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By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

In just 24 hours, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominated Eli Sharvit as the new chief of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, only to quickly retract the nomination.

This episode highlights the lack of coherence in Netanyahu’s leadership, reinforcing the perception that decisions at the highest levels of government are made impulsively and without a clear plan.

It also serves as further proof that Netanyahu is easily manipulated—not just by his right-wing extremist allies in the coalition, but also by external forces, foreign governments, and, as reported by Israeli media, even his wife, Sara.

This chaotic decision-making process helps explain the deep lack of trust Israelis have in their leadership. Recent public opinion polls show that a significant percentage of Israelis lack faith in their government and are calling for new elections or Netanyahu’s resignation.

This distrust has been attributed to Netanyahu’s failure to prevent the October 7 attacks and his inability to win the war-turned genocide in Gaza.

But the issue goes beyond these failures. Israelis have lost confidence in Netanyahu because they do not see him as a leader acting in the national interest. He has become so entrenched in power that he is willing to incite civil strife in Israel just to maintain his position.

As a result, it should come as no surprise that Netanyahu is also willing to sacrifice the lives of over 15,000 children in Gaza, along with tens of thousands of innocent civilians, just to buy himself more time in office.

The Shin Bet scandal, however, is the clearest example to date of Netanyahu’s corruption and poor judgment.

Israeli politics are notoriously unstable, and coalitions rarely last long. In that context, Netanyahu’s fractious government could be seen as a reflection of Israel’s history of political instability.

The ongoing conflict between the government and the military, while unusual, can also be understood as part of a growing trend in which the Israeli right seeks to control all institutions—including the military, which has historically been seen as separate from politics.

The events of October 7, and the failed war that followed—both of which are now the subject of critical investigations—have shattered the fragile balance that allowed Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition to hold power without provoking mass dissent.

Israeli public pressure has proven to be a key factor in this balancing act. For example, the public outcry forced Netanyahu to restore former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to his position in April 2023.

However, 18 months of war in Gaza, Lebanon, and now Syria have given Netanyahu the leverage to use the state of emergency as a tool to crush opposition, stifle dissent, and ignore calls for the war to end and for a final agreement to be reached.

He has now turned the war into a platform for pursuing an internal political agenda that he had failed to implement in the years leading up to October 7. But Shin Bet is another matter entirely.

Founded by Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, in 1949, Shin Bet has long been the cornerstone of Israel’s internal security.

While the agency’s primary mission is counterterrorism, intelligence gathering, and providing security for Israeli officials, its role carries much greater significance for the stability of the state.

One of Shin Bet’s primary objectives is to prevent espionage and internal subversion. Given the intelligence failures exposed by the October 7 events, any significant restructuring of such a critical agency could be disastrous for Israel.

Though the head of Shin Bet reports directly to the prime minister, it has always been understood that the position should remain above political infighting. Netanyahu’s decision to fire Ronen Bar on March 2, therefore, sent shockwaves through Israeli society, even more so than his decisions to dismiss former chief of staff Herzi Halevi or Defense Minister Gallant.

Netanyahu’s actions have violated a longstanding taboo, further exacerbating Israel’s already unprecedented internal crisis.

Former Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman has even threatened to reveal secret information, signaling that the agency is prepared to engage in this internal power struggle, which some fear could escalate into a civil war.

But the cancellation of Sharvit’s nomination, which would have filled Bar’s position, is perhaps the most revealing aspect of this crisis. It underscores Netanyahu’s erratic decision-making and empowers his opponents, who are eager to bring him down. As Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid has put it, Netanyahu has become “an existential threat to Israel”.

Some analysts have suggested that Netanyahu’s reversal was due to US pressure, especially since Sharvit had written an article criticizing US President Donald Trump.

While some see this as evidence that Netanyahu’s agenda is largely dictated by the US, such conclusions are oversimplified. Although the US wields significant influence, Netanyahu’s decisions are shaped by a complex array of factors.

Netanyahu is keen on presenting the withdrawal of Sharvit’s nomination not as a sign of political subservience, but rather as a strategic concession or overture to Trump. His aim is to win continued full US support for his war agenda in Gaza and across the Middle East.

Ultimately, this perpetual war agenda is not driven by any coherent political ideology. Netanyahu’s singular focus remains on maintaining his political coalition and ensuring his political survival—nothing more, nothing less.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle.

10 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- The Israeli military is preparing to turn Rafah city in southern Gaza, along with its surrounding neighborhoods, into a buffer zone along the border, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Wednesday, citing military officials.

Morag Axis

Last Week, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the forces were “seizing territory” and “dividing up” Gaza.

According to OCHA, the UN humanitarian agency, the Israeli military has declared over 64% of the territory military buffer zones and “no-go” zones for civilians.

The same week, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled Rafah and surrounding areas, as Israeli ground troops advanced to create Netanyahu’s newly announced corridor, Morag.

The Morag Corridor consists mainly of agricultural land located between Khan Younis and Rafah, stretching from east to west across the Gaza Strip.

It also includes parts of what the Israeli military had previously designated as a “humanitarian zone”.

