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By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Over 740 starving civilians have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid near distribution sites run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Gaza since the controversial foundation began operations in late May.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Saturday, 743 have been killed and 4,891 other injured by Israeli forces across Gaza while searching for food near or at GHF sites.

More than 39 others are still missing after heading to these sites, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organizations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians.

An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report in May warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organizations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques.

The UN also confirmed that Israel is still blocking food from reaching starving Palestinians with only a few trucks of aid having reached Gaza.

According to a Haaretz report last week, conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered forces to shoot at crowds waiting for food near or at the US-backed GHF aid sites to drive them away or disperse them, despite posing no threat.

“It’s a killing field,” one soldier said. “Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”

On Monday, the Israeli military admitted that its forces “harmed” Palestinian civilians at US-Israeli aid distribution centers in Gaza. The army claimed new field instructions were issued based on “lessons learned.”

More than 130 charities and NGOs called last week for the closure of the controversial Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

“Today, Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,” their statement said.

“Orphaned children and caregivers are among the dead, with children harmed in over half of the attacks on civilians at these sites.”

The aid organizations said GHF “is not a humanitarian response” for the Gazans.
“Amidst severe hunger and famine-like conditions, many families tell us they are now too weak to compete for food rations,” the groups said.

Palestinians in Gaza and the UN described these sites as “mass death traps” and “slaughterhouses”.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that “weaponizing aid in this manner may constitute crimes against humanity.”

“Every day Palestinians are met with carnage in their attempts to receive supplies from the insufficient amount of aid trickling into Gaza,” MSF said.

The commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the “lethal” US-Israel aid distribution mechanism in Gaza. In a post on X, Lazzarini indicated that Palestinian lives “have been so devalued”.

“It is now the routine to shoot & kill desperate & starving people while they try to collect little food from a company made of mercenaries,” he said.

“Inviting starving people to their death is a war crime. Those responsible of this system must be held accountable. This is a disgrace & a stain on our collective consciousness.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the US-backed aid distribution mechanism is “inherently unsafe” and “it is killing people.”

“Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,” Guterres told reporters.

Guterres said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being “strangled,” aid workers themselves are starving and Israel, as the occupying power, is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave.

“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters.

On Wednesday, an investigation by the Associated Press confirmed that American security contractors guarding Gaza aid sites are using live ammunition, stun grenades, and pepper spray against starved Palestinians. It also revealed that Israel is using the so-called aid centers to collect intelligence and that security personnel deployed in Gaza appear to have an open license to do whatever they want.

Amnesty International has described the group’s operations as an “inhumane and deadly militarized scheme”.

“All the evidence gathered, including testimonies which Amnesty International is receiving from victims and witnesses, suggest that the GHF was designed so as to placate international concerns while constituting another tool of Israel’s genocide,” Amnesty said.

6 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Doctors in Gaza are sounding the alarm over a growing crisis threatening hundreds of babies, reported the Guardian. The strip is running out of infant formula as Israel continues to restrict aid access.

Dr. Ahmad al-Farra, head of paediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said he only has enough baby formula to last one week. He has already run out of special formula for premature babies. Now, he is forced to ration standard formula among several infants.

“I can’t begin to describe how bad things are,” al-Farra told The Guardian. “We have babies outside the hospital who have no milk at all. It’s catastrophic.”

The shortage is worsening as Israel allows only a fraction of the needed aid into Gaza. The infamous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), founded by Israel and the US, does not distribute baby formula, according to local doctors.

Hanaa al-Taweel, a 27-year-old mother of five in al-Nuseirat camp, said she stopped breastfeeding due to malnutrition. She cannot find formula for her 13-month-old baby.

“My baby wakes up crying for food. I keep a piece of bread by his side at night. I fear my children will die from hunger,” she said.

Doctors diagnosed her baby with stunting due to severe malnutrition. “He’s not walking or speaking like my other children did,” she added.

Nourhan Barakat, another mother displaced to Khan Younis, had to stop breastfeeding after one month. “I know breastfeeding builds the bond with my child. But what can I do if I have no food?”

At least 66 Palestinian children have already died from hunger since the genocide began in October 2023.

The World Health Organization says about 112 children are being admitted daily for malnutrition treatment. Doctors fear permanent developmental damage among babies under three.

“This generation is being targeted,” said Dr. al-Farra. “Even if nutrition returns later, the damage is permanent.”

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, part of an international medical team, warned: “When babies begin to die, that’s the final alarm. Children die first in starvation crises.”

Some doctors smuggle formula cans in their luggage. Israeli authorities recently confiscated 10 cans of preemie formula from an American doctor’s bag.

Dr. Diana Nazzal, a Palestinian-German surgeon, said, “What is baby formula going to do to Israel’s security? We’re being blocked from feeding babies.”

Medical teams now bring food instead of medicine, filling bags with protein bars and nuts. Formula on the black market sells for $50 per can; 10 times the normal price.

The Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians since October 7. Israel has rejected every ceasefire proposal that would have ended the genocide.

