Just International

Trump’s Greenland Obsession Is All About China

By Joshua Frank

In early January, Donald Trump Jr.’s private plane landed on a snowy airfield in Greenland. There was little fanfare upon his arrival, but his 14 million social-media fans were certainly tagging along.

“Greenland coming in hot…well, actually really really cold!!!” President Trump’s eldest son captioned a video he posted on X. It was shot from the cockpit of the plane, where a “Trumpinator” bobblehead (a figurine of his father as the Terminator) rattled on the aircraft’s dashboard as it descended over icy blue seas.

It was a stunt of MAGA proportions. Don Jr. was arriving in Greenland on behalf of his father who, along with his new buddy Elon Musk, had announced a desire to seize that vast Arctic landmass from Denmark through strong will or even, potentially, by force. There’s been plenty of speculation as to why Trump wants to make Greenland, the largest island on this planet, a new territory of the United States. And yes, his inflated ego is undoubtedly part of the reason, but an urge for geopolitical dominance also drives Trump’s ambitions.

His fascination with Greenland can be traced back to his first administration when, in late 2019, he signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act establishing the US Space Force. “There are grave threats to our national security,” he said shortly after signing the bill. “American superiority in space is absolutely vital. The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground.”

The following year, the US government renamed Greenland’s Thule Air Base, the Department of Defense’s northernmost outpost since 1951, Pituffik Space Base. According to the official United States Space Force Website, the “Top of the World vantage point enables Space Superiority.… Pituffik SB supports Missile Warning, Missile Defense, and Space Surveillance missions.” As such, it’s a key military asset for NATO and the United States. Denmark, a founding member of NATO and the country that has long controlled Greenland, had no problem with Trump’s Space Force operation taking root on that island’s soil.

Some have argued that Trump’s obsession is related to the Pituffik Space Base and Greenland’s strategic importance for US power, given its proximity both to Europe and to the melting Arctic. Yet, given that the US Space Force already operates there with NATO’s and Denmark’s blessing, it’s hard to understand why this would be the case.

So, what gives? Do you wonder whether Trump has his sights set on exploiting Greenland’s natural resources? A few small problems there: it has no accessible oil. Tapping its sizable natural gas reserves—mostly parked beneath massive sheets of glacial ice—would be challenging, if not impossible, and certainly not profitable. Even pipelines and other infrastructure would be difficult to build and maintain in its icy climate. Besides, the United States already has the world’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves.

Let’s assume that Trump’s fascination with Greenland is unrelated to fossil fuels or military installations. If so, that leaves one other obvious possibility: Greenland’s expansive reservoir of minerals, deposits crucial to making the gadgets we use and producing the green technologies that Trump appears to oppose.

Trump’s Green Energy Paradox

As soon as President Trump took office, his administration began issuing executive orders in hopes of dismantling and disrupting environmental initiatives put in place by the Biden administration. One of its first actions included canceling Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, which requested that 50 percent of all autos sold in the US be electric by 2030 (though it wasn’t binding).

“We will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers,” Trump boasted during his inaugural address. “In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”

Of course, from their batteries to their engines, Biden’s push for electric vehicles would require a plethora of critical minerals, ranging from copper to graphite, cobalt to lithium. So, too, would other clean energy projects the Biden administration supported, from home energy storage systems to the deployment of solar panels. Given Donald Trump’s battle over electric vehicles, you might assume he would prefer to keep such minerals in the ground. Yet, like much of Trump’s bombast, his ploy to reverse Biden’s mandate had ulterior motives.

Like Biden’s executive order, Trump’s doesn’t automatically change existing regulations. All emissions policies remain in place, and no rules have been altered that would require congressional approval. In many instances, such executive orders are essentially aspirational. Tax credits for electric vehicles remain active, but the federal government, as under Biden, doesn’t require automakers to sell a certain number of electric cars.

This isn’t to say that Trump doesn’t want to alter such standards. However, doing so would require outfits like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to propose changes and then provide time for public feedback. Bureaucracy can run slow, so during Trump’s first term, such changes took over two years to implement.

Moreover, despite his war on electric vehicles, Trump has shown no sign of any eagerness to slow the mining of critical minerals on federal lands. In fact, his advisers want to do away with nettlesome environmental reviews that have gotten in the way of such mining. He is going all in, looking to ramp up not just oil, coal, and natural gas production but also uranium and critical minerals. After taking office, one of his first actions was to sign an executive order declaring a “National Energy Emergency,” which specifically called for expanding critical mineral development.

“The energy and critical minerals…identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity of the United States are all far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs,” reads the order. “We need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness.”

Energy experts disagree. The United States is not experiencing an energy emergency and hasn’t for decades. Gas prices are at a three-year low, and the country remains the world’s largest oil producer and natural gas exporter. In reality, Joe Biden’s oil and gas approvals outpaced those in Trump’s first term, even if he also halted some further oil and gas exploration on public lands. After initial excitement from oil and gas companies, insiders admit that Trump’s emergency declaration isn’t going to cause a production ramp-up anytime soon. Those companies are, of course, in it to make money, and overproduction would lead to significant price drops, resulting in lower profits for shareholders and company executives.

If that’s the situation for fossil fuels, when it comes to critical and rare earth minerals, Trump wants to hamper renewables’ growth while increasing the domestic production of those minerals. If that seems incongruous, that’s because it is.

He wants to boost US mining of critical minerals because he knows that China, his archnemesis, is leading the global charge for their acquisition. Trump doesn’t seem to understand that it’s hard to stimulate investment in critical minerals if the future appetite for the technologies they support remains uncertain. As a result of his battle against electric vehicles, manufacturing expectations are already being slashed.

While he may not comprehend how contradictory that is or even care, he certainly understands that the United States depends on China for many of the critical minerals it consumes. Around 60 percent of the metals required for renewable technologies come directly from China or Chinese companies. Trump’s tariffs on China have even worried his buddy (and electric car producer) Elon Musk, who’s been working behind the scenes to block additional tariffs on graphite imports. Chinese graphite, an essential component of the lithium-ion batteries in his Teslas, may face new tariffs of as high as—and no, this is not a misprint—920 percent. Such pandemonium around imports of critical minerals from China may be the true factor driving Trump’s impetus to steal Greenland from the clutches of Denmark.

Trump and Musk also know critical minerals are big business. In 2022 alone, the top 40 producers brought in $711 billion. Total revenue grew 6.1 percent between 2022 and 2023, exceeding $2.15 trillion. That number is set to jump to $2.78 trillion by 2027.

Eco-Colonialism

Greenland’s Indigenous Inuit people, the Kalaallit, account for 88 percent of that island’s population of 56,000. They have endured vicious forms of colonization for centuries. In the 12th century, Norwegians first landed in Greenland and built early colonies that lasted 200 years before they retreated to Iceland. By the 1700s, they returned to take ownership of that vast island, a territory that would be transferred to Denmark in 1814.

