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By Aviva Chomsky

In the colonial view of the world — and, in its own strange fashion, Donald Trump’s view couldn’t be more colonial — White European colonizers were embattled beacons of civilization, rationality, and progress, confronting dangerous barbaric hordes beyond (and even, sometimes, within) their own frontiers. Colonial violence then was a necessary form of self-defense needed to tame irrational eruptions of brutality among the colonized. To make sense of the bipartisan U.S. devotion to Israel, including the glorification of Israeli violence and the demonization of Palestinians, as well as the Trump administration’s recent attacks on Black South Africa, student activists, and immigrants, it’s important to grasp that worldview.

On the Caribbean island of Barbados, Great Britain’s 1688 Act “For the Governing of Negroes” proclaimed that “Negroes… are of a barbarous, wild, and savage nature, and such as renders them wholly unqualified to be governed by the Laws, Customes, and Practices of our Nation: It is therefore becoming absolutely necessary, that such other Constitutions, Laws and Orders, should be… framed and enacted for the good regulating or ordering of them, as may both restrain the disorders, rapines, and inhumanities to which they are naturally prone and inclined.”

When I read those words recently, I heard strange echoes of how President Trump talks about immigrants, Palestinians, and Black South Africans. The text of that act exemplified what would become longstanding colonial ideologies: the colonized are unpredictably “barbarous, wild, and savage” and so must be governed by the colonizing power with a separate set of (harsh) laws; and — though not directly stated — must be assigned a legal status that sets them apart from the rights-bearing one the colonizers granted themselves. Due to their “barbarous, wild, and savage nature,” violence would inevitably be necessary to keep them under control.

Colonization meant bringing White Europeans to confront those supposedly dangerous peoples in their own often distant homelands. It also meant, as in Barbados, bringing supposedly dangerous people to new places and using violence and brutal laws to control them there. In the United States, it meant trying to displace or eliminate what the Declaration of Independence called “merciless Indian savages” and justifying White violence with slave codes based on the one the British used in Barbados in the face of the ever-present threat supposedly posed by enslaved Black people.

That grim 1688 Act also revealed how colonialism blurred the lines between Europe and its colonies. As an expansionist Europe grew ever more expansive, it brought rights-holding Europeans and those they excluded, suppressed, or dominated into the same physical spaces through colonization, enslavement, transportation, and war. Enslaved Africans were inside the territory, but outside the legal system. Expansion required violence, along with elaborate legal structures and ideologies to enforce and justify who belonged and who never would, and — yes! — ever more violence to keep the system in place.

Ideas Still with Us

The legacies of colonialism and the set of ideas behind that Act of 1688 are still with us and continue to target formerly colonized (and still colonized) peoples.

Given the increasingly unsettled nature of our world, thanks to war, politics, and the growing pressures of climate change, ever more people have tried to leave their embattled countries and emigrate to Europe and the United States. There, they find a rising tide of anti-immigrant racism that reproduces a modern version of old-fashioned colonial racism. Europe and the United States, of course, reserve the right to deny entry, or grant only partial, temporary, revocable, and limited status to many of those seeking refuge in their countries. Those different statuses mean that they are subject to different legal systems once they’re there. In Donald Trump’s America, for instance, the United States reserves the right to detain and deport even green-card holders at will, merely by claiming that their presence poses a threat, as in the case of Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, arrested in New York but quickly sent into custody in Louisiana.

Colonial racism helps explain the Trump administration’s adulation of Israeli violence against Palestinians. In good colonial fashion, Israel relies on laws that grant full rights to some, while justifying the repression (not to mention genocide) of others. Israeli violence, like the Barbadian slave code, always claims to “restrain the disorders, rapines, and inhumanities to which [Palestinians] are naturally prone and inclined.”

South Africa, of course, is still struggling with its colonial and post-colonial legacy — including decades of apartheid, which created political and legal structures that massively privileged the White population there. And while apartheid is now a past legacy, ongoing attempts to undo its damage like a January 2025 land reform law have only raised President Trump’s ire in ways that echo his reaction to even the most modest attempts to promote “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” or that dreaded abbreviation of the Trump era, DEI, in American institutions ranging from the military to universities.

Israel, though, remains a paragon of virtue and glory in Trump’s eyes. Its multiple legal structures keep Palestinians legally excluded in a diaspora from which they are not allowed to return, under devastating military occupation, with the constant threat of expulsion from the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and in occupied East Jerusalem, where they are Israeli residents but not full citizens and subject to multiple legal exclusions as non-Jews. (Donald Trump, of course, had a similar fantasy when he imagined rebuilding Gaza as a Middle Eastern “Riviera,” while expelling the Palestinians from the area.) Even those who are citizens of Israel are explicitly denied a national identity and subject to numerous discriminatory laws in a country that claims to represent “the national home of the Jewish people” and to which displaced Palestinians are forbidden to return, even as “Jewish settlement is a national value.”

