latest report submitted by Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, lists 48 corporations and institutions, including Palantir Technologies Inc., [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/profiting-from-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gazas-hunger-games/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gazas-hunger-games/#respond Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285662 Israel’s weaponization of starvation is how genocides always end. I covered the insidious effects of orchestrated starvation in the Guatemalan Highlands during the genocidal campaign of Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, the famine in southern Sudan that left a quarter of a million dead — I walked past the frail and skeletal corpses of families lining roadsides — [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gazas-hunger-games/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/#respond Mon, 16 Jun 2025 15:16:09 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1285069 The neoconservatives who orchestrated the disastrous wars with Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya — and who were never held accountable for the profligate waste of $8 trillion taxpayer dollars, as well as $69 billion squandered in Ukraine — look set to lure us into yet another military fiasco with Iran. Iran is not Iraq. Iran is not Afghanistan. Iran [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-folly-of-a-war-with-iran/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-days-of-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-days-of-gaza/#comments Tue, 10 Jun 2025 16:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1284827 This is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide. It will be over soon. Weeks. At most. Two million people are camped out amongst the rubble or in the open air. Dozens are killed and wounded daily from Israeli shells, missiles, drones, bombs and bullets. They lack  clean water, medicine and food. They have reached [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-days-of-gaza/feed/ 3 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/restoring-lies-and-insanity-to-american-history/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/restoring-lies-and-insanity-to-american-history/#respond Sat, 05 Apr 2025 14:29:28 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1282056 President Donald Trump’s latest executive order titled “RESTORING TRUTH AND SANITY TO AMERICAN HISTORY” replicates a tactic used by all authoritarian regimes. In the name of countering bias, they distort the nation’s history into self-serving mythology. History will be used to justify the power of the ruling elites in the present by deifying the ruling elites of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/restoring-lies-and-insanity-to-american-history/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-chapter-of-the-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-chapter-of-the-genocide/#respond Wed, 26 Mar 2025 17:52:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1281622 This is the last chapter of the genocide. It is the final, blood-soaked push to drive the Palestinians from Gaza. No food. No medicine. No shelter. No clean water. No electricity. Israel is swiftly turning Gaza into a Dantesque cauldron of human misery where Palestinians are being killed in their hundreds and soon, again, in their thousands and tens [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-last-chapter-of-the-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship/#respond Mon, 24 Feb 2025 15:51:32 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1280177 This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible’s list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor This is a reading of an article riginally posted Feb. 18, 2025 The Trump administration’s war with the deep state is not [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-road-to-dictatorship/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-western-way-of-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-western-way-of-genocide/#respond Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:01:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1279303 Gaza is a wasteland of 50 million tons of rubble and debris. Rats and dogs scavenge amid the ruins and fetid pools of raw sewage. The putrid stench and contamination of decaying corpses rises from beneath the mountains of shattered concrete. There is no clean water. Little food. A severe shortage of medical services and hardly any habitable shelters. Palestinians [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-western-way-of-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-the-pyrocene/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-the-pyrocene/#respond Wed, 15 Jan 2025 19:13:56 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1278461 The apocalyptic wildfires that have erupted in the boreal forest in Siberia, the Russian Far East and Canada, climate scientists repeatedly warned, would inevitably move southwards as rising global temperatures created hotter, more fire-prone landscapes. Now they have. The failures in California, where Los Angeles has had no significant rainfall in eight months, are not only failures of preparedness — [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/welcome-to-the-pyrocene/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-the-new-normal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-the-new-normal/#comments Tue, 07 Jan 2025 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1278115 Joe Biden’s parting gift of $8 billion in weapons sales to the apartheid state of Israel acknowledges the gruesome reality of the genocide in Gaza. This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. This is a permanent, endless war designed not to destroy Hamas, or free Israeli hostages, but to eradicate, once and for all, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/genocide-the-new-normal/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/exposing-big-techs-complicity-in-genocide/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/exposing-big-techs-complicity-in-genocide/#respond Thu, 02 Jan 2025 16:48:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1277880 Joining host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report are three courageous individuals who chose to put their careers on the line to fight against Big Tech suppression of voices fighting for Palestinian lives. Saima Akhter, a former data analyst at Meta; Hossam Nasr, a former software engineer at Microsoft; and Tariq [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/exposing-big-techs-complicity-in-genocide/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chris-hedges-report-how-fascism-came/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chris-hedges-report-how-fascism-came/#respond Tue, 24 Dec 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1277518 For over two decades, I and a handful of others — Sheldon Wolin, Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Barbara Ehrenreich and Ralph Nader — warned that the expanding social inequality and steady erosion of our democratic institutions, including the media, the Congress,  organized labor,  academia and the courts, would inevitably lead to an authoritarian or Christian fascist state. My books — “American Fascists: The Christian Right [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/chris-hedges-report-how-fascism-came/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/chris-hedges-report-to-kill-a-people/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/chris-hedges-report-to-kill-a-people/#comments Sun, 24 Nov 2024 14:42:06 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=video&p=1275873 This is the keynote talk I gave on Nov. 1 at the conference, The End of Empire, at University of California Santa Barbara. The conference was organized by Professor Butch Ware, who is also the Green Party’s vice-presidential candidate. Univeristy administrators banned advance publicity about the talk on university social media accounts. Transcript Extermination