The name “Morag” that he used refers to an illegal Israeli settlement that was established in the region between 1972 and 2005.

Troops have raided prominent residential neighbourhoods in the city – which was densely populated before the war – and indiscriminately killed civilians, including executing medics, while forcing tens of thousands to flee on foot.

The military has said its aim is to “encircle” Rafah.

A defence source told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that they were surprised by Netanyahu’s announcement that the army had seized the “Morag Axis”.

Netanyahu said that the purpose of controlling the area is to “divide” the Gaza Strip by cutting Rafah off from Khan Younis and to “increase pressure step by step so they will give us our hostages”.

Israeli forces previously attempted to control east-to-west corridors in northern Gaza, parallel to the so-called “Morag axis”, as part of military strategy to increase pressure on specific regions.

At the onset of the war, they controlled the so-called Netzarim Corridor, located between Gaza City and central Gaza, blocking the movement of people between the enclave’s north and south.

Currently, Israeli forces control the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt in southern Rafah.

According to the terms of the January ceasefire agreement, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor by the end of the first phase, a clause they failed to honour.

Netanyahu called the “Morag axis” the “Second Philadelphi” Corridor.

“Nothing Left to Destroy”

The area, located between the Philadelphi Corridor to the south and the Morag Corridor to the north, was home to around 200,000 Palestinians before the Israeli assault. In recent weeks, however, it has been left almost entirely deserted following widespread destruction caused by the Israeli military.

The military has refrained until now from turning large cities like Rafah into the buffer zone, Haaretz said.

According to Haaretz, citing defense officials, the move to include Rafah came after Israel’s decision to resume the assault in February, and against the backdrop of Netanyahu’s statement that Israel would seize large areas of Gaza.

In some respects, it appears the army is seeking to replicate in the south the methods it employed in northern Gaza, Haaretz added.

The buffer zone covers a vast area – approximately 75 square kilometers (about 29 square miles), roughly one-fifth of the Gaza Strip. It would effectively turn Gaza into an enclave within Israeli-controlled territory, cutting it off from the Egyptian border. According to the sources, this consideration played a central role in the decision to focus on Rafah.

The sources added that the move is also intended to create new levers of pressure on Hamas.

According to the Israeli newspaper, there is a growing understanding withing the militart that Israel is unlikely to receive international backing – including from Washington – for a prolonged assault in Gaza.

As a result, the military is preparing to concentrate its operations in areas where it believes it can maximize the pressure on Hamas’ leadership.

As part of its preparations, the military is already working to expand the Morag Axis, demolishing structures along its path. In some sections, it will be several hundred meters wide, and in certain areas, it could exceed a kilometer.

According to defense sources, it has yet to be decided whether the entire area will simply be designated a buffer zone that is off-limits to civilians – as has been done in other parts of the border area – or whether the area will be fully cleared and all buildings demolished, effectively wiping out the city of Rafah.

However, the military’s new activity in the area is not limited to the stretch between Morag and Philadelphi corridor. In recent weeks, soldiers have begun taking up positions along the entire perimeter, in what appears to be a preliminary move, Haaretz said.

“There’s nothing left to destroy in the buffer zone,” said a commander who served for more than 240 days in Gaza during the Israeli assault and took part in demolishing structures and clearing operations along the buffer zone and the Netzarim corridor.

“The entire area is unfit for human habitation. There’s no need to send so many soldiers into these places.”

Reservist commanders and soldiers said that the military is repeating the same messages it used at the start of the war, without confronting the reality on the ground.

“I can’t believe that after a year and a half, we’re back to square one,” said a soldier from a reserve brigade currently serving in the Gaza Strip. “We’re being sent to destroy what’s already been destroyed, without anyone knowing how long it will take, what the actual goal is or what level of operational success is needed for the forces to complete the mission.”

10 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Kevin Reed

The campaign of genocide and expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza by US imperialism and Israel continued with intensity on Tuesday, one day after the war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump in the White House.

In the past 48 hours, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed at least 38 Palestinians and wounded 55, including children. Many casualties occurred in the Shujaiya area of Gaza City due to a strike on a residential building. Shujaiya is one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza, which once held as many as 100,000 people, and is in the southern quarter of Old City of Gaza and outside of the city walls.

The dense population and overcrowding by refugees living in tents near the residential building were certainly known by the Israeli military. This was the reason the four-story structure was targeted. The building was right next to the al-Hawashi mosque. A total of eight homes were destroyed, along with significant damage done to nearby structures.

Israel justified its murderous targeting of civilians, as it has done continuously over the past 18 months, by claiming it was seeking to “eliminate” a senior Hamas militant who was in the area. While no name or evidence was provided, at least 23 people, including eight women and eight children, were killed.

A report by Al Jazeera described the scene:

Emergency responders and neighbours who narrowly escaped death have been digging with their bare hands to get through the rubble amid an absence of equipment.

Anas el-Titr, who lived in one of the homes that was hit by the Israeli warplanes, said:

They have nothing to do with the fighting. They are children, they are innocent. … They are women staying at their homes. They have nothing to do with the fighting. Why would they hit them?

