Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

1,000 boats to leave Turkiye for Gaza waters in new ‘Freedom Flotilla’

MEMO | November 21, 2023

Approximately 1,000 international boats will gather in Turkiye on Wednesday before heading toward Gaza to break the Israeli blockade, Turkish media reports.

According to the report, in an interview with Turkish news website, Haber7, Volkan Okcu, one of the organisers of the protest, indicated the boats will carry 4,500 people from 40 countries, “including anti-Zionist Jews”.

Among the 1,000 vessels would be 313 boats filled with Russian activists, and 104 filled with Spanish activists, he said. Only 12 Turkish vessels will join the flotilla, he told Haber7.

The maritime convoy is set to make a first stop in Cyprus before continuing toward the Israeli port of Ashdod. Some participants in the flotilla will also reportedly take their spouses and children on board.

November 22, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Putin names Russia’s ‘sacred duty’ in Gaza

RT | November 22, 2023

Moscow has a moral obligation to deliver humanitarian aid to the civilian population in Gaza, Russian President Vladimir Putin argued on Wednesday. The day before, he told other BRICS leaders that he had been moved by videos depicting Palestinian children being operated on without anesthesia.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) accused Israel of routinely targeting medical facilities. The international watchdog also said that child deaths were an everyday occurrence in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Addressing the Russian cabinet via video link, President Putin said: “This is a very important, humanitarian, noble mission. We need to help people suffering as a result of the ongoing events.”

The Russian leader went on to describe the provision of aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza as “our sacred duty.”

Attending an extraordinary BRICS online summit a day prior, the president noted that the “death of thousands of people, the mass displacement of the civilian population and the humanitarian catastrophe that has erupted” are cause for the “deepest concern.”

“When you watch how children are being operated on with no anesthesia – this of course arouses very special feelings,” Putin added.

While securing humanitarian truces is a key task in the short term, Moscow would like to see a lasting peace in the region, he noted. This can only be achieved on the basis of previous UN resolutions that call for the creation of two states – Israel and Palestine, the president said.

According to Putin, other BRICS member states share Russia’s stance in many respects, as demonstrated by the way they have voted at the UN General Assembly.

The group, he argued, could “play a key role” in resolving the decades-old conflict.

Earlier this month, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the UN Security Council that “on average, a child is killed every ten minutes in Gaza.” The official also said that Israel had attacked medical facilities, ambulances and patients in Gaza and the West Bank on at least 250 occasions since October 7, bringing the medical system in Gaza to “its knees.”

Israel unleashed its military operation following a deadly raid by Hamas militants that claimed the lives of 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, last month. Since then, the death toll in Gaza has reached 13,000, according to Palestinian health authorities.

On Wednesday, the Israeli government approved a deal with Hamas under which the militant group is to release 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian female and child inmates held in Israeli custody, accompanied by a four-day truce.

November 22, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Maldives looks to impose travel ban on Israeli citizens

The Cradle | November 21, 2023

A member of the Maldives parliament, Mohamed Nasheed Abdulla, put forth a proposal on 20 November to amend the national Immigration Act in order to prohibit Israeli passport holders from entering the country following Israel’s indiscriminate aggression against the Gaza Strip.

The MP affirmed that the objective of the amendment of the Immigration Act is to impose sanctions on Tel Aviv via a travel ban on its citizens in the wake of Israel’s deadly besiege of the Gaza enclave. Currently, the Israeli military has killed over 12,300 Palestinian civilians, including over 5,000 children, since the start of Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October.

The Maldives is a member of the Organization for Islamic Corporation (OIC) member, which has already invoked a travel ban on Israeli civilians. Abdulla is pushing to pass his proposal in alignment with the rest of the IOC and expressing Maldives’ solidarity with Palestine.

Last week, demonstrators gathered in front of the Maldivian parliament, voicing their anger over Israel’s actions and violence in Gaza, and calling for an immediate travel ban.

In January 2022, Israeli government sources claimed that the Maldives had initiated steps to rekindle diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, a bond that was broken in 1974. Following the war on Gaza in 2014, the Maldives cut ties with Israel entirely and banned all imports from the country.

Since the start of the conflict, several countries have withdrawn their Israeli ambassadors, including Colombia, Honduras, Jordan, Bahrain, and Turkiye, while nations such as Bolivia and Belize have suspended relations with Israel.

Criticism of the Israeli government among EU officials has also heightened in recent weeks in response to Tel Aviv’s brutal campaign. Last week, the President of the Belgian Senate, Stephanie D’Hose rejected a request by the Israeli ambassador to Brussels to showcase a 47-minute film claiming to show atrocities committed by Hamas during its 7 October attack on Israel.

This came a week after the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, Petra De Sutter, urged the EU community to impose sanctions against Israel.

“We cannot look away while children are killed every day in Gaza,” De Sutter said.

“It is time for sanctions against Israel. The rain of bombs is inhumane. It is clear that Israel does not care about the international demands for a ceasefire.”

On 15 November, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, also called on Israel to stop their aggression against Palestinians. His condemnation has been described as one of the harshest by a western leader since the start of the war. Madird’s Social Rights Minister, Ione Belarra, also condemned Israel’s approach.

November 21, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | Leave a comment

Pro-Palestine activists shutting down arms factories that aid Gaza genocide

Press TV – November 21, 2023

A group of pro-Palestine activists on Monday blocked the driveway entrances to Lockheed Martin subsidiary ForwardEdgeASIC in the western US state of Minnesota for aiding the genocide in Gaza.

The demonstrators held banners that read “No money for weapons” and “Divest from Lockheed.”

Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), an advocacy group that organizes street protests against US aid to the Israeli regime, in a post on X on Monday described the action as a “victory.”

“VICTORY!! Production was stopped ALL DAY at ForwardEdge ASIC, Lockheed’s subsidiary in St. Paul that makes microelectronics for weapons systems,” the tweet stated.

“Activists with the Free Palestine Coalition blocked entrances & faced down police for almost 8 hours! Building got decorated too!”

Andrew Josefchak, a member of the Minnesota AWC, was quoted as saying that they want Lockheed out of their city as it aids the genocide of civilians in Gaza.

“The reason why I’m here today specifically is because Lockheed’s bombs and jets are being used to massacre civilians,” he stated, noting that Lockheed provides weapons used by Israel to bomb Gaza.

As a mark of protest against the Israeli regime’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has assumed alarming proportions, activists in Western countries have also upped the ante.

In recent weeks, pro-Palestine advocacy groups have intensified their campaign against corporations and industries that aid the occupying regime’s war crimes against Palestinians in the besieged territory.

On Sunday, the Minnesota AWC organized a rally on the bridge over the Mississippi River that saw the participation of thousands of protesters, who marched to Minnesota Governor Walz’s Eastcliff house.

“There is blood on the hands of not only these companies, but also Governor Tim Walz and his SBI for continuing to invest in these companies, and yet when we cry out for Israeli bombs to stop for good, when we demand an end to the brutal, unjustified occupation, we’re called anti-Semites,” Skyler Dorr, a worker at the University of Minnesota, was quoted as saying by Fightback News.

“We don’t want to teach our kids that genocide is okay, and we don’t want teachers fired for speaking out against Israel,” Drake Myers, a member of the Minnesota AWC, stated.

According to reports, the aerospace and weapons industry has seen a significant jump in profits after Israel launched its murderous attacks on Gaza on October 7.

As President Joe Biden’s $14 billion military aid for the Tel Aviv regime awaits congressional green light, companies such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing are likely to have a big boost in profits.

It has enraged pro-Palestine activists in the US and other Western countries who have been organizing peaceful demonstrations and forcing the closure of factories belonging to these corporations.

