Tag: Israel

Israel

Palestine and History: Macklemore v. Hillary Clinton

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered herself of some ahistorical and distorted remarks about Palestine on Morning Joe, maintaining that the young people protesting the Gaza atrocities do not know history.

Ms. Clinton’s self-serving description of the 2000 Camp David process has been debunked by many historians. In fact, her husband Bill Clinton promised in the Oslo Accords in 1993 that Israel would withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank by 1997. He then allowed Benjamin Netanyahu to sabotage that process and allowed the Israelis to double the number of squatters they sent in to the Palestinian West Bank to steal property and terrorize people. When Netanyahu went out and Ehud Barak came in, Clinton sponsored negotiations, but Barak was maddeningly vague about what he would offer and never produced a text that Yasser Arafat could sign. It is not clear why Arafat needed to sign anything more; he already signed the Oslo treaty, which should have resulted in an Israeli withdrawal that never came. Soon thereafter Barak lost to Ariel Sharon, who was as determined to sabotage any land for peace deal as Netanyahu had been, and he wrecked the whole process.

Her placing of all the blame on the Palestinians is typical of inside-the-Beltway Goy Zionism, and is profoundly ahistorical. The young people can’t be fooled by these glib words. They see what they see.

Source: Palestine and History: Macklemore v. Hillary Clinton

Israel

Israel’s war machine, Australian Universities, and why students are protesting – Pearls and Irritations

Protesting students occupy an area of the quadrangle at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Friday, May 3, 2024. Encampments have sprung up at colleges in major Australian cities as participants protest over the Israel-Hamas war in solidarity with student demonstrators in the United States. Image:AAP/AP/Rick Rycroft

Australian university students are setting up encampments in universities across Australia. They are not only calling for an end to the war on Gaza and freedom for Palestinians, they are calling for key changes needed in Australian universities’ relationships with Israel, including divestments in weapons research and development and sales and the cessation of links to Israeli Universities involved in the Israeli military complex.

Source: Israel’s war machine, Australian Universities, and why students are protesting – Pearls and Irritations

Israel, Israel Crimes

After 200 Days of Carnage, US and UN suddenly Shocked at Israeli Mass Graves for Palestinians in Gaza

After 200 Days of Carnage, US and UN suddenly Shocked at Israeli Mass Graves for Palestinians in Gaza

“This is something that forces us to call for an independent investigation of all the suspicions and all the circumstances because it indeed creates the impression that there might have been violations of international human rights committed,” the EU’s spokesman, Peter Stano, declared.

‘Might have been’? There was evidence even without the discovery of mass graves, but the international community prefers to rest on speculation in the face of evidence. With one phrase, proof has been turned into an assumption. Can the international community, at least, stop sensationalising the horror of mass graves and focus on the entire genocidal process which wants to eliminate all traces of Palestinians? No independent investigation will cancel the fact that genocide unfolded with the international community’s blessing and, as a result, so did the mass graves.

Source: After 200 Days of Carnage, US and UN suddenly Shocked at Israeli Mass Graves for Palestinians in Gaza

Australia's Shame

Australia is a silent partner in atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank – Pearls and Irritations

Israel and Australia flag together realations textile cloth fabric texture

On 27 February, we wrote to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) expressing concern that Australia had failed to fulfil its obligation under the Genocide Convention (1948) to prevent any action that further risks the survival of the Palestinian people. That failure continues.

Source: Australia is a silent partner in atrocity in Gaza and the West Bank – Pearls and Irritations

ALP Government,

Australia too soft on war criminals

With Australian soldiers returning from fighting alongside Israeli forces, it’s questionable if the Labor Government will investigate possible war crimes, writes Bilal Cleland.

WHILE WE HAVE long discriminated against First Nations people, we have been open to those who look like “us”, White European colonists, being somewhat too accepting of backgrounds.

Source: Australia too soft on war criminals

Informed Comment

Chris Hedges: Revolt in the Universities

There are many shameful periods in American history. The genocide we carried out against indigenous peoples. Slavery. The violent suppression of the labor movement that saw hundreds of workers killed. Lynching. Jim and Jane Crow. Vietnam. Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya.

The genocide in Gaza, which we fund and support, is of such monstrous proportions that it will achieve a prominent place in this pantheon of crimes.

History will not be kind to most of us. But it will bless and revere these students.

Source: Chris Hedges: Revolt in the Universities

terrorism

Terrorism is what I say it is – Pearls and Irritations

Highlighted English word

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less’. ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things’.
 ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all’. – Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass.

we do know that, after October 7, Israel’s leaders intended to inflict terror on Palestinians and commit genocide.

Source: Terrorism is what I say it is – Pearls and Irritations

Iran

Iran Refuses to Bow — Can it Afford to Stand?

Not that Israeli society is currently an exemplar of social cohesion in comparison. Netanyahu’s fascistic coalition is well aware of the deep and deepening detestation with which it is viewed by a significant proportion of its own people. This after six months of unrelenting military assault that has failed to achieve the destruction of Hamas and/or the release of the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.

Source: Iran Refuses to Bow — Can it Afford to Stand?

Israel, Israel Crimes

Stopping Israel’s genocide – Pearls and Irritations

Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) - Reading of the Order of the Court on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by South Africa

The order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 28 March 2024 to stop genocide in Gaza is not a go-to-jail card for Israel. So Israel just ignored it. In so doing, it followed the example of the US which had ignored an ICJ decision against the US and in favour of Nicaragua in 1986 and, again, in 2004, in favour of Mexico.