In 1953, the Kalaallit were granted Danish citizenship, which involved a process of forced assimilation in which they were removed from their homes and sent to Demark for reeducation. Recently uncovered documents show that, in the 1960s, Danish authorities forcibly inserted intrauterine devices (IUDs) in Kalaallit women, including children, which postcolonial scholars describe as a “silenced genocide.”

In other words, the colonization of Greenland, like that of the United States, was rooted in violence and still thrives today through ongoing systemic oppression. The Kalaallit want out. In 2016, 68 percent of Greenlanders supported independence from Denmark, and today, 85 percent oppose Trump’s neocolonial efforts to steal the territory.

“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” said the island’s prime minister, Múte Egede, who leads the democratic socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit party, which won 80 percent of the votes in the last general election. Even though Greenlanders are Danish citizens, the territory is self-governing.

This brings us back to what this imperialist struggle is all about. The island is loaded with critical minerals, including rare earth minerals, lithium, graphite, copper, nickel, zinc, and other materials used in green technologies. Some estimates suggest that Greenland has six million tons of graphite, 106 kilotons of copper, and 235 kilotons of lithium. It holds 25 of the 34 minerals in the European Union’s official list of critical raw materials, all of which exist along its rocky coastline, generally accessible for mining operations. Unsurprisingly, such enormous mineral wealth has made Greenland of interest to China, Russia, and—yep—President Trump, too.

“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside World. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”

Right now, in this geopolitical chess game, graphite might be the most valuable of all the precious minerals Greenland has to offer. The Amitsoq graphite project in the Nanortalik region of southern Greenland could be the most significant prize of all. Considered to be pure, the “spherical” graphite deposit at the mine there may prove to be the most profitable one in the world. Right now, GreenRoc Mining, based in London, is trying to fast-track work there, hoping to undercut China’s interest in Greenland’s resources to feed Europe’s green energy boom. The profits from that mine could exceed $2 billion. Currently, spherical graphite is only mined in China and is the graphite of choice for the anodes (a polarized electrical device) crucial to lithium-ion battery production.

“This is Not a Joke”

Despite President Trump’s attempt to put the brakes on EV growth in the United States, sales are soaring across the planet. In 2024, EV sales rose 40 percent in China and 25 percent globally. Such growth comes with obstacles for manufacturers, which will need a steady stream of minerals like graphite to keep the assembly lines moving. It’s estimated that 100 new graphite mines alone will need to come online by 2035 to meet current demand.

Such a reality is, no doubt, well understood by Elon Musk, cofounder and CEO of Tesla. Musk benefits from his very close relationship with Donald Trump, overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (which isn’t an actual department but an office inside the White House) and would certainly benefit if the United States came to control Greenland.

“If the people of Greenland want to be part of America, which I hope they do, they would be most welcome!” Musk recently wrote on his platform X.

Musk is not the only one with potential interests in Greenland. Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, has a financial stake in the territory, though he’s promised to divest. Lutnick’s investment firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, backs Critical Metals Corporation, which is set to start mining in Greenland for rare earth minerals as soon as 2026.

Like Musk, Lutnick will significantly influence Trump’s approach to the island, even if he officially divests. Trump has also dispatched Ken Howery, a billionaire tech investor, cofounder of PayPal, and buddy of Musk, to be the next US ambassador to Denmark. Howery has told friends he’s excited about his post and the possibility of brokering a deal for the US to acquire Greenland.

Marco Rubio, the new secretary of state, insists that Trump isn’t bullshitting when it comes to Greenland. “This is not a joke,” he said. “This is not about acquiring land for the purpose of acquiring land. This is in our national interest and it needs to be solved.”

Greenland and its resources are merely the latest potential casualty of Trump’s quest for global domination and his fear of China’s economic power. His interest in the green energy sector does not signify a change of heart regarding the dangers of climate chaos or the value of renewables but rather a drive for global financial supremacy. Like the billionaires around him, he desires it all—the oil, the gas, and the critical minerals essential for the global energy transition, while China is pushed aside. Regarding the Kalaallits and their aspirations, he could care less.

Joshua Frank is an award-winning California-based journalist and a coeditor of CounterPunch.

27 February 2025

Source: thenation.com

Attempted Regime Change in Venezuela Incoming? Trump Cancels Chevron’s Oil License. “US Does No Need Venezuelan Oil”

By Timothy Alexander Guzman

Back in 2023, Trump was speaking at a press conference in North Carolina and said,

“When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over; we would have gotten all that oil.”

Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is a neocon warmonger is most likely leading the charge for either some sort of regime change or even a military intervention in Venezuela. In just over a month, Trump has taken action to squeeze Venezuela’s economy. As we all know, Venezuela has plenty of oil and the US government wants to control it now before the big war starts in the Middle East. The US military is one of the largest consumers of oil in the world, because it needs oil for all their vehicles, tanks, fighter aircraft and naval ships. 

Reuters reported that

“U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was reversing a license given to Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab to operate in Venezuela by his predecessor Joe Biden more than two years ago, accusing President Nicolas Maduro of not making progress on electoral reforms and migrant returns.”

Trump has been adamant about taking control of Venezuela’s oil since he was first elected, “In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was “reversing the concessions” of the “oil transaction agreement, dated November 26, 2022” that was when Biden decided to grant Chevron a license to operate in Venezuela.  Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez highlighted a fact on Venezuelan migration to the US when she said that

“The U.S. government has made a damaging and inexplicable decision by announcing sanctions against the U.S. company Chevron” She continued “these kinds of failed decisions had prompted migration out of Venezuela.” 

The report also said that

“U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later said on X he will provide foreign policy guidance to terminate all Biden-era oil and gas licenses “that have shamefully bankrolled the illegitimate Maduro regime.”

Chevron imports more than 240,000 barrels per day of crude from Venezuela.

However, Trump’s reckless policies prove his appetite for regime change in Venezuela.  Trump claims the US don’t need Venezuela’s oil,

“Since his return to office in January, Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. does not need Venezuelan oil and left open the possibility of revoking Chevron’s operating license.”

Trump implemented “maximum pressure” sanctions policy against Venezuela in his first term.  Biden was also on the same path as Trump when he “reinstated broad oil sanctions, saying Maduro failed to keep his electoral promises” but he did not cancel Chevron’s license. 

Trump’s team is itching to overthrow Maduro’s government.  But rest assured, Venezuela will resist any attempt by Washington regardless of the sanctions designed to cripple their economy.  This is just one more reason for the Venezuelan government to join BRICS.  Once that happens, Trump’s future sanctions on Venezuela will be useless, just ask Russia who is the most sanctioned country on earth, yet economically speaking, they are moving towards a much better future for their citizens with economic partnerships with other BRICS nations making the Western world unfortunately, irrelevant.

