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Protesters shut down UK arms factories over Gaza war complicity

Press TV – March 20, 2024

In a display of solidarity with Palestinians, hundreds of workers and protesters have shut down arms factories across England and Scotland to condemn the UK’s complicity in the Israeli regime’s war of aggression in Gaza.

The factories, which produce components for F-35 fighter jets, are accused of shoring up the Israeli regime’s military offensive in Gaza.

Under the banner “Workers for a Free Palestine,” a diverse coalition of individuals from various unions and sectors including health, education, hospitality, academia, and the arts, launched the protests on Wednesday.

Activists aimed to disrupt the supply chain of arms to Israel and denounce the UK’s complicity in the ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

GE Aviation Systems in Cheltenham and Leonardo UK in Edinburgh were among the targeted sites where components for the F-35 jets are manufactured.

The protesters vowed to continue their protest actions for a month, demanding an immediate cessation of arms sales to Israel and advocating for a permanent ceasefire.

The decision to blockade the arms factories was prompted by Israel’s impending invasion of Rafah, which the United Nations and other international organizations have warned would have catastrophic consequences for Gaza’s population.

Unionists have called on workers across the UK to challenge their government’s military support for the Israeli regime.

“We’re demanding our government immediately halt arms supplies to Israel before it launches this offensive in Rafah using British-made bombs. But we are not waiting for this genocide-appeasing prime minister to act,” Zad, a union member, said in a press release.

This isn’t the first time such protests have occurred.

In December, similar blockades targeted four other arms factories across the UK. Despite assurances from the UK government that it hasn’t supplied lethal military equipment to Israel since October, evidence suggests otherwise.

Affidavits filed at the High Court revealed ongoing export licenses and pending applications for equipment likely to be used in offensive operations in Gaza.

Furthermore, the UK Ministry of Defence disclosed that Israeli warplanes have been permitted to take off from and land in the UK during the Gaza war, raising concerns about Britain’s involvement in facilitating Israeli atrocities.

March 20, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Physicians Describe ‘Most Appalling Atrocities’ in Gaza

By Kyle Anzalone and Will Porter | The Libertarian Institute | March 20, 2024

A group of four critical-care doctors who were recently in Gaza spoke on a UN panel about the horrors they witnessed in the besieged Strip. The doctors described multiple war crimes, horrendous injuries to children, kids dying of treatable wounds, and a shortage of supplies so severe that young patients die on the floors of hospitals without anesthetic to ease their suffering.

Addressing the UN on Tuesday, four physicians from France, the US, and Britain described the dire conditions in Gaza. “I saw the most appalling atrocities, and I saw things that I never would have expected to have seen in any healthcare setting,” Dr. Nick Maynard told the panel.

Maynard said that Israeli forces were bombing Gaza indiscriminately and intentionally attacking healthcare facilities, noting that some media outlets had uncritically repeated Tel Aviv’s assertion that it was carefully targeting Hamas. “I want to just dispel some of the narratives coming from the Israelis, [and] from some of the media,” which claimed the bombs were “only targeting Hamas.”

“I can certainly bear witness, as can any medic who’s been on the ground in Gaza in recent months, [and] dispel that notion with absolute certainty,” he continued. “There is mass indiscriminate bombing killing many, many thousands of civilians and a very clear targeting of healthcare facilities and healthcare workers.”

Maynard’s first-hand account is backed by Israeli and US sources. The White House has known for several months that Tel Aviv is bombing targets in Gaza without “solid intelligence” indicating any military value. President Biden himself previously described the Israeli onslaught as “indiscriminate,” while the Tel Aviv-based +972 Magazine detailed Israel’s intentional strikes on civilian “power targets” in what it dubbed an “assassination factory.”

Dr. Zaher Sahloul explained the toll the indiscriminate bombing has taken on the civilians in Gaza. “The number of children killed is 13,000 or so or more. Which means, one out of 100 children in Gaza has been killed and this is an astronomical number; the equivalent of that in the US would be half a million children,” he said.

“Of the 70,000 people who were injured, half of them have moderate to severe injuries. That means they will have some type of disability for the rest of their lives,” Sahloul continued before adding the numbers are likely an undercount.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad stated he was providing care to wounded Palestinians at the Nassar Hospital in Khan Younis before Israeli forces surrounded, raided, and disabled the medical center. He said aid could not enter the Strip and that doctors did not have the medicines needed to treat patients.

Extreme supply shortages have forced doctors to make “impossible decisions” at Gaza’s overwhelmed healthcare facilities, Dr. Amber Alayyan told the UN panel. Hospital officials “have to choose between whether to fully stock the operating theater, ICU, or emergency room.” She continued, “This is where you have doctors faced with horrific decisions of having to intubate and amputate children and adults without anesthetics in emergency rooms. Part of the reason for this is the lack of medications.”

At times, shortages are so severe that hospitals do not have morphine or antibiotics while doctors rewash surgical gloves.

Maynard explained the impact of the limited aid for one Palestinian girl. “One child that I’ll never forget had burned so bad you could see her facial bones. We knew there was no chance of her surviving that,” he said. “But there was no morphine to give her. So, not only was she going to die, but she would die in agony.”