Both Israel and the US show by conduct they believe they are above international law and the “rules-based order”. The difference here is that Israel is continuing to commit what the UN Human Rights rapporteur has called “the crime of all crimes.”

Last but not least, Israel and the US are increasingly being seen for what they are, viz two pariah states disregarding International law and the international system. Long term and serious negative consequences may flow from this. For example, Israel’s biblical-based claim to exist may be seen as an invalid excuse for genocide and the forceful and illegal taking of land lawfully inhabited and owned by others. For US hegemony, Israel’s genocide in Gaza will be another nail added to its coffin.

Source: Stopping Israel’s genocide – Pearls and Irritations

Uncategorized

No access to north for 322 aid trucks entering southern Gaza

reporting from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

About 322 humanitarian trucks have been allowed to get into the Gaza Strip from both the Karem Abu Salem (known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis) crossing and the Rafah crossing here in Rafah.

These humanitarian convoys are loaded with water, sugar, flour and all kinds of basic necessities that Palestinians very desperately need.

But none of these humanitarian convoys has been given access to reach the northern part of the Gaza Strip, despite the Israeli military decision to reopen again the Erez crossing (Beit Hanoon) and to guarantee further flow of humanitarian supplies to people in the north.

Generally in times before the war, between 400 and up to 500 humanitarian trucks were reaching the Gaza Strip on a daily basis. This means these new deliveries are still incomparable to the massive needs of populations here, specifically those who are trapped in the northern parts of Gaza and facing high rates of malnutrition.

Israel

Opinion | The Mutually Reinforcing American and Israeli Empires | Common Dreams

Joe Biden Benjamin Netanyahu

If Biden’s people privately object to some Israeli off-the-wall slaughter of courageous journalists, United Nations staff, aid workers, patients in hospitals, and the starvation of babies, Netanyahu can softly say to Biden and Blinken, “Joe, Tony, why don’t you take up your complaints with OUR Congress.”

Source: Opinion | The Mutually Reinforcing American and Israeli Empires | Common Dreams

Israel, Israel Crimes

Shattered wards, ill-timed hernias, and the moral bankruptcy of a nation – Pearls and Irritations
Official portrait of Israel's 9th Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu

Pampered hernia patient Netanyahu is ultimately responsible for the destruction of more of the planet’s hospitals than anyone since the bombing of Hamburg during the Second World War.

Source: Shattered wards, ill-timed hernias, and the moral bankruptcy of a nation – Pearls and Irritations

ALP Government,

For Albanese, one Australian life matters more than 32,000 dead Palestinians – Pearls and Irritations
Rafah, Palestinian Territories. 08th Mar, 2024. Palestinians participate in a burial of five people who were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in the Swedish village (Al-Ezbah). The house belongs to the Abu Salima Najm family Five dead and dozens injured, near the Egyptian border on the seashore in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Image: Alamy/ Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa/Alamy Live News

How Albanese doesn’t swallow his tongue as he vociferously demands “full accountability” from Israel for the killing of Zomi Frankcom yet remains silent on 32,000 other killings is anybody’s guess. He waved his metaphorical fist at Netanyahu and told of Australia’s “outrage” at Zomi’s death. But Albanese left out the bit about many Australians’ outrage at the indiscriminate killing of 32,000 innocent Palestinians; not just one of our own.

Source: For Albanese, one Australian life matters more than 32,000 dead Palestinians – Pearls and Irritations

Uncategorized

How much aid is getting into Gaza, and how?

Reuters People standing near a truck carrying aid in Rafah

Israel offers excuses rather than food, aid or any concern other than Occupy and Transfer

Israel denied shooting people but when witnesses proved otherwise they claimed they only shot Hamas suspects. On what basis was someone considered a suspect? We have seen Israel shoot hostages and civilians waving white flags. We have seen them bulldoze the evidence. We have then heard their excuse that people were killed in subsequent stampedes. But, how is a stampede started by shooting people!

That’s always been the Israeli way of argument. First denial if that doesn’t work blame the Gazans never Israel. No wonder the world is pissed off. The next step then is the rise of antisemitism and the holocaust. Jews are always the victims.

If antisemitism did exist to the degree Israel claims they wouldn’t be MPs or any elected positions however they are

People in Gaza are suffering severe food shortages, with the UN saying children in northern Gaza are starving to death and famine is looming.

On 29 February more than 100 people were killed when a convoy arrived at al-Rashid Street in Gaza City. Palestinians accused Israel of shooting dead people at the convoy. Israel initially said most were killed being trampled or run over by the convoy. It later said troops had fired at people who it deemed “suspects” who they deemed a threat.

Source: How much aid is getting into Gaza, and how?

