A somber crowd filled a Parliamentary Hall on Thursday, June 13th for “Palestine Day on the Hill”, organized by the Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians (APAC) in Ottawa under the slogan “From Nakba to Genocide”. Representatives of the NDP, Liberal Party of Canada and Green Party voiced their support for the Palestinian people and called for an end to the genocide. Read more.
For the last eight years, APAC has organized a day on Parliament Hill to which members of Canada’s federal parties are invited. It is usually an occasion to showcase Palestinian culture including food, music and dance.
This year, however, the annual event was held in the shadow of Israel’s ongoing murder of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza – many of them related to Palestinian Canadians living today in Ottawa.
Speakers focused on the necessity of bringing an immediate halt to the ongoing catastrophe. All MP’s who spoke called on the Canadian government to take immediate action to save lives.
In a powerful presentation, APAC board member Waleed Ibrahim focussed on the link between the 1947/48 ethnic cleansing of Gaza and its continuation since October 7th. He drew attention to the role Canada played in 1948 and continues to play today. “The reality is that Israel has powerful western allies that shield it from accountability. Canada is among those allies”, he said.
Jonathan Pednault, MP, Co-Leader, Green Party of Canada
Dr. Yipeng Ge, Primary Care doctor
Mohamed-Obey Alshaer, Executive, Palestine Students’ Association, University of Ottawa
Dr. Nadia Abu Zahra, University of Ottawa
Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa (video message)
“The tragedy we are seeing unfold in Gaza today is a continuation of the Nakba, as it is these same people who were expelled from their homes and villages, and their descendants, that are being subjected to genocide,” APAC board member Waleed Ibrahim told the crowd.
A video of the entire two hour event is available on YouTube here.
We speak with reporter Oren Ziv of +972 Magazine, whose latest investigation details how Israeli forces in Gaza have been authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will. Six soldiers who fought in Gaza describe a near-total absence of firing regulations, with soldiers shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, leaving corpses to rot on the streets and more. “It seems soldiers were shooting not from a tactical reason or a real military reason, but just out of being bored, to pass the time or just because they could,” says Ziv. “Soldiers felt they can do whatever they want, that they won’t be accountable. And all this is done also with the awareness of the commanders.” We also hear from Yuval Green, one of the reservists who spoke to Ziv and who now refuses to continue serving in the Israeli military. “I believe that continuing this war and continuing the death of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers is not right. I believe that right now the right thing to do is to sign the ceasefire treaty that is going to release the hostages and end this war,” Green says.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMYGOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
In early June, Al Jazeera aired a series of videos showing Israeli soldiers shooting dead several Palestinians walking near a coastal road in Gaza. This is an excerpt of that report.
ROBMATHESON: We’re going to begin this news hour with videos emerging out of Gaza appearing to show summary executions of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. Al Jazeera has obtained the videos. And let me give you a warning: Some of you might find them disturbing. We’re choosing not to show the moment of death in the videos. They were taken out on al-Rashid Street. That’s the coastal road connecting north and south Gaza. Israel has designated it as a safe zone for Palestinians wanting to move between the areas.
This footage is from June 1st. It shows a person walking along the beach. Israeli soldiers appear to have stopped them, and moments later, the person is shot.
This next video is said to show a group of Palestinians walking north on May 17th. One of them steps out of the group and raises their hands in the air, apparently showing that they’re unarmed. They’re shot within minutes. Then the video appears to show soldiers coming in to take the person’s body away.
And in this footage, another person is standing in the same area with their hands in the air. This is shortly before they are shot by Israeli soldiers. The same then happens to another person later.
AMYGOODMAN: In each incident shown in that Al Jazeera report, the Palestinians shot dead by Israeli soldiers appear to be unarmed and are at a distance from the soldiers. According to a new investigative article by Israeli news outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call, these executions are consistent with the testimonies of six Israeli soldiers following their release from active duty in Gaza in recent months. The six soldiers describe being authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will. The sources describe the near-total absence of firing regulations in Gaza, with Israeli troops shooting as they please, setting homes ablaze, leaving corpses on the streets, all with their commanders’ permission. The article is headlined “’I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza.”
We’re joined now by the journalist who broke the story. Oren Ziv is a reporter and photographer for +972 Magazine. He’s joining us from outside Venice, Italy.
Oren, welcome to Democracy Now! “I’m bored, so I shoot.” First, talk about that Al Jazeera footage that we’re seeing, the footage that was taken on the coastal road in Gaza, and then that quote.
ORENZIV: Thank you so much for having me.
So, first of all, the footage we’ve just seen from Al Jazeera is aligned with many testimonies we have been hearing from Palestinians over the last months that they are not be able — they’re not — they’re prevented from going back north, Palestinians that had to run away or to flee to the southern part of Gaza, as the Israeli army ordered. And this footage is aligned also what we are hearing during our investigation from the six soldiers. Basically, they’re saying they had a complete — almost a complete freedom to open fire.
So, we’ve been doing researches and investigation on the path from the attacks from the air, using AI and machine learning. And in this investigation, we talked to soldiers who were deployed during the war in different places, in different units on the ground. And what they are saying, basically, is that whenever they had a slight sense of fear or danger, they could shoot. Nobody would limit them. And even sensitive targets — schools, hospitals, public institutions — that officially they had to get approval from higher ranks, this was only a bureaucratical step, and it was almost always approved.
In addition, one of the soldiers described — and, actually, two — that in some areas, when the Israeli soldiers were deployed in a specific neighborhood inside the Gaza Strip, they would have a red line, a specific point, 100 meters from them, that if a Palestinian, even unarmed, even a woman or child, would cross, they were allowed to shoot in order to kill, not to arrest or warn them. And they said that every man between the age of 16 and 50, even in civilian clothes, even unarmed, was considered a fighter or a collaborator with Hamas, and it was allowed to shoot them.
AMYGOODMAN: And the quote, the headline of your piece in +972 Magazine, “I’m bored, so I shoot”?
ORENZIV: Yes. So, many of the times, from our investigation, it seems soldiers were shooting not from a tactical reason or a real military reason, but just out of being bored, to pass the time, or just because they could. Some of the soldiers spoke to us about the, quote, “regular fire,” meaning that you shoot, and after you shoot, you say on the army radio that it is normal or regular fire, so other units in the area — and there were many soldiers deployed at the beginning of the war inside the Gaza Strip — will know that this is shooting by the Israeli army and not by Hamas fighters. But they said that this term, “regular” or “normal” shooting, was also to kind of state in other words, “I’m just shooting for fun.” One of the soldiers said that in Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, some of the units in the Gaza Strip talked on the radio to shoot on a certain time to kind of light the sky, and they were just shooting for minutes just for fun.
So, I think this is one aspect, but it also teaches us that this was a very wide policy. It wasn’t just a sporadic problem here and there, but a very wide policy that soldiers felt they can do whatever they want, that they won’t be accountable. And all this is done also with the awareness of the commanders.
I must add also that because from — from day one of the war, we heard very horrific statements from Netanyahu, from the Prime Minister Netanyahu, from senior ministers in the Israeli government, talking about revenge, talking about there’s no innocent civilians in Gaza. And this went down to the commanders and down to the simple soldiers. And the soldiers that spoke to us in our investigation said that these kind of phrases — “There’s no innocent people in Gaza,” “Everybody is involved in Hamas,” “On October 7, they were all celebrating; this is why they need to be punished” — was very widely common. And this is why, the soldiers who talked to us explained, that the acts of vandalism, of looting, of a general sense of revenge were very common.
AMYGOODMAN: Oren Ziv, all but one of the six Israeli soldiers you interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity. A 26-year-old reservist from Jerusalem named Yuval Green, in November and December, Yuval served in the 55th Paratroopers Brigade. He recently signed a letter by 41 reservists declaring their refusal to fight in Gaza after the Israeli army’s invasion of Rafah. Green said, quote, “There were no restrictions on ammunition. People were shooting just to relieve the boredom.” Well, on Thursday evening, Democracy Now! reached Yuval Green in Jerusalem and asked him what he’s calling for now.