Hundreds of pro-Palestine activists staged a protest at one of the entrances to US Air Force Plant 44 in Arizona on November 2, which Raytheon, a major US military contractor, operates.

“The bombs and the rockets and all those weapons of mass destruction are made in the US, so everybody needs to be held accountable who participates in this genocide, either directly or indirectly,” Abdulaziz, who attended the demonstration, was quoted as saying by Prism Reports.

Five days later, on November 8, half a dozen activists were arrested after they held a die-in protest outside the arms company’s offices in Arlington, Virginia. The protestors, however, remained unfazed.

On November 13, protesters stormed a Raytheon factory in California’s El Segundo, blocking its gates.

Similar demonstrations have been held against other military contractors as well, such as Boeing, which is one of the biggest arms importers to the Israeli regime.

A report in Bloomberg last month, citing unnamed US officials, said the company has accelerated the delivery of around 1,800 kits “that convert unguided bombs into precision munitions.”

On November 6, pro-Palestine demonstrators blocked the entrances to a Boeing factory in Missouri.

It was followed by another protest on November 9 outside the headquarters of Northrop Grumman in San Diego.

Northrop Grumman, according to the Mapping Project, sells “extensive amounts of weapons and military technologies to Israel, as well as the US military and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).”

“Northrop Grumman is deeply complicit in Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland and theft of Palestinian resources,” it states.

Pro-Palestine activists have also been targeting Elbit Systems, in both the US and the UK, in recent weeks. The largest weapons supplier to Israel has seen a staggering rise in its stocks since October 7.

On October 31, more than two weeks after Israel launched its genocidal attacks on Gaza, Palestine Action US “completely halted” a factory of Elbit Systems in Boston.

Hundreds of demonstrators chanted “Elbit Systems has got to go” and “You’re defending genocide of children”, calling for the closure of the arms factory.

According to its website, the American subsidiary of the arms company has operational facilities in the US states of Texas, New Hampshire, Alabama, Virginia and Florida.

Before the crackdown on the Boston plant, pro-Palestine activists also forced the closure of Elbit Systems’ Cambridge facility, “to prevent Elbit employees from going to work.”

“The weapons Israel is deploying to surveil, maim, and mass murder Palestinians are supplied by a company that operates right here in our city,” said the statement issued by the community members.

“Elbit weapons are being used to murder Palestinians right now. We will not let Elbit continue business as usual! Weapons companies don’t belong in our neighbourhoods!”

Palestine Action UK has also intensified its actions against Elbit Systems factories in England since October 7, with their activists even climbing the roof of the factory in the city of Lichfield.

“Palestine Action activists occupy the roof of the Israeli weapons factory Elbit Systems in the town of Shenstone, England, in protest of its production of equipment used in Israel’s murder of innocent Palestinians,” Palestine Action UK said in a statement on October 31.

Since July 2022, when pro-Palestine activists stormed the headquarters of Elbit Systems in London, the group has frequently targeted the company factories in different cities across the UK.

The group has permanently shut down at least two Elbit plants in less than two years, including its London headquarters and a Ferranti factory in Oldham, according to Counterfire.

In recent weeks, they have blockaded the entrance of the company’s Bristol plant, shutting down its operations. They have also closed the company’s factory in Kent.

Declassified UK recently revealed that the British government has approved at least £472m in arms sales to the Israeli regime in the past eight years, ignoring the genocide in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, eight Palestine Action activists, including the group’s co-founders, face trial at London’s Snaresbrook Crown Court for their protests against Elbit Systems

In Canada, pro-Palestine activists on Monday blocked a Canadian National Railway line in downtown Winnipeg, calling for an immediate halt to Tel Aviv’s unchecked aggression on Gaza.

The protesters, who carried Palestinian flags and signs that read “ceasefire now” and “Palestine will never die”, forced at least two trains to halt.

CN partners with Israel’s largest shipping company Integrated Shipping Services (ZIM). A protester was quoted as saying by CBC that CN is “very vital” for Israel to access the North American market.

November 21, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Economic Implications of the Yemeni Seizure of the Galaxy Leader

Sputnik – 21.11.2023

As confirmed by multiple media sources, the ship seized by the Houthis in the Red Sea is the Bahamian flagged Galaxy Leader. According to marinetaffic.com, this ship is designed to carry vehicles, and has a capacity of 1500 passenger cars.

The ship was en route from the Turkish port of Korfez to the Indian port of Pipavav with 25 crew members, including Bulgarians, Filipinos, Mexicans and Ukrainians, but no Israelis on board.

According to Reuters, Netanyahu’s office described the ship as ” British-owned and Japanese-operated”, adding that, “There were no Israelis on the ship,” and “Israel was not involved in its ownership or operation.” However, Yemen’s official news agency, SABA, states that multiple Israeli news media have reported that “The ship controlled by the “Houthis” belongs to the Israeli billionaire Rami Unger, who is close to the Mossad.” Unger is, indeed, a veteran of the Intelligence Corp of the IDF, and has had a decades long close personal and business relationship with Yossi Cohen, the former Director of Mossad, and National Security Advisor to Netanyahu.

In 2019, the personal net worth of Rami Unger and his wife was estimated at $2.1 billion. In 2004, it was reported that Unger owned between 12 and 14 vehicle transport ships, worth about $50 million each, a reasonable estimate of the value of the Galaxy Leader, which was built in 2002. The political and economic impact of this operation goes far beyond the mere value of the ship.

In spite of the estimated $50 million cost/value of the ship, from an economic point of view, it is actually of little worth to the Houthis. They can’t sell it, they can’t use it, Unger and his insurance companies probably won’t ransom it. The ship was sailing without cargo, which if it had been, would have been approximately 1,500 new cars, worth between $20 and $30 million in total. So, clearly, there was no economic benefit from the seizure of the vessel for the Houthis, but the full political and economic ramifications remain to be seen.

It should be understood that the Houthis have not just seized the Galaxy Leader, they have put all Israeli shipping in the Red Sea under threat. The value of that shipping can be roughly estimated by the fact that out of Israel’s $165 billion in total exports in 2022, 24% went to Asian markets. The shortest shipping route from the Mediterranean to Asia is the Suez Canal. Everything that goes through the Suez Canal goes through the Red Sea, and 12% of all global trade passes through the Suez Canal. With these calculations, the economic impact on the Israeli economy by the seizure of this single ship can be estimated in the billions of dollars. The Houthi area of military operations in the southern Red Sea is more than 1,000 miles from Israel, and beyond the reach of timely Israeli military response.

Economic warfare and military warfare are two sides of the same coin. The Houthis, with one helicopter and less than a dozen commandos, have hit the Israeli economy as hard as the entire Israeli military is hitting the people of Gaza. All in all, it must be admitted, it was a successful gambit. Especially considering that it was a bloodless operation in which, unlike the Israeli operation in Gaza, no one was harmed.

Of course, like the October 7th Hamas attack, Netanyahu could very well try to exploit this incident to “justify” another Israeli attack, this time on Iran. War is by nature, always full of dangers and deception. However, the Houthis are likely to find broad and real support for their raid across the Arab and Muslim world.

In an announcement by Yemeni Armed Forces, ” the Armed Forces renewed their warning to all ships belonging to the Israeli enemy or dealing with it that they will become a legitimate target. It called on all countries whose nationals work in the Red Sea to refrain from any work or activity with Israeli ships or ships owned by Israelis.” The statement pointed out that the operations of the armed forces only threaten the ships of Israel and those owned by Israelis, as was previously indicated.

