January 7, 2024
UNICEF’s
Executive Director, Catherine Russell, said this week that “Children in Gaza
are caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day.”
There
are some 3,000 new cases of diarrhea among the Strip’ss children every single
day now.
In
addition, the UN’s World Health Organization reports that the Israeli army has
attacked hospitals and other important medical facilities 600 times in the past
three months. Some 613 persons have been killed in these attacks, including
premature babies and 770 were wounded. In international law, health facilities
may not be targeted by military operations unless the enemy is actively firing
from them or using them to advance the war effort. Zero credible evidence has
been presented by the Israeli government for its outrageous claims that
hospitals were Hamas command centers, and the Washington Post‘s investigation
has knocked down that claim definitively for al-Shifa hospital. Critics allege
that crippling the hospitals in the north was aimed at preventing Palestinians
from living there and turning it into a no-man’s land to function as a buffer
zone.
Half
the population of Gaza consists of children, about 1,1 million of them. WHO now
says that they are faced by severe risk of dying from three main causes:
1.
Being caught in Israeli fire as the Israeli army continues its assault
2.
Malnutrition or even starving from lack of food
3.
Disease outbreaks, including diarrhea, cases of which are spiking. Infants and
toddlers die swiftly from the dehydration caused by diarrhea. Because Israel
has destroyed water pipes and the purification facilities can’t function, and
because there is no fuel to boil water with, parents or guardians can only give
these children dirty water for the most part, which causes more diarrhea and
increases rather than lowering the risk of death from dehydration.
Israeli
bombardment, shelling and sniping have killed over 8,000 children in Gaza and
over 22,000 individuals, 70% of them women and children and almost all innocent
noncombatants.
1.9
million people in Gaza — again, roughly 950,000 of them children — have been
made homeless, and some have had to move to seek shelter several times. In the
north, 150,000 have sought shelter in facilities of the UN Relief and Works
Agency, which have been repeatedly attack by the Israeli military. In the
south, about half a million people are in the vicinity of such shelters.
Many
people are sleeping in the rough in the cold and sometimes rainy winter, which
also weakens children’s immunity. Some have taken shelter in areas designated
as “safe” by the Israeli generals, but then have come under bombardments
anyway.
Before
the war Gaza, under an economic siege by Israel that created an employment rate
of 54%, required 500 trucks of supplies and aid per day. Now it is less than
200 per day, which is creating food insecurity.
The
delivery trucks are sent back if they fail inspections even for minor reasons
and have to be entirely repacked.
UNICEF
reports that “Most families said their children are only getting grains –
including bread – or milk, meeting the definition of “severe food poverty”.
The
Republicans in the US Congress and statehouses who say they care so much about
unborn children are really concerned when UNICEF says it “is particularly
worried about the nutrition of over 155,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding
mothers, as well as more than 135,000 children under two, given their specific
nutrition needs and vulnerability.”
Right?
Martin
Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said
Friday that the Palestinians of Gaza face “daily threats to their very
existence.”
He
added, “People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded
(and) famine is around the corner.”
Israel war on Gaza: ‘World must look’ says Wael Dahdouh as son
killed
January
8, 2024
·
“We shall continue,” says Al Jazeera’s Wael Dahdouh after an
Israeli air strike killed his son Hamza and journalist Mustafa Thuraya.
·
Israel is trying to put Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital “out of
service”, says the Health Ministry in Gaza as the hospital comes under heavy
Israeli drone fire.
·
Speaking from Doha, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he
will raise with Israel the “need to do everything possible” to increase the
flow of aid to Gaza.
·
At least 22,835 people have been killed – including 9,600
children – in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. About 1,139 people were
killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
Israel Is Terrified
the World Court Will Decide It’s Committing Genocide
January
6, 2024
For
nearly three months, Israel has enjoyed virtual impunity for its atrocious
crimes against the Palestinian people. That changed on December 29 when South
Africa, a state party to the Genocide Convention, filed an 84-page application
in the International Court of Justice (ICJ, or World Court) alleging that
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
South
Africa’s well-documented application alleges that “acts and omissions by Israel
… are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific
intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian
national, racial and ethnical group” and that “the conduct of Israel — through
its State organs, State agents, and other persons and entities acting on its
instructions or under its direction, control or influence — in relation to
Palestinians in Gaza, is in violation of its obligations under the Genocide
Convention.”
