by Chems Eddine Chitour

«Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians" (Nelson Mandela)

South Africa, as a worthy heir to the symbol of Nelson Mandela, has decided, in view of the atrocities committed in Gaza, to bring to justice, in the name of law which must come before force, Israel whose impunity calls into question the world at the level of the people even in countries showing solidarity with the massacres, as are the G7 countries. Mandela's message, which is that of free men, should guide, if all goes well, the course of instruction. Naively, those who believe in justice have lost their illusion. The only certainty is that for the first time in 75 years, a country from the Global South was able to activate a body supposed to rule the law. Israel, deemed untouchable, has appeared! Despite the barrage from the United States and other G7 countries.

However, the results fell short of the hopes held, namely that international law was enforceable against any State whose failings have been known for three-quarters of a century. Israel ignores the ICJ decision since it does not concern the ceasefire obligation.

Clearly, Israel has been authorized to do what it has been doing for 110 days! Hope would come from the Security Council meeting on Wednesday convened at the initiative of Algeria asking the Security Council to enforce the sentence. The latest insult is that Western countries and the G7 have decided to cut funding from URNWA, which distributes the rare subsidies to the damned of Gaza. Reason: the agents who take care of the distribution are terrorists. No other country has protested, or even committed to compensating the deficits caused after Western sanctions. Not even the Arab countries have offered to finance these crumbs until an investigation brings justice to the URNWA workers! 

Palestinians live in terror of strikes and displacement in all directions. War, hunger, thirst, bad weather and disease are the daily lives of a people abandoned to their fate. As of January 25, the death toll from the war stands at more than 26. While the number of injured has risen to 083 since October 64. As reported by the site Oumma.com, “Repeatedly displaced by war, many residents of Gaza's southernmost city live in makeshift shelters without sufficient food, water or blankets. Nearly half of the Gaza Strip's population – estimated at a million people – is now crammed into the small southern town of Rafah, which does not have enough food, water, medicine or facilities. shelters to accommodate its permanent residents, (…) what is happening in Gaza is not destruction, it is annihilation. They destroyed the whole gang. It is really difficult to describe what we have experienced and what we are still experiencing. My neighborhood, Al-Rimal, was the beating heart of Gaza, full of life, business, entertainment and culture. When we left it was like a final judgment».1

Verbatim of the refugees’ feelings: “I struggle to give my children food and water. My son Kenan, aged 2, constantly asks for milk, which I cannot give him. They are traumatized and react very violently to the sound of bombs and explosions. I live in this tent with my husband and my four children, (…). We had to leave our home in Gaza City. When we arrived in Rafah, we stayed on the streets for three days. Here there are insects coming from under the sand and it is freezing cold. Adults can't stand this climate, especially at night, so how can children? My children are sick. They are always cold and hungry. We don't cook because we can't afford to buy wood. We eat what people or humanitarian organizations bring us».[1]

To realize the fact that South Africa, unlike the Arab and Muslim countries paralyzed by the West, took the initiative to file a complaint against Israel, we must go back to Mandela's doctrine concerning the Palestinian cause. This extract from a conference allows us to situate Mandela’s unfailing commitment: “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not just about military occupation and Israel is not a country that was created "normally" and proceeded to occupy another country in 1967. The Palestinians are not fighting for a “state” but for freedom, liberation and equality, just as we fought for freedom in South Africa. Israel has shown that it is not yet ready to give back what it occupied in 1967, Jerusalem is under exclusively Israeli sovereignty and the Palestinians are under Israeli economic domination with Israeli control of borders, land, air, water and sea. Israel does not think of a “State” but of “separation”. If you follow polls in Israel over the last 30 or 40 years, you will clearly find gross racism: a third of the population declares themselves openly racist. This racism is of the nature of “I hate Arabs” and “I wish Arabs dead.” If you also follow the justice system in Israel, there is discrimination against Palestinians, and if you consider the territories occupied in 1967, you will find that there are already two functioning justice systems that represent two different approaches to human life: one for the life of Palestinians, the other for that of Jewish life».2