November 21, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | Leave a comment

Raisi Calls on BRICS Leaders to Use Economic, Political Opportunities to Pressure Israel

Sputnik – 21.11.2023

TEHRAN – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday called on BRICS leaders to use all economic and political opportunities to put pressure on Israel.

Amid escalating horrors in the Gaza Strip during the “second phase” of Israel’s conflict with Hamas, the former has intensified its actions, resulting in a rise in civilian casualties. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in response, has called on BRICS leaders to leverage economic and political avenues to exert pressure on the Israeli government.

“The United States has made all international organizations faceless. Iran wants BRICS members and governments to stand up for security, establish justice and fight racial discrimination in the world, as well as use all their political and economic opportunities and power to exert pressure on Israel and its supporters from Western countries,” Raisi at the BRICS extraordinary summit on the Middle East.

Raisi urged the BRICS countries to recognize the Israeli government as a “terrorist regime.”

“Israel’s continuous attacks on hospitals, medical centers and religious sites, as well as the murder of women and children, doctors, nurses and journalists are acts of terrorism, and it is necessary to recognize the Israeli regime as a terrorist regime and its army as a terrorist organization,” Raisi said.

BRICS countries must adopt a resolution at the UN to stop Israel’s crimes in the Gaza Strip, Raisi said.

November 21, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Imam Khamenei Urges Muslim Countries to Cut Zionist Regime’s Lifeline

Al-Manar | November 19, 2023

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei has described the Zionist regime as a manifestation of racial discrimination, urging Muslim countries to cut the lifeline of the Zionist regime of Israel.

Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei made these remarks during his visit to the IRGC Aerospace Forces exhibition on Sunday.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that Zionists consider themselves to be a superior race and consider the rest of human beings to be inferior, and that is why they have killed thousands of children without any remorse.

He described scientific achievements, such as the ones showcased in the exhibition, to be the result of a motivation based on determination and faith.

Whatever field our young people entered with determination and faith, they have been able to do great jobs, he stressed.

The signs of determination and faith were clearly evident in this exhibition, he stated.

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution referred to innovation as another feature of the event, saying, “We should not be content with the current level of success because various military and civilian sectors in the world are progressing, and we must try not to stay behind.”

Referring to the developments in Palestine and the continuation of the Zionist regime’s crimes in Gaza, Ayatollah Khamenei said that the developments in Gaza revealed many hidden truths to the people of the world, one of which is the support of the heads of Western countries for racial discrimination.

When the US president, the German chancellor, the French president, and the British prime minister aid and abet such a racist regime, it means that they support racial discrimination as the most detestable issue in the world, he noted.

The people of Europe and America should clarify their stance on this situation and show that they are not in favor of racial discrimination, he stressed.

Despite extensive bombings in Gaza, the Zionist regime has failed to achieve its goal of destroying Hamas and the resistance, even after more than 40 days of using all their military power, he stated.

Ayatollah Khamenei described the brutal bombing of hospitals and women and children in Gaza as a sign of the extreme frustration of the Zionist regime’s leader about their defeat, saying that the defeat of the Zionist regime in Gaza is a fact and entering hospitals or people’s houses is not a victory.

Victory means defeating the other party, which the Zionist regime has not been able to achieve so far and will not be able to in the future, he reiterated.

Some Islamic governments apparently condemned the Zionist regime’s crimes in public gatherings, he said adding that some others have not done so yet, which is not acceptable.

He urged Islamic countries to stop exporting energy and goods to the Zionist regime and to cut off their political relationship with the Zionist regime, at least for a limited period.

November 19, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Yemeni Military Spokesman Warns: All Types of Israeli Ships Will Be Under Fire

Al-Manar | November 19, 2023

In the context of the major support provided by the Yemeni people and armed forces to the Palestinian people and resistance against the Israeli barbaric war on Gaza, the military spokesman General Yahya Sarea warned that all the types of the Israeli ships will be struck by the Yemeni missiles.

In light of the religious, national, and ethical responsibilities and considering the heinous Israeli-American aggression against the Gaza Strip, characterized by daily massacres and genocidal acts, and in response to the demands of the Yemeni people and the aspirations of free nations to aid our oppressed brethren in Gaza, General Sarea said in a statement..

The statement added that the Yemeni Armed Forces declare their intention to target all types of ships as follows:

1. Ships carrying the flag of the Zionist entity.
2. Ships operated by Israeli companies.
3. Ships owned by Israeli companies.

According to the statement, the Yemeni Armed Forces also call upon all countries of the world to:

A. Withdraw their citizens working within the crews of these ships.
B. Avoid shipping goods aboard these ships or engaging in transactions with them.
C. Notify your vessels to stay away from these ships.

Leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement Abdul Malik Badreddine Al-Houthi on Tuesday announced that Yemeni forces would intensify attacks on Israeli targets in occupied Palestine, stating intention to target Israeli ships in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

The Yemeni Armed Forces announced the launch of multiple ballistic missiles targeting strategic locations of the Zionist entity in the southern part of the occupied territories. The strikes included military targets in the Um Al-Rashrash area, ‘Eilat’.

November 19, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | Leave a comment

Yemeni naval forces seize Israeli-linked vessel

The Cradle | November 19, 2023

Fifty-two crew members on an Israeli-linked ship in the Red Sea were detained by Yemeni naval forces who intercepted and seized the vessel on 19 October, sources told Al-Mayadeen.

An official Yemeni source confirmed to the outlet that the news is true. 

Saudi media also reported that Yemeni forces seized the Israeli-linked Galaxy Leader vessel. According to Hebrew media reports, the ship is owned by a British company owned by Israeli businessman Abraham Unger, who goes by the name ‘Rami.’

In an official statement, the Israeli army described the incident as “very serious” and clarified that the ship was not Israeli:

“The ship departed from Turkiye on its way to India, staffed by civilians of various nationalities, not including Israelis.”

The Yemeni army is expected to release a statement later on Sunday.

Yemen’s Armed Forces, allied with the Ansarallah resistance movement, had announced earlier in a statement on 19 November that they would target all vessels associated with Israel in the Red Sea. 

“To provide relief to our oppressed people in Gaza,” the armed forces announced, “they will target … ships carrying the flag of the Zionist entity, ships operated by Israeli companies, ships owned by Israeli companies.” 

The Yemeni statement also calls on “all countries of the world to withdraw citizens working on the crews of these ships,” to “avoid shipping on or handling these vessels,” and to “inform ships to stay away from these vessels.” 

This is not the first statement issued by Ansarallah and the Yemeni army vowing to attack Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea. 

Less than one week ago, Ansarallah leader Abdel Malik al-Houthi said that “eyes are open,” and vowed to “monitor and locate Israeli ships in the Red Sea.” 

“We will continue to plan for additional operations. We can’t stop,” he said, adding that “we will not hesitate to target” Israeli-linked ships. 

The Yemeni resistance has been carrying out frequent drone and missile attacks against Israel, which it began last month in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. 

In response, the Israeli army has deployed warships to the Red Sea. 

According to Hebrew media reports, some of these attacks have been intercepted by Saudi Arabia and Jordan. 

Nonetheless, Yemen has vowed to continue attacking Israel. 

The Prime Minister of Yemen’s National Salvation Government (NSG), Abdulaziz bin Habtour, said on 10 November that Sanaa will continue to conduct attacks on Israel for as long as the ethnic cleansing campaign of Gaza continues.

Bin Habtour added that the attacks will continue despite possible setbacks to peace talks with the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, as fighting for Palestine is “a sacred duty for every Muslim and Arab.”

The Sanaa government has also decided to ban all US-made goods and those produced by international companies that support Israel’s occupation of Palestine.  

