Archives: Articles

By Countercurrents Collective

The UK prime minister Boris Johnson has said UK plans to increase its nuclear arsenal by 40%, but China should be brought into international efforts to reduce the world stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Speaking on Tuesday, as the British government published its Integrated Review of Security, Defense, Development and Foreign Policy, the UK prime minister highlighted China as posing a “great challenge” to Britain.

The policy would change the number of warheads the UK can possess from 180 to 260. Trident warheads are loaded onto ballistic missile submarines as part of the UK’s nuclear deterrence strategy, and at least one nuclear-armed sub is always on patrol.

This is UK’s first nuclear arsenal increase since the end of the Cold War. However, speaking to lawmakers, Johnson claimed that the UK had not turned its back on nuclear disarmament.

“We’re committed to nuclear arms reduction, and indeed we believe that China should be brought into strategic nuclear arms reduction,” he stated.

Johnson’s plan sees the UK shift its interests towards the Indo-Pacific region as the world’s “geopolitical and economic centre of gravity” moves east. The PM added that while there was internationally “deep concern over China’s mass detention of the Uighur people,” Johnson was keen to maintain cordial relations with Beijing and protect trade between the two states.

“We will also work with China where that is consistent with our values and interests, including building a stronger and positive economic relationship and address climate change,” Johnson noted.

The UK PM said the plan was a “new chapter” in UK history in which the country is now “open to the world, free to tread our own path.”

The new UK defense and foreign policy strategy came under considerable scrutiny on Tuesday morning.

Kate Hudson, the general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, told the Guardian that it was senseless of the cash-strapped government to pursue “grandiose, money-wasting spending on weapons of mass destruction.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer said there was “no obvious strategic purpose” behind Johnson’s decision to reverse years of nuclear disarmament.

The UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab defended the decision, describing it as the “ultimate insurance policy” against threats from hostile states.

Activists and commentators have accused Boris Johnson of turning his back on disarmament after his government signaled that it would drastically increase the limit placed on the UK’s nuclear stockpile.

According to the Guardian, a 100-page security review inked by the government states that the increase in the nuclear warheads cap is a response to “the evolving security environment” and “the developing range of technological and doctrinal threats” to the country.

Russia was deemed an “active threat” to the UK, while China was described as posing a “systematic challenge.” The document also warned that there is a “realistic possibility” that a terrorist group will carry out a chemical, biological or nuclear attack by 2030.

Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project, part of the Federation of American Scientists, said it was “deeply” disappointing to see Britain “end its nuclear weapons reduction policy and instead join the nuclear arms race by increasing its nuclear weapons stockpile.”

Others reacted to the news by demanding that the UK government explain how allowing for an increase in the nuclear stockpile would keep the country safer.

“Say goodbye to life on earth if they let ONE of those off,” read one of many disapproving comments.

Although billed as necessary to ensure Britain’s safety, the Trident program has been regularly criticized as needlessly expensive and poorly managed. In October, a Navy officer responsible for his submarine’s nuclear missiles reportedly showed up for duty drunk during a port call in the U.S.

17 March 2021

Source: countercurrents.org

By Manlio Dinucci

The NATO Dynamic Manta anti-submarine warfare exercise took place in the Ionian Sea from February 22 to March 5. Ships, submarines, and planes from the United States, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Belgium, and Turkey participated in it. The two main units involved in this exercise were a US Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine and the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle together with its battle group, and a nuclear attack submarine was also included.

Soon after the exercise, the Charles de Gaulle carrier went to the Persian Gulf. Italy, which participated in the Dynamic Manta with ships and submarines, was the entire exercise “host nation”: Italy made the port of Catania (Sicily) and the Navy helicopter station (also in Catania) available to the participating forces, the Sigonella air station (the largest US / NATO base in the Mediterranean) and Augusta (both in Sicily) the logistics base for supplies. The purpose of the exercise was the hunt for Russian submarines in the Mediterranean that, according to NATO, would threaten Europe.

At the same time, the Eisenhower aircraft carrier and its battle group are carrying out operations in the Atlantic to “demonstrate continued US military support for allies and a commitment to keep the seas free and open.” These operations – conducted by the Sixth Fleet, whose command is in Naples and base is in Gaeta – fall within the strategy set out in particular by Admiral Foggo, formerly head of the NATO Command in Naples: accusing Russia of wanting to sink with its submarines the ships connecting the two sides of the Atlantic, so as to isolate Europe from the USA. He argued that NATO must prepare for the “Fourth Battle of the Atlantic,” after those of the two World Wars and the cold war. While naval exercises are underway, strategic B-1 bombers, transferred from Texas to Norway, are carrying out “missions” close to Russian territory, together with Norwegian F-35 fighters, to “demonstrate the readiness and capability of the United States in supporting the allies.