Meanwhile, doctors in Gaza say time is running out. “Children arrive looking like skeletons,” said al-Farra. “It’s horrifying. The only real solution is to end the war, open the crossings, and let baby formula in.”

6 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Ranjan Solomon

In one of his final gestures of compassion, Pope Francis requested that the Popemobile he used in Bethlehem in 2014 be repurposed into a mobile health clinic for Gaza’s children. The refitted vehicle—now equipped for frontline medical care—is ready, waiting for humanitarian access to Gaza to be restored.

Francis has long spoken against the cruelty of war, especially in occupied Palestine. At a May audience in St. Peter’s Square, he called for “dignified humanitarian aid and an end to hostilities, whose heartbreaking price is paid by children, the elderly and the sick.” His words urge the world not to forget Gaza—even as other wars dominate headlines.

But what hope can there be for Gaza, reduced to rubble? An article in Mondoweiss gives insight: “Our resilience isn’t a choice.” Palestinians did not choose war. But war was forced on them—and so they survive, and they resist. In Palestine, one often hears the word ‘aadi’—Arabic for “it’s fine” or “normal.” It’s not acceptance. It’s a survival code, a refusal to be broken.

This spirit of resilience—sumūd—is central to the theology of Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian pastor. In his book Christ in the Rubble, Isaac rejects passive hope. True hope, he writes, is defiant. It refuses to cede the future to violence and injustice. Isaac asserts that God is not absent from the ruins of Gaza, but present in the suffering of its people. He calls on the global church to renounce Christian Zionism and instead side with justice, peace, and nonviolence.

Meanwhile, Israel continues its assault on morality and legality. With each passing month, its economy falters. According to Le Monde, growth has collapsed—from 6.5% in 2022 to 2% in 2023, and is expected to fall further to just 1.1% in 2024. Labour shortages, inflation, and stagnation are taking root. The cost of occupation is being felt at home—even as bombs fall on Gaza.

Yet Israel continues its deadly apartheid regime. It kills and destroys with impunity, showing utter disregard for international law. Successive Israeli leaders—from Netanyahu to his so-called critics—have built settlements, razed institutions, and buried peace under rubble. They have made Israel a pariah.

Palestine Updates has always maintained: Israel understands only isolation. The international community must act with moral courage. That means:

• Suspending trade and investments
• Ending arms transfers
• Enforcing UN resolutions
• Demanding Israel’s suspension from the United Nations

To do less is to be complicit. Words are not enough. Condemnation is not enough. The blood of Gaza’s children demands more.The Zionist project is crumbling. Netanyahu may shoulder the blame, but this is a collective failure of international accountability. Still, Palestinians persist—with hope not as fantasy, but as rebellion.

In the words of Elie Wiesel: “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Ranjan Solomon has been engaged in the Palestinian liberation struggle since the First Intifada in 1987. Over the decades, he has witnessed the crisis unfold firsthand through multiple visits to Gaza, the West Bank, and within Israel, where he has stood in solidarity with peace movements.

5 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Kumar Sanjay Singh

At the conclusion of the10th Quad Foreign Ministers in Washington, D.C., on 1 July 2025, the Secretary of State of the United States and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, India, and Japan released a joint statement, which has been widely reported in the Indian print and electronic media as the reaffirmation India’s status as a strategic partner of the US led west to check the growing influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region. The statement on Pahalgam has been highlighted as the coming of age of Indian diplomacy. Reportage on the 10^th meeting of Quad foreign ministers is, however, silent on the unique geopolitical context of the meeting; that the Quad meeting was held in the backdrop of increasing pressure on India, both by Russia and USA to firm up its relation with their respective block. The joint statement gives the first decisive indication of India preferring the Western alliance over the Russia proposed Russia-India-China troika.

The pressure on India from the rival block gathered momentum since Russian army entered Ukraine on 24 February 2022, it reached a crescendo in 2025. In June 2025, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that certain Indian policies rubbed US the wrong way. “For instance, you generally buy your military gear from Russia. That’s a way to kind of get under the skin of America… Being a part of BRICS, which is, oh, let’s move to not support the dollar and dollar hegemony — that’s not really the way to make friends and influence people in America.” In contrast Russia was insisting on Indian participation in Russia-India-China troika and critiqued the western policies, including Quad, as an attempt to drive a wedge in this troika. Sergey Lavrov stated during a summit,”What is happening right now in Asia-Pacific region, the West has begun to call it the Indo-Pacific region in order to give its policy a clear anti-Chinese direction. Hoping to thereby additionally gain the opportunity to pit the great friends and neighbors India and China against each other.” He further added, “Recently, President (Vladimir) Putin said it’s simply a divide and rule policy.”

Indian signature on the joint statement that included a substantial paragraph critical of North Korea and its allies, comes in the wake of its stand on de-dollarization and BRICS currency. Since December 2024, i.e., shortly after Trump’s threat to the BRICS members to refrain from creating a new BRICS currency or back any other currency to replace “the mighty Dollar”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has repeatedly stated Indian opposition on de-dollarization and a common BRICS currency. In this light Indian signature on a statement criticizing North Korea and its allies underscores Indian preference for western alliance on significant economic and political concerns.

