Historically the framework of that expulsion of Palestinians was predicated on the use of war as a pretext, as opposed to war as a response to Palestinian resistance, writes RAMZY BAROUD

SYMON HILL looks at Tommy Robinson’s bid to use Christmas to spread division and hate — and reminds us that’s the opposite of Jesus’s message

VICTORIA HOLMES salutes the brave stand being taken by Palestine Action hunger-strikers in British prisons, and explains their demands

SOLOMON HUGHES finds the government went along with a US scheme to distract from Israel’s lethal Gaza blockade with an impractical floating pier scheme – though its own officials knew it wouldn’t work

RUBEN BRETT introduces a charismatic martial artist and ‘ambassador of peace’ making waves among the youth of Taiwan

DENNIS BROE says media ownership is not only grossly concentrated in the US, Britain and France – new mergers are advancing the power of the rich to censor the news

CAMERON HARRISON and CJ ATKINS analyse the White House’s new strategy in detail

Charles Lubselski pays tribute to a lifelong communist and supporter of the Daily Worker and Morning Star

MARK JONES responds to issues raised in the recent report from Richard Hebbert on the Communist Party’s Congress debate on nuclear power

A searing scrutiny hearing has uncovered thousands of undelivered appointments, vanishing data and a system in chaos – galvanising councillors, patients and activists to demand urgent reform and an NHS dentist for all, writes SIMON BRIGNELL

Fuelled by economic abandonment and a collapsing faith in politics, Farage’s party is transforming grievance into momentum north of the border, warns COLL McCAIL

Ten days after right-wing destabilisation attempts, Mexico’s leadership has emerged strengthened, securing historic labour and wage agreements, while opposition-backed protests have crumbled under scrutiny, says DAVID RABY

MAT COWARD tells how 18th-century scholar and revolutionary democrat Joseph Ritson turned a medieval outlaw into England’s people’s hero — soon to be gracing panto halls around the nation

Amid the festive lights, Scotland faces a stark holiday truth: only real investment in public services and the workers who sustain them can lift communities out of poverty, argues LILIAN MACER

A vast US war fleet deployed in the south Caribbean — ostensibly to fight drug-trafficking but widely seen as a push for violent regime change — has sparked international condemnation and bipartisan resistance in the US itself. FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ reports

The Communist Party of Britain’s Congress last month debated a resolution on ending opposition to all nuclear power in light of technological advances and the climate crisis. RICHARD HEBBERT explains why

Behind the cute names of Scotland’s road gritters lies a workforce underpaid and overlooked – a fitting reflection of a Budget that protected profits, bungled its rollout and offered hardly a glimmer of hope, writes MATT KERR

Your Party launched to packed halls and high expectations, but power struggles and sectarianism marred the inaugural conference. If it is to address the challenges of today, YP must rebuild from the grassroots, listen to workers and choose unity over purity, argues MARK SERWOTKA

ANSELM ELDERGILL recalls the misjudgments, mishaps and moments of farce that shaped his years in legal practice

In the final part of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explains how in 2018, after years spent rebuilding the PCS into a leading force against austerity, a damaging rupture emerged from within the union’s own left wing

Commiserations if you failed this year, MAT COWARD offers six points which, if followed religiously, will ensure you succeed next year

Labour, like the Tories, sees rising mental ill health simply as a spending problem — but it reflects a diseased society, argues DR DAVID MATTHEWS