Military operations in Europe and adjacent seas take place under the command of US Air Force General Tod Wolters, who heads the US European Command and at the same time NATO, with the position of Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, this position is always covered by a US General.

All these military operations are officially motivated as “Europe defense from Russian aggression,” overturning the reality: NATO expanded into Europe with its forces and even nuclear bases close to Russia. At the European Council on February 26, NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg declared that “the threats we faced before the pandemic are still there,” placing first “Russia’s aggressive actions” and, in the background, a threatening “rise of China.” He then stressed the need to strengthen the transatlantic link between the United States and Europe, as the new Biden administration strongly wants, taking cooperation between the EU and NATO to a higher level. Over 90% of the European Union’s inhabitants, he recalled, now live in NATO countries (including 21 of the 27 EU countries). The European Council reaffirmed “the commitment to cooperate closely with NATO and the new Biden administration for security and defense, “making the EU militarily stronger. As Prime Minister Mario Draghi pointed out in his speech, this strengthening must take place within a complementarity framework with NATO and in coordination with the USA.

Therefore, the military strengthening of the EU must be complementary to that of NATO, in turn, complementary to the US strategy. This strategy actually consists in provoking growing tensions with Russia in Europe, so as to increase US influence in the European Union itself. An increasingly dangerous and expensive game, because it pushes Russia to militarily strengthen itself. This is confirmed by the fact that in 2020, in full crisis, Italian military spending stepped from 13th to the 12th worldwide place, overtaking the place of Australia.

*

Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

This article was originally published in Italian on Il Manifesto.

Manlio Dinucci is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

5 March 2021

Source: www.globalresearch.ca

By Ranjan Solomon

It is no surprise that the US has chosen to back Israel in its confrontation with the ICC. This unequivocally illustrates United States’ resolute loyalty to ‘Israel’s’ security while simultaneously disregarding Zionist genocidal crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

There is speculation that Israel is in backroom talks with EU States to push the ICC back and even have the investigation called off. In the meantime, Israel will do all it can to delay the investigation hoping that Prosecutor Bensouda will retire and be replaced by British prosecutor Karim Khan. There is speculation that Karim Khan, might just call off or water down the probe. Israel’s desperate lobbying shows how a fearful it is to be exposed to an honest probe. Israel argues that it has its own judicial system where a probe can be carried out. Israel contends that it can investigate itself and hence an external probe is redundant .The world knows beyond doubt that Israel’s judicial system cannot be trusted to deliver a verdict of guilt against war crimes and various other violations of international law that Israel has committed.

The US has proven that a racist-colonialist-apartheid regime is the kind of political system US administrations, whether Republican or Democrats, will back any day – political ethics be damned. The numbers that will stand for an ethical line of action against Israel’s intransigencies are politically insignificant.

The launch of the ICC probe has also left Liberal Zionist groups in a quandary. They concur with Palestinians against the occupation but are unable to stand up and be counted when it comes to the probe against Israel’s criminalities.

Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq reports how, in 2000 alone, Israel seized the Corona-driven crises to press on with its settler project and heap on tyrannical measures against Palestinians in all their places of residence. War on Want reinforces this view when it claims that “a core part of what sustains that occupation is a military judicial system characterized by violations of international law”.

Yet, these facts are the mere tip of the iceberg. 37 Palestinian workers trying to cross into Israel through breaches in the separation barrier since the start of 2020; 23 were shot last year according to the UN. In the first two months of this year, 14 were shot under the same circumstances according to a report from Haaretz.

And the world watches muffled.

Please read these notes and links and disseminate widely.

Ranjan Solomon

7 March 2021

Source: palestineupdates.com

In brazen contempt for the international law, the US administration announced that it backs the Israeli occupation entity’s war crimes against Palestinians in the occupied territories amid the International Criminal Court [ICC] probe into those crimes.

In a phone call with Zionist premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, US Vice President Kamala Harris underscored Washington’s support for the Tel Aviv regime, opposing what she referred to as the ICC’s “attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over ‘Israeli’ personnel”, the White House said in a statement.

Harris, the statement noted, “emphasized the United States’ unwavering commitment to ‘Israel’s’ security”, while resisting any move to expose the regime’s genocidal project in the occupied territories.

The first call between the two officials came a day after the ICC prosecutor said her office will formally launch a probe into Zionist war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The announcement follows a February 5 ruling by the international court claiming jurisdiction in the case.

