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Environmentalists: Gaza’s Water, Farmland ‘Will Be Unusable’ if Israel Floods Tunnels With Seawater

By Fantine Gardinier – Sputnik – 05.12.2023

Gaza’s fragile ecosystem could be permanently damaged by a huge influx of salty seawater like that which Israel is considering pumping into the city, experts said. Some of the deepest tunnels dug by Hamas and other militant groups could be near groundwater depths, souring the area’s drinking water.

According to reports in US media on Tuesday, Israel has pushed ahead with plans to flood Gaza City with seawater in an attempt to destroy the network of tunnels dug beneath the city by Palestinian militant groups.

According to the report, the IDF finished assembling five massive seawater pumps north of the Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip in mid-November. The plan is reportedly to flood the tunnels slowly over several weeks, giving Palestinian fighters and their Israeli captives time to safely evacuate.

The report was unclear about the disposition of the White House toward the plan. The Biden administration has largely supported Israel’s actions in Gaza as self-defense against Hamas, but given rhetorical warning against violating Palestinian human rights. The warnings have had little effect, though, as nearly 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by IDF bombing and ground operations since Hamas attacked several Israeli border towns in early October, killing some 1,200 people.

Andrey Frolov, co-chair of Moscow’s Environmental Organizations, told Sputnik on Tuesday that an influx of salty seawater could wreck Gaza’s fragile ecosystem, making it difficult to sustain life there.

“When water comes in, it all depends of course, depending on the scale of the disaster. That is, what kind of tunnels are they, where are they laid and what is their size. Because the first thing that immediately catches your eye is that if the tunnels are shallow, say, two to three meters deep, then this will simply undermine the foundations of buildings. When moisture enters, the stability of the soil changes, subsidence begins, and accordingly, it will just begin [to collapse]. Israel has already destroyed the entire city, so I think that for them it is not important.”

“There is information that these tunnels are hundreds of square kilometers in size and go to a depth of up to 80 meters,” he noted, adding that it was probably “a bit of an exaggeration.”

Frolov noted “it depends on the waters” how the influx of salty seawater would affect the fresh groundwater. Some of the deepest tunnels rumored to have been dug in Gaza could be near the depths of the aquifers.

“Because seawater can get into these aquifers it will make them salty. As a result, those wells that were used in Gaza will simply stop working. The territory was already short on water, Israel supplied water from the Sea of ​​Galilee. If a large amount of sea water is pumped into it, it will simply become unusable.”

He noted the salt will also impact agriculture in Gaza, making it “so that any kind of farming or maintaining green spaces will simply be impossible.”

“Our nature lives in biocenosis. That is, it is a complex of living beings that adapt to a certain habitat. If the biocenosis is salted and the living conditions are changed, then some species simply will not be able to live there. And if one, two, three species stop living, then the entire biocenosis crumbles,” he explained.

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December 5, 2023 Posted by | Environmentalism, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Top Defense Official: US Can Handle Middle East, Russia and China All at Once

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | December 5, 2023

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Christopher Grady said the Pentagon was prepared to fight a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, aid the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, and arm Taiwan for a potential war with China. The Admiral argued all the military efforts could be completed simultaneously and the Navy was not stretched thin.

At an Atlantic Council event, Grady said, “You look at what is required to support Ukraine, look at what might be required to support our partner in Israel, and then, of course, you put Taiwan on top of that—we have the construct that we do with combatant commanders and the rest that should allow us to command and control those three things all at one time.” He continued, “It’s part of our campaigning process, which is central to the national defense strategy. Is it challenging? Sure.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Biden administration pledged to give Ukraine the weapons needed to win the war. Over the past 19 months, Washington has sent Kiev tens of billions in arms.

Over the past two months, Washington has sent Tel Aviv 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells. Israel has targeted civilian homes with American-made bombs. However, the White House has refused to place any conditions on the aid it sends to Tel Aviv.

The transfers have stretched American weapons depots to their redline levels. The shortage has led the White House to send cluster variants of artillery shells to both Ukraine and Israel.

In addition to arms transfers, the US has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers to Eastern Europe to train Ukrainian troops and facilitate weapons shipments to Kiev. In the Middle East region, the White House deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups.

Grady’s belief that the US could fight a three-front war is White House policy. President Joe Biden is pushing Congress to pass a $106 billion funding package to fund arming Ukraine, Israel, and a military buildup in the Asia-Pacific.

The Admiral also indicated that military-to-military talks between the US and China may start soon. “So we’re ready when they are and I suspect we’ll see that shortly, “he said.

During a meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, the two leaders agreed to resume military-to-military communications. However, the US has engaged in a pair of provocative naval maneuvers in the South China Sea to challenge Beijing’s territorial claims.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Russophobia, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel can’t defeat Hamas in battle, so what’s next?

By Robert Inlakesh | RT | December 5, 2023

After a seven-day lull in the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, the resumption of hostilities has been given another green light from Washington. Having failed to lead its Israeli allies towards military victory, the US is permitting a dangerous escalation and rejects a peaceful solution that will prevent further civilian suffering.