Paragraph on N Korea states, “We condemn North Korea’s destabilizing launches using ballistic missile technology and its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs). We reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula consistent with relevant UNSCRs, and we urge North Korea to abide by all its obligations under the UNSCRs. We also express grave concern over North Korea’s malicious cyber activity, including cryptocurrency theft and use of workers abroad to fund North Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.” India has consistently criticised Korean nuclear programme as it is beyond the oversight of IAEA, yet it has never become a party to the US led effort to diplomatically isolate North Korea. In spite of its reservations on North Korean nuclear programme India and North Korea have had a full diplomatic relationship stretching over half a century. Both the countries are members of NAM. They have embassies in Delhi and Pyongyang. The two countries have had science and technology co-operation agreements. North Korean diplomats have attended courses for foreign diplomats in Delhi. India has sent food supplies to Pyongyang and North Korea donated $30,000 when the tsunami struck India in 2004. In the aftermath of North Korean nuclear test in September 2017, India resisted the pressure by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to diplomatically isolate North Korea by withdrawing staff from Indian embassy. This is a far cry from the current identification of Indian foreign policy to the American interest of bolstering its allies South Korea and Japan, who are in conflict with North Korea.

Identification with American diplomatic goals reacts on the Russia proposed Russia-India-China troika. The paragraph on North Korea also targets its allies, stating, “We urge all UN Member States to abide by their international obligations under the UNSCRs to implement sanctions, including the prohibition on the transfer to North Korea or procurement from North Korea of all arms and related materiel. We express deep concern about countries that are deepening military cooperation with North Korea…” This is an obvious reference to China and Russia. That China has been the principal benefactor of North Korea is well known and need not detain us here. Importantly, economic and military alliance between North Korea and Russia have been witnessing a significant upswing. The warming of ties can be traced back to 1996 under President Boris Yeltsin. However, Ukraine conflict boosted their political and military alliance. Media has been rife on supply of missiles, artillery shells and troops to aid Russian military operations in Ukraine. However, US led collective west is most concerned at what North Korea will get in return. It is being speculated that North Korea may acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, plus possible security guarantees from Moscow. This concern is singled out for criticism in the joint statement of Quad. Evidently, India has forsaken its ‘strategic neutrality’ on North Korea and its allies (esp., Russia), that it cherished as recently as the Ukraine crisis and purchase of Russian oil despite sanctions.

Reaffirmation of India’s status as a strategic ally of the west against a strident China has been a significant talking point. Interestingly, China is not mentioned even once in the text, yet the concerns highlighted in the statement are clearly aimed at China. A close reading of the joint statement makes it abundantly clear that India has been recruited to bolster US strategic goals, even as none of Indian concerns vis-à-vis China have been mentioned. The joint statement states, “We remain seriously concerned about the situation in the East China Sea and South China Sea. We reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion. We express our serious concerns regarding dangerous and provocative actions, including interference with offshore resource development, the repeated obstruction of the freedoms of navigation and overflight, and the dangerous manoeuvres by military aircraft and coast guard and maritime militia vessels, especially the unsafe use of water cannons and ramming or blocking actions in the South China Sea. These actions threaten peace and stability in the region.” Evidently, these are issues of Sino-US rivalry in the Pacific region that also impinge on American allies such as Taiwan, Philippines, etc. Indo-Chinese land dispute along the LAC has not been mentioned. Nor is increased Chinese presence in Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea that has led to security concerns in India.

Interestingly, India has gained nothing substantial in return of diluting it ‘strategic neutrality’ and its recruitment to bolster US agenda in the Pacific region. There are two issues that are being touted as recognition of Indian concerns; Pahalgam and rare earth elements.  On Pahalgam, the joint statement states, “The Quad unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism, and renews our commitment to counterterrorism cooperation. We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025, which claimed the lives of 25 Indian nationals and one Nepali citizen, while injuring several others.” It does not mention the role of Pakistan, which was the claim that resulted in ‘Operation Sindoor’ in retaliation to the Pahalgam attack. Interestingly the phrase cross-border terrorism in used in a generic sense and not to describe the Pahalgam attack. While condemning the terrorist attack in Pahalgam the phrase cross-border terrorism is curiously absent. This statement, therefore, falls short of adequately supporting Indian position on the Pahalgam attack.

Given the near monopoly of China on supply of processed Rare Earth Elements (REE), the recent control on its trade, as a fall out of Trump’s tariff war, has created shortages for electronic, automobile and defence industry. All members of Quad are suffering from this global shortage. The joint statement criticises the imposition on control of exports on processed REE, stating, “We are deeply concerned about the abrupt constriction and future reliability of key supply chains, specifically for critical minerals. This includes the use of non-market policies and practices for critical minerals, certain derivative products, and mineral processing technology.” It seeks to remedy it by, “We underscore the importance of diversified and reliable global supply chains… We are launching today the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, an ambitious expansion of our partnership to strengthen economic security and collective resilience by collaborating to secure and diversify critical minerals supply chains.” The statement is woefully short on details.