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who is set to be replaced by British prosecutor Karim Khan in June, said in December 2019 that war crimes had been or were being committed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

She named the Zionist military, which has for years unleashed a reign of terror on Palestinians, as perpetrators of war crimes.

Bensouda further noted that there was a “reasonable basis” to launch a probe into ‘Israeli’ military actions in the besieged Gaza Strip, as well as illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

She then asked judges to rule on the extent of the court’s jurisdiction in the case, and the court last month established that it had jurisdiction.

Judges at ICC said the decision was based on jurisdictional rules in court’s founding documents, and it does not imply any attempt to determine statehood or legal borders.

The international court, which has often sought to expose war crimes committed by the ‘Israeli’ regime and the US around the world, has faced bullying and intimidation from both Tel Aviv and Washington.

The ‘Israeli’ regime occupied East al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza.

About 700,000 Zionists currently occupy in over 230 illegal settlements built in the West Bank and East al-Quds, which have been deemed illegal under international law.

Palestine is a party to the ICC’s founding Rome Statute and has long carried out diplomatic efforts for the investigation of the war crimes by the ‘Israeli’ regime in the occupied territories.

Both the Tel Aviv regime and the United States have refused to be a party to the ICC, which was set up in 2002 to be the only international tribunal to investigate war crimes.

6 March 2021

Source: en.abna24.com

By MEMRI

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said last week that an indictment of Israel by the International Criminal Court would open the door to U.S. companies and organizations being hauled before the court. It was for this reason, he said, that the United States had exerted “unparalleled” pressure against the P.A.’s 2015 request to join the ICC.

The court’s chief prosecutor announced on March 3 that in response to an appeal by the P.A., the court would open an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by Israelis and Palestinians since 2014.

In an interview that aired on Palestine TV on March 1, Shtayyeh said, “Before we turned to the ICC, there had been tremendous and unparalleled pressure.”

“I was in New York when a delegation from the State Department came. They left Washington, D.C., at 6 o’clock in the morning so that they could meet [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas in New York. The reason was that our membership in the ICC is not only against Israel,” he said.

“If Israel is indicted, all the parties involved in the Israeli actions against the Palestinians will also be indicted. This means that we can also take the American companies and organizations that support Israel to court. Hence, the deputy secretary of state said to President Abu Mazen [Abbas]: ‘If you become members in the ICC, it will be like obtaining nuclear weapons.’ ”

Neither Israel nor the United States is a signatory to the Rome Statute from which the ICC derives its authority.

The Palestinian premier also said that the P.A.’s appeal to the ICC had “shattered” Israel’s claimed “monopoly on pain.”

“Israel was basically purporting that the Jews in the world were the only ones who were tormented by the Nazis and so on,” he said.

“Our appeal to the ICC demonstrates and proves that the Palestinian people suffer, their prisoners have been tortured and killed, Palestinians have been martyred and displaced. … So we shattered the monopoly on pain that Israel purported to have,” he added.

7 March 2021

Source: www.jns.org

By Philip Weiss

The two decisions from the International Criminal Court in the last month to move forward on an investigation of war crimes in Palestine have shaken Israel and suggested that the power politics of Israeli impunity are finally going to change.

These decisions have predictably angered Israel– “undiluted antisemitism” — and its lobby— “spurious allegations”– and been condemned by the American government. They have been welcomed by Palestine, which sought the actions.

But the decisions have put the liberal branch of the Israel lobby in an awkward position. For many years liberal Zionists have offered Israel political support in the U.S. but said that the occupation and Jewish settlement of lands across the Green Line must end in order for Israel to fulfill its promise as a democracy. Americans for Peace Now has diligently monitored settlement activity. J Street has built Congressional opposition to Israeli actions in the West Bank, such as demolitions and annexation.

You’d think that the ICC investigation would give liberal Zionists a place to stand. At last someone is investigating settlements as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

But none of the leading liberal Zionist groups have hailed the ICC. They have issued dithering statements saying it’s a sad reflection on the occupation that it’s come to this, and not a surprise; but they’ve stopped short of endorsing the ICC and have even said critical things about the court.

Torn between supporting Israel in the U.S. and trying to stop Israeli human rights violations, the liberal Zionists have chosen Support for Israel. These same organization oppose reductions of U.S. military aid to the country, and have blasted the nonviolent BDS campaign as antisemitic.

Let’s look at some of the liberal Zionist comments.