November 19, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Activating the Genocide Convention

By Craig Murray | November 13, 2023

There are 149 states party to the Genocide Convention. Every one of them has the right to call out the genocide in progress in Gaza and report it to the United Nations. In the event that another state party disputes the claim of genocide – and Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom are all states party – then the International Court of Justice is required to adjudicate on “the responsibility of a State for genocide”.

These are the relevant articles of the genocide convention:

Article VIII
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.

Article IX
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.

Note that here “parties to the dispute” means the states disputing the facts of genocide, not the parties to the genocide/conflict. Any single state party is able to invoke the Convention.

There is no doubt that Israel’s actions amount to genocide. Numerous international law experts have said so and genocidal intent has been directly expressed by numerous Israeli ministers, generals and public officials.

This is the definition of genocide in international law, from the Genocide Convention:

Article II
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

I can see no room to doubt whatsoever that Israel’s current campaign of bombing of civilians and of the deprivation of food, water and other necessities of life to Palestinians amounts to genocide under articles II a), b) and c).

It is also worth considering Articles III and IV:

Article III
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

Article IV
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

There is, at the very least, a strong prima facie case that the actions of the United States and United Kingdom and others, in openly providing direct military support to be used in genocide, are complicity in genocide. The point of Article IV is that individuals are responsible, not just states. So Netanyahu, Biden and Sunak bear individual responsibility. So, indeed, do all those who have been calling for the destruction of the Palestinians.

It is very definitely worth activating the Genocide Convention. A judgement of the International Court of Justice that Israel is guilty of genocide would have an extraordinary diplomatic effect and would cause domestic difficulties in the UK and even in the US in continuing to subsidise and arm Israel. The International Court of Justice is the most respected of international institutions; while the United States has repudiated its compulsory jurisdiction, the United Kingdom has not and the EU positively accepts it.

If the International Court of Justice makes a determination of genocide, then the International Criminal Court does not have to determine that genocide has happened. This is important because unlike the august and independent ICJ, the ICC is very much a western government puppet institution which will wiggle out of action if it can. But a determination of the ICJ of genocide and of complicity in genocide would reduce the ICC’s task to determining which individuals bear the responsibility. That is a prospect which can indeed alter the calculations of politicians.

It is also the fact that a reference for genocide would force the western media to address the issue and use the term, rather than just pump out propaganda about Hamas fighting bases in hospitals. Furthermore a judgement from the ICJ would automatically trigger a reference to the United Nations General Assembly – crucially not to the western-vetoed Security Council.

All this begs the question of why no state has yet invoked the Genocide Convention. This is especially remarkable as Palestine is one of the 149 states party to the Genocide Convention, and for this purpose would have standing before both the UN and the ICJ.

I am afraid the question of why Palestine has not invoked the Genocide Convention takes us somewhere very dark. Anyone who, like George Galloway and myself, cut their political teeth in left-wing politics of Dundee of the 1970s has (long story) their experience and contacts with Fatah, and my sympathies have always very much lain with Fatah rather than Hamas. They still do, with the aspiration for a democratic, secular Palestine. It is Fatah who occupy the Palestinian seat at the United Nations, and the decision for Palestine to call into play the Genocide Convention lies with Mahmoud Abbas.

It is more and more difficult daily to support Abbas. He seems extraordinarily passive, and the suspicion that he is more concerned with refighting the Palestinian civil war than with resisting the genocide is impossible to shake. By invoking the Genocide Convention he could put himself and Fatah back at the centre of the narrative. But he does nothing. I do not want to believe that corruption and a Blinken promise of inheriting Gaza are Mahmoud’s motivators. But at the moment, I cannot grab on to any other explanation to believe in.

Any one of the 139 states party could invoke the Genocide Convention against Israel and its co-conspirators. Those states include Iran, Russia, Libya, Malaysia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Afghanistan, Cuba, Ireland, Iceland, Jordan, South Africa, Turkey and Qatar. But not one of these states has called out the genocide. Why?

It is not because the Genocide Convention is a dead letter. It is not. It was invoked against Serbia by Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ICJ ruled against Serbia with regard to the massacre at Srebrenica. This fed directly through to ICC prosecutions.

Some states may simply not have thought of it. For Arab states in particular, the fact that Palestine itself has not invoked the Genocide Convention may provide an excuse. EU states can hide behind bloc unanimity.

But I am afraid that the truth is that no state cares sufficiently about the thousands of Palestinian children already killed and thousands more who will shortly be killed, to introduce another factor of hostility in their relationship with the United States. Just as at this weekend’s summit in Saudi Arabia, where Islamic countries could not agree an oil and gas boycott of Israel, the truth is that those in power really do not care about a genocide in Gaza. They care about their own interests.

It just needs one state to invoke the Genocide Convention and change the narrative and the international dynamic. That will only happen through the power of the people in pressing the idea on their governments. This is where everybody can do a little something to add to the pressure. Please do what you can.

Hat tip to the indefatigable Sam Husseini who has been pressing the Genocide Convention on the White House.

November 18, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Calls to ‘Stop the Shots’ Intensify

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | November 15, 2023

Activist groups, medical organizations and doctors around the globe are launching initiatives seeking to halt the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines or to have them pulled from the market altogether.

These efforts, including educational campaigns, legal challenges and petitions, cite the high number of adverse events and revelations regarding vaccine contamination as factors that may lead to the vaccines being recalled.

Several individuals involved with these initiatives told The Defender their efforts are beginning to make a noticeable difference — but that more work is needed.

“People are waking up to the fact that they were misled, and they are starting to demand answers from their elected officials and the safety and regulatory agencies that they trusted with the health of their children, but who lied to them,” said Janci Lindsay, Ph.D., director of toxicology and molecular biology for Toxicology Support Services and co-founder of the We The People 50 — Recall The Shots campaign.

Bradford Geyer, an attorney with the FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation, which launched the We The People 50 initiative, told The Defender the response to the initiative has been supportive.

“Our movement is clearly growing, as Americans and citizens of other nations realize what governments and Big Pharma have done to them.”

COVID vaccines ‘must be stopped for the sake of humanity’

In the U.S., the We The People 50 initiative is calling for “the recall of the COVID-19 genetic ‘vaccines’ due to the large numbers of deaths, disabilities, and unreasonable harm they pose.”

The initiative is made up of doctors, scientists, attorneys, advocates, authors, researchers, victims and concerned citizens, according to Lindsay, who said the group’s mission is to save lives and protect the most vulnerable groups from these dangerous genetic vaccines.

“We are potentially contaminating the entire human gene pool with these reckless technologies, with almost zero oversight as to their consequences to humans, animals and the environment,” Lindsay said. “It must be stopped for the sake of humanity.”

The campaign was inspired by Dr. John Witcher, a Mississippi doctor who advocated for the recall of the COVID-19 vaccines in his state. Witcher, a former gubernatorial candidate in Mississippi, told The Defender his efforts began in September 2021, when he launched Mississippi Against Mandates.

Initially, the movement organized protests and rallies and a public awareness campaign, opposing vaccine mandates. “Our primary focus was to stop the mandates and be cautious of the shots,” Witcher said.

According to Witcher, a turning point came in late October 2021, when Dr. Peter McCullough spoke at a roundtable organized by the Mississippi group, during which he said the COVID-19 vaccines were unsafe for humans.

After that, Witcher said, the group “turned not just against the mandates but against the shots.”

In February, what was previously a statewide effort became a national initiative, following a meeting at the Mississippi Capitol where McCullough and other doctors, and several vaccine-injured individuals and their family members, spoke.

The We The People 50 campaign was spun off of the February event, Witcher said.