Israel, Israel Crimes

As Gaza Faces Famine, Israel Cuts Ties with UNRWA and U.S. Halts Funding for Critical Aid Agency

Despite a U.N.-backed report sounding the alarm on imminent famine in northern Gaza, Israeli authorities announced Sunday they will no longer approve the passage of any UNRWA food convoys into northern Gaza. “Our ability to adequately continue saving lives is really being obstructed,” says UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai. “What’s going to happen to UNRWA if we can no longer truly operate?” The decision came as President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations bill that strips funding to UNRWA for the next year. The U.S. first suspended aid to UNRWA in late January, when the Israeli government claimed 12 of the agency’s 30,000 employees were involved in Hamas’s attacks on October 7. The unsubstantiated allegation prompted top donors to cut funding to UNRWA, though many of them have resumed funding as the agency welcomes new donor countries and an unprecedented number of civil society donations. Seeing the U.S., the agency’s largest donor, “withhold funding … is a huge blow to us,” says Alrifai. “Stripping UNRWA of funding not only shrinks its ability to respond to the looming famine in Gaza, but also puts at risk the schools, the access of kids to proper education, the vaccines, the mother and child care — everything across the region.”

https://democracynow.cachefly.net/democracynow/360/dn2024-0328.mp4?start=2891.0

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

When Criticizing Israel Wasn’t Anti-Semitic

Politics and AIPAC in 20 years

At a conference in Berlin about anti-semitism in 2004, then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the following: “It is not antisemitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel.” 

Nearly 20 years later, on Dec. 5, 2023 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution by 311 to 14 votes equating criticism of Israel with anti-semitism. 

The resolution says: “Resolved, That the House of Representatives … clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”

Source: When Criticizing Israel Wasn’t Anti-Semitic

Israel

Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner calls for ethnic cleansing of Gaza to ‘Finish the Job’ – Pearls and Irritations
September 20, 2022, New York City, New York, USA: JARED KUSHNER attends the 2022 Concordia Annual Summit held at the SheratonTimes Square Hotel. Image: Alamy/Nancy Kaszerman/ZUMA Press Wire

Trump Heights already exists in the occupied Golan Heights make room for a Trump development in Gaza

Kushner, who served as a key Middle East adviser to Trump, said that Gaza’s “waterfront property could be very valuable” and urged Israel to “clean it up.”

“I know that that’s been refused, but [with] the right diplomacy I think it would be possible,” Kushner added. “But in addition to that, the thing that I would try to do if I was Israel right now is I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there. I know that won’t be the popular thing to do, but I think that that’s a better option to do so you can go in and finish the job.”

Source: Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner calls for ethnic cleansing of Gaza to ‘Finish the Job’ – Pearls and Irritations

Israel, Israel Crimes

The Israeli public is dispirited. So why is the right euphoric?

Ministers and MKs dance during the 'Victory Conference' for the resettlement of Gaza at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, January 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Zionists the “revisionist muscle-minded Jews” have always fomented chaos, division and threat while waiting for a distracted world. Until the formation of Israel in 1948 they were terrorists. They guerillas conducting a war against both  Britain and indigenous Palestinians. They knew the British Empire was decolonising and that the Palestinians would resist their invasion. But India, China and Korea were a bigger distraction. 1967 saw America busy with Vietnam so using their own “Bethlehem Directive” as an excuse they yelled “invasion” and attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan conducting the 6-day war netting and illegally occupying and settling even more land.

Today it’s Ukraine and Russia that have enabled another perfect storm and an effort to complete more of what was always their intended plan Eretz Israel= The Greater Israel and Final Nakba. All they needed was 7/10 which Israeli intel knew was coming and did nothing about.

The collective despondency derives from various factors, including the lingering trauma of October 7, the soldiers who continue to be killed in Gaza, the hundreds of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the southern and northern regions, the precarious economic situation, and the hostages still held in captivity.

However, it also reflects a deep understanding among significant portions of the Jewish public of several things: that the war in Gaza is not going anywhere; that the total defeat of Hamas is not a realistic goal; that the belief that military force will release the hostages is hollow; and that mass population transfer of Palestinians is not possible, both because Palestinians will refuse to leave and because no one wants to take them in.

Source: The Israeli public is dispirited. So why is the right euphoric?

Israel, Israel Crimes

Israel: a nation killing and starving children – Pearls and Irritations

Injured Palestinians, Including children are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Dair El-Balah Injured Palestinians, Includ Children are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Dair El-Balah for treatment following the Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on March 02, 2024. Photo by Omar Ashtawy apaimages Dair EL-Balah Gaza Strip Palestinian Territory 020324_Dair_EL-Balah_OSH_005 Copyright: Alamy/xapaimagesxOmarxAshtawyxxapaimagesx

There is nothing in recent memory that matches the scale of the atrocities being inflicted on the civilians of Gaza, who appear to be being punished for their very existence. Every report and image coming out of this tiny but densely populated piece of land brings despair, horror and incredulity, with the question “How can this be happening?” being uppermost.

His statement was not made lightly:

  • More children have been reported killed in just over 4 months in Gaza (over 12,300) than the number killed in wars globally in the 4 years to 2022 (12,193) (UNRWA, here).
  • “Today no child in Gaza is free from fear, pain and hunger…..All children living in the Gaza Strip have lost their childhood”. (UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, here).
  • UNICEF estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated from their parents.
  • Children are now dying of starvation, as its use as a weapon intensifies. Mass killings of those desperately seeking food occur (see for example here).

Source: Israel: a nation killing and starving children – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Not just the UNRWA report: Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera
Bald, bearded man lying exhausted on a reclined hospital bench, with a blanket pulled over him

On Monday, the Times of Israel reported that the country’s forces intended to unilaterally dismantle UNRWA within Gaza, with its functions hived off to other agencies of the military’s choosing.

While it was not clear which agencies the Israeli military had designated, or if negotiations were under way, the report did note that this move against the agency came as the latest in a longstanding campaign to discredit it, which goes back to UNRWA’s 1949 founding, mandating the agency to support displaced Palestinian refugees until they could return home.