Yesterday J Street issued a statement on the ICC investigation that openly waffles. It takes no position on the ICC’s assertion that it has jurisdiction to investigate war crimes in Palestine but says that Israel of course should be accountable under international law. Then it pulls that hope away, saying if Israel would just ask the court to “defer” to Israel’s own legal procedures for addressing violations, “Such a request would freeze the case and could ultimately even lead the prosecutor to close the case if the investigation is deemed sufficient.”

But everyone knows Israel regards the settlements as perfectly legal! And as for investigations of war crimes in Gaza, no one has ever faced accountability.

J Street expresses solidarity with those Israelis:

We understand and deeply sympathize with the fear and concern felt by many Israeli families who have been told by critics of the Court that an ICC investigation could result in the penalization of rank and file soldiers who have served in the IDF.

There is no expression of deep sympathy for Palestinians.

J Street’s balancing act also entails keeping right with the Biden administration. Its statement on the ICC last month seemed to affirm the Biden team’s stiffnecked response.

The Biden administration has already clearly and definitively stated its disagreement with the Pre-Trial Court’s decision on jurisdiction…

The liberal Zionist group T’ruah was also very critical of the ICC while sidestepping the issue of the investigation. Rabbi Jill Jacobs’s statement last month:

“The ICC in its current form is a flawed institution. Some of the worst actors — including leaders of China, Syria, and Russia — cannot be held accountable, as they are not party to the Rome statute. Nor is the United States a member; thus, high level Bush administration officials cannot be charged with war crimes despite the documented use of torture during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as part of the War on Terror.

But as for Israeli human rights violations, they’re… tragic.

The true tragedy is that Israel has reached the point that the ICC would consider investigating possible war crimes. For more than half a century, Israel has carried out a policy of displacing Palestinians from their homes in the occupied territories, expanding settlements, and too easily resorting to deadly and disproportionate force in both the West Bank and Gaza.

T’ruah concludes, forget about the ICC, Jews need to fix the problem!

Rather than focus on the ICC, which should be the last resort for accountability on human rights, Israeli leaders and Jewish leaders around the world should put our energy toward ending these human rights abuses and pursuing a long-term solution that protects the human rights of both Israelis and Palestinians.” 

J Street in its latest statement also says with “dismay and frustration” that Jews (and others) should redouble “efforts to reach a comprehensive, mutually agreed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to end over 53 years of ever-deepening occupation.”

Well, it’s gone on 53 years because there’s been no real outside pressure. And things have only been getting worse in the West Bank and Gaza, despite liberal Zionists’ concerns.

Americans for Peace Now also concluded last month that the ICC investigation was a “heartbreaking” result of Israel’s actions; but the investigation provides a moment for reflection, not action. Its president came close to embracing the ICC but couldn’t do so.

Hadar Susskind said: “The ICC’s decision and possible investigations are a sobering reminder for Israel’s leadership and for the Israeli public that the occupation, the settlements, and the ongoing military rule over a large civilian population are untenable. This 54-year-old status quo may seem to them like a situation that can be sustained in perpetuity, but the ICC decision is a clear example of the fact that the international community will not tolerate it…

“The prospect of seeing Israel accused of war crimes in an international tribunal is, to me, heartbreaking. But the response to that should not be hollow cries of ‘antisemitism.’ It should be a national reflection on 54 years of Occupation. It should not be an attempt to delegitimatize international law. It should be a clear-eyed look as to whether the IDF is, as is often proclaimed, ‘the most moral army in the world.’”

The contradiction in that stance is that APN has for years nobly documented Israeli army human rights abuses in defense of settlements. Now it asks for reflection on the army’s morality? What about action?

Americans for Peace Now also calls on American Jews to flip the script.

The ICC’s decision is a clear example of the fact that the international community will not tolerate the occupation. Neither will Americans for Peace Now or the many progressive American Jews who support our organization and Israel’s peace movement.

A New Israel Fund statement in February also equivocated. Daniel Sokatch cheered the effort to impeach Donald Trump as a demonstration of accountability, and came close to approving the ICC investigation of the settlement project. But he called that a “conundrum around power and accountability” and proceeded to meditate on-the-one-hand, on-the-other. Excerpts:

The Court was founded to hold individuals accountable for grave violations of international laws when a country lacks the capacity or will to do so itself. And after over 53 years of prolonged military occupation and settlement, the ICC’s decision around jurisdiction calls into question who is capable of—and responsible for—holding individuals accountable for potential violations of international law in the West Bank and Gaza…

[T]he ICC’s decision about its jurisdiction turns our attention to the role Israel’s own courts play in holding Israeli decisionmakers accountable for the state’s alleged actions in Gaza and the West Bank…. [The Israeli High Court’s] position—that Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank are political questions that the courts should not rule on— opens the question of whether it is up to the task of delivering justice for those living under Israel’s occupation, and, if not, what alternative recourses to justice exist for the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Sokatch ultimately threw his hands up in the air.