YUVALGREEN: I believe that continuing this war and continuing the death of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers is not right. I believe that right now the right thing to do is to sign the ceasefire treaty that is going to release the hostages and end this war. I know that the Israeli government is not yet willing to sign it.
AMYGOODMAN: Again, that’s Yuval Green, a reservist who is now refusing to fight in Gaza. All of the six that you interviewed were reservists there. You also write, “The testimonies paint … a landscape littered with civilian corpses, which are left to rot or be eaten by stray animals; the army only hides them from view ahead of the arrival of international aid convoys, so that ‘images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out.’” Go from Yuval to this picture of Gaza.
ORENZIV: I think what several soldiers told us, that the army was not dealing with dead people, dead Palestinians, and it was very common to see them on the side of the road when they’re moving to one place to another. And also, Yuval himself and other soldiers told us that when the army was moving from — so, Israeli soldiers were deployed inside Palestinian homes and houses, and when they had to move to a new position, the official policy, as we understand, was to burn the house down. The soldiers would gather the mattresses and the furniture and light the house on fire and move on. The official explanation by the commanders to Yuval, but also to other soldiers, was the fact that they don’t want anything sensitive to be left there, military equipment or maps or anything like that, but also that Hamas will not use the houses. But between the lines, you can understand that this was also an act of revenge to punish Palestinian civilians and also to make sure they cannot go back to those areas, areas that at least some people in the army believed would stay in Israeli control.
AMYGOODMAN: Yuval also told you, Yuval Green, who was the only one to be named in your piece, about the army’s deep indifference to the fate of the hostages. Can you elaborate further? Indeed, of course, as we know, in December, the Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Israeli hostages as they approached the troops for help, speaking in Hebrew, with their arms up, stripped down, so that they could — the Israeli military would clearly see they weren’t armed. These were hostages.
ORENZIV: Yes. So, yes. Thank you for the question. The official line of the Israeli government and the Israeli army, the force commanders, is that the operation in Gaza, the war in Gaza, is also in order to bring back the hostages alive. Now, in nine months of war, this didn’t really happen, and they managed to rescue a very small number of hostages alive by military force. Most of the hostages were released in a deal in November. And the soldiers we spoke to, not only Yuval Green, said that, in general, there were not many instructions regarding hostages, and in the way the army was using shooting on the ground, was using force, for them it was clear that hostages might get hurt or even killed.
I think, in addition to Yuval, there was another soldier that was on the regular army service that said they didn’t have any cellphone, they didn’t get any news. And he heard about the three hostages being killed on December only when he got back home for a short vacation. Now, after the killing of the three hostages by the Israeli army, the army said in statements that they would make it more clear for soldiers. But at least according to the soldier we spoke to that was on the frontline, they didn’t hear even about the incident, not to speak about new orders or guidelines.
AMYGOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Oren Ziv, reporter and photographer for +972 Magazine. We’re going to link to your piece “’I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza.”
That does it for our show. Next week, Democracy Now! will be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Republican National Convention, bringing you an extended daily two-hour broadcast, “Breaking with Convention: War, Peace and the Presidency.” I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.
Canada announced today that it has imposed sanctions on seven individuals and five entities for their roles in facilitating, supporting, or financially contributing to attacks by Israeli colonists against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
In a statement, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the new sanctions include seven individuals and five entities for facilitating or financially contributing to acts of violence carried out by extremist Israeli colonists against Palestinian civilians and their properties in the West Bank.
The statement elaborated that “the violence by extremist settlers has resulted in loss of life and damage to Palestinian property and agricultural lands.”
Last month, Canada had already imposed sanctions on four colonists involved in carrying out attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Of note, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and New Zealand have also imposed sanctions on colonists involved in attacks against Palestinian civilians.
We’re writing to people with a history of nonviolent direct action to end wars. Many of you have already undertaken efforts to end Israel’s horrific, relentless genocide in Gaza and escalating attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. Now, as Israel’s violence accelerates — aided and abetted by the United States through the ever-increasing provision of state-of-the-art weapons of war — it is more than ever apparent that the nonviolent peace community must take extreme measures to stop Israel’s wholesale slaughter of Palestinians.
In this regard, we invite you to join us for several days of fasting, (optional),witness and action in New York City from August 10 – 15. The aim is to augment and extend efforts to persuade UN Member States to call an emergency meeting of the General Assembly to enact a “Uniting for Peace Resolution”. Participants will team up to visit as many UN Missions as possible, while also reaching out to people in New York and beyond through correspondence, social media, signage and teach-ins. Crucially, Mel Duncan and David Hartsough report that an assessment team is already on the ground to enable sending Veteran Unarmed Civilian Protectors to Gaza and the West Bank to provide direct protection to civilians. These teams can support the violence prevention and human rights work already being done. Their commitment includes working to sustain a ceasefire. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/05/now-is-the-time-to-send-unarmed-peacekeepers-to-gaza-and-the-rest-of-palestine/ Also, we invite you to join a group committed to fast from solid foods during this time.
Kindly let us know if you would be interested in receiving more information about the fast and days of action.
Also, if you are aware of any individuals or groups that could provide housing in the NYC area, please let us know.
We’re eager to connect with any groups you would suggest that might wish to collaborate in this effort. Help us make our demands and presence known at the UN General Assembly, where the vast majority of Member States also demand a CEASEFIRE NOW, IMMEDIATE OPENING OF THE HUMANITARIAN AID CORRIDORS, AN END TO SENDING WEAPONS TO ISRAEL, AND THE RELEASE OF ALL HOSTAGES AND POLITICAL PRISONERS.
Please help us help the UN General Assembly reclaim and exert its authority. Call on the UNGA to fulfill its mandate: maintain international peace and security!
Sincerely,
Kathy Kelly World BEYOND War board president 773-619-2418
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and International Criminal Court
Introduction
There is a complex history behind Israel’s October 2023 plan to “Wipe Gaza off the Map”. It’s an ongoing genocide, an absolute slaughter, coupled with atrocities:
It’s a criminal undertaking based on Israel’s doctrine of “Justified Vengeance” which was first formulated in 2001.
The “Justified Vengeance” doctrine propounds in no uncertain terms that Palestine (despite its limited military capabilities) is “the Aggressor” and that “Israel has the right to defend itself” which since October 7, 2023 consists in the conduct of a carefully planned genocide against the People of Palestine.
Paul Larudee begs the question:
“Is there a point at which the genocide in Gaza becomes egregious enough to provoke other countries to directly intervene in the Gaza Strip to prevent further genocide?
Can Israel exterminate the entire population without anyone stopping them?”
The answer to that question is provided by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the form of the most despicable set of accusations directed against Palestinians who are the victims of “An Act of Genocide” instigated by Israel with the unbending support of most Western governments.
False Flag. “Palestine Attacks Israel”
Below is the statement of the ICC Prosecutor and King’s Counsel Karim A.A. Khan which accuses Palestine of committing crimes against humanity as well as war crimes, while carefully ignoring the evidence pertaining to Israel’s “false flag” operation which has resulted quite “deliberately” on the part of Netanyahu government in the deaths of innocent Israeli civilians.
“A false flag” in relation to Israel constitutes a carefully planned Israeli-US intelligence operation which results in the deaths of innocent Israeli civilians. In turn, Israel will place the blame on the State of Palestine, with view to justifying “A State of Readiness for War” against the Gaza Strip.
Military operations are invariably planned well in advance. The October 7, 2023 “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” was not a “surprise attack”.
The false flag logic –which has resulted in Israeli casualties–, has provided Israel with a justification to undertake a genocide against Palestinians.