We know that South Africa has called the International Criminal Court and developed an argument in which it accuses Israeli actions of genocide. Thierry Meyssan recalls Israel's abuses: “The ICJ has already had to hear a case involving it: the question for opinion that Arab States had asked it on the legality of the “Separation Wall”. The ICJ ruled that the Israeli construction violated international law. This advice was not followed up on. This time Israel is directly blamed. The petition concerns threats adopted, tolerated, committed and being carried out by the government and army of the State of Israel against the Palestinian people, a distinct national and racial community. «Israel's acts and omissions are genocidal in character because they are aimed at bringing about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group. The acts in question include the killing of Palestinians in Gaza, causing serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting upon them living conditions likely to cause their physical destruction.».3

«For years, Israel has imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, banning fishing and allowing in only the amount of food essential for nutrition. Between September 29, 2000 and October 7, 2023, approximately 7569 Palestinians, including 1699 children, were killed, including in "four highly asymmetrical wars", as well as other smaller military assaults, killing tens of thousands injured. “In total,” continues Meyssan, “more than 7729 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza to date, or more than 115 Palestinian children killed every day. More Palestinian children are estimated to have been killed in the first three weeks of the current conflict, more than the total number of children killed each year in the world's conflict zones since 2019. To date, Israel has killed more than 311 doctors, nurses, 103 journalists, 209 teachers and educational staff; 144 United Nations employees were also killed. More than 55 Palestinians have been injured during Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 243, 7 (…)»[3]

South Africa is calling for precautionary measures to immediately stop the massacre. “More than 1000 popular movements, political parties, unions and organizations around the world called on countries on Thursday to support the complaint filed by South Africa before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the Zionist entity. We now urge other countries to strengthen this strongly worded complaint by immediately filing a declaration of intervention with the ICJ. Occupation forces have bombed hospitals, killing and injuring tens of thousands of Palestinians since October 7, 2023. More than half of the dead are women and children. Zionist actions, including “killing, injuring, traumatizing and displacing Palestinians while denying essential resources to an occupied population,” meet the criteria for the crime of genocide».4

Under the pens of Louis Imbert and Stephanie Maupas we read: “For Israel, this complaint is an aberration. The Jewish State, proclaimed in 1948, finds itself accused of committing the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip. For the Palestinians, on the contrary, who despair at the inability of Western chancelleries to impose a ceasefire on their Israeli ally, the procedure constitutes an opportunity to shine the spotlight on the ordeal experienced in the inaccessible enclave. foreign media, where Israeli bombings caused, according to the reports communicated, 23 deaths and 000 injured in three months. (…) It will take years before the judges in The Hague decide on the merits. But South Africa is already asking them to take precautionary measures to stop the crimes underway in the Palestinian territory.».5

The U.S. response to this legal action has been military assistance to advance the continued supply of U.S. munitions. At least 250 cargo planes and more than 20 ships have delivered more than 10 tons of weapons and military equipment to Israel since the start of the war. We will have understood, the communitarian intellectuals rebelled against the ICJ. Georges Bensoussan, instead of speaking the law and recognizing Israel's fault, terrorizes his world by conflating anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Quoting Wladimir Jankelevitch, he writes: “The accusation of genocide leveled against Israel is not new. Anti-Zionism gives us permission and even the right and even the duty to be anti-Semitic in the name of democracy! Anti-Zionism is justified anti-Semitism, finally made accessible to all. (…) What if the Jews were themselves Nazis? Yes, Mr. Bensoussan, nothing distinguishes the messianism of the leaders of Israel from the massacres of Jews and Gypsies by Hitler».6