Lindsay said that based on Witcher’s efforts, she connected with Carolyn Blakeman, media director and task force coordinator of the FormerFedsGroup, to launch the campaign nationwide, seeking to “take this strategy of bringing a small group of testifying experts from all health disciplines, as well as vaccine-injured, to all 50 states.”

Recent research revealed that a significant percentage of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are contaminated with DNA and bacterial contaminants that can alter the human genome and trigger cancer and other serious conditions. Last month, Health Canada acknowledged the presence of such contamination in COVID-19 vaccines.

Genome integrity, informed consent, medical autonomy among key issues

“We have met with state legislators and with state attorneys and have spoken at multiple county commissioner meetings,” Lindsay said. “[We] helped draft laws around genetic vaccine safety, informed consent, medical autonomy, the right to maintain genome integrity, the right to be free from non-consensual transfection (shedding) and the right to deny coerced or forced medical treatments.”

According to Lindsay, the group “plans to leverage” consumer product protection statutes in several states “to get the shots pulled outright, or at the very least, to force the states to provide true informed consent.”

The initiative also calls into question the legal immunity of vaccine manufacturers under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, on the basis of state consumer protection laws and willful misconduct laws.

Geyer said, “The basis for such action is that these vaccines are contaminated and adulterated and proven to be dangerous and deadly.”

class-action lawsuit filed in California in September on behalf of two remdesivir victims and supported by the FormerFedsGroup is based on similar arguments — namely that Gilead, remdesivir’s distributor, may have violated California laws against using deceptive practices, including the Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

“The end goal is to get these shots pulled out of the consumer product stream and the genetic vaccine platform, banned in its entirety and those who developed, manufactured and administered these shots under false pretext, held accountable,” Lindsay said.

Geyer added, “The ultimate goal of the initiative would be to pressure local and state governments to take action by denying the access of citizens, particularly children, to these gene therapies.”

“We realize that a lot of it’s a political battle,” Witcher said. “We have to get our politicians involved and turn the tide, and certainly we need lawyers involved. So we’re just trying to educate people and to advocate for and protect people.”

AAPS calls for COVID vaccine moratorium: ‘Numerous safety signals’ ignored

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), “a non-partisan professional association of physicians in all types of practices and specialties across the country,” has called for a moratorium on COVID-19 shot mandates and genetic injections.

A March 2023 AAPS statement says: “Informed consent is a bedrock principle of medical ethics, yet millions of people have taken COVID-19 injections under duress,” even though “The long-term effects of the novel mRNA or DNA technology and the lipid nanoparticles involved in their administration … cannot possibly be known.”

“Numerous safety signals, including excess sudden deaths, that would in the past have prompted immediate withdrawal of vaccines or drugs from the market,” have been observed, according to the AAPS.

As a result, the AAPS states that “COVID-19 genetic injections should be withdrawn from the market” and “All mandates, including requirements for school attendance or work, should immediately be withdrawn.”

Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the AAPS, told The Defender that the organization’s call for a moratorium was prompted by the increase in vaccine mandates for uncommon, mild or treatable diseases. She said that “AAPS has always been against mass treatment that does not consider individual patients’ needs and [their] consent.”

Notably, in 2000, the AAPS issued a resolution opposing vaccine mandates, citing the importance of informed consent.

In November 2020, the AAPS said there were “many unknowns” related to the COVID-19 vaccines, including “long-term adverse effects,” adding that treatments like hydroxychloroquine have prevented COVID-19 deaths “without the adverse effects that could occur in vaccinating vast numbers of healthy people.”

When asked why other medical associations have not joined AAPS in calling for a moratorium on the COVID-19 vaccines, Orient cited conflicts of interest and fear of retaliation by government or private stakeholders.

World Council for Health: ‘Collateral damage’ of COVID vaccines unprecedented

Another organization calling for a moratorium on the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines is the World Council for Health (WCH), which last month convened an expert panel that discussed the presence of “cancer-promoting DNA contamination” in the vaccines.

According to the WCH, the panel concluded that “Covid vaccines are contaminated with foreign DNA and … SV40, a cancer-promoting genetic sequence,” and “qualify as GMO (genetically modified organism) products, which require approval in addition to that required for older, more traditional vaccines.”

“Informed consent for these products is impossible as the risks of the products have never been formally and transparently assessed by regulators and are not fully known,” the organization states.

As a result, the WCH called for “An immediate moratorium on these novel genetic ‘vaccines,’” in a statement which, according to Nic Robinson, the organization’s operations manager, was sent to U.K. members of Parliament.

Christof Plothe, D.O., a member of the WCH’s steering committee, told The Defender that “No medical intervention has ever created as much ‘collateral damage’ to the health of the people” as the COVID-19 vaccines.

“We now know that the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 and even dying of COVID-19 increases after each injection,” he said, adding, “In light of the unacceptable DNA plasmid contamination and the undeclared genetic sequences in the Pfizer vials, we have to fear integration of foreign genetic sequences, with unknown consequences.”

As a follow-up to last month’s panel of medical experts, the WCH will organize an expert international legal panel on Nov. 20, according to Robinson.

He added that the WCH has organized country councils, “a key strategic part of our plan to decentralize and inform individuals and communities and push back against centralized power and overreach, including COVID vaccine mandates and lockdowns.”

“The red line has been crossed, and every human being in charge of their distribution, whether in pharma, politics, medical regulatory bodies or the media, now has to say, stop the shots,” Plothe said.

The WCH has previously issued calls for the COVID-19 vaccines to be withdrawn, including in June 2022, based on the release of a WCH report on COVID-19 vaccine-related adverse reactions, and in September 2022, following the release of a peer-reviewed paper on such adverse events.

In June 2021, Dr. Tess Lawrie, co-founder of the WCH, called upon the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to immediately halt the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines, citing a high number of deaths and injuries.

‘Few actions more necessary or noble’ than stopping mRNA COVID vaccines

A group of German doctors has also launched an initiative to end COVID-19 vaccinations — by reaching out to their colleagues in the medical profession.

An open letter authored by German doctors Uta Kristein Haberecht and Monika Grühn, and by Harald Walach, Ph.D., founder of the Change Health Science Institute in Germany and professional research fellow at Kazimieras Simonavicius University in Lithuania, is attempting to alert other doctors about the risks of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The letter states:

“At the beginning of the pandemic, it was quite understandable that there were calls from various quarters to find a vaccine and distribute it quickly. It was assumed that the COVID-19 disease was dangerous to the general population, and that a vaccine could eliminate that danger. Therefore, regulatory hurdles for these substances were set low and potential danger signals were ignored.

“We have gained a great deal of new insights. … The vaccines offer much less protection than was originally anticipated … at the price of far more side effects than had been assumed and that one is willing to accept with other vaccines.”

The letter, which includes a scientific appendix with over 50 scholarly references, discusses concerns about the spike protein’s toxicity and its impact on fertility.

The letter calls for sharing differing scientific opinions and for public agencies and policymakers to conduct accurate surveys, investigations and audits through independent research.

“A dialogue at eye level is crucial for the preservation and maintenance of the medical ethos (Geneva ConventionsNuremberg Code),” the letter adds.

Grühn told The Defender :

“We critical thinkers often keep to ourselves, but many other doctors and healthcare professionals know very little about the dangers of the genetic vaccine platform, while being informed one-sidedly. Often, they do not have the time to do their own investigations.

“It therefore makes sense to approach them in a friendly and clear fashion and provide them with factual information so that they can form their own opinion.”

Walach told The Defender :

“There are now a lot of studies published that show the shots do not prevent infection. They do not prevent serious illness. They do not reduce mortality by any appreciable margin. But they produce many side effects.”

