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Israel’s forcible transfer of Gazan civilians amounts to crimes against humanity: UN

Press TV – October 17, 2023

The United Nations human rights office has said Israel’s brutal blockade of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, combined with the evacuation order and forcible transfer of civilians, could amount to a crime against humanity.

Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday that the forced relocation of civilians has been classed as a crime against humanity and is punishable by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law,” she said.

“Those who managed to comply with the Israeli authorities’ order to evacuate are now trapped in the south of the Gaza Strip, with scant shelter, fast-depleting food supplies, little or no access to clean water, sanitation, medicine and other basic needs,” Shamdasani said.

“We have grave fears about the toll on civilians in the coming days. Military operations show no signs of abating.”

On October 12, Israel ordered 1.1 million people in the north of Gaza to evacuate and move south of the enclave as the regime forces prepare for a ground invasion of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel’s bombardment has already pushed Palestinians in the besieged enclave into smaller areas and spaces.

“International law requires that any lawful temporary evacuation by Israel, as the occupying power, of an area on the basis of the security of the population or imperative military reasons must be accompanied by the provision of proper accommodation for all evacuees,” Shamdasani said

The total death toll from Israel’s aggression against the Gaza Strip has risen to some 3,500, with over 1,000 children among the victims. About 12,500 have been injured since Israeli air raids began.

Rising death toll, and flattened buildings with no food, water and electricity supplies; are what Israel’s non-stop strikes, shelling and complete blockade have brought to the Gaza Strip.

The regime’s fresh air raids killed 80 Palestinians in Rafah and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli attacks also took the life of a Palestinian journalist in the north, bringing to 16 the number of journalists killed by the regime’s bombardments since October 7.

Israel launched its assaults against the besieged Palestinian territory following the Palestinians’ Operation al-Aqsa flood.

The humanitarian situation is getting worse by the hour in the besieged Gaza, with hospitals facing a collapse.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning of an imminent catastrophe in the territory. The WHO also said it needs urgent access to Gaza to deliver aid and medical supplies.

According to the UN Palestinian agency, UNRWA, fuel reserves at all hospitals across Gaza are expected to last for only 24 hours.“The shutdown of backup generators would place the lives of thousands of patients at serious risk,” it said.

Separately, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that its food supplies in the besieged enclave were running low, but it was stockpiling supplies in the Egyptian city of El Arish.

“We call for unimpeded access, safe passage to desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza,” WFP’s regional communication lead for the Middle East and North Africa, Abeera Etefa said.

Aid trucks have been heading to the Rafah crossing on the Egypt border, but it remains uncertain whether the supplies can cross into southern Gaza.

Also on Tuesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, during a press conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah accused Israel of committing ‘genocide’ during the ongoing aggression against Gaza.

“This is a war crime, genocide, and unprecedented destruction,” Shtayyeh said.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Putin offers solution to stop further bloodshed in Israel-Gaza conflict while Zelensky fears losing US support

By Drago Bosnic | October 17, 2023

As hostilities in the latest Israel-Gaza conflict escalate, the threat of a wider confrontation in the Middle East is getting likelier by the day. It’s safe to assume that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) haven’t launched a ground operation in Gaza yet due to possible direct Iranian involvement, as well as the greater engagement of Hezbollah in the north of the country. According to the Jerusalem Post, the main reason for the postponing of the offensive is precisely the latter. The Northern Command is forced to keep the best IDF troops in the area to ensure combat readiness on the Lebanese border in case Hezbollah gets more directly involved. The Lebanon-based Shia movement has tens of thousands of soldiers and a massive stockpile of various rockets and missiles that could do significant damage to the IDF. Israel simply cannot afford to ignore Hezbollah, as the group already defeated it once in 2006, the only such occurrence in the history of IDF.

The Jerusalem Post itself cited sources saying that “while a number of factors seem to have caused a delay, one factor has been a growing concern that Hezbollah is waiting for the moment that most IDF ground forces are committed to Gaza to open a full front with the IDF in the north”. This fact alone is forcing Israel to keep most of its military assets in the relative vicinity of the border with Lebanon. It could be said that Hezbollah is already providing significant support to Hamas just by being able to tie up so many IDF troops. Iranian involvement in this is implicit, as Tehran has been one of the main backers of Hezbollah since the group’s very inception. This is forcing the Israeli leadership to exercise caution and restraint, as a direct Iranian intervention remains a possibility. Such speculation is not without merit, as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian already implied that Tehran might get involved:

“Conferred with my counterparts from Tunisia, Malaysia and Pakistan. Underlined the need to immediately stop Zionist crimes & murder in Gaza & to dispatch humanitarian aid. I stressed that time is running out for political solutions; probable spread of war on other fronts is approaching unavoidable stage.”

On the other hand, most high-ranking Israeli officials are adamant that the Gaza operation must be launched. For instance, Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom Tzipi Hotovely even compared the current airstrikes with the bombing of Dresden during WWII, when Western Allies leveled the German city, killing tens of thousands of civilians in the process. Israeli F-16I “Sufa” fighter jets have already dropped thousands of bombs on Gaza (primarily the US-made JDAMs – Joint Direct Attack Munitions), resulting in thousands of deaths and serious injuries among civilians there. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the death toll among Palestinians now stands at over 3,000. For its part, Israel reported that over 1,400 Israeli civilians died so far, with at least 4,100 wounded. The figures are certainly even worse as of this writing.