Timothy Alexander Guzman writes on his own blog site, Silent Crow News, where this article was originally published. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

28 February 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

Making America Great Is All About Israel. Dr. Philip Giraldi

By Philip M. Giraldi

After Donald Trump began to pull together his cabinet and inner circle it became pretty clear that the overwhelming tie that bound the group together was its embrace of Israel and everything that it is doing. There were even jokes that the top cabinet officials had apparently been selected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel himself to reflect the fact that the Jewish state would be calling the shots for Trump even more than they did with the spineless Joe Biden. The handover of power was confirmed for all to see when Trump invited Netanyahu to the White House, the first foreign head of state to be so sanctified. While in Washington, a grinning Netanyahu was beguiled to learn of a crazy scheme to either kill or throw all the remaining Palestinians out of what was once Palestine and turn the ruins of Gaza into a high-end beach resort. Since that time, Trump has assured a delighted Netanyahu that no Palestinians would be allowed to return to visit what was once the site of their homes and communities.

So okay, those of us who had not yet learned to accept the occasional genocides carried out by Israel on its neighbors are now quickly learning to understand that the enabling role played by Joe Biden in the massacres of the Arabs was about to accelerate to a higher gear, which would include the clearing of the West Bank and incorporation of parts of Lebanon and Syria after the two million or so pesky Gazans are removed. Nevertheless, there were still some surprises to come and I must confess that some developments as well as recent comments made by Trump’s team have been astonishing even if one expected the worst.

Even seasoned Trump-o-philes might have been astonished by an apparently Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated short video prepared for Trump and released on Tuesday on his website Truth Social. It is a brief cartoonish tour of what Gaza might look like when it is transformed into Trump Gaza on the Mediterranean, a luxury beachfront destination, filled with posh sky-scrapers and condominiums, and even featuring bearded bellydancers. The video includes Trump and Netanyahu sunbathing together on the beach, Elon Musk apparently eating hummus, and a fifty feet high golden statue of Donald Trump the Founder located prominently on one of the resort’s main thoroughfares. Small replicas of the golden Trump statue were also seen on a gift shop rack for sale, apparently as souvenirs. Every family should have one to place prominently in its home to protect against Hamas “terrorists.”

Coming close to the Trump video in terms of its bizarreness, is the behavior by Representative Brian Mast from Florida, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Mast is perhaps best known for the fact that he was an American veteran who volunteered to serve with the Israel Defense Force (IDF) after he was wounded in Afghanistan and discharged. He has appeared in Congressional offices and in meetings in Washington in his Israeli army uniform, which some, including myself, consider to be both disgraceful and even borderline treasonous. Mast has often asserted the value of his Israeli credentials and cited his love for Israel saying “I stand by Israel,” which should be a disqualifier for the office he holds. In his latest stunt last week, Mast informed the 50 Republican staffers on his committee that henceforth they must not refer to the part of Palestine that is generally called the West Bank by that name. The House Committee must henceforth refer to the region as “Judea and Samaria” which is the Israeli preferred “biblical” usage that will no doubt serve as a first step in the annexation of the area into the apartheid Israeli state. Mast elaborated that “in recognition of our unbreakable bond with Israel and the inherent right of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will, from here forward, refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria in formal correspondence, communication and documentation.”

While it may seem only symbolic, referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria” is a clear show of support for Israeli annexation. Mike Huckabee, Trump’s nominee to serve as the US ambassador to Israel, also refers to the West Bank using the same language and has said annexation is possible under the new Trump administration. Earlier this month, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas also reintroduced a bill that would require the use of the term “Judea and Samaria” in all official US documents. Representative Claudia Tenney of New York also introduced the identical legislation in the House and maintained that “the Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria.”

Congress and the White House have clearly become Israeli Occupied territory as Pat Buchanan once colorfully described the US government. Another prominent Israeli firster who is showing his true colors is the grotesque Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has recently received the resignations of six of his staffers, who complained that all the work that they had been given recently had reflected the Senator’s obsession with supporting Israel. Congressman Tom Massie of Kentucky has declared that every Republican congressman but himself has among their staffs at least one “minder” (he calls them “babysitters”) who is present to monitor and report on how the representative votes in support of Israel. The Israel-first staffer is often an employee of the Lobby, commonly either connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) or with the even more virulent Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

After the “cleansing of Gaza” the West Bank will clearly be next. Israel has already announced that the approximate 40,000 West Bank Palestinians who have already been driven from their homes in ongoing operation “Iron Wall” will not be allowed to return and new Jewish settlements are planned for the former Palestinian towns and villages. As in Gaza the Israeli onslaught has involved the destruction of roads, homes, schools, churches, hospitals and other infrastructure, and the killing of civilians, including a pregnant woman and several children.

And there is more, lots more, but some of the developments are more interesting because they are impacting domestically on the United States and on the constitutional liberties and rights that are under siege as the Israel Lobby and Team Trump seek to suppress any criticism of the Jewish state and/or of the illegal activities carried out by its supporters through their corruption of government at all levels in the United States. Another revelation of how the new administration will be targeting any and all supporters of the Palestinians comes from the highly respectable Arab American Institute’s Director James Zogby. Per Zogby,

“For those unaware of the situation, here’s what’s happened. In recent days, a tweet from Elon Musk shared hateful and dangerous disinformation about the Arab American Institute and other groups whose missions, though varied, have been either to provide humanitarian assistance to communities in need or to provide educational services and training. Mr. Musk reposted a tweet that listed several organizations that have received government grants in recent years. The list was almost exclusively Arab American or American Muslim organizations and labeled us all ‘terrorist linked organizations.’ Mr. Musk’s retweet, which now has more than 16 million views, refers to ‘terrorist organizations.’”

This systematic ethnic and religious demonization of Israel’s designated enemies is being backed up by legal initiatives to rid the United States of any and all foreign students who deign to protest against the genocide being carried out by Israel. At the end of January, Trump signed an executive order that instructs the leaders of federal agencies to provide recommendations on “all civil and criminal” authorities or actions available to the White House within 60 days.

The order says the report should include details of all court cases involving schools, colleges and universities, which could lead to actions to remove “alien students and staff.” According to an accompanying White House fact sheet, it will “marshal all federal resources” to combat what it describes “the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets” since the October 2023 Hamas attack. Trump’s executive order promises “immediate action” from the Justice Department to “protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities. To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump was quoted as saying in the fact sheet. He explained that “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi has inevitably taken the lead on the deportation plan. She told Newsmax in an interview that “The thing that’s really the most troubling to me [are] these students in universities in our country, whether they’re here as Americans or if they’re here on student visas, and they’re out there saying ‘I support Hamas.’ Frankly they need to be taken out of our country or the FBI needs to be interviewing them right away.”

And the faux compliments regarding what Israel is doing just keep on coming both from talking heads in Washington and from the Zionist dominated media. My favorite line spewed out regularly by both Democrats and Republicans is some version of the assertion that Israel is somehow a wonderful “democracy that is America’s best friend and closest ally.” Attorney General Pam Bondi went over the top when she called Israel “our greatest ally in the world” in an interview with Fox News. Interestingly, apartheid war criminal Israel is in fact neither a democracy nor a friend nor an ally but when the blind are leading the blind anything might well pop out of one’s mouth, particularly when it is not connected to a functioning brain that actually has a conscience.