For Pierre Barbancey, this is a first! This is the first time that anyone has dared to call Israel to account! “This January 26, he writes, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) must render its decision concerning the request for provisional measures filed by South Africa in the context of a possible ongoing genocide perpetrated by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. This is the first time that a court will rule on the seriousness of what is happening in Gaza, in real time. Furthermore, if the Court considers that there is a “plausible risk of genocide” and orders provisional measures, this will result in both political and legal consequences for all States in the international community. The International Court of Justice does not rule on the legality of Israeli action in Gaza. It will simply rule on whether or not there is a risk of genocide. That's all. (…) Whatever happens today, we are already in a historic moment. Today we are witnessing a significant reversal of the world order where it is now States of the Global South which use the instruments of international law to enforce international law and protect civilian populations.».7

However, he warns against the impotence of the ICJ: “Neither the International Court of Justice nor other international jurisdictions have their own police forces. The execution of their decisions falls to the United Nations Security Council or to States. So it's mainly a question of political will. In any case, there is no doubt about the legal obligation of this decision, it is obligatory. Enforcing it is another question. We are no longer in the legal value of the decision but in the incapacity or lack of will of the international community to enforce the law».[7]

The global South clung to the foolish hope of a ceasefire: “A global human rights coalition expressed hope Thursday that the International Court of Justice's impending verdict will be a step toward "stopping the genocide in Palestine," as Gaza authorities reported further attacks against civilians and alleged violations of international law. (…) Alongside UN officials, international human rights experts and a growing number of policymakers from around the world, South Africa has argued that Israel is engaged in a genocidal attack in Gaza and had committed numerous violations of international law».8

«Human rights experts say the Israeli attack shows no signs of slowing down as the world awaits the verdict, UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Director of Affairs Thomas White, reiterating that attacks on civilians are completely unacceptable! The situation in Khan Younes highlights a continuing failure to respect the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, White said. The Israeli occupation committed a new massacre against thousands of hungry mouths waiting for help».[8]

For having said this, Western countries accuse UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas and cut off its funds! Faced with the indifference of the countries of the Global South, and naturally of Arab and Muslim countries!

For Léa Massignon, “The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a first decision this Friday, January 26. The president of the ICJ considered that “at least certain acts (in Gaza) seem likely to fall within the scope of the genocide convention” and ordered Israel to “prevent and punish” incitement to “genocide” . The judicial body called on Israel to take more measures to protect Palestinians, but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire. Two judges opposed most of the temporary measures requested by South Africa: the Israeli Aharon Barak and the Ugandan Julia Sebutinde. Although the decisions of the International Court of Justice are legally binding, it nevertheless has few means to enforce them. Moreover, these are only provisional measures in a broader matter, aimed at determining whether or not Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. The court will not rule on this question for years».9

«The order issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is “an important warning that no state is above the law”, reacts the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, Riyad al-Maliki. Hamas believes that the ICJ decision is “an important development” which “contributes to isolating Israel”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that the accusations of “genocidal acts” in Gaza, filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, are “scandalous". "The despicable attempt to deny Israel the “fundamental right” to defend itself is “blatant discrimination against the Jewish State,” and it has been rightly rejected.” South Africa hailed a “decisive victory for the international rule of law and an important step in the quest for justice for the Palestinian people».[9]

For the newspaper editor Le Monde, «The International Court of Justice does not rule on whether or not Israel is committing genocide. It rules on emergency orders before reviewing the case on its merits, a process that can take years. It is a historic verdict, welcomed by South Africa, which referred the matter to the court. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the UN's highest court – has called on Israel to do everything possible to “prevent the commission of any act falling within the scope” of the Genocide Convention, and to take “all measures in its power to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to commit genocide.” The ICJ, which sits in The Hague, however, did not mention a ceasefire».10