It needs to be emphasised that Chinese monopoly over global supplies of processed rare earth components is not because of its monopoly over the mining of Rare Earth Elements. Despite its nomenclature Rare Earth Elements are not exactly rare, several countries such as Vietnam have vast reserves of rare earth, ranking third globally in terms of potential. However, its sole REE processing facility, Vietnam Rare Earth JSC has been closed since 2024. This has given a near monopoly to China over global supplies of REE. China mines 60% of world’s REE and processes almost 90% of the REE. Chinese advantage in processing is a result of technological developments in electrokinetic mining which revolutionized both the extraction and processing of REE. This technology achieves almost 95% recovery of REE, while reducing mining time by 70% and electricity by 60%. Chinese dominance is a result of these cost cutting innovations which has enabled them to lower the price of REE and outcompeting other producers. Out competing China will, therefore, require much more than ensuring diversified supply chains. The joint statement, however, spells nothing on the technological aspects of processing of REE. Evidently, it will require years of investments in improving mining and processing technologies to catch up with China, thus questioning the wisdom of signing this statement even as India and China are involved in trade negotiations.

In sum by signing on this joint statement India has sacrificed much more by diluting its ‘strategic neutrality’ while gaining nothing tangible in return. By identifying with the US led global west, India faces the possibility of isolation in the global south. This may militate against Indian interests, as an isolated India will be prey to US tariff threats etc. Senator Lindsey Graham’s proposed bill to impose 500% tariff on countries that purchase sanctioned Russian oil, is a case in point. Even the events of 2024 and 2025 suggest the unpredictability of US as an ally. In August 2024 the pro-India government of Sheikh Hasina was toppled in Bangladesh, increasing Indian vulnerability around the Siliguri corridor. Subsequent to the toppling of her government Sheikh Hasina’s statement leaked to certain segments of media accused US for the toppling of her government. More recently, subsequent to ‘Operation Sindoor’ US pivoted towards Pakistan much to chagrin of Indian policy formulators. Indian diplomacy is in a very choppy sea, forcing us to recall Henry Kissinger’s aphorism, “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”

Kumar Sanjay Singh, Associate Professor, Department of History, Swami Shraddhanand College, Delhi University.

4 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Romi Mahajan

The alchemists of yore tried in vain to derive gold from lead.  With the advent of science, alchemy faded away though even in 2025 we still find people who deny science and believe in magic. 

In some ways, one cannot blame them.  It appears that magical thinking is a winner and that magic itself is possible. 

Imagine transforming someone’s hatred of transgendered humans or darker races into fanatical support for policies that could very well kill that very someone.  Is that not magic? 

This is not far-fetched. As the world watched in awe, Donald Trump was re-elected in November 2024 and assumed the position as one of the most powerful people in the history of the world.  His fanatical base loved his casual cruelty, his racism, his belief that normal people are pathetic pawns, fodder for his violent gamesmanship.  They loved the hatred so much that they, wittingly or unwittingly, mortgaged their own futures just to spite those they hate. 

Soon many of his votaries will be hungrier, sicker, less free.  They and their generations hence will inherit debt borne of further subsidies to the gilded class.  To get them there is an act of political magic.  It is alchemy.  It is deriving political gold from dread.

We live in times of strange transposition. A person can be so bothered by reductions in standard of living that he supports someone who will further reduce it.  Other magical transpositions include white women voting for restrictions on their own freedoms, black men in record numbers voting for a man who openly thinks of them as inferior, right-wing antisemites using “antisemitism” as a cudgel against those they hate even more than Jews:  Muslims, Protestors, and Leftists.

The list goes on and on. 

We watch for the lights to go on, for the show to end, for the sleights of hand to become visible, for the trap doors and secret compartments to be revealed.  Yet, the curtain never drops.  

4 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Sally Dugman

Evil is as evil does … is something that I can imagine Forrest Gump, the movie character, stating. Whether evil, actually, exists, of course, depends on a religious outlook.

That in consideration: Even if Donald Trump does nothing else that wrongs and harms a society in general, a culture and American citizens on the low end financially and economically in this country … he still is gravely evil (if that religious paradigm fits) for pouring our hard earned American tax dollars and many munitions into Israel that are being purposefully used to murder/eradicate children, frail elders, doctors and other medical staff, journalists volunteers like food service providers and others who deliberately came to Palestine to serve the downtrodden. This alone classifies him as a solid, undeniably straightforward and murderous monster as bad as Hitler ever was. 

I see no discrepancies  in terms of major aims and behaviors between the two. How, in fact, could realistically anyone?

In the end, I read that one of the 2,000 lb. U.S. bombs, with proof provided by its spent carcass, was sent to kill off this little girl, and that the earnest ambulance crew trying to rescue her and obeying protocol designed by IDF were very eagerly bamboozled and killed off, too.

So good luck to you if you have a broad and broken moral lassitude to find Trump’s behavior conscionable or merely even just slightly acceptable when he’s okay with the killing spree that he openly supports while dreaming of stealing land from the murdered and displaced to build a high-end resort in Gaza that makes money for him due to no work required on his part — just a mere ownership status.