When it comes to Israel and its occupation, the jury is still out on where this critical accountability will come from.

The wishywashyness is understandable because these organizations are in a difficult practical position. Their donors and boards include older Jews who still regard Israel as a miracle and, though critical of the occupation, likely see the ICC probe as singling Israel out. Those donors and others to their right have set the tone for the Democratic Party’s response– the Ted Deutch/Brad Schneider lockstep statements with Israel, and Biden and Blinken’s too. J Street and Americans for Peace Now don’t want to be out of step with the Israel lobby broadly, because they would then lose some political access. Peace Now is a member org of the rightwing Conference of Presidents!

Meantime, the progressive base of the Democratic Party likes the ICC decision, and so do young Jews. The left-wing Jewish communal group IfNotNow has repeatedly praised the ICC probe and bewailed the American response. This was how IfNotNow greeted Tony Blinken’s opposition to the ICC:

The liberal Zionist organizations are afraid of losing that generation. At its last conference in Oct. 2019, J Street made several gestures towards IfNotNow. For now, though, they’ve chosen the conservative generation.

Philip Weiss is senior editor of Mondoweiss.net and founded the site in 2005-06.

5 March 2021

Source: mondoweiss.net

WASHINGTON, Friday, March 5, 2021 (WAFA) – A US congresswoman Thursday slammed US administration’s decision to oppose ICC probe Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people.

Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib defended the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s decision to launch a probe into war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The ICC “has the authority and duty to independently and impartially investigate and deliver justice to victims of human rights violations and war crimes in Palestine and Israel,” the first Palestinian American elected to Congress tweeted.

“The U.S. should not interfere with its ability to do so,” she insisted.

Tlaib’s rebuke of the US opposition to the ICC probe came in response to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s remarks expressing firm opposition to such a probe.

“The United States firmly opposes an International Criminal Court investigation into the Palestinian Situation,” he tweeted while vowing to “continue to uphold our strong commitment to Israel and its security, including by opposing actions that seek to target Israel unfairly.”

Blinken was not the only US official to oppose ICC probe of possible war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, as he was joined by US Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Harris and Netanyahu noted their governments’ “opposition to the International Criminal Court’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel.”

Prosecutor Bensouda, who will be replaced by British prosecutor Karim Khan on 16 June, said in December 2019 that war crimes had been, or were being, committed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

She named both the Israeli army and armed Palestinian groups such as Hamas as possible perpetrators.

K. F.

Source: english.wafa.ps

By TOI staff

The International Criminal Court will send Jerusalem a letter next week formally detailing the scope of its war crimes investigation against Israel and the Palestinians, Channel 13 reported Friday.

Israel will then have 30 days to respond, the report said, adding that Jerusalem is leaning toward doing so after largely refusing to cooperate with The Hague-based international court until now. However, Israel is expected to use its response as an opportunity to once again voice the argument that the ICC has no jurisdiction to hear the case.

The hope in Israel is that its argument over jurisdiction will succeed in delaying the case until outgoing ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is replaced in June by British lawmaker Karim Khan, whom Jerusalem hopes may be less hostile or may even cancel the probe.

A number of officials told Channel 13 that they’re concerned the ICC may already start issuing arrest warrants against former IDF officers in the coming months.

Consequently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz have begun reaching out to counterparts throughout Europe to galvanize support against the case, the Kan public broadcaster reported. Netanyahu and Gantz have been stressing in those calls that the investigation is biased against Israel, which has an independent legal system capable of prosecuting any alleged crimes.

Bensouda announced on Wednesday that she was opening an investigation into actions committed by Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem since 2014.

Bensouda indicated in 2019 that a criminal investigation would likely focus on the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, Israeli settlement policy, and the 2018 Great March of Return protests, a series of violent demonstrations along Gaza’s border with Israel that left dozens of Palestinians dead.

However, it is unclear to what degree Israel’s argument would stick, particularly with regard to settlement policy, as in recent years Israeli courts have been used to regulate settlements and legalize wildcat outposts in the West Bank, which most of the international community deems as illegal.