«At this point, the Court has not advanced on the question of whether or not Israel is committing genocide. She ruled on emergency orders before reviewing the case on its merits, a process that can take years. Furthermore, the orders of the Court, which decides disputes between countries, are legally binding and final, but it has no means of enforcing them. For example, she ordered Russia to suspend its invasion of Ukraine, to no avail. Israel must also take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance that Palestinians urgently need to address the adverse living conditions they face,” the ICJ ruled».[10]

The divide in reactions was visible. The countries which claim victory are self-satisfied despite a result well below the expected ceasefire. South Africa reacted by welcoming a “decisive victory for the international rule of law and an important step in the quest for justice for the Palestinian people". The courtyard "determined that Israel's actions in Gaza are plausibly genocidal and issued interim measures on that basis“, thanking her “for his quick decision».

Spain, one of the most critical voices in Europe towards Israel since the start of the conflict with Hamas, also welcomed this decision. “We (…) ask the parties to apply the provisional measures that the Court has decreed,” wrote the Spanish Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez. As for the European Union, it expects “complete, immediate and effective implementation of the verdict. The decisions of the International Court of Justice are binding on the parties, and they must comply with them».11

For his part, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, judged “scandalous» accusations of “genocide” in Gaza filed by South Africa. “The vile attempt to deny Israel" THE "fundamental right» to defend oneself is “blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was rightly rejected».

The other reactions are forced satisfaction because in fact, Israel will continue its mass massacres with caution: Hamas welcomed “an important development" who "isolates Israel". It is "an important warning that no state is above the law», Reacted the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, Riyad Al-Maliki. “I consider the provisional injunction decision taken by the International Court of Justice regarding the inhumane attacks in Gaza to be valuable, and I welcome it“, wrote on the social network X the Turkish president, “we hope that Israel's attacks on women, children and the elderly will end».

Humanity is facing something insane! While the South African complaint is being studied, Israel continues to pollute the Palestinian people! Worse ! After the ICJ ruling, Israel treated the ICJ with contempt and continued its indiscriminate massacres. “Israeli occupation commits new massacre against starving Gazans waiting for humanitarian aid at Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza, killing 20 and injuring 150“, said the spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health. The number of deaths is likely to increase due to the dozens of seriously injured people who have flocked to the Al-Shifa medical complex, whose medical capacities are insufficient.

A people taken by hubris by their policy of blind destruction wants to suppress another people who only ask to live in peace on their land. Thus, without delaying the decision, Israel continues its work of crushing Gaza: Israel's response is in fact contempt for the lives of the Palestinians. So, indifferent to what was happening, a few hours after opening fire on a UN shelter housing thousands of Palestinians, Israeli tanks killed dozens of people waiting in line to receive aid.

Why this genocidal impulse? It is true that the Book of Joshua is a measure of the folly of men! Better, as sociologist Yuval Noah Hariri so well reminds us, in the Jewish religion, the idea of ​​eliminating one's non-Jewish neighbor is present. He writes : "The Old Testament and the Talmud asserted that the life of a Jew is more precious than that of a Gentile (non-Jewish human). Some Jewish sages even assure that the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” only concerns Jews (Leviticus 19,18:20,16). That the Bible commands the Jews to exterminate peoples such as the Amalekites and the Canaanites considerably reinforces this suspicion: "You will not leave the life of anything that breathes", decrees the holy book: "You will destroy them entirely (...), the Hittites, the Ammorites, the Canaanites, the Pherishites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God commanded you (Deuteronomy 17:XNUMX-XNUMX). In all of human history, this is one of the first examples of genocide presented as a binding religious duty».12

We should not be surprised by the messianism of the Israeli Prime Minister who, in the name of the great Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates, faithfully executes a divine command: “A good dose of humility, continues Yuval Harari, helps to extinguish a lot of misplaced aggression towards strangers. All people believe themselves to be the best and the greatest. Jewish history may be important to them, but it does not have the global importance that they often give it. Certainly, the Jewish religion inspired the Christian and Muslim religions, but these ultimately had a much more important influence. Jews also tend to believe that they are the source of ethics, because Abraham and Moses created moral codes. Before them, groups of men already had their own traditions in this matter. Already in Egypt, signs of monotheism can be attested. Perhaps Jews should glory in the great names that have marked the course of the centuries (…) Many religions praise the value of humility, but imagine that there is nothing more important than them in the universe. They mix calls for personal modesty with shameless collective arrogance. They would do well to take humility more seriously. And among all forms of humility, humility before God. When speaking of God, men too often profess pitiful self-effacement, but then use the name of God to look down upon their brethren.».