Just minutes after the departure of US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, from Palestine/Israel, the war in Gaza resumed, with a large aerial onslaught on Palestinian civilian infrastructure resulting in the deaths of nearly 200 civilians. The White House spokesperson John Kirby announced continued support for Israel’s “right and responsibility to go after Hamas,” but to what end is unclear. As the likes of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak admits that Hamas is far from falling apart, it begs the question: what really is the point of this war?

Following six weeks of war that resulted in likely over 20,000 Palestinian deaths, the Israeli military has failed to produce any evidence that it has made a significant dent on the military capabilities of Hamas and the other Palestinian armed groups in the besieged coastal enclave. While Israel forced its way into the major hospitals in northern Gaza, claiming that Hamas was using the sites as bases and command-and-control centers, the evidence produced by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) does not support these allegations. The US government backed the idea that a command node had existed at the Shifa Hospital, and when the Israeli forces entered the hospital compound they presented weapons they claimed to have found there, as well as an empty tunnel. Any such images released to the public are curated and edited by the Israeli army, but if independently verified, they could serve as evidence of militant presence – still, not proof of a control center or node. Little of note was discovered in other hospitals, and American claims of having solid intel that confirms Israeli claims is dubious, considering previous public statements such as US President Joe Biden’s words about having seen “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children” which the White House later had to walk back.

At the start of this war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his government was going to “crush Hamas,” a goal that the US government backed publicly. Yet, Hamas has managed to not only inflict the largest blow against Israel in its history, but has also defended Gaza on the ground with countless documented cases of success against Israeli forces. The whole world is now talking about the formation of a Palestinian State, an idea that had been all but abandoned in favor of unconditional normalization agreements between Arab States and Israel, prior to the war. In addition to this, one of the predictable outcomes of the Israeli war on Gaza, has been a tremendous uptick in support for Hamas throughout the occupied territories. In the Middle East and throughout the Muslim World, Hamas militants have become heroes and are widely viewed as a valiant national resistance.

The Saudi-Israeli normalization deal, which the Biden administration’s Middle East policy revolved around, is dead in the water at this time as Riyadh moves closer to Tehran. According to Israeli polling data, Benjamin Netanyahu is only trusted by 4% of Israelis, while the most trusted national figure was recorded to be Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari. Hagari, despite being trusted by Israelis, was turned into the “there is a list guy” and an online meme, after presenting a video in which he claimed a regular Arabic calendar named “terrorists”. That video, in which he referred to the list, was supposed to show evidence of Hamas keeping hostages at the Rantisi Children’s Hospital.

At least 10 countries have either withdrawn ambassadors from, or suspended ties with, Israel. All this as the largest pro-Palestinian protests to have ever taken place in the West continue to occur in capital cities like London and Washington DC. This, combined with a considerable drop in Joe Biden’s approval rating, all spell disaster for the US-supported war in Gaza.

The White House claims that it is putting certain restrictions on the Israeli army as it plans to invade the south of Gaza, but in the same breath offers unconditional support for Israel’s actions. At no point has the US government taken any responsibility for what has happened since October 7, there has been no apology for their lies, no change in strategy and no acknowledgement in the role that Washington has played in creating the situation on the ground in Gaza that facilitated the Hamas attack.

The real question now is: Where do we go from here? Israel aimlessly fights in Gaza and continues to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians, there is no sign of a Hamas defeat on the horizon and the humanitarian situation, which is described as “the worst ever” by UN Relief Chief Martin Griffiths, is further deteriorating. While these elements are all to be taken seriously, there is also the specter of a regional war erupting in the event that the Israeli attack escalates against Gaza. Lebanese Hezbollah is currently engaged in frequent battles along the Lebanese border and has been expanding the scope of its attacks on Israeli military targets.

The prisoner exchanges which took place between Israel and Hamas proved that the Palestinian group was capable of being engaged diplomatically. The exchange also worked to expose to the world that Israel was also holding women and children captive without any charges. Israeli civilian captives who were released, the majority of whom were filmed smiling, shaking the hands of and thanking Hamas fighters upon their releases, have been blocked from speaking to the media about their experiences directly. On the other hand, Palestinian women and children recounted abuse, torture and humiliation that they had suffered at the hands of their Israeli jailers. This represented another public-relations debacle for the Israeli government, who came off looking more guilty than Hamas.

The US government is in the driver’s seat of the war. It has the power to end the conflict at any time but continues to prolong this disaster. During the seven-day pause in hostilities, nothing shifted in Israel’s favor to make its victory possible. There can be no military solution to the war in Gaza, the US must recognise that this conflict will never end until the Palestinian people are granted justice and freedom. For 75 years the governments of the collective West have ignored the suffering of the Palestinian people, they have never been objective peace-brokers. Violence begets violence and hate begets hate, it is not possible to simply murder the Palestinians into submission. Even if Hamas were to be defeated, there will be more groups that emerge to take revenge for their fallen and fight for statehood in the future. If the international community comes together, this cycle can be broken, but it is going to take courage.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the Palestinian territories and currently works with Quds News. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel clearly committing three of five acts defined as genocide: Palestinian-American lawyer

MEMO | December 5, 2023

Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip fall under the definition of genocide as it is “clearly committing three of the five genocidal acts under the international treaties,” according to Palestinian-American lawyer, Lara Elborno, Anadolu Agency reports.

