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By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinian Territory – In a dangerous increase in crimes targeting civilian gathering places, particularly in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army has targeted shelter centres 39 times since the beginning of October. These attacks aim to forcefully displace the Palestinian population from the area, and have killed 188 people and injured hundreds more.

Since the beginning of August 2024, the Israeli army has targeted schools, hospitals, clinics, and shelter halls 65 times, including 39 times in the current month of October, killing 672 Palestinians and injuring over 1,000 more, according to the Euro-Med Monitor field team. Fifty-seven of the targeted locations were located in Gaza City or the northern Gaza Strip, while the remaining eight were in the central part of the Strip.

The Israeli targeting has included shelling, direct shootings, killing forcibly displaced people and their families, or making them leave schools-turned-shelters under fire and/or with orders to relocate. These schools are then burned or otherwise destroyed by Israeli forces in order to render them uninhabitable and stop displaced people from returning to them.

A summary of these attacks, based on Euro-Med Monitor documentation, is provided below:

Israel’s systematic policy of destroying shelters further restricts the options available to residents in terms of places to seek refuge, which helps the country achieve its objectives of destroying and forcibly displacing Palestinians and altering the demographic makeup of the Strip. This is particularly apparent in northern Gaza, where Israeli officials with varying degrees of authority have made it clear they intend to annex and settle.

The most recent Israeli targeting of shelters and ensuing waves of forced displacement in the north have caused dozens of Palestinian families to be dispersed and their members to be separated from one another, which has doubled their psychological suffering, and especially that of the children.

Targeting shelters is a crucial component of Israel’s strategy to continue to weaken the social structures of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip; erode their physical and psychological well-being; and eradicate any communal areas that might, even in small ways, provide social and emotional support.

Additionally, targeting shelters has a negative impact on the likelihood that families and individuals will receive humanitarian aid, because many of these spaces serve as distribution points for charitable organisations. If they are forced to relocate, they might end up in places where there is no access to the already limited amount of humanitarian assistance available in the Strip. In this way, the Israeli targeting of shelters worsens the already-dire humanitarian situation and the suffering of the Palestinian populace in the Gaza Strip.

The Euro-Med Monitor field team reported, on the afternoon of Sunday 27 October, that the Israeli air force bombed the Asmaa School in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. The school-turned-shelter was home to thousands of displaced people, and the bombing killed 11 Palestinians—including four journalists, two of whom were women—and injured dozens more. The Israeli air force had bombed the same school eight days prior, killing eight Palestinians and injuring others.

The Israeli air force had bombed the Shuhada Al-Nuseirat Secondary School for Boys earlier, on Tuesday 24 October. This school was home to thousands of displaced people in the central Gaza Strip’s Nuseirat refugee camp, and the bombing killed 18 Palestinians, including 12 children and three women, and injured 52 more, according to the Euro-Med Monitor field team.

According to a review by the Euro-Med Monitor field team, none of the victims—which include 54-year-old professor Ashraf Yaqoub Al-Jadi, Dean of the Islamic University of Gaza’s Faculty of Nursing—were militants.

At least 10 schools in northern Gaza are currently being evacuated by the Israeli occupation army, which is also setting the majority of them on fire. The evacuation of these schools occurred after the Israeli occupation army sent quadcopters or Palestinian detainees and told those inside to leave and head to checkpoints. Some of these schools were bombed without any prior notice, such as the Jabalia Preparatory School, in which 10 displaced people were killed on 21 October, and the Zaid Bin Haritha School, in which seven displaced people were killed on 22 October.

All nations should fulfill their international obligations by preventing Israel from completing the crime of genocide and other serious crimes in the Gaza Strip; protecting civilians there; making sure Israel abides by international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice; enforcing effective sanctions against it; and halting all forms of military, financial, and political support and cooperation, including by immediately suspending military aid, export licenses, and arms sales to Israel.

Additionally, all nations who engage in criminal activity alongside Israel, particularly those that offer Israel support or assistance in any way, should be held responsible. This includes aiding Israel and entering into contractual agreements in the areas of military, intelligence, politics, law, finance, and the media, among other areas that could help Israel continue to commit its crimes.

At the international, regional, and local levels, the path of universal jurisdiction must be seriously and cooperatively activated in order to hold the perpetrators of crimes against Palestinian civilians accountable before the national courts of nations that adopt such jurisdiction.

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

29 October 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jessica Corbett

Over a year into Israel’s obliteration of the Gaza Strip, Israeli lawmakers faced sharp criticism on Monday after voting for a pair of bills targeting the United Nations agency responsible for humanitarian aid in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.

The first bill, which says that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) “will not operate any missions, won’t provide any service, and won’t hold any activity—directly or indirectly—in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel,” passed the Israeli parliament 92-10.

The second legislative proposal—under which the Israeli agency that handles humanitarian issues, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), will have to cut off contact with UNRWA—passed the 120-member Knesset 87-9. Critics called the votes “grotesque” and “outrageous.”

The Israel-based organization Adalah said in a statement that “despite widespread international pressure and condemnation, the Knesset has nearly unanimously passed two bills aimed at dismantling UNRWA, all while Israel continues its genocidal assault on Gaza and intensifies violence across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

“This legislation threatens a vital lifeline for over 2.5 million Palestinian refugees throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,” the group warned. “It represents a deliberate attempt to fundamentally undermine UNRWA and its essential mission of supporting the relief, education, and human development of Palestinian refugees. Specifically, the laws aim to strip Palestinians—who were forcibly displaced from their homes during the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 war—of their status as refugees and their right of return.”

The United Nations General Assembly created UNRWA in 1949, in the wake of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when more than 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homeland to establish the modern state of Israel—whose officials have claimed without providing evidence that a dozen of the agency’s 13,000 staffers in Gaza were involved with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

“This legislation not only contravenes the basic principles of human rights that led to the U.N. General Assembly’s founding of UNRWA, but also violates a range of Israel’s international legal obligations, including those under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” said Adalah. “The international community must hold Israel accountable.”

[https://twitter.com/theIMEU/status/1850998793510003058]

Although Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on Hamas-controlled Gaza—which has killed at least 43,020 people and injured another 101,110 since last October—governments around the world have not acted to stop the bloodshed. The U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden’s administration have even provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid and blocked cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration finally threatened to cut off weapons if the Israeli government does not take “urgent and sustained actions” to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s letter specifically raised concerns about the legislation that passed the Knesset Monday.

Asked about the Israeli bills on Monday, Matthew Miller, a U.S. State Department spokesperson frequently slammed for his statements about Israel, pointed to the secretaries’ criticism of the legislation in the recent letter and acknowledged that UNRWA serves the West Bank and plays “an irreplaceable role” in Gaza, where Palestinians are starving to death.

[https://twitter.com/AssalRad/status/1850987206397346288]

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s regional director in the Middle East and North Africa, said Monday that “Israel has bombed Palestinians to death, maimed them, starved them, and is now ridding them of their biggest lifeline of aid. Piece by piece, Israel is systemically dismantling Gaza as a land that is autonomous and liveable for Palestinians.”

“Its banning of UNRWA today is condemnable and another step in this crime,” she argued. “The decision will further undermine the ability of the international community to provide sufficient humanitarian aid and to save lives in any safe, independent, and impartial way. UNRWA was not only the biggest and most established agency that has been delivering aid and sustenance to the people of Gaza for years, it was also a thread that connected them in some hope of solidarity and security to the United Nations.”

“We are in no doubt that Israel and its allies are fully aware of the terrible consequences that this decision will have on Palestinians living in Gaza, many of whom are already starving,” she added. “We join others in warning again that this will result in more death, more suffering, and more forced displacement of people from their besieged homeland. It is impossible not to believe that this is their aim.”

Leading up to the votes, human rights advocates have been sounding the alarm. On Saturday, over 50 groups including Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, and ActionAid released a joint statement demanding action and warning that “dismantling UNRWA would be catastrophic for Palestinians especially in Gaza and the West Bank as they are deprived of essentials such as food, water, medical aid, education, and protection. It will also have catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, where essential humanitarian aid is crucial for both the refugees and the host communities.”

[https://twitter.com/KarimMakdisi/status/1851005575238210013]

Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, delivered a similar warning on social media Monday, declaring that the Knesset action not only “is unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent” but “it opposes the U.N. Charter and violates the state of Israel’s obligations under international law.”

“This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine Refugees,” he continued. “These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.”

“It ⁠will deprive over 650,000 girls and boys there from education, putting at risk an entire generation of children,” Lazzarini added. “These bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment.”