Meanwhile, Israel has sent warnings to the Palestinian Authority, which had submitted the requests to the ICC in 2014 that led to these probes, telling Ramallah that the war crime investigation will make it difficult for Jerusalem to advance confidence-building measures for the Palestinians, Kan reported Thursday. PA officials responded, saying that just as Israel has engaged in peace talks while building in the settlements, the Palestinians can continue their contacts with Israel while the ICC probe moves forward.

The announcement of the investigation came less than a month after the court ruled it had the jurisdiction to open a probe. A preliminary investigation to settle the justiciability question took more than five years.

“The investigation will cover crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court that are alleged to have been committed in the situation since 13 June 2014, the date to which reference is made in the referral of the situation to my office,” Bensouda said in a statement on Wednesday.

Ramallah has been gearing up for the investigation for years, preparing documents and submitting files to the ICC on what it deems to be Israeli war crimes.

Israeli observers noted the significance of the timing of the investigation’s span: On June 12, 2014, Hamas terrorists kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers in the Gush Etzion area of the West Bank. Bensouda’s investigation — based on the request submitted by the so-called State of Palestine — is set to begin from the following day.

The brutal terror attack, which horrified Israelis and drew international condemnation, was a pivotal moment in the lead-up to the fighting in Gaza later that summer. With the investigation set to consider events beginning on June 13, 2014, the crime could be excluded from the court’s investigation.

5 March 2021

Source: www.timesofisrael.com

By Yumna Patel

2020 was a dismal year for human rights in Palestine, as Israel tightened its grip on the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) through escalated attacks on Palestinians and their property and the introduction of new laws to further limit Palestinian rights, all in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new field report from Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq released this week details the numerous human rights violations that occurred throughout Palestine, particularly in the occupied West Bank, during 2020 — violations that the group said were exacerbated by, and spurred on, by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In the report, Al-Haq states that while Palestinians focused their efforts into combating the spread of the coronavirus in 2020, Israel “seized the opportunity to advance its settler project and intensify repressive measures against Palestinians in all their places of residence.”

Those repressive measures, the group says, included massive home demolitions, land confiscation, settlement expansion, and the violation of freedom of movement and the right to health, among other things.

Most “remarkable” of all the Israeli violations documented in 2020 , the group said, was the increasing frequency of demolishing Palestinian homes and structures.

According to Al-Haq, the number of Palestinian structures, both public and private, that were destroyed in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, amounted to twice the average number of structures destroyed on an annual basis over the past 10 years.

In 2020, the group recorded the demolition of 535 Palestinian private and public structures, compared to an average of 325 demolished structures over the past 10 years (2010-2019).

Of the 535 structures destroyed in 2020, 248 of them were homes, the vast majority of which (242) were demolished under the pretext of lacking Israeli-issued building permits, which are notoriously difficult to obtain.

The other six homes were demolished on punitive grounds — a practice employed by the Israeli government against Palestinians accused of committing attacks against Israelis, and one that rights groups have characterized as “collective punishment.” Israel claims that punitive home demolitions “deter” future attacks, though that claim has been disputed by top Israeli security officials over the years.

Home demolitions in 2020 resulted in the displacement of 941 persons, of which 462 are women and girls, 442 are children, 267 are school students, and 124 are Palestinian refugees already displaced from their original homes, Al-Haq said in its report.

In the case of 69 home demolitions, Israeli authorities did not allow the home owners an opportunity to evacuate their belongings before the demolitions were carried out. Additionally, Al-Haq reported that members of 27 affected families were “violently harassed, attacked, or physically assaulted” during the demolition.

Israeli forces also carried out the demolition of four public structures, including a tent erected for sit-in protests against the Israeli occupation, the foundations of a school, one classroom, and the perimeter wall of a soccer playground that was still under construction.

Today, 500,000 Palestinian structures located inside the boundaries of the Green Line are still under threat of demolition. The UN recently reported that among the structures at risk, are 53 schools located across the West Bank.

As Palestinians were having their homes destroyed at alarming rates, Israeli settlers living illegally in the West Bank and East Jerusalem continued to benefit from Israel’s construction and planning policies. In 2020, Israel confiscated 20,030 dunums (4,949 acres) of land for settlement expansion throughout the OPT.

According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, 2020 saw the highest level of settlement construction plan approvals per year in the past two decades, with 12,159 housing units approved for Israeli settlements last year alone. In comparison, only 245 housing units, many of which already exist, were approved for Palestinians.

Killings & physical violence

In addition to benefiting from the confiscation of Palestinian land, Israel settlers carried out significant amounts of violence against Palestinians in 2020, Al-Haq reported, saying that “of all other Israeli perpetrators, Israeli settlers committed the greater portion of violations.”