In an interview with Anadolu, Elborno asserted that Israel must be held responsible “for its crimes this time.”

“If it is not held responsible for its crimes … then what does that say about not only the entire framework of international law, which was developed post World War II for the purpose of preventing and sanctioning genocide, but also the international institutions which have been established for the purpose of promoting accountability,” she said.

Failure to act now would mean that international law and institutions are “essentially obsolete, completely ineffective and should be dismantled,” she added.

On the current situation in the Gaza Strip, Elborno said Israel had expressed its intent to resume its attacks and concentrate on the southern parts of Gaza after the end of “the so-called humanitarian pause.”

She said attacks are now increasing in the southern part of Gaza, where some 1.7 million Palestinians from the north were previously forced to flee.

The number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s relentless air and ground attacks since 7 October is now nearly 15,900, with more than 42,000 others injured.

The Israeli death toll stands at 1,200, according to official figures.

“What I fear is that what we have seen in the past six weeks is going to be far superseded in this moment – in brutality, in destruction, in killing – because of the fact that Israel is focusing its mammoth airstrikes, its brutality, its destruction on the very areas where the families are sheltering” said Elborno.

‘This genocide is latest aspect of colonial violence’

She stressed that it is essential for the world to realise “what Israel is doing right now is genocide.”

“This genocide is the latest aspect of its colonial violence and domination of the Palestinian people in a 75-year-long ethnic cleansing campaign to ethnically cleanse all of Palestine from Palestinians for the benefit of the settler colony,” said Elborno.

“We must strongly condemn this, we must strongly reject this, and support freedom for all people, from the river to the sea, regardless of background.”

She said Israel’s actions fit the legal definition of genocide under the Rome Statute and also the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, also known as the Genocide Convention.

“Genocide requires intent and action. Not only have there been over 100 statements of genocidal intent expressed at the highest levels of Israeli military and governments since 7 October, but they are also clearly committing three of the five genocidal acts under the international treaties,” said Elborno.

The convention defines genocide as five acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” according to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

As Elborno explained, Israel is guilty of three of the five acts:

“Killing members of the group”, “Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

“This is not my opinion. This is the opinion of over 800 genocide scholars, over 47 state crime scholars and numerous scholars of genocide who have come out in this moment and said that Israel is committing genocide. Not only that, but the annihilation phase of genocide.”

‘They will not be able to hide’

Elborno said there is now “a sustained campaign” of efforts aimed at holding Israel and its allies accountable.

“We have seen a sustained campaign of international actions right before the International Criminal Court, attempts to organise now and lobby for a state to invoke the Genocide Convention before the International Court of Justice, attempts brought in the US to sue the Biden administration for violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention,” she said.

“We are seeing actions and we will continue to see legal actions brought, because this is genocide and they will not be able to hide in these courts of law, where they will have to respond to the substance of allegations.”

So far, when the US government has been asked “the question of genocide, they evade the question, they distract, they avoid answering it, but they will be required to respond,” she said.

“In fact, a judge has already ordered that they respond in the action in the US by 15 January. So, we’ll be following that closely to see if there will be any avenues for accountability before the legal system,” Elborno added.

Elborno, who is also an activist living in Paris, said organising pro-Palestine demonstrations is not easy in France, with authorities banning such protests and authorising violent tactics, like the use of tear gas.

“The situation in France is not easy, but despite this, the French people have come out in solidarity with Palestinians during this genocide, and they continue to show up for us at demonstrations every week,” she said.

“Everybody is doing what they can, despite the repression of the state,” she added.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Dying to be free: Releasing Palestinian captives is not a numbers game

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | December 5, 2023

There is a reason why Palestinians are keen on releasing their prisoners, despite the heavy price they continue to pay for their freedom.

It may seem rational to ask the question: what is the point of releasing a few Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons, if the price of doing so is the death of over 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza?

In fact, even if all Palestinian prisoners – numbering about 7,000 – are released, they would not even amount to 30 per cent of the total number of Palestinian dead and missing, so far, in the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Strip.

The logic may sound even more puzzling when we consider that, between 7 October and 28 November, Israel detained over 3,290 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem.

Namely, the number of Palestinian women and children detainees released – following several prisoner swaps between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli army, in the period between 24-30 November – is insignificant compared to those who were detained over the same period.

But mathematical equations are irrelevant in liberation wars. Because if we resort to this kind of logic, then, perhaps, it is more rational for colonised nations and oppressed groups not to resist in the first place, because doing so could multiply the harm inflicted upon them by their colonisers and oppressors.

While Israelis see their captives, whether civilians or military, held in Gaza in terms of numbers, Palestinians approach the issue from an entirely different perspective.

All Palestinians are captives, according to the reality on the ground, because all Palestinians are victims of Israeli colonialism, military occupation and apartheid. The difference between being a prisoner in Megiddo, Ofer or Ramleh prison, for example, and being a prisoner in an isolated, walled-off Palestinian town under Israeli military occupation in Area C in the West Bank, is rather technical.