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

29 October 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Prakash Louis

“To know God is to do justice. There is no other way of knowing God.” This statement is from the celebrated liberation theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez who was considered an advocate for the world’s ‘poor and exploited’. Gutierrez a Peruvian Catholic priest promoted ideals that revolutionised the Latin American church. He was regarded as the father of Latin American liberation theology. Homage and tributes are paid to this revolutionary theologian who died on 23^rd October, 2024 at the ripe age of 96.Hence, this day is celebrated as a day of the Theology of Liberation. It is significant to note that Aljazeera Media Channel reported about this while the Indian print and electronic media was silent on this.

Gustavo Gutierrez was an eminent Catholic theologian and philosopher, whose  book titled ‘A Theology of Liberation’ published in 1971 deeply influenced church doctrine and practice in Latin America. In nutshell the Theology of Liberation as propounded by Gutierrez and later expounded by innumerable theologians and practioners argues that Christian salvation goes beyond spiritual matters, also demanding that people be freed from material or political oppression. He famously wrote: “The future of history belongs to the poor and exploited”. Living among his people, especially the poor and the vulnerable, Gutierrez experienced the joys and sorrows of them. Their life, struggles and simple Christian faith affected him very much.

Gustavo Gutierrez is a Peruvian philosopher, theologian, and priest is often regarded as one of the founding figures of Liberation Theology, a movement that emerged in Latin America in the 20th century. His most influential work, A Theology of Liberation (1971), calls for a Christian approach to addressing poverty and social injustice, framing theological reflection around the lived experiences of the marginalized.

Liberation Theology emphasizes the role of the church in political activism and social justice, arguing that Christian faith requires an active response to inequality. Gutierrez’s ideas have shaped how theology can be applied to promote human rights and social reform, especially in Latin American contexts. His work has been both influential and controversial within the Catholic Church, with supporters championing it as a return to the teachings of Jesus and critics arguing that it overly politicizes the church’s mission.

In this very simple and very straight forward statement, Gutierrez points to the centrality of life and faith of every Christian and all believing human beings. Gutierrez emphasizes that true faith requires active engagement in the fight for justice, particularly on behalf of the poor and marginalized. He in his categorical manner emphasises that this is the only way of knowing God and following Him. If we fail to be engaged in social action for the liberation and emancipation of the poor and the marginalised, then we fail to know and follow Yahweh.

From his experience of the life and suffering of the poor and the vulnerable as a priest of the faithful in Peru in South America, Gustavo Gutierrez attempted theologising from the point of the poor and the oppressed. He placed the suffering of the masses in the hands of the leadership as starting point. Then he examined a spirituality for social commitment springing from the Gospel. Then he addressed the liberation of these suffering people as a project of God and hence of the Church which is made up of believers. He concluded that wherever and whenever there is liberation of the suffering masses, there the Kingdom of God is realised. Hence he asserted, “A spirituality of liberation is the realization of the Kingdom of God in the history of human suffering.”

Thus, Gutierrez reiterated the fact that the Kingdom of God becomes visible in human actions aimed at reducing suffering and advancing justice. He was influenced by these words of Jesus, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Mathew 25:40). This is the call placed before all the followers who want to follow Jesus as their own saviour.

Reflecting further on the demand for social commitment for structural change, he argued, “Charity is today a word that has been much abused. True charity, the true love of God, is demanding; it involves actions that confront injustice.” Thus, he challenged the traditional notions of charity, urging Christians to confront the systems that create inequality. Hence, charity as understood from a biblical perspective is not dolling out something to those in need but accompanying them in their struggle for liberation and emancipation.

The centrality of Theology of Liberation could be spelt out in this manner. Gutierrez argues that Christianity must involve active participation in the struggles for social justice, seeing salvation as a holistic transformation, both spiritual and material. He critiques traditional theologies that overlook systemic social issues, arguing that theology should be a practical response to suffering rather than only a theoretical pursuit. One can cull out the following key principles in his work:

1. Historical Praxis: Faith and action are inseparable, as Christians are called to engage actively in society and work towards justice and equality.
2. Preferential Option for the Poor: Liberation theology asserts that God has a special concern for the marginalized, urging Christians to prioritize the poor in both thought and action.
3. Integration of Faith and Social Justice: Spiritual growth is tied to efforts in social reform; social transformation is a path to bringing about God’s Kingdom on Earth. Not just individual transformation but structural change is central to faith.
4. Liberation as a Journey: Liberation is not merely political but is also personal and spiritual, encompassing the transformation of relationships, communities, and individuals.

Gutierrez’s work has had significant impact, inspiring movements within the Church, as well as critiques, notably from conservative theologians who felt liberation theology leaned too close to Marxism. Despite controversies, A Theology of Liberation has shaped discussions on social justice within the Church and remains a key text in theological studies.

It is pertinent to note that Gustavo Gutierrez came to develop Liberation Theology through his experiences with poverty and social inequality in Latin America, especially in Peru. His journey toward this theology was influenced by his personal background, educational experiences, and encounters with the harsh realities faced by marginalized communities.

As happens with any prophet, Gutierrez also had to face severe criticism and restrictions from the official church. This came strongly from none other than that time Pope John Paul II. The relationship between Gustavo Gutierrez and Pope John Paul II was complex, shaped by their differing views on the role of the Church in political activism and social justice, especially concerning Liberation Theology. Gutierrez utilised the tools of analysis offered by Marxism to understand the Peruvian and Latin American society, polity, economy and religion. But John Paul II who hailed from Poland was averse to Marxism due to the policies and programs of communists who ruled Poland.

The following were the key points of tension between these two persons:

1. Concerns about Marxist Influence: Pope John Paul II was worried that Liberation Theology could lead the Church toward political extremism and potentially compromise its spiritual mission. He saw the emphasis on Marxist analysis within some strands of Liberation Theology as potentially dangerous, especially as he had witnessed firsthand the effects of Communism in his native Poland. He was concerned that the Church’s mission could be jeopardized if it became too aligned with political movements.
2. Direct Critiques and Disciplinary Actions: During the 1980s, the Vatican under Pope John Paul II, primarily through Cardinal Joseph Rat zinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), issued critiques of Liberation Theology. Rat zinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, released documents in 1984 and 1986 that highlighted concerns about Liberation Theology’s use of Marxist elements and warned against what they saw as a reduction of Christian theology to social analysis. Some Liberation theologians faced disciplinary actions, though Gutierrez himself was not formally sanctioned.
3. Efforts to Distinguish Orthodox Liberation Theology: Gutierrez and other proponents of Liberation Theology clarified that their theology was grounded in Catholic doctrine, with the intent of reforming oppressive structures in line with Christian values of compassion and justice. Over time, Pope John Paul II’s position became more nuanced, differentiating between Marxist-inspired interpretations and an orthodox Liberation Theology that focused on solidarity with the poor.

But from the time Pope Francis assumed office as the Pontiff, the relationship between Gutierrez and Pope Francis one of mutual respect and shared vision, especially on social issues and the Church’s role in advocating for the poor. Both are deeply aligned in their commitment to justice, dignity, and the “preferential option for the poor.”Francis’s papacy has been marked by a clear and consistent message of solidarity with the marginalized, which is central to liberation theology. He calls for a “poor Church for the poor,” echoing Gutierrez’s vision of a Church deeply involved in the struggle for social justice.

Further, in his encyclicals, particularly Evangelii Gaudium and Laudato Si’, Francis adopts themes familiar to liberation theology, advocating for systemic changes to address poverty, inequality, and environmental destruction.

Francis has broadened the reach of liberation theology’s principles beyond Latin America, incorporating them into the global Church’s mission. His papacy has led to a re-examination of the Church’s role in advocating for structural change to help the poor and protect creation. By adopting a language of liberation theology and promoting grassroots change, Francis has revived and adapted the movement for a global audience, bridging Gutierrez’s theological foundation with the Church’s mission today. Pope Francis’s leadership has brought many of Gutierrez’s ideas to the forefront, renewing the Church’s mission to champion the dignity and rights of all, particularly the vulnerable and marginalized.

Later, the Theology of Liberation was converted into Liberation Theology and spread far and wide. Wherever similar situation of discrimination and injustices based on caste, class, race, gender, environment were found, liberation theology sprang up as a dominant method and mode of theologising. This was also influenced by local culture, religion and traditions. While originally developed in Latin America to address systemic inequalities, liberation theology’s emphasis on a “preferential option for the poor” and social justice resonated with many theologians globally. This was all the more the case in India, Sri Lanka, Africa, South Korea, America, Palestine, etc.