Over at the FBI effusive comments also seem to be the general rule with Dan Bongino, the newly appointed Deputy Director of the FBI, when responding to a question about what might be the causes that are dear to his heart, stating, “Israel. Defense of Israel.” His comment reflects a broad commitment within the FBI and Justice Department to prioritize relations with Israel, as echoed by FBI Director Kash Patel, who affirmed that “America will prioritize Israel, and we stand by our number one ally.” Nice one Kash! Is that really your first name or just a pseudonym? Maybe you should be looking into the various internationally binding agreements entered into with the US guaranteeing the arrangements that are being violated by Israel in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza? They are war crimes and Washington is complicit. But I guess you are not interested in that stuff…

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

28 February 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

The Death of Francis Boyle: A Great Progressive International Law Scholar and Practitioner

By Richard Falk

[Prefatory Note: The following post represents my reflections on the outstanding progressive international law expert of our time, and takes notes of both pardonable faults and eternal gratitude for a courageous life well spent.

Francis Boyle: In Memoriam; RIP

It is with sadness that I take note of the sudden unexpected death of one of the few consistently progressive international Law scholars in the academic ranks of the US on January 30, 2025 at the age of 74. Boyle was active until he was pronounced dead due to undisclosed causes.

Despite being born in Chicago Boyle maintained his primary national identity was Irish. Francis was fond of asserting that he was ‘born Irish,’ and not as a white North American. Throughout his productive life Francis associated himself with many neglected struggles for justice, with especial attention given to opposing the Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people, which he termed genocidal as early as 2009. He acted as a legal advisor to the Palestinian Authority and to the Palestinian negotiating team. He also acted as counsel representing several tribal communities seeking to redeem their legal rights as indigenous peoples and several other causes involving vulnerable or abused communities.

Among those deserving praise for their courage in speaking truth to power, no

one among international law experts since the end of World War II, so exemplified this crucial virtue of engaged and progressive citizenship than Francis Boyle. He spoke bluntly, and often insultingly, about those who invoked international law to rationalize the foreign policy of the US Government.  His published writing was informed by a deep knowledge of his varied subjects, always expressing himself lucidly and uncompromisingly, most energetically when condemning US and Israeli lawlessness. His views were set forth in a self-confident style and his interpretations of law invariably placed him on what progressive persons agree is the right side of history. In keeping with this posture of radical dissent, Boyle’s heroes were unsurprisingly academicians and public figures who shared his outlook and public engagement, most notably Noam Chomsky and Ramsey Clark, and the less well known, the respected Harvard Law professor, Clyde Ferguson. Francis had an elite education, that included earning a magna cum laude degree from Harvar Law School. Nevertheless, Francis never attained the front ranks of those recognized as public intellectuals as were Edward Said, Howard Zinn, Daniel Ellsberg, and Susan Sontag.

As is often the case with radical dissenters, unless first tier scholars, they pay a price for their civic integrity and engagement, and there is little doubt in my mind, that Francis was informally blacklisted in many prestigious centrist venues, including the American Society of International Law and the Council of Foreign Relations. He clearly merited election to the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law on the basis of his scholarly stature, but it never happened during his 41 years as a faculty member of the College of Law at the University of Illinois. His many books on controversial issues were rarely reviewed in mainstream journals or appeared on the syllabi or recommended reading lists of international law courses. Despite being spurned at home, Francis was well known internationally as a skilled lawyer who would provide his services to causes unpopular or unknown in the West.

Francis managed to do many bold and valuable things in his own way over the years. He believed in using juridical frameworks to expose the wrongdoing of the powerful with an awareness that winning in court made the claim legitimate, but did not assure enforcement, which he correctly understood to be a political rather than a legal project.

Francis supported in courts of law claims of justifiable civil disobedience by young Americans during the Vietnam War, served as a lead prosecutor for a high profile Malaysian civil society tribunal condemning the role of the US in the Iraq War, he advised Palestinian negotiators seeking a just peace with Israel, provided services as a lawyer on behalf of indigenous rights, and represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in the International Court of Justice in their legal action against Serbia, charging genocide.

Yet not all that glitters is gold. Francis was stubborn and dogmatic, unyielding in articulating his controversial views, and had an annoying habit of invariably proclaiming his own importance that diverted attention from the substantive issues to be addressed. I believe Francis brought on some of the unfair blacklisting in academic circles by a kind of obsessive and unabashed narcissism that diverted attention from his great talents as jurist and lawyer with an unwavering commitment domestically and internationally to the rule of law as a source of justice and core element of a genuine democracy, which helps his affinities with the powerless and vulnerable.

In the end, we should celebrate the achievements and ethical heroism of Francis Boyle, and forgive those all-too-human shortcomings when it comes to matters of humility.  Too few of us who profess progressive have the courage of our convictions that put our ideas and beliefs in the public square. Maybe we should express gratitude to the Irish genes, which seems to have guided Francis Boyle to be the foremost progressive international law specialist of our time. Unfortunately, he has left us when we need his thought and action as never before in the history of this republic that had at least revered the Constitution even as it broke its own laws and supposed value from the moment is broke from the British Empire but not from imperialism, and even slavery for Africans and genocidal policies toward native Americans. We who benefited from Francis’s presence bemoan his absence.

6 February 2025

Source: richardfalk.org

Why Donald Trump’s Obsession with Greenland Is All About China

By Joshua Frank

In early January, Donald Trump Jr.’s private plane landed on a snowy airfield in Greenland. There was little fanfare upon his arrival, but his 14 million social-media fans were certainly tagging along.

“Greenland coming in hot…well, actually really really cold!!!” President Trump’s eldest son captioned a video he posted on X. It was shot from the cockpit of the plane, where a “Trumpinator” bobblehead (a figurine of his father as the Terminator) rattled on the aircraft’s dashboard as it descended over icy blue seas.

It was a stunt of MAGA proportions. Don Jr. was arriving in Greenland on behalf of his father who, along with his new buddy Elon Musk, had announced a desire to seize that vast Arctic landmass from Denmark through strong will or even, potentially, by force. There’s been plenty of speculation as to why Trump wants to make Greenland, the largest island on this planet, a new territory of the United States. And yes, his inflated ego is undoubtedly part of the reason, but an urge for geopolitical dominance also drives Trump’s ambitions.

His fascination with Greenland can be traced back to his first administration when, in late 2019, he signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act establishing the U.S. Space Force. “There are grave threats to our national security,” he said shortly after signing the bill. “American superiority in space is absolutely vital. The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground.”

The following year, the U.S. government renamed Greenland’s Thule Air Base, the Department of Defense’s northernmost outpost since 1951, Pituffik Space Base. According to the official United States Space Force Website, the “Top of the World vantage point enables Space Superiority… Pituffik SB supports Missile Warning, Missile Defense, and Space Surveillance missions.” As such, it’s a key military asset for NATO and the United States. Denmark, a founding member of NATO and the country that has long controlled Greenland, had no problem with Trump’s Space Force operation taking root on that island’s soil.

Some have argued that Trump’s obsession is related to the Pituffik Space Base and Greenland’s strategic importance for U.S. power, given its proximity both to Europe and to the melting Arctic. Yet, given that the U.S. Space Force already operates there with NATO’s and Denmark’s blessing, it’s hard to understand why this would be the case.