We are entitled to wonder why the ICJ did not call for a ceasefire. Beyond the legal quibbles, there are deaths of men, women and children. Because a text does not allow it, we allow massacres to take place in the silence of some and the cowardice of others. Unless the judges did not want to take the risk of a decision binding on Israel. As a reminder, if the ICJ orders a ceasefire, as it did for example in Ukraine, and if, like Russia, Israel refuses to implement the decision, it will then be up to States to take measures, political, economic and diplomatic sanctions, so that Israel is forced to respect the decision of the ICJ. It was therefore necessary to block the decision in advance by doing everything so that the ICJ decision was not binding and above all did not speak of genocide, because there is no question of condemning Israel!!

The Court did not order Israel to cease its military operations. Only a Security Council resolution could actually force a State to apply them. This will not be the case, the United States is watching. Clearly, Israel will continue to implement a final solution. The ICJ's decision is a wake-up call that has made us believe in the miracle of stopping the carnage. No, the crimes continue, the children who did not die are on reprieve, they will be overtaken by hunger, thirst, illness and a harsh winter.

Wednesday January 31, at the request of Algeria, the UN Security Council will examine the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which called on Israel to prevent any possible act of “genocide” in Gaza , announced the French presidency of the Council. The meeting was requested by Algeria “with a view to giving enforceable effect to the ruling of the International Court of Justice on the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation», The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated earlier in the day. On Friday, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour suggested that the Arab group, represented by Algeria in the Council, would push for a text calling for a ceasefire. “However, we should not have any illusions, the American veto is there to allow the continuation of the killing, at most a minimum resolution, as proposed by the European Union which is calling for the application of the resolution.».

How can we bring to light the suffering that Hitler's victims and the Palestinian victims of an army that is said to be moral must have experienced? As writer Yuval Harari writes: “Morality does not mean “following divine commandments.” It means “to reduce suffering”. Therefore, to act morally, you do not need to believe in a myth or story. You simply must develop a deep appreciation for suffering».

Beyond all this silent tragedy, what is the future of the Palestinian cause? The Palestinian Authority, discredited, should hand over the reins. The occupier is believed to want to recolonize Gaza. This means that with the expulsions from the West Bank by settlers, the vertigo of hubris is no longer enough; land is still needed to make the myth of the Promised Land a reality! There is another possibility, which would finally allow justice to be done to the Palestinian people, that of the courage of Israeli leaders who want to turn the page to be able to integrate into a region where they are increasingly rejected; That of making peace. You can only make peace with your adversary, it is important to address men capable of bringing people together, this is the case of Marwan Barghouthi, who fought Israel with weapons in hand. He is considered by his people as the “Palestinian Mandela”; like him, he has been behind bars for 22 years.

Professor Chems Eddine Chitour

https://en.reseauinternational.net/honte-la-cij-ninterdit-pas-a-israel-de-continuer-ses-massacres-de-masse/

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    by Daniel McAdams | Jan 31, 2024

The CBS national newscast on Jan. 20 showed the terrible anguish of a father holding a photograph of a little girl who had been killed a few days short of her first birthday by an Israeli bomb in Gaza.

This father and another little daughter had just been pulled out of the rubble, fortunate to still be alive.

Unfortunately, the dead little girl’s mother, brother, another sister and three of her uncles had all been killed in Israel’s massive bombing campaign.