Dalit Theology was one of the most propound outcome of Liberation Theology. Emerging from the Indian context, Dalit theology is a specific expression of liberation theology that focuses on the experiences and struggles of Dalits, historically marginalized communities often referred to as ‘untouchables’ or ‘lower castes’ within the Indian caste system. It addresses the unique forms of oppression faced by Dalits, asserting their dignity and right to equality. Dalit Theology like Liberation Theology does not focus only on the exclusion and exploitation that the Dalits undergo but also searches for the potential for liberation based on social and religious contexts.

Theology of liberation had enormous impact in the evolution of Feminist Theology. Both these are critical theological movements that seek to address issues of justice, inequality, and oppression within the context of Christian faith. While they emerge from different historical and social contexts, they share common goals in advocating for the marginalized and challenging systemic injustices. While Liberation Theology addresses suffering of the masses in general and looks for their emancipation, Feminist Theology focuses on the gender injustice and tries to foreground gender equality and justice.

Theology of Liberation and Tribal Theology are two distinct but related movements that seek to address issues of oppression, marginalization, and social justice within their respective contexts. While Liberation Theology originated in Latin America to address the needs of the poor and oppressed, Tribal Theology emerged in the context of indigenous peoples, particularly in India, focusing on the unique experiences, cultures, and struggles of tribal communities. Tribal Theology focuses on the spiritual and social realities of tribal communities, addressing issues such as displacement, cultural erosion, and social marginalization. It seeks to affirm the identity, rights, and dignity of indigenous peoples, promoting a theology rooted in their experiences and worldviews.

Liberation Theology and Environmental Theology are two distinct yet interconnected movements within Christian thought that focus on addressing social justice and ecological concerns. Both movements critique systemic injustices, but they do so from different angles: liberation theology primarily addresses issues of poverty and oppression, while environmental theology focuses on ecological degradation and the relationship between faith and the environment. Environmental Theology advocates for a responsible stewardship of creation, emphasizing the moral and ethical responsibilities of humans toward the natural world. Going further from this tradition, Pope Francis in his encyclical spoke of “Cry of the earth is the cry of the poor” linking both these as interrelated.

As stated above, Liberation Theology and Black Theology are also movements within Christianity that emerged in the 20th century, focusing on the role of faith in the struggle against social injustice. They prioritize the experiences and struggles of marginalized communities, advocating for societal transformation in line with biblical teachings. Black Theology emerged in the United States during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, reflecting the experiences of African Americans. It centers on the Black experience of oppression, arguing that God sides with the oppressed in their struggle for justice and dignity. From this perspective, Jesus is viewed as a liberator who stands in solidarity with the Black community against racial oppression. Black Theology critiques mainstream Christianity for its historical complicity in slavery, segregation, and racism.

Though Liberation Theology began in Latin America it spread far and wide. This is because, it addressed the life and struggles of common masses who were subjected to oppression and exploitation due to social, economic, political, educational and religious systems. While the starting point of Liberation Theology was the suffering of the poor and the vulnerable but it ultimately sought for their liberation from all forms of oppression. It further emphasized the role of the church in political activism and social justice, arguing that Christian faith requires an active response to inequality.

Gutierrez’s ideas have shaped how theology can be applied to promote human rights and social reform, especially in Latin American contexts. But it is a fact that his Theology of Liberation extended further and inspired theology all over the world. In contrast to many misrepresentations of his thought, he demanded that the faithful see liberation as integral and building individuals and communities so that the Kingdom of God can be realised here and now. One of his most famous statements continue to inspire those who are sincere in following Jesus, “True liberation is not only freedom from oppression but also freedom for life in community and love.” But this thought is counter-posed to those who want to maintain the status quo at all costs.

Dr. Prakash Louis, Director, Xavier Institute of Social Research, Digha-Ashiana Road, Patna, Bihar

28 October 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Chaitanya Davé

Ever since its illegal establishment in 1948, Israel is committing killings, ethnic cleansing and even genocide in Palestine. It maintains the world’s biggest open air concentration camp in the West Bank where Palestinians are treated worse than animals. America was the first country to recognize Israel. Right away, America started helping Israel. The reason being, America then was very dependent on the oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq etc. and realized that if these countries have peoples’ revolution, their oil supply will be in jeopardy. Then the state of Israel will be very helpful to do regime change in these Arab countries and install a U.S. friendly government.

When America saw Israel’s capacity in defeating Egypt, Syria and Jordan in 1967 war, America’s support for Israel increased drastically and got solidified. Billions of dollars in military and economic aid started flowing into the Jewish state. Paraphrasing Noam Chomsky, Israel became America’s ‘aircraft carrier’ in the volatile Middle East. In case of instability and revolution in Saudi Arabia or Iraq etc., when America’s oil supply will be adversely affected, America could use Israel as a base and take over these countries or install a friendly government there. That was the thinking then.

The United States has doled out more than $260 billion in combined military and economic aid to Israel since World War-II as per US News, October 10, 2023. Additionally, America has spent $10 billion more for Israel’s missile defense systems like the Iron Dome. Israel has been the highest recipient of US aid for decades—even though, Israel is richer than European countries–while Egypt is the second highest recipient of US aid.

Since 1978, the United States has given out Egypt with over $50 billion in military and $30 billion in economic assistance. One might ask, “why is Egypt getting billions of dollars in aid?

Well, Egypt was the main power in the Middle East then who could challenge Israel’s supremacy in that region. This was proven by the Yom Kippur war of October 1973. So, to make Egypt a silent lamb, a power with about 100 million population who will not fight with Israel in any future neighbor countries’ wars, Egypt was promised billions of dollars’ aid every year. Otherwise, why would Egypt sign that treaty? So, basically, Egypt was bribed to sign that peace treaty in exchange for billions of dollars’ aid every year. That is why we see Egypt keeping quiet no matter how much Israel suppresses and kills other Arabs in Palestine or elsewhere.

In its wars with Palestinians, Israel has killed and injured more than hundred thousand Palestinian men, women and children while its own casualties number in very few thousands.

The big question is, how come Israel gets away with such criminal behavior? The simple answer is : The United States of America. In the current war in Gaza, United States is pretending to be urging Israel to negotiate an end to this conflict while at the same time is giving Israel billions of dollars in military aid! You can’t have it both ways. United States has been vetoing every resolution in the United Nations for ceasefire! How stupid can one be? You have to be a teenager to believe that United States is working for peace in the Gaza war.

Number of US Vetoes to Protect Israel in UN: Since 1972, the United States has vetoed United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions 53 times to protect Israel and its criminal activities. America’s solid support for Israel has enabled Israel to thwart resolutions condemning violence against protesters, its illegal settlements in the occupied territories and its several invasions in Gaza and its current brutal invasion and killings of more than 42,400 men, women and children in Gaza. And United States calls itself an upholder of human rights! What a shame! Mind you, Israel is getting away with all these criminal activities with full military, economic and diplomatic support from the United States.

Washington DC is Israel Occupied Territory: U.S. Middle East foreign policy is created in Tel Aviv.Thanks to AIPAC, the Israeli lobby and Right-wing Jewish billionaires and multimillionaires in America. And of course, there are many enlightened Jews who are opposed to Israel’s criminal policies in Palestine.

Iraq War of 2003: There is clear evidence that disastrous Iraq War that United States fought was to a great extent for the benefit Israel. Neocons—fanatic Israel supporters like Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton or Richard Perle gang were advisers to the Bush Jr. and Dick Cheney regime. There were two objectives for the Immoral Iraq War: 1) To conquer and control Iraq’s vast oil resources and 2) to degrade Iraq’s military and its regime so that it could not challenge Israel. As per oxfordre.com, some 4,400 US troops were killed and 31,000 were wounded while more than a million Iraqi civilians were killed in that disastrous war. According to The Harward Kennedy School estimate, the Iraq War cost America some $3 trillion. America looks at the Middle East through the prism of Israel and not for the benefit of Americans.

AIPAC CONTROLS U.S. CONGRESS: You would think that the elected leaders of U.S. senate and the congress are brave, well-informed, intelligent and moral men and women. If you believe in this, then you are disillusioned and brainwashed. Totally untrue. These elected men and women—with rare exception–are poorly informed, lack the knowledge of history, suffer from arrogance, superiority complex, morally bankrupt, very corrupt and cowards. They lack an iota of humanity in them. They are all there for personal glorification, advantage and fame. They could care less for American people who are unaware of what is going on in Washington DC.