As hunger worsens, with 15 children reported to have starved to death in recent days, UNRWA’s role in helping prevent what agencies are warning of a “humanitarian crisis” grows increasingly vital.

Other agencies, such as the Danish Refugee Council have warned that neither they nor other NGOs still operating in Gaza can replicate UNRWA’s role.

Source: Not just the UNRWA report: Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Israel

“Anti-Zionism Is Not Antisemitism”: Palestinian Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian on Hebrew Univ. Suspension | Democracy Now!

Hebrew University in Jerusalem has suspended an internationally renowned Palestinian professor for saying that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a feminist scholar whose work focuses on the impacts of militarization, surveillance and violence on the lives of Palestinian women and children. She made the remarks in an interview on Israel’s Channel 12 on Monday, where she also said it was time to “abolish Zionism.” Shalhoub-Kevorkian has been under pressure to resign from her position at Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law Institute of Criminology and at the School of Social Work and Public Welfare since October, when she signed a petition of over 1,000 academics calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. This comes as no universities have been left standing in the Gaza Strip, and nearly 5,000 university students and staff have been killed during Israel’s assault. “I am calling for abolishing Zionism because I see it as very violent towards the people and as causing criminality,” says Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who discusses the atmosphere of silencing and reprisals against those who criticize Israel’s policies toward Palestinians. “Anti-Zionism is to refuse to accept continued dispossession, is to refuse to accept this ideology of supremacy, is to refuse to accept the securitized ideas of one group against the other.”

Source: “Anti-Zionism Is Not Antisemitism”: Palestinian Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian on Hebrew Univ. Suspension | Democracy Now!

Israel, Israel Crimes

Israel war: IDF’s killing of innocent Palestinians has given me no choice but to speak out

Israeli soldiers pose for a photo on a position on the Gaza Strip border, in southern Israel, last month.

And this at a time of war, mass dislodgement and impending famine, and when the allegations – still unsubstantiated – were directed at roughly 0.1 per cent of the UN agency’s estimated 13,000 Gaza staff members.

I thought about this abject failure of the international community and the failure of so many Jewish people to condemn an Israeli government so utterly hijacked by right-wing extremists, messianic radicals, hooligan settlers and a morally bankrupt prime minister.

The Israeli government had for months been preventing sufficient aid from entering Gaza, and Palestinians were now eating grass and drinking putrid water. Hundreds were being forced to share one latrine. Children were beginning to die of famine, and even aid workers were starving to death. Virtually every hospital had been damaged or destroyed. Doctors, nurses, artists, students, teachers, journalists, entire families and children, thousands upon thousands of children, all dead.

“I have never in my many, many years as an aid worker seen a place that has been so bombarded for such a long time, with such a trapped population, without any escape,” said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Source: Israel war: IDF’s killing of innocent Palestinians has given me no choice but to speak out

Israel

The Intercept: New York Times Exposé Lacks Evidence to Claim Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence Oct. 7 | Democracy Now!

We speak with Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim of The Intercept about their exposé of a major New York Times piece into alleged mass rapes committed by Hamas militants on October 7 that raises serious questions about the accuracy of the story. The Times article was headlined “’Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7,” and its release in late December helped the Israeli government to justify the ongoing war on Gaza and to paint pro-Palestine supporters abroad as not caring about sexual violence. One of the reporters of the Times piece, Israeli freelancer Anat Schwartz, is being investigated by the Times for her social media activity, which included dehumanizing language and endorsements of violence against Palestinians in Gaza. ”The New York Times has grave, grave mischaracterizations, sins of omission, reliance on people who have no forensic or criminology credentials to be asserting that there was a systematic rape campaign put in place here,” says Scahill, who criticizes the newspaper for not issuing any corrections for their flawed reporting. We also hear from Ryan Grim about how the flawed Times article touched off “extremely intense debate” inside the newsroom. “They’re used to external criticism, but the amount of internal criticism they’re getting has them on the back foot,” he says.

Source: The Intercept: New York Times Exposé Lacks Evidence to Claim Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence Oct. 7 | Democracy Now!

ALP Government,

Triumphant Down Under: Elbit Systems and the Australian Military – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Forget Wong’s wobbliness, the persuasive pull of the Genocide Convention, and Canberra’s concerns about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Cash, contracts and jobs drawn from the military industrial complex continue to sneak through the guards.

Source: Triumphant Down Under: Elbit Systems and the Australian Military – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel, Israel Crimes

Israel’s Flour Massacre in Gaza Is a Horrific War Crime

The very denial by Israel saying it wasn’t us to each and every incident in this war is a denial that there even is a war going on. Israel’s whole propaganda campaign has been to treat every event as a single issue and decontextualize the very reason there is a war in the first place. They don’t want the History of Israel and its existence at the cost of Palestinians brought into relief.

It’s a criminal offense for teachers in Israel to stray off the official line at any level in an Israeli’s education. This event will be sold as “Hamas and the UNRWA did this we only shot in the air to disperse the trucks and they prevented COGAT from doing the generous job they have always done”

Continuing the relentless assault on civilians in Gaza, Israeli troops killed more than 100 starving Palestinians waiting for flour from aid trucks yesterday. Emboldened by US complicity, Israel persists in acting with impunity in Gaza.