With ambulances full, many of the victims had to be transported using donkey carts. Emergency workers, who are being killed by Israeli attacks at an alarming rate, are overwhelmed.

The ongoing conflict has severely impacted various regions within Gaza, leading to significant civilian casualties and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

After his private meeting with Trump on Monday, Netanyahu took questions from the press in the White House and said that a plan was being developed for “enabling the people of Gaza to freely make a choice to go wherever they want,” and that the US and Israel were working with several countries who will agree to take Palestinians. This was, of course, a blatant articulation of the goal of the ethnic cleansing in Gaza, since staying there was not one of the “free choices” being offered to Palestinians.

In another strike, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said an Israeli attack hit close to its clinic in the so-called safe zone of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. Meanwhile, a strike on a home in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed 11 people, including five children as young as two, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. Four more people were killed in a separate strike that hit a house in Deir al-Balah, it said.

A strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya flattened a home and killed a family of seven, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. A separate strike hit a group of people in an open area northwest of Gaza City, killing four people, including one who was planning to get married next week, the ministry said.

Six weeks have now passed since Israel imposed a total blockade of Gaza impacting 2.3 million people there. Food that was stockpiled during the short-lived ceasefire is running out, while emergency meal distributions are ending, bakeries have closed down, and markets are empty.

The international farmers organization La Via Campesina issued a press release on Tuesday urging emergency action to prevent “extermination by starvation and collapse of life in Gaza.” The statement denounces the Israeli engineered famine in Gaza, with 93 percent of Palestinians facing acute food insecurity, bringing Gaza to (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) IPC Phase 5—extermination by starvation—the highest level of food insecurity, which indicates widespread death due to starvation, extremely critical acute malnutrition and collapse of livelihood systems.

The statement goes on:

Bread has disappeared from markets; Palestinians are dying from dehydration and untreated wounds; all bakeries and flour mills have been destroyed; fuel, water, electricity and medical supplies remain blockaded.

These acts clearly satisfy the elements of genocide as defined under Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention, namely, the “deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group in whole or in part.”

Because every mechanism to date—including diplomatic pressure, legal proceedings and even declared ceasefires—has failed to stop Israel’s genocide and engineered starvation in Gaza, we issue this urgent call for immediate action to pressure and mobilize for multilateral State-led humanitarian aid corridors and protective forces to halt the escalated extermination in Gaza.

On Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published its Humanitarian Situation Update #278 on the Gaza Strip. The statement said Gaza Strip is experiencing a worsening humanitarian crisis as water, sanitation and food shortages intensify due to severe restrictions and infrastructure damage.

A drastic reduction in water supply, combined with power outages and fuel shortages, has significantly affected access to safe drinking water. Of the three Mekorot water pipelines from Israel, only one remains functional, while the main desalination plant has reduced its output by 85 percent. UNICEF reports that drinking water availability has dropped to six liters per person per day and could fall even further, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks, especially among children.

The sanitation conditions in Gaza are deteriorating, the OCHA report states, placing immense strain on healthcare facilities. Over 250 medical centers lack essential infection prevention supplies; and hospitals, already overwhelmed with casualties, are struggling with dwindling medical resources. The ongoing blockade on aid since early March has further exacerbated the crisis.

Malnutrition is rising sharply, with infant nutrition supplies nearly gone, forcing families to use unsafe alternatives mixed with contaminated water. UNICEF has warned that thousands of pallets of lifesaving aid remain blocked from entering Gaza, emphasizing that this is not a matter of charity but an obligation under international law.

The collapse of food production has added another layer of life-threatening hardship. Farmers face irrigation shortages, herders are losing livestock at alarming rates, and fishers struggle with security risks and equipment shortages. The destruction of agricultural infrastructure and the continued restrictions on movement have made access to food increasingly difficult. With essential resources dwindling and humanitarian space shrinking, the people of Gaza, particularly children and vulnerable groups, are facing an escalating crisis that threatens their survival.

10 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

Israel’s political methods defy logic, ethics, and human sense. Burning journalists to death while they resided in a tent is hard to comprehend. Its probably infinitely worse than any cruelty perpetuated in any other war-like situation. Smotrich is cruel beyond description and one seriously wonders how the man sleeps at night with so much guilt and hate within him. He is hate filled and possibly every ounce of energy he possesses is to plan his next cruel act.

Western states have protected the Israeli regime since its inception, and escalated their complicity in its crimes since the beginning of the genocide. France, like others, have pretended to be a neutral mediator while granting impunity and unconditional political, financial and military support to the Israeli regime. Instead of meaningless condemnations and actions – such as the ongoing trilateral summit with Egypt and Jordan – France must uphold its obligations to stop and prevent further Israeli genocide and international crimes through sanctions. Europe, in this sense, is worse than Israel and USA combined. With that innocent look, and a few charitable remarks, they assume they have washed their guilt from the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War. Soon after they were awash in colonialism, and then neo-colonialism.

They still fan the flames of hate between ethnic groups in different parts of the world and , thus, prompt killings while announcing platitudes about peace. Little wonder they are a fading power of no consequence to shaping the world.