Good Discrimination, Bad Discrimination

Lately, of course, right-wing politicians and pundits in this country have been denouncing any policies that claim special protections for, or even academic or legal acknowledgement of, long marginalized groups. They once derisively dubbed all such things “critical race theory” and now denounce DEI programs as divisive and — yes! — discriminatory, insisting that they be dismantled or abolished.

Meanwhile, there are two groups that those same right-wing actors have assiduously sought to protect: White South Africans and Jews. In his February executive order cutting aid to South Africa and offering refugee status to White Afrikaner South Africans (and only them), Trump accused that country’s government of enacting “countless… policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business.” No matter that such a view of South Africa is pure fantasy. What he meant, of course, was that they were dismantling apartheid-legacy policies that privileged Whites.

Meanwhile, his administration has been dismantling actual equal opportunity policies here, calling them “illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).’” The difference?  President Trump is proud to kill policies that create opportunities for people of color, just as he was outraged at South Africa’s land reform law that chipped away at the historical privilege of White landowners there. His attack on DEI reflects his drive to undo the very notion of creating de facto equal access for citizens (especially people of color) who have long been denied it.

Trump and his allies are also obsessed with what his January 30th executive order called an “explosion of antisemitism.” Unlike Black, Native American, Hispanic, LGBTQIA+, or other historically marginalized groups in the United States, American Jews — like Afrikaners — are considered a group deserving of special protection.

What is the source of this supposed “explosion” of antisemitism? The answer: “pro-Hamas aliens and left-wing radicals” who, Trump claims, are carrying out “a campaign of intimidation, vandalism, and violence on the campuses and streets of America.” In other words, the ever-present barbarian threat is now embodied by “aliens” and “radicals” who challenge Israeli colonial violence and a US-dominated global order.

And — this is important! — not all Jews deserve such special protection, only those who identify with and support Israel’s colonial violence. The American right’s current obsession with antisemitism has little to do with the rights of Jews generally and everything to do with its commitment to Israel.

Even the most minor deviation from full-throated support for Israeli violence earned Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer the scorn of Trump, who called him “a proud member of Hamas” and added, “He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.” Apparently for Trump, the very word “Palestinian” is a slur.

Israeli Violence Is “Stunning,” While Palestinians Are “Barbaric”

The American media and officials of both parties have generally celebrated Israeli violence. In September 2024, the New York Times referred to Israel’s “two days of stunning attacks that detonated pagers and handheld radios across Lebanon” that killed dozens and maimed thousands. A Washington Post headline called “Israel’s pager attack an intelligence triumph.” President Joe Biden then lauded Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah in September as “a measure of justice” and called its assassination of Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar a month later “a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.” On Israel’s murder of the chief Hamas negotiator, Ismael Haniyeh, in the midst of U.S.-sponsored ceasefire negotiations in August, Biden could only lament that it was “not helpful.”

Compare this to the outrage professed when Columbia Middle East Studies professor Joseph Massad wrote, in an article on Arab world reactions to Hamas’s October 7th attack, that “the sight of the Palestinian resistance fighters storming Israeli checkpoints separating Gaza from Israel was astounding.” For that simple reflection of those Arab reactions, Columbia’s then-President Minouche Shafik denounced him before Congress, announcing that she was “appalled” and that Massad was being investigated because his language was “unacceptable.” He never would have gotten tenure had she known of his views, she insisted. Apparently only Israeli violence can be “stunning” or a “triumph.”

Meanwhile, at Harvard on October 9th, Palestine solidarity student groups quoted Israeli officials who promised to “open the gates of hell” on Gaza. “We hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” they wrote. Despite the fact that multiple Israeli sources were saying similar things, Republican Representative Elise Stefanik posted: “It is abhorrent and heinous that Harvard students are blaming Israel for Hamas’ barbaric attacks.” Note the use of the word “barbaric” from the slave code, repeatedly invoked by journalists, intellectuals, and politicians when it came to Hamas or Palestinians, but not Israelis.