Once they get elected to U.S. Congress or the Senate, they keep busy raising money for their reelection. That is upmost in their mind. And here comes the AIPAC—American Israel Political Action Committee–,the crooked Israeli lobby that has sabotaged what remains of America’s dwindling ‘democracy’. It tells those who run for election for senate or congress, the lobby will give them $1million  or more if they will vote for all the resolutions favoring Israel and will vote against any legislation that harms Israel. If they pledge to these conditions, they will get good funding for their election and their reelection campaigns in the future. So, all the aspiring candidates for president, congress and senate and the incumbent candidates for their current office agree and vote for all the legislations favoring Israel and vote against any resolution that harms Israel. Thus, the vast majority of U.S. Congress and Senate members are indebted to the cunning Israeli lobby, AIPAC. They are even afraid of this lobby. If any one of them votes against Israel’s interests, the lobby will target that congressman or senator in their reelection bid when it comes. They will pour millions of dollars in their opponent’s coffer and will likely defeat that candidate who had the audacity to oppose AIPAC’s dictate. Hence, all these elected officials including the presidents are afraid of this lobby.

Lobby’s power was obvious when during his visit to Washington DC and his address to the joint session of US Congress last July, he was greeted with standing ovations by our elected politicians. During his speech to this joint session of congress, he received 52 standing ovations from America’s corrupt and cowardly members. This shows you how gutless and morally lacking our elected politicians are. They greeted this man who had recently killed more than 40,000 innocent men, women and children in Gaza and was continuing that killing. This man, for whom there is a warrant for his arrest by the Internation Criminal Court.

During his visit, he was also greeted with protests over the Gaza war by people who were appalled by Israel’s killings. He called them “Iran’s useful idiots.” At least, Kamala Harris had good sense of not attending this session where Netanyahu gave his speech.

Other Lobbies:  Then there are other lobbieswho have lot of control on America’s elected politicians such as the Defense Lobby, the Big Pharma Lobby, the Billionaires’ Pacs, the Oil industry Lobby and several more. They all control how America’s elected legislators vote by the money power of these lobbies. Morality, fairness or welfare of average American people has no bearing and are the last thing in their mind.

For example, majority of members of US Congress vote to increase America’s defense Budget every year. America spends $916 billion on defense budget, which is more than  9 countries combined who spend $883 billion. Several states in America has defense related industries who employ thousands of workers and brings in lot of revenue for that state. So, these senators and congressmen from these states are deeply indebted to these defense contractors.

These defense industries such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and many others dole out billions of dollars for the reelection of America’s politicians. So, these corrupt elected leaders do the bidding of their paymasters by sanctioning billions of dollars for America’s bloated defense budget every year  even though USSR is gone and there is no more big ‘enemy’ in sight.

All these billions of dollars are squandered manufacturing killing machines. America doles out $3.8 billion to Israel every year and President Biden has approved an aid package recently for $17 billion in additional support for Israel while more than 37 millions of Americans live in poverty in this richest country in the world. What a shame! The empire’s days are numbered and it is—like all the empires of the world—in downward spiral.

In conclusion, the world should know that Israel will be forced to agree tomorrow for two state solution if America bluntly told it to agree with it, stop the war and work for it. Israel’s brutal crimes in Gaza, West Bank and Lebanon have been going on and are continuing simply because it has America’s backing all the way.

Chaitanya Davé is an engineer and a businessman. He has authored three books: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: A Shocking Record of US Crimes since 1776-2007, COLLAPSE: Civilization on the Brink-2010, CAPITALISM’S MARCH OF DESTRUCTION: Replacing it with People and Nature-Friendly Economy.

28 October 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

Oddly, it was Israeli historian Benny Morris who got it right, when he offered a candid prediction of the future of his country and its war with the Palestinians.

“The Palestinians look at everything from a broad, long-term perspective,” he said in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2019. “They see that, at the moment, there are five-six-seven million Jews here, surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs. They have no reason to give in, because the Jewish state can’t last. They are bound to win. In another 30 to 50 years they will overcome us, come what may.”

Morris is right. He is correct in the sense that Palestinians will not give up, that there can never be a situation where societies indefinitely survive and thrive within a permanent matrix of racial segregation, violence and exclusion – exclusion of the other, the Palestinians and the isolation of the self.

The very history of Palestine is a testament to such a truth. If the oppressed, the natives of the land, are not fully vanquished or decimated, they are likely to rise, fight and win back their freedom.

It must be utterly frustrating for Israel that all the killings and destruction underway in Gaza has not been enough to affect the overall outcomes of the war: the ‘total victory’ of which Netanyahu continues to speak.

Israel’s frustration is understandable because, like all military occupiers of the past, Tel Aviv continues to believe that the right quantity of violence should be enough to subdue colonized nations.

But Palestinians have a different intellectual trajectory that guides their collective behavior.

Of the many classifications of history, modern French historians separate between ‘histoire événementielle’ – evental history – and ‘longue durée’ – long history. In short, the former believes that history is the result of the accumulation of consequential events over the course of time, while the latter sees history on a far more complex level.

Credible history can only be seen in its totality, not merely the total events of history, recent or old, but the sum of feelings, the culmination of ideas, the evolution of collective consciousness, identities, relationships and the subtle changes that occur to societies over the course of time.

Palestinians are the perfect example of history being shaped by ideas, not guns; memories, not politics; collective hope, not international relations. They will eventually win their freedom, because they have invested in a long-term trajectory of ideas, memories and communal aspirations, which often translate to spirituality or, rather, a deep, immovable faith that grows stronger, even during times of horrific wars.

In an interview I conducted with former United Nations Special Rapporteur, Professor Richard Falk in 2020, he summarized the struggle in Palestine as a war between those with arms and and those with legitimacy. He said that in the context of national liberation movements, there are two kinds of war: the actual war, as in soldiers carrying guns, and the legitimacy war. The one who wins the latter will ultimately prevail.

Palestinians do, indeed, “look at everything from a broad, long-term perspective”. Agreeing with Morris’ statement may seem odd for, after all, societies are often driven by their own class struggles and socio-economic agendas instead of a unified and cohesive long-term vision.

This is where longue durée becomes most relevant in the Palestinian case. Even if Palestinians have not made a common agreement to wait for the invaders to leave, or for Palestine to, once again, become a place of social, racial and religious co-existence, they are driven, even if subconsciously, by the same energy that compelled their ancestors to push back against injustice in all its forms.

While many western politicians and academics are busy blaming Palestinains for their own oppression, Palestinian society continues to evolve based on entirely independent dynamics. For example, in Palestine, sumud, or resilience, is an ingrained culture, hardly subject to outside stimuli, political or academic. It is a culture that is as old as time. Innate. Intuitive. Generational.

This Palestinian saga started long before the war, long before Israel, long before modern colonialism. This truth demonstrates that history is not just moved by mere events, but by countless other factors; that, while ‘evental history’ – the political, military and economic aspects that contribute to the making of history through short-term events – is important, long-term history offers a more profound understanding of the past, and its consequences.

This discussion should engage all of those who are concerned about the struggle in Palestine, and are keen to present a version of the truth that is not driven by future political interests, but a profound understanding of the past. Only then we can begin to slowly liberate the Palestinian narrative from all the convenient histories imposed on the Palestinian people.

This is not an easy task, but an unavoidable one as it is critical to break away from the confines of superimposed language, historical events, recurring dates, dehumanizing statistics and outright deception.

Ultimately, it should be clear to any astute reader of history that, while fighter jets and bunker-buster bombs may impact short-term historical events, courage, faith, and communal love determine long-term history. This is why Palestinians are winning the legitimacy war, and this is why freedom for the Palestinian people is only a matter of time.

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

28 October 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Andre Damon

As the Israeli onslaught on northern Gaza, aimed at completely emptying the region of its people, entered its fourth week, a United Nations official warned Sunday that “the entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying.”

In a statement Sunday, Joyce Msuya, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, accused Israeli forces of “disregard for basic humanity and for the laws of war.”

Hospitals have been hit and health workers have been detained. Shelters have been emptied and burned down. First responders have been prevented from rescuing people from under the rubble. Families have been separated and men and boys are being taken away by the truckload. Hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed. Tens of thousands have been forced to flee yet again.

What Msuya described is the implementation of the so-called “general’s plan,” adopted by the Netanyahu government to completely empty northern Gaza of its people, whether through bombing, starvation, or mass executions. Over the past three weeks, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, according to official figures, while an untold number have succumbed to starvation and rampant disease.