Meanwhile, the one great source of hope in this battle remains the UN Special Rapporteur who has never feared to call a spade a spade. Speaking of what is happening in Gaza she declares ” it is not a war, but a genocide, and that there is no protection for Palestinian lives”. She added  “The evidence of the killing of paramedics in Rafah has been hidden, and the Israeli army faces no restrictions or controls on the killing of Palestinians.”

This will also pass because it must end. The suffering will have been too much for many tens of thousands. Yet, there rings a bell of hope. Martin Luther King spoke these words: “And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people”.

Please read the news in this newsletter and disseminate widely.

Ranjan Solomon

On behalf of MLN/Palestine Updates

15 April 2025

By Nick Beams

A week after US President Trump launched his economic war against the world under the banner of so-called “reciprocal tariffs,” China will have a tariff of 104 percent imposed on its goods starting today.

This follows the decision by Trump to hit China with an additional 50 percent tariff, following its imposition of a 34 percent tariff on US goods in response to the US decision to impose tariffs of 54 percent last week.

When previous tariff increases are considered, imposed under the first Trump administration and maintained by President Biden, the tariff level against China is now around 120 percent. Nothing like this has ever been seen before.

The latest measures have brought a defiant response from Beijing.

A spokesperson from the Commerce Ministry said:

If the US proceeds with implementing these escalated tariff measures, China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests.

If the US insists on going its own way, China will fight to the end.

As other countries have sought talks and negotiations, Beijing is digging in for a major battle. The all-out conflict between the number one and number two economies will reverberate around the world, with far-reaching implications for every country, even more than it already has.

The ministry official said the tariff escalation was

a mistake compounded by another mistake and once again exposes the coercive nature of the US side. China will never accept this.

The economic war against China has embroiled the countries of Southeast Asia, which have been hit with some of the highest tariffs, including Malaysia at 24 percent, Vietnam at 46 percent, Cambodia at 49 percent, Indonesia at 32 percent, and Thailand at 37 percent. These tariffs threaten to devastate their economies.

The aim of these measures is not to equalize or balance trade between the US and these countries. Not even officials in the Trump administration, in their most deranged moments, believe that is remotely possible because the countries involved do not have the economic wherewithal to even come close.

The tariff hikes against the region serve two purposes: one economic and the other geopolitical.

In the wake of the initial round of Trump’s tariff hikes against China during his first administration, many companies moved some of their operations aimed at the US market to the region in a strategy dubbed “China Plus One,” in order to avoid the tariffs. That road has now been closed.

The geopolitical objectives are the outcome of an evolving situation over the past decade and a half.

Ever since President Obama launched his anti-China “Pivot to Asia” in 2011, announced from the floor of the Australian parliament, many countries in the region have been seeking to maintain a balancing act between China, to which they are deeply connected economically, and the US.

The Trump tariff war against them is a declaration that the days of such maneuvering are over. They must get off the fence and fall in behind the US in its ever-increasing war drive against Beijing, or they will be hit hard.

There may well be negotiations with them over the tariffs. But any talks will involve more than economics because, as the Trump regime has stated, any decrease in tariffs requires that countries “align with the United States in economic and national security matters”—the biggest one of which is China.

As Trump wages war against the world, there is significant blowback hitting both the real economy and the fragile financial system in the US.

So far, the tariff hikes have been a massive hit to both consumers, who purchase a vast range of goods worth billions of dollars sourced in China, and to businesses that depend on imports from China and many other countries all over the world for their production processes.

Almost half of US imports are intermediate goods that are used by US companies to produce the final commodity. In the past, tariffs hit completed imported goods. But those days have gone with the development of globalized production over the past four decades.

The entire cost structure of US businesses, large and small, has been elevated, meaning that in order to counter this effect in the only way possible under the capitalist system, they must introduce cost-cutting programs through layoffs while intensifying the exploitation of those who remain in order to maintain profits. This process has already begun, with tariff-induced layoffs already being undertaken.

The most palpable effect so far of the tariff war has been in financial markets. Wall Street experienced its fourth-largest decline in the post-war period last Thursday and Friday, when trillions of dollars were wiped off market capitalization.

In a wild day of trading on Monday, the market eventually settled with very small losses.

But the sell-off continued yesterday. The S&P 500 index dropped 1.6 percent, while the NASDAQ fell by 2 percent.

The sharp market falls have resulted in a slanging match between two key figures in the Trump entourage: Elon Musk, the billionaire head of DOGE, and Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, the chief anti-China hawk.

Yesterday morning, Musk denounced Navarro as a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks,” after Navarro said in a TV interview that Musk was just a “car assembler” and that in his opposition to the new tariff regime, he was “protecting his own interests.”

Musk’s attack expresses opposition in sections of the financial oligarchy who fear that Trump’s measures are going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Their vast fortunes have not been made from autarky and the isolation of the US from the global economy, but they have been accumulated by exploiting globalization to their advantage.

And a significant factor in the accumulation of their wealth has been the supremacy of the dollar, which has allowed the US to run up debts to historically unprecedented heights, enabling the accumulation of vast fortunes via parasitism and speculation.