In November 2024, when the U.S. vetoed (for the fourth time) a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the world was aghast. The U.N. warned that, after a year of Israel’s intensive bombardment and 40 days of the complete blockade of humanitarian supplies, two million Palestinians were “facing diminishing conditions of survival.” The U.N. Director of Human Rights Watch accused the U.S. of acting “to ensure impunity for Israel as its forces continue to commit crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.” The American ambassador, however, defended the veto, arguing that, although the resolution called for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza, it did not provide enough “linkage.” And of course, U.S. arms, including staggeringly destructive 2,000-pound bombs, have continued to flow to Israel in striking quantities as the genocide continues.

Connecting Immigrants, Palestinians, and South Africa

Closer to home, Trump’s full-throated attack on immigrants has revived the worst of colonial language. The Marshall Project has, for instance, tracked some of his major claims and how often he’s repeated them: “Unauthorized immigrants are criminals [said 575+ times], snakes that bite [35+ times], eating pets, coming from jails and mental institutions [560+ times], causing crime in sanctuary cities [185+ times], and a group of isolated, tragic cases prove they are killing Americans en masse [235+ times].” Clearly, draconian laws are needed to control such monsters!

Trump has also promised to deport millions of immigrants and issued a series of executive orders meant to greatly expand the detention and deportation of those living in the United States without legal authorization — “undocumented people.” Another set of orders is meant to strip the status of millions of immigrants who are currently here with legal authorization, revoking Temporary Protected Status, work authorizations, student visas, and even green cards. One reason for this is to expand the number of people who can be deported since, despite all the rhetoric and the spectacle, the administration has struggled so far to achieve anything faintly like the rates it has promised.

This anti-immigrant drive harmonizes with Trump’s affection for Jewish Israel and White South Africa in obvious ways. White South Africans are being welcomed with open arms (though few are coming), while other immigrants are targeted. Non-citizen students and others have been particularly singled out for supposedly “celebrating Hamas’ mass rape, kidnapping, and murder.” The cases of Mahmoud Khalil, Rasha Alawieh, Momodou Taal, Badar Khan Suri, Yunseo Chung, and Rumeysa Ozturk (and perhaps others by the time this article is published) stand out in this regard. The Trump administration repeatedly denigrates movements for Palestinian rights and immigrants as violent threats that must be contained.

There are some deeper connections as well. Immigrants from what Trump once termed “shit-hole countries” are, in his view, not only prone to violence and criminality themselves but also inclined to anti-American and anti-Israel views, leaving this country supposedly at risk. Included in his executive order on South Africa was the accusation that its government “has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel… of genocide in the International Court of Justice” and is “undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation” — almost identical wording to that used to justify the revocation of visas for Khalil and others. In other words, threats are everywhere.

Trump and his associates weaponize antisemitism to attack student protesters, progressive Jewish organizations, freedom of speech, immigrants, higher education, and other threats to his colonizer’s view of the world.

In reality, however, the United States, Israel, and White South Africa exist as colonial anachronisms in what President Joe Biden, echoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described (with respect to Israel) as an “incredibly dangerous neighborhood.” And Trump has only doubled down on that view.

Strange to imagine, but the planters of Barbados would undoubtedly be proud to see their ideological descendants continuing to impose violent control on our world, while invoking the racist ideas they proposed in the 1600s.

Aviva Chomsky, a TomDispatch regular, is professor of history and coordinator of Latin American studies at Salem State University in Massachusetts.

11 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinain Territory – The horrific massacre carried out by Israeli forces in the Al-Shuja’iyya neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, marks a clear escalation in the ongoing genocide and a blatant denial of the Palestinian people’s right to life in the Gaza Strip. The attack represents an explicit and deliberate attempt to completely erase the Palestinian presence in Gaza.

Euro-Med Monitor’s field team documented that at approximately 9:28 a.m. on Wednesday, 9 April 2025, Israeli warplanes launched multiple airstrikes using highly destructive bombs on a densely populated residential block on Baghdad Street in the Al-Shuja’iyya neighbourhood. The attack led to the complete destruction of around ten homes, with residents still inside, resulting in the deaths of over 35 civilians and injuries to more than 50 others.

Preliminary reports indicate that dozens of people remain trapped under the rubble. Although civil defence teams were able to rescue some individuals using basic tools, rescue operations had to be suspended by evening due to the extreme dangers facing emergency workers in the targeted area.

Euro-Med Monitor’s team also documented distress calls from individuals trapped beneath the debris, pleading for help and directing rescuers to their locations. Despite the urgent need for heavy equipment to clear the rubble and reach survivors, rescue efforts relied entirely on primitive methods and manual tools. Some victims died from suffocation or untreated injuries due to delays in the rescue operations.