 In fact, I pity the unethical folks, who are so ignorant, stupid, dull witted and/or uninformed about happenings related to this singular beast’s choices, that they’re crazy on account such that they imagine him as both charming and lovable.

In contrast, a friend of mine, a retired psychology professor and private practice practitioner, shared, “I am so angry all the time these days that I’m getting sick of myself in fact” (since she can’t stand all of the many severe wrongs, like a deliberately intended genocide eagerly supported by people like Donald Trump with his self-serving ulterior motives in mind).

How not to be angry and/or deeply despondent about such disturbing happenings, especially when so much wrong id supported by the main political leader of one’s own country? So we, those of us with a sense of conscience, just keep resisting as nothing else will do regardless of whatever else others think.

Sally Dugman lives in and writes from MA, USA.

4 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Press Release

Bridgetown, Barbados — Thursday July 3, 2025

In a landmark moment for regional justice and international law, the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration (CMPI) has filed a powerful legal challenge before the Supreme Court of Barbados, calling for urgent national action in response to Israel’s ongoing atrocities in Gaza. The case urges the Barbados government to align its foreign policy with its obligations under international humanitarian law, amid overwhelming global evidence of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people.

The case, brought by CMPI Secretary David McDonald Denny, is being led by veteran human rights attorney and Secretary of the Caribbean Against Apartheid in Palestine (CAAP) Mr Lalu Hanuman. It lays claims against the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Immigration Department, and the Attorney General, calling on these institutions—and the State of Barbados as a whole— to take immediate and concrete action in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and to uphold their constitutional and international legal responsibilities.

The Case: Seeking Six Bold Declarations from the Court

The legal filing seeks six core declarations from the Supreme Court:

1. That Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
2. That Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza.
3. That Israel is guilty of crimes against humanity in Gaza.
4. That Israel is operating an apartheid regime against the Palestinian people.
5. That a failure by the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate or prosecute any person in Barbados involved in the genocide in Gaza constitutes a violation of both the Genocide Act and Article 11 of the Barbados Constitution, which protects the right to life, liberty, and security of the person.
6. That rigorous screening must be implemented at all ports of entry to Barbados for Israeli passport holders, and that any individual with known or suspected involvement in genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity must be:
   • Prosecuted by the DPP, and if that is not possible,
   • Immediately deported by the Immigration Department, in accordance with Barbados law—regardless of diplomatic status.

Members of CAAP were present in court yesterday in solidarity with the action. Also in attendance were students from the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, underscoring the educational and generational importance of the case for young Caribbean jurists and activists.

Why This Case Matters

Justice Dr. Herbert Patrick Wells presided over the hearing, emphasising the urgency and international gravity of the matter. He ordered the case to proceed expeditiously, given the accelerating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

This legal action challenges Barbados’s continued diplomatic and trade relations with Israel—a state that multiple international bodies, including Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross, UN agencies, and independent legal experts, have identified as responsible for atrocity crimes, including genocide and war crimes through the weaponisation of famine.

According to UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, Gaza is experiencing “daily atrocities,” with thousands of children dying from hunger and dehydration due to the blockade of essential aid and fuel. The UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, has warned that the systematic violence since October 7 is part of a broader campaign of forced displacement and population erasure, stating bluntly that “member states must intervene now to prevent new atrocities that will further scar human history.”

David Denny stated:
“Barbados and CARICOM stood at the forefront of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. We cannot now turn a blind eye to a modern-day apartheid and genocide. To remain silent, or worse, to maintain ‘business as usual’ with Israel, is not neutrality—it is complicity.”

International Law, National Responsibility

Barbados is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Charter, Genocide Convention, and the Geneva Conventions—all of which impose binding obligations to act against war crimes and genocide. The case argues that, under the principle of universal jurisdiction, Barbados is required to investigate and prosecute individuals accused of such crimes if they are present on Barbadian soil.

“If the Director of Public Prosecutions fails to act,” said Attorney Hanuman, “that inaction itself becomes unconstitutional. It violates Article 11 of our Constitution and endangers our legal and moral credibility.”

The movement is also demanding that no person with ties to genocide or crimes against humanity be allowed entry into Barbados. Where prosecution is not feasible, immediate deportation must be enacted, even in the case of diplomatic personnel.

Call to CARICOM and the Region

This case unfolds on the eve of the 49th Regular Meeting of the CARICOM Conference of Heads of Government (July 6–8, 2025). The Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration calls upon CARICOM leaders to break their silence and take collective diplomatic action to hold Israel accountable.

“We are duty-bound by the same moral compass that once guided us in the struggle against apartheid. Today, we must honor that legacy by defending the dignity and rights of the Palestinian people,” said Denny.
“To do less is to betray our history—and our humanity.”

Conclusion

The next hearing in this important constitutional and international human rights case is scheduled for Monday July 21^st, at the Supreme Court. This legal action is not simply a symbolic gesture. It is a demand for accountability, justice, and the enforcement of both domestic constitutional protections and international humanitarian law. It is a call for Barbados to lead the region once again, as it did during the fight to dismantle apartheid.