Such casualties are disastrous, especially given that the conflict started just ten days ago. Since then, the world has effectively split into three groups. Apart from those that express open support for either side, the largest part of the globe has opted for neutrality. This also includes superpowers such as Russia. Namely, Moscow was among the first to call for the end of hostilities before they escalate to include all regional and perhaps even global actors. In a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin (the first since the conflict started), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel would proceed with the Gaza offensive despite Moscow’s warning that it would lead to massive casualties and possibly cause a strong reaction of the Muslim world, particularly Iran and its allies. Putin urged Netanyahu to engage in talks on the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

On the other hand, the United States is looking to use the crisis to escalate against Iran, as Washington DC warhawks were quick to blame Tehran for the surprise attack launched by Hamas. US President Joe Biden will visit Israel this week, coming mere days after State Secretary Antony Blinken. Biden recently denied reports about a possible deployment of American troops, calling it “unnecessary, as Israel has one of the finest fighting forces”. And while he stated that “it would be a mistake [for Israel] to occupy Gaza”, he supported the notion that Hamas must be eliminated entirely and warned Iran not to get involved. By directly supporting the upcoming ground operation by the IDF, Washington DC is risking (almost certainly intentionally) a wider conflict that might include several Arab states and Iran. In fact, Israeli forces already hit targets in Syria and Lebanon.

In the meantime, the Kiev regime is in panic mode as the global spotlight has moved away from Ukraine. Namely, the Neo-Nazi junta frontman Volodymyr Zelensky tried to get the attention of Western audiences to himself by pompously announcing a “solidarity visit”. However, Israel flatly refused, as the “time is not right”. Zelensky is likely terrified of the prospect that he will have to share hundreds of billions in so-called US “aid” with Israel. It’s no secret that the latter is a priority for Washington DC, while the Kiev regime and the Ukrainian people as a whole are routinely seen as “cheap cannon fodder” that should only be “dying for a NATO mission.” The words of the infamous warhawk Lindsey Graham that “the best money the US ever spent because the Russians are dying” show this only works for America if its actual allies are under attack.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rights group to prosecute Labour’s Starmer for complicity in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza

MEMO | October 16, 2023

International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has today issued UK Labour leader Keir Starmer, Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales Emily Thornberry and Shadow Defence Secretary David Lammy with a notice of intention to prosecute UK politicians for their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s perpetration of war crimes.

The news follows Saturday’s reports that ICJP issued Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with a stark warning that UK government officials could be individually liable for their role in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes based on their public statements of unequivocal support of Israel, the ICJP said in a statement.

This comes as Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Unit has opened calls for evidence relating to war crimes in the region and could lead to senior politicians being prosecuted for war crimes by Scotland Yard. Individuals could also be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Last week, both Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition, and Thornberry spoke out in defence of Israel’s withholding of food, water and electricity to Gaza. They justified this collective punishment based on ‘Israel’s right to defend itself’.

“Both politicians are human rights lawyers and should be well aware that this argument does not justify collective punishment, which is illegal under international law,” the ICJP said in its statement. ICJP sent a private letter to the Shadow Attorney General last week, urging Labour Party politicians to comply with international law or action would be taken, and now a notice to prosecute has been issued.

“Lammy has also been issued with the notice that Labour politicians could be liable, in his capacity as Shadow Foreign Secretary.”

As well as the total siege on Gaza, Israel has also issued a directive to 1.1 million people in Gaza to immediately leave their homes in northern Gaza and move south. This order will result in mass forced displacement which may amount to both a war crime and a crime against humanity.

“Now that there is clear evidence that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been carried out, and politicians have been formally notified of this, continuation of such support and assistance would mean that any politicians, including senior members of the opposition, could be complicit in the commission of such crimes. This complicity, formally known as ‘aiding and abetting’ war crimes, may mean that UK politicians are held individually criminally liable for breaking international law,” the statement added.

ICJP demands that the Labour Party leadership and UK politicians call for an immediate ceasefire, an end to Israel’s illegal siege and evacuation order for north Gaza, condemn Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. “They should then press the government into immediate action to do the same.”

October 16, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

What the media forgets to tell you about Israel and Gaza

By Jonathan Cook | October 15, 2023

The missing context for what’s happening in Gaza is that Israel has been working night and day to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people from their homeland since even before Israel become a state – when it was known as the Zionist movement.

Israel didn’t just cleanse Palestinians in 1948, when it was founded as a Western colonial project, and again under cover of a regional war in 1967. It also worked to ethnically cleanse Palestinians every day between those dates and afterwards. The aim was to move them off their historic lands, and either expel them beyond Israel’s new, expanded borders or concentrate them into small ghettoes inside those borders – as a holding measure until they could be expelled outside the borders.

The ‘settler’ project, as we call it, is a misnomer. It’s really Israel’s ethnic cleansing programme. Israel even has a special word for it in Hebrew: ‘Judaisation’, or making the land Jewish. It is official government policy.

Gaza was the largest of the Palestinian reservations created by Israel’s ethnic cleansing programme, and the most overcrowded. To stop the inhabitants spilling out, Israel built a fence-barrier in the early 1990s to pen them in. Then when policing became too hard from within the prison, Israel pulled back in 2005 to the outer perimeter barrier.

New technology allowed Israel to besiege Gaza remotely by land, sea and air in 2007, limiting the entry of food and vital items like medicine and cement for construction. Automated gun towers shot anyone who came near the fence. The navy patrolled the sea, stopping boats straying more than a kilometre or two off shore. And drones watched 24 hours a day from the sky.

The people of Gaza were sealed in and largely forgotten, except when they lobbed a few rockets over the fence – to international indignation. If they fired too many rockets, Israel bombed them mercilessly and occasionally launched a ground invasion. The rocket threat was increasingly neutralised by a rocket interception system, paid for by the US, called Iron Dome.

