Israel, Israel Crimes

Israel: Above the law? | Israel War on Gaza | Al Jazeera

Israel: Above the law?

A look into how and why international laws and principles are being applied and ignored in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The events of October 7 sent shockwaves across the world and brought to the forefront once again a conflict that has been ongoing for 75 years. The Israeli government’s response to Hamas’s attack was prompt – it embarked on a war of magnitude in Gaza, claiming it needed to take out Hamas and rescue the captives. At first, the consensus of Western powers seemed solid: Israel has the right to fight back against Hamas. But more than five months later, Israel’s military was facing criticism worldwide, including allegations that it is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and even genocide.

This film will explore whether Israel is breaking international law and, if so, why are Western powers, in particular the United States, silent.

 

Source: Israel: Above the law? | Israel War on Gaza | Al Jazeera

Israel

Censored: Keir Starmer’s Emails About Israeli War Crimes Case

  • The coalition government changed U.K. law in 2011 to enable Israeli ministers accused of crimes to visit Britain without fear of prosecution.

Tzipi Livni

Livni was the Israeli minister of foreign affairs between 2006 and 2009, and a member of Israel’s war cabinet during the brutal bombing of Gaza between December 2008 and January 2009, known as Operation Cast Lead.

According to a U.N. report, “numerous serious violations of international law… were committed by Israel during the military operations in Gaza”, which killed around 1,400 Palestinians, 333 of whom were children.

Those crimes included “the direct targeting and arbitrary killing of Palestinian civilians”, as well as a “deliberate and systematic policy… to target industrial sites and water installations”.

The U.N. report specifically cited Livni as saying:

“Israel is not a country upon which you fire missiles and it does not respond. It is a country that when you fire on its citizens it responds by going wild – and that is a good thing”.

Prior to this, Livni had declared:

“I am a lawyer… But I am against law — international law in particular. Law in general”.

Source: Censored: Keir Starmer’s Emails About Israeli War Crimes Case

Israel, Israel Crimes

‘Enough Is Enough’: Ireland Joins ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel
Dublin protest for Gaza

“What we saw on October 7 in Israel, and what we are seeing in Gaza now, represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale,” said one top Irish official.

‘Enough Is Enough’: Ireland Joins ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel

Source: ‘Enough Is Enough’: Ireland Joins ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel

Israel, Israel Crimes

Does God condone genocide? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

It is not surprising that Palestinians are treated as contemptuously as they are when they are clearly not defined as ‘God’s People’.

The disregard for indigenous peoples by colonial powers was equally contemptuous, the rapacity for land unbridled greed, lands stolen, people killed and missionaries followed close behind to wipe out indigenous cultures replacing it with adoration for Jesus. The laws did not apply to the conquered, only to ‘God’s People’.

Source: Does God condone genocide? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel, Israel Crimes

Naked Hypocrisy: The US once cited UNSC Resolutions to Invade Iraq, now calls Gaza Ceasefire Demand “Non-Binding”

“‘Security Council resolutions are binding,’ Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday.”

Beijing is correct on the law, and the Biden administration is being disingenuous. If President Biden did not want a ceasefire resolution to pass, he should have vetoed it. By abstaining and letting the world community vote on the matter, Biden has elicited a binding decision, and his officials should stop dancing around it.

The law here is clear.

Source: Naked Hypocrisy: The US once cited UNSC Resolutions to Invade Iraq, now calls Gaza Ceasefire Demand “Non-Binding”

America

Spending Unlimited – ScheerPost

Before our government moves full speed ahead expanding the weapons industry and further militarizing geopolitical challenges posed by China and Russia, we should reflect on America’s disastrous performance in the costly, prolonged wars already waged in this century. After all, they did enormous damage, made the world a far more dangerous place, and only increased the significance of those weapons makers. Throwing another trillion dollars-plus at the Pentagon won’t change that.

Source: Spending Unlimited – ScheerPost

Julian Assange

UK judges try to cover-up the CIA’s plot to kill Julian AssangeKangaroo Court of Australia

Julian Assange

UK judges have denied Julian Assange’s request to file new evidence that the CIA plotted to kill Assange. But the same judges have allowed the US government to file new evidence to give assurances that Assange won’t face the death penalty so Assange can be extradited to the US.