According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel dropped 25,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip in the first month of the slaughter, equivalent to two nuclear bombs.

As of Jan. 21, the Health Ministry said 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 have been wounded. Reuters reported that 178 were killed on the 21st, which it described as “one of the deadliest days of the war thus far.”

The U.N. estimated that 16,000 of the deaths have been women and children. The head of the U.N. called the killing of civilians and mass destruction in Gaza “unprecedented.”

Israel’s bombing campaign has been so massive, so extensive, that it has now gone far beyond anything that could possibly be justified under any concept of just war.

Columnist Patrick Foy wrote on the Lew Rockwell website, www.lewrockwell.com, on Jan. 19: “You don’t hear any objections from the U.S. Senate regarding whatever Israel does, no matter how outrageous.”

He added: “The U.S. Senate has been bought and paid for by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is a front organization. AIPAC should logically be registered as a foreign agent, a lobbying agent for foreign government.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a press conference a few days ago that Israel must have a prime minister who “needs to be capable of saying no to our friends…,” rejecting the U.S. policy of a two-state solution. The U.S. gives Israel $3.8 billion in no-strings attached foreign aid every year and billions more in other bills, in spite of the fact that Israel has been in much better financial shape than the U.S. for many years.

Many foreign policy experts over the past few months have said Israel could not continue this war without U.S. assistance.

The conservative Judge Andrew Napolitano, on his podcast “Judging Freedom”, has been leading a fight against this war and has had several experts on his program who have said President Biden could stop the fighting with one phone call.

However, Biden is just too weak. While Netanyahu said Israel needs a prime minister who can say no to the U.S., what this world needs now is a U.S. president strong enough to say no to Israel.

The only president who ever has was President Eisenhower when he rejected Israel’s demand for the U.S. to go to war with Egypt over control of the Suez Canal. And Eisenhower was courageous enough to do it on national television one week before the 1956 election, saying he would end U.S aid to Israel if it did not withdraw its troops.

Now, even 15 Jewish Democrats in the House and four in the Senate have criticized Netanyahu’s rejection of the two-state solution.

When Netanyahu said, as he did in his press conference, that Israel had to have complete control of all land “from the river to the sea,” he was saying the same thing that some pro-Palestinian students have been kicked out of school for saying.

It is sad to me that all Congressional Republicans except for Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie have been too afraid of the Israel Lobby to even criticize all this bombing of little children.

The late great conservative columnist Charley Reese wrote in 2004: “I harbor no ill feelings toward Israel. In many ways it is an admirable country, but it is a foreign country, and the U.S. should treat Israel the same as it treats every other foreign nation. We should make it clear, for example, that Israel’s enemies are not our enemies… but we will go on spending treasure and blood in (the Middle East) until the American people elect some politician brave enough to face down the Israeli lobby.”

Duncan is a member of the Ron Paul Institute Advisory Board.
Reprinted from The Knoxville Focus.

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/terrible-tragedies-continue-in-unjust-war/

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IF THIS IS NOT GENOCIDE, IT IS MASS MURDER....

By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost

There is no effective health care system left in Gaza. Infants are dying. Children are having their limbs amputated without anesthesia. Thousands of cancer patients and those in need of dialysis lack treatment. The last cancer hospital in Gaza has ceased functioning. An estimated 50,000 pregnant women have no safe place to give birth. They undergo cesarean sections without anesthesia. Miscarriage rates are up 300 percent since the Israeli assault began. The wounded bleed to death. There is no sanitation or clean water. Hospitals have been bombed and shelled. Nasser Hospital, one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza, is “near collapse.” Clinics, along with ambulances – 79 in Gaza and over 212 in the West Bank – have been destroyed. Some 400 doctors, nurses, medics and healthcare workers have been killed — more than the total of all healthcare workers killed in conflicts around the world combined since 2016. Over 100 more have been detained, interrogated, beaten and tortured, or disappeared by Israeli soldiers. 