On that same day of October 7, 2023 Netanyahu launched a military operation against the Gaza Strip entitled “State of Readiness For War”.
Had “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” been a “surprise attack” as parroted by the media, Netanyahu’s “State of Readiness For War” could not have been carried out (at short notice) on that same day, namely October 7, 2023.
Palestinian Children: The Victims of Israeli atrocities
As a former intelligence officer, I find it impossible to believe that Israel did not have multiple informants inside Gazaas well as electronic listening devices all along the border wall which would have picked up movements of groups and vehicles.
In other words, the whole thing might be a tissue of lies as is often the case. (October 8, 2023)
According to Israel’s defence ministry “the barrier includes hundreds of cameras, radars and other sensors, it spans 65km
The ministry said the project’s “smart fence” is more than six metres high and its maritime barrier includes means to detect infiltration by sea and a remote-controlled weapons system.
“False Flag” in Support of “Israel’s Act of Genocide”
It should be understood that the implementation of the False Flag was carefully coordinated with Israel’s “Act of Genocide” directed against the People of Palestine.
On that same day of October 7, 2023 Netanyahu launched a military operation against the Gaza Strip entitled “State of Readiness For War”.
Had “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” been a “surprise attack” as parroted by the media, Netanyahu’s “State of Readiness For War”could not have been carried out (at short notice) on that same day, namely October 7, 2023.
“…This is the “green light to terror” theme which the Military Intelligence (Ama”n) has been promoting since 1997, when its anti-Oslo line was consolidated. This theme was since repeated again and again by military circles, and eventually became the mantra of Israeli propaganda… (See Chossudovsky, October 23, 2023)
There is continuity: Israel’s Military Intelligence remains in charge of implementing false flag operations coupled with “Acts of Genocide” directed against Palestine.
“Israel is the Victim of Palestinian Aggression”. The International Criminal Court (ICC) Accuses Palestine
In a bitter irony, the ICC Prosecutor’s accusations against Palestine –which include alleged acts of “Extermination”, “Murder” and “Torture” contends that the State of Israel rather than Palestine is the victim of Genocide:
According to the ICC Statement, Palestine’s “Act of Aggression” against Israel consists in:
Extermination as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(b) of the Rome Statute;
Murder as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(a), and as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
Taking hostages as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(iii);
Rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(g), and also as war crimes pursuant to article 8(2)(e)(vi) in the context of captivity;
Torture as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(f), and also as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity;
Other inhumane acts as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(l)(k), in the context of captivity;
Cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity; and
Outrages upon personal dignity as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(ii), in the context of captivity.
What these insidious legal statements imply is that the ICC has de facto given “its stamp of approval” to Israel’s “Justified Vengeance” against the People of Palestine, which is currently ongoing. The atrocities committed against Palestinians are beyond description:
”burnt alive after Israeli forces bombed tents”
Accusations against Hamas
‘Inasmuch as the issue of the False Flag (despite extensive evidence) has been casually dismissed by the ICC, as well as by Western governments and the media:
The accusations against Hamas are meaningless. They should be withdrawn.
International law is unambiguous in its endorsement of “armed struggle” for peoples who seek self-determination under “colonial and foreign domination.”
United Nations resolution 37/43, dated 3 December 1982, “reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.” Palestine Chronicle (emphasis added)
The Endgame is the Exclusion of Palestinians from their Homeland
The Lie has become the Truth
Amply documented Israel is involved in acts of “Extermination” against Palestinians.
Yet it is Israel which is described by the ICC as the “Victim of Palestinian Aggression.”
Genocide and False Flags
While the ICC fails to acknowledge the conduct of a “False Flag”, numerous documents, witnesses and statements, confirm Israel’s False Flag initiative.
In a bitter irony, the False Flag Attack Strategy had been acknowledged by Netanyahu in consultation with the Likud Party. It comes from the Horse’s Mouth:
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he [Netanyahu] told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)
Moreover, “Transferring Money by the Netanyahu government to Hamas intelligence assets” was confirmed in a Times of Israel October 8, 2023 Report:
“Hamas was treated as a partner to the detriment of the Palestinian Authority to prevent Abbas from moving towards creating a Palestinian State.
Hamas was promoted from a terrorist group to an organization with which Israel conducted negotiations through Egypt, and which was allowed to receive suitcases containing millions of dollars from Qatar through the Gaza crossings.” (emphasis added)
The False Flag operation was used to justify the conduct of a carefully planned “Genocide”.
The Evidence
There are numerous government documents which describe in detail the planning and conduct of the genocide.
What we have on record (which is the object of our analysis) is:
This intelligence memorandum was prepared well in advance of October 7, 2023.
It was available to the ICC Team.
The thrust of the document describes what is currently unfolding, namely the Exclusion of Palestinians from Their Homeland.
This is Israel’s Plan (Before our Very Eyes)
“The forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula”.
It’s a longstanding and carefully prepared initiative by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence, which was declassified on October 13, 2023, namely one week after the commencement of the invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Concurrently, Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence was responsible for the implementation of the False Flag.
The endgame is the exclusion of Palestinians from their homeland.
We are dealing with an absurd “upside down rhetoric” “Mundus inversus” on the part of the ICC Prosecutor.
The Lie has become the Truth
Amply documented Israel is involved in acts of “Extermination” against Palestinians. Yet it is Israel which is described by the ICC as the “Victim of Palestinian Aggression.”
The Lie Prevails. International Law is Criminalized
The actual conduct of the genocide against Palestine —confirmed by numerous official Israeli documents to which the ICC had access– are casually ignored by the ICC Prosecutor.
I have reviewed the official ICC statement. There is not a single reference to the word “genocide”.
What we have on record (which is the object of our analysis) is:
the memorandum confirms Israel’s planning of a Genocide against the People of Palestine.
This intelligence memorandum was prepared well in advance of October 7, 2023. The thrust of the document describes what is currently unfolding, namely the Exclusion of Palestinians from Their Homeland:
“The forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula”.
Ask the ICC Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan: What is the significance of this document?
Option. C. The Evacuation of the Civilian Population from Gaza to the Sinai
The Option C which was declassified, is the Blueprint of Israel’s War against Palestine (among many classified intelligence documents), the underlying intent of which is to:
Destroy Palestine as a Nation State and Exclude Palestinians from their Homeland.
The Overthrow of Hamas is contemplated, which if carried out would no doubt result in the implementation of the three ICC Hamas Arrest Warrants.
Option C. calls for:
“The Evacuation of the civilian population from Gaza to Sinai”
See details below from the original document (emphasis added)
Israel is to act to evacuate the civilian population to Sinai. In the first stage, tent cities will be established in the area of Sinai.
The next stage includes the establishment of a humanitarian zone to assist the civilian population of Gaza and the construction of cities in a resettled area in northern Sinai.
A sterile zone of several kilometers should be created within Egypt, and the return of the population to activities/residences near the border with Israel should not be allowed.
In addition, a security perimeter should be established in our [Israel’s] territory near the border with Egypt. (Option C)
Whereas the killings, destruction and the engineered famine are not acknowledged in the official government document, they are an integral part of the Option C. Agenda:
Hunger is a creeper. People will survive for months on their bodily reserves and on the little food they can scrape together.
But suddenly, people get under the absolute minimum in bodily assets and mass deaths will start on an industrial scale.
Once erupted, hunger and disease deaths will be enormous.
Holocaust – death brought by Israel on civilians on industrial scale will erupt, if this is not reversed NOW. (Karsten Riise)
With regard to propaganda, lobbying and public relations, the focus is on:
“harnessing the support of the United States and additional pro-Israeli countries for the endeavor”. (Text of Option C)
The role of Egypt in Option C is of course crucial:
Egypt has an obligation under international law to allow the passage of the population.