The doctor continued, “And what made it even worse was that there was nowhere for her to go and die, so she was just left on the floor of the emergency department to die. And that’s just one story; we’ve all seen multiple stories like that.”

Israel has imposed tight restrictions on aid deliveries into Gaza since October 7. While the Biden administration claims it is pressuring Tel Aviv to ease its blockade, fewer than 100 aid trucks have entered Gaza each day in recent weeks – down from 200 in January and 500 in September. The White House has refused to use its considerable leverage over Tel Aviv to persuade Israel to allow more aid into the Strip and has declined to condition future US military aid on that request.

The physicians explained that Washington’s efforts to relieve the humanitarian crisis would be ineffective, saying the real issue was distribution problems that could only be solved with an end to the fighting. Additionally, they pointed to multiple Israeli attacks on aid deliveries in Gaza, including a February 29 massacre that left more than 100 Palestinians dead.

Dr. Maynard went on to warn that an attack on Rafah would have devastating consequences for the 1.5 million people in the city. “It’ll be apocalyptic, really, the number of deaths that we’re going to see,” he said. “And of course, as we’re seeing, they’ll be told to evacuate and move somewhere safe, and there is, as we’ve heard, there is nowhere safe for them to go.”

March 20, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, Video, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

South Africa says Israel’s attack on Gaza is undermining the ICJ

MEMO | March 20, 2024

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor accused Israel yesterday of setting a precedent in defying the decisions of the International Court of Justice, the highest court in the UN also known as the World Court, and insisted again that Gaza is witnessing a deliberate “starvation” campaign.

South Africa took Israel to the ICJ in December, accusing it of committing genocide in the military offensive it has been waging since October. Pretoria’s move angered Israel and was condemned by the US.

Pandor pointed out that Israel has defied the ICJ’s January ruling which ordered the occupation state to do everything in its power to prevent genocide. Earlier this month, Pretoria asked the ICJ to impose “provisional measures” to put an end to the “widespread starvation” occurring as a result of Israel’s military attack in Gaza.

Pandor made her comments at a symposium at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace during a visit to Washington DC. “The provisional measures have been entirely ignored by Israel,” she warned. “We’re seeing mass starvation now and famine before our very eyes. I think we, as humanity, need to look at ourselves in horror and dismay and to be really worried that we have set an example.”

The minister noted that Israel’s actions may be interpreted by other nations that they have a licence to do what they want and will not be stopped.

She added that South Africa’s post-apartheid democracy, in going through international institutions on this issue, was “merely practicing what is preached to us every day” by the West. “The ICJ has not been respected. And the day that an African disrespects [the court] I hope we don’t go to that leader and say ‘Listen, you’re out of bounds; because you’re an African, we expect you to obey’.”

South Africa once again petitioned the court in The Hague to order measures for Israel to stop “widespread starvation” due to its attack on Gaza.

Israel denounced the petition, describing it arrogantly as “morally repugnant” and noting initiatives it is taking, including suspending aggression for humanitarian reasons.

A food security assessment backed by the UN has found that Gaza faces imminent famine, with about 1.1 million people, or nearly half of the population, suffering from “catastrophic” hunger.

March 20, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

The Principled Cannot Convince the Irrational

By Kym Robinson | The Libertarian Institute | March 20, 2024

No matter how brutal an event, there will be those who can justify, rationalize, or spin a positive narrative. Real and imagined injustices inspire reactions that lead to more injustice, creating a spiral of revenge. Or a group can decide that it is superior, righteous by default, and has the right to claim territory in order to thrive. Outside observers can grapple with favoring one party over others, claiming that it was a “lesser evil.” Despite any pretense or deceptions, most violent actors do the irrationally vile for little reason other than self service or with inhuman distance. Trying to argue against such irrationality with reason and rationality can be a fool’s errand. Decency and moral dignity are seldom in consideration for those who would murder on a large scale. This is the prevailing predicament for those who oppose war and injustice with principles, trying to find compassion and empathy within those who appear callous, indifferent, or even deranged.

Despite this, we often argue and appeal with reason to those who may not see the world as we do. They may understand it differently, seeking a particular utopia or a piece of the imperial pie for themselves. They do not care about how many “eggs are broken” to achieve such an omelette. So how do we find common ground?

It seems that it is only after the fact that many of the killers and their masters come to understand the demented business that they made possible; rarely do many protest and object early on. It was only decades afterwards when Robert McNamara exhibited a degree of remorse, or years later when veterans may experience moral injury that leads them to challenge their original mission. Smedley Butler’s words are often cited by anti-imperialists, though he is an example of the cynical veteran, waiting until after he served his warmasters heroically for decades to write a book about his deeds which made their imperialism possible at all. George W. Bush paints portraits of his victims while in retirement, seemingly delusional with his legacy.

Those labelled conscientious objectors or “draft dodgers” tend to be viewed as cowards, ridiculed because they would not join the brave (nearly always men) who march into the meat grinder of war. In 1918, Reverend John Kovalsky and three other men were attacked by a mob of around three hundred in the town of Christopher, Illinois. The mob violently tarred and feathered the four men, and the reverend was forced to kiss the American flag because of disloyal language. Despite being fined by law enforcement, a mob saw it fit to humiliate and punish the men for disloyalty. The four disloyal men needed to show fidelity to a government that was waging war for human rights and free expression; because the four challenged the war and government with words, both the law and a mob punished them.