But the economic isolationism championed by Trump, with Navarro playing a leading role, is placing a question mark over the dollar’s global role.

Besides the continuing market sell-off, there was a highly significant new development that indicates that another financial crisis could be in the making.

The initial response to the tariff hikes was a fall in the yield on Treasury bonds, as a result of buying by investors seeking a safe haven, fearing that Trump’s measures would bring a recession. [Bond prices and yield have an inverse relationship in that as demand for them increases, their prices yield falls.]

But on Monday and again yesterday, the movement went in the other direction. On Monday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond jumped by 0.19 percentage points, the biggest one-day rise since September 22. Yesterday, amid what was described as a “weak” auction for the purchase of $58 billion worth of new government debt, the yield rose by a further 0.11 percentage points.

In a market where shifts, up or down, are generally very small, a total rise of 0.3 percent is considered large.

According to the Financial Times:

Tuesday’s sell-off is the latest sign of how some investors are ditching even very low-risk assets as … Trump’s tariffs on major trading partners spark intense volatility in markets.

One of the driving forces at work in the sell-off is the rise in margin calls being made by banks, which fund hedge funds and other market traders. In return for supplying them with credit, they demand that some cash be lodged with them. But as the value of the assets held by the funds rapidly falls, the banks are making a demand, a margin call, for more money to be placed with them.

Last Friday, it was reported that some hedge funds had been hit with the biggest margin calls since the start of the pandemic in 2020. This has prompted a dash for cash, as hedge funds stump up money to the banks in order to maintain their credit lines, upon which they depend.

The danger is that with hedge funds operating with very much the same business models and the fall in stock prices and other financial assets going across the board, the dash for cash can lead to a widespread sell-off and trigger a financial crisis.

The financial oligarchy is clearly taking the deepening crisis very seriously.

The working class must do the same. And even more so because, unlike the ruling elites who will develop measures of protection, it has no “bailout” mechanisms available to it within the capitalist system.

It must, therefore, make a sober assessment of the situation and, on that basis, develop the necessary political strategy to fight for its independent interests.

That assessment must begin with the understanding that the present “madness” is not the product of the fevered brain of Trump. He is only the most egregious expression of the profound insanity of the capitalist system he represents.

This insanity—destructive trade and economic wars, the growing danger of a third world war, the ever-present threat of a devastating financial crisis, the prospect of depression, and an endless list of other maladies and dangers in conditions where the material resources and the heightened productivity of labor have created the conditions for the advancement of humankind—signifies that the capitalist system has become historically outmoded and must be removed.

Those whom the gods would destroy, they must first make mad, it has been said.

But the capitalist system will not be overturned automatically. It can only be ended consciously through the political struggle of the working class in the fight for international socialism.

9 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

New York (Quds News Network)- UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that “aid has dried up, and the floodgates of horror have re-opened” in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has blocked all humanitarian aid and resumed its assault.

“Gaza is a killing field, and civilians are in an endless death loop,” Guterres said on Tuesday.

In his address to journalists in New York, Guterres said Israel, as the occupying power, had obligations under international law to ensure that food and medical supplies get to the population.

That means Israel should facilitate relief programmes and ensure food, medical care, hygiene and public health standards in Gaza, he said. “None of that is happening today,” he added.

“The current path is a dead end – totally intolerable in the eyes of international law and history,” he said.

Guterres also rejected a new Israeli proposal to control aid deliveries in Gaza, saying it risks “further controlling and callously limiting aid down to the last calorie and grain of flour”.

“Let me be clear: We will not participate in any arrangement that does not fully respect the humanitarian principles: humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” Guterres said.

“More than an entire month has passed without a drop of aid into Gaza. No food. No fuel. No medicine. No commercial supplies,” Guterres said in New York.

Guterres’s comments followed a joint statement issued by six UN agencies on Monday that said world leaders must act urgently to make sure food and aid supplies get to Palestinians in the Strip.

Gazans were “trapped, bombed and starved again”, the statement said.

“The latest ceasefire allowed us to achieve in 60 days what bombs, obstruction and lootings prevented us from doing in 470 days of war: life-saving supplies reaching nearly every part of Gaza,” it said.

“While this offered a short respite, assertions that there is now enough food to feed all Palestinians in Gaza are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low.”

The statement was signed by the heads of:
OCHA – UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Unicef – UN’s children’s agency
WFP – World Food Programme
WHO – World Health Organization
Unrwa – UN agency for Palestinian refugees
UNOPS – UN Office for Project Services

Because of the blockade, all UN-supported bakeries have closed, markets are empty of most fresh vegetables and hospitals are rationing painkillers and antibiotics.

The statement said that Gaza’s “partially functional health system is overwhelmed [and]… essential medical and trauma supplies are rapidly running out.”

“With the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza now in its second month, we appeal to world leaders to act – firmly, urgently and decisively – to ensure the basic principles of international humanitarian law are upheld.”

Responding to the comments, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said there was no aid shortage in Gaza. “As always, you don’t let the facts get in the way when spreading slander against Israel,” spokesman Oren Marmorstein said.