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” said Denny, quoting Nelson Mandela—a reminder that the global struggle for justice knows no borders.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

David Denny – Secretary, Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration:

Email: david.denny66@hotmail.com

Lalu Hanuman – Secretary, Caribbean Against Apartheid in Palestine:

Email: caapartheidinpalestine@gmail.com

4 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Marwan Asmar

In a place that gazes over the horizons and links the sky with the sea, Ismael Abu Al Hattub was martyred. He wasn’t killed in battle but in a simple café on a Gaza beach. It was the place that he was planning to hold his photography exhibition, but failed to see the light.

This beach which he loved, wrote about and photographed under fire and siege, stamped his final existence and obituary.

He once saw a temporary retreat in the place snatched by the gray strikes made by Israeli raids. Abu Al Hattub saw the beach as mirroring the new disdain life has become…a platform for death, blood and mayhem.

[https://twitter.com/Almeqdad/status/1939661602606940597]

He wasn’t merely a journalist but a witness, holding his camera, as if it was open to the world for a life stage in which reality had become a goal to strike. He led his visual project from the ruins of Gaza and made his picture image an “ambassador” to be narrated to the world.

At the height of the military strikes and bombing, with the homes brought to the ground, Abu Al Huttab used to document not only through his lens but by his heartbeat writing on World Press Day that “in Gaza the camera is targeted, the word is struck down and the vest is dammed by the thudding missiles.

These words were not poetic descriptions but a stark reality his body lived through. Last November 2024 he escaped from certain death while he was photographing the Al Ghafari Tower that was viciously struck.

He came back after a year of hardship and pain to continue what he started, to become a voice in the era of silence and the eye in the stage of blindness.

Between the skies and the sea

Between the tents, the debris and wreckage and between the displaced people on roads Abu Al Hattub collected his photographs refusing to tuck away his camera till the strange sounds of death.

And as a result, he sent his photos to be seen in a joint Palestinian platform exhibit in Los Angeles. However, this wasn’t an ordinary exhibition but an echo dangling on western walls narrating the heinous situation of Gaza.

“From the middle of Gaza under the airstrikes, displacement and starvation I was determined to hold this exhibition from afar to tell the story of our people who have no refuge but the beach,” he wrote.

He would say in every “image there is a soul” and the photos are able to defeat the walls and penetrate the thick international silence.

A dream buried in the sand

He was supposed to train, this week, digital security to a group of journalists in Gaza, he had a date with the interested generation of the future. However, his fate with death was sealed. It was a cruel moment by an even cruellest pretending-to-be master race.

His life passed before our eyes after his face was changed into a collective presence as the tent he was living in became his platform, the sea a sanctuary and the lens resistance.

Journalist Muthana Al Najjar wrote: “The owner of the tent exhibition in the middle of Los Angeles, ascended to the heavens after joining the martyrs after a raid on a makeshift café…he tried to show the Gaza tragedy to the world through an exhibition titled in between the sky and the sea and was made absent in an air strike on the beach he loved so much.”

He departed but his pictures remain, and the narrative is there for all to see. He added the youths of Gaza continue to dare to live despite all the odds stacked against them. The Israeli war machine will not win.

[https://twitter.com/baselkhlaf/status/1939669314119913509]

He is not the last number to be killed but one of 228 journalists Israeli warplanes targeted during this genocide. Their pens were broken, but their messages remain and whilst the photo lens has dropped in silence the picture will continue to echo.

What Abu Hattub presented was not only a painful picture but a stubborn visual language that doesn’t submit to the American-made bombs and missiles or the continuing siege. He realized that the camera was not objective but rather biased to the truth, justice and people.

Today as the smoke towers above the Gaza Sea, his words remain, his narratives fly over depicting

Dr Marwan Asmar is a journalist based in Amman, Jordan and blogs for crossfirearabia.com 

5 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Yasmin Abu Shammala

Since October 2023, the people of Gaza have lived under the shadow of inevitable death; death that stalks them by land, air, and sea. Yet when it comes, it offers no rest. Across the world and throughout all religions, death is supposed to end in a grave, where the soul begins its journey to the afterlife. But for Gazans, even that is no longer guaranteed. Many find themselves without a body to bury, or without any final resting place at all.

After Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, announced it had run out of burial plots, Gazans entered a new wave of psychological torment. Not even the “privilege” of dying in peace remains. Since the start of the Israeli genocide against Gaza on October 7, 2023, residents have endured one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of modern history. And while scenes of bombardment dominate global news coverage, a quieter tragedy unfolds far from the cameras: the crisis of burying the victims.

In this densely populated and besieged strip, under blockade for over 18 years, the dead are now without graves. Cemeteries have reached full capacity, and the ground itself is burdened by the weight of thousands. The dignity of the dead has become a new burden for the living, who are no longer able to bid their loved ones farewell in a manner befitting human dignity.

“One Person in Three Graves”

As the death toll continues to rise, Gaza’s cemeteries are overwhelmed to a catastrophic extent. Dr. Ismail Thawabteh, spokesperson for the Government Media Office in Gaza, told Quds News Network: “More than 57,000 martyrs have been buried since the genocide began.” Under normal conditions, Gaza sees no more than 6,000 deaths per year, a staggering contrast that the cemeteries cannot accommodate. “Over 40 cemeteries have been either completely or partially destroyed since the beginning of the war in October 2023,” he added, “leading to an acute shortage of burial space across most of Gaza.”