“The country was in peril; he was jeopardising his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.”- Joseph Heller, Catch 22

Such acts of mob violence are often looked back on as moments of group insanity. Yet time and time again the world over we see such displays of unreason and violence tear away individual rights. The mob could be heard squealing “Do the right thing” during the COVID madness, attacking those who breached curfew, who remained unmasked, or who refused a vaccination. The term Mass Formation Psychosis began floating around the internet whenever such critical dissent was not censored. In time of war it is also apparent, even if the war is not widely supported or understood. There will be elements that lean into the legitimacy of power and authority, even if they claim to be anti-power and against authority. There is nothing rational about such mobbery; it is crude and obscene, but seemingly ‘normal’ people can fall into such a frenzy.

Those who oppose the wars with consistency may notice the tourists of the cause who pick and choose their moments, depending on who is waging the war and whether it’s politically expedient or profitable to be for or against. The hypocrisy is only obvious to the principled because inconsistency can’t be used against those who lack any. They are political animals and opportunists who come and go as they please and will betray anyone. During the Cultural Revolution in China, millions of idiotically ideological youths did the deadly bidding of cunning political purists who were able to whip them into a frenzy. These mobs of youth would tear powerful party officials and elites from their positions of rule without fear, throwing China into a sort of civil war as irrationality purged the party and nation under the guise of some form of socialist purification. Millions died. As confusing as events were, and as uncertain as the victims were in the lead up of any “guilt,” the killers were certain (even if they were uncertain) as to why they should be certain at all. They killed regardless.

Now we see those who were against one war support another while wanting to prevent further war elsewhere, but are eager to make war in another spot. Outside of those who have particular geopolitical or strategic reasoning are those who claim to be antiwar in times when it suits them to claim as such. In arguing for a military action, they do not have to convince the principally antiwar; those with such consistent views are only useful when it suits them. They only need to convince themselves, their allies, and those who have no principles but think they do. Those that have no principles will reveal the truth when irrationality emerges, when with the pressure of crisis they can help fill the mob. Most can sit with a straight face and claim that they would not have been in the tarring mob in the town of Christopher, Illinois or a murderous goon in the Red Guard, yet most people have no proof otherwise in their life.

Principles only matter when they require courage. The political animal seldom has any courage or dignity; it’s how they survive and thrive. Those who lack principles may not have the ambitions of the political class but they certainly will follow them. That is how we have moments in history like the Cultural Revolution, wars that fell out of favor once attrition emerged, and the policies and mob mentality reaction to the COVID virus that infected the minds of too many. It’s in such moments that reason and rational discourse give way to emotions fuelled by lies, half truths, and fears. If you add in the bigotry of collectivism, then you have a tendency to err in the direction of a conclusion that generally leads to mass murder or injustice. Once the victims are buried, the mob and political animals move on, wiping the injustice and irrationality from their minds. From there it’s “ancient history” to be forgotten, time to let “bygones be bygones,” and so on; the lack of reflection satisfies the return to reason inside ones mind.

Albert Camus once said that “the purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” That may be true for those writers who seek to challenge said civilization and by presenting it with a mirror to see its self upon. There are also those who write with such splendid prose only to satiate putrid intentions or to cover up the true nature of that which they justify. The delicate balance between admission and omission which is crucial in persuasion and propaganda dangle with the words of writers. To lie when appropriate and reveal when necessary is their job. It’s a rational choice to deceive, an awareness that a bad thing is being hidden.

When the Nazi military found the remains of murdered Polish prisoners in Katyn, evidence that the Soviet government had slaughtered thousands of unarmed men, it was revealed as a crime. The Nazi government invited neutral officials and Allied prisoners to investigate. The Nazi officials understood that it was wrong and immoral to slaughter unarmed people. The Soviets denied it as Nazi propaganda, also aware that what they had done is widely considered “wrong.” Yet, both Nazi and Soviet governments committed such atrocities en masse, only to see and reveal the evil in the other. The need to be seen as good is more important to those who are the epitome of evil, rather than to be not-evil. That is the contradiction of human beings: despite being capable of such abhorrent evil, beneath that violence lurks the warm heart of complicated creatures, many capable of love and selective kindness. Nearly all are aware of what to conceal or be justified with deceit, usually that which is understood to be evil.

Samantha Power is the author of A Problem From Hell: American and the Age of Genocide, where she argues for liberal interventionism and promotes the United States as a force for good, a shield to protect the innocent and to stop mass murder. Power recently drew criticism from Agnieszka Sykes, who works under Power in the United States Agency for International Development, and said, “You wrote a book on genocide and you’re still working for the administration: You should resign and speak out.” It’s the principled appealing to the political. It’s not that Samantha Power is necessarily a hypocrite that can be reasoned with; she is political. What principles she may have written about only exist as a means to an end, or as a validation of power and empire. For those like Power, enabling and downplaying the Israeli Defense Forces slaughter of Palestinian civilians is simply politics. A recently released White House transcript shows that President Joe Biden and his White House are aware of “thousands and thousands of innocent women and children [that have been killed],” yet his support and arms for Israel continues. It’s unlikely Power or the others will resign.