Source: UK judges try to cover-up the CIA’s plot to kill Julian AssangeKangaroo Court of Australia

Informed Comment

Purgatorial Torments: Assange and the UK High Court – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The US government has been given till April 16 to file assurances addressing the three grounds, with further written submissions in response to be filed by April 30 by Assange’s team, and May 14 by the Home Secretary. Another leave of appeal will be entertained on May 20. If the DOJ does not provide any assurances, then leave to appeal will be granted. The accretions of obscenity in the Assange saga are set to continue.

Source: Purgatorial Torments: Assange and theUK High Court – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Truth in Humor

Why A Punch In The Face May Be Good For Civil Discourse! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Like I said, I don’t condone violence. However when I first heard the German word, “backpfeifengesicht” meaning a face that needs to be slapped, the face of several politicians and commentators came to mind.

Source: Why A Punch In The Face May Be Good For Civil Discourse! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Is there such a thing as terrorism or just a refusal to listen?

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 28/3/24, Truth in Humor, Assange ,Australia in the Pacific, HRC,

Israel, Israel Crimes

Juan Cole: As Israel Defies UNSC Demand for Gaza Ceasefire, UN Human Rights Body Slams Ongoing “Genocide” – ScheerPost

The UN Security Council has finally passed a ceasefire resolution for Gaza, from which the US abstained, so it was passed by the other 14 members. Although UNSC resolutions are binding, and countries like Iraq and Iran have been severely punished for disobeying them, the US is running interference for the Netanyahu government by insisting that the resolution is “non-binding.”

Source: Juan Cole: As Israel Defies UNSC Demand for Gaza Ceasefire, UN Human Rights Body Slams Ongoing “Genocide” – ScheerPost

Israel, Israel Crimes

‘They scream in hunger’ – How Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Source: ‘They scream in hunger’ – How Israel is starving Palestinians in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Israel, Israel Crimes

Israel’s attempt to destroy Unrwa is part of its starvation strategy in Gaza | Kenneth Roth | The Guardian

People walk past Unrwa’s damaged Gaza City headquarters

Some Israeli leaders see an ugly third way out of this conundrum – reducing the number of Palestinians. By starving Palestinians in Gaza and destroying much of the housing and infrastructure, Netanyahu seems to want to render Gaza unlivable. That would be consistent with the calls of his rightwing ministers for mass deportation from Gaza – an effort to wipe 2.2 million Palestinians from the demographic balance sheet.

Certainly Netanyahu does not want to make the demographics worse by offering any sustenance to Palestinian refugees who might want to return – even to Palestine. Destroying Unrwa is part of that awful plan. No funder should join it.

Source: Israel’s attempt to destroy Unrwa is part of its starvation strategy in Gaza | Kenneth Roth | The Guardian

Israel, Israel Crimes

‘Crucial’ UN Report on Gaza Genocide Must Spur Global Action, Says Amnesty

A wounded person receives treatment at a local hospital in the southern Gaza Strip

U.N. member states must “use their influence” to push Israel to halt its bombardment of Gaza and blocking of humanitarian aid, said the group’s secretary general.

Source: ‘Crucial’ UN Report on Gaza Genocide Must Spur Global Action, Says Amnesty

Israel, Israel Crimes

Draft UN Report Calls for Arms Embargo on Israel

Israel on Monday informed the U.N. that it will no longer allow UNRWA convoys carrying food aid into northern Gaza, even as the Palestinians are starving to death, a move that one humanitarian campaigner called a “death sentence.”

Source: Draft UN Report Calls for Arms Embargo on Israel

Israel, Israel Crimes

Anatomy of a Genocide – Pearls and Irritations
Israeli and Palestinian flags on a brick wall with blood splatters.

After five months of military operations, Israel has destroyed Gaza. By analysing the patterns of violence and Israel’s policies in its onslaught on Gaza, this report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met. More broadly, they also indicate that Israel’s actions have been driven by a genocidal logic integral to its settler-colonial project in Palestine, signalling a tragedy foretold.

Source: Anatomy of a Genocide – Pearls and Irritations

Israel, Israel Crimes

‘Everyone in the world needs to see this’: footage shows IDF drone killing Gazans – Pearls and Irritations

Israeli flag covered in red handprints representing blood of Arabs at an anti-Israel protest.

Source: ‘Everyone in the world needs to see this’: footage shows IDF drone killing Gazans – Pearls and Irritations

Israel, Israel Crimes

Close-up of Death Culture: 1,000 in Entertainment Biz Proclaim Support for Gaza Slaughter – CounterPunch.org

 

How many more Palestinian civilians will Israel murder before such “support for Israel” begins to waver?