So, what gives? Do you wonder whether Trump has his sights set on exploiting Greenland’s natural resources? A few small problems there: it has no accessible oil. Tapping its sizable natural gas reserves — mostly parked beneath massive sheets of glacial ice — would be challenging, if not impossible, and certainly not profitable. Even pipelines and other infrastructure would be difficult to build and maintain in its icy climate. Besides, the U.S. already has the world’s fourthlargest natural gas reserves.

Let’s assume that Trump’s fascination with Greenland is unrelated to fossil fuels or military installations. If so, that leaves one other obvious possibility: Greenland’s expansive reservoir of minerals, deposits crucial to making the gadgets we use and producing the green technologies that Trump appears to oppose.

Trump’s Green Energy Paradox

As soon as President Trump took office, his administration began issuing executive orders in hopes of dismantling and disrupting environmental initiatives put in place by the Biden administration. One of its first actions included canceling Biden’s electric vehicle mandate, which requested that 50% of all autos sold in the U.S. be electric by 2030 (though it wasn’t binding).

“We will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers,” Trump boasted during his inaugural address. “In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”

Of course, from their batteries to their engines, Biden’s push for electric vehicles would require a plethora of critical minerals, ranging from copper to graphite, cobalt to lithium. So, too, would other clean energy projects the Biden administration supported, from home energy storage systems to the deployment of solar panels. Given Donald Trump’s battle over electric vehicles, you might assume he would prefer to keep such minerals in the ground. Yet, like much of Trump’s bombast, his ploy to reverse Biden’s mandate had ulterior motives.

Like Biden’s executive order, Trump’s doesn’t automatically change existing regulations. All emissions policies remain in place, and no rules have been altered that would require congressional approval. In many instances, such executive orders are essentially aspirational. Tax credits for electric vehicles remain active, but the federal government, as under Biden, doesn’t require automakers to sell a certain number of electric cars.

This isn’t to say that Trump doesn’t want to alter such standards. However, doing so would require outfits like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to propose changes and then provide time for public feedback. Bureaucracy can run slow, so during Trump’s first term, such changes took over two years to implement.

Moreover, despite his war on electric vehicles, Trump has shown no sign of any eagerness to slow the mining of critical minerals on federal lands. In fact, his advisers want to do away with nettlesome environmental reviews that have gotten in the way of such mining. He is going all in, looking to ramp up not just oil, coal, and natural gas production but also uranium and critical minerals. After taking office, one of his first actions was to sign an executive order declaring a “National Energy Emergency,” which specifically called for expanding critical mineral development.

“The energy and critical minerals… identification, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, and generation capacity of the United States are all far too inadequate to meet our Nation’s needs,” reads the order. “We need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness.”

Energy experts disagree. The U.S. is not experiencing an energy emergency and hasn’t for decades. Gas prices are at a three-year low, and the country remains the world’s largest oil producer and natural gas exporter. In reality, Joe Biden’s oil and gas approvals outpaced those in Trump’s first term, even if he also halted some further oil and gas exploration on public lands. After initial excitement from oil and gas companies, insiders admit that Trump’s emergency declaration isn’t going to cause a production ramp-up anytime soon. Those companies are, of course, in it to make money, and overproduction would lead to significant price drops, resulting in lower profits for shareholders and company executives.

If that’s the situation for fossil fuels, when it comes to critical and rare earth minerals, Trump wants to hamper renewables’ growth while increasing the domestic production of those minerals. If that seems incongruous, that’s because it is.

He wants to boost U.S. mining of critical minerals because he knows that China, his archnemesis, is leading the global charge for their acquisition. Trump doesn’t seem to understand that it’s hard to stimulate investment in critical minerals if the future appetite for the technologies they support remains uncertain. As a result of his battle against electric vehicles, manufacturing expectations are already being slashed.

While he may not comprehend how contradictory that is or even care, he certainly understands that the U.S. depends on China for many of the critical minerals it consumes. Around 60% of the metals required for renewable technologies come directly from China or Chinese companies. Trump’s tariffs on China have even worried his buddy (and electric car producer) Elon Musk, who’s been working behind the scenes to block additional tariffs on graphite imports. Chinese graphite, an essential component of the lithium-ion batteries in his Teslas, may face new tariffs of as high as — and no, this is not a misprint — 920%. Such pandemonium around imports of critical minerals from China may be the true factor driving Trump’s impetus to steal Greenland from the clutches of Denmark.

Trump and Musk also know critical minerals are big business. In 2022 alone, the top 40 producers brought in $711 billion. Total revenue grew 6.1% between 2022 and 2023, exceeding $2.15 trillion. That number is set to jump to $2.78 trillion by 2027.

Eco-Colonialism

Greenland’s Indigenous Inuit people, the Kalaallit, account for 88% of that island’s population of 56,000. They have endured vicious forms of colonization for centuries. In the 12th century, Norwegians first landed in Greenland and built early colonies that lasted 200 years before they retreated to Iceland. By the 1700s, they returned to take ownership of that vast island, a territory that would be transferred to Denmark in 1814.

In 1953, the Kalaallit were granted Danish citizenship, which involved a process of forced assimilation in which they were removed from their homes and sent to Demark for reeducation. Recently uncovered documents show that, in the 1960s, Danish authorities forcibly inserted intrauterine devices (IUDs) in Kalaallit women, including children, which post-colonial scholars describe as a “silenced genocide.”

In other words, the colonization of Greenland, like that of the United States, was rooted in violence and still thrives today through ongoing systemic oppression. The Kalaallit want out. In 2016, 68% of Greenlanders supported independence from Denmark, and today, 85% oppose Trump’s neocolonial efforts to steal the territory.

“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” said the island’s prime minister, Múte Egede, who leads the democratic socialist Inuit Ataqatigiit party, which won 80% of the votes in the last general election. Even though Greenlanders are Danish citizens, the territory is self-governing.

This brings us back to what this imperialist struggle is all about. The island is loaded with critical minerals, including rare earth minerals, lithium, graphite, copper, nickel, zinc, and other materials used in green technologies. Some estimates suggest that Greenland has six million tons of graphite, 106 kilotons of copper, and 235 kilotons of lithium. It holds 25 of the 34 minerals in the European Union’s official list of critical raw materials, all of which exist along its rocky coastline, generally accessible for mining operations. Unsurprisingly, such enormous mineral wealth has made Greenland of interest to China, Russia, and — yep — President Trump, too.

“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside World. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”

Right now, in this geopolitical chess game, graphite might be the most valuable of all the precious minerals Greenland has to offer. The Amitsoq graphite project in the Nanortalik region of southern Greenland could be the most significant prize of all. Considered to be pure, the “spherical” graphite deposit at the mine there may prove to be the most profitable one in the world. Right now, GreenRoc Mining, based in London, is trying to fast-track work there, hoping to undercut China’s interest in Greenland’s resources to feed Europe’s green energy boom. The profits from that mine could exceed $2 billion. Currently, spherical graphite is only mined in China and is the graphite of choice for the anodes (a polarized electrical device) crucial to lithium-ion battery production.