Israel
is mounting a full-court press to prevent an ICJ finding that it’s committing
genocide in Gaza. On January 4, the Israeli Foreign Ministry instructed its
embassies to pressure politicians and diplomats in their host countries to make
statements opposing South Africa’s case at the ICJ.
In
its application, South Africa cited eight allegations to support its contention
that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza. They include:
‘(1) Killing Palestinians in Gaza, including a large proportion
of women and children (approximately 70 percent) of the more than 21,110
fatalities and some appear to have been subjected to summary execution;
‘(2) Causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in
Gaza, including maiming, psychological trauma, and inhuman and degrading
treatment;
(3) Causing the forced evacuation and
displacement of about 85 percent of Palestinians in Gaza — including children,
the elderly and infirm, and the sick and wounded. Israel is also causing the
massive destruction of Palestinian homes, villages, towns, refugee camps and
entire areas, which precludes the return of a significant proportion of the
Palestinian people to their homes;
(4) Causing widespread hunger,
starvation and dehydration to the besieged Palestinians in Gaza by impeding
sufficient humanitarian assistance, cutting off sufficient food, water, fuel
and electricity, and destroying bakeries, mills, agricultural lands and other
means of production and sustenance;
(5) Failing to provide and restricting
the provision of adequate clothing, shelter, hygiene and sanitation to
Palestinians in Gaza, including 1.9 million internally displaced persons. This
has compelled them to live in dangerous situations of squalor, in conjunction
with routine targeting and destruction of places of shelter and killing and
wounding of persons who are sheltering, including women, children, the elderly
and the disabled;
(6) Failing to provide for or ensure
the provision of medical care to Palestinians in Gaza, including those medical
needs created by other genocidal acts that are causing serious bodily harm.
This is occurring by direct attacks on Palestinian hospitals, ambulances and
other healthcare facilities, the killing of Palestinian doctors, medics and
nurses (including the most qualified medics in Gaza) and the destruction and
disabling of Gaza’s medical system;
(7) Destroying Palestinian life in
Gaza, by destroying its infrastructure, schools, universities, courts, public
buildings, public records, libraries, stores, churches, mosques, roads,
utilities and other facilities necessary to sustain the lives of Palestinians
as a group. Israel is killing whole families, erasing entire oral histories and
killing prominent and distinguished members of society;
(8) Imposing measures intended to
prevent Palestinian births in Gaza, including through reproductive violence
inflicted on Palestinian women, newborns, infants and children.
South Africa cited myriad statements
by Israeli officials that constitute direct evidence of an intent to commit
genocide:
“Gaza won’t return to what it was
before. We will eliminate everything,” Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
said. “If it doesn’t take one day, it will take a week. It will take weeks or
even months, we will reach all places.”
Avi Dichter, Israel’s Minister of
Agriculture, declared, “We are now actually rolling out the Gaza Nakba,” a
reference to the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to create the state of
Israel.
“Now we all have one common goal —
erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth,” Nissim Vaturi, the Deputy
Speaker of the Knesset and Member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee
proclaimed.
Israel’s Strategy to Defeat South
Africa’s Case at the ICJ
Israel and its chief patron, the
United States, understand the magnitude of South Africa’s ICJ application, and
they are livid. Israel usually thumbs its nose at international institutions,
but it is taking South Africa’s case seriously. In 2021, when the International
Criminal Court launched an investigation into Israel’s alleged war crimes in
Gaza, Israel firmly rejected the legitimacy of the probe.
“Israel generally doesn’t participate
in such proceedings,” Prof. Eliav Lieblich, an international law expert at Tel
Aviv University, told Haaretz. “But this isn’t a UN inquiry commission or the
International Criminal Court in the Hague, whose authority Israel rejects. It’s
the International Court of Justice, which derives its powers from a treaty
Israel joined, so it can’t reject it on the usual grounds of lack of authority.