Source: Israel’s Flour Massacre in Gaza Is a Horrific War Crime

Journalism

“Nothing has compared to what we’re seeing”: Hala Gorani on the toll of covering Gaza war | Salon.com

Hala reporting from Nablus in the West Bank (Photo courtesy of the author)

“There needs to be independent, international journalism happening inside Gaza right now, and it’s not.”

Source: “Nothing has compared to what we’re seeing”: Hala Gorani on the toll of covering Gaza war | Salon.com

Israel

Heartbroken by Israel – CounterPunch.org

Long ago, I came to believe that being a Jew, even a secular one like me, entailed certain responsibilities. A people who had suffered so much yet survived were obligated, if not honored, to serve as witnesses and supporters of other oppressed people and to live in the public interest, to model ethical lives. Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, and Sandy Koufax all made me proud, while I felt ashamed of Roy Cohn, Alan Dershowitz, and Henry Kissinger.

I accepted his offer to meet and talk. We became friends. Over more than 40 years he’s joined Rabbi Landman as my spiritual advisor, officiating at my wedding, while offering rational possibilities in chaotic times. Of course, given the world we’re in, we’ve been talking far more urgently of late. Yes, Hamas are thugs and vandals, but how is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu any different in his behavior?

The truth is we shouldn’t have to choose between them. It’s important to get rid of them both, while, at least in our thinking, separating two power-mad and murderous ruling bodies from their people, most of whom just want peace. How can we use the “ethical monotheism” of Judaism to find common ground and a country for each? We don’t have that answer and don’t even know if it’s possible, but at least we should know what the only true goal is: to end the present horror. And that would be good for the Jews, with or without God.

Source: Heartbroken by Israel – CounterPunch.org

Israel

Has the IDF slaughtered enough children to make Israel safe from terrorism yet? – The Shot

They too were once babies raised and socialized to dehumanize and hate. 18 years ago PM of Israel Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat signed a peace pact and shared the Nobel Peace Prize. The Priminister of Israel was assassinated by the coalition in power now. In 2006 Palestinians in Gaza voted for Hamas  not the militia bearing their name their political arm because of the welfare programs they had already delivered. Israel  & the USA declared them “terrorists” not the UN and they still don’t today. Who are Internationally out of order? Who are rogue states? Israel then turned Gaza into a “concentration camp” ( Israel’s own description) and it’s been one since 2006.

Israel has been doing what Hamas did on Oct7th on more than one occasion  Operation Cast Lead 2008 and Operation Protective Edge (2014) are just two of many.

The Goldstone report contains an objective assessment of what took place during the military attack on Gaza, which was described by the Mission as serious violations of international humanitarian law and other relevant international instruments.

The effort Israel is currently putting in to prevent any Independent investigation into what has been happening these past 4 months is as much a crime as what has been clearly visible but disguised by their systemic and gigantic flood of rhetoric on International media. So much so they are now losing the media war by shooting themselves in the foot.

This war didn’t start on Oct 7th as the Israelis would like the world to believe

The 12,300 Palestinian children taken from their funny dads, their kind dads, their adventurous dads, for the crime of being born in Gaza, to keep Israel safe from terrorism.

Source: Has the IDF slaughtered enough children to make Israel safe from terrorism yet? – The Shot

Israel

Misrepresenting the ICJ and muzzling our press – the Empire strikes back – Pearls and Irritations

THE HAGUE - President Donoghue and other judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) before the hearing of the genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa. According to the South Africans, Israel is currently committing genocidal acts against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Image: ANP / Alamy Stock Photo/ REMKO DE WAAL

On 26 January, the World spoke to Israel and its supporters – on the issue of Gaza. The World spoke through the International Court of Justice (ICJ). There can be no doubt about that. A number of provisional orders were made. Israel, and its primary accomplice, the United States – hereinafter “the Empire” – did not like what the World said. The Empire has struck back. Let us consider what it has done.

Nevertheless, the Empire continues to strike back. Israel has made it absolutely clear that it does not consider itself restrained in any way by the ICJ’s rulings. The rest of the Empire seems to be content to accept Israel’s position.

In conclusion, we, Australia, must understand the ICJ’s orders and act accordingly. We must oppose the Empire. And we must publicise the message: “Palestine has the right to exist – and therefore the right to resist”.

Source: Misrepresenting the ICJ and muzzling our press – the Empire strikes back – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

PM says Israel won’t ‘pay any price’ to free hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the country will not pay any price for the return of hostages being held by militants.

The ultra-right government’s priority was never the release of hostages. Since 1929 the Zionists have used the same strategy to gain increasingly more land than they ever returned. They created a conflict where there was peace. Back then they did it by spreading rumours that the Jews were planning to seize control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Manufacturing hate ensured peace turned into the conflict Zionists wanted. They could then form the Haganagh terrorists calling them defence militias to protect all Jews. Nobody ever said they were dumb but rather disingenuous. They certainly weren’t operating in the interests of all Jews and never have.

The UN, who they now openly call Hamas lovers, solved Britain’s Jewish Problem by ratifying and giving them Israel. The Americans provided welfare in exchange for a ready-made army base in the Middle East the IDF.

In 1969 Israel attacked Egypt and Syria on what PM Ehud Barak openly admitted was a totally presumptive ploy that had no concrete merit. Again it was for more ground which they simply refused to return but illegally settled. In 1978 they returned the Sinai, as a token of peace, to Egypt.