True, those in Megiddo are subjected to more violence, torture even. They are denied proper food, medicine, and the freedom to move about. But how is that fundamentally different from the incarceration of 2.3 million people living in Gaza now?

Some would even argue that living in Gaza during a time of genocide is more confining and far less safe than being a political prisoner in Israel, under ‘normal’ circumstances.

So clearly, the issue is not related to numbers, but to power relations.

Under international law, Israel is the Occupying Power. This entitles Israel to certain rights per, for example, the Fourth Geneva Convention, but also numerous responsibilities. For decades, Israel has abused those ‘rights’ and completely ignored all its responsibilities. Over the same period, Palestinians have appealed to – even implored – the international community to enforce international law on Israel, unsuccessfully.

This was illustrated in the pitiful display by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on 15 May. “Protect us,” he said, repeatedly, before making an analogy between Palestinians and animals. “Aren’t we human beings? Even animals should be protected. If you have an animal, won’t you protect it? Protect us!”

Most Palestinians know well that the US, West-dominated international institutions will not provide protection for Palestinians based on any kind of moral rationale or even their love for animals.

This realisation dawned on Palestinians generations ago, when the international community failed to enforce a single UN resolution on Israel. Regarding the ongoing Gaza genocide, it proved particularly irrelevant, to the extent that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pronounced it outright when he said, on 8 November, that the UN has neither “money nor power” to prevent genocide in Gaza.

Guterres and other top UN officials must be aware of the marginal role that the international community is able to play in the Israeli war on Gaza because of the strong US stance in support of Israel. As long as Washington continues to serve the role of the vanguard of Israeli war crimes in Palestine, Tel Aviv has no reason to stop.

So, Palestinians do what every other occupied, colonised people did in this situation. They resist. Through their resistance, they hope to introduce a new factor to a long-skewed equation, largely controlled by Israel and its Western allies.

By releasing their prisoners, as a direct result of their own resistance, Palestinians are, therefore, able to influence outcomes. It means that they are political agents; in fact, political actors who can redefine the rules of the game altogether.

Indeed, Palestinians approach the issue of prisoners as part of a larger campaign of liberation struggle. Those who can free 100, or 7,000 detainees would, then, set an historical precedent that would, eventually, allow them to free the whole Palestinian people.

Israel is fully aware of the power and representation of the prisoners’ issue because Israel imprisons Palestinians as an expression of power and control over every aspect of Palestinian lives. Though some of the Palestinian detainees are considered, in the eyes of Israel, ‘security prisoners’, many were detained for social media posts, for WhatsApp status, or for no reason at all.

Many Palestinian women were detained for visiting the families of other prisoners, or for mourning the deaths of Palestinian youths killed by Israel. Israel detained these women for the same reason that far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had outlawed the rights of Palestinians to celebrate their children’s freedom.

Specifically, Israel wants to control every aspect of Palestinian lives – their actions, real or symbolic, but even their anger, their joy and all other emotions.

When Palestinians are released through prisoner exchanges, they emerge, proudly and with heads held high, from Israeli dungeons, despite the numerous obstacles, restrictions and Israel’s insistence on keeping all Palestinian captives. For Palestinians, this is an unparalleled victory.

So, no, this is not a numbers game. Though every Palestinian individual matters, whether those being killed in Gaza, or those held captive in Israeli prisons, for Palestinians all issues are linked to one single project called liberation.

It is for this coveted collective freedom that Palestinians have fought, generation after generation, whatever the cost of death, imprisonment and perpetual captivity.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Google removes Israel boycott app

MEMO | December 5, 2023

Google has removed a mobile app from its store that helps people boycott companies linked to Israel.

The @NoThanks boycott account on social media confirmed that its NoThanks app was temporarily removed because its description contained a sentence about determining if “your hand supports killing children in Palestine or not.”

“The app has been suspended from the Google store for this sentence, I have removed it in the new update and the store will review it and release it again.”

However the new version was also suspended, but the developer is in talks with Google Play to have it reinstated.

“This app,” NoThanks explained on X, “is a peaceful form of protest, and it’s essential to clarify that the app is not antisemitic, despite attempts by other certain news and reports to describe it as such.”

The creator of the NoThanks boycott app revealed on 7 November that it will assist individuals in identifying companies that support Israel by scanning product barcodes to obtain information about the product’s origins and the company selling it.

By 29 November, the app had been downloaded over 100,000 times on Google Play. Earlier today, the developer said emails had now been circulated calling for him to be sacked from his internship for trying to harm “businesses run by Jews”, according to the author of the email.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Workers worldwide urged to block Israeli ships as Gaza genocide escalates

Press TV – December 5, 2023

The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil) has urged all labor activists, trade unionists, and workers’ organizations to block Israeli ships over the genocide committed by the occupying regime against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Masar Badil called on the international global working class to “block and reject the appearance or docking of any Israeli ship in any global port; to refuse to load or unload any Israeli ship” and to refuse to transport weapons of war to the Israeli entity.

“The hands of the workers should not be sullied with the cargo of genocide,” it added.

According to Masar Badil, the action is “a material means of besieging the occupation and supporting the colonized, occupied people of Palestine.”

The group also hailed Yemen for “blocking the use of Yemeni seas for the transportation and passage of Zionist ships and cargo.”