Source: Close-up of Death Culture: 1,000 in Entertainment Biz Proclaim Support for Gaza Slaughter – CounterPunch.org

Israel, Israel Crimes

Israel accelerates land theft in the West Bank | The Electronic Intifada

Girl and woman stand near the debris of destroyed infrastructure

Now, Israel is accelerating land theft in the occupied West Bank, conducting assassinations of resistance fighters and killing children across the territory, despite repeated warnings that continued Israeli aggression would bring about an eruption.

Israeli soldiers killed more than 420 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, and at least nine were killed by settlers, the UN monitoring group OCHA has reported.

Of those killed, 113 were children.

Israeli forces and settlers have injured nearly 5,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October, more than 700 of them children.

Source: Israel accelerates land theft in the West Bank | The Electronic Intifada

Australia

The AUKUS Cash Cow: Robbing the Australian Taxpayer – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Ultimately, this absurd spectacle entails a windfall of cash, ill-deserved funding to two powers with little promise of returns and no guarantees of speedier boat construction. The shipyards of both the UK and the United States can take much joy from this, as can those keen to further proliferate nuclear platforms, leaving the Australian voter with that terrible feeling of being, well, mugged.

Source: The AUKUS Cash Cow: Robbing the Australian Taxpayer – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Destroying Schools and Universities is serious book burning. Israel puts blinkers on history

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 27/3/24, Dutton, UN Resolution Vote, No Freedom, Blocking UN Aid, Renters in Australia,

Israel, Israel Crimes

‘Beyond Comprehension’: Medical Team Reports Starvation, Infections at Gaza Hospital

Gaza hospital

Members of an emergency medical team that has treated patients at a hospital in southern Gaza in recent weeks said Monday that the horrors they’ve witnessed there are “unimaginable,” from worsening malnutrition to deadly infections stemming from lack of healthcare equipment.

Source: ‘Beyond Comprehension’: Medical Team Reports Starvation, Infections at Gaza Hospital

Israel, Israel Crimes

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 171: ‘Horrific’ Eyewitness Accounts Continue to Emerge From Israel’s Siege on Gaza’s Hospitals – ScheerPost

Source: ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 171: ‘Horrific’ Eyewitness Accounts Continue to Emerge From Israel’s Siege on Gaza’s Hospitals – ScheerPost

Israel, Israel Crimes

Israeli “commission” on 7 October rape claims exposed as fraud | The Electronic Intifada

Screenshot of Haaretz article shows image of Elkayam-Levy and headline

Source: Israeli “commission” on 7 October rape claims exposed as fraud | The Electronic Intifada

Israel, Israel Crimes

US Accepts ‘Outrageous’ Israeli Assurances on Legal Use of Weapons in Gaza

Jabalia refugee camp after an Israeli bombing

AIPAC and Christian Evangelists will use even more Money Power

Also on Monday, Palestine defenders rallied in Washington, D.C. to protest a visit to the State Department by Gallant and to demand an end to U.S. aid and weapons to Israel. Another high-level Israeli delegation’s visit to Washington was canceled Monday after the U.S. abstained from a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

Source: US Accepts ‘Outrageous’ Israeli Assurances on Legal Use of Weapons in Gaza

Israel, Israel Crimes

Critics of Glazer’s Oscars speech prove the relevance of ‘The Zone of Interest’

A recent open letter from Hollywood creatives, condemning Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar acceptance speech, only reinforces the ongoing dehumanisation of lives in Israel and Palestine, Lyn Bender writes.

Source: Critics of Glazer’s Oscars speech prove the relevance of ‘The Zone of Interest’

Israel, Israel Crimes

Chris Hedges: PEN America Self-Destructs – ScheerPost

PEN America may continue to exist, indeed its obsequiousness to governmental and corporate power will probably assure its funding, but it is a hollow brand used to justify the crimes and lies of the U.S. government and Israel.

Source: Chris Hedges: PEN America Self-Destructs – ScheerPost

Israel

Draft UN Report Finds Israel Has Met Threshold for Genocide

Dozens of Palestinian bodies wrapped in white sheets are lined up in the street

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday published a draft report that found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a move that came on the same day as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the ongoing war.

Source: Draft UN Report Finds Israel Has Met Threshold for Genocide

Israel

Germany next up to face Gaza genocide charges in The Hague | The Electronic Intifada

According to German government-funded media, Berlin “is one of the largest arms exporters to Israel” alongside the United States.