“This is Not a Joke”

Despite President Trump’s attempt to put the brakes on EV growth in the U.S., sales are soaring across the planet. In 2024, EV sales rose 40% in China and 25% globally. Such growth comes with obstacles for manufacturers, which will need a steady stream of minerals like graphite to keep the assembly lines moving. It’s estimated that 100 new graphite mines alone will need to come online by 2035 to meet current demand.

Such a reality is, no doubt, well understood by Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO of Tesla. Musk benefits from his very close relationship with Donald Trump, overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (which isn’t an actual department but an office inside the White House) and would certainly benefit if the U.S. came to control Greenland.

“If the people of Greenland want to be part of America, which I hope they do, they would be most welcome!” Musk recently wrote on his platform X.

Musk is not the only one with potential interests in Greenland. Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, has a financial stake in the territory, though he’s promised to divest. Lutnick’s investment firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, backs Critical Metals Corporation, which is set to start mining in Greenland for rare earth minerals as soon as 2026.

Like Musk, Lutnick will significantly influence Trump’s approach to the island, even if he officially divests. Trump has also dispatched Ken Howery, a billionaire tech investor, co-founder of PayPal, and buddy of Musk, to be the next U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Howery has told friends he’s excited about his post and the possibility of brokering a deal for the U.S. to acquire Greenland.

Marco Rubio, the new secretary of state, insists that Trump isn’t bullshitting when it comes to Greenland. “This is not a joke,” he said. “This is not about acquiring land for the purpose of acquiring land. This is in our national interest and it needs to be solved.”

Greenland and its resources are merely the latest potential casualty of Trump’s quest for global domination and his fear of China’s economic power. His interest in the green energy sector does not signify a change of heart regarding the dangers of climate chaos or the value of renewables but rather a drive for global financial supremacy. Like the billionaires around him, he desires it all — the oil, the gas, and the critical minerals essential for the global energy transition, while China is pushed aside. Regarding the Kalaallits and their aspirations, he could care less.

Joshua Frank, a TomDispatch regular, is an award-winning California-based journalist and co-editor of CounterPunch.

19 February 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

Probes Reveal Depth of Big Tech Complicity in Israel’s AI-Driven Gaza Slaughter

By Brett Wilkin

Several recent journalistic investigations—including one published Tuesday by The Associated Press—have deepened the understanding of how Israeli forces are using artificial intelligence and cloud computing systems sold by U.S. tech titans for the mass surveillance and killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

The AP‘s Michael Biesecker, Sam Mednick, and Garance Burke found that Israel’s use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology “skyrocketed” following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

“This is the first confirmation we have gotten that commercial AI models are directly being used in warfare,” Heidy Khlaaf, chief artificial intelligence scientist at the AI Now Institute and a former senior safety engineer at OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, told the AP. “The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward.”

As Biesecker, Mednick, and Burke noted:

Israel’s goal after the attack that killed about 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages was to eradicate Hamas, and its military has called AI a “game changer” in yielding targets more swiftly. Since the war started, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon.

According to the AP report, Israel buys advanced AI models from OpenAI and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. While OpenAI said it has no partnership with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in early 2024 the company quietly removed language from its usage policy that prohibited military use of its technology.

The AP reporters also found that Google and Amazon provide cloud computing and AI services to the IDF via Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021. Furthermore, the IDF uses Cisco and Dell server farms or data centers. Red Hat, an independent IBM subsidiary, sells cloud computing services to the IDF. Microsoft partner Palantir Technologies also has a “strategic partnership” with Israel’s military.

Google told the AP that the company is committed to creating AI “that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”

However, Google recently removed from its Responsible AI principles a commitment to not use AI for the development of technology that could cause “overall harm,” including weapons and surveillance.

The AP investigation follows a Washington Post probe published last month detailing how Google has been “directly assisting” the IDF and Israel’s Ministry of Defense “despite the company’s efforts to publicly distance itself from the country’s national security apparatus after employee protests against a cloud computing contract with Israel’s government.”

Google fired dozens of workers following their participation in “No Tech for Apartheid” protests against the use of the company’s products and services by forces accused of genocide in Gaza.

“A Google employee warned in one document that if the company didn’t quickly provide more access, the military would turn instead to Google’s cloud rival Amazon, which also works with Israel’s government under the Nimbus contract,” wrote Gerrit De Vynck, author of the Post report.

“As recently as November 2024, by which time a year of Israeli airstrikes had turned much of Gaza to rubble, documents show Israel’s military was still tapping Google for its latest AI technology,” De Vynck added. “Late that month, an employee requested access to the company’s Gemini AI technology for the IDF, which wanted to develop its own AI assistant to process documents and audio, according to the documents.”

Previous investigations have detailed how the IDF also uses Habsora, an Israeli AI system that can automatically select airstrike targets at an exponentially faster rate than ever before.

“In the past, there were times in Gaza when we would create 50 targets per year. And here the machine produced 100 targets in one day,” former IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi told Yuval Abraham of +972 Magazine, a joint Israeli-Palestinian publication, in 2023. Another intelligence source said that Habsora has transformed the IDF into a “mass assassination factory” in which the “emphasis is on quantity and not quality” of kills.

[https://twitter.com/ajplus/status/1856019059537785285]

Compounding the crisis, in the heated hours following the October 7 attack, mid-ranking IDF officers were empowered to order attacks on not only senior Hamas commanders but any fighter in the resistance group, no matter how junior. What’s more, the officers were allowed to risk up to 20 civilian lives in each strike, and up to 500 noncombatant lives per day. Days later, that limit was lifted. Officers could order any number of strikes as they believed were legal, with no limits on civilian harm.

Senior IDF commanders sometimes approved strikes they knew could kill more than 100 civilians if the target was deemed important enough. In one AI-aided airstrike targeting one senior Hamas commander, the IDF dropped multiple U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs, which can level an entire city block, on the Jabalia refugee camp in October 2023. According to the U.K.-based airstrike monitor Airwars, the bombing killed at least 126 people, 68 of them children, and wounded 280 others. Hamas’ Qassam Brigades said four Israeli and three international hostages were also killed in the attack.

Then there’s the mass surveillance element. Independent journalist Antony Loewenstein recently wrote for Middle East Eye that “corporate behemoths are storing massive amounts of information about every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and elsewhere.”

[https://twitter.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1889669620476383603]

“How this data will be used, in a time of war and mass surveillance, is obvious,” Loewenstein continued. “Israel is building a huge database, Chinese-state style, on every Palestinian under occupation: what they do, where they go, who they see, what they like, what they want, what they fear, and what they post online.”

“Palestinians are guinea pigs—but this ideology and work doesn’t stay in Palestine,” he said. “Silicon Valley has taken note, and the new Trump era is heralding an ever-tighter alliance among Big Tech, Israel, and the defense sector. There’s money to be made, as AI currently operates in a regulation-free zone globally.”