The nature of the settler violence included attacks on Palestinians and their property, leaving many Palestinians with physical injuries, the vandalism of Palestinian communities with racist graffiti, preventing Palestinians from accessing their land, and the chopping down, burning, and theft of Palestinian crops.

Al-Haq noted that a majority of the attacks were carried out in the Nablus district in the northern West Bank, with a significant number of attacks taking place in the Palestinian towns and villages that surround the notoriously violent and ultra-nationalist Yitzhar settlement.

In 2020, Israel human rights group B’Tselem documented 248 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians, including: 86 bodily assaults, in which 75 Palestinians were injured; 27 cases of stone-throwing at homes; 17 attacks on moving vehicles; 147 of the attacks were aimed at Palestinian farmers or their property, including 80 cases of damage to trees and crops owned by Palestinians, resulting in more than 3,000 trees vandalized.

B’Tselem noted that 72 instances of settler violence took place in the presence of Israeli soldiers, police officers or security personnel, who did not intervene to stop the assault on the Palestinians or their property.

“These violent acts could not take place without the sweeping support provided by the state,” B’Tselem said, adding that in 28 cases of settler violence, Israeli soldiers dispersed the Palestinian residents who were under attack by firing tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets, at them. In five instances, live fire was used against the Palestinians, and at least 12 Palestinians were arrested during these altercations.

In addition to overseeing and promoting settler violence, Israeli forces themselves were responsible for the killing of 32 Palestinians in 2020, including nine children, Al-Haq reported.

On nine occasions, the group noted, Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinian ambulances from accessing and providing first aid to the injured Palestinians before they succumbed to their wounds. In 19 cases, reflecting the majority of Palestinian’s killed in 2020, Israeli soldiers did not offer any first aid to wounded Palestinians after they had been shot.

According to Al-Haq, 11 Palestinians were killed in “peculiar circumstances,” including four Palestinian prisoners who were believed to have died inside Israeli prison as a result of medical negligence.

In 2020, Israeli authorities withheld the bodies of 18 Palestinians as part of its policy of withholding the bodies of slain Palestinians accused of committing attacks against Israelis — a policy that has been widely condemned by human rights groups as “cruel and without legal justification.”

By the end of 2020, Israel continued to hold the bodies of 69 Palestinians. One of those bodies is that of Ahmad Erekat, who Israeli authorities were accused of “extrajudicially executing” at a military checkpoint in June 2020, and whose case has drawn widespread international attention.

In an attempt to further entrench the policy of impunity that Israel exercises towards its soldiers who kill and injure Palestinians, a draft law was proposed in 2020 that would inhibit “the ability to hold to account soldiers who killed Palestinians during their military service,” Al-Haq said.

In addition to promoting the existing culture of impunity, the draft law “encourages [Israeli] troops to utilize force, in violation of international law, without any expectation of accountability,” the group said.

In addition to killings and home demolitions Israeli forces were responsible for perpetrating more than 1,000 other violations, Al-Haq reported, including arrests, confiscation of property, beatings, physical violence, and torture, among others.

Al-Haq reported that Israeli soldiers also “assaulted Palestinian medics, denied access permits or permits to receive medical treatment, placednrestrictions on the rights to freedom of movement and peaceful assembly, and committed environmental violations.”

“To further tighten Israel’s colonial grip, a draft law was submitted to suppress the
Palestinian right to resistance against the Israeli colonial occupation,” Al-Haq reported, referring to a law that proposes legalizing the expulsion of the families of Palestinians who “carry out operations against the Israeli occupying authorities outside Palestine.”

“This is a more egregious form of collective punishment imposed by the Israeli occupying authorities on the families of those charged with carrying out operations against the Israeli occupation,” the group said.

Additionally, as part of Israel’s “unrelenting efforts to suppress the right to freedom
of expression,” a draft law was presented to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that would see a provision added to the existing “Anti-Terrorism Law” prescribing a five year prison sentence for anyone who published or ‘likes’ a post on social media “supporting Palestinian rights and struggle for independence.”

PA & Hamas violations

While Israeli forces and settlers carried out the majority of human rights violations in Palestine in 2020, Palestinians’ rights were also under threat from their own government and authorities in the West Bank and Gaza.

According to Al-Haq, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas, the de facto authority in the Gaza Strip, perpetuated a number of rights violations “under the guise of the state of emergency” that was “unlawfully” declared at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, and has since been extended.

Palestinian authorities were responsible for numerous violations, including arbitrary detention; infringements on the right to a fair trial, right to humane prison conditions, and right to freedom of expression, Al-Haq said.