“All states should follow the Yemeni example and prohibit the use of their ports and seas to arm this genocidal regime!”

Last month, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces, announced that the military units would target all ships owned or operated by Israeli companies or carrying the Israeli flag.

Masar Badil also said that Israel is not alone in carrying out its genocide and warned that every port and company that allows Israeli ships to dock at its port is “a full partner in war crimes and genocide.”

“[Israel] is backed, armed, and funded by the imperialist powers – first and foremost, the United States, together with its partners in Canada, France, Germany, and Britain,” it said.

“Every port and company that allows Israeli ships of any kind to dock at its port is a full partner in war crimes and genocide with the blood of the Palestinian people on their hands and must be held accountable,” it added.

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.

Tel Aviv also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.

Nearly 16,000 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 1.9 million others have been internally displaced as a result of Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

December 5, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

More Journalists Killed as Israel Resumes Military Operations in Gaza

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | December 4, 2023

At least three Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Israeli onslaught in Gaza since Tel Aviv broke a truce and resumed military operations on Friday. Human rights groups have described the dozens of dead journalists in the besieged enclave as unprecedented.

Anthony Bellanger, the general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, told the Associated Press that three or four journalists have been killed in Gaza since Friday. He said, “Unfortunately, we received the bad news this weekend — after the end of this cease-fire — and at least three or four were killed.”

Tel Aviv told Reuters and Agence France Presse that Israel could not ensure the safety of their reporters in Gaza.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports over 50 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Israel began military operations following the October 7 Hamas attack. Three other reporters are missing, and 11 have been injured. Additionally, five Israeli journalists were killed on October 7, and Tel Aviv’s military operations in southern Lebanon killed three reporters.

Israel has also cracked down on journalists in other areas. At least 19 reporters have been arrested.

Bellanger said the killing of journalists in Gaza is unlike what has occurred in other war zones. “In a war, you know, a classical war, I can say that in Syria, in Iraq, in ex-Yugoslavia, we didn’t see this kind of massacre,” he explained.

CPJ says the war in Gaza produced the deadliest month for journalists since the group began keeping count. “The Israel-Gaza war has taken a severe toll on journalists… which has led to the deadliest month for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992,” a statement from the group said.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned journalism was being eradicated in Gaza. The group said, “Journalism is in the process of being eradicated in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel’s refusal to heed calls to protect media personnel.”

December 4, 2023 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Turkish intelligence official warns Israel: Targeting Hamas officials abroad will have ‘serious consequences’

Head of Hamas’ politburo Ismail Haniyeh (Center)
Press TV – December 4, 2023

Turkey has issued a strong warning to Israel, saying the regime would face Ankara’s serious action if it tries to target key figures of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas who are based outside Gaza, including in Turkey.

“Necessary warnings were made to the interlocutors based on the news of Israeli officials’ statements, and it was expressed to Israel that (such an act) would have serious consequences,” a Turkish intelligence official said on Monday, according to Reuters.

The warning came a day after the Israeli broadcaster Kan released a recording from Ronen Bar, who serves as the head of Israel’s so-called internal security service Shin Bet, in which he said that the regime would hunt down Hamas in countries like Lebanon, Turkey and Qatar even if it takes years.

Bar said the Israeli administration had set a goal to target Hamas officials who are based outside Gaza.

Key Hamas leaders, including its top political officials, live outside the besieged Gaza as part of the group’s policy to garner support from other countries for the fight against the Israeli regime.

Head of Hamas’ politburo Ismail Haniyeh has been shuttling between Qatar and Turkey in recent weeks amid Israel’s aggression on Gaza that has left nearly 16,000 people dead.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly condemned Israel for its brutal military campaign against Gaza while warning the regime against political and economic consequences if it continues with the aggression.

The presence of Hamas leaders in Qatar helped the Arab country mediate a seven-day ceasefire in Gaza that ended on Friday.

Israel’s aggression against Gaza began on October 7 after Hamas launched a major military operation into the Israeli-occupied territories near Gaza, killing some 1,400 Israeli settlers and military forces.

December 4, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Iran, Cuba must form coalition to counter US, West bullying: Ayatollah Khamenei

Press TV – December 4, 2023

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says great political and economic capacities of Iran and Cuba should be used to form a coalition against bullying of the United States and its Western allies.

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a Monday meeting with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who is in Tehran on a historic visit. Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi was also present in the meeting.

Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to remarkable potentialities of Iran and Cuba and said, “These capacities should be used to set up an alliance and a coalition among those countries that share the same position against the US and Western bullying.”

“With its focus on economic cooperation, this coalition can take a common and effective position on important international issues such as the Palestinian issue,” the Leader stated.

The Leader emphasized that the Palestinian issue is not limited to the recent developments in Gaza and its bombardment as the Palestinian people have been exposed to various types of torture, sufferings and massacre over the past 75 years.

However, Gaza is currently faced with such a big catastrophe that cannot be concealed, Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding that the war revealed the realities on the ground to the world public opinion.

The Leader added that Iran and Cuba share a stance on many international developments, particularly the Palestinian issue.