“There is no shortage of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip – over 25,000 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip in the 42 days of the cease fire,” he claimed.

On 2 March, Israel closed all the Palestinian enclave’s border crossings, halting the flow of much-needed humanitarian aid and further exacerbating the territory’s crises.

On March 18, Israel resumed its full-scale attacks on Gaza, killing over 1,400 Palestinians and wounded over 3,600, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

On Monday, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that he would maintain the total blockade on aid entering the Gaza Strip, vowing that “not even a grain of wheat will enter Gaza.”

Smotrich insisted on prioritising the complete defeat of Hamas over the release of Israeli captives.

“It’s good that the war has begun, and it’s unfortunate that it began this way, but we are changing the reality in the Middle East,” he said.

Israel has been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war during its attacks on the besieged enclave, with it being one of the main crimes that led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, in November.

9 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Europe seems to be suffering paroxysms of withdrawal, notably when it comes to international conventions.  Many states on the continent seem to have decided that international law is a burden onerous and in need of lightening.  Poland, Finland and the three Baltic states, for instance, have concluded that using landmines, despite their indiscriminately murderous quality, somehow fits their mould of self-defence against the Russian Bear.  That spells the end of their obligations under the Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention.  Lithuania’s government has thought it beneath it to continue abiding by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, withdrawing last month.

The International Criminal Court now promises to be one member short.  Hungary, under the rule of its pugilistic premier, Viktor Orbán, timed the announcement to wounding perfection.  Knowing full well that Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, and also knowing, full well, Hungary’s obligations as a member state to arrest him, Orbán preferred to do the opposite.  That was an international institution both men could rubbish and bash with relish.

As far back as November, when the warrant was issued, the Hungarian leader had already promised that the order would not run in his country.  An invitation to Netanyahu to visit was promptly issued.  Spite was in the air.  In February this year, Orbán ruminated on his country’s continued membership of the ICC. “It’s time for Hungary to review what we’re doing in an international organization that is under US sanctions!” he bellowed in a post on the X platform.  “New winds are blowing in international politics.  We call it the Trump-tornado.”

On the arrival of the Israeli leader for a four-day visit, there was a conspicuous absence of any law officer or police official willing to discharge the duties of the Rome Statute.  The reception for Netanyahu featured a welcoming ceremony at the Lion Courtyard in Buda Castle.

Alongside Netanyahu at a press conference, Orbán trotted out the thesis that has long been used against any international court, or body, that behaves in a way contrary to the wishes of a government.  “This very important court has been diminished to a political tool and Hungary wishes to play no role in it.”  The abandonment of impartiality was evident by “it’s decisions on Israel.”

Netanyahu, who conveniently described the warrant for his arrest as “absurd and antisemitic”, brimmed with glee, calling the withdrawal “bold and principled” while directing his usual bile upon the organisation.  (Judges, Israeli or international, are not esteemed in the Israeli PM’s universe.)  “It’s important for all democracies,” he declared.  “It’s important to stand up to this corrupt organisation.”  Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar concurred.  “The so-called International Criminal Court lost its moral authority after trampling the fundamental principles of international law in its zest for harming Israel’s right to self-defence.”  A right, seemingly, to be exercised with defiant impunity.

Orbán should at least be credited for a certain unvarnished, vulgar honesty.  Open contempt is its own virtue.  Other European member states of the ICC have been resolutely mealy mouthed in whether they would execute their obligations under the Rome Statute were Netanyahu to visit them.  France, for instance, claims that Netanyahu has immunity from prosecution before the ICC, a rather self-defeating proposition if you are in the international justice business.  Italy, for its part, expressed doubts on the legal situation.

Germany, with its obstinate pro-Israeli stance, is one member state deeming the whole idea of arresting an Israeli leader unappetising, raising questions on whether its own membership of the court is valid.  “We have spoken about this several times,” stated the country’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a very recent press conference in Berlin, “and I cannot imagine that an arrest would occur in Germany.”

Scholz’s successor, Friedrich Merz, has confirmed this blithe attitude to ICC regulations, having promised Netanyahu “that we would find ways and means for him to be able to visit Germany and leave again without being arrested.  I think it is a completely absurd idea that an Israeli prime minister cannot visit the Federal Republic of Germany”.  As absurd, implicitly, as an international justice system moored in The Hague.

This made the hypocrisy of Germany’s own criticism of Hungary’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute sharp and tangy, with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock lamenting the event as “a bad day for international criminal law”.  Europe had “clear rules that apply to all EU member states, and that is the Rome Statute.”  No mirror, it would seem, was on hand for Baerbock to reconsider the hollowness of such observations before the stance of her own government.

The response from the Presidency of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, delivered in diplomatic if cool language, expressed “regret” at Hungary’s announcement.  “When a State Party withdraws from the Rome Statute, it clouds our shared quest or justice and weakens our resolve to fight impunity.”  The statement goes on to make the fundamental point: “The ICC is at the centre of the global commitment to accountability, and in order to maintain its strength, it is imperative that the international community support it without reservation.”  Hungary’s exit, and European qualifications and niggling subversions of the Court, show that reservations are all the rage, and justice a nuisance when applied inconveniently.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University.