Ill treatment, torture, beating, physical violence, and confiscation of devices, funds, and equipment were also on the list of violations committed by Palestinian officials during 2020.

The majority of human rights violations perpetrated by Palestinian authorities were
committed by the police in the West Bank (106) and in the Gaza Strip (155); Preventive
Security forces (159); Internal Security forces (148); and the General Intelligence (66), Al-Haq reported.

Palestinian officials have long been accused of widespread corruption and have been criticized for quashing dissent, both in the West Bank and Gaza. Dozens of Palestinian citizens, mainly youth, have been arrested and tortured by the PA over social media posts critical of Abbas and his regime in recent years.

Yumna Patel is the Palestine correspondent for Mondoweiss.

5 March 2021

Source: mondoweiss.net

By Sahar Francis

The overwhelming majority of Palestinians in the West Bank were born into, and have spent their entire lives under, an Israeli military occupation that violates their right to self-determination. A new report by the UK charity War on Want exposes how a core part of what sustains that occupation is a military judicial system characterised by violations of international law.

The report – Judge, Jury and Occupier – is a deep dive into the diverse ways in which Palestinians’ rights are being violated – from arrest, through interrogation, conviction and jail time. It reflects the experiences of Palestinian lawyers and human rights groups. The prisoners’ rights organisation I lead, Addameer, was proud to contribute evidence.

One of the report’s important contributions is to make clear that, despite the Oslo accords and establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for Palestinians in the West Bank, there has been, and remains, no escape from Israel’s military judicial system.

Regardless of the existence of the PA penal code and judiciary, which operate with limited autonomy in parts of the occupied territory, all Palestinians, wherever they reside in the West Bank, remain subject to the jurisdiction of Israel’s military courts if they fall foul of certain laws.

The impact of this military judicial system is far-reaching, and profoundly discriminatory.

Since 1967, for example, Israel has decreed more than 411 Palestinian organisations illegal, including all the major Palestinian political parties. Palestinian civilians are then prosecuted for “membership and activity in an unlawful association”, a key tool in Israel’s repression of anti-occupation activism.

Public order offences, meanwhile, include the charge of “incitement”, defined as any attempt “to influence public opinion … in a manner which may harm public peace or public order”. Palestinians can also be detained for “bringing into hatred or contempt, or the exciting of disaffection against” authorities.

Other charges heard by the military courts include being in Israel illegally – that is, those caught looking for work without a permit – as well as traffic violations. The latter accounts for some 40% of all Palestinians brought before the military courts each year.

The military judicial system is part of a “separate and unequal” reality. In contrast to Palestinians, Israeli settlers arrested in the West Bank are tried in civilian courts inside Israel. Two populations, two different legal systems – Israel’s largest human rights group is therefore right to call this a form of apartheid.

Within this wider discriminatory system, there are specific and serious violations of international law.

One such violation is torture, a method that the report documents is used routinely, along with other cruel and degrading acts, to extract confessions from Palestinians during interrogations (access to a lawyer can be denied for up to 60 days). These confessions are then used as the primary evidence to secure convictions in the military courts. One example of many is Tariq, a school counsellor arrested in 2019 for allegedly being a member of a proscribed organisation; his ordeal included beatings, stress positions and verbal abuse. Another transgression of the law concerns the fact that most Palestinian prisoners are held in prisons within Israel, despite the fourth Geneva convention’s prohibition of the transfer of prisoners from the occupied territory into the occupying state.

All of this occurs within a system that – as I know from my own years of experience defending people in the military courts – cannot be “reformed” but rather must be abolished.

Any occupying power is obliged to act in the interests of the occupied population; Israel, by contrast, is violating Palestinians’ civil and political rights. In addition, as UN special rapporteur Michael Lynk has laid out, after half a century, Israel’s “role as occupier … has crossed a red line into illegality”.

Britain has a particular role, and responsibility. An important element of Israel’s military rule in the occupied West Bank is the Defence (Emergency) Regulations enacted by the British mandate in Palestine in 1945. Today, the UK government approves the sale of weapons, components and military technology to Israel, as well as imports of Israeli-made military technology.

The report thus calls for the UK government to implement a two-way arms embargo, and also urges the government to increase support for Palestinian human rights defenders and organisations.

Applying meaningful pressure on Israel to end its occupation and military judicial system is the necessary response to a historical wrong and a present injustice. For the Palestinian men, women and children subjected to a Kafkaesque denial of their liberty this is not just necessary, it is urgent.

Sahar Francis is director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

6 March 2021

Source: theguardian.com