I spoke to Khaled Abdul Aziz from Al-Bureij refugee camp, who described the agony of waiting beside his sister’s lifeless body. “We tried every cemetery, Al-Nuseirat, Al-Zawayda, Al-Bureij, but all of them were either full or inaccessible,” he said. “I sat with her wrapped in a blanket under the blazing sun for an hour in Deir al-Balah cemetery, until a sheikh came and told me there was a mass grave for seven girls from the Ismail family. My sister would become the eighth. I agreed immediately.”

For Khaled, this painful moment ended with relief, he was lucky to find a piece of earth to lay his sister to rest. But his story is not unique. It’s a reflection of daily life in Gaza, where tragedy and helplessness intertwine. In a land too small for the living, there is no longer space for the dead. Graves are scarce, farewells are rushed or denied, and dignity in death has become an unattainable dream.

Even those who were mutilated before death could not be reunited with their own bodies in burial. Enas Qishta recounted the case of her brother Sulaiman: “Before he was martyred, his foot was amputated and buried in one place. Later, his thigh was removed and buried elsewhere. After he died, the rest of his body was buried in a third cemetery. One person, three graves.”

Burials Above the Dead

With no options left, the graves of yesterday have become emergency shelters for today’s martyrs. It has become common to reopen tombs from two decades ago or more to bury newly fallen victims. There are no dividers, no insulation; just a single pit filled with layer upon layer of loss, a scene that crushes the soul before the body.

Ibrahim Shaheen, a young man who volunteered to dig graves in his neighborhood since the start of the Israeli genocide. He told Quds News Network:

“During this genocide, we’ve buried people together in the most extreme ways. Just the other day, I buried eight of my neighbors in one grave: three in the bottom layer, two more above them. We don’t have cement or marble. We cover the bodies with zinc sheets or with wood from destroyed homes. Sometimes we don’t even know their names, so we write them on cardboard, and even that melts away when it rains.”

I, personally, experienced this helplessness in October 2023, when my sister and her family were murdered. We couldn’t find an empty grave. We were forced to open my grandfather’s tomb, he had passed away in 2001, and we placed her body next to his, covering them both with zinc sheets.

This form of hurried burial, sometimes under bombardment or in the dark of night, is more than just a violation of religious and human customs. It is a stark sign of the collapse of Gaza’s funerary system. Shrouds have run out, and mortuary refrigerators have been full for months. According to Dr. Thawabteh, spokesperson for Gaza’s Government Media Office:

“Mortuary refrigerators have been full for months. The bodies of martyrs now pile up in hospital corridors, courtyards, and even inside patient rooms.”

Mass Graves and Donated Rest

As the crisis deepened and burial spaces vanished, the authorities were forced to adopt emergency measures, most notably, the expansion of collective graves as a last resort to preserve what remains of the martyrs’ dignity. According to the government’s emergency plan, new burial sites have been designated near hospitals and in areas adjacent to shelters, aiming to accelerate burials and reduce the hardship of transporting bodies, especially amid ongoing bombardment and movement restrictions.

Despite the harshness of this approach, concerned agencies strive to document every burial as accurately as possible: martyrs’ names and precise burial locations are recorded to ensure their legal and religious rights are protected, whether for future identification, re-documentation, or dignified reburial when conditions allow.

The government, represented by the Ministries of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Local Government, and municipal councils, has launched a series of exceptional measures to respond to the collapse of Gaza’s funerary infrastructure. Among the most critical: using rubble stones from destroyed buildings as substitutes for cement, and relying on zinc sheets, wood, and clay to prepare graves; makeshift materials necessitated by the scarcity of proper resources.

In this context, the “Ikram” initiative was launched to offer free burials for martyrs in cooperation with charitable organizations and donor institutions. Several temporary waqf (endowment-based) cemeteries were established, including the “Algerian Endowment Cemetery” in Khan Younis, which has already received over 1,000 graves standing as a silent witness to the escalating scale of tragedy.

Stripping Death of Its Sanctity

Gaza’s burial crisis is not only a humanitarian catastrophe; it is a violation of international law and a betrayal of fundamental human decency. According to the customary IHL: Parties to a conflict must search for and recover the dead without delay (Rule 112). They must also ensure respectful burial in accordance with religious traditions, avoiding mass graves except in cases of absolute necessity.

Yet on the ground, families are often left with no choice but to preserve the bodies of their loved ones at home for days, or even weeks, due to the absence of burial spaces. Many women are denied even the basic right to bid farewell to their children or spouses, compounding their grief and trauma. In some instances, victims are buried hastily in mass graves, without identification, religious rites, or documentation, under siege and bombardment.

As early as the 17th century, Hugo Grotius, one of the founding fathers of international law, asserted:

“The duty of burial is one of the dictates of humanity… it ought not to be denied even to public or private enemies.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reiterates this in Rule 113: Mutilation or desecration of the dead is strictly prohibited. The dead must always be treated with dignity and respect.