In financial markets it is understood that there is a madness in crowds or “rational irrationality.” An individual’s level of behavior tends to be perfectly reasonable, but in the case of markets and the marketplace, chaos can arise. Clearly, such a maniacal mentality exists outside of finances and with the added problem of the sociopathic and mercenary mindset. On a personal level, most understand that it is all absurd. But when expanded into the mob or nation there is a sense of helplessness even while participating in the absurdity. Is it absurd if it’s common and normalized? Maybe in the end the absurd are those who see it for what it is: insanity. Maybe the abnormal are those who remain principled and the unprincipled and irrational are normal. It seems no amount of reasonable explanation or set of principles matters to them; irrationality could end life on Earth with those doing it certain of their reasons for doing so until it’s all done.

March 20, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Zelensky’s top adviser calls for more attacks on Russian border

RT | March 20, 2024

Ukraine should step up its ground and artillery attacks on Russian border regions to demoralize the population, Mikhail Podoliak, President Vladimir Zelensky’s top adviser, has suggested.

In an interview with Ukrainian TV anchor Vladimir Golovanov on Monday, Podoliak stated that Kiev would like to see the turmoil spread into Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod Regions. “I would like the scale of this to be much greater… So that Russia could feel what a war… is,” he said.

According to the adviser, many Russians who live far from the front line should feel the brunt of the conflict. “Once they live in bomb shelters, constantly hear sirens and so on, they will [think] differently. Although I doubt that. The Russian world, it has certain peculiar features.”

He also voiced support for the incursions into Russian territory of the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and Russian Freedom Legion, paramilitary units composed of Russian defectors and fugitive neo-Nazis that are collaborating with Kiev. Those units – which are designated as terrorist organizations by Moscow – should be supported and given all the necessary funding, Podoliak insisted.

The RDK and the Russian Freedom Region attempted to breach the Russian border earlier this month, but the attacks were repelled, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. Russian officials estimated the losses sustained by the units at 1,500 casualties and dozens of armored vehicles.

President Vladimir Putin has denounced Russians collaborating with Ukraine as “traitors,” signaling that such individuals would be given the same treatment as any others who took up arms in the combat zone.

Ukraine has routinely launched artillery and drone strikes on Russian border regions, many of which target critical infrastructure and residential blocks, resulting in numerous civilian casualties.

In light of this, Putin has suggested that Russia could at some point create a “cordon sanitaire” on Kiev-controlled territory large enough to prevent Ukraine from launching attacks on Russia.

March 20, 2024 Posted by | War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Russia to evacuate 9,000 children after Ukrainian strikes

A view shows a partially destroyed house by Ukrainian shelling of the Razumnoye settlement in the Belgorod region, Russia. © Sputnik/Anton Vergun
RT | March 20, 2024

Around 9,000 children will be evacuated from Russia’s Belgorod Region on the border with Ukraine, following increased attempts by Kiev’s forces to strike targets behind the front line, local Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced on Tuesday.

The first group of 1,200 children will be transported from unsafe areas on March 22 and will be relocated deeper inside Russia to Penza, Tambov, and Kaluga, Gladkov said.

“We are already relocating [people from] a large number of villages. Now we are planning to evacuate about 9,000 children from Belgorod and the surrounding regions, Shebekinsky and Grayvoronsky districts,” he added.

The announcement came a day after President Vladimir Putin said Russia wants to create a buffer zone to protect border regions and civilians from long-range Ukrainian strikes and cross-border raids, which have intensified in recent months.

Civilian areas of Belgorod have been struck with increased frequency in recent weeks. Despite Russian air defenses shooting down large numbers of missiles, 16 people have been killed and 98 wounded over the last week, according to Gladkov.

Around 600 people were in temporary accommodation as of Monday after being evacuated from their homes, the governor added.

On Saturday, Gladkov ordered the closure of shopping malls and schools for several days because of the situation.

Three people, including a teenage boy, were seriously injured on Tuesday following Ukrainian shelling of Belgorod, while the previous day four members of one family died in a missile attack on the village of Nikolskoye, the governor said. The Russian Defense Ministry announced last week that the military had thwarted a Ukrainian incursion in Belgorod and Kursk regions, killing 30 fighters.

School holidays for children from border areas in Belgorod Region will begin on Wednesday, earlier than planned, while colleges and universities will move to online learning, Gladkov announced.

March 20, 2024 Posted by | War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti beaten by guards

MEMO | March 19, 2024

Prominent Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti has been attacked with clubs by Israeli prison guards and suffered bleeding in his eye, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed reported the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs and Barghouti’s family saying.

Barghouti, 64, who is a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, is being subjected to isolation, torture and humiliation, said his wife, Fadwa Barghouti.

Fadwa explained that her husband’s life and the lives of other prominent prisoners are in great danger, adding that the Israeli prison administration “deliberately brutalises them in order to break their morale.”

“Marwan was subjected to continuous attacks, which we learned of on 6 and 12 March [through lawyers], which caused bleeding in one of his eyes, while the prison’s repressive forces constantly threatened him,” she added, explaining that he had been relocated five times during the last three months, and each time he was assaulted and his prison conditions were tightened.