“Given that the benefits are very small to non-existent and the potential problems many, this must be stopped,” he said, adding “The mainstream press has not taken up any of these well-documented facts, and thus this is largely unknown to the public.”

In New Zealand, another doctor is also taking action. Dr. Emanuel Garcia, a psychiatrist who relocated from the U.S., has produced a petition calling upon the country’s government to ban all mRNA-based therapeutics.

According to the petition:

“mRNA therapeutics pose potentially catastrophic dangers; a recent study of the risks of mRNA vaccination shows that it can modify the human genome; many other aspects of mRNA-based therapies are unknown; the human genome is the very genetic blueprint of every individual, defines our health and well-being, and should be an inviolable entity.”

“In the past New Zealand has taken a pioneering position on the use of nuclear arms. We should do so now for mRNA-based interventions,” it states.

Writing on his Substack, Garcia said, “I can think of few actions more necessary or noble for a country to take at this time.”

The Malaysian Council for Health, the Malaysian Alliance for Effective Covid Control, and Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia issued a joint statement on Nov. 7 questioning the continued administration of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The statement references an increase in excess deaths in Malaysia and the contamination of the COVID-19 vaccines, stating that such contamination “has legal implications.” The statement suggests the legal immunity of vaccine manufacturers should “be nullified” on the basis that the contaminants are “undeclared ingredient[s].”

“Malaysian consumers would like to know if the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency … of our health ministry is aware of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine contamination,” the statement says. “As this is both a very serious matter and alarming, the alleged malfeasance may also be a case of assisting and abetting.”

Legal cases worldwide target COVID vaccines

In Australia, attorney Katie Ashby-Koppens is seeking an injunction against Pfizer and Moderna on the basis that they are distributing products — their COVID-19 vaccines — containing GMOs, without a license to do so.

In a recent interview, Ashby-Koppens said, “The allegations are that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are genetically modified organisms by way of definition under the Gene Technology Act in Australia, as they are capable of transferring genetic material.”

“The fact that they are able to transfer genetic material means that those products should have been properly considered by the gene technology regulator in Australia. And they were not,” she added.

In Costa Rica, an ongoing court case will rule on a call to halt COVID-19 vaccines.

In a case filed by Interest of Justice (IOJ) against Costa Rica’s government, the country’s Administrative Contentious Court of Appeals, IOJ argues that authorities “lied” about COVID-19 vaccines being “safe and effective,” claiming they were aware the vaccines are “known to be harmful” and that “death is common.”

A hearing took place on Nov. 9 in which precautionary measures (akin to a temporary injunction) requested by IOJ were denied. However, according to IOJ, the judges appeared sympathetic and “extremely concerned” and granted IOJ the opportunity to submit a new filing, which will lead to a trial.

Experts including Dr. Mike Yeadon, former global head of respiratory diseases for Pfizer and current IOJ chief scientist, and internist Ana Mihalcea, M.D., Ph.D., testified remotely.

In South Africa, a lawsuit filed in January with the Pretoria High Court by three non-profit organizations seeks a moratorium on the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Shabnam Palesa Mohamed is the executive director of Children’s Health Defense Africa and founder of the health advocacy organization Transformative Health Justice, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit. She told The Defender they’ve called for COVID-19 shots to be stopped until a full and independent investigation is conducted into their safety and efficacy.

The lawsuit includes a letter signed by over 100 South African healthcare workers attesting to adverse events they have observed in patients who received the COVID-19 vaccines and references the death of 14-year-old Yamkela Seplan, who developed a severe lump on her arm post-vaccination and subsequently died.

The first part of the case was heard in September and a ruling is pending.

‘We should not lose any time’

Several experts expressed a sense of urgency. Walach told The Defender, “It is feared that the mod-RNA platform will be surreptitiously used for standard vaccines as well.”

“We should not lose any time, as the health and lives of many of our fellow human beings are at stake,” Grühn said. “The aim is to extend this hazardous modRNA technology to many other vaccines.”

In a recent interview, German-Thai microbiologist Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi told The Defender that the present moment represents the best chance we’ve ever had to oppose continued administration of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

“We need to grasp this chance” because of “the knowledge that is now available that these vaccines are condemning humanity to oblivion,” he said, adding they “contain substances that will alter you genetically. You will not be the same human.”

“These are gene-therapeutic preventive medications, and they should be called by their real name and not ‘vaccinations,’” Walach said. “As soon as this becomes clear, people might think twice.”

“The end goal is, of course, total control over us, meaning not only over our finances, but also over our genes,” Bhakdi said.

Experts also called for legal consequences for the agencies and individuals who authorized the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines to the public.

“More is needed. [We] demand that safety signals be investigated promptly and thoroughly, as has been customary and is required by law,” Orient said.

“Politicians and regulators that are responsible for this, and media that created the fear atmosphere that allowed for this to go unnoticed, should answer for this,” Walach said.

“The COVID response violated constitutional rights and medical ethics,” Orient said. “Officials need to be held individually accountable. Emergency powers need to be constrained. We need institutions independent of the medical-industrial-regulatory-censorship complex.”

“Our members and loved ones were grievously mistreated and betrayed by the nation’s public health agencies and they seek accountability and justice,” Geyer said. “Our movement is growing, and U.S. politicians of all stripes will find it increasingly untenable to ignore us. We look forward to the day when the guilty parties are held accountable.”


Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., based in Athens, Greece, is a senior reporter for The Defender and part of the rotation of hosts for CHD.TV’s “Good Morning CHD.”

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

November 16, 2023 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Solidarity and Activism | | Leave a comment

The Westminster Declaration

By Aaron Kheriaty, MD | Human Flourishing | November 15, 2023

Attacks on free speech are advancing globally, not just in the United States. This declaration puts a stake in the ground for a new global free speech movement.

The Westminster Declaration

We write as journalists, artists, authors, activists, technologists, and academics to warn of increasing international censorship that threatens to erode centuries-old democratic norms.

Coming from the left, right, and centre, we are united by our commitment to universal human rights and freedom of speech, and we are all deeply concerned about attempts to label protected speech as ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and other ill-defined terms.

This abuse of these terms has resulted in the censorship of ordinary people, journalists, and dissidents in countries all over the world.

Such interference with the right to free speech suppresses valid discussion about matters of urgent public interest, and undermines the foundational principles of representative democracy.

Across the globe, government actors, social media companies, universities, and NGOs are increasingly working to monitor citizens and rob them of their voices. These large-scale coordinated efforts are sometimes referred to as the ‘Censorship-Industrial Complex.’

This complex often operates through direct government policies. Authorities in India[1] and Turkey[2] have seized the power to remove political content from social media. The legislature in Germany[3] and the Supreme Court in Brazil[4] are criminalising political speech. In other countries, measures such as Ireland’s ‘Hate Speech’ Bill[5], Scotland’s Hate Crime Act[6], the UK’s Online Safety Bill[7], and Australia’s ‘Misinformation’ Bill[8] threaten to severely restrict expression and create a chilling effect.

But the Censorship Industrial Complex operates through more subtle methods. These include visibility filtering, labelling, and manipulation of search engine results. Through deplatforming and flagging, social media censors have already silenced lawful opinions on topics of national and geopolitical importance. They have done so with the full support of ‘disinformation experts’ and ‘fact-checkers’ in the mainstream media, who have abandoned the journalistic values of debate and intellectual inquiry.

As the Twitter Files revealed, tech companies often perform censorial ‘content moderation’ in coordination with government agencies and civil society. Soon, the European Union’s Digital Services Act will formalise this relationship by giving platform data to ‘vetted researchers’ from NGOs and academia, relegating our speech rights to the discretion of these unelected and unaccountable entities.