“For 22 days, not a drop of water or bread has entered the northern Gaza Strip,” stated Mahmoud Basal, the official spokesman for the General Directorate of Civil Defense in Gaza.

He said that more than 100,000 Palestinians in the areas of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia are being subjected to Israeli siege and bombardment, and that the Israeli occupation kills anyone who tries to provide services to the people of the northern Gaza Strip.

In a separate statement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed shock at the “harrowing levels of death, injury, and destruction” in north Gaza.

Guterres warned, “Just in the past few weeks, hundreds of people have been killed… and more than 60,000 others have been forced to flee yet again, many fearing not being able to return.” He explained that “the widespread devastation and deprivation resulting from Israel’s military operations in north Gaza—especially around Jabalya, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun—are making the conditions of life untenable for the Palestinian population there.”

On Sunday, Israeli forces killed at least 53 people in Gaza. A residential square in the town of Beit Lahiya was bombed, killing more than 45 refugees who were seeking shelter there.

An Al Jazeera report described the scene: “There are more than 30 displaced Palestinians trapped under this rubble, but there are no Civil Defense forces to rescue them as the Israeli army has forced them to evacuate to Gaza City.”

Among those killed on Sunday were two journalists, bringing the total number of journalists killed since the start of the genocide to 182. “Deliberate killing of a journalist is a war crime,” commented Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression, in an X post on Sunday.

Amid chronic shortages of food and basic necessities, over two million displaced Palestinians face another winter of misery.

Palestine’s Wafa news agency reported that the refugees’ “makeshift shelters are now worn out, vulnerable, and at risk of collapse under the weight of impending rainfall.”

“Since our house was destroyed, we haven’t found a place to call home,” refugee Mohammad Al-Jarousha told Wafa. “We fled to Rafah in southern Gaza, hoping this tent would shelter us. However, it has been worn out from constant use. Still, there are no alternatives.”

He continued, “The tents can’t withstand much more; every night, the winds threaten our fragile shelter, and the blockade stops any aid that might ease our suffering.”

He added, “Last winter was brutal; heavy rains completely flooded our tents, and we endured some of the hardest days of our lives. The cold was severe, leaving us shivering. We had no electricity, no heat, and no hope.”

Volunteer doctor Samar Mahmoud told Wafa, “Rainwater has flooded the tents, making them uninhabitable, and most residents have lost their belongings.”

According to a recent UN report, over 1.8 million people in Gaza are experiencing acute food insecurity, and 133,000 are facing chronic food insecurity. “Acute malnutrition is 10 times higher than it was before the war,” the UN said in a statement.

The escalating genocide in Gaza takes place against the backdrop of a widening Israeli offensive throughout the region. In Lebanon, nonstop Israeli bombardments killed over 21 people, including three paramedics.

On Friday night, Israel carried out its largest strikes against Iran to date, involving approximately 100 fighter aircraft, including advanced F-35 fighter jets provided by the United States.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the attack targeted air defense batteries in Syria and Iraq, as well as military targets throughout Iran. The attack was fully coordinated with the United States, with US officials briefed in detail and signing off on the strikes beforehand.

28 October 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By BADIL

Yesterday, the Israeli Knesset quickly and decisively passed two legislations that will result in the end of UNRWA’s existence and operations in Mandatory Palestine, including in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). These new laws are the most recent component of the Israeli regime’s dismantlement campaign against UNRWA, which will be followed by its replacement with other non-mandated agencies and international organizations. For decades, the Israeli regime has been flouting its responsibilities as a UN member state with no consequence; so it should come as no surprise that it has now officially outlawed UNRWA’s presence and services in Mandatory Palestine. UNRWA’s presence and services, particularly in the midst of the Israeli genocide are not only essential to save lives but are the right of Palestinian refugees until they return. Therefore, it is also not a surprise that with these laws, the Israeli regime gets closer to its ultimate goal: the elimination of the Palestinian refugee issue. Individually and collectively, UN member states have obligations to take every practical measure to protect UNRWA and ensure its ability to fulfill its mandate, now and until Palestinian refugees return – that includes enabling all of UNRWA’s services in all its areas of operation – regardless of the passing of the two new Israeli laws.

The first law, titled “Bill for the Cessation of UNRWA Activities,” having taken effect on 7 October 2024, prohibits any direct or indirect contact between Israeli officials and UNRWA. This law unilaterally terminates the 1967 provisional agreement between the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime and UNRWA, in which it agreed to protect UNRWA personnel and facilities, ensure freedom of movement, and provide “[e]xemptions from customs duties, taxes and charges on importation of supplies, goods and equipment.” Given that the Israeli regime controls all aid and services entering the West Bank and Gaza, this law means that UNRWA will be unable to coordinate its humanitarian missions or operations in these areas. Additionally, it will impede the work of UNRWA’s international personnel, who will no longer have international immunities or the permits/visas needed to enter and move in Palestine.

The second law, titled “Bill for the Cessation of UNRWA Activities in the Territory of the State of Israel,” stipulates that UNRWA “shall not operate any representation, provide services, or conduct any activities, directly or indirectly, within the sovereign territory of the State of Israel.” Consequently, this means the closure of UNRWA’s headquarters in Jerusalem, which the Israeli regime annexed in 1967, and the termination of all its operations, further restricting the Agency’s ability to coordinate essential services and aid in the oPt within a three month period. This is collective punishment and constitutes states’ complicity amid the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, where UNRWA is a lifeline to Palestinians, and the only mandated and most capable organization to do so. Disabling UNRWA also violates the prohibition of starvation as a method of warfare contained in the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute.

Further, the newly passed Israeli laws are in blatant violation of international law because they contradict once more the ICJ provisional measures of March 2024, which reiterated the Israeli regime’s obligation to cooperate with the UN, and to take all the necessary measures to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli regime’s membership to the UN in May 1949 stipulated that it would respect the UN Charter, and implement pertinent UN resolutions. UNRWA’s existence constitutes States’ adherence to the UN Charter, including States’ obligations to ensure the establishment of a legal framework to allow the UN to fulfill its functions and purposes (Art. 104), to provide the UN with the necessary immunity and privileges required for the organization to function (Art. 105), as well as the obligation to assist UN bodies in their actions taken in accordance with the Charter (Art. 2 para 5). This encompasses all UN resolutions on the rights of the Palestinian people, including UNGA Resolution 302 (1949) establishing UNRWA.

Ignoring these obligations and many others, the Israeli regime has been in violation of its UN membership and the Charter of the UN since its inception. Furthermore, since 1968, the Israeli regime has denied access to the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. For decades UN special procedures have been repeatedly denied access to the oPt and have been unable to properly fulfill their mandates. The Israeli regime has even blocked access to high-ranking UN personnel such as UNRWA’s Commissioner-General and the UN Secretary-General, as its genocide is ongoing, without the bat of an eye from UN member states. The Israeli regime has deliberately targeted UN facilities and personnel in the Gaza Strip as well as Lebanon, resulting in the highest UN staff death toll in history.

The existence of UNRWA and the provision of its services, is not just about delivering humanitarian aid and alleviating the suffering of Palestinian refugees, nor is it a tool to bring “stability” in the region. UNRWA reflects the responsibility of the international community’s lack of action and their contribution to the 1948 Nakba, which led to the creation of the Palestinian refugee and internally displaced population. This population, having lost the protection of the UNCCP and excluded from the protection of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, today account for 66 percent of the Palestinian people, numbering 9.17 million worldwide. UNRWA – the only UN agency that is able to provide the minimum part of international protection – is required to deliver aid and services to Palestinian refugees until UN member states enforce UNGA Resolution 194 (1948). A core element of that is ensuring the elimination of Palestinian refugee issue and the path to that elimination is the dismantlement and replacement of UNRWA. Therefore, the Israeli regime’s long history of targeting UNRWA is engrained in the root causes and the pillars of forced displacement and transfer, colonization and apartheid.

In 1969, the UN Security Council (UNSC) passed Resolution 269 against South Africa’s occupation of Namibia, condemning the apartheid regime for its refusal to comply with UNSC and for its “persistent defiance of the authority of the UN.” Yet, today, there has been barely any response from UN member states aside from weak condemnations that reiterate powerful western states’ continued support, including blanket international impunity and legitimacy, and complicity for the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime.