works. [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/chris-hedges-report-to-kill-a-people/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-war-on-journalism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-war-on-journalism/#respond Sun, 03 Nov 2024 15:11:52 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1274726 There are some 4,000 foreign reporters accredited in Israel to cover the war. They stay in luxury hotels. They go on dog and pony shows orchestrated by the Israeli military. They can, on rare occasions, be escorted by Israeli soldiers on lightning visits to Gaza, where they are shown alleged weapons caches or tunnels the military says are used by Hamas. They dutifully [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/israels-war-on-journalism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burn-the-planet-and-lock-up-the-dissidents/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burn-the-planet-and-lock-up-the-dissidents/#respond Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:16:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1273363 Norfolk, U.K. — I am sitting with Roger Hallam, his gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, in the visitor’s room at HM Prison Wayland. On the walls are large photographs of families picnicking on lawns, verdant meadows and children playing. The juxtaposition of the photographs, no doubt hung to give the prison visiting room a homey [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/burn-the-planet-and-lock-up-the-dissidents/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/you-saved-julian-assange/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/you-saved-julian-assange/#respond Wed, 26 Jun 2024 17:07:19 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1268461 The dark machinery of empire, whose mendacity and savagery Julian Assange exposed to the world, spent 14 years trying to destroy him. They cut him off from his funding, canceling his bank accounts and credit cards. They invented bogus allegations of sexual assault to get him extradited to Sweden, where he would then be shipped [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/you-saved-julian-assange/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/neros-guests/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/neros-guests/#respond Mon, 17 Jun 2024 17:52:29 +0000 Israel has been poisoned by the psychosis of permanent war. It has been morally bankrupted by the sanctification of victimhood, which it uses to justify an occupation that is even more savage than that of apartheid South Africa. Its ‘democracy’ — which was always exclusively for Jews — has been hijacked by extremists who are [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/neros-guests/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-slow-motion-execution-of-julian-assange-continues/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-slow-motion-execution-of-julian-assange-continues/#respond Thu, 23 May 2024 15:56:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266800 The ruling by the High Court in London permitting Julian Assange to appeal his extradition order leaves him languishing in precarious health in a high-security prison. That is the point. The decision by the High Court in London to grant Julian Assange the right to appeal the order to extradite him to the United States [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-slow-motion-execution-of-julian-assange-continues/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nations-conscience/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nations-conscience/#respond Thu, 09 May 2024 15:51:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1266106 The courageous stance of students across the country in defiance of genocide is accompanied by a near total blackout of their voices. Their words are the ones we most need to hear. NEW YORK CITY: I am sitting on a fire escape across the street from Columbia University with three organizers of the Columbia University [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-nations-conscience/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sermon-for-gaza/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sermon-for-gaza/#respond Mon, 29 Apr 2024 16:47:07 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1265695 In the conflicts I covered as a reporter in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans, I encountered singular individuals of varying creeds, religions, races and nationalities who majestically rose up to defy the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed. Some of them are dead. Some of them are forgotten. Most of them [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/sermon-for-gaza/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-genocide-foretold/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-genocide-foretold/#comments Sun, 31 Mar 2024 14:40:01 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264430 There are no surprises in Gaza. Every horrifying act of Israel’s genocide has been telegraphed in advance. It has been for decades. The dispossession of Palestinians of their land is the beating heart of Israel’s settler colonial project. This dispossession has had dramatic historical moments — 1948 and 1967 — when huge parts of historic [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-genocide-foretold/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-crucifixion-of-julian-assange/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-crucifixion-of-julian-assange/#respond Thu, 28 Mar 2024 15:50:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264251 British courts for five years have dragged out Julian Assange’s show trial. He continues to be denied due process as his physical and mental health deteriorates. This is the point. Prosecutors representing the United States, whether by design or incompetence, refused — in the two-day hearing I attended in London in February — to provide guarantees that Julian Assange [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-crucifixion-of-julian-assange/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pen-america-self-destructs/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pen-america-self-destructs/#respond Sun, 24 Mar 2024 13:07:31 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1264097 PEN America, once an important defender of rights for writers, editors and artists, has, under the direction of former State Department official Suzanne Nossel, abandoned its mission, destroyed its credibility and provoked a revolt among its members.  Its refusal to condemn the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s targeted killings of writers, academics and journalists, has seen numerous [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/pen-america-self-destructs/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/joe-bidens-parting-gift-to-america-will-be-christian-fascism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/joe-bidens-parting-gift-to-america-will-be-christian-fascism/#respond Mon, 18 Mar 2024 15:29:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263789 Joe Biden and the Democratic Party made a Trump presidency possible once and look set to make it possible again. If Trump returns to power, it will not be due to Russian interference, voter suppression or because the working class is filled with irredeemable bigots and racists. It will be because the Democrats are as indifferent to the suffering [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/joe-bidens-parting-gift-to-america-will-be-christian-fascism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/julian-assanges-grand-inquisitor/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/julian-assanges-grand-inquisitor/#respond Thu, 22 Feb 2024 19:59:05 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262560 The prosecution lawyers in the High Court seeking to ensure Julian’s extradition to the U.S. rely almost exclusively on the judicial opinions of Gordon Kromberg, a highly controversial U.S. attorney. The prosecution for the U.S., which is seeking to deny Julian Assange’s appeal of an extradition order, begun by the Trump administration and embraced by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/julian-assanges-grand-inquisitor/feed/ 0