8 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinian Territory – Euro-Med Monitor strongly condemns Israel’s direct, deliberate attack on a tent housing Palestinian journalists in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, at dawn today(Monday 7 April). The attack killed two people, including one journalist, and injured nine additional journalists, making it a blatant and intentional crime carried out by Israel with full knowledge of its consequences.

The Euro-Med Monitor field team documented the killing of Helmi Al-Faqaawi, correspondent for Palestine Today News Agency, and Youssef Al-Khazandar, a civilian assisting the group ofjournalists, in the attack. Nine other journalistswere injured, including photojournalist Hassan Islayeh, in the direct and unprovoked Israeli strike on the journalists’ tent near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The bombing set some of the journalists on fire while they were still alive—in a horrifying scene that underscores Israel’s systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip.

In the aftermath of the attack, the Israeli army released a statement admitting to the targeting of the journalists’ tent, claiming that Hassan Islayeh was the intended target. Without providing any substantiated evidence, the army alleged that Islayeh was affiliated with a Palestinian factionand was operating under the guise of journalism through his media company.

The statement further accuses Islayeh of documenting and filming the events of 7 October 2023, when Palestinian factions launched attacks on Israeli military sites bordering the Gaza Strip,and references his activities on social media as justification for the strike. Islayeh has been a frequent target of Israeli incitement campaigns, particularly by Israeli media outlets, due to his journalistic work and documentation of Israeli rights violations in the Strip.

This incident is part of a broader, deliberate campaign by Israeli forces to suppress independent reporting from the Gaza Strip bytargeting those who document and expose the reality on the ground, especially amid the ongoing genocide. The glaring lack of any international accountability mechanisms or legal consequences has emboldened Israeli forces to continuecommitting these crimes with impunity, making the Strip the deadliest zone in the world for journalists.

“Burning a journalist alive in Gaza is not merely an attempt to silence the truth,” stated Euro-Med Monitor’s Legal Department Director Lima Bustami. “Israel already relies on something far more powerful—the world’s indifference to that truth.”

Bustami explained that Israel’s systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists also sends a chilling message: “Your truth means nothing. We can kill you with cameras in your hands, and no one will save you.”

Bustami went on to describe Israel’s crimes against Palestinian journalists as “a display of power and a practical declaration of impunity”.

Israel’s claims regarding the targeting of journalist Islayeh, even if hypothetically valid, do not in any way justify its attempt to kill him. Journalists are protected under international humanitarian law, including the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which clearly states that civilians—including journalists performing their professional duties in conflict zones—do not lose their legal protection simply because they report from war zones or convey information from the front lines.

Even a journalist classified as a war correspondent does not constitute a legitimate target unless directly participating in hostilities—something Israel has neither proven nor provided any credible evidence for in the case of Islayeh. Thus, Islayeh’s targeting constitutes a blatant violation of the laws of armed conflict and a full international crime, warranting legal accountability and prosecution.

Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists is a primary objective of its genocide. This is evidenced by the series of horrific crimescommitted by Israel against journalists in the Gaza Strip since the 7 October 2023 start of its genocide against Palestinians in the besieged enclave. To date, 211 journalists have been killed, and dozens more have been injured or arrested. These attacks are accompanied by systematic incitement campaigns and policies aimed at stripping journalists of their professional status—a deliberate attempt to justify their unlawful targeting and silence the voice of truth in the Gaza Strip.

As part of the broader genocidal campaign it is carrying out in the Gaza Strip, Israel has killed at least 15 Palestinian journalists since the beginning of this year alone.

These crimes against journalists are an integral component of Israel’s deliberate policy to silence the voices of Palestinian victims and obstruct the documentation of atrocities committed against the civilian population in the Strip.

Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian journalists has been systematic and widespread. It has targeted them while they are in the field, wearing clearly marked press vests; inside their media offices; in journalist tents set up near hospitals to facilitate coverage; and even in their homes with their families, when entire buildings were bombed and collapsed upon them.

Israel must be held fully accountable for these grave violations, which represent a flagrant breach of international law and a blatant contradiction of its obligations to protect journalists and uphold press freedom in exposing the truth and revealing the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The aforementioned attacks amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and further constitute an element of the genocide being committed in the Gaza Strip; the attacks are part of a sustained pattern of violations aimed at eliminating the Palestinian people physically, psychologically, and historically.

Targeting journalists and attempting to erase evidence of genocide are central to Israel’sgenocidal campaign. Israel’s crimes are not limited to mass killings of civilians, but extend to eliminating witnesses who can convey and document the crimes through their tools and testimonies. Attacks on journalists and documentation efforts, and the silencing of independent voices, are not only severe violations of international law, but are also essential elements in the crime of genocide, which seeks to obliterate the targeted group’s existence, voice, and memory.

Moreover, the absence of documentation denies victims recognition of their rights and undermines efforts to pursue accountability, enabling the continued perpetration of crimes with impunity and reinforcing Israel’s entrenched policy of escaping justice for the atrocities it commits in the Gaza Strip.