Palestinians tried to be more inventive in finding ways to break out of their prison. They built tunnels. But Israel found ways to identify those that ran close to the fence and destroyed them.

Palestinians tried to get attention by protesting en masse at the fence. Israeli snipers were ordered to shoot them in the legs, leading to thousands of amputees.

The ‘deterrence’ seemed to work. Israel could once again sit back and let the Palestinians rot in Gaza. ‘Quiet’ had been restored.

Until, that is, last weekend when Hamas broke out briefly and ran amok, killing civilians and soldiers alike.

So Israel now needs a new policy. It looks like the ethnic cleansing programme is being applied to Gaza anew. The half of the population in the enclave’s north is being herded south, where there are not the resources to cope with them. And even if there were, Israel has cut off food, water and power to everyone in Gaza.

The enclave is quickly becoming a pressure cooker. The pressure is meant to build on Egypt to allow the Palestinians entry into Sinai on ‘humanitarian’ grounds.

Whatever the media are telling you, the ‘conflict’ – that is, Israel’s ethnic cleansing programme – started long before Hamas appeared on the scene. In fact, Hamas emerged very late, as the predictable response to Israel’s violent colonisation project.

And no turning point was reached a week ago. This has all been playing out in slow motion for more than 100 years.

Ignore the fake news. Israel isn’t defending itself. It’s enforcing its right to continue ethnically cleansing Palestinians.

October 16, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Total War – The Economic Backbone of the Occupation

Gazans being held by Israeli police. Photo from one of the workers.
International Solidarity Movement | October 15, 2023

EXPLOITATION AND OCCUPATION

Hundreds of Gazan workers are being given refuge in Palestine, after having been dumped in the West Bank by Israel.

45 of them are in al-Khalil and the ISM spoke to many of them this evening.

These labourers were working in Israeli settlements. When Hamas broke out of Gaza they were rounded up, detained, and at least one of them was beaten and hospitalised. They spent four hours in prison, their phones confiscated and without contact with the outside world. One man says 6500NIS was stolen from him by the police.

Apartments have been provided by charitable individuals and groups are giving them food and bringing them brand-new clothing to replace the belongings they were not allowed to bring from Israel. No help comes from the P.A.

SO WHAT WERE THESE GUYS DOING IN ISRAEL?

After 16 years of blockade, Gaza’s economy has collapsed. Gazans buy Israeli work permits so as to get jobs as labourers in construction or hospitality. These permits, valid for one month, are purchased from specialised companies and cost 3,000 NIS. Gazan workers earn 6000 NIS monthly for 45 hour weeks. Israelis would be paid around 20,000 shekels for doing an equivalent job. These migrant workers have no health insurance or job security. They have to be married, too.

Women migrant workers find jobs in factories or in agriculture. Manual labour is the only option available to people from Gaza. One of the workers we spoke to has a degree in engineering, one qualified as a social worker and another was a teacher.

Visits to their wives and families are possible at weekends, and they try to return at least twice a month. Travel through the Eretz crossing involves a long wait of up to 12 hours, the crossing opens at 4am on a Sunday morning to let them through. Everything is checked, and they can’t take clothes through, so clothing has to be bought (at high expense) in Israel.

The guards at the border can deny entry at will to anyone, whether or not they have a permit. Israeli intelligence often interrogates and threatens the workers, hoping to add them to the network of informers in Gaza.

THE LUCKY ONES

We were told that around 1,500  migrant workers are still detained or missing in Israel. Their families in Gaza were asking for information about them.

We heard that, when Israel declared war, one of the employers of Gazan workers informed the police that the people working for him were terrorists. We saw a video of corpses after the police intervention. The people shot were colleagues of one of the men we spoke to. Here are their names:

Hashim Barawi (killed)

Suliman Al Atar (killed)

Hary Al Masry (location unknown)

Sahel AL Masry

Nabil Al Barrawi (injured)

Talal Warshasha (injured)

The workers intend to use every legal means possible to obtain justice.

NOT WAR BUT EXTERMINATION

The situation these men are in is difficult, but they are distraught about the situation in Gaza and worried about their families. “My son works with the emergency services, Israel bombed his ambulance, the driver was killed and my son is injured.” “My building was bombed, and my wife and kids are now living in a tent.” “I keep phoning my wife, but there is no answer.”

They denounce the lies and hypocrisy of the international community in its support for Israel. Western countries talk about law and democracy, but they respect neither. How can they support this massacre, this lack of humanity?

One of the men sums it up: This is not war, it is extermination.

Despite the atrocious, immoral position of the countries whose passports we hold, only one man didn’t greet us warmly. Hearing we were from European countries, he said he didn’t want to be in the same room as us.

I was totally sincere when I replied that I understood his feelings, that we are in Palestine because of our countries’ responsibility in the destruction of Palestine, because we don’t agree with Europe’s policies and that we would like to do what we can to tell people  about what is happening here. If you’ve read this far, please help us in getting the word out and stopping this genocide.

October 15, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel plans using new mass-killing bombs during Gaza aggression: US journalist

Press TV | October 15, 2023

American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed that the Israeli military plans to use a new version of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs capable of killing all people within “one-half mile” from the dropping site during the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

According to Hersh, the attack is scheduled between Sunday and Monday.

“The current Israeli war planners are convinced, the insider told me, that the upgraded version of JDAMs with larger warheads would penetrate deep enough underground before detonating – thirty to fifty meters – with the blast and resulting sound wave ‘killing all within one-half mile’ … depending on the efficacy the forced expulsion of Gazi City and south proceeds, with a ground invasion to follow immediately,” Hersh said on his Substack column.