Israel must act to promote a broad diplomatic initiative aimed at countries that will support assisting the displaced population and agree to absorb them as refugees.(Option C)
Solidarity with Palestine
It is important as part of the Palestine solidarity movement that Option C be fully understood. It is a criminal endeavor. It is part of Israel’s “Act of Genocide”.
The State of Israel is in blatant violation of the Genocide Convention. And so is the ICC prosecutor.
We are dealing with an absurd “upside down rhetoric” “Mundus inversus” on the part of the ICC Prosecutor.
While the ICC Prosecutor accuses Palestine, he rightfully acknowledges the crimes committed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, specifically with regard to the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.
This issue is fundamental. Starvation in the Gaza Strip is ongoing. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s Genocide.
For nearly 8 months, Israel still chokes off nearly all food and other vital supplies to Gaza.
Gaza needs 500 trucks of supply every day, and near-nothing is coming through.
The US pier supplies 25-50 trucks per day, and everything else is closed.
With irregular intervals, reports have come the past months, but never about more than some 100 or 150 trucks on a few days.
Reports about starvation are made public, and this is obviously getting worse. (Karsten Riise, communication to the author)
ICC Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan’s presentation is cautious.
He essentially contends that “crimes have been committed by both sides” while intimating that “The Fourth Military Power” on the Planet, “Has a Right to Defend Itself” (in the words of Joe Biden on October 7).
The False Flag which constitutes a crime against humanity, is not addressed by the ICC, nor is the issue of the Genocide against the People of Palestine.
The document (above) confirms the State of Israel’s prior intent to implement genocide against the people of Palestine in violation of the Genocide Convention.
ICC Prosecutor Karim A..A. Khan does not want to be accused of “double standards”.
Netanyahu and Gallant are “The Fall Guys”
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan KCissued a statement [on May 20] proposing that arrest warrants are issued for Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed al-Masri, Hamas’s military chief, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader. (Independent)
Karim Khan’s allegations directed against Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant which are fully corroborated, coupled with arrest warrants, are intent to:
—reach out and mislead the anti-Zionist peace movement,
—provide a sense of (fake) “legitimacy” to the ICC’s far-reaching accusations against Palestine (“extermination and murder”).
— Dispel the existence of a False Flag. Deny Israeli civilian casualties linked to the “False Flag”
—provide a “human face” to Karim Khan KC
Nowhere in the ICC Prosecutor’s report is the issue of “Israel’s genocide directed against the People of Palestine” mentioned.
In this regard, the Arrest Warrants directed by the ICC against the three Hamas leaders serve to:
“Side Track” the Strategic Role of the “False Flag Operation“
Refute the very existence of a Genocide,
Endorse Israel’s “Act of Self Defense” against Palestine.
In regards to the arrest warrants directed against Netanyahu and Gallant, it is highly unlikely that they will be carried out.
(Netanyahu already has a criminal record. In November 2019, he was officially “indicted for breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud”)
Of relevance, the CIA has been operating in the background in collaboration with Israeli intelligence.
The three arrest warrants directed against the leaders of Hamas are intended to “confirm” that the alleged October 7, 2023 Act of “Aggression” against Israel was NOT (despite the evidence) part of a “False Flag” (i.e. inside intelligence op. carefully coordinated by Israeli and U.S. intelligence).
The ICC Arrest Warrants directed against Netanyahu and Gallant (which will never be carried out), serve the useful purpose of placing the blame while at the same time deflecting our understanding as to who from a strategic standpoint is behind the conduct of the Genocide directed against the People of Palestine.
What this does is to distract public opinion. It misleads the peace movement. It creates divisions within the solidarity movement with Palestine.
Big Money Economic Interests
Bear in mind there are powerful economic interests which are supportive of the Genocide.
They have their eyes on Gaza’s Multibillion Offshore Maritime Gas Reserves.
By Felicity Arbuthnot and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, April 23, 2024
Anglo-America Controls both the ICC and the IJC
The ICC Arrest Warrants directed against Netanyahu and Gallant (which will never be carried out), serve the useful purpose of placing the blame while at the same time deflecting our understanding as to who from a strategic standpoint is behind the conduct of the Genocide directed against the People of Palestine.
What this does is to distract public opinion. It misleads the peace movement. It creates divisions within the solidarity movement with Palestine.
I should mention that the False Flag issue –which constitutes a crime against humanity on the part of Israel and the U.S.– has been casually ignored both by the International Court of Justice (IJC) (Chief Justice Donahue, former adviser to Hillary Clinton). (January 2024)
And now by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on behalf of His Majesty’s Prosecutor, K.C. (King’s Counsel).
In this regard, the Arrest Warrants directed against the three Hamas leaders serve not only to Side Track the Role of the “False Flag Operation“, but also to endorse the legitimacy of the Genocide which is portrayed as an Act of Self Defense by Israel.
It is worth noting that the conduct of False Flag Attacks have been endorsed by Netanyahu:
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he [Netanyahu] told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)
Today I am filing applications for warrants of arrest before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court in the Situation in the State of Palestine.
..
On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Yahya SINWAR (Head of the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) in the Gaza Strip), Mohammed Diab Ibrahim AL-MASRI, more commonly known as DEIF (Commander-in-Chief of the military wing of Hamas, known as the Al-Qassam Brigades), and Ismail HANIYEH (Head of Hamas Political Bureau) bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of Israel and the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 7 October 2023:
Extermination as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(b) of the Rome Statute;
Murder as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(a), and as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
Taking hostages as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(iii);
Rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(g), and also as war crimes pursuant to article 8(2)(e)(vi) in the context of captivity;
Torture as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(f), and also as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity;
Other inhumane acts as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(l)(k), in the context of captivity;
Cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity; and
Outrages upon personal dignity as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(ii), in the context of captivity.
My Office submits that the war crimes alleged in these applications were committed in the context of an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas running in parallel. We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Israel by Hamas and other armed groups pursuant to organisational policies. Some of these crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.
My Office submits there are reasonable grounds to believe that SINWAR, DEIF and HANIYEH are criminally responsible for the killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians in attacks perpetrated by Hamas (in particular its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades) and other armed groups on 7 October 2023 and the taking of at least 245 hostages. As part of our investigations, my Office has interviewed victims and survivors, including former hostages and eyewitnesses from six major attack locations: Kfar Aza; Holit; the location of the Supernova Music Festival; Be’eri; Nir Oz; and Nahal Oz. The investigation also relies on evidence such as CCTV footage, authenticated audio, photo and video material, statements by Hamas members including the alleged perpetrators named above, and expert evidence.
It is the view of my Office that these individuals planned and instigated the commission of crimes on 7 October 2023, and have through their own actions, including personal visits to hostages shortly after their kidnapping, acknowledged their responsibility for those crimes. We submit that these crimes could not have been committed without their actions. They are charged both as co-perpetrators and as superiors pursuant to Articles 25 and 28 of the Rome Statute.
During my own visit to Kibbutz Be’eri and Kibbutz Kfar Aza, as well as to the site of Supernova Music Festival in Re’im, I saw the devastating scenes of these attacks and the profound impact of the unconscionable crimes charged in the applications filed today. Speaking with survivors, I heard how the love within a family, the deepest bonds between a parent and a child, were contorted to inflict unfathomable pain through calculated cruelty and extreme callousness. These acts demand accountability.
My Office also submits there are reasonable grounds to believe that hostages taken from Israel have been kept in inhumane conditions, and that some have been subject to sexual violence, including rape, while being held in captivity. We have reached that conclusion based on medical records, contemporaneous video and documentary evidence, and interviews with victims and survivors. My Office also continues to investigate reports of sexual violence committed on 7 October.
I wish to express my gratitude to the survivors, and the families of victims of the 7 October attacks, for their courage in coming forward to provide their accounts to my Office. We remain focused on further deepening our investigations of all crimes committed as part of these attacks and will continue to work with all partners to ensure that justice is delivered.