Source: Germany next up to face Gaza genocide charges in The Hague | The Electronic Intifada

American Hypocrisy

Joe Biden Cozies Up to Equatorial Guinea’s Brutal Dictator Obiang

GABON-FRANCE-ENVIRONMENT-FORESTS-SUMMIT

Famous for its repression and torture, Teodoro Obiang’s Equatorial Guinea got an aid delivery from U.S. Special Operations forces

Source: Joe Biden Cozies Up to Equatorial Guinea’s Brutal Dictator Obiang

Israel, Israel Crimes

Moral cowardice hinders pleas for a Common Humanity in Gaza – Pearls and Irritations

Concept of crisis in Gaza, Middle East.

Pleas for a common humanity include urgent, practical objectives:

  • Join 139 countries in implementing the decision of the Labor Party general conference to recognise the State of Palestine.
  • Implementation of the rulings of the ICJ
  • Demands for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege of Gaza.
  • Insist on return of all hostages
  • Consider expulsion of Israeli Ambassador to Australia, recall of Australia’s Ambassador to Israel
  • Ending any Australian military support for Israel
  • Developing plans for peace with justice in which Palestinians from all walks take a lead.
  • Consider proposals for an international peace conference to address Palestinians’ rights to self-determination and refugees’ rights of return.
  • Support for a UN led emergency humanitarian program to address the immediate medical, food and housing needs of Gazans

Source: Moral cowardice hinders pleas for a Common Humanity in Gaza – Pearls and Irritations

Israel, Israel Crimes

Letter to Penny Wong – Australian Jewish Democratic Society: sanctions on Israel – Pearls and Irritations

Penny Wong - DFAT official photo

The AJDS calls for the Australian Government to ban the importation of Israeli goods and services from the Occupied Territories and to cancel the contract for the purchase of $900million of Elbit systems for Hanwha Defence Australia because of the close connection between Elbit’s products and the war in Gaza and other action in the Occupied Territories. These actions would send a clear message to the Israeli government while not threatening its security.

Source: Letter to Penny Wong – Australian Jewish Democratic Society: sanctions on Israel – Pearls and Irritations

Israel, Israel Crimes

WATCH: Nabbed Stopping Military Shipment to Israel

Australia Shamed by Military Aid to Israel

Source: WATCH: Nabbed Stopping Military Shipment to Israel

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- “Where’s My Leg?”

Fighting Fake News With REAL,26/3/24, UNRWA Aid Blocked, Israel refuses delivery, IDF abduct 16, Tim Wilson, Housing, The IPA, LNP trashing WA, “Where’s my leg?”

Israel, Israel Crimes

Farming Under Israeli Occupation Is Brutal

Israel’s attacks on Palestinians aren’t only carried out through guns and bombs. They also come through its vice grip on agriculture, including its system of “water apartheid.” We spoke to a Palestinian farmer and union leader about his labor under occupation.

Source: Farming Under Israeli Occupation Is Brutal

Israel, Israel Crimes

How Israel hides its atrocities in Gaza | Salon.com

A man wails after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, Gaza on October 09, 2023. Search and rescue works continue. (Belal Khaled/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

 

There’s a word for seeing — and saying — that Israel is engaged in large-scale crimes against humanity. And that word isn’t “antisemitism.” It’s realism.

Source: How Israel hides its atrocities in Gaza | Salon.com

Israel

‘Everyone in the World Needs to See This’: Footage Shows IDF Drone Killing Gazans – ScheerPost
“There is no way they could have been considered combatants,” said one writer and analyst. “This is unreal.”

“OUTRAGEOUS even after months of outrages,” declared Palestinian American political analyst Yousef Munayyer. “This video shows an Israeli military drone literally stalking four unarmed civilians posing no threat and eliminating them one after the other!!!”

Source: ‘Everyone in the World Needs to See This’: Footage Shows IDF Drone Killing Gazans – ScheerPost

Israel, Israel Crimes

‘Kill them all’: inside the Israeli blockade on Gaza aid

Journalist Jeremy Loffredo goes inside the grassroots Israeli campaign to block desperately needed aid to the besieged Gaza Strip and elicits the shockingly candid views of the Jewish Israeli nationalists manning the barricades.