Earlier this week, Hersh warned in another report that an Israeli “national security veteran” said that the occupation is pondering whether to use a “Leningrad approach” to starve out “Hamas forces” in Gaza and avoid an invasion, something the source said may lead to the murder of nearly 100,000 civilians.

“The big debate today… is whether to starve Hamas out or kill as many as 100,000 people in Gaza,” adding that, “Hamas now only has a two or three-day supply of purified water and that, along with a lack of food … may be enough to flush all the Hamas [forces] out,” he said then citing the source.

The Israeli regime keeps pounding the densely-populated Gaza Strip relentlessly for the 9th day in a row, killing civilians and reducing buildings in the besieged Palestinian territory to rubble.

In one of the latest strikes, the regime killed 27 Palestinians in Jabaliya, north of the Gaza Strip.

Over 2,450 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 wounded. Over 700 children are among the dead.

At least 15 hospitals have been damaged by Israeli shelling and air raids.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says at least 21 Israelis and foreigners held by the group were also killed in airstrikes.

The territory remains under Israel’s complete siege with no access to electricity, water, food, and medicines.

Raising the alarm on the Israeli atrocities, the Civil Defense spokesperson in Gaza has confirmed that 90% of the Israeli bombings targeted homes and residential buildings.

The United Nations recently stated that the ongoing aggression on the Strip had destroyed over 5,540 housing units and 3,750 were damaged and rendered uninhabitable.

The developments come as water and medical supplies are running out across Gaza, and the health sector is on the brink of collapse due to the blockade.

Palestine will not leave their land despite barbaric Israeli crimes: Hamas chief

Head of Hamas political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh says Palestinian people will never leave their land despite the recent Israeli bloodshed in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh said Palestinians have a country and their country is Palestine.

The Hamas official said the people of Palestine will not emigrate from their land despite the Israeli regime’s barbaric crimes to eliminate the roots of Palestinian people.

Haniyeh said the return of Palestinian people to their ancestral land is close given that the regime’s plan which is assisted by the US is doomed to fail.

The remarks come as the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom have shown strong support for Israeli aggression.

Haniyeh has accused Israel of committing war crimes and preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Haniyeh praised the military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades for carrying out the operation against the Israeli regime.

Israel dropped equivalent to a quarter of a nuclear bomb

Meanwhile, the Euro-Med Monitor said the Tel Aviv regime’s aggression has included the dropping of more than 6,000 bombs on the densely populated area with over two million residents.

The Geneva-based organization stated that Israel’s relentless aerial and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip had turned it into a hellhole where death and destruction prevail in extremely complex humanitarian conditions.

Basic services such as electricity, water, communications, and the internet are in short supply, posing unprecedented and serious threats to food security.

Civilian residents in Gaza find themselves with no shelter, fleeing from one form of death to another in an inhumane reality.

The Israeli army has executed thousands of airstrikes and artillery strikes around the clock, targeting residential neighborhoods and multi-story buildings housing the population in the Gaza Strip.

The Euro-Med Monitor emphasized that Israel continues to intensify its airstrikes and artillery attacks all over the Gaza Strip, including the complete destruction of residential neighborhoods, resulting in the annihilation of at least 82 families in horrific collective killings.

The international human rights monitor documented that Israel’s attacks have destroyed 2,650 residential buildings and severely damaged approximately 70,000 residential units. In addition, 65 government buildings were destroyed.

Israel’s attacks also caused destruction to at least 71 schools, the destruction of 145 industrial facilities, 61 media headquarters, the demolition of 18 mosques, and the damage to dozens of ancient churches and mosques.

The Gaza Strip was already experiencing a wide-scale displacement as a result of Israel’s attacks.

In the absence of a safe haven, tens of thousands of civilians sought refuge in hospitals to protect themselves from Israel’s attacks.

In addition to this, the Israeli army has been intimidating the residents of the Gaza and northern regions by warning them of collective evacuations from their residential areas.

The Euro-Med Monitor highlighted that the evacuation warnings for civilians in Gaza were made without any announcement of halting air raids and aerial attacks and without any safety or return guarantees, amounting to a war crime in the form of forced transfer.

In light of the current events, Euro-Med questioned the position of the The Hague-based International Criminal Court, which initiated in recent years an investigation into the occurrence of crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories without any tangible results so far.

October 15, 2023 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

LAWLESS IN GAZA: WHY BRITAIN AND THE WEST BACK ISRAEL’S CRIMES

As Western politicians line up to cheer on Israel as it starves Gaza’s civilians and plunges them into darkness to soften them up before the coming Israeli ground invasion, it is important to understand how we reached this point – and what it portends for the future.

BY JONATHAN COOK | DECLASSIFIED UK | OCTOBER 13, 2023

More than a decade ago, Israel started to understand that its occupation of Gaza through siege could be to its advantage. It began transforming the tiny coastal enclave from an albatross around its neck into a valuable portfolio in the trading game of international power politics.

The first benefit for Israel, and its Western allies, is more discussed than the second.

The tiny strip of land hugging the eastern Mediterranean coast was turned into a mix of testing ground and shop window.

Israel could use Gaza to develop all sorts of new technologies and strategies associated with the homeland security industries burgeoning across the West, as officials there grew increasingly worried about domestic unrest, sometimes referred to as populism.

The siege of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, imposed by Israel in 2007 following the election of Hamas to rule the enclave, allowed for all sorts of experiments.

How could the population best be contained? What restrictions could be placed on their diet and lifestyle? How were networks of informers and collaborators to be recruited from afar? What effect did the population’s entrapment and repeated bombardment have on social and political relations?