Israeli soldiers routinely enter hospitals to carry out forced evacuations – on Wednesday troops entered al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis and demanded doctors and displaced Palestinians leave – as well as round up detainees, including the wounded, sick and medical staff. On Tuesday, disguised as hospital workers and civilians, Israeli soldiers entered Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank and assassinated three Palestinians as they slept. 

The cuts to funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — collective punishment for the alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 attack of 12 of its 13,000 UNRWA workers  —  will accelerate the horror, turning the attacks, starvation, lack of health care and spread of infectious diseases in Gaza into a tidal wave of death. 

The evidence-free charges, which include the accusation that 10 percent of all of UNRWA’s Gaza staff have ties to Islamist militant groups, appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The reporter, Carrie-Keller Lynn, served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Given the numerous lies Israel has employed to justify its genocide, including “beheaded babies” and “mass rape,” it is reasonable to assume this may be another fabrication. 

The allegations, of which details remain scant, are apparently based on confessions by Palestinian detainees — most certainly after being beaten or tortured. These allegations were enough to see 17 countries including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Australia and Japan cut or delay funding to the vital U.N. agency. UNRWA is all that stands between the Palestinians in Gaza and famine. A handful of countries, including Ireland, Norway and Turkey, maintain their funding. 

Eight of the UNRWA employees accused of participating in the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, where 1,139 people were killed and 240 abducted, were fired. Two have been suspended. UNRWA has promised an investigation. They account for 0.04 percent of UNRWA’s staff. 

Israel is seeking to destroy not only Gaza’s health care system and infrastructure, but UNRWA which provides food and aid to 2 million Palestinians. The object is to make Gaza uninhabitable and ethnically cleanse the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands are already starving. Over 70 percent of the housing has been destroyed. More than 26,700 people have been killed and over 65,600 have been injured. Thousands are missing. Some 90 percent of Gaza’s pre-war population has been displaced, with many living in the open. Palestinians have been reduced to eating grass and drinking contaminated water.

Noga Arbell, a former Israeli foreign ministry official, during a discussion in the Israeli parliament on Jan. 4, stated: “It will be impossible to win the war if we do not destroy UNRWA, and this destruction must begin immediately.”

“UNRWA is an organization that perpetuates the problem of the Palestinian refugees,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2018. “It also perpetuates the narrative of the so-called ‘right of return’ with the aim of eliminating the State of Israel, and therefore UNRWA must disappear.”

An unnamed senior Israeli official praised the suspension of funding to UNRWA, but insisted on Wednesday the government was not calling for its closure. 

More than 152 of UNRWA’s employees in Gaza — including school principals, teachers, health workers, a gynecologist, engineers, support staff and a psychologist — have been killed since the Israeli attacks began. Over 141 UNRWA facilities have been bombed into rubble. The death toll is the largest loss of staff during a conflict in the U.N.’s history.

The destruction of healthcare facilities and targeting of doctors, nurses, medics and staff is especially repugnant. It means the most vulnerable, the sick, infants, the wounded and elderly, and those who care for them, are often condemned to death.

Palestinian doctors are pleading with doctors and medical organizations from around the world to decry the assault on the healthcare system and mobilize their institutions to protest. 

“The world must condemn the acts against medical professionals happening in Gaza,” writes the director of Al-Shifa hospital, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, who was arrested along with other medical personnel by the Israelis in November 2023 while evacuating with a World Health Organization (WHO) convoy, and who remains in custody. “This Correspondence is a call for every human being, all medical communities, and all health-care professionals around the world to call for these anti-hospital activities inside and around the hospitals to stop, which is a civilian obligation according to international law, the UN, and WHO.”