These incursions were continuously called “defence of all Jews” but were rather a strategy to steal land, and water and encourage the diaspora back to Israel. However, that hasn’t happened. While they successfully created “hate” the Jews remained a minority in the region but wanted total control. Leaving the Palestinians with the options of facing Death, Ethnic Cleansing or Apartheid in a Fascist State. They claim 50% of Jews are now Israeli which isn’t true. 1M Israelis at any one time have left without any rushing back. 500k have permanent residency elsewhere and in the meantime, the others are trying to get it.

 Currently, Israel is America’s primary base in the Middle East but what was once a quid pro quo arrangement Israeli Zionist greed has now become the tail trying to wag the dog. For their effort the Zionists have tried to gain Land, Gazan Gas and a 3rd Nakbah and a shitload load of  deserved hate.

Asked about the 134 hostages who remain in Gaza, Smotrich told Kan Radio that their return was “very important” but that they could not be released “at any cost”.

Source: PM says Israel won’t ‘pay any price’ to free hostages

Israel, Israel Crimes

Time to occupy Israel – Pearls and Irritations

Hourglass on Israel and Palestine flags close up.

This century has seen a shift in the term Antisemitism. Away from Jews, as the victims of Germans, to Palestinians. They are the victims of Israel’s adoption of more aggressive policies since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin the Nobel Peace Prize-winning moderate PM who was assassinated by the avaricious extreme right coalition of minority parties currently holding power united in exchange for driving their extreme policies. The policies a Jewish Apartheid State in control of the Judiciary Education and Army to realign control over all of Palestine from the “river to the sea”

To have the appearance of a Democracy the fully formed Fascist State must ensure of an Institutional Jewish voting majority. This means the priority to the ethnic cleansing of the current number of Palestinians, the creation of an even more regulated Apartheid State, or as their final solution the one the Germans had. If not gas chambers in the short term then a guaranteed form of birth reduction in the long term.

Proposals for an occupation of Israel would require sovereignty to be redefined. Current definitions foster violence. Borders must be protected by force of arms. Within those borders, states such as Israel claim entitlement to defend themselves even by attacking people in lands they occupy.

Source: Time to occupy Israel – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Israel’s Big Game Propaganda

Propagandists for Israel are chosen to be characterized not as Israelis but as British and American personalities. How strange? One thing that makes them stand out is they talk rapidly and over the top of interviewers as if it’s a matter of urgency repeating the same repetitive tropes heard time and time again.

Many viewers felt that what they saw amounted to little more than expensive disinformation. “I’m sorry, is Israel seriously airing a SOB STORY PROPAGANDA AD during the SUPER BOWL while SIMULTANEOUSLY BOMBING THE REFUGEES AT RAFAH???????” wrote one viewer on Twitter.

Nevertheless, the Super Bowl was the most-watched American telecast ever, reaching over 123 million viewers. Some say you cannot put a price on that sort of publicity, but apparently, you can, and that price is $7 million. Propaganda it might be, but in America, money talks. And both Robert Kraft and the government of Israel certainly have a lot of it to spend.

Source: Israel’s Big Game Propaganda

Israel

Israel’s dignity will be damaged, Hamas will be crowned winner, but the war will end – Pearls and Irritations

map - destination: Israel

Israel’s leadership isn’t about the wisest course of action it’s about material goals to be achieved.  It’s about control over Gaza and its gas fields. Everything we have seen is a cheap investment for Israel”arms for nothing and land for free for the future return. Even the public relations battle later will be relatively nothing compared with the years of wealth to be had. The precedents for their methods have been set in the historical record. You take as much as possible and return as little as required. Israel has the cultural capital to remain the West’s favorite actor because their supporters would need to admit they’ve been scammed all these 100 years. Far from it if one adds the Ben Gurion Canal to the strategic mix The US and UK have been well and truly co-conspirators in the race to dominate World Trade routes over China. This war is for Gaza’s land, gas and devaluation of the Suez Canal

The wisest course of action that Israel should have taken a long time ago was to voluntarily release the security prisoners as a gesture and not just as a concession in negotiations. But there is no chance of that happening – it is too smart. Freeing 1,500 prisoners, as Hamas is asking, is neither a disaster nor is it painful. It will bring the hostages home. Disaster and pain will only result if they are not rescued.Nor would it be a disaster or painful to bring an end to this cursed war, during which Israel lost its humanity without achieving its goals from the indiscriminate killing and destruction, the likes of which have only been seen in the most brutal of wars.

Source: Israel’s dignity will be damaged, Hamas will be crowned winner, but the war will end – Pearls and Irritations

Australian Government

A pro-Israel policy will become electoral poison for Labor – Pearls and Irritations

Waving flag of Israel and Australia.Image:iStock

The Labor and Liberal parties’ blind pro-Israel policy will haunt them in the next federal election.

Australian Labor and Liberal-National Coalition leaders brag about Western values of democracy, liberty, equality, and human rights. Yet, when it comes to Israel, without shame and respect of the public, they abandon their principles and values and find excuses to defend Israel despite its aggression, occupation, racial discrimination, and heinous violations of international law and UN resolutions.

Source: A pro-Israel policy will become electoral poison for Labor – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

State Dept Finds ”Ethnic Cleansing” in Sudan but Refuses in Gaza

So many double standards. So much hypocrisy. Biden and Blinken can’t lie straight in bed

50 humanitarian organizations asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to make an atrocity determinationOpens in a new tab related to a conflict that was drawing global attention.