And ultimately how were Gaza’s inhabitants to be kept subjugated and an uprising prevented?

The answers to those questions were made available to Western allies through Israel’s shopping portal. Items available included interception rocket systems, electronic sensors, surveillance systems, drones, facial recognition, automated gun towers, and much more. All tested in real-life situations in Gaza.

Israel’s standing took a severe dent from the fact that Palestinians managed to bypass this infrastructure of confinement last weekend – at least for a few days – with a rusty bulldozer, some hang-gliders and a sense of nothing-to-lose.

Which is part of the reason why Israel now needs to go back into Gaza with ground troops to show it still has the means to keep the Palestinians crushed.

Collective punishment

Which brings us to the second purpose served by Gaza.

As Western states have grown increasingly unnerved by signs of popular unrest at home, they have started to think more carefully about how to sidestep the restrictions placed on them by international law.

The term refers to a body of laws that were formalised in the aftermath of the second world war, when both sides treated civilians on the other side of the battle lines as little more than pawns on a chessboard.

The aim of those drafting international law was to make it unconscionable for there to be a repeat of Nazi atrocities in Europe, as well as other crimes such as Britain’s fire bombing of German cities like Dresden or the United States’ dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

One of the fundamentals of international law – at the heart of the Geneva Conventions – is a prohibition on collective punishment: that is, retaliating against the enemy’s civilian population, making them pay the price for the acts of their leaders and armies.

Very obviously, Gaza is about as flagrant a violation of this prohibition as can be found. Even in “quiet” times, its inhabitants – one million of them children – are denied the most basic freedoms, such as the right to movement; access to proper health care because medicines and equipment cannot be brought in; access to drinkable water; and the use of electricity for much of the day because Israel keeps bombing Gaza’s power station.

Israel has never made any bones of the fact that it is punishing the people of Gaza for being ruled by Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to have dispossessed the Palestinians of their homeland in 1948 and imprisoned them in overcrowded ghettos like Gaza.

What Israel is doing to Gaza is the very definition of collective punishment. It is a war crime: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of every year, for 16 years.

And yet no one in the so-called international community seems to have noticed.

Rules of war rewritten

But the trickiest legal situation – for Israel and the West – is when Israel bombs Gaza, as it is doing now, or sends in soldiers, as it soon will do.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the problem when he told the people of Gaza: “Leave now”. But, as he and Western leaders know, Gaza’s inhabitants have nowhere to go, nowhere to escape the bombs. So any Israeli attack is, by definition, on the civilian population too. It is the modern equivalent of the Dresden fire bombings.

Israel has been working on strategies to overcome this difficulty since its first major bombardment of Gaza in late 2008, after the siege was introduced.

A unit in its attorney general’s office was charged with finding ways to rewrite the rules of war in Israel’s favour.

At the time, the unit was concerned that Israel would be criticised for blowing up a police graduation ceremony in Gaza, killing many young cadets. Police are civilians in international law, not soldiers, and therefore not a legitimate target. Israeli lawyers were also worried that Israel had destroyed government offices, the infrastructure of Gaza’s civilian administration.

Israel’s concerns seem quaint now – a sign of how far it has already shifted the dial on international law. For some time, anyone connected with Hamas, however tangentially, is considered a legitimate target, not just by Israel but by every Western government.

Western officials have joined Israel in treating Hamas as simply a terrorist organisation, ignoring that it is also a government with people doing humdrum tasks like making sure bins are collected and schools kept open.

Or as Orna Ben-Naftali, a law faculty dean, told the Haaretz newspaper back in 2009: “A situation is created in which the majority of the adult men in Gaza and the majority of the buildings can be treated as legitimate targets. The law has actually been stood on its head.”

Back at that time, David Reisner, who had previously headed the unit, explained Israel’s philosophy to Haaretz: “What we are seeing now is a revision of international law. If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it.

“The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries.”

Israel’s meddling to change international law goes back many decades.

Referring to Israel’s attack on Iraq’s fledgling nuclear reactor in 1981, an act of war condemned by the UN Security Council, Reisner said: “The atmosphere was that Israel had committed a crime. Today everyone says it was preventive self-defence. International law progresses through violations.”

He added that his team had travelled to the US four times in 2001 to persuade US officials of Israel’s ever-more flexible interpretation of international law towards subjugating Palestinians.

“Had it not been for those four planes, I am not sure we would have been able to develop the thesis of the war against terrorism on the present scale,” he said.

Those redefinitions of the rules of war proved invaluable when the US chose to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq.

‘Human animals’

In recent years, Israel has continued to “evolve” international law. It has introduced the concept of “prior warning” – sometimes giving a few minutes’ notice of a building or neighbourhood’s destruction. Vulnerable civilians still in the area, like the elderly, children and the disabled, are then recast as legitimate targets for failing to leave in time.

And it is using the current assault on Gaza to change the rules still further.

The 2009 Haaretz article includes references by law officials to Yoav Gallant, who was then the military commander in charge of Gaza. He was described as a “wild man”, a “cowboy” with no time for legal niceties.

Gallant is now defence minister and the man responsible for instituting this week a “complete siege” of Gaza: “No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel – everything is closed.” In language that blurred any distinction between Hamas and Gaza’s civilians, he described Palestinians as “human animals”.

That takes collective punishment into a whole different realm. In terms of international law, it skirts into the territory of genocide, both rhetorically and substantively.

But the dial has shifted so completely that even centrist Western politicians are cheering Israel on – often not even calling for “restraint” or “proportionality”, the weasel terms they usually use to obscure their support for law breaking.