Referring to Tehran-Havana cooperation in international forums, Ayatollah Khamenei stressed the importance of further promoting mutual relations in various fields, including science.

The Leader expressed hope that the two countries would implement bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding now that the administration of Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi, which he described as the “administration of work and activity”, is at the helm.

Ayatollah Khamenei also pointed to his meeting with late Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Tehran 22 years ago, and said Cuba’s revolution and Castro’s personality have always been a fascination for Iranian revolutionaries even before the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution because of the sincerity in his revolutionary positions.

The Leader emphasized that “revolutionary sincerity”, “revolutionary resilience” and “revolutionary solemnity” are the common main features of the Cuban revolution and the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Cuba urges further cooperation with Iran in various fields

Díaz-Canel, for his part, said Ayatollah Khamenei’s positions and statements correspond to concerns and stance of the Cuban government.

The Cuban president added that in his talks with Iranian authorities in Tehran, both sides focused all their efforts on ways to deepen mutual relations, especially in the economic and commercial spheres.

He emphasized that Iran and Cuba can complement each other in various fields, particularly in dealing with interventionist measures and sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies.

Regarding cooperation on global issues, the two countries should further develop their relations and play an influential role in leading developments such as the Palestinian issue, he said.

The Cuban president denounced the ongoing developments in Gaza as “unacceptable genocide” and said international organizations have turned a blind eye to the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, most of them children and women, in the besieged Strip.

He said those who were constantly complaining about the war between Ukraine and Russia and the killing of civilians are now silent vis-à-vis the massacre of tens of thousands of people in Gaza, which indicates the grave state of the world.

December 4, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

I lived through two Israel-Gaza wars. This one is the worst

By Eva Bartlett | RT | December 2, 2023

After seven weeks of relentless Israeli bombing throughout Gaza, according to the modest estimates of the UN as of November 23 (right before a humanitarian ceasefire came into effect), more than 14,800 people have been killed in the enclave, including about 6,000 children and 4,000 women.

While these Israeli attacks on Gaza are by far the worst yet, with Israel dropping a reported 40,000 tons of explosives in less than two months, it is worth recalling that Israel has repeatedly waged assaults against the Palestinians of Gaza over the past 15 years.

Living in Gaza for years between late 2008 to March 2013, I was witness to two major Israeli assaults (and countless smaller ones over the years). Here, I will highlight what I saw and documented, to show that the horrific Israeli war crimes we are seeing coming out of Gaza are not new, even if they are exponentially worse this time around.

On December 27, 2008, Israel unloaded 100 bombs on Gaza within the first minutes of its Operation Cast Lead. The Shifa Hospital (Gaza’s main), was receiving the dead and the injured non-stop. The ICU beds were filled, and doctors told me that as soon as one patient died another took their place.

Together with a handful of international activists in Gaza I made the decision to ride in ambulances with Palestinian medics as they searched for the wounded and took them to hospitals. We did so aware that Israel barred journalists from Gaza, and knowing that, in the past, medics and ambulances had been targets for the Israeli army.

I would see this first-hand soon after first joining the medics, when an Israeli sniper targeted the ambulance I rode in, injuring one medic in the leg when one of at least 14 bullets hit the rear of the car as we sped away.

This was during the January 7, 2009 “humanitarian cease-fire” hours. The Geneva Conventions explicitly state that “medical personnel searching, collecting, transporting or treating the wounded should be protected and respected in all circumstances.”

Some days prior, Israeli shelling had killed Arafa abd al-Dayem, a medic I knew and had accompanied. He was rescuing injured Palestinians, standing at the rear of the ambulance when it was hit with a shell containing flechettes. Flechette munitions are designed to spray thousands of small metal darts in a wide arc, increasing the chance of injuries and death. The dart’s sharp head is designed to break away, increasing the amount of internal damage done. Another 21-year-old medic, a volunteer, was injured, his legs lacerated.

The day after Arafa was killed, the Israeli army fired three times within two minutes on the neighborhood where family and neighbors had gathered to pay their respects. The shelling, again with flechettes, killed six more civilians, including a young pregnant mother, and injured 25 more.

The night the Israeli land invasion began, on January 3, shells flew dangerously close to the Red Crescent station in the district east of Jabaliya I was then based in, when not in one of the ambulances. By morning it was impossible to access, and by the end of the war, we returned to find it riddled with bullet holes from machine-gun fire and blasted by shelling.

The ambulances and their medical equipment were some of the most bare-bone I’ve seen, supplies depleted by the long Israeli siege and blockade of Gaza. The medics drove quickly over bumpy roads to get to the people in need, wasted little time collecting them, and bolted away, trying to avoid being targeted by the Israeli army.

After invading the Tel al-Hawa district in the third week of its war on Gaza, the Israeli army repeatedly bombed the Quds hospital, while Israeli snipers targeted Palestinians fleeing residential areas. I was with an ambulance that went to evacuate civilians from the hospital and take them to the Shifa hospital (which had no space), going back repeatedly to save Palestinian civilians, each time at risk of being shot by Israeli soldiers.

By the end of the 2009 war, the Israeli army had killed 23 medics, and injured 57 more, destroying at least nine ambulances and damaging 16 more. None of the journalists or medics that I knew had protective body armor – including me. Given the massive bombs which Israel was dropping on us, it would’ve made little difference.