Since the start of the genocide, Israel has systematically barred journalists and international media representatives from accessing the Gaza Strip, except for a few individuals embedded with Israeli military forces. These individuals have been allowed into the enclave under strict conditions that limit their movement, and have only been permitted to report from areas approved by the Israeli army. These restrictions aim to isolate the Strip from the outside world and obscure the truth about the Israeli crimes committed against Palestinian civilians, contributing to the erasure of evidence and the concealment of the ongoing genocide.

Just days ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) documented that Israel wasresponsible for approximately 70% of all journalist killings worldwide in 2024, marking the highest single-country toll in any one year since the committee began documenting such incidents nearly three decades ago.

The policy of impunity enjoyed by Israel in the absence of any effective international mechanisms to hold it accountable for the crimes it commits against Palestinian journalists empowers it to continue its crimes, includingviolations of press freedom and the right to access information.

Accordingly, a comprehensive international investigation must be opened into the violations and crimes that the Israeli occupation army has committed, and continues to commit, against Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip. Immediate actions are needed to hold allperpetrators accountable, compensate the victims, and pressure Israel to stop the direct targeting and deliberate killing of journalists, ensuring the protection of their work and enabling them to carry out their mission, which is to report the truth. International journalists and news agency crews should also be allowed to enter and work in the Gaza Strip without restrictions or conditions, and their safety should be ensured.

All countries, individually and collectively, must assume their legal responsibilities and act urgently to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip in all its forms, and to take all practical measures to protect Palestinian civilians there. Euro-Med Monitor stresses the need to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice, and to guarantee accountability for its crimes against Palestinians. In addition, the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defencemust be implemented at the earliest opportunity,and the Court must be allowed to bring them to international justice.

The international community must impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel right away due to its systematic and grave violations of international law. These sanctions should include prohibiting the export of weapons to Israel; the purchase of weapons from it; the halting of all forms of political, financial, and military support and cooperation; the freezing of financial assets of those responsible for crimes against Palestinians and the imposing of travel bans on them; and the suspension of any trade privileges and bilateral agreements that grant Israel economic benefits that enable it to continue committing genocide against Palestinians.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe

8 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Palestinian journalist Ahmed Mansour, who sustained severe burns in Monday’s Israeli attack on a media tent in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, has died from his injuries, bringing the death toll from the assault to at least three.

Gaza’s Government Media Office issued a statement on Tuesday urging global support for Palestinian journalists following Israel’s deadly raid on a media tent early yesterday morning.

Mansour, who died from severe burns sustained in the attack, is the 211th media worker killed during Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the office.

Israel’s attack also burned Palestine Today reporter Hilmi al-Faqaawi to death along with another man named Yousef al-Khazindar.

Journalists Hassan Eslaih, Ahmed al-Agha, Muhammad Fayek, Abdallah Al-Attar, Ihab al-Bardini and Mahmoud Awad were also injured.

“We call on the International Federation of Journalists, the Federation of Arab Journalists, and all journalistic bodies in all countries of the world to condemn these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in the Gaza Strip,” the office said.

More than 200 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, making it the deadliest ever conflict for journalists.

8 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

Western states have protected the Israeli regime since its inception, and escalated their complicity in its crimes since the beginning of the genocide. France, like others, have pretended to be a neutral mediator while granting impunity and unconditional political, financial and military support to the Israeli regime. Instead of meaningless condemnations and actions – such as the ongoing trilateral summit with Egypt and Jordan – France must uphold its obligations to stop and prevent further Israeli genocide and international crimes through sanctions.

For 18 months, the Israeli regime has continued its genocide and killed 50,523 people, including over 15,000 children, and injured 114,776 people. At least 1.9 million Palestinians, 90 percent of the population, have been forcibly displaced and the entirety of Gaza’s infrastructure – both public (health, transportation, sanitation and education) and private – has been destroyed. France’s complicity in Israeli crimes must be addressed and ended. How many conferences will be organized before France stops actively enabling Israeli crimes, and recognizes and acts to stop the Israeli genocide? How many more discussions will be held before empty statements and actions become tangible and practical measures?

Affirming yesterday that “political initiatives were discussed to revive the peace process and establish a Palestinian state” does not do anything to stop the killing, and nor is it Egypt’s or France’s role to dictate political solutions. Stressing “the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid” is futile while the Israeli regime has been deliberately and ruthlessly preventing any aid from entering since 2 March and resumed bombing the Gaza Strip, in violation of the last ceasefire agreement, since 18 March 2025. Palestinians in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, especially refugee camps, are next, facing an unprecedented suppression campaign. Reaffirming the “rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians”, while thousands of Palestinians have already been forcibly expelled – and as a so-called “voluntary migration bureau” is established to facilitate further expulsions – once again exposes French complicity in Israeli crimes and the futility of such statements.

Israeli acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing would not continue were states to act in accordance to their obligations under international law. All states must prevent the commission of genocide and international crimes such as the weaponization of aid and forced displacement by imposing the full range of economic, military and political measures against the Israeli regime and its colonial enablers, otherwise their inaction also constitutes complicity.

7 April 2025

Source: badil.org