Britain has been leading the way in helping Israel to rewrite the rulebook on international law.

Listen to Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour opposition and the man almost certain to be Britain’s next prime minister. This week he supported the “complete siege” of Gaza, a crime against humanity, refashioning it as Israel’s “right to defend itself”.

Starmer has not failed to grasp the legal implications of Israel’s actions, even if he seems personally immune to the moral implications. He is trained as a human rights lawyer.

His approach even appears to be taking aback journalists not known for being sympathetic to the Palestinian case. When asked by Kay Burley of Sky News if he had any sympathy for the civilians in Gaza being treated like “human animals”, Starmer could not find a single thing to say in support.

Instead, he deflected to an outright deception: blaming Hamas for sabotaging a “peace process” that Israel both practically and declaratively buried years ago.

Confirming that the Labour party now condones war crimes by Israel, his shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, has been sticking to the same script. On BBC’s Newsnight, she evaded questions about whether cutting off power and supplies to Gaza is in line with international law.

It is no coincidence that Starmer’s position contrasts so dramatically with that of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. The latter was driven out of office by a sustained campaign of antisemitism smears fomented by Israel’s most fervent supporters in the UK.

Starmer does not dare to be seen on the wrong side of this issue. And that is exactly the outcome Israeli officials wanted and expected.

Israeli flag on No 10

Starmer is, of course, far from alone. Grant Shapps, Britain’s defence secretary, has also expressed trenchant support for Israel’s policy of starving two million Palestinians in Gaza.

Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, has emblazoned the Israeli flag on the front of his official residence, 10 Downing Street, apparently unconcerned at how he is giving visual form to what would normally be considered an antisemitic trope: that Israel controls the UK’s foreign policy.

Starmer, not wishing to be outdone, has called for Wembley stadium’s arch to be adorned with the colours of the Israeli flag.

“The media is playing its part, dependably as ever“

However much this schoolboy cheerleading of Israel is sold as an act of solidarity following Hamas’ slaughter of Israeli civilians at the weekend, the subtext is unmistakeable: Britain has Israel’s back as it starts its retributive campaign of war crimes in Gaza.

That is also the purpose of home secretary Suella Braverman’s advice to the police to treat the waving of Palestinian flags and chants for Palestine’s liberation at protests in support of Gaza as criminal acts.

The media is playing its part, dependably as ever. A Channel 4 TV crew pursued Corbyn through London’s streets this week, demanding he “condemn” Hamas. They insinuated through the framing of those demands that anything less fulsome – such as Corbyn’s additional concerns for the welfare of Gaza’s civilians – was confirmation of the former Labour leader’s antisemitism.

The clear implication from politicians and the establishment media is that any support for Palestinian rights, any demurral from Israel’s “unquestionable right” to commit war crimes, equates to antisemitism.

Europe’s hypocrisy

This double approach, of cheering on genocidal Israeli policies towards Gaza while stifling any dissent, or characterising it as antisemitism, is not confined to the UK.

Across Europe, from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Bulgarian parliament, official buildings have been lit up with the Israeli flag.

Europe’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, celebrated the Israeli flag smothering the EU parliament this week.

She has repeatedly stated that “Europe stands with Israel”, even as Israeli war crimes start to mount.

The Israeli air force boasted on Thursday it had dropped some 6,000 bombs on Gaza. At the same time, human rights groups reported Israel was firing the incendiary chemical weapon white phosphorus into Gaza, a war crime when used in urban areas. And Defence for Children International noted that more than 500 Palestinian children had been killed so far by Israeli bombs.

It was left to Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied territories, to point out that Von Der Leyen was applying the principles of international law entirely inconsistently.

Almost exactly a year ago, the European Commission president denounced Russia’s strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine as war crimes. “Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming – these are acts of pure terror,” she wrote. “And we have to call it as such.”

Albanese noted Von der Leyen had said nothing equivalent about Israel’s even worse attacks on Palestinian infrastructure.

Sending in the heavies

Meanwhile, France has already started breaking up and banning demonstrations against the bombing of Gaza. Its justice minister has echoed Braverman in suggesting solidarity with Palestinians risks offending Jewish communities and should be treated as “hate speech”.

Naturally, Washington is unwavering in its support for whatever Israel decides to do to Gaza, as secretary of state Anthony Blinken made clear during his visit this week.

President Joe Biden has promised weapons and funding, and sent in the military equivalent of “the heavies” to make sure no one disturbs Israel as it carries out those war crimes. An aircraft carrier has been dispatched to the region to ensure quiet from Israel’s neighbours as the ground invasion is launched.

Even those officials whose chief role is to promote international law, such as Antonio Gutteres, secretary general of the UN, have started to move with the shifting ground.

Like most Western officials, he has emphasised Gaza’s “humanitarian needs” above the rules of war Israel is obliged to honour.

This is Israel’s success. The language of international law that should apply to Gaza – of rules and norms Israel must obey – has given way to, at best, the principles of humanitarianism: acts of international charity to patch up the suffering of those whose rights are being systematically trampled on, and those whose lives are being obliterated.

Western officials are more than happy with the direction of travel. Not just for Israel’s sake but for their own too. Because one day in the future, their own populations may be as much trouble to them as Palestinians in Gaza are to Israel right now.

Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself is their downpayment.

October 15, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Progressive Hypocrite, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Chinese FM says Israel’s actions go beyond self-defense, calls to avoid collective punishment of Gaza people

By Chen Qingqing | Global Times | October 15, 2023

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said Israel’s actions have gone beyond the scope of self-defense, expressing concerns about the escalating Israel-Palestine conflict as Israel ordered one million people from the northern part of Gaza to evacuate within 24 hours as it prepared for a ground assault.