In four prisons he was put in solitary confinement, she said, warning of a “real war” being waged against Palestinians prisoners and their leaders, which hurts their morale.

For its part, the Free Marwan Barghouti and All Palestinian Political Prisoners campaign said in a statement that lawyers who had visited Megiddo Prison learned of the brutal attack on Barghouti and other prominent prisoners by the prison’s special repression units, adding that many of them had been placed in solitary confinement.

The campaign said it had contacted a number of international figures, including diplomats, parliamentarians and human rights institutions, as well as leaders of the Fatah movement and the National and Islamic Action factions, calling on them to provide protection to the Palestinian people including political prisoners in Israeli jails.

Barghouti was arrested in 2002 and later sentenced to five life terms on charges of “killing and injuring Israelis.”

In parallel with the onslaught on the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, Israel has increased raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank, arresting more than 7,000 people, alongside a campaign of harassment against prisoners in Israeli jails, resulting in the deaths of at least 13 prisoners since 7 October 2023.

March 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Children among dozens executed by Israeli troops following Al-Shifa raid

Photo credit: QNN
The Cradle | March 19, 2024

Israeli forces executed dozens of people and detained almost 200 during its latest assault on Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, the Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip announced on 19 March.

Among the dozens executed were children, the media office said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The Israeli occupation committed a bloody massacre, executing 50 citizens and arresting nearly 200 others in the Shifa Medical Complex and its surrounding in Gaza City,” the statement read.

“We also received field information about … a number of children among those executed, as well as civilians, the sick, and the displaced,” it added. Some of the facilities inside the hospital were also torched by the Israeli army, according to the statement.

According to the Gaza media office, at least 250 Palestinians have been killed so far in the current Israeli assault on Al-Shifa Hospital, which began during the early hours of Monday and remains ongoing.

The Israeli army said on Tuesday that it killed “dozens of terrorists” in Al-Shifa Hospital, adding that it will “continue large-scale operations in the hospital.”

Israeli forces launched a massive operation in and around the hospital at around 2:00 am on 18 March. Israeli bombardment of the hospital killed dozens of Palestinians in the first hours of the attack.

Medical teams were unable to treat the wounded, and Israeli forces fired at anyone who approached the windows of the hospital, medical sources told WAFA news agency.

Clashes between the army and several resistance factions raged around the vicinity of the hospital as the Israeli incursion was commencing.

The attack on Al-Shifa Hospital came hours after Hamas’ Qassam Brigades revealed the details of a sniping operation that targeted and killed an officer in the elite Israeli Shaldag Unit who was behind Israel’s November raid of the medical facility.

During the assault on 18 March, Israeli troops assassinated Brigadier General Fayeq al-Mabhouh, the director of police in the Gaza Strip – who was in charge of facilitating the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid into north Gaza.

Since the start of the war, Israel has alleged that Hamas operates a command center underneath Al-Shifa Hospital.

This is the second assault on Al-Shifa since November, when Israeli troops stormed the facility, arrested dozens, evacuated the hospital at gunpoint, and turned it into a detention center.

March 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

There’s no protection from genocide in the colonial framework of international law

Palestinian children wait to get water amid clean water and food crisis due to Israeli attacks and imposed blockade in Rafah, Gaza on March 16, 2024. [Yasser Qudaih – Anadolu Agency]
By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | March 19, 2024

The entire Palestinian population in Gaza has been declared “acutely food insecure” by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. “The famine threshold for household acute food insecurity has already been far exceeded,” explained the IPC.

Very belatedly, the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell has declared that Israel is provoking famine in Gaza, and that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war. What happens now that Borrell has spoken? Palestinians spoke out long before this catastrophe, remember, and — quite intentionally — not a single EU diplomat listened.

What’s more, the statistics seemed to have influenced US Secretary of State Antony Blinken enough to make a statement acknowledging the famine as having affected all Palestinians in Gaza. “This only underscores both the urgency, the imperative, of making this [humanitarian aid] the priority,” Blinken said during a press conference in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. “We need more, we need it to be sustained, and we need it to be a priority if we’re going to effectively address the needs of people.” Of the US halting its weapons exports to Israel, or joining forces to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza, not a single syllable, never mind word, was uttered.

Israel’s response, of course, was to weaponise starvation even further. As Al Jazeera reported yesterday, the settler-colonial state asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to refrain from issuing emergency orders as requested by South Africa, describing these as “an abuse of procedures”. South Africa’s legal recourse of 6 March, declared Israel’s lawyers, is “wholly unfounded in fact and law, morally repugnant, and represents an abuse both of the Genocide Convention and of the court itself.”

And there you have it in a nutshell: Israel’s twisted logic. The slightest measures to prevent genocide are “morally repugnant.” That tells you all you need to know about Israeli morality. It is probably only a matter of time before the apartheid state deems genocide to be in accordance with international law as long as it suits its own colonial interests.

Israel’s intention is for famine to work as a weapon of genocide. 

It blocks and hinders the entry of humanitarian aid, and its illegal settlers block the border crossing to prevent aid trucks getting past. Israel does nothing to stop this. The meagre amount allowed through was weaponised as a death trap, as Israeli soldiers massacred Palestinians for merely attempting to take some food home. This morning, Israel killed Major Raed Al-Banna and his family in an air strike. Al-Banna was involved in taking humanitarian aid into northern Gaza.