Some politicians and NGOs[9] are even aiming to target end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram.[10] If end-to-end encryption is broken, we will have no remaining avenues for authentic private conversations in the digital sphere.

Although foreign disinformation between states is a real issue, agencies designed to combat these threats, such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the United States, are increasingly being turned inward against the public. Under the guise of preventing harm and protecting truth, speech is being treated as a permitted activity rather than an inalienable right.

We recognize that words can sometimes cause offence, but we reject the idea that hurt feelings and discomfort, even if acute, are grounds for censorship. Open discourse is the central pillar of a free society, and is essential for holding governments accountable, empowering vulnerable groups, and reducing the risk of tyranny.

Speech protections are not just for views we agree with; we must strenuously protect speech for the views that we most strongly oppose. Only in the public square can these views be heard and properly challenged.

What’s more, time and time again, unpopular opinions and ideas have eventually become conventional wisdom. By labelling certain political or scientific positions as ‘misinformation’ or ‘malinformation,’ our societies risk getting stuck in false paradigms that will rob humanity of hard-earned knowledge and obliterate the possibility of gaining new knowledge. Free speech is our best defence against disinformation.

The attack on speech is not just about distorted rules and regulations – it is a crisis of humanity itself. Every equality and justice campaign in history has relied on an open forum to voice dissent. In countless examples, including the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement, social progress has depended on freedom of expression.

We do not want our children to grow up in a world where they live in fear of speaking their minds. We want them to grow up in a world where their ideas can be expressed, explored and debated openly – a world that the founders of our democracies envisioned when they enshrined free speech into our laws and constitutions.

The US First Amendment is a strong example of how the right to freedom of speech, of the press, and of conscience can be firmly protected under the law. One need not agree with the U.S. on every issue to acknowledge that this is a vital ‘first liberty’ from which all other liberties follow. It is only through free speech that we can denounce violations of our rights and fight for new freedoms.

There also exists a clear and robust international protection for free speech. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)[11] was drafted in 1948 in response to atrocities committed during World War II. Article 19 of the UDHR states, ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’ While there may be a need for governments to regulate some aspects of social media, such as age limits, these regulations should never infringe on the human right to freedom of expression.

As is made clear by Article 19, the corollary of the right to free speech is the right to information. In a democracy, no one has a monopoly over what is considered to be true. Rather, truth must be discovered through dialogue and debate – and we cannot discover truth without allowing for the possibility of error.

Censorship in the name of ‘preserving democracy’ inverts what should be a bottom-up system of representation into a top-down system of ideological control. This censorship is ultimately counter-productive: it sows mistrust, encourages radicalization, and de-legitimizes the democratic process.

In the course of human history, attacks on free speech have been a precursor to attacks on all other liberties. Regimes that eroded free speech have always inevitably weakened and damaged other core democratic structures. In the same fashion, the elites that push for censorship today are also undermining democracy. What has changed though, is the broad scale and technological tools through which censorship can be enacted.

We believe that free speech is essential for ensuring our safety from state abuses of power – abuses that have historically posed a far greater threat than the words of lone individuals or even organised groups. For the sake of human welfare and flourishing, we make the following 3 calls to action.

  • We call on governments and international organisations to fulfill their responsibilities to the people and to uphold Article 19 of the UDHR.
  • We call on tech corporations to undertake to protect the digital public square as defined in Article 19 of the UDHR and refrain from politically motivated censorship, the censorship of dissenting voices, and censorship of political opinion.
  • And finally, we call on the general public to join us in the fight to preserve the people’s democratic rights. Legislative changes are not enough. We must also build an atmosphere of free speech from the ground up by rejecting the climate of intolerance that encourages self-censorship and that creates unnecessary personal strife for many. Instead of fear and dogmatism, we must embrace inquiry and debate.

We stand for your right to ask questions. Heated arguments, even those that may cause distress, are far better than no arguments at all.

Censorship robs us of the richness of life itself. Free speech is the foundation for creating a life of meaning and a thriving humanity – through art, poetry, drama, story, philosophy, song, and more.

This declaration was the result of an initial meeting of free speech champions from around the world who met in Westminster, London, at the end of June 2023. As signatories of this statement, we have fundamental political and ideological disagreements. However, it is only by coming together that we will defeat the encroaching forces of censorship so that we can maintain our ability to openly debate and challenge one another. It is in the spirit of difference and debate that we sign the Westminster Declaration.