“Think about how many other states, both democratic and dictatorial, would love to have such extensive information about every citizen, making it far easier to target critics, dissidents, and opponents,” Loewenstein added. “With the far right on the march globally—from Austria to Sweden, France to Germany, and the U.S. to Britain—Israel’s ethno-nationalist model is seen as attractive and worth mimicking.

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

19 February 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

Less than seven percent of pre-conflict water levels available to Rafah and North Gaza, worsening a health catastrophe

By Oxfam International

  • Nearly 1,700 Kilometres of water and sanitation networks have been destroyed 
  • Big-ticket repairs of networks urgently needed but Israel baulks in approving supplies 

The resumption of aid into Gaza, including fuel to operate undamaged water and sanitation facilities along with water trucking, has improved the amount of water available to people in some parts of Gaza. But the picture remains extremely bleak and dangerously critical, especially in the North Gaza and Rafah governorates, warned Oxfam today.

Fifteen months of Israel’s military assault has destroyed 1,675 kilometres of water and sanitation networks. In North Gaza and Rafah governorates, which have suffered the most destruction, less than seven per cent of pre-conflict water levels is available to people, heightening the spread of waterborne diseases.

As fragile ceasefire negotiations hang in the balance, any renewed violence or disruption to fuel and the already inadequate aid would trigger a full-scale public health disaster.

Clémence Lagouardat, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Gaza said:

“Now that the bombs have stopped, we have only just begun to grasp the sheer scale of destruction to Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Most vital water and sanitation networks have been entirely lost or paralyzed, creating catastrophic hygiene and health conditions.

“Our staff and partners have told how people are stopping them in the streets asking for water, and that parents are not drinking to save water for their children. It is heartbreaking to hear about children having to walk for miles for a single jerrycan of water.”

In the North Gaza governorate, almost all water wells have been destroyed by the Israeli military. Over 700,000 people have returned to find entire neighbourhoods wiped out. For the few whose homes remain standing, water is non-existent due to the destruction of rooftop storage tanks.

In Rafah, over 90 per cent of water wells and reservoirs have been partially or completely damaged, and water production is less than five per cent of its capacity before the conflict. Only two out of 35 wells are currently operational.

Despite efforts to resume water production since the ceasefire, the destruction of Gaza’s water pipelines means that 60 per cent of water is leaking into the ground rather than reaching people.

Oxfam and partners’ initial assessment after the ceasefire found:

  • More than 80 percent of water and sanitation infrastructure across the Gaza Strip has been partially or entirely destroyed, including all six major wastewater treatment plants.
  • 85 percent of the sewage pumping stations (73 out of 84) and networks have been destroyed. Some have been repaired but urgently require fuel to operate.
  • 85 percent of small desalination plants (85 out of 103) have been partially damaged or completely destroyed.
  • 67 percent of the 368 municipal wells have been destroyed. Most of the private small wells cannot function due to lack of fuel or generators.

The lack of safe water, combined with untreated sewage overflowing in the streets has triggered an explosion of waterborne and infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization, 88 percent of environmental samples surveyed across Gaza were found contaminated with polio, signalling an imminent risk of outbreak. Infectious diseases including acute watery diarrhoea and respiratory infections – now the leading causes of death – are also surging, with 46,000 cases, mostly children, being reported each week.

Chickenpox and skin diseases such scabies and impetigo are also spreading rapidly, particularly among displaced populations in the Northern Gaza Governorate, where water shortages are most severe.

Meanwhile, with no waste collection and transport for over 15 months, more than 2,000 tonnes of garbage has been piling up in the streets every day.  This toxic combination of open sewage, uncollected waste and contaminated water is creating a perfect storm for a deadly disease outbreak.

Lagouardat said: “Despite the increase in aid since the ceasefire, Israel continues to severely impair critical items needed to begin repairing the massive structural damage from its airstrikes. This includes desperately needed pipes for repairing water and sanitation networks, equipment like generators to operate wells.”

Oxfam’s own 85 tonne-shipment of water pipes, fittings and water tanks – worth over $480,000 – had been held up for over six months because it was deemed as dual-use and “oversized” to enter. Israeli authorities only finally approved the shipment this week, although it has yet to enter.

Lagouardat said: “Hundreds of thousands of displaced people across the Gaza Strip have had to resort to digging makeshift cesspits next to their tents. This daily discharge of approximately 130,000 cubic meters – the equivalent of 52 Olympic pools – of untreated sewage is contaminating the Mediterranean Sea and Gaza’s only aquifer.

“Rebuilding water and sanitation is vital for Gaza to have a path to normalcy after 15 months of horror. The ceasefire must hold, and fuel and aid must flow so that Palestinians can rebuild their lives. Lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis can only come through a permanent ceasefire and a just solution.”

Notes to editors

  • Oxfam has recent photos and footage of water and sanitation destruction in Gaza and can be downloaded HERE  (valid until 14 May 25)
  • According to the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) as of February 2025, a total of 1675 km out of 4,800 km of Gaza’s water and sanitation networks have been partially or entirely destroyed since October 2023. This includes 350km in North Gaza, 495km in Gaza City, 240 Km in the Middle area, 350km in Khan Younis, and 240km in Rafah respectively.
  • Approximately 1,035 km of water and sanitation pipelines have been destroyed Over Data on water and sanitation destruction is based on the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility (CMWU) Rapid Damage Assessment Report, January 2025.
  • Data on the cost of infrastructure repair is based on Gaza Municipality Planning and Investment Unit report of December 31, 2024.
  • According to Oxfam’s Water War Crimes report, the Gaza population had access to 82.7 litres per person per day before 7 October 2023. Currently, Rafah has less than five percent of that amount; and North Gaza governorates have less than seven percent of that amount, or 5.7 litres per person per day.
  • According to the 10 Feb 2025 WASH Cluster report: only two (out of 35) wells in Rafah are currently operational.
  • Acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) in children under five years old was reported to be 13,179 cases. This accounts for approximately 54% of the total registered cases of AWD. Also, 21 out of 24 Polio environmental surveyed samples across Gaza (88%) were positive. Source: Polio Global Eradication Initiative (WHO & UN) on 1 Feb 2025
  • UNOSAT latest data collected on 1 December 2024 identified 60,368 destroyed structures, 20,050 severely damaged structures, 56,292 moderately damaged structures, and 34,102 possibly damaged structures for a total of 170,812 structures. The governorates of North Gaza and Rafah have experienced the highest rise in damage compared to the 6 September 2024 analysis, with around 3,138 new structures damaged in North Gaza and around 3,054 in Rafah. Within North Gaza, Jabalya municipality had the highest number of newly damaged structures, totalling 1,339.

Contact information

For more information and interviews, please contact:

Jaqui Corcoran | jacqui.corcoran@oxfam.org

Nesrine Aly |  nesrine.aly@oxfam.org

Oxfam Media office | Media.OPTI@oxfam.org

19 February 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

Israel creates directorate to oversee ethnic cleansing of Gaza

By Andre Damon

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the creation of a directorate in the Defense Ministry tasked with overseeing the implementation of the plan announced by US President Donald Trump to ethnically cleanse Gaza.