As such, the UN, especially the  General Assembly and Security Council, and all member states hold the obligation to protect Palestinian refugees through the protection of UNRWA. Individually and collectively, UN member states are obligated to:

• Impose the full spectrum of sanctions, political, economic and military, on the Israeli regime for its ongoing genocide and Ongoing Nakba
• At the very minimum, states must impose political sanctions in the form of revoking bilateral diplomatic privileges such as the presence of representative embassies and missions, as well as reciprocal visa agreements.
• Impose an immediate and permanent ceasefire that includes the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
• Proceed with measures to revoke the Israeli regime’s privileges as a UN member state, including rejecting its delegation’s credentials at the General Assembly, excluding it from participation in all international organizations and conferences under the auspices of the United Nations, and revoking its status as a member state as the consequences for its blatant, historic and systematic utter disregard for its responsibilities under the UN Charter and fulfillment of its membership criteria.

29 October 2024

Source: badil.org

By Michel Chossudovsky

[Part II of this article will be published in late October 2024]

1. Introduction: International Law.

Western Governments’ “Complicity in Genocide”

A genocide is being conducted by the Netanyahu proxy government against the people of Palestine.

By supporting Israel, Western governments are “complicit” in the conduct of genocide under Articles III and IV of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Article III (e) Complicity in genocide.

Article IV. Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished [Article III(e)], whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”  *emphasis added)

2. VIDEO: Michel Chossudovsky

It is important that the peace movement take cognizance of the fact that their own heads of State and heads of government, namely Biden, Starmer, Trudeau, Macron, Scholz, et. al. (see them smiling) are from a legal standpoint “complicit” (Genocide Convention),  inasmuch as they are supportive of Israel’s atrocities committed against the People of Palestine.

“La classe politique criminalisée”.

It’s the “criminalization of politics”.

Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished [article III e], whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

THEY ARE CRIMINALS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW

THEY ARE LIABLE: “PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT”

QUESTION THEIR LEGITIMACY

This is a powerful instrument for the anti-war movement.

Confront your “responsible rulers” and “public officials”, not to mention the Big Money and financial institutions who are behind the war.

There is another dimension, The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC).

Since World War II,  all  U.S.-led wars have  deliberately targeted civilians, which is a crime against humanity under The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), which consists in:

“….respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.” [Additional Protocol 1, Article 48]

Remember Fallujah, Iraq 2006

3. Partners in Crime

While the IDF is responsible for the conduct of the atrocities, the U.S. War Machine is a partner in crime. The conduct of the genocide has been planned for several years in consultation with the Pentagon and NATO.

Israel’s Secret Intelligence Memorandum

An official “secret” memorandum authored by Israel’s  Ministry of Intelligence “is recommending the forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula”, namely to a refugee camp in Egyptian territory. There are indications of Israel-Egypt negotiations  as well as consultations with the U.S.

The 10-page document, dated Oct. 13, 2023, bears the logo of the Intelligence Ministry. …

It recommends a full population transfer as its preferred course of action. …

The document, whose authenticity was confirmed by the ministry, has been translated into English in full here on +972.

Click here to access complete document (10 pages)

The Ministry of Intelligence recommends Option C: “Wiping Palestine off the Map”.

For more details and analysis, see my earlier article entitled

When The Lie Becomes the Truth: “Israel Is the Victim of Palestinian Aggression”. According to the ICC, “There Is No Genocide”. May 25, 2024

4. The genocide against Palestine is part of a broader war.

Israel is a de facto member of NATO and an ally of the U.S.

It is not Israel which is waging a war against Iran. The Pentagon calls the shots on behalf of US-NATO-Israel.

Israel has become an instrument of the Pentagon.

Netanyahu is a proxy. Israel does not act without the consent of US-NATO.

What Is Washington’s Unspoken Intent? Let Your Allies Do the Dirty Work for You? 

Flash back to 2005: At the outset of Bush’s second term, Vice President Dick Cheney dropped a bombshell, hinting that Israel would, so to speak, be doing the dirty work for us (paraphrase) without US military involvement and without us putting pressure on them “to do it”.

According to Cheney: (2005)

“The Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards,” 

Israel would not be able to act unilaterally against Iran, without a green light from the Pentagon which controls key components of Israel’s air defense system.

America’s NATO allies, most of which are members of the European Union, are also “doing the dirty work” for the Pentagon. This is abundantly clear in their actions in support of the Kiev regime.

5. US Central Command’s (USCENTCOM) Strategy of “Dual Containment”

In practice, a war on Iran were it to occur, would be a joint US-NATO-Israeli endeavor, coordinated by US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with America’s allies playing a key (subordinate) role.” (Quoted from my 2018 article)

The “War on Iran” has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon since the mid-1990s under US Central Command’s (USCENTCOM) “‘Strategy of Dual Containment’ directed against the Rogue States of Iraq and Iran” formulated during the Clinton administration.

“First Iraq, then Iran”: The stockpiling and deployment of advanced weapons systems directed against Iran started in the immediate wake of the 2003 bombing and invasion of Iraq.

From the outset, these war plans were led by the US, in liaison with NATO and Israel. The objective of the war on Iran was carefully outlined by US Central Command in liaison with US Strategic Command:

“The broad national security interests and objectives expressed in the President’s National Security Strategy (NSS) and the Chairman’s National Military Strategy (NMS) form the foundation of the United States Central Command’s theater strategy. The NSS directs implementation of a strategy of dual containment of the rogue states of Iraq and Iran as long as those states pose a threat to U.S. interests, to other states in the region, and to their own citizens.

Dual containment is designed to maintain the balance of power in the region without depending on either Iraq or Iran. USCENTCOM’s theater strategy is interest-based and threat-focused. The purpose of U.S. engagement, as espoused in the NSS, is to protect the United States’ vital interest in the region – uninterrupted, secure U.S./Allied access to Gulf oil.” (USCENTCOM, 1995, emphasis added)

USCENTCOM’s statement confirms the criminal nature of Washington’s military agenda:

“dual containment of the rogue states”,

“protect the US’s vital interests in the region”

“Secure US / Allied access to Gulf Oil”, through military intervention

rather than bona fide “trade” with partner countries.

6. “United States’ Vital Interest in the Region – Uninterrupted, Secure U.S./Allied Access to Gulf Oil”

i. Iran: Third Largest Reserves of Oil Worldwide

Iran is not only second in terms of its gas reserves after Russia, it ranks third worldwide in relation to its oil reserves (12% of worldwide oil reserves) versus a meagre 4% for the U.S.

THAT IS WHY THEY WANT TO INVADE IRAN (USCENTCOM, 1995)

ii. Iran Reserves of Natural Gas

Iran ranks second after Russia. Russia, Iran and Qatar possess  54.1 percent of the world’s reserves of natural gas.

Russia, 24.3%,

Iran, 17.3%,

Qatar, 12.5 % (in partnership with Iran)

versus  5.3 % for the US.

iii. Taking Control of the Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Maritime Gas Corridor

Extending from the Egyptian border, Gaza and the Levant coastline, the unspoken objective is to take control and confiscate the maritime gas reserves.

GAS Reserves. “It’s America’s Promised Land,”(which ironically are portrayed as a threat to the environment, i.e. CO2 and the fake global warming narrative).

Part II —which provides a timeline and history of US wars against Iran— will be published on my Substack in late October 2024.

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research.

28 October 2024

Source: michelchossudovsky.substack.com

By Olivia Rosane

Israel could kill everyone left in Northern Gaza if its assault on the enclave continues, a United Nations relief official warned on Saturday.

U.N. Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya also called for an end to the Israeli attack.

“What Israeli forces are doing in besieged North Gaza cannot be allowed to continue,” Msuya said.

In particular, Msuya emphasized Israel’s targeting of hospitals and shelters and interference with relief work.

“Hospitals have been hit, and health workers have been detained. Shelters have been emptied and burned down. First responders have been prevented from saving people from under the rubble. Families have been separated, and men and boys are being taken away by the truckload,” she said.

Msuya estimated that Israel’s actions in the north had killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands. According toAl Jazeera, an Israeli siege on the north that began earlier in October has killed around 640.

“The entire population of North Gaza is at risk of dying,” Msuya said. “Such blatant disregard for basic humanity and for the laws of war must stop.”

The U.N. official’s remarks came as Israeli troops withdrew from a deadly attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, which Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum said “is considered a medical lifeline for the two-thirds of Palestinians in northern Gaza.”

[https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1850191254006407261]

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had surrounded the hospital for days before entering and opening fire on Thursday and Friday, the Gaza Health Ministry and the hospital’s director toldCNN.

“Instead of receiving aid, we are receiving tanks,” hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya said in a video.