Blinken responded with a determination that the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces were guilty. “Based on the State Department’s careful analysis of the law and available facts, I have determined that members of the SAF and the RSF have committed war crimes in Sudan,”

Source: State Dept Finds ”EthnPALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICTic Cleansing” in Sudan but Refuses in Gaza

Israel

Israel’s national security minister prefers Trump in power — RT World News

Israel’s national security minister prefers Trump in power

Lets Talk “Terrorist & Terrorism” . Ben Gvir was designated a “Terrorist by the State of Israel”. He is now their Minister for National Security. How is that?

Israel’s “Proud Boy” openly prefers Trump for President and says he won’t be dictated to by Netanyahu or America. It really is a case of the tail wagging the dog.

He first joined a right-wing youth movement affiliated with Moledet, a party which advocated transferring Arabs out of Israel, and then joined the youth movement of the even more radical Kach and Kahane Chai party, which was eventually designated as a terrorist organization and outlawed by the Israeli government.[16][17]  When he came of age for conscription into the Israel Defense Forces at 18, he was exempted from service by the IDF due to his extreme-right political background.[18][15]

Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has criticized US President Biden’s approach to Israel’s war in Gaza, arguing that the situation would be “completely different” if former President Donal Trump was in power.

“Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas,” Ben-Gvir told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday. “If Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was appointed as a National Security Minister in December 2022, is known for his far-right views. He previously called for the occupation of Gaza and the expulsion of the Palestinian population from the enclave. He also threatened to bring down Netanyahu’s governing coalition if the PM is too soft on Hamas.

Source: Israel’s national security minister prefers Trump in power — RT World News

Israel

Chris Hedges: The Silence of the Damned – ScheerPost

The Sword of Damocles Mr Fish

IS REALITY

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. 

The dehumanization of Palestinians is lifted from the playbook of all settler colonial projects, including our own. This racism, where people of color are branded as “human animals,” is coded within the DNA of our institutions. It infects those chosen to lead these institutions. It lies at the core of our national identity. It is why the two ruling parties and the institutions that sustain them side with Israel. It feeds the perverted logic of funneling weapons and billions of dollars in support to sustain Israel’s occupation and genocide.

History will not judge us kindly. But it will revere those who, under siege, found the courage to say no.

Source: Chris Hedges: The Silence of the Damned – ScheerPost

Uncategorized

Toxic effects of censorship on Gaza – Pearls and Irritations

Bandaged mouth of a man with the word censored in English

They are being killed arrested and targeted in any IDF’s radius of operation.

Doctors, Teachers, Journalists, Academics are being disciplined, hauled before disciplinary bodies and even sacked for criticising the slaughter in Gaza and, most heinous sin of all, for mentioning genocide. Arrayed against those professionals is a lobby promoting the notion that criticism of Israeli government policies is anti-Semitic, hence the need to censor commentary about the massacres in Gaza.

Source: Toxic effects of censorship on Gaza – Pearls and Irritations

Israel

Defunding UNRWA Is Collective Punishment

The US and Israel crowned Hamas as a “terrorist” organization. In 2006 it wasn’t Hamas the military brigade that democratically won the right to govern Gaza. It was an election verified by Jimmy Carter to be fair and legitimate. Hands tied unable to do anything because that election was at the suggestion of America and agreed to by Israel they did a TRUMP. They called foul and labeled all of Hamas and Gazans terrorists. Since then Israel has been breaking the peace or forcing the agreed-on peace to be broken.

The Russians haven’t killed the number of civilians in the Ukraine as Israel has Gaza in the shortest period. There is no moral justification for the criminal and genocidal actions the world is witnessing. Israel is making a mockery of America and its allies in supporting them.

Reeling from the ICJ’s genocide ruling, Israel attacked the credibility of UNRWA, the UN agency that provides food and health care to Palestinian refugees. Now Joe Biden and other Western leaders are cutting funding for the vital humanitarian aid agency.

Source: Defunding UNRWA Is Collective Punishment

Israel

Australia’s withholding of aid to Gaza a human rights disgrace

Has this decision been foisted on them by the Australian Israeli Lobby, the LNP, Murdoch, or IPA? It’s certainly not a decision ALP voters would expect of their government. If Palestinian refugees came by boat would they find themselves in forced detention in open-air offshore concentration camps again? We know what Peter Dutton’s position is on that score Yes. While telling Australia it’s a holiday resort compared to where they are now. Israel will be the people smugglers and supply the boats with the foreign aid they already get from us no doubt.

There can be little more morally degenerate than the enabling of and cooperation with what the ICJ has warned is Israel’s “plausible genocide” in Gaza. Wong and Albanese have lost all moral authority and should prepare themselves for their every public utterance to be greeted with contempt, derision and scorn.

The Australian Government has paused contributing to the distribution of aid to Gaza, a decision likely influenced by our toxic allegiance to the USA. Dr Jennifer Wilson reports.

Source: Australia’s withholding of aid to Gaza a human rights disgrace

Israel, Israel Crimes

Israel’s Ministers attend this conference in favor of the Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza. That “joke” about beach front properties was always MORE THAN REAL

https://aje.io/86vyrq

https://aje.io/av8a82?update=2660615

Families of the captives also slammed this conference [calling for building illegal settlements in Gaza], saying the ministers who were dancing there, were “dancing on the blood” of 136 Israelis who are still being held inside of Gaza.