In his phone call with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China opposes and condemns all acts that harm civilians, as they violate basic human conscience and the fundamental principles of international law.

Israel’s actions go beyond the scope of self-defense. It should heed the calls of the international community and the UN Secretary-General and avoid collective punishment of the people of Gaza, Wang said.

Israel was preparing on Saturday to launch a ground assault in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, after telling Palestinians living in the densely populated territory to flee south toward a closed border with Egypt, Reuters reported.

Israeli national security adviser meanwhile warned Lebanese militant group Hezbollah not to start a war on a second front, threatening the “destruction of Lebanon” if it did, according to the media report.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that the relocation of Gaza residents from the north to the south “is extremely dangerous – and in some cases, simply not possible.”

The Chinese Foreign Minister said all parties should not take any actions that escalate the situation, and instead should return to the negotiation table as soon as possible. China is actively communicating with all parties to push for a ceasefire. The immediate priority is to ensure the safety of civilians, quickly open humanitarian rescue channels, and meet the basic needs of the people of Gaza, Wang said.

China’s special envoy on the Middle East Affairs Zhai Jun will visit relevant countries in the Middle East next week to further strengthen coordination with all parties, he was quoted as saying in media reports on Sunday.

The Israel-Palestine conflict continues to escalate. Armed conflicts have erupted at the Israel-Lebanon and Israel-Syria borders, and the spill-over effects on the regional and international community are spreading, Zhai noted. The international community must remain highly vigilant and collectively manage and control the situation to prevent it from spiraling out of control, he said.

China has always maintained that force is never the solution. Resorting to violence will only lead to a vicious cycle of retribution, creating further obstacles to a political resolution, Zhai noted. And it is imperative to cease fire and violence promptly, cool down the situation, and thus pave the way for a political solution.

Since the onset of this round of conflict, China has been actively communicating and coordinating with relevant parties. China’s special envoy recently had phone conversations with foreign ministers and officials from Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others.

They all hope to end the hostilities, condemn acts that harm civilians, and avoid humanitarian disasters. They also hope to restore the Middle East peace process, Zhai revealed.

Currently, several Chinese citizens remain in the Gaza Strip, he said. In recent days, our overseas institutions have maintained close contact with them, providing safety guidance and support, assisting them in moving to the southern part of Gaza, and striving for their early evacuation to safe areas.

So far, four Chinese nationals have been killed, six are receiving treatment in local hospitals, and two are missing in the latest conflict.

October 15, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Army Kills A Palestinian Child In Tulkarem

IMEMC | OCTOBER 14, 2023

On Saturday, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian child in Zeita town, north of Tulkarem, in the occupied West Bank’s northwestern part.

The Palestinian Health Ministry has confirmed that the soldiers killed Omar Ahmad Abdul-Rahman Asmar, 15, after shooting him with live fire.

The child was among many wounded Palestinians during protests that took place after several Israeli army vehicles invaded the town.

His death brings the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli army fire in Tulkarem on Friday and Saturday to six, in addition to dozens of injuries.


On Saturday dawn, Israeli soldiers killed Mahmoud Shehada, 27, injured three, including one who suffered serious wounds, and abducted six in Jericho, in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank.

Also at dawn, Israeli soldiers killed a young Palestinian man, Abdul-Rahman Ribhi Al-Ammouri, in a car near Al-Isawiya town junction, northeast of the occupied Palestinian capital Jerusalem, in the West Bank.

On Saturday dawn, as the Israeli army continued to fire hundreds of missiles and shells at homes and buildings in the Gaza Strip, including a busy marker in the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

The Health Ministry has confirmed that the extensive Israeli bombing Saturday has killed 315 Palestinians, including 90 children, and injured 1788, mainly women and children.

It added that 2215 Palestinians, including 724 children and 458 women, have been killed, and 8714 Palestinians, including 2450 children and 1536 women, have been injured as the Israeli onslaught on Gaza entered its eighth day.

On Friday, the soldiers killed fifteen Palestinians, including two children, in several parts of the occupied West Bank Friday.

October 14, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 8: Death toll from Israeli war on Gaza climbs to 2,269, including over 700 children

A Palestinian man carries a wounded girl at the site of Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 14, 2023. (Photo by Reuters)
Press TV – October 14, 2023

At least 2,269 people, including over 700 Palestinian children, have been killed as the Israeli war on the besieged Gaza rages on.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced in a statement on Saturday that 2,269 Palestinians lost their lives and another 9,814 were injured ever since the Israeli strikes began on October 7. More than 700 children are among the fatalities.

This comes as more than 420,000 people are displaced within the Gaza Strip. A total of 270,374 out of 423,378 internally displaced people are now in UN shelters and schools.

At least 15 hospitals have been damaged by Israeli shelling and air raids.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says its shelters in the enclave “are not safe anymore” and warns that water is running out for the 2.3 million residents of the blockaded territory.

Israeli strike at school in Jabalia kills at least 27 Palestinians

Renewed Israeli airstrikes near a school on Saturday afternoon have killed more than 20 Palestinians.

According the media office of the Gaza-based Interior Ministry, The attack targeted areas adjacent to al-Fakhura School in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, leaving at least 27 civilians, including children, dead.

The Israeli air raids also resulted in the injury of more than 80 people.

Gaza hospitals given final warning to be evacuated or bombed

Furthermore, a Palestinian doctor said the Israeli military has given them a final notice to leave hospitals in northern Gaza before they start bombing them.