On the sidelines of its massacres, Israel has told the ICJ that it “has real concern for the humanitarian situation and innocent lives, as demonstrated by the actions it has and is taking,” with reference to Gaza.

It beggars belief that Israel’s quest for normalising all of its actions has reached such a level of contempt for international laws and conventions that it is allowed to waste the court’s time by lying so blatantly. The international community’s complacency, as if its only power rests in waiting for statistical updates to include in their speeches, is equally horrendous.

The genocide in Gaza is exposing all that is wrong with the colonial concept of human rights and international law, both of which only exist as foundations to protect the violators and collaborators. There is clearly no protection from genocide for its victims in the colonial framework of international law.

March 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Dissecting the ultra-Zionist cult Chabad and its complicity in genocide in Gaza

By David Miller | Press TV | March 18, 2024

In December last year, in the town of Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, a Jewish religious outpost was established in a partially destroyed building. It was described as the ‘first Chabad House’ in the besieged, war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Chabad is an ultra-orthodox Jewish cult. It has many adherents in the genocidal Israeli occupation forces. Many of them wear Chabad patches on their uniforms. Here is a Zionist tank flying the distinctive Chabad flag in Gaza.

In addition, there are also Chabad Rabbis attached to the Israeli occupation forces. One notes that the genocide is actually about “rooting out evil”. Here two Chabad Rabbis erected the Jewish religious symbol, the Menorah, in Gaza.

But what is Chabad? It styles itself as a friendly outgoing Jewish movement dedicated to helping Jews reconnect with Judaism. However, in reality, it is a supremacist, hate-mongering Zionist cult.

In the past it was anti-Zionist, but back then, even as far back as 1929, its adherents in Al Khalil (or Hebron as it is called by Zionists) were involved in spying on the Palestinians for the Haganah terror militia as well as storing weapons for them.

Chabad is now so ultra-Zionist that it called in December for Gaza to be recolonized with Jewish settlers. Worse, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, its adherents believe – as laid out in the Tanya, Chabad’s key religious text – gentiles have only animal souls, not human souls.

In January, the Tanya was printed out by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza. This supremacism is carried over into its attitude to the Palestinians.

Followers of a Chabad Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh are known as the ‘hilltop youth’. Two of his followers wrote the hugely controversial King Torah, which was also recommended by Ginsburg.

The book states that it is permissible to kill Palestinian children, including babies.

“There is justification for killing babies if it is clear that they will grow up to harm us, and in such a situation they may be harmed deliberately, and not only during combat with adults.”

Ginsburg was even detained by police over his promotion of the book.

It’s not just words. Ginsburg’s followers in the so-called ‘Hilltop Youth’ are said by the Zionist intelligence agency Shin Bet to be responsible for most ‘price tag’ revenge attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In 1988, Israeli regime premier Benjamin Netanyahu famously met with the leader of Chabad in New York where the notorious Zionist cult has its global headquarters.

Netanyahu has maintained a strong relationship with Chabad ever since. Here he is seen addressing them at an event in 2014.

These are the forces – supported and aided by the United States and the United Kingdom – unleashed as part of the genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

In December, it was revealed that a Chabad group in the UK was fundraising to support the ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has already claimed the lives of more than 31,700 Palestinians, 70 percent of them children and women, since October 7.

Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin of Chabad claimed back in October that the Hamas resistance movement is “worse than ISIS (Daesh)” in full conformity with Zionist entity talking points. He also disclosed that his son is a British recruit to the occupation forces and was in occupied Palestine at the time.

The Chabad appeal read “Vital equipment needed by the IDF… Funds raised will go directly to equipment needed by Aron DovSufrin’s reserve unit, up in the North of Israel, and Support Units.”

Aron DovShufrin is of course the son of the Rabbi, serving actively in the genocidal occupation forces.

Chabad-Lubavitch is an ultra-orthodox Hasidic sect that also happens to be a Zionist supremacist and genocidal cult. It originates in Liubavichi in Russia near the border with Belarus and is a global movement with more than 5,000 offices in over 100 countries and in all 50 states of the US.

The cult even has offices in seemingly unlikely places such as China, Belarus, Tunisia, Morocco and Venezuela.

It has prominent supporters in many places. For example, the new Argentinian president Javier Milei is a Chabad devotee. Donald Trump donated to Chabad, though not as much as his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who played a pivotal role in the normalization of the Zionist entity.

Obviously, Chabad has been highly organized in Ukraine and its followers were amongst those recruited to the Nazi Azov Battalion, which it is important to recall, was co-founded by a former member of the Israel occupation forces.

Press TV’s flagship weekly show Palestine Declassified previously reported how Ukrainian Jewish oligarch Igor Kolomoisky bankrolled Chabad in Ukraine as well as the Nazi Azov and Aidar battalions.

Back in the UK, there are around one hundred Chabad groups or offices. It flies under the radar and is widely regarded as well-meaning if a little eccentric.

In reality, it is an extremist group that is building support for genocide in the UK.

Ironically, the Community Security Trust has aided Chabad – giving them security advice after an edition of Palestine Declassified exposed some of their activities.