Protests [for the release of captives] are taking place on a near-nightly basis with the families trying to block roads, and holding signs that say, “Give up anything”, to get the captives back.

They have been reiterating this for around 115 days, saying that Israel’s government is simply not hearing their plight. They do not feel heard or seen.

They feel that the government is not keeping in line with what they have previously told them and they say that any deal that is on the table, any concession that needs to be given up [to get the captives back] – the time to do so is now.

Israel

Zionism’s History Is Also a History of Jewish Anti-Zionism

Long but a history that shows the historic division of Jews

Defenders of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza have attempted to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. But since its beginning, different forms of Zionist ideology have competed with varied anti-Zionisms for Jewish allegiance.

Early Zionists repeatedly invoked seemingly antisemitic descriptions of so-called diasporic Jews as weak, sickly, excessively bookish, effeminized — a people whose spirit was crushed not only by non-Jewish political rulers, but also by the dead weight of rabbinical law. They contrasted this weak diasporic figure with a model of a strong new people, drawing inspiration from everything from the Ukrainian Cossack to Palestinian Bedouin.

If you say that a Jew in Tel Aviv is like a Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto, then Zionism has accomplished nothing.

The liberal Zionist perspective is certainly on the ropes. What does it mean for a person committed to liberalism to support an illiberal nation-state project?

I know it’s hard for people to get their head around, but there are many pro-Israel antisemites. Their pro-Israelism is part of their Christian dispensational ideology.

Source: Zionism’s History Is Also a History of Jewish Anti-Zionism

Israel

As Civilians Starve in Gaza, Israelis Block Humanitarian Aid Convoy for Third Day – ScheerPost

The Actions of Israel are a reported factual embarrassment to them. The ICJ  told Israel to increase the flow of aid to Gaza and stop using it as a weapon. It’s no coincidence that to continue to restrict aid they accused the UNRWA of being a systemic branch of Hamas. However, simply an allegation rather than a fact. The US or Biden is wedged by Trump in this election year and has been dancing to the Israel Lobby’s tune and has cut UNRWA aid to Gaza. Biden is Israel’s get-out-of-jail card. The UNRWA was a source of independent information that Israel didn’t want to be revealed so reporters and doctors had to be declared branch of Hamas?

The blocking of aid at Kerem Shalom also comes days after the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that the IDF launched an attack with artillery shells, live ammunition, and drones on “hundreds of starving civilians” who were waiting near Gaza City for “U.N. trucks carrying limited aid supplies.” Health officials in Gaza said at least 20 people were killed and 150 were injured in the attack.

Source: As Civilians Starve in Gaza, Israelis Block Humanitarian Aid Convoy for Third Day – ScheerPost

Anti- Media, Anti-Media

Israel Lobby Involved with Washington Post

What’s behind Washington Post hit piece on EI? | The Electronic Intifada

Censorship by stealth

What could be the motivation for Dwoskin’s hit piece?

In the segment, I suggest that it is an effort to police and deter reporting about 7 October, by smearing anyone who questions Israel’s official narrative as a Jew hater.

It is also a specific attempt to discredit independent publications including The Electronic Intifada that have reached vast audiences since 7 October with accurate, groundbreaking reporting that mainstream US media refuse to do.

This includes reporting on how Israeli commanders ordered their forces to fire on their own people on 7 October, and debunking Israel’s claims of systematic mass rape by Palestinian fighters.

The Washington Post’s attack on The Electronic Intifada indicates the frustration Israel and its cheerleaders in the US media feel because they have been unsuccessful in imposing Israel’s version of events.

With First Amendment protections for free speech still strong in the United States, direct censorship of publications is not an option.

So there has emerged a nexus among governments, think tanks funded by governments and arms manufacturers, and big tech companies aiming to control what we can all say online.

The Washington Post article is therefore likely to be used by Israel lobby groups to pressure big tech firms to suppress the reach of journalists who challenge Israel’s lies, under the banner of fighting supposed “disinformation.”

This, however, will not stop us from doing our work and pursuing the truth.

What’s behind Washington Post hit piece on EI? | The Electronic Intifada

Israel, Israel Crimes

UNRWA claims: UK halts aid to UN agency over allegation staff helped Hamas attack – BBC News

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians that entered Gaza through Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian border arrive at the UNRWA warehouse, in Deir al Balah,

British Justice applied to “he said, she said” allegations by Israel who’d been severely chastised by the ICJ for blocking aid to Gaza and told to stop. So it seems to have put pressure on their Western allies to cut aid rather than help increase it as the ICJ directed. Israel is making fools of governments and using them to assist in Gazan’s suffering. In the meantime, Doctors, Medical Professionals, UN Aid agencies, Reporters, Academics, and teachers have all had their turn being called Hamas operatives, antisemites, Jew-haters, and rapists and targeted for elimination. Meanwhile, Israel trains conscripts and brainwashes its children claiming they are being maligned for protecting Israelis dining in restaurants from genocide.

“One million displaced people are currently taking refuge in and around UNRWA buildings. They are the ones who will suffer as a result of this decision,” said Mr Gunness, adding: “The curtailing of UNRWA services will also destabilise the region at a time when Western governments are trying to contain a regional conflagration.”

“The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK Government has repeatedly condemned,” the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.

“The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNWRA whilst we review these concerning allegations,” it added.

Source: UNRWA claims: UK halts aid to UN agency over allegation staff helped Hamas attack – BBC News