Sohaib al-Hems said staff of al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia and the General Services Hospital in Gaza City are refusing to leave.

“We will die in the hospitals. More than 27 ambulances have been targeted just now, and dozens of medical staff and patients have been killed,” Hems said. “Do not stay silent over what’s happening in Gaza. We will not forgive you.”

UN: Water runs out in Gaza

The United Nations also said more than two million people are risk in Gaza as water runs out.

It has become a matter of “life and death,” Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, said.

According the UNRWA, no humanitarian supplies have been allowed into Gaza since last Saturday.

“Fuel needs to be delivered now into Gaza to make water available for 2 million people,” Lazzarini said.

“If not, people will start dying of severe dehydration, among them young children, the elderly and women. Water is now the last remaining lifeline. I appeal for the siege on humanitarian assistance to be lifted now,” he added.

Clean and drinking water is running out, forcing people to use dirty water from wells and increasing risks of waterborne diseases, the UNRWA noted.

Water supply has also been impacted by the total electricity blackout imposed by Israel since October 11.

October 14, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli strikes hit Gaza evacuation convoys – Hamas

RT | October 14, 2023

Dozens of people, mostly women and children, have been injured and killed in Israeli airstrikes on evacuation convoys fleeing Gaza City, according to Hamas officials. The IDF has yet to respond to the accusations, after ordering more than 1 million people to leave the northern part of the enclave “to save their lives.”

The UN humanitarian body, OCHA, said several “vehicles of those evacuating the north were hit, killing more than 40 people and injuring 150 others,” citing data from health officials in the Hamas-governed Palestinian enclave.

“These incidents prompted many people to abandon their evacuation efforts and return home,” the UN agency added, as “heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted.”

Hamas’ media office claimed on Friday that airstrikes hit civilian cars in three separate locations, allegedly killing 70 people. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that Al-Shifa Medical Complex was treating “dozens of victims” injured “as a result of the Israeli occupation forces targeting citizens who were forced to leave their homes.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has yet to comment on the allegations, and it is unclear whether militants were among the passengers of the convoys.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled south after Israel issued an order on Thursday night, initially giving Gaza residents 24 hours to evacuate from the north to “save their lives” ahead of an expected ground offensive, according to the UN. Prior to the evacuation order, more than 400,000 Palestinians had already been internally displaced.

The IDF called the evacuation order a “humanitarian step,” claiming that the residents would be able to return to Gaza City after Hamas militants were eradicated. The military did not mention any specific deadline, with a spokesperson acknowledging the evacuation would take “some time.”

Israel has faced widespread criticism from human rights organizations for the forced relocation order, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urging West Jerusalem to reconsider it, insisting that “even wars have rules” and telling all sides to respect international humanitarian norms.

“Moving more than 1 million people across a densely populated warzone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation when the entire territory is under siege, is extremely dangerous and, in some cases, simply not possible,” Guterres said on X (formerly Twitter) early Saturday morning.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also appealed to Israel to “immediately rescind orders for the evacuation of over 1 million people living north of Wadi Gaza,” saying that a “mass evacuation would be disastrous – for patients, health workers and other civilians left behind or caught in the mass movement.”

“With ongoing airstrikes and closed borders, civilians have no safe place to go,” the WHO said on Friday.

October 14, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Putin compares ‘unacceptable’ Gaza blockade to Nazi siege of Leningrad

Press TV – October 13, 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip as “unacceptable,” comparing it to the Nazi blockade of Leningrad during World War II.

Israel is now about to do something that is “comparable to the siege of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War,” Putin told journalists in Kyrgyzstan on Friday. “In my opinion, this is unacceptable.”

Putin also warned the regime against hurting civilians in Gaza, stressing that “hardly anyone will agree” with Israel’s siege of Gaza due to the civilian casualties incurred in it.

“By the way, all of us hear – we will discuss this informally – we hear about preparations for a ground operation in Gaza. But you and I understand how it is, quite semi-professionally speaking, the use of heavy equipment in residential areas is a complicated matter fraught with serious consequences for all sides. And it is even more difficult to carry out these operations without equipment in residential areas. But the most important thing is that civilian casualties will be absolutely unacceptable,” he said.

“More than two million people live there, and not all of them support Hamas, by the way,” the Russian leader said.

“We proceed from the fact that there is no alternative to a negotiated solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Their goal should be the realization of the UN two-state formula, which envisages the creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, existing in peace and security with Israel,” he said.

He also said Israel has responded to Hamas operation with “quite brutal methods.”

Israel has been constantly bombing Gaza since Saturday, when Hamas launched a surprise operation in response to the regime’s atrocities.

Israel used banned white phosphorus munitions against desperate people in Gaza, a human rights monitor said.

The Health Ministry in Gaza announced on Friday that at least 1,799 Palestinians, including 583 children, and 351 women have been martyred so far. More than 7,000 Palestinians have also been wounded in the bombardment.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have also been displaced as a result of the regime’s relentless and indiscriminate attacks.

At least 423,000 people have now been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said.

The coastal territory remains under Israel’s complete siege with no access to electricity, water, food, and medicines.

Various governments have warned over Israel’s indiscriminate bombings targeting Gaza, where 2.3 million Palestinians are trapped in what is described as the world’s biggest open-air prison.

Iran has called for global action to halt attacks by the apartheid regime against Gazans and prevent a genocide of innocent people there.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Israel is committing a massacre in the besieged strip. Erdogan said Israel is trying to portray its bombing civilians as proof of its skills.

China’s envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun called for “an immediate ceasefire” to the conflict during a phone call with a Palestinian official, the Chinese foreign ministry said Wednesday.

October 14, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

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