The CST has ‘educating about extremism‘ as one of its charitable objectives, but it is unwilling to educate us on the extremism of Chabad.

There is a very good reason for that. Gerald Ronson, who created and runs the CST, is himself a Zionist extremist and has been supporting Chabad for more than half a century.

Here he is in 2013 as a guest of honor at one of their events.

Zionist extremists are widely scattered across the UK and form a mutually supportive network. This is a key element of the justification and support for genocide in Gaza.

David Miller is the producer and co-host of Press TV’s weekly Palestine Declassified show. He was sacked from Bristol University in October 2021 over his Palestine advocacy. 

March 18, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Dozens of technology experts killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza: Euro-Med

Press TV – March 17, 2024

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says the Israeli military has systematically targeted dozens of information technology experts in the Gaza Strip, as part of its genocidal war against the besieged territory.

Euro-Med documented a list on Sunday that included several programmers, computer engineers, and experts in artificial intelligence who were killed as a result of the Israeli attacks across Gaza.

The human rights group went on to say that employees and influencers in these vital sectors were also killed as the occupying regime deliberately targeted and destroyed companies and infrastructure in Gaza.

According to Euro-Med, Haitham Mohammed Al-Nabahin a prominent programming engineer was killed along with his wife in an Israeli attack on Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on March 14.

The organization’s list also included Tareq Thabet, the program director of the “YUCAS” technological incubator affiliated with the University College in Gaza, who was killed along with his wife, children, parents, and several family members after the Israeli military targeted his home.

Among those killed by the Israeli regime was also the software engineer Baraa Abdullah Al-Saqa, founder of the company (DITS), as well as a group of other young programmers.

Euro-Med further noted that the Israeli regime is seeking to hinder the development of the Palestinian society in Gaza and undermine its scientific, educational, and economic systems by targeting and killing Palestinian talents and elites, including doctors and academics.

The crimes committed by the Israeli regime “aim to deprive vital sectors of the Palestinian society of specialized and distinguished personnel, which are difficult to replace in the short term, in addition to creating a state of panic and coercion among the remaining talents, which might push them to migrate,” the group warned.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 31,490 Palestinians and injured more than 73,439 others.

The Tel Aviv regime has imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

March 17, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel Is Starving Gaza

By Steven Sahiounie | Strategic Culture Foundation | March 16, 2024

At least one UNRWA staff member was killed after Israel targeted a food distribution center in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on March 13. Another 22 UNRWA workers were injured in the attack by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

On March 14, the IDF released a statement to the U.S. media CBS news, that the IDF has precisely targeted a ‘Hamas Operations Unit’ based on intelligence, which the IDF claims were distributing humanitarian aid to ‘terrorists’.

UNRWA confirmed that the aid distribution center attacked was on a list of UN supported facilities across Gaza which are by international law to be safe for civilians and aid workers alike. By Israel attacking known humanitarian sites, such as food centers, schools and clinics, the IDF is declaring that there is nowhere safe in Gaza, or in southern Gaza, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed all civilians to gather for safety.

The UN has warned that the people in Gaza are close to famine from lack of food aid during the current and ongoing bombardment of civilian homes and infrastructure.

Over 30 people have died recently from lack of food and water, and many were children.

Open Arms

On March 12, a Spanish ship, ‘Open Arms’, left Cyprus for Gaza. It is expected to arrive on Friday, March 15 carrying 200 tons of aid.

This desperate attempt to stave off famine in Gaza is the brain-child of Spanish-American celebrity chef, José Andrés, founder of the non-profit World Central Kitchen (WCK).

WCK has Palestinians building a jetty in Gaza, utilizing rubble and materials from bombed buildings, which will play a role in offloading the food and supplies. This jetty is a temporary structure and is not related to the pier the U.S. is planning.

“I had no doubt that we could open the maritime route. The most difficult thing was the diplomatic side of it, and the easiest thing was getting to Gaza,” said Andrés.

Andrés is an advisor to the White House, and held countless meetings in Israel, Egypt and Jordan to obtain the necessary permits, while also obtaining support from Cyprus, King Abdullah II of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, which has co-financed the mission together with WCK.

After arrival, the 130 pallets of aid will go into trucks to be delivered to the 60 kitchens that the WCK has set up in the Gaza Strip, and to other aid distribution points.

Who shut the gates?

Israel controls all land crossings into Gaza, which has seven border crossings, six with Israel and one with Egypt. However, only the crossing at Rafah, with Egypt, is partially open.

The quickest and most efficient way to delivery aid to Gaza is by land and the gates that exist. But, Israel restricts aid and supplies from entering in Gaza. All of the aid agencies report that their donations sit in parked trucks, filled to overflowing, but unable to enter Gaza because the IDF has locked the gates and refuses to open them.

Israel maintains that they will not allow any aid into Gaza which could be used by Hamas. The aid agencies have repeatedly asked for a list of restricted items so that they can make sure their cargoes meet the criteria. However, Israel refuses to publish or distribute a list of restricted items. Instead, the IDF uses the aid as a weapon of war, intent on starving the civilians. The IDF claim that if they find one item in a cargo load which meets their undisclosed definition of prohibited items, they will not allow the entire cargo to enter. In one very famous case, the item was a single pair of small scissors to be used to cut the tape in conjunction with bandages.