In addition to the massacre, Israeli warplanes bombed another house in the same neighbourhood, killing five more civilians and injuring several others. This strike was part of a broader assault on Al-Shuja’iyya that began at dawn the previous Thursday with the detonation of an explosive-laden robot, followed by widespread aerial bombardment and forced displacement orders. The assault remains ongoing.

Israeli military sources attempted to justify the massacre by claiming it targeted a ‘Hamas military commander’—a recurring narrative used to Justify the deliberate mass killing of civilians as part of a broader campaign of genocide in Gaza. Israel consistently repeats the same claim whenever global public opinion turns against its actions—alleging that it was targeting ‘militants’—to justify attacks on civilians. However, it fails to provide any verifiable evidence or permit independent bodies to assess the validity of these claims.

Making such claims does not absolve Israel of its obligations under international law, including the duty to conduct effective investigations, hold perpetrators accountable, and provide redress to victims. Nor does it relieve other states of their legal responsibilities to investigate, ensure accountability, and pursue justice for victims. The automatic acceptance of Israel’s unsupported claims effectively grants it a blank cheque to continue targeting civilians under a false legal pretext—ultimately undermining the integrity and effectiveness of the international legal system.

Even if a combatant were present or passing through the area, it would not justify the brutal massacres nor absolve Israel of its binding legal obligations under international humanitarian law. These obligations include adherence to the principles of humanity, distinction, military necessity, proportionality, and precaution—all of which must be upheld in the planning and execution of any military operation, without exception. This includes decisions regarding the methods and means of warfare, which must be designed to minimise civilian casualties and harm.

The details of the massacre—particularly the extensive destruction and high civilian death toll—leave no doubt that Israeli forces blatantly disregarded fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. The attack targeted a densely populated civilian area, predominantly affecting children, using highly destructive weapons. It was executed without distinction between military and civilian targets, and without taking the necessary precautions to prevent or minimise civilian harm. Taken together, these circumstances strongly indicate that the attack was coordinated and deliberately directed at civilians, affirming the unlawful nature of the operation and qualifying it as a grave international crime warranting prosecution and full accountability.

The mass killing of Palestinians has been normalised, eliciting nothing but silence, as though Israel can openly and without fear of moral or legal repercussions take Palestinian civilian lives. This grim reality appears to have been implicitly accepted by the international community.

The international community’s tolerance of this ongoing pattern of crimes is not merely a moral failure—it constitutes a serious breach of both state and international legal obligations. This tolerance effectively transforms the mass killing of Palestinians from a criminal act into a publicly executed policy. In this context, global silence amounts to a direct failure to uphold the legal duty to prevent and punish genocide, as mandated by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Israel’s method of killing reflects a clear and deliberate policy to eradicate Palestinian civilians throughout the Gaza Strip. It spreads fear, deprives people of shelter and even momentary stability, forces repeated displacement, and imposes deadly living conditions. This is further compounded by ongoing bombardments across the Strip, including attacks on areas designated as ‘humanitarian zones’ and the targeted destruction of shelters, many of which are located within UNRWA facilities.

All countries, both individually and collectively, must fulfil their legal obligations and act urgently to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip in all its forms. They must take all practical measures to protect Palestinian civilians. Euro-Med Monitor emphasises the need to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice and to guarantee accountability for its crimes against the Palestinian people. Furthermore, the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defence must be executed at the earliest opportunity, and the Court must be allowed to bring them to international justice.

The international community must immediately impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel in response to its systematic and grave violations of international law. These sanctions should include a ban on the export and import of weapons involving Israel; the suspension of all political, financial, and military support or cooperation; the freezing of financial assets belonging to individuals responsible for crimes against Palestinians; and the imposition of travel bans on those individuals. Additionally, any trade privileges and bilateral agreements that provide Israel with economic advantages enabling the continuation of its actions in Gaza must be suspended without delay.

Finally, all relevant states and entities must hold complicit governments accountable—foremost among them the United States—along with other nations that provide Israel with direct or indirect support in carrying out its crimes. Any form of assistance or collaboration with Israel’s military, intelligence, political, legal, financial, or media sectors contributes to the continuation of atrocities against the Palestinian people.

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

11 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Ramzy Baroud

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

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

Morag Axis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Nothing Left to Destroy”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Kevin Reed

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

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

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

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

A report by Al Jazeera described the scene:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The statement goes on:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

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

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

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

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

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

Please read the news in this newsletter and disseminate widely.

Ranjan Solomon

On behalf of MLN/Palestine Updates

15 April 2025

By Nick Beams

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

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

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

The latest measures have brought a defiant response from Beijing.

A spokesperson from the Commerce Ministry said:

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

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

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

The ministry official said the tariff escalation was

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

According to the Financial Times:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org