But these institutions — with a few notable exceptions such as The American Public Health Association that has called for a ceasefire — have either remained silent or, as with Dr. Matthew K. Wynia, the director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado, attempted to justify Israeli war crimes. These doctors — who somehow find it acceptable that in Gaza a child is killed every 10 minutes on average — are accomplices to genocide and stand in violation of the Geneva Convention. They embrace death as a solution, not life. 

https://scheerpost.com/2024/01/31/chris-hedges-the-silence-of-the-damned/

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbcLw6j2tzA

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IPAN, the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, is inviting organisations and individuals throughout Australia to sign the open letter to the Prime Minister on Gaza and their freezing of funds to UNRWA. 

After the International Court of Justice’s ruling on South Africa’s case on 26 January, it is clear Israel is not halting its attacks on Gaza.  In recent days, Israel ordered Gazans to leave their homes in southern Gaza and proceeded to bomb them: the result, many more dead and homeless. The situation is urgent – this genocide must not continue. Already over 50 organisations and over 1000 individuals have signed in just 2 days – the deadline for signatures is COB 12 February. Please sign the letter here or at ipan.org.au

Dear Prime Minister,

We, the undersigned, urge the Australian Government to reverse its decision to freeze funding to the UN aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA. We are deeply concerned that Australia, America and others that have paused funding to UNRWA, based on unproven allegations from Israel, are contributing to Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza and in doing so, are most likely violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention.

Close to 26,000 Palestinians have been killed, thousands of them children, and more than 65,000 injured since October 2023. In a horrifying case of collective punishment, much of the population of Gaza is facing starvation and hospitals are non-functioning, deprived of fuel and medical equipment. Children and others are suffering through surgical operations in Gaza without anaesthesia. Hundreds of doctors, nurses and ambulance workers and more than 100 UN workers have been killed. More than 70 journalists have been killed while trying to show the world the reality of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. UN schools and shelters, despite being protected by international law, have been attacked.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) found on 26 January 2024 that South Africa presented a plausible case that Israel had intent to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Furthermore, the court ruled that Israel was legally bound to “take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article 2 of the convention, in particular (a) killing members of the group [Palestinians], (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, (c) deliberating inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

This ruling in effect requires a ceasefire for Israel to comply with it. Likewise, it obligates all parties to the Genocide Convention, including Australia, to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. The Australian Government must call for a ceasefire by Israel and the urgent, unfettered provision of ongoing and sustainable amounts of humanitarian aid.

With the UNRWA being the only organisation currently distributing the limited aid that Israel permits into Gaza, its work is truly life-sustaining. UNRWA Chief Phillipe Lazzarini has stated that Australia and its allies’ suspension of funds puts this vital agency at risk of collapse. As such, we urge Australia to reverse the cuts to UNRWA as a statement of commitment to the ICJ’s ruling, and the human rights and lives of Palestinians in Gaza.

Australia must also recognise Israel’s stated intent to continue to defy international law and persist with its atrocities in Gaza, its displacement of Palestinians from their homeland and its further occupation and colonisation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Australia must act collectively with governments across the globe to urgently and decisively pressure Israel to end its violence and commit to a political resolution.
To this end, we urge the Australian Government to:

Immediately reinstate Australia’s funding to UNRWA;

• Officially express Australia’s support for the ICJ’s rulings
• Call for an immediate unconditional, permanent ceasefire and unfettered, ongoing and sustainable humanitarian aid to be provided to Gaza
• Expel the Israeli ambassador until a continuing ceasefire is in place
• End any military support for, or contracts with Israel, including:
  • Ending Australian supplies of military equipment to Israel, eg, provision of parts for Israel’s F-35 Joint Strike fighter plane
  • Halt any intelligence going to the Israeli government from the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap
  • Expel Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons and military equipment firm providing drones and white phosphorous to the Israeli armed forces, from Australia; and
• Implement cultural, sporting and economic sanctions on Israel until there is an end to the brutal Israeli apartheid system in the West Bank, Gaza and in Israel.

Australia must not be complicit in genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank.

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