One evening, after giving an interview to RT about what I’d seen while riding in ambulances in the extremely dangerous areas of Gaza’s north, just after finishing the interview, Israel shelled the building at least seven times. We scrambled down ten flights of stairs, thankfully intact. Incidentally, in 2021, Israeli airstrikes destroyed the same building as well as another, collectively housing 20 media outlets.

During and after the 2008-2009 war, I took countless testimonies of Palestinian parents who said their children were deliberately murdered by Israeli soldiers: shot point blank, drone struck during ceasefire hours, shot by a sniper. In Shifa hospital, I met the mutilated survivors whose home had been shelled with white phosphorus munitions, killing six family members, including an infant burned alive. I followed up on their story afterwards, learning more chilling details and seeing their bombed-out home with my own eyes. Graffiti, apparently left on the walls by Israeli soldiers, included hate messages and threats, like “it will hurt more next time.” (Warning: disturbing images)

In the last two months, Israel has repeatedly bombed schools, including UN-affiliated ones that housed displaced Palestinians seeking safe shelter. It did the same back in January 2009, bombing numerous UN schools, including the Fakhoura school that has suffered in the current war as well.

I could, unfortunately, write pages more on what I saw and heard in those three weeks of Israeli bombing, and also during the November 2012 Israeli campaign (when I was based at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza), but for the sake of some brevity will stop. What did not stop were the Israeli bombings and shooting immediately post ceasefire, both in 2009 and in 2012.

But almost as brutal as the Israeli bombing campaigns has been the over-16-year-long strangling siege on Gaza. I’ve written about it at length, but which in summary it has caused a vast increase in poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, anemia, stunted growth, diabetes, treatable illnesses going untreated, water that was 95% undrinkable (already back in 2014).

On November 24 of this year, a four-day ceasefire was implemented, to allow for exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, as well as for deliveries of desperately needed food, water, fuel and medical aid, of which the 2.4-million population of Gaza had been deprived for weeks. Unsurprisingly, there were reports of the truce being violated, including snipers firing on Palestinian civilians.

In the first day after the ceasefire expired, over 100 Palestinians were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, as Israel started to deliver the promised “mother of all thumpings,” ostensibly to Hamas militants.

There is no space for me here to outline all the horrors inflicted upon Gaza in the past two months, nor do I need to: social media and Telegram channels are filled with horrific scenes of schools housing displaced civilians getting bombarded again, entire blocks of refugee camps bombed, hospitals and churches housing tens of thousands of displaced civilians bombed, white phosphorous again rained down on densely inhabited residential areas, and on, and on.

What I do want to highlight is that there is no doubt in my mind, or in the minds of numerous other international reporters and observers who have seen the situation on the ground first-hand, that Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, and the intent, if not the reality, is genocidal.

We have globally watched as Israel commits the definition of genocide: “The intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” Raz Segal, a genocide expert, wrote of this after only one week of Israel’s bombardment, since which Israel has committed uncountable heinous crimes.

In late October, former Director of the UN’s New York (OHCHR) office, Craig Mokhiber, resigned from his position in protest and disgust, stating, “Once again, we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the organization that we serve appears powerless to stop it. As someone who has investigated human rights in Palestine since the 1980s, lived in Gaza as a UN human rights advisor in the 1990s, and carried out several human rights missions to the country before and since, this is deeply personal to me.”

He explicitly stated that Israel’s “wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people… coupled with explicit statements of intent by leaders in the Israeli government and military, leaves no room for doubt, this is a textbook case of genocide.”

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years).

December 3, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Government ministers served notice of abetting war crimes in Gaza

By Yves Engler | December 2, 2023

Canada’s top politicians were recently served a notice of intention to seek prosecution for aiding and abetting Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Justice Minister Arif Virani were warned they could be liable and face charges before the International Criminal Court for aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes.

During the past six weeks Israeli ministers have repeatedly expressed their genocidal intent towards what they’ve called “human animals” in Gaza. Israel has cut off water, food, fuel and electricity to the open-air prison and one minister even declared a desire to “eliminate everything” in the coastal strip of 2.2 million. Tens of thousands of houses, hospitals, Mosques, schools and other buildings have been destroyed. So far over 30,000 Palestinians have been injured and 14,000 killed, including 6,000 children. As the notice to Canadian ministers’ highlights, a director at the United Nations, Craig Mokhiber, called Israeli policy a “text-book case of genocide.”

Ottawa has enabled Israel’s bid to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from a small part of what’s left of their historic homeland. During a visit foreign minister Melanie Joly offered Canada’s approval for Israel’s genocidal siege and violence. In describing the meeting a week into its onslaught, Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen boasted, “We continue to mobilize the world for the fight against Hamas! I met today with Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, who also came to support Israel.”

At a rhetorical level Trudeau has repeatedly supported Israel’s “right to defend itself” while defence minister Bill Blair declared that “Hamas has to be eliminated.” At the same time Canadian officials have largely refused to condemn Israel’s war crimes and have rebuffed calls for a ceasefire.