Medics told Al Jazeera that the IDF had detained 44 members of the hospital team, later releasing 14 of them. The director of field hospitals in Gaza, Marwan Al-Hams, said that soldiers had also destroyed medications as they left, “preventing us from saving the wounded.”

[https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1850205360654569827]

“It is a catastrophic situation as patients and the wounded are left on the floor without any medical attention,” hospital spokesperson Hisham Sakani told Al Jazeera. “We are facing grave dangers, and here I am once again sending an SOS to the whole world. We pray to God almighty our plight comes to an end and Israeli massacres [are] ceased.”

“The entire population north of Gaza Strip are now without any medical service after all the hospitals have been destroyed and forced out of operation,” Sahani continued.

Msuya’s statement also came a day after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called Friday’s attacks on northern Gaza the “darkest moment” of the war.

“The Israeli Government’s policies and practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians,” Türk said. “We are facing what could amount to atrocity crimes, including potentially extending to crimes against humanity.”

Msuya and Türk’s statements reflect the opinion of human rights experts that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Court of Justice is still considering the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. To date, the Israeli assault has killed at least 42,924 people and wounded 100,833, but the true numbers could be much higher.

Emergency medical doctor Mads Gilbert, who has volunteered in both Gaza and Lebanon, criticized Western governments for allowing the raid on Kamal Adwan, as well as Israel’s systematic attacks on healthcare workers and facilities in Gaza.

“We need an additional factor to understand why this has been allowed to go on, and that is actually that the Palestinian people are defined as under-humans,” Gilbert told Al Jazeera. “We would never have allowed this to happen, for example, in Ukraine. Almost 250,000 people in the northern part of Gaza have now no healthcare, and that in itself is part of the genocide.”

The Institute for Middle East Understanding called on both the international community and the U.S. government to respond to Israel’s violations of international law.

“The Biden-Harris administration must stop the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel which constitutes a necessary step to halting Israel’s ongoing war crimes,” IMEU wrote on social media Saturday. “It’s time for an arms embargo now.”

Olivia Rosane is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

27 October 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jonathan Cook

Israel knew that, if it could stop foreign correspondents from reporting directly from Gaza, those journalists would end up covering events in ways far more to its liking.

They would hedge every report of a new Israeli atrocity – if they covered them at all – with a “Hamas claims” or “Gaza family members allege”. Everything would be presented in terms of conflicting narratives rather than witnessed facts. Audiences would feel uncertain, hesitant, detached.

Israel could shroud its slaughter in a fog of confusion and disputation. The natural revulsion evoked by a genocide would be tempered and attenuated.

For a year, the global networks’ most experienced war reporters have stayed put in their hotels in Israel, watching Gaza from afar. Their human-interest stories, always at the heart of war reporting, have focused on the far more limited suffering of Israelis than the vast catastrophe unfolding for Palestinians.

That is why western audiences have been forced to relive a single day of horror for Israel, on 7 October 2023, as intensely as they have a year of daily horrors in Gaza – in what the World Court has judged to be a “plausible” genocide by Israel.

That is why the media have immersed their audiences in the agonies of the families of some 250 Israelis – civilians taken hostage and soldiers taken captive – as much as they have the agonies of 2.3 million Palestinians bombed and starved to death week after week, month after month.

That is why audiences have been subjected to gaslighting narratives that frame Gaza’s destruction as a “humanitarian crisis” rather than the canvas on which Israel is erasing all the known rules of war.

While foreign correspondents sit obediently in their hotel rooms, Palestinian journalists have been picked off one by one – in one of the greatest massacres of journalists in history.

Israel is now repeating that process in Lebanon. On Thursday night, it struck a residence in south Lebanon where three journalists were staying. All were killed.

In an indication of how deliberate and cynical Israel’s actions are, it put its military’s crosshairs on six Al Jazeera reporters this week, smearing them as “terrorists” working for Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

They are reportedly the last surviving Palestinian journalists in northern Gaza, which Israel has sealed off while it carries out the so-called “General’s Plan”.

Israel wants no one reporting its final push to exterminate northern Gaza by starving out the 400,000 Palestinians still there and executing anyone who remains as a “terrorist”.

These six join a long list of professionals defamed by Israel in the interests of advancing its genocide – from doctors and aid workers to UN peacekeepers.

Sympathy for Israel

Perhaps the nadir of Israel’s domestication of foreign journalists was reached this week in a report by CNN. Back in February whistleblowing staff there revealed that the network’s executives have been actively obscuring Israeli atrocities to portray Israel in a more sympathetic light.

In a story whose framing should have been unthinkable – but sadly was all too predictable – CNN reported on the psychological trauma some Israeli soldiers are suffering from time spent in Gaza, in some cases leading to suicide.

Committing a genocide can be bad for your mental health, it seems. Or as CNN explained, its interviews “provide a window into the psychological burden that the war is casting on Israeli society”.

In its lengthy piece, titled “He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him”, the atrocities the soldiers admit committing are little more than the backdrop, as CNN finds yet another angle on Israeli suffering. Israeli soldiers are the real victims – even as they perpetrate a genocide on the Palestinian people.

One bulldozer driver, Guy Zaken, told CNN he could not sleep and had become vegetarian because of the “very, very difficult things” he had seen and had to do in Gaza.

What things? Zaken had earlier told a hearing of the Israeli parliament that his unit’s job was to drive over many hundreds of Palestinians, some of them alive.

CNN reported: “Zaken says he can no longer eat meat, as it reminds him of the gruesome scenes he witnessed from his bulldozer in Gaza.”

Doubtless some Nazi concentration camp guards committed suicide in the 1940s after witnessing the horrors there – because they were responsible for them. Only in some weird parallel news universe would their “psychological burden” be the story.

After a huge online backlash, CNN amended an editor’s note at the start of the article that originally read: “This story includes details about suicide that some readers may find upsetting.”

Readers, it was assumed, would find the suicide of Israeli soldiers upsetting, but apparently not the revelation that those soldiers were routinely driving over Palestinians so that, as Zaken explained, “everything squirts out”.

Banned from Gaza

Finally, a year into Israel’s genocidal war, now rapidly spreading into Lebanon, some voices are being raised very belatedly to demand the entry of foreign journalists into Gaza.

This week – in a move presumably designed, as November’s elections loom, to ingratiate themselves with voters angry at the party’s complicity in genocide – dozens of Democratic members of the US Congress wrote to President Joe Biden asking him to pressure Israel to give journalists “unimpeded access” to the enclave.

Don’t hold your breath.

Western media have done very little themselves to protest their exclusion from Gaza over the past year – for a number of reasons.

Given the utterly indiscriminate nature of Israel’s bombardment, major outlets have not wanted their journalists getting hit by a 2,000lb bomb for being in the wrong place.

That may in part be out of concern for their welfare. But there are likely to be more cynical concerns.

Having foreign journalists in Gaza blown up or executed by snipers would drag media organisations into direct confrontation with Israel and its well-oiled lobby machine.

The response would be entirely predictable, insinuating that the journalists died because they were colluding with “the terrorists” or that they were being used as “human shields” – the excuse Israel has rolled out time and again to justify its targeting of doctors in Gaza and UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

But there’s a bigger problem. The establishment media have not wanted to be in a position where their journalists are so close to the “action” that they are in danger of providing a clearer picture of Israel’s war crimes and its genocide.

The media’s current distance from the crime scene offers them plausible deniability as they both-sides every Israeli atrocity.

In previous conflicts, western reporters have served as witnesses, assisting in the prosecution of foreign leaders for war crimes. That happened in the wars that attended the break-up of Yugoslavia, and will doubtless happen once again if Russian President Valdimir Putin is ever delivered to The Hague.

But those journalistic testimonies were harnessed to put the West’s enemies behind bars, not its closest ally.

The media do not want their reporters to become chief witnesses for the prosecution in the future trials of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Karim Khan, the ICC’s prosecutor, is seeking arrest warrants for them both.

After all, any such testimony from journalists would not stop at Israel’s door. They would implicate western capitals too, and put establishment media organisations on a collision course with their own governments.

The western media does not see its job as holding power to account when the West is the one committing the crimes.

Censoring Palestinians

Journalist whistleblowers have gradually been coming forward to explain how establishment news organisations – including the BBC and the supposedly liberal Guardian – are sidelining Palestinian voices and minimising the genocide.

An investigation by Novara Media recently revealed mounting unhappiness in parts of the Guardian newsroom at its double standards on Israel and Palestine.

Its editors recently censored a commentary by preeminent Palestinian author Susan Abulhawa after she insisted on being allowed to refer to the slaughter in Gaza as “the holocaust of our times”.

During Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as leader of the Labour Party, senior Guardian columnists such as Jonathan Freedland made much of the insistence that Jews, and Jews alone, had the right to define and name their own oppression.

That right, however, does not appear to extend to Palestinians.

As staff who spoke to Novara noted, the Guardian’s Sunday sister paper, the Observer, had no problem opening its pages to British Jewish writer Howard Jacobson to smear as a “blood libel” any reporting of the provable fact that Israel has killed many, many thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza.

One veteran journalist there said: “Is the Guardian more worried about the reaction to what is said about Israel than Palestine? Absolutely.”

Another staff member admitted it would be inconceivable for the paper to be seen censoring a Jewish writer. But censoring a Palestinian one is fine, it seems.

Other journalists report being under “suffocating control” from senior editors, and say this pressure exists “only if you’re publishing something critical of Israel”.

According to staff there, the word “genocide” is all but banned in the paper except in coverage of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), whose judges ruled nine months ago that a “plausible” case had been made that Israel was committing genocide.

Things have got far worse since.

Whistleblowing journalists

Similarly, “Sara”, a whistleblower who recently resigned from the BBC newsroom and spoke of her experiences to Al Jazeera’s Listening Post, said Palestinians and their supporters were routinely kept off air or subjected to humiliating and insensitive lines of questioning.

Some producers have reportedly grown increasingly reluctant to bring on air vulnerable Palestinians, some of whom have lost family members in Gaza, because of concerns about the effect on their mental health from the aggressive interrogations they were being subjected to from anchors.

According to Sara, BBC vetting of potential guests overwhelmingly targets Palestinians, as well as those sympathetic to their cause and human rights organisations. Background checks are rarely done on Israeli or Jewish guests.

She added that a search showing that a guest had used the word “Zionism” – Israel’s state ideology – in a social media post could be enough to get them disqualified from a programme.

Even officials from one of the biggest rights group in the world, the New York-based Human Rights Watch, became persona non grata at the BBC for their criticisms of Israel, even though the corporation had previously relied on their reports in covering Ukraine and other global conflicts.

Israeli guests, by contrast, “were given free rein to say whatever they wanted with very little pushback”, including lies about Hamas burning or beheading babies and committing mass rape.

An email cited by Al Jazeera from more than 20 BBC journalists sent last February to Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, warned that the corporation’s coverage risked “aiding and abetting genocide through story suppression”.

Upside-down values

These biases have been only too evident in the BBC’s coverage, first of Gaza and now, as media interest wanes in the genocide, of Lebanon.

Headlines – the mood music of journalism, and the only part of a story many of the audience read – have been uniformly dire.

For example, Netanyahu’s threats of a Gaza-style genocide against the Lebanese people earlier this month if they did not overthrow their leaders were soft-soaped by the BBC headline: “Netanyahu’s appeal to Lebanese people falls on deaf ears in Beirut.”

Reasonable readers would have wrongly inferred both that Netanyahu was trying to do the Lebanese people a favour (by preparing to murder them), and that they were being ungrateful in not taking up his offer.

It has been the same story everywhere in the establishment media. In another extraordinary, revealing moment, Kay Burley of Sky News announced this month the deaths of four Israeli soldiers from a Hezbollah drone strike on a military base inside Israel.

With a solemnity usually reserved for the passing of a member of the British royal family, she slowly named the four soldiers, with a photo of each shown on screen. She stressed twice that all four were only 19 years old.

Sky News seemed not to understand that these were not British soldiers, and that there was no reason for a British audience to be especially disturbed by their deaths. Soldiers are killed in wars all the time – it is an occupational hazard.

And further, if Israel considered them old enough to fight in Gaza and Lebanon, then they were old enough to die too without their age being treated as particularly noteworthy.

But more significantly still, Israel’s Golani Brigade to which these soldiers belonged has been centrally involved in the slaughter of Palestinians over the past year. Its troops have been responsible for many of the tens of thousands of children killed and maimed in Gaza.

Each of the four soldiers was far, far less deserving of Burley’s sympathy and concern than the thousands of children who have been slaughtered at the hands of their brigade. Those children are almost never named and their pictures are rarely shown, not least because their injuries are usually too horrifying to be seen.

It was yet more evidence of the upside-down world the establishment media has been trying to normalise for its audiences.

It is why statistics from the United States, where the coverage of Gaza and Lebanon may be even more unhinged, show faith in the media is at rock bottom. Fewer than one in three respondents – 31 percent – said they still had a “great deal or fair amount of trust in mass media”.

Crushing dissent

Israel is the one dictating the coverage of its genocide. First by murdering the Palestinian journalists reporting it on the ground, and then by making sure house-trained foreign correspondents stay well clear of the slaughter, out of harm’s way in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

And as ever, Israel has been able to rely on the complicity of its western patrons in crushing dissent at home.

Last week, a British investigative journalist, Asa Winstanley, an outspoken critic of Israel and its lobbyists in the UK, had his home in London raided at dawn by counter-terrorism police.

Though the police have not arrested or charged him – at least not yet – they confiscated his electronic devices. He was warned that he is being investigated for “encouragement of terrorism” in his social media posts.

Police told MEE that his devices had been seized as part of an investigation into suspected terrorism offences of “support for a proscribed organisation” and “dissemination of terrorist documents”.

The police can act only because of Britain’s draconian, anti-free speech Terrorism Act.

Section 12, for example, makes the expression of an opinion that could be interpreted as sympathetic to armed Palestinian resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation – a right enshrined in international law but sweepingly dismissed as “terrorism” in the West – itself a terrorism offence.

Those journalists who haven’t been house-trained in the establishment media, as well as solidarity activists, must now chart a treacherous path across intentionally ill-defined legal terrain when talking about Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Winstanley is not the first journalist to be accused of falling foul of the Terrorism Act. In recent weeks, Richard Medhurst, a freelance journalist, was arrested at Heathrow airport on his return from a trip abroad. Another journalist-activist, Sarah Wilkinson, was briefly arrested after her home was ransacked by police. Their electronic devices were seized too.

Meanwhile, Richard Barnard, co-founder of Palestine Action, which seeks to disrupt the UK’s supply of weapons to Israel’s genocide, has been charged over speeches he has made in support of Palestinians.

It now appears that all these actions are part of a specific police campaign targeting journalists and Palestinian solidarity activists: “Operation Incessantness”.

The message this clumsy title is presumably supposed to convey is that the British state is coming after anyone who speaks out too loudly against the British government’s continuing arming and complicity in Israel’s genocide.

Notably, the establishment media have failed to cover this latest assault on journalism and the role of a free press – supposedly the very things they are there to protect.

The raid on Winstanley’s home and the arrests are intended to intimidate others, including independent journalists, into silence for fear of the consequences of speaking up.

This has nothing to do with terrorism. Rather, it is terrorism by the British state.

Once again the world is being turned upside down.

Echoes from history

The West is waging a campaign of psychological warfare on its populations: it is gaslighting and disorientating them, classing genocide as “self-defence” and opposition to it a form of “terrorism”.

This is an expansion of the persecution suffered by Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder who spent years locked up in London’s Belmarsh high-security prison.

His unprecedented journalism – revealing the darkest secrets of western states – was redefined as espionage. His “offence” was revealing that Britain and the US had committed systematic war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, on the back of that precedent, the British state is coming after journalists simply for embarrassing it.

Last week, I attended a meeting in Bristol against the genocide in Gaza at which the main speaker was physically absent after the British state failed to issue him an entry visa.

The missing guest – he had to join us by Zoom – was Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, who was locked up for decades as a terrorist before becoming the first leader of post-apartheid South Africa and a feted, international statesman.

Mandla Mandela was until recently a member of the South African parliament. A Home Office spokesperson told MEE that the UK only issued visas “to those who we want to welcome to our country”.

Media reports suggest Britain was determined to exclude Mandela because, like his grandfather, he views the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid as intimately linked to the earlier struggle against South Africa’s apartheid.

The echoes from history are apparently entirely lost on officials: the UK is once again associating the Mandela family with terrorism. Before it was to protect South Africa’s apartheid regime. Now it is to protect Israel’s even worse apartheid and genocidal regime.

The world is indeed turned on its head. And the West’s supposedly “free media” is playing a critical role in trying to make our upside-down world seem normal.

That can only be achieved by failing to report the Gaza genocide as a genocide. Instead, western journalists are serving as little more than stenographers. Their job: to take dictation from Israel.

Jonathan Cook is a British writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel.

27 October 2024

Source: countercurrents.org