Katz’s office held an assessment Monday on Trump’s proposal, which resolved to form the directorate, the Times of Israel reported.

“The plan includes extensive assistance that will allow any Gaza resident who wants to emigrate to a third state to receive support, including special departure arrangements through sea, air, and land,” the Defense Ministry stated.

Earlier this month, Katz ordered the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to create a plan for the implementation of what he called “Trump’s bold plan, which could allow a large portion of Gaza’s population to relocate to various places around the world.”

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that the prime minister was “committed to US President Donald Trump’s plan for the creation of a different Gaza.” Netanyahu pledged that “there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority” governing Gaza.

Over the weekend, Netanyahu held a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at which Netanyahu praised “Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future.”

Earlier this month, Trump declared that the Gaza Strip “should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that lived a miserable existence there.” Trump called for “other countries” to “build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza.”

His plan violates the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition of the forcible transfer of civilians during armed conflicts.

Last week, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, condemned Trump’s plan as “unlawful, immoral and completely irresponsible.” She added, “It’s incitement to commit forced displacement, which is an international crime.”

In an article in the Forward, Eric Kurlander, professor of Modern European History at Stetson University, warned of the parallels between Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza and the plans for the relocation of the Jewish people that preceded their mass killing during the Holocaust.

Kurlander wrote:

Imagine the leader of a global superpower announcing a plan for removing an entire ethnic group from a territory they’ve long inhabited. Neighboring states would have to make land available to that superpower to resettle the displaced peoples. The refugees would “have their own administration in this territory” but they would “not acquire … citizenship” since any “sense of responsibility towards the world” would forbid making “the gift of a sovereign state” to a people “which has had no independent state for thousands of years.”

No, the plan described in brief here is not President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, proposing a United States takeover of Gaza and mass relocation of its Palestinian population. It is the so-called “Madagascar Plan,” devised by Nazi Germany in 1940 to “resettle” European Jews.

Kurlander added:

That plan was the Third Reich’s final major proposal for removing the Jews from the Greater Germanic Reich Adolf Hitler envisioned in Mein Kampf prior to the “Final Solution”—the indiscriminate shootings of Jewish men, women, and children on the Eastern Front, leading to mass killings in death camps and gas chambers in late 1941. In that history lies a warning: Plans for the mass relocation of a population seen as troublesome or dangerous can rapidly devolve into the loss of sovereignty, human and civil rights, and eventually ethnic cleansing.

To date, 60,000 people have been killed in the Gaza genocide, and the implementation of any such plan would require a level of genocidal violence on a scale even greater than what has been carried out to date. These warnings of the historical precedent are a stark warning of what Israeli officials may be planning in the future.

Israel has, meanwhile, continued its daily rampage throughout Gaza despite a nominal “ceasefire.” Israeli troops killed two people in the southern city of Rafah, claiming that the victims had approached them.

On Tuesday, Israeli troops carried out a raid on UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) schools in East Jerusalem.

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the raids. “The secretary-general condemns the breach of inviolability of United Nations premises in occupied East Jerusalem, including the UNRWA training center and the attempt to forcibly enter three UNRWA schools and seek their closure,” Guterres said in a statement.

Israeli troops used tear gas and sound bombs, said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. Guterres’s office said, “The use of tear gas and sound bombs in educational environments while students are learning is both unnecessary and unacceptable,” adding that the attacks are “a clear violation of Israel’s obligation under international law. … The inviolability of United Nations premises must be respected at all times.”

The Israeli military continued its systematic demolition of homes and infrastructure in the West Bank on Tuesday. US bombers also conducted a demonstration of force projection capabilities in the Middle East.

19 February 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

Gaza: Official Death Toll Reaches 48,284 as Recovery Efforts Continue

By Quds News Networ

Gaza (Quds News Network)- The death toll from Israel’s genocide in Gaza has reached 48,284, with 111,709 wounded, according to the Health Ministry on Monday, adding many bodies remain trapped under debris and in the streets, where rescue teams cannot reach them due to ongoing Israeli restrictions.

In the last 24 hours, 13 more bodies arrived at hospitals, including 9 recovered from the rubble and 4 killed or succumbed to injuries.

“The toll includes those killed in direct attacks, succumbed to their injuries, or lost their lives in the explosion of unexploded ordnance,” Gaza’s Health Ministry Director-General Munir al-Bursh noted.

On Sunday, three policemen were killed in an Israeli airstrike east of Rafah in southern Gaza, the Interior Ministry confirmed, calling on mediators and the international community to compel the occupation to stop targeting the police force, which is a civil apparatus.”

The officers were hit while securing the entry of aid trucks through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing. Dead bodies and skeletal remains have been discovered in the besieged strip since the Israeli forces’ withdrawal.

The Israeli army completed its withdrawal from the so-called Netzarim Corridor as part of the ceasefire agreement. However, Gazan authorities stated that movement restrictions remain in place. Vehicles can only pass through Salah Al-Din Street after inspection, while Al-Rashid Street remains off-limits to vehicles and open only for pedestrians.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel continues attacks on Palestinians using drone strikes and live fire, resulting in more deaths and injuries. At least 92 people have been killed in direct attacks by Israeli forces since the ceasefire agreement took effect on January 19.

18 February 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

Brussels-Capital Region Parliament Becomes First in Belgium and Europe to Pass Resolution Sanctioning Israel

By Quds News Network

Brussels (Quds News Network)- The Brussels-Capital Region Parliament has become the first in Belgium and Europe to pass a resolution calling for sanctions on Israel over its genocide in Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestine.

The resolution reads, “Following the resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on September 18, 2024, demanding Israel end its illicit presence in the occupied Palestinian territories within 12 months, the proposed resolution asks the Brussels government to no longer grant arms licenses to Israel, to no longer subsidize companies linked to the Israeli army and to cease all collaboration with companies appearing on the UN database.”

The resolution was put forward by the Norkers’ Party (PTB/PVDA), supported by the Green party (Ecolo) and Socialist Party (PS) and passed with 44 votes in favour, according to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The Palestinian BDS National Committee, the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society leading the global BDS movement, saluted the political allies and activists and organizations in Belgium, who supported and advocated for the adoption of this milestone resolution on Palestine.

“We call on people across the world to escalate pressure on their governments to end all forms of direct or indirect complicity with genocidal Israel and to demand concrete and targeted sanctions and accountability measures at national and regional level and in international courts and international fora.”

In September 2024, the UNGA overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling on Israel to end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories within a year. The UNGA demanded that “Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a wrongful act of a continuing character entailing its international responsibility, and do so no later than 12 months”.

It also called on Israel to make reparations to Palestinians for damages incurred by the occupation.

The resolution backed an advisory opinionby the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the UN’s top court – which found that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories is unlawful and must end.

The court ruled in July that Israel is abusing its status as an occupying power, stressing that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal.

The UNGA vote came amid Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, which has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians. The ICJ issued rulings ordering Israel to take steps to prevent genocide in Gaza and allow adequate humanitarian aid into the territory.

18 February 2025

Source: countercurrents.org