Al-Naksa Day marks the beginning of the 1967 war that reshaped the Middle East and began an occupation that continues nearly six decades later. From the attack on USS Liberty during that conflict, to repeated United Nations resolutions demanding withdrawal from occupied territory, the same questions remain unresolved: accountability, international law, and whether powerful states can simply ignore the rules that govern everyone else.
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First published: 5 Jun 2026
Last Update: 8 Jun 2026 (see 🗄️Version History - Article Updates)
APPENDICES
END PAPERS
Al-Naksa Day (“the setback”) is commemorated annually on 5 June, marking the beginning of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, commonly known as the Six-Day War. The conflict began when Israel launched pre-emptive strikes against Egyptian airfields before rapidly expanding into a regional war involving Egypt, Jordan and Syria1.
The war dramatically altered the map of the Middle East. By its conclusion Israel had taken control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula, beginning an occupation whose consequences remain central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict nearly six decades later.
The war left Israel in control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. While Sinai was later returned to Egypt under the Camp David Accords, the occupation of Palestinian territory and the Golan Heights remains one of the defining legacies of the conflict.
Israel has consistently disregarded numerous UN resolutions demanding its withdrawal from occupied territories. Furthermore, Israel is gradually implementing a de facto annexation through a state-sponsored programme of illegal settlement, once again ignoring multiple resolutions calling for a halt to construction2.
During the war the infamous USS Liberty Incident took place where Israel attacked a US Navy technical research ship sailing in international waters off Sinai during the six day war.
The attack killed 34 American servicemen and wounded 171 others, making it one of the deadliest attacks on US naval personnel outside a declared war.
Israel maintained that the attack was a case of mistaken identity, but many survivors, military officials and researchers have disputed that explanation3. The accusation is that Israel performed the attack as a false flag to blame Egypt and draw the Americans into the war on the side of Israel.
Despite decades of debate, Congress has never conducted a dedicated public hearing examining the incident in depth.
For videos on the USS Liberty see
Appendix B: Interview with survivor of the US Liberty Attack: “it could NOT have been a mistake”
APPENDIX C: Thomas Massie addresses Congress 8 Jun 2026
The territorial gains of 1967 did not simply create a military reality. They also created a legal dispute that continues today.
Since the end of the Six-Day War, the United Nations has repeatedly called on Israel to withdraw from occupied territory and comply with international law. Among the most significant was UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted in November 1967, which established the principle of “land for peace”4.
Yet almost six decades later, much of the territory captured in 1967 remains under Israeli control. While Sinai was returned to Egypt following the Camp David Accords in 1979, the Palestinian territories remain subject to military occupation, settlement expansion and ongoing disputes over sovereignty.
Israel’s continued occupation, settlement expansion and administration of occupied territory have attracted sustained criticism from the United Nations and international human rights organisations.
Israel’s ongoing treatment of the Palestinians has been characterised as apartheid by leading human rights organisations including Amnesty International5, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem6.
And this is not a recent observation.
In 1975, a motion in the UN General Assembly classified Zionism as a form of racism comparable to apartheid-era South Africa7. This resolution was only rescinded in 1991 as part of a deal allowing Israel to attend a peace summit in Madrid.
Notably a condition of Israel’s admission to the UN in 1949 was implementation of the right of return for Palestinians evicted during their homes in the 1948 Nakba.
This resolution 194 (reiterated in the UN Resolution 242 after the Six Day War) has also never been implemented by Israel to date8.
In 2024 the International Court of Justice confirmed in an advisory ruling that the occupation of the Palestinian territories was illegal under international law, referring back to the resolutions Israel had ignored over the years and its ongoing behaviour9.
This was later backed by an overwhelming majority in the United Nations General Assembly issuing a motion reflecting the majority will of nations for withdrawal - again calling out Israel’s historical obligations10.
This year’s Al-Naksa anniversary arrives at an unusual moment.
On 8 June, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie is expected to speak on the floor of the House of Representatives regarding the USS Liberty attack11. Regardless of where one stands on the competing interpretations of the incident, the speech is significant because it reopens discussion of an episode that has largely disappeared from mainstream American political debate.
For critics of US support for Israel, the USS Liberty has long symbolised a broader concern: that Israeli actions are often treated differently from those of other states, even when American interests are directly affected.
Massie is an outspoken critic of Israel and in 2024 revealed the AIPAC shadow-network in Congress in an interview on Tucker Carlson.
🎥 Instagram video: 10 Jun 2024 - Thomas Massie reveals AIPAC babysitter network on Tucker Carlson - click below to watch:
His criticism of Israel wasn’t overlooked. Pro-Israel billionaires Miriam Adelson and Paul Singer, along with AIPAC, invested millions in the Republican primary candidate in Massie’s Kentucky district12. On 19 May 2024 Massie lost his primary and won’t be contesting the November mid-terms.
Between then and now he’s vowed to right a few wrongs - including properly highlighting the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.
Al-Naksa is often remembered as a military defeat. But nearly six decades later its significance lies elsewhere.
The occupation that began in 1967 remains unresolved. Settlements continue to expand. Key UN resolutions remain unimplemented. The International Court of Justice has again declared the occupation unlawful. Yet the political reality on the ground changes little.
The USS Liberty attack belongs to the same historical moment. Whether viewed as a tragedy, a cover-up, or an unresolved controversy, it raises a question that still echoes today: what happens when accountability is absent?