Failing to provide proper burials or identify mass grave locations is not merely negligence; it may amount to a war crime, or even a crime against humanity.

The systemic abandonment of Gaza’s dead, and the anguish endured by their surviving families, is not only a legal violation. It is a wound in the collective conscience of humanity, and a betrayal of the very principles that bind us together in times of war and peace alike.

Yasmin Abu Shammala is a writer from Gaza

5 July 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Liable of Arrest and Punishment: Heads of State, Heads of Government Supportive of Genocide against the People of Palestine, Genocide Convention. Articles I, II, III and IV

مسؤول عن الاعتقال والمعاقبة: رؤساء الدول ورؤساء الحكومات الداعمة للإبادة الجماعية ضد شعب فلسطين، المواد الأولى والثانية والثالثة والرابعة

Introduction

As we recall, The Republic of South Africa —referring to Article II of the Genocide Convention–, stated that the crimes committed by the State of Israel “are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group. …”.

The acts outlined by South Africa “are all attributable to [The state of] Israel, which has failed to prevent genocide and is committing genocide in manifest violation of the Genocide Convention.  … “ (emphasis added)

(See The Republic of South Africa’s 84 page document submitted to the ICJ)

Article II of the Genocide Convention reads as follows. It esssentially defines acts of genocide, all of which apply to Palestine.

Article II

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

A Part from Israel: “Who are The Actors of Genocide”.  The Role of Our Governments.

The answer to this question is addressed in Articles III and IV of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. 

It is not solely Israel which is waging the genocide. Western governments have formally endorsed Israel. They have provided financial support as well as military aid. US-NATO is a partner of Israel in this criminal endeavour.

Western governments are routinly arresting citizens who are protesting against genocide. Millions of people throughout the European Union and around the World have expressed their solidarity with Palestine.

Article III: “Complicity in Genocide”

The Convention is very explicit: it defines the notion of complicity in Articles III and IV.

Article III

The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

Several NATO member states have collaborated directly with Israel’s IDF in military and Intelligence operations. They are complicit in the act of genocide.

Complicity is Punishable

Article IV is very explicit.

Article IV:  

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

In this regard, heads of State and heads of government who have formally endorsed the conduct of Genocide by Israel, are categorized as “Constitutionally responsible rulers” and “public officials”. The latter are “Complicit in Genocide” under Article III section e} and can be arrested under the clauses of Article VI

Complicity in Genocide is Punishable under Article V and VI

Article V: (see below). enact

“the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III”.

Under Article VI (see below), they are liable for arrest and punishment: “tried by a competent Tribunal…” 

Article VI

“Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.”

The Above Analysis of the Genocide Convention 

Providing the Peace Movement with the means to confront national governments and question their political legitimacy.

Legal procedures against politicians who are “complicit in genocide” under Article III (e) should be contemplated. 

[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6_9a_tKWQFQ]

Video: Francesca Albanese says that PM Keir Starmer “Must be Investigated Over Gaza”

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fsEHacDBC4]

Declassified DC. UK

Netanyahu and the 2001 Planning of Genocide

“The real (and deceitful) face of Binyamin Netanyahu” was filmed secretly in 2001, during Bibi’s visit to the home of a Jewish family in the settlement of Ofra in the Northern occupied West Bank.

“He confirmed his plan to conduct a large-scale attack on the Palestinian Authority,  to induce fear among Palestinians, boldly expressing confidence that 80% of Americans support Israel. He said,

“America is something that you can easily maneuver, and move in the ‘right’ direction.”

This secret video recorded in 2001, reveals Netanyahu’s criminal intent to carry out A Genocide against the People of Palestine.

click here link to Haaretz, 15 July 2010

Secret 2001 Video

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-5hUG6Os68]

The Video was filmed Secretely in 2001

“Crimes against Humanity’ under Nuremberg and the 1948 Genocide Convention. “The Palestinian Holocaust”

According to the my life-long friend the late Prof. Francis Boyle (May His Legacy Live Forever):

“The paradigmatic example of “crimes against humanity” is what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people. This is where the concept of “crimes against humanity” came from.

And this is what the U.N. Human Rights Commission determined that Israel is currently doing to the Palestinian people: crimes against humanity.

Expressed in legal terms, this is just like what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jews.

That is the significance of the formal determination by the U.N. Human Rights Commission that Israel has inflicted “crimes against humanity” upon the Palestinian people.

The Commission chose this well-known and long-standing legal term of art quite carefully and deliberately based upon the evidence it had compiled.

Furthermore, the Nuremberg “crimes against humanity” are the historical and legal precursor to the international crime of genocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention.

The theory here was that what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people was so horrific that it required a special international treaty that would codify and universalize the Nuremberg concept of “crimes against humanity.” And that treaty ultimately became the 1948 Genocide Convention.” (Francis Boyle, emphasis added)

What the Nazis did to the Jewish People.

What the Zionist State of Israel has done to the People of Palestine. 

5 July 2025 

Source: michelchossudovsky.substack.com