It’s also a body with international prestige.”
A January 4 cable from the Israeli
Foreign Ministry says that Israel’s “strategic goal” is that the ICJ reject
South Africa’s request for an injunction to suspend Israel’s military action in
Gaza, refuse to find that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and rule that
Israel is complying with international law.
“A ruling by the court could have
significant potential implications that are not only in the legal world but
have practical bilateral, multilateral, economic, security ramifications,” the
cable states. “We ask for an immediate and unequivocal public statement along
the following lines: To publicly and clearly state that YOUR COUNTRY rejects
the outragest [sic], absurd and baseless allegations made against Israel.”
The cable instructs Israeli embassies
to urge diplomats and politicians at the highest levels “to publicly
acknowledge that Israel is working [together with international actors] to
increase the humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as to minimize damage to civilians,
while acting in self defense after the horrible October 7th attack by a
genocidal terrorist organization.”
“The State of Israel will appear
before the ICJ at The Hague to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel,” Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spokesperson Eylon Levy declared. South Africa’s
application is “without legal merit and constitutes a base exploitation and
contempt of court,” he said.
Israel is pulling out all the stops,
including disingenuous accusations of “blood libel,” an anti-Semitic trope that
erroneously accuses Jews of the ritual sacrifice of Christian children.
“How tragic that the rainbow nation
that prides itself on fighting racism will be fighting pro-bono for anti-Jewish
racists,” Levy added ironically. He made the astonishing claim that Israel’s
military campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza is designed to prevent the genocide
of the Jews.
As the old adage goes, when you’re
being run out of town, get in front of the crowd and act like you’re leading
the parade.
The Biden regime rose to defend its
staunch ally Israel. U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby
lambasted South Africa’s ICJ application as “meritless, counterproductive and
completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.” Kirby claimed, “Israel is not
trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. Israel is not trying to wipe
Gaza off the map. Israel is trying to defend itself against a genocidal
terrorist threat,” echoing Israel’s preposterous assertion.
Kirby’s contention that Israel is
trying to prevent genocide is particularly absurd, given the fact that since
Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis on October 7, Israeli forces have killed at least
22,100 Gazans, about 9,100 of whom are children. At least 57,000 persons have
been wounded and at least 7,000 are reported missing. Untold numbers of people
are trapped beneath the rubble.
Provisional Measures Against Israel
Can Have Immediate Impact
South Africa is requesting that the
ICJ order provisional measures (interim injunction) in order to “protect
against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian
people under the Genocide Convention.” South Africa is also asking the court
“to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under the Genocide
Convention not to engage in genocide, and to prevent and to punish genocide.”
The provisional measures South Africa
seeks include ordering Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations
in and against Gaza” and to cease and desist from killing and causing serious
bodily or mental harm to Palestinians, inflicting on them conditions of life
intended to destroy them in whole or in part, and imposing measures to prevent
Palestinian births. South Africa wants the ICJ to order that Israel stop
expelling and forcibly displacing Palestinians and depriving them of food,
water, fuel, and medical supplies and assistance.
The judicial arm of the United
Nations, the ICJ is composed of 15 judges elected for a nine-year term by the
UN General Assembly and the Security Council. It is not a criminal tribunal
like the International Criminal Court; rather it resolves disputes between
countries.
If a party to the Genocide Convention
believes that another party has failed to comply with its obligations, it can
take that country to the ICJ to determine its responsibility. This was done in
the case of Bosnia v. Serbia, in which the Court found that Serbia violated its
duties to prevent and punish genocide under the Convention.
The obligations in the Genocide
Convention are erga omnes partes, that is, obligations owed by a state towards
all the states parties to the Convention. The ICJ has stated, “In such a
convention the contracting States do not have any interests of their own; they
merely have, one and all, a common interest, namely, the accomplishment of
those high purposes which are the raison d’être of the Convention.”