Signatories

  • Matt Taibbi, Journalist, USA
  • Michael Shellenberger, Public, USA
  • Jonathan Haidt, Social Psychologist, NYU, USA
  • John McWhorter, Linguist, Columbia, Author, USA
  • Steven Pinker, Psychologist, Harvard, USA
  • Julian Assange, Editor, Founder of Wikileaks, Australia
  • Tim Robbins, Actor, Filmmaker, USA
  • Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law, NYLS, USA
  • Glenn Loury, Economist, USA
  • Richard Dawkins, Biologist, UK
  • John Cleese, Comedian, Acrobat, UK
  • Slavoj Žižek, Philosopher, Author, Slovenia
  • Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University, US
  • Oliver Stone, Filmmaker, USA
  • Edward Snowden, Whistleblower, USA
  • Greg Lukianoff, President and CEO Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, USA
  • Stella Assange, Campaigner, UK
  • Glenn Greenwald, Journalist, USA
  • Claire Fox, Founder of the Academy of Ideas, UK
  • Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Psychologist, Author, Canada
  • Bari Weiss, Journalist, USA
  • Walter Kirn, Author, USA
  • Peter Hitchens, Author, Journalist, UK
  • Niall Ferguson, Historian, Stanford, UK
  • Matt Ridley, Journalist, Author, UK
  • Melissa Chen, Journalist, Spectator, Singapore/USA
  • Yanis Varoufakis, Economist, Greece
  • Peter Boghossian, Philosopher, Founding Faculty Fellow, University of Austin, USA
  • Michael Shermer, Science Writer, USA
  • Alan Sokal, Professor of Mathematics, UCL, UK
  • Sunetra Gupta, Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology, Oxford, UK
  • Jay Bhattacharya, Professor, Stanford, USA
  • Martin Kulldorff, Professor of Medicine (on leave), Harvard, USA
  • Aaron Kheiriaty, Psychiatrist, Author, USA
  • Chris Hedges, Journalist, Author, USA
  • Lee Fang, Independent Journalist, USA
  • Alex Gutentag, Journalist, USA
  • Iain McGilchrist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher, UK
  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Human Rights Activist, Author, Netherlands
  • Konstantin Kisin, Author, UK
  • Leighton Woodhouse, Public, USA
  • Andrew Lowenthal, liber-net, Australia
  • Aaron Mate, Journalist, USA
  • Izabella Kaminska, Journalist, The Blind Spot, UK
  • Nina Power, Writer, UK
  • Kmele Foster, Journalist, Media Entrepreneur, USA
  • Toby Young, Journalist, Free Speech Union, UK
  • Winston Marshall, Journalist, The Spectator, UK
  • Jacob Siegel, Tablet, USA/Israel
  • Ulrike Guerot, Founder of European Democracy Lab, Germany
  • Heather E. Heying, Evolutionary Biologist, USA
  • Bret Weinstein, Evolutionary Biologist, USA
  • Martina Pastorelli, Independent Journalist, Italy
  • Leandro Narloch, Independent Journalist, Brazil
  • Ana Henkel, Independent Journalist, Brazil
  • Mia Ashton, Journalist, Canada
  • Micha Narberhaus, The Protopia Lab, Spain/Germany
  • Alex Sheridan, Free Speech Ireland
  • Ben Scallan, Gript Media, Ireland
  • Thomas Fazi, Independent Journalist, Italy
  • Jean F. Queralt, Technologist, Founder @ The IO Foundation, Malaysia/Spain
  • Phil Shaw, Campaigner, Operation People, New Zealand
  • Jeremy Hildreth, Independent, UK
  • Craig Snider, Independent, USA
  • Eve Kay, TV Producer, UK
  • Helen Joyce, Journalist, UK
  • Dietrich Brüggemann, Filmmaker, Germany
  • Adam B. Coleman, Founder of Wrong Speak Publishing, USA
  • Helen Pluckrose, Author, UK
  • Michael Nayna, Filmmaker, Australia
  • Paul Rossi, Educator, Vertex Partnership Academics, USA
  • Juan Carlos Girauta, Politician, Spain
  • Andrew Neish, KC, UK
  • Steven Berkoff, Actor, Playright, UK
  • Patrick Hughes, Artist, UK
  • Adam Creighton, Journalist, Australia
  • Julia Hartley-Brewer, Journalist, UK
  • Robert Cibis, Filmmaker, Germany
  • Piers Robinson, Organization for Propaganda Studies, UK
  • Dirk Pohlmann, Journalist, Germany
  • Mathias Bröckers, Author, Journalist, Germany
  • Kira Phillips, Documentary Filmmaker, UK
  • Diane Atkinson, Historian, Biographer, UK
  • Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics, Birkbeck, University of Buckingham, Canada
  • Laura Dodsworth, Journalist and Author, UK
  • Nellie Bowles, Journalist, USA
  • Andrew Tettenborn, Professor of Law, Swansea University,  UK
  • Julius Grower, Fellow, St. Hugh’s College, UK
  • Nick Dixon, Comedian, UK
  • Dominic Frisby, Comedian, UK
  • James Orr, Associate Professor, University of Cambridge, UK
  • Brendan O’Neill, Journalist, spiked, UK
  • Jan Jekielek, Journalist, Canada
  • Andrew Roberts, Historian, UK
  • Robert Tombs, Historian, UK
  • Ben Schwarz, Journalist, USA
  • Xavier Azalbert, Investigative Scientific Journalist, France
  • Doug Stokes, International Relations Professor, University of Exeter, UK
  • James Allan, Professor of Law, University of Queensland, UK
  • David McGrogan, Professor of Law, Northumbria University, UK
  • Jacob Mchangama, Author, Denmark
  • Nigel Biggar, Chairman, Free Speech Union, UK
  • David Goodhart, Journalist, Author, UK
  • Catherine Austin Fitts, The Solari Report, Netherlands
  • Matt Goodwin, Politics Professor, University of Kent, UK
  • Alan Miller, Together Association, UK
  • Catherine Liu, Cultural Theorist, Author, USA
  • Stefan Millius, Journalist, Switzerland
  • Philip Hamburger, Professor of Law, Columbia, USA
  • Andrew Doyle, Author and journalist, UK
  • Rueben Kirkham, Co-Director, Free Speech Union of Australia, Australia
  • Jeffrey Tucker, Author, USA
  • Sarah Gon, Director, Free Speech Union, South Africa
  • Dara Macdonald, Co-Director, Free Speech Union, Australia
  • Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive, Free Speech Union, New Zealand
  • David Zweig, Journalist, Author, USA
  • Juan Soto Ivars, Author, Spain
  • Colin Wright, Evolutionary Biologist, USA
  • Gad Saad, Professor, Evolutionary Behavioral Scientist, Author, Canada
  • Robert W. Malone, MD, MS, USA
  • Jill Glasspool-Malone, PhD., USA
  • Jordi Pigem, Philosopher, Author, Spain
  • Holly Lawford-Smith, Associate Professor in Political Philosophy, University of Melbourne, Australia
  • Michele Santoro, Journalist, TV Host, Presenter, Italy
  • Dr. James Smith, Podcaster, Literature Scholar, RHUL, UK
  • Francis Foster, Comedian, UK
  • Coleman Hughes, Writer, Podcaster, USA
  • Marco Bassani, Political Theorist, Historian, Milan University, Italy
  • Isabella Loiodice, Professor of Comparative Public Law, University of Bari, Italy
  • Luca Ricolfi, Professor, Sociologist, Turin University, Italy
  • Marcello Foa, Journalist, Former President of Rai, Italy
  • Andrea Zhok, Philosopher, University of Milan, Italy
  • Paolo Cesaretti, Professor of Byzantine Civilization, University of Bergamo, Italy
  • Alberto Contri, Mass Media Expert, Italy
  • Carlo Lottieri, Philosopher, University of Verona, Italy
  • Alessandro Di Battista, Political Activist, Writer, Italy
  • Paola Mastrocola, Writer, Italy
  • Carlo Freccero, Television Author, Media Expert, Italy
  • Giorgio Bianchi, Independent Journalist, Italy
  • Nello Preterossi, Professor, University of Salerno, Scientific Director of the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies, Italy
  • Efrat Fenigson, Journalist, Podcaster, Israel
  • Eli Vieira, Journalist, Genetic Biologist, Brazil
  • Stephen Moore, Author and Analyst, Canada

Footnotes

  1. Pahwa, Nitish. ‘Twitter Blocked a Country.’ Slate Magazine, 1 Apr. 2023, slate.com/technology/2023/04/twitter-blocked-pakistan-india-modi-musk-khalistan-gandhi.html.
  2. Stein, Perry. ‘Twitter Says It Will Restrict Access to Some Tweets before Turkey’s Election.’ The Washington Post, 15 May 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/13/turkey-twitter-musk-erdogan/.
  3. Hänel, Lisa. ‘Germany criminalizes denying war crimes, genocide.’ Deutsche Welle, 25 Nov. 2022, https://www.dw.com/en/germany-criminalizes-denying-war-crimes-genocide/a-63834791
  4. Savarese, Mauricio, and Joshua Goodman. ‘Crusading Judge Tests Boundaries of Free Speech in Brazil.’ AP News, 26 Jan. 2023, apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-government-af5987e833a681e6f056fe63789ca375.
  5. Nanu, Maighna. ‘Irish People Could Be Jailed for “Hate Speech”, Critics of Proposed Law Warn.’ The Telegraph, 17 June 2023, www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/1  7/irish-people-jailed-hate-speech-new-law/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_psc_ppc_us_news_dsa_generalnews.
  6. The Economist Newspaper. (n.d.). Scotland’s new hate crime act will have a chilling effect on free speech. The Economist. https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2021/11/08/scotlands-new-hate-crime-act-will-have-a-chilling-effect-on-free-speech
  7. Lomas, Natasha. ‘Security Researchers Latest to Blast UK’s Online Safety Bill as Encryption Risk.’ TechCrunch, 5 July 2023, techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/uk-online-safety-bill-risks-e2ee/.
  8. Al-Nashar, Nabil. ‘Millions of Dollars in Fines to Punish Online Misinformation under New Draft Bill.’ ABC News, 25 June 2023, www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-25/fines-to-punish-online-misinformation-under-new-draft-bill/102521500.
  9. ‘Cryptochat.’ Meedanmeedan.com/project/cryptochat. Accessed 8 July 2023.
  10. Lomas, Natasha.’Security Researchers Latest to Blast UK’s Online Safety Bill as Encryption Risk.’ TechCrunch, 5 July 2023, techcrunch.com/2023/07/05/uk-online-safety-bill-risks-e2ee/.
  11. United Nations General Assembly. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). New York: United Nations General Assembly, 1948.

Contact us.

Interested in learning more on how you can support free speech around the globe? Please send us a message (click on link and scroll to the bottom).

November 16, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism, Timeless or most popular | | Leave a comment