As Congressman Thomas Massie prepares to revisit the Liberty incident on the floor of Congress, Americans have an opportunity to look again at a chapter of history many have never been taught.
This is context for the UN Secretary-General António Gutteres’s comments at the United Nations on 24th October 2023, 17 days after the October 7th attacks in the face of Israel’s bloody revenge where he gave a grim warning from this history knowing what was to come.
“It did not happen in a vacuum”13
The death rate in Gaza at that point was 7,028 people14 including 2,913 children15. As at 3rd June 2026 the reports are of 72,939 Palestinians dead and 172,927 injured, many with life-changing injuries16. This is just in Gaza - there are over a thousands deaths in the West Bank in the same period and a further aggressive expansionist settlement policy is in place.
Gutteres knew what would happen based on the pattern to date.
And so fifty-nine years after Al-Naksa, the question is no longer what happened in 1967.
The question is why Israel continues to act with impunity.
APPENDICES
1 Jul 2015 Interview with USS Liberty survivor Sgt. Bryce Lockwood and former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern
Speech given by Congressman Thomas Massie 8 Jun 202617.
Mr. Speaker, it’s my great honor, maybe one of the biggest honors of my lifetime to stand here on the floor and do something that’s 59 years overdue to recognize the survivors and those who gave their lives of the on the uss liberty 59 years ago today, when they were viciously attacked by IDF jets, and also after that, by torpedo boats.
I’m going to tell you a little bit of their story. And by the way, there’s at least a dozen of them here today with us. I just met with them in my office and they related this story to me.
You know, it was a clear day. The USS Liberty was one of the most technologically sophisticated ships in the navy, but it was virtually unarmed. And it was sent to observe the Six Day War going on in the Middle East between Israel and its neighbors.
It arrived on June 7th, and the weather was clear. The planes came out to meet them, to investigate. And then on the next day, on June 8th, they started the day.
The visibility was unlimited. The American flag was flying proudly on the USS Liberty. More planes came from Israel to surveil the boat, the ship. And they thought they were in good shape. But what happened next surprised them all.
French mirage jets showed up and for 25 minutes strafed and attacked the USS Liberty. They shot rockets. They shot 30 millimeter cannons into the hull and into the ship. They even dropped napalm on the bridge of the ship.
This was an effort to kill everybody on board. There was no intention of taking prisoners. After the 25 gruelling minutes of attack on this virtually unarmed ship, and they thought things were over and they could recover.
The torpedo boats showed up, three torpedo boats. They launched four torpedoes. One of them hit the hull of the USS Liberty and killed 25 people. Instantly. It blew a 40 foot by 40 foot hole in the side of this ship. They were intent on sinking it, but they were also intent on not having a single survivor.
According to eyewitness accounts, the Israelis machine gunned the lifeboats that they put down. They machine gunned the firefighters who were on the deck. They were bringing the wounded and the dead to the mess hall to triage them. They had one doctor who was trying to help them all put a few stitches in.
It was harrowing and it’s amazing. If not for that crew, that boat would have sunk that day. But it still wasn’t over.
Helicopters showed up, combat helicopters and the USS Liberty, even though their signals were being jammed by the Israelis, got a signal out and there were ships that tried to respond.
The USS Saratoga, the USS America, sent planes. Both of them sent planes to help the USS Liberty. And something happened that’s never happened before.
A ship under attack. The planes were recalled. This has never happened before.
And they sat there for 17 hours, 34 dead, 174 wounded out of 294 crew members. That’s over 70% casualty rate, unheard of. The Israelis were intent on leaving no survivor.
And what about our own military? Why didn’t they not send anybody for 17 hours to help these men?
So what really happened?
You know, the official reports say that it was a case of mistaken identity. But if you listen to Dean Rusk, former Secretary of State, Richard Helms, CIA Director, Bobby Ray Inman, Head of the NSA, Captain Ward Boston, who was the Chief Counsel of the court of inquiry. If you listen to Admiral Moore, who served in Pearl Harbor, Midway commanded both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleet and was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
None of these distinguished men think this was an accident. They think it was intentional murder by the country of Israel, either as a false flag operation or because they simply didn’t want anybody observing what they were doing that day.
Well, I’ve got a call to action for everybody here.
Honor these individuals.
Quit ignoring that they exist.
Go to their website, USSLiberty.org.
Support them
And while they’re still alive, they need closure. Let’s give them closure. Let’s have an investigation. Let’s pass a resolution honoring them. It’s long overdue. And then they can have their justice.
With that, I yield back and I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a declaration of war. Boston declaring that the only official court of inquiry was invalid.
The gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes. [applause] the chair. The chair will remind persons in the gallery that they are here as guests of the house, and that any manifestation of approval or disapproval of proceedings is a violation of the rules of the house.
END PAPERS
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First published: 5 Jun 2026
Last Update: 8 Jun 2026
Sleekit Scotsman ☮️🏴 articles are updated periodically to add latest information on the subject of the article for relevance
Updates
8 Jun 2026: added text of Thomas Massie’s Congress speech here - APPENDIX C: Thomas Massie addresses Congress 8 Jun 2026
5 Jun 2026: updated internal URLs, added Gutteres section to Conclusion.
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I am an autistic Scottish writer passionate about human rights issues and exposing Government corruption. I have a high attention to detail and can often spot connections and insights others may not see.
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UN Resolution 2334 2016: “Israeli settlements constitute a flagrant violation under international law … all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, must immediately and completely cease”: http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/2334
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