I again reiterate my call for the immediate release of all hostages taken from Israel and for their safe return to their families. This is a fundamental requirement of international humanitarian law.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant
On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin NETANYAHU, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023:
Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Statute;
Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health contrary to article 8(2)(a)(iii), or cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
Wilful killing contrary to article 8(2)(a)(i), or Murder as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime contrary to articles 8(2)(b)(i), or 8(2)(e)(i);
Extermination and/or murder contrary to articles 7(1)(b) and 7(1)(a), including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, as a crime against humanity;
Persecution as a crime against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(h);
Other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(k).
My Office submits that the war crimes alleged in these applications were committed in the context of an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas (together with other Palestinian Armed Groups) running in parallel.
We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.
Across vast agricultural lands and along the coast in central and southern Gaza, tens of thousands of tents have become shelters for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the ongoing, bloody Israeli war for the 10th consecutive month.
Once a symbol of the Nakba (catastrophe) and displacement for more than seven decades, the tent has now become a dream for thousands of displaced families in Gaza, despite the harsh living conditions it imposes.
What is it like to live in a tent? This question might seem devoid of emotions and disconnected from the harsh realities of Gaza amid the Israeli genocide that has taken many Palestinian lives but failed to break their will and determination to cling to their land. However, the question is crucial to understand the extent of the Palestinian tragedy and resilience.
The Palestinian Information Center (PIC) interviewed some of those that were displaced and are now living in tents to see the harsh situation they are now under.
Quest for a tent
Whilst all those interviewed speak of the difficulty of living in a tent – suffering the harsh hot summers and cold winters – for many of the displaced the tent has become a dream come true as it is easily hoisted and dismantled quickly. This is important for those displaced who needed to move more than once because of the Israeli army gunfire, tanks, drones and warplanes.
Mohammed Said said he bought a tent for 1,200 shekels ($330) after he could no longer bear living in a “khas,” a makeshift shelter made of wooden sticks covered with nylon or any other available material.
He explained a khas provides no privacy because of the mostly nylon material its made of and its impossible to move when forced to relocate. Thus, he went for a tent, having relocated at least twice already.
Various NGOs provide tents for free, but with demand shooting up some of the tents have started to be sold, forcing people to buy them due to the lack of alternatives. Today tents vary in shape and size, according to how much you want to pay.
Finding a place to set up the tentAfter getting a tent, the second challenge is to find a place to set it up. Such areas are currently limited to around Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah.
Khaled Al-Masri said he had to move his tent several times to be close to water sources and/or the scarce aid.
“Today, there are camps made up of a group of tents overseen by an association or individuals’ initiatives to provide some aid, ensure water access, and establish shared bathrooms. Other tents are set up randomly on agricultural land and near destroyed homes,” he said.
Life in the tents
Living in tents are tales of pain and suffering, varying according to the family’s resources, number size, tent location and the supervising entity.
A small family with a tent in an area receiving aid can adapt better and suffer less compared to an extended family with a small tent in an area lacking in services.
With the scorching summer heat, living in a tent among hundreds of others in Gaza feels like a living hell, said Amani Hamdan.
Hamdan told PIC she was forced to live in a tent on a land of a friend of her husband. She is joined by her mother-in-law, disabled sister-in-law and her four children.
“We relocated at least seven times from Khan Yunis since our house was bombed. Initially, we had no tent and suffered much until we managed to obtain one, and it’s only advantage is it can be unhooked easily if we need to move again.
Living in a tent is harsh and difficult, a primitive life. And with no walls, and privacy, our voices reach the people in the tent next door and theirs reach us,” she added.
Suffering in tents
“We can hardly move around inside the tent, some sleep on mattresses, some without, part of the tent holds food supplies. The temperature is scorching, forcing us out of the canvas. In winter, we were drenched by rain; now, the heat is unbearable, but we thank God for what we have,” Hamdan added.
“We cook on fire outside the tent, bake bread in a shared oven, share a bathroom, and bathe rarely, needing prior coordination with the other tent partners. The children start their morning search for wood, while my husband travels long distances for water that is sometimes brought by volunteers. Life has become primitive with no kitchen, bathroom, or water faucets.”
What is a tent?
After enduring the harsh tent life for months, engineer Mohammed Munir wrote about its meaning, “To burn while sitting inside, to suffocate with no air or cooling. It’s like a greenhouse during the day.”
“A tent means living on the ground, separated only by fabric, coexisting with all the insects of the earth as if you are now their guest,” He wrote on Facebook.
“Normal activities become complicated, like taking a nap or a bath, walking comfortably, sitting peacefully, feeling safe, or sleeping without back pain from the hard ground, all of our dreams are now out of reach.
A tent means no privacy, speaking in whispers inside your tent while your neighbor hears you. With tents set up on sand and agricultural land, it means living with all types of insects and with no hygiene,” Munir concluded.
The meaning of a tent
“A tent means having no wall to lean on, no private life,” Sama Hassan wrote.
“Displacement means not to live in safety or stability. We first moved from Gaza City to the north in search of ‘fake’ safety until the missiles to land on us. We then fled to southern Gaza in the first Friday of the war and stayed in Khan Yunis for two months, then moved to Rafah when the city was invaded in early December 2023.
With each relocation, I lost a thread of my privacy, becoming more displaced and homeless like thousands in Gaza. A tent is harsher than a shared room in a stranger’s house as the bathroom is either within the tent, set up primitively, or shared, half a kilometer away, established by a charity. If a woman needs to use it at night, she must wake a man to escort her,” she ended by saying.
Life in a tent is hard for women, who must fully dress as they usually do when they go out of the house. She maintains dressed at all time despite the heat, lack the freedom of movement. In the tent, fires are lit, cooking is made, washing dishes, with large water containers placed in the corner.
Bathing in a tent involves women surrounding the one washing with thick blankets, like forming a small tent within the main tent, with the woman hurrying before the others tire of holding the blankets.
If living in a tent is already insufferable, doing so amid the ongoing Israeli genocide and bombings is even more so, because the strikes continue targeting as what happened to us in Rafah and Khan Yunis. This is beyond words.
In recent months, Israeli bombs have burned tents and killed dozens, leaving survivors to search for the remains of their loved ones before finding a new place to set up another tent if one is available, continuing their struggle.
This article was translated and edited from the Palestine Information Center’s website by Dr Marwan Asmar who writes in https://crossfirearabia.com.
The US military announced Thursday that the floating pier, aimed ostensibly at delivering aid to Gaza’s starving population, will be dismantled. The official end of this two-month farce graphically exposes the complicity of American imperialism in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, which has claimed an estimated 186,000 lives, and will claim many more in the coming weeks and months due to malnutrition.
Since the floating pier was installed and declared operational on May 16, just 8,500 tons of aid have been delivered via the route. This equates to about 420 truckloads of aid. Announced with great fanfare by President Joe Biden in March, the pier ended up taking two months to deliver 80 percent of the 500 truckloads of aid that arrived in Gaza each day prior to the launching of Israel’s genocidal onslaught on October 7.
The pier was only in service for 25 days during its two-month presence off the Gaza coast due to bad weather and repeated repairs. The total cost of the operation was $230 million.
With breathtaking cynicism, Deputy Commander of US Central Command Brad Cooper asserted during his announcement of the end of the pier that it was “mission accomplished.” Perhaps he revealed more than he intended. The remark underscores how Washington was never concerned about averting a famine that was already imminent in March, when Biden presented the plan for the pier. Rather, the goal was to make a token gesture to widespread anger over the imperialist powers’ involvement in the genocide.
From the outset, aid organisations denounced the ineffectual approach of maritime aid deliveries. A statement was signed by 25 non-governmental organisations in March criticising the use of air drops and maritime deliveries by states “to create the illusion that they are doing enough to support the needs in Gaza.”