Doctors Without Borders, MSF, reported they have been repeatedly prohibited from importing electricity generators, water purifiers, solar panels and other medical equipment.

Land routes

On March 12, for the first time in three weeks, the UN’s World Food Program sent in six aid trucks to feed 25,000 people through a gate in the security fence. This is but a drop in an ocean of need, and is not sustainable.

Some Arab nations, such as Morocco have sent supplies destined for Gaza to Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.

All the experts agree, that land routes which already are established are the most efficient delivery method of aid to Gaza. But, it is Israel alone standing in the way, and this is their political objective.

Cargo trucks typically carry 20 tons, and the flow of trucks prior to the current conflict was about 500 a day. But, even that amount of daily arrivals would not meet the needs of the 2.3 million people in Gaza.

UNRWA accusations

Israel began a political campaign to discredit and destroy UNRWA, by accusing the agency of complicity with Hamas in the October 7 attack on Israel.

With an accusation only, Israel was able to convince 16 donor countries to pull their funding, and have asked the UN General Assembly to disband the refugee agency, which would affect not only the people in Gaza, but also those in the Occupied West Bank. The agency is 75 years old, serves almost six million refugees, and now has had more than $437 million funds frozen.

Spain announced a donation of $22 million on Thursday, and Canada and Sweden reported on Saturday that they would resume funding to the agency in light of unfounded claims, and the risk of famine.

The UN has opened an investigation, while UNRWA defends itself against Israel’s accusations, and accuses Israel of torturing its employees to force false testimonies that the IDF used as the basis of their accusations. Initially, the UN fired 12 UNRWA workers after the IDF claim.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, says that he has received no evidence of agency workers in conspiracy with Hamas. However, 150 UNRWA employees have died while working in Gaza, and 3,000 have been left homeless.

Palestinians in the Occupied West Back were arrested, blindfolded, thrown to the ground, and beaten by the IDF while the soldiers shouted, “UNRWA, Hamas! UNRWA, Hamas!”

After Israeli officials accused the UNRWA staff, the Biden administration cut-off the funding to the refugee agency.

On March 12, the U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, said, “UNWRA plays a critical role in delivering humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians that no other agency is positioned to assume.”

Biden’s pier

U.S. President Biden announced plans for the sea corridor, saying the U.S. military would help construct a temporary pier on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to facilitate the docking of aid ships. The USS General Frank S. Besson is sailing with the supplies needed for building the pier.

Experts are baffled by the suggestion that a pier should be used to deliver aid, when seven land crossings already exist, and stress that Biden can get them all open with just one phone call to Netanyahu. If Israel were made aware that their continued military aid from the U.S. is dependent on allowing food deliveries to the Palestinians in Gaza, that would open the gates at once.

Ceasefire talks

Ceasefire talks, which include a release of hostages in Gaza, have been ongoing in Cairo, but Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said that, although talks continued, “we are not near a deal.”

Airdrops

Both the Kingdom of Jordan and later the U.S. have undertaken airdrops of supplies into Gaza. However, this is not efficient and can be compared to filling a swimming pool while using a teaspoon.

Israeli position on Gaza

On March 12, Netanyahu reiterated his plan to destroy Hamas by a planned ground invasion into Rafah.

“We will finish the job in Rafah while enabling the civilian population to get out of harm’s way,” he said in a video address to AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israeli lobbying group which experts say controls the U.S. foreign policy with Israel, the Middle East, and controls the U.S. Congress on issues involving Israel and Jews in the U.S.

The prospect of a Rafah invasion has sparked global alarm because it is crowded with almost 1.5 million mostly displaced people, and recently Biden has called it a ‘Red Line’, but without specifying what repercussions Israel would face from White House anger.

EU position on Gaza

On March 12, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told the UN Security Council that the Gaza humanitarian crisis “is man-made.”

“If we look at alternative ways to provide support, it’s because the land crossings have been artificially closed,” he said, charging that “starvation is being used as a weapon of war.”

Borrell identified the lack of delivery of aid to Gaza as a result of all the land routes being closed by Israel.

“We are now facing a population fighting for their own survival,” he said.

“Starvation is being used as a war arm and when we condemned this happening in Ukraine, we have to use the same words for what is happening in Gaza,” said Borrell.

UK position of Gaza

The UK’s Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron, has urged Israel to open the major port of Ashdod – one of the country’s three main cargo ports located just south of Tel Aviv – to seaborne aid deliveries destined for Gaza.

U.S. position on Gaza

AIPAC’s historic hold on the White House and Congress has prevented Biden or others from taking firm action which would result in the aid trucks being allowed into Gaza, and the avoidance of famine. Biden is painted in the U.S. media as a caring person, concerned with humanitarian laws being broken in Gaza by Netanyahu, but he is impotent to take action, which he holds in his hands.

Number of dead

Whether there is a ceasefire, or not, and regardless of whether food and supplies are ever delivered to Gaza, one thing we know is the number of dead and injured continues to rise after more than five months of Israeli attacks from the land, sea and air. The latest number is more than 31, 180 people killed, and most of them women and children.

March 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

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