Article 94 of the UN Charter says that
all parties to a dispute must comply with the decisions of the ICJ and if a
party fails to do so, the other party may go to the UN Security Council for the
enforcement of the decision.
An average ICJ case from start to
finish can last several years (it was nearly 15 years from the time that Bosnia
first filed its case against Serbia in 1993 to the issuance of the final
judgment on the merits in 2007). However, a case can have an immediate impact.
The filing of a case in the ICJ sends a strong message to Israel that the
international community will not tolerate its actions and seeks to hold it
accountable.
Provisional measures can be issued
quickly. For example, the ICJ ordered measures 19 days after the Bosnian case
was initiated. Provisional measures are binding on the party against whom they
are ordered, and compliance with them can be monitored by both the ICJ and the
Security Council.
Judgments on the merits rendered by
the ICJ in disputes between parties are binding on the parties involved.
Article 94 of the United Nations Charter provides that “each Member of the
United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of [the Court] in any
case to which it is a party.” The judgments of the court are final; there is no
appeal.
Public hearings on South Africa’s
request for provisional measures will take place on January 11 and 12 at the
ICJ which is located in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. The
hearings will be livestreamed from 4:00-6:00 a.m. Eastern/1:00-3:00 a.m.
Pacific on the Court’s website and on UN Web TV. The court could order
provisional measures within a week after the hearings.
Other States Parties to the Genocide
Convention Can Join South Africa’s Case
Other states parties to the Genocide
Convention can either request permission to intervene in the case filed by
South Africa or file their own applications against Israel in the ICJ. South
Africa’s application identifies several countries that have referred to
Israel’s genocide in Gaza. They include Algeria, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
Cuba, Iran, Palestine, Türkiye, Venezuela, Bangladesh, Egypt, Honduras, Iraq,
Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Pakistan and Syria.
On January 5, Quds News Network
tweeted, “Jordan’s minister of Foreign Affairs, Ayman Safadi, announces that
his country backs South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ. He
added that the Jordanian government is working on a legal file to follow up on
the case. Turkey, Malaysia, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
had announced that they back the case too.”
The newly formed International
Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine, endorsed by more than 600 groups
throughout the world, has convened to urge states parties to invoke the
Genocide Convention.
The coalition contends, “Declarations
of Intervention in support of South Africa’s invocation of the Genocide
Convention against Israel will increase the likelihood that a positive finding
of the crime of genocide will be enforced by the United Nations such that
actions will be taken to end all acts of genocide and those who are responsible
for the acts will be held accountable.”
During the first week of January,
delegations of “grassroots diplomats,” spearheaded by CODEPINK, World Beyond
War and RootsAction, mounted a campaign across the United States urging nations
to submit Declarations of Intervention in South Africa’s case against Israel in
the ICJ. Activists traveled to 12 cities, visiting UN missions, embassies and
consulates from Colombia, Pakistan, Bolivia, Bangladesh, the African Union,
Ghana, Chile, Ethiopia, Turkey, Belize, Brazil, Denmark, France, Honduras,
Ireland, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Italy, Haiti, Belgium, Kuwait, Malaysia and
Slovakia.
“This is the rare case where
collective social pressure urging governments to support the South African case
can be a sharp turning point for Palestine,” said Lamis Deek, a Palestinian
attorney based in New York, whose firm convened the Palestinian Assembly for
Liberation’s Commission on War Crimes Justice, Reparations, and Return. “We
need more states to file supporting interventions — and we need the court to
feel the watchful eye of the masses so as to withstand what will be extreme
U.S. political pressure on the Court.”
Suzanne Adely, president of the
National Lawyers Guild, noted, “The increasing global isolation of Israel and
the U.S. and their European allies is an indicator that this is a key moment
for popular movements to move their governments in the direction of taking
these steps and being on the right side of history.” Indeed, since October 7,
millions of people throughout the world have marched, protested and
demonstrated in support of Palestinian liberation.
RootsAction and World Beyond War have
created a template that organizations and individuals can use to urge other
states parties to the Genocide Convention to file a Declaration of Intervention
in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ.
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