If US imperialism and its European allies were genuinely concerned about the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before the world’s eyes in Gaza, they could have demanded Israel fully open land crossings into Gaza and guarantee the unhindered access of aid workers. What’s more, they could have forced this measure by halting their uninterrupted supply of high-powered weaponry to Israel, without which the Zionist regime could not continue its genocidal onslaught. But American imperialism is incapable of such actions, because it backs the genocide to the hilt as a demonstration of the ruthless measures it is prepared to employ in the rapidly emerging world war between the major powers.
The flow of 2,000-pound bombs, one of which can destroy an entire city block, has continued unabated. The Biden administration has supplied some 14,000 of these weapons of mass murder since Israel’s bombardment began.
Since Biden announced the deployment of the pier, Israel has continued to deliberately target aid workers and hit facilities run by the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the main agency responsible for the delivery of aid. On April 1, the Israel Defence Forces bombed two vehicles carrying aid workers from World Central Kitchen, killing seven. Despite compelling evidence showing that Israel’s strike was deliberate, no calls came from the United States or any other imperialist power for an independent investigation or unimpeded access to Gaza for aid workers.
On May 6, just under two weeks before the pier went into operation, the IDF began its long-planned onslaught on Rafah, closing the two main border crossings for aid deliveries into the enclave. The offensive drove upwards of a million people out of Gaza’s southernmost city and reduced aid deliveries to a trickle, further compounding the already horrendous food crisis.
In a July 9 briefing, UN special rapporteurs declared that famine had spread throughout the Gaza Strip. “We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza,” they explained in their statement. “We call upon the international community to prioritise the delivery of humanitarian aid by land by any means necessary, end Israel’s siege, and establish a ceasefire. … Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since 7 October, the majority being children. Inaction is complicity.”
On July 12, an Israeli air strike in a supposed “safe zone” west of Khan Younis killed four aid workers from the Al-Khair organisation. A day later, 92 people were killed by an IDF strike on a camp in the al-Mawasi “safe zone.” UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters was “flattened” on July 15 in another strike, according to UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini.
It has become virtually impossible to move aid inside Gaza due to ongoing bombardments and the deliberate targeting of aid workers. Speaking to Ireland’s The Journal, Maher Haboush from Gaza City explained that he and his family have been displaced 10 times since Israel’s bombardment began. “I lost 16 kilos before the war; this is famine, and now a new level has started. When I go to the market, I can’t find items to feed my children,” he said.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths warned that 1 million Gazans, about half the population, would face the threat of starvation and death by the middle of July. Waiting until famine is officially declared before taking action “would be a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of people and a moral outrage,” he added.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, created by the UN, declares a famine when 20 percent of households have an extreme lack of food, 30 percent of children have acute malnutrition, and at least two adults or four children per 10,000 people die daily.
Disease is also on the rise. A report from Gaza’s health ministry Thursday confirmed the presence of polio in waste samples from Gaza. An Oxfam report stated that Israel has reduced water supplies to Gaza by 94 percent, producing “a deadly health catastrophe.” The level of water available in Gaza is “less than a single toilet flush” per day per person, the report added. The report pointed out that Israel has destroyed or damaged five water sanitation sites every three days since October 7, reducing water production in Gaza by 84 percent. The IDF has also destroyed 70 percent of water sewage pumps and all waste water treatment plants.
US imperialism views the inhuman crimes perpetrated by the Zionist regime as a price worth paying to advance its geopolitical interests in the region against Iran. Washington views the Gaza genocide as a key component in this strategy, which is aimed at consolidating American imperialist hegemony over the energy-rich Middle East. It has sanctioned a vast intensification of Israeli strikes into southern Lebanon to kill several leading commanders of Iranian-backed Hezbollah and will back an all-out war by Israel in Lebanon to the hilt.
Israel’s Prime Minister and war criminal-in-chief Benjamin Netanyahu is due in Washington next Wednesday, when he will deliver a progress report to Congress on the implementation of the genocide. He is scheduled to meet with Biden, and sources Thursday indicated that attempts are being made to arrange a meeting with the fascist ex-President Donald Trump, the current front runner in the US election. Amid rampant starvation and the spread of disease in Gaza, Netanyahu’s visit clearly expresses the complicity of the entire American political establishment in the genocide against the Palestinians.
The World Socialist Web Site and Socialist Equality Party are organizing a demonstration in Washington on July 24, not to appeal to the war criminals but to lay the basis for the building of an international anti-war movement led by the working class. This is the only way to stop the genocide and the rapidly evolving third imperialist world war.
This month on 11th July 2024, the UN commemorated the Srebrenica Genocide of 1995 with official statements and speeches by dignitaries, memorial services, moments of silence and designating a day for remembering what has been called the greatest atrocity in modern Europe.
What is ironic, however, is the fact that the world comes together to remember Srebrenica in the midst of another harrowing genocide- one that is live-streamed straight into every waking moment, all over the world. Ten months into the nightmarish bloodbath in Gaza that has cost nearly 40,000 lives, world leaders are still haranguing over the events of October 7, still unsure and half-hearted towards the urgent and pressing need to enforce a cease-fire to end an unimaginably horrific war, most victims of which have been children.
Alija Izetbegovich, the iconic Muslim leader of Bosnia during the Bosnian war and Srebrenica massacre had once said, ‘Do not forget this genocide. If you forget it, another will happen…’ The words bear premonition as they echo the age-old cliche that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
Here we stand, remembering a genocide while having unleashed another one thirty years on, with the bloody tide showing no signs of abating- as if human lives were like the flies that the wanton boys kill for sport.
To learn the right lessons from Srebrenica, one must revisit in 1992, the Muslim majority republic of Bosnia immediately after it seceded from Communist Yugoslavia as a result of a popular referendum. Bosnia’s Orthodox Christian Serb minority, however, refused to accept this and began a rebellion. Given how well-armed Serbia was as an ally of powerful erstwhile Communist Russia, what started as ethno-religious strife quickly flared up into a war against which Bosnia was nearly defenceless. Several appeals for help by Alija Izetbegovic resulted in no more than humanitarian assistance from the Arab-Muslim world. Izetbegovic feared a genocide, given the violence displayed by the Serb forces under Ratko Mladic, known as the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’. Mladic, as the commander of the army of Republika Sprska (the self declared Serb autonomous zone inside Bosnia), had earlier threatened: ‘You Muslims cannot defend yourselves if a civil war breaks out.’
Bosnia’s countless appeals ultimately led to the arrival of UN peacekeeping forces in the area. Not surprisingly, the UN forces proved utterly ineffectual as the Serb army carried on its atrocities with over 100,000 Muslim Bosniaks killed.
Serb violence against the Bosniaks was neither isolated from context nor sudden. It climaxed after centuries of endemic structural violence built on nationalist Islamophobic narratives rife in the region. When Mladic began the genocidal operation in Srebrenica, he said on camera while addressing his troops, ‘This is the time to take revenge on the Turkish rabble and return Srebrenica to the Serbs…’
The reference to Bosniaks as ‘Turks’ reeks of ethnocentric hate deeply embedded in a prejudicial understanding of history. Serbia had been under Ottoman rule for three centuries, and the reference to ethnic Bosniak Muslims as ‘Turks’ aims to build on the Islamophobic nationalist narrative of victimhood by Turkish-Muslim rulers centuries ago.
As the Bosnian war raged on from 1992 to 1995 with terrible atrocities including the blockade of Sarajevo which prevented fuel, food and water to the area, rapes and mass murders, UN peacekeepers from Netherlands were unable to halt the violence. They were outgunned and outnumbered, and could neither expect the scale of the violence nor were they equipped or even really willing to take decisive action against it. As late as in 2022, twenty seven years after the Srebrenica genocide, the Dutch government acknowledged partial complicity of its peacekeepers in Bosnia and offered ‘apology’ for not taking effective action to stop the Srebrenica genocide- too little, too late.