Australian Economy

Remnants of the Coalition’s horrific economic damage still linger today

Poor decisions by incompetent regimes have caused lasting harm in Australia, though the mainstream press would never admit it, Alan Austin reports.

Source: Remnants of the Coalition’s horrific economic damage still linger today

Informed Comment

Assange may be offered plea deal to end suffering

BE WARY OF what Washington offers in negotiations at the best of times. The empire gives and takes when it can; the hegemon proffers in equal measure and withdraws offers it deems fit. This is all well known to the legal team of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, who, the Wall Street Journal “exclusively” reveals, is in ongoing negotiations with U.S. Justice Department officials on a possible plea deal.

Source: Assange may be offered plea deal to end suffering

News Corp

Is Peter Dutton or News Corp leading the Coalition? – Pearls and Irritations

Newspaper or hournal with news printing on a printing machine in a typography. 3d illustration

National Security was also blown up in the News Corp media when the US was considering banning Tik Tok because of its connections to the Chinese Government. Foreign Affairs Shadow spokesman James Paterson was reported widely claiming ominous national security consequences with respect to election interference if Australia did not follow suit.

It did not occur to anyone in the mainstream media, it seems, that the ever-present threat to Australia’s national security on the matter of election interference has for decades been the dominance in Australia of the foreign owned News Corp by the American Rupert Murdoch.

Source: Is Peter Dutton or News Corp leading the Coalition? – Pearls and Irritations

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Israel is punishing Gaza because Hamas has showed they’re not the Gods they pretend to be & the Middle East is watching

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 25/3/24, Limbo The Movie, Enviroment, UNRWA, Israel’s Meddling in US politics, Burning Ideas, Lehrmann, Trump follows Hitler,

Israel, Israel Crimes

Gaza is the holocaust reborn – Pearls and Irritations

Long row of people rendered in a rough style wait in line. Drawing Sketch

Gaza now resembles Berlin at the end of WW2. A bombed out ruin, littered with the decomposing bodies of innocent civilians, entombed in the rubble of their homes. The way is now cleared for Israel to take possession of all of Gaza. To forever banish the Palestinians from their traditional homeland. And the world watches on with little more than dispassionate interest. For Israel, founded by victims of the holocaust, how the worm has turned.

Source: Gaza is the holocaust reborn – Pearls and Irritations

Israel, Israel Crimes

Gaza Humanitarian Worker: Biden Is on Board for Ethnic Cleansing

GAZA CITY, GAZA - FEBRUARY 19: Palestinians receive bags of flour as they wait for aid supplies carried by trucks to enter from the border in Gaza Strip on February 19, 2024. The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN. (Photo by Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

I helped with airlifts in Afghanistan, aid to the Ukrainian front, and building roads in Rwanda. None of it prepared me for the challenges of Gaza.

Source: Gaza Humanitarian Worker: Biden Is on Board for Ethnic Cleansing

Uncategorized

WATCH: Hedges & Finkelstein on Gaza

https://www.youtube.com/live/vJ0K-ZNrXYU?si=pVygyrsMrLKWWY0v

Israel, Israel Crimes

The Chris Hedges Report: Halting Biden’s Weapon Shipments to Israel
Israel, Israel Crimes

Leaked Israel lobby presentation urges US officials to justify war on Gaza with ‘Hamas rape’ claims – The Grayzone

Focus Group Testing Strategies & Tactics to demonise Hamas

Luntz’s Gaza war presentation puts his poll-tested tactics back in the Israel lobby’s hands, urging pro-Israel public figures to stay on the attack with incendiary language and shocking allegations against their enemies.

Source: Leaked Israel lobby presentation urges US officials to justify war on Gaza with ‘Hamas rape’ claims – The Grayzone

Israel

Intercepted: A Canadian Doctor on His Medical Mission to Gaza

medical-mission-gaza-feat

“I saw scenes that were horrific and I never want to see again,” said Yasser Khan, a surgeon from Toronto.

Source: Intercepted: A Canadian Doctor on His Medical Mission to Gaza

Israel, Israel Crimes

‘A moral outrage’: UN chief vents at Gaza border in ceasefire plea

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has visited the Gaza border with Egypt, where he called the blocking of aid for the Gaza Strip a “moral outrage.”

The UN would continue to work with Egypt to “streamline” the flow of aid into Gaza, he told reporters in front of the gate of the Rafah crossing, an entry point for aid.

Source: ‘A moral outrage’: UN chief vents at Gaza border in ceasefire plea