At the United Nations Canada abstained on a General Assembly resolution calling for “protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations.” It was backed by 120 countries.

Beyond the diplomatic sphere, Canada has offered more concrete assistance. After Hamas’ October 7 attack the Canadian Air Force flew 30 Israeli reservists back into the country. With flights evacuating Canadians from Tel Aviv to Athens, military aircraft transported Israeli reservists in the other direction.

Alongside assisting Israeli reservists to return, Canadian special forces were dispatched to Israel. The stated reason for the deployment of these soldiers is to assist the embassy with security and evacuations. That may be true. But the Canadians may have a more direct role in Gaza and — at a minimum — the deployment reflects Canada-Israel military co-operation.

Through the Five Eyes and NATO the Canadian military has significant ties with its Israeli counterparts. Bilaterally, Canada and Israel both have military attachés in each other’s countries and top military officials regularly visit each other. The Israeli Air Force trains in Canada and for 15 years Canadian troops training Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank have coordinated with their Israeli counterparts. Canada also has a “border management and security” agreement with Israel, even though the two countries do not share a border.

The Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Fund has pumped tens of millions of dollars into joint research ventures between the countries’ military companies. In recent years Canada has exported a little more than $20 million worth of arms to Israel annually (Canadian weapons makers sell many millions of dollars more in components to US firms that arm Israel.) But Canada is a signatory to the UN Arms Trade Treaty, which is designed to limit weapons from entering conflict zones and preventing their use by human rights violators.

As detailed in the notice of intention to prosecute, the Trudeau government has failed to fulfill its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty and Canada’s Export and Import Permits Act despite repeated calls by the opposition NDP to end arms sales to Israel. The intention to prosecute also cites the government’s failure to stop illegal recruitment for the IDF or Canadian charities from unlawfully assisting Israel’s military.

Private organizations and Israeli officials have long recruited in Canada. Three years ago, a multi-faceted campaign was launched calling on the federal government to apply charges under the Foreign Enlistment Act against those “recruiting” or “inducing” Canadians to assist the Israeli military.

The government immediately sought to downplay the issue after they were delivered a formal complaint and an open letter signed by Noam Chomsky, Roger Waters, filmmaker Ken Loach, author Yann Martel and 150 others. Responding to a Le Devoir reporter’s question on the matter then Justice Minister David Lametti simply said, “it’s up to the police to investigate” any violation of an act that states “any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offence.”

The Trudeau government hasn’t simply downplayed illegal IDF recruitment. They’ve boosted it. In January 2020 the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv hosted a pizza party to celebrate the 78 Canadians fighting in the Israeli military.

The government has also been indifferent to other illegal forms of support for the Israeli military. Many of the 200+ Canadian-based Israel-focused registered charities assist the Israeli military in contravention of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rules, which state that “increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Canada’s armed forces is charitable, but supporting the armed forces of another country is not.”

The HESEG Foundation, Canadian Zionist Cultural Association (CZCA) and many other registered charities assist the IDF. But the CRA has been slow to apply its rules to Israel-focused charities.

The Trudeau government’s indifference to Canadian law has enabled Israeli impunity. Ditto for Ottawa’s indifference to international law. In 2020 Ottawa pressed the International Criminal Court to stop investigating Israeli war crimes. Their letter said it didn’t believe the ICC had jurisdiction over Palestine and implied Canada could sever its funding if the ICC pursued an investigation of Israeli crimes. In a similar move, three months ago Ottawa sought to block a World Court opinion on Palestine. Canada submitted a statement opposing an International Court of Justice advisory opinion called for by a UN General Assembly resolution titled “Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.

To protect Israel from criticism the Trudeau government created a special envoy to combat antisemitism and formally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which is designed to marginalize those criticizing Palestinian dispossession. The Trudeau government also sued to block proper labels on wines from illegal settlements while expanding the Canada-Israel free trade agreement that grants duty free status to products produced in illegal West Bank settlements.

Since taking office in 2015 the Trudeau government has voted against nearly 100 UN resolutions, often supported by most of the world, upholding Palestinian rights. They’ve also repeatedly justified Israeli violence against Palestinians while mostly ignoring its brutal blockade of Gaza, demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and growing Jewish supremacy inside its 1948 borders.

The notice to prosecute was delivered by activists to the ministers’ offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Sherbrooke and Montreal. Subsequently the lawyers driving the initiative held a press conference to explain the legal process behind the notice of intention to seek prosecution. A few Canadian media reported on it, but it was widely covered in international pro-Palestinian outlets.

The notice of intention to seek prosecution concludes:

“In order to reduce the risk of further complicity, the Government of Canada must immediately take the following diplomatic and economic measures:

1. Call for a ceasefire to prevent further loss of life in Gaza;

2. Call for secure provision of meaningful humanitarian aid to Gaza;

3. Issue a public statement condemning Israel’s breaches of international law;

4. Insist that Israel fully comply with international law;

5. Cancel all Canadian permits for arms exports to Israel;

6. Prosecute those recruiting Canadian volunteers for Israel’s armed forces; and

7. Prevent Canadian charities from using donations to benefit Israel’s armed forces.”

The least Canadians should be able to expect of their government is adherence to international law.

December 3, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

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