During the war, Srebrenica in Eastern Bosnia had been designated as a ‘safe zone’ where hundreds of thousands were sheltering. However, when the international community warned of action against Republika Srpska and Serbia, driven by a misdirected vengeance, the Serb leadership decided to violate the safe zone and besieged Srebrenica. As the Dutch peacekeepers looked on, Bosniak men and women were segregated, and all men including minor boys, were herded together and shot fatally, their bodies huddled together and thrown into mass graves.
The horrific reality of the war crimes later surfaced, and it was established after investigations that in July 1995, a massacre of 8,372 Muslim men and boys by Serb forces over just three days had been systematically committed- known now in the annals of history as the Srebrenica Genocide.
Some months later, as the world came to know of the horrors that had been unleashed, there was an attempt by the Serb leadership to cover up the evidence. The mass graves of 8,372 Muslims were bulldozed and whatever remained of the bodies was scattered in unmarked areas all over the region. To this day, search for human remains continues in Srebrenica. Some 1,200 of those who went missing in July 1995 have still not been identified or given the dignity of a proper funeral and burial.
While the Dayton Accords of 1996 enforced a ceasefire after what the Bosniaks had endured, peace in the region is still tenuous. Tensions are rife as the Serb Autonomous Zone inside Bosnia continues with its ultraconservative nationalism and ethnic prejudice, refusing to acknowledge what was done to the Bosniaks from 1992-1995 as a genocide. The current UN Peace Representative for Bosnia- Hans Christian Schmidt- has warned earlier this year that ethnic tensions between Bosnia and the autonomous Serb community remain dangerously high still, and the possibility of internecine violence once again cannot be ruled out.
There are some clear parallels between the Bosnian genocide three decades ago and the Israeli military onslaught on Gaza in 2023-24. Like the Serbs, Israelis justify their actions on the narrative of historical victimhood. They present their victim as the perpetrator, stereotyping through Islamophobic propaganda that makes you believe Muslim Palestinian children are fair targets as potential ‘Islamist terrorists’ and ‘jihadists’ in the making. Like in the case of Bosnia, the world was never moved to decisive action to end the bloodbath until too late. Not surprisingly, the victims in both cases happen to be Muslims. While Serbia had been armed to the teeth by its mentor Soviet Russia, Israel has been heavily armed by the US, Germany, UK and other Western allies that continue to send military supplies to the Zionist state. In both cases, the population against whom these lethal weapons are unleashed is extremely vulnerable, unarmed and defenceless. In both Bosnia and now in Palestine, the UN proved a complete failure. And perhaps most poignantly, in both cases the Muslim world failed to stand up and act together, other than sending some humanitarian supplies for the victims.
Yet there are aspects in which the Gaza genocide emerges as a unique and unprecedented case in point. Gaza’s suffering has been long and historic, since the Nakba of 1948- and the world has continued to ignore its plight. Gaza has for years been under severe blockade, with many observers describing it as an ‘open air prison.’ Israel on the other hand, seen as the Middle East’s only beacon of democracy with Western liberal values and culture is considered as the West’s only reliable ally in the volatile region- the ‘blue-eyed boy’ of the Western world. It enjoys tremendous influence and solid support from its Western benefactors, even after having committed gross defiant violations of human rights and international law. The ongoing siege and death toll in Gaza is more protracted, and the scale of devastation far greater- surpassing anything we may have witnessed in modern history.
Bosnia found some solace with the trial of Serb war criminals at The Hague, as a result of which 21 perpetrators of the genocide were pronounced guilty- including Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, Republika Sprska leader Radovan Karadzic and Serb army commander Ratko Mladic. The case for Palestine, on the other hand, given the global power and influence of the Zionist lobby, has found no echo in the corridors of power, and any wholesale transparent accountability for the genocidal far right Israeli regime seems to be a remote possibility.
This is precisely why the global commemoration of the Bosnian genocide seems meaningless when the UN and the international community have proven so utterly spineless in the case of Gaza. Remembering and honouring Srebrenica means learning its lessons and promising ‘Never Again’. With humanity abysmally failing to show any resolve to end Israel’s relentless and brutal assault on Palestine, carefully crafted words for Srebrenica from high podiums ring hollow indeed.
Maryam Sakeenah is a Pakistan-based independent researcher and freelance writer on International politics, human rights and Islam. She divides her time between teaching high school, writing, research and voluntary social work.
A London reporter writes in WSJ that the assassination attempt on Trump, coming after Biden’s “stumbles” during the recent presidential debate, has pushed the superpower to enter “an unusually turbulent and unpredictable period, prompting allies to question its reliability and foes to gloat.”
As a foe of US imperialist foreign policy, not of “America” (my husband is American and my children, like so many other children in the US, are hyphenated Americans), I am not gloating at the sorry spectacle the US election “turbulence” is parading before the world. Rather, I am ashamed. And more importantly, I am aghast at US obliviousness that any gloating that may be taking place, especially in the Global South, is entirely of its own making.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said. It is well known, however, that the US believes there is a place for “this kind of violence” other than in America. The United States, often through the CIA, has been involved in various coups and assassinations in the Global South. These actions have had profound and lasting impacts on the region.
Let’s count some of them. I’ll start with Venezuela, because, just as in America, the country is undergoing presidential elections there currently, and a CNN headline in World/Americas (July 14, 2024) links the US elections and the Venezuelan elections thus: Why a fair election in Venezuela could change the fate of millions of migrants — and Joe Biden.
CNN writes that the political crisis in Venezuela that produced millions of migrants was caused by “a crash in the price of oil — a key export for Venezuela — combined with chronic corruption and mismanagement at the hands of government officials.” Today, the conventional wisdom in US media is that Nicolás Maduro (United Socialist Party) faces an uphill election battle “after leading Venezuela into crisis.” The US actively supports Venezuelan Western-leaning opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González and wishes to “ease” Maduro and his cohorts out under the banner of “democracy and the rule of law” — i.e., “fair elections.”
By “fair elections” CNN means elections as influenced by US foreign policy. In 2019, The US supported efforts to oust Maduro, including backing opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
In contrast to the above, Al Mayadeen coverage of the Venezuelan elections explains that the United Nations has sent four of its electoral experts to Venezuela to compile a report on the voting there and that Maduro signed in June a document with several candidates to respect the outcome of the election.
The Al Mayadeen report goes on to say, “The Venezuelan people trust President Maduro because he belongs to the school of thought and principles of the late President Hugo Chavez and represents a symbol of continuity in the Bolivarian Revolution… It is noteworthy that Maduro’s 2018 reelection was rejected as ‘illegitimate’ by most Western countries.”
And shockingly: “Last week, a Colombian paramilitary group announced in a video that Venezuela’s far-right reached out to them requesting they assassinate Maduro. The incumbent president had previously accused the United States and the Venezuelan opposition of seeking to manipulate the results of the election and destabilize the country.”
US foreign policy has no problem with instigating political violence (aka terrorism if we are to speak plainly) in the Global South. In Bolivia in 2019, the resignation of President Evo Morales was followed by U.S. involvement in the political upheaval that led to his departure. A couple of weeks ago, Bolivia weathered a coup attempt and US media is speculating as to “Why Bolivia Descended Into Yet Another Coup Attempt.”
Well, here are clues as to possibly why:
— In Guatemala (1954): The CIA orchestrated a coup to overthrow President Jacobo Árbenz, who had implemented land reforms that threatened U.S. business interests.
— In Brazil (1964): The U.S. supported a military coup that overthrew President João Goulart, who was perceived as leaning towards communism.
— In Chile (1973): The U.S. supported the military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, which ousted democratically elected President Salvador Allende.
— In Congo (1960): The CIA was involved in the assassination of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who was seen as a threat to Western interests.
The list of US involvement in such political violence goes on to include Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Korea. The U.S. justified these actions as necessary to combat the spread of communism and protect American interests, but they had significant and often devastating impacts on the affected countries.
Needless to say, when it comes to the Middle East, American hubris, double standards, and meddling for purely selfish reasons know no bounds and have been an unmitigated disaster for people there.
– In the West Bank and Gaza in 2006, the Bush administration and its allies undid the results of democratic elections that ushered a Hamas government.
— In Iran in 1953, the CIA, along with British intelligence, orchestrated a coup to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the oil industry.
— In Iraq in 1963, the CIA played a role in the coup that brought the Ba’ath Party to power, which eventually led to Saddam Hussein’s rise. The US provided lists of suspected communists to the Ba’athists, who then executed many of them. In 2003, the US-led invasion of Iraq resulted in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein leading to regime change.
— In Libya in 2011, the US, along with NATO allies, played a crucial role in the military intervention in Libya, which led to the overthrow and death of Muammar Gaddafi.
— In Syria in 1949: The CIA supported a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of President Shukri al-Quwatli. This was primarily to secure American and Western oil interests. Today, US involvement in internal Syrian politics include hostilities against Iranian-backed militia groups supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s embattled regime, without explicit congressional authorization or any clear military objective beyond deterring future attacks.
In the meantime, U.S. taxpayers continue to pay for the hundreds of U.S. military bases scattered around the world, many of them unwelcome, and the double standard the US exercises in and outside America is appalling.
For fear of inciting more violence in the US, for example, Democrats are no longer allowed to talk about Trump as “posing an existential threat to democracy.” On the other hand, in accepting Israel’s Jewish supremacist narrative that Palestinian armed struggle for liberation poses an existential threat to Jews (i.e. it is antisemitic and not liberationist in nature), the US incites Israeli violence against Palestinians and provides Israel with the wherewithal to commit genocide against them in Gaza.
A glimmer of hope may be on the horizon, however. What’s happening in Palestine and the Ukraine is challenging the unipolar dominance of the United States and significantly influencing the shift towards a multipolar world order.
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Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem and whose mother’s side of the family is from Ijzim, south of Haifa.
In Gaza, where daily life has become a battle for survival, the stories of Palestinians who lost their homes in the midst of the genocidal war waged by Israel on the Strip for the last 10 months reflect the suffering of an entire people, carrying with it bitter human details of what it means for someone to lose their home.
The Al-Sayyid family was living in peace until that fateful night. “The night had fallen, and suddenly, we heard the sound of a huge explosion. Then the voices of the remaining neighbors shouted ‘I had to evacuate the area because there was a threat to blow up the residential tower opposite my house,’” Ahmed, the father, tells the Palestinian Information Center.
At first Ahmed’s family of a wife and seven children moved to a shelter school in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood south of Gaza City, and as the Israeli ground invasion expanded, they moved to Al-Aqsa University in Khan Younis but when the Israeli army withdrew from the city, they went back.
“I did not wait a minute after I learned of the occupation army retreat to the northern parts of Gaza Strip. Me and my brother rushed to inspect our three-story house. As soon as we arrived there, we were shocked by what happened to the place,” Ahmed told the PalestineIn formation Center Tuesday.
“I found a large part of the house destroyed by artillery shells and burning furniture. It was harsh moments. This is the first time I have faced such an experience like thousands of others who repeatedly lost their homes in previous Israeli wars.”
The man, who is in his 50s, stresses “losing a house is not an easy matter. You are not lose stones here. You feel as if someone has token you to a distant world, erasing a lifetime from your memory. In every corner of the house there are memories, feelings, emotions and life experiences.”
Israel has systematically and extensively destroyed homes in Gaza, completely destroying hundreds of thousands of housing units and in just 283 days, it has turned their owners and residents into homeless people living in tents and shelters.
Israel warplanes bomb houses over the heads of their residents resulting in their instant deaths. In many times the people mostly women and children are deeply buried in the rubble of these homes. This is not to forget the aerial bombardment of blowing up residential blocks.
Residents ask why is this happening to us? There is no need for it. International organizations protest and condemn but to no avail.
Ahmed points out the psychological and social pain is more severe than the material loss. “Many a time, my tongue twists and turns when my children ask ‘we are going to get back to our house, how long will it take to repair it, how long do we have to stay here?,” Ahmad waves his hands at a loss.
“How can children feel safe in a temporary shelter? They have lost everything, even their small toys.”
Satellite images by the United Nations Satellite Center show 35% of all buildings in the Gaza Strip are either completely destroyed or extensively damaged due to this Israeli war of annihilation. This means the number of buildings razed to the ground is 88,868.
In its last March assessment, the center used high-resolution images taken by satellites and collected on 29 February, and compared them with images taken before and after the outbreak of the war.
Dreams crushed
Whenever she remembers her home and her memories there, Aya Ahmad, is reduced to tears. “I had a private room and/or a suite. All my memories, books, and office are gone now.”
“I am a medical student at the beginning of my third year, and at the beginning of my university studies, my father prepared the second floor of our house, bought me a large collection of medical books, and prepared a special room for me with an office, on the walls of which I wrote my hopes and ambitions,” Aya told the Palestinian Center
The 23-year-old girl lives in the city of Khan Yunis, and she has never been forced to move in previous Israeli wars on Gaza, as in this war.
“This is the first time I have been displaced, and when we were forced to do so at the beginning of December 2023, we cried a lot then. We took a few of the house’s belongings in the hope that we will get back.
But this wasn’t so, its been 10 months now since the war started, it hasn’t stopped, we were not able to return to our house which we lost subsequently due to the bombing, and we lost most of our personal belongings there. We moved between tents, and we lost many loved ones, and then the destruction of the house increased our pain. My certificates, my clothes, and my memories were all crushed, and with them many dreams were lost too.”
The garden of the house was Aya’s refuge after the rigors of a long university day. She had pleasant evenings with her parents under the palm and lemon trees on summer nights. But no more, for all of the family now are sheltering in tents of those that were forcefully displaced.
“My wish was to return home, I even wanted to return to it after the occupation forces retreated from our area. At the time, it was still standing and was only partially damaged, but the occupation army returned months later and bombed.”
Aya is still confident about rebuilding her house and whatever
the occupation destroyed, despite the pain she experiences whenever she looks at pictures of her former home and the social memories of each moment there.
A UN assessment found it would need a fleet of more than 100 trucks working for 15 years to remove the 40 million tons of rubble in Gaza. Such an operation could between $500 and $600 million.
According to the assessment by the UN Environment Programme, last month, 137,297 buildings were damaged in Gaza alone not to say anything about the destroyed buildings.
Not stones!
As for Abeer Abu Salem, resident in the Beit Lahia Project in the north Gaza, the smell of gunpowder still haunts her, as if it had just happened. “I will never forget what I experienced that evening, and it cannot be erased from my memory. I cannot describe the scene because of the horror of what I saw.”
Abeer recounts what happened: “I heard the sound of an explosion and saw the walls collapsing and columns flying. I tried to escape but could not, and with the air closing in, I found myself in the second room. I cannot imagine that I am still alive. It all happened in seconds, turning my life upside down.”
Abeer stayed in the Indonesian hospital for about a month, before the occupation army forced them to flee to the south of the Gaza Strip. When asked about what it means to lose a house, she answers:
“It is not easy to lose your house you grew up in. The house is full of precious memories. We worked hard for many years so that my father could build it for us as an apartment above the family home.”
She points out the fear she experiences is not related to their ability to rebuild the house that was leveled, as much as it is to the emotional feelings of seeing what happened to the family home.
“We are now displaced. We do not know the fate that awaits us after the end of this cursed war. We cannot think about whether we will truly return to Beit Lahia or whether we will live what our ancestors lived when they forcibly left their homes 76 years ago in the Nakba of 1948 and died on “I hope to return,” she laments.
This article has been translated into English by Dr Marwan Asmar from the original Arabic in from the Palestine Information Center website.
