January
6, 2024
The tireless advocacy seeks to bridge nations in support of
South Africa's pursuit of justice.
Peace activists rally at South Africa's consulate general in Los Angeles, California on January 4, 2024.
Peace
activists across the country have embarked on a campaign to mobilize global
support for South Africa's charge of genocide against Israel at the
International Court of Justice (ICJ). The campaign, spearheaded by CODEPINK,
World Beyond War, and RootsAction, aims to rally nations to submit a
"Declaration of Intervention" supporting South Africa's case at the
ICJ. The focus is on holding Israel accountable for alleged genocide in Gaza
and putting an end to the tragic suffering of an imprisoned population.
Delegations from major cities engaged with U.N. missions, embassies, and
consulates worldwide, urging countries to invoke the Genocide Convention at the
United Nations' judicial arm.
The
campaign started two weeks ago with an open call for people to join in a
petition and letter-writing campaign urging countries to invoke the genocide
convention and charge Israel with genocide in the International Court of
Justice. Since then, over 30,000 people signed the petition, accompanied by an
impressive 118,290 letters sent to various countries urging support of the
cause.
The
nationwide delegations of "grassroots diplomats" took on this
campaign because officially appointed U.S. diplomats continue to insist on
supporting Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, rejecting the
sentiments of a majority of people in the U.S. and around the world who want a
ceasefire and an end to the slaughter.
White
House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby calls South Africa’s
84-page suit accusing Israel of genocide “meritless, counterproductive, and
completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.” Notably, the United States
supported Ukraine invoking the Genocide Convention last year in the
International Court of Justice with far less evidence.
In
the first week of January, delegations of grassroots diplomats embarked on a
petition and letter delivery campaign across the United States, urging
missions, consulates, and embassies to support South Africa's legal action
against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the U.N.
Convention on Genocide. While the visits and deliveries varied from city to
city, the overall reception by staff and representatives in each U.N. Mission,
Embassy, and Consulate was encouraging and supportive, with some delegations
able to meet directly with country representatives.
The
NYC delegation visited around 30 U.N. missions, engaging in significant
diplomatic efforts. They had a positive meeting with Colombia's U.N.
Ambassador, Arlene Tickner, exploring the potential for a Declaration of
Intervention to support South Africa's legal action. Another meeting took place
with the Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the U.N. At the Bolivia
Mission, the delegation received a warm reception, providing a letter and
petition. A productive meeting occurred with the Bangladesh U.N. Consul, who
expressed interest in connecting with legal experts. The NYC team met African
Union diplomats who offered support and suggested additional efforts for South
Africa. A meeting at the South Africa Mission involved discussions with the
counselor and Deputy Permanent Representative. The delegation expressed their
gratitude and support to the South African government. The South African
representative acknowledged and appreciated the delegation's work in their
peace work.
The
D.C. team engaged in diplomatic efforts, meeting with the Deputy Minister at
the Colombian Embassy to encourage the Colombian government's continued stance
against Israeli actions and to join South Africa's case. They visited and
submitted their petition to the Ghanaian, Chilean, and Ethiopian Embassies,
urging support for South Africa's case against Israel. The team also had
discussions with the Bolivian Embassy. Currently, they are arranging a meeting
with the Turkish ambassador to further their diplomatic initiatives.
Three
delegations from Miami divided their efforts to visit ten consulates, including
those of Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, France, Honduras, Ireland,
Spain, and Turkey. The delegations had the opportunity to meet with consular
generals from Bolivia, Honduras, and Turkey, all notably welcoming and
receptive. In addition, the Miami team reached out to the Turkish ambassador in
Washington, D.C., further extending their diplomatic efforts. The Türkiye
Consulate in Miami emphasized the visit on their social media platform,
underscoring the significance of the engagement.
The
Tampa team focused on a single visit to the Greek Consulate, accompanied by a
representative from CAIR Florida, based in Tampa. CAIR is a nationwide
federation of legally independent chapters dedicated to safeguarding the civil
liberties of Americans. The Greek Consulate warmly received the delegation,
expressing appreciation for a gift of olive oil. Furthermore, they assured the
team they would forward the petition and letter to the Embassy of Greece in
Washington, D.C., indicating a positive reception and willingness to address
the delegation's concerns.
Orlando
engaged with five consulates representing Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Haiti, and
Colombia. The meeting at the Haitian Consulate was mainly positive, with a
productive discussion with an Assistant Consul urging support for South
Africa's case against Israel. Similarly, the delegation met with the Vice
Consular of Colombia, delivered a petition, and urged their support for South
Africa's case against Israel, indicating a proactive approach in advancing
their diplomatic efforts.
In
Houston, the delegation reported successful engagements during their visits.
They met with the Consulate of Belize staff and spoke with Consulate General
Francisco Leal of Chile. The Honduran consulate staff extended kindness during
their visit. The delegations also visited the Pakistan consulate as part of
their diplomatic efforts.
The
San Francisco delegation visited three consulates – Chile, Brazil, and
Colombia. They engaged with the staff at the Chilean and Brazilian consulates,
delivering the petition and letter at the Colombian Consulate, situated in the
same building as the Israeli Consulate. Security at the building instructed the
delegation to wait outside for a representative. However, the doors were
subsequently locked, preventing entry. In response, the delegation affixed the
petition and letter to the building's door to convey their message.
The
delegation in Los Angeles visited nine foreign consulates in the city,
including Belize, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Turkey, Chile, Colombia, and
Kuwait. The delegation expressed gratitude to the staff at the South African
Consulate for South Africa's filing in the ICJ that charges Israel with
genocide. As a goodwill gesture, the activists brought flowers, a simple yet
well-received token of peace and unity. They also had an encouraging meeting
with Bolivian Consulate Gabriella Silva, who supported the delegation's effort.
Delegations
from Detroit, Chicago, Boston, and San Antonio also made visits to their local
Consulates. Prior to deliveries, Turkey, Malaysia, and Slovakia publicly came
out in support of South Africa’s filing. Since then, Jordan announced that they
will file a “Declaration of Intervention" supporting South Africa's case.
This
grassroots diplomatic effort represents a unified plea for justice, demanding
global solidarity against Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The
tireless advocacy seeks to bridge nations in support of South Africa's pursuit
of justice in the International Court of Justice.
Deliveries
will continue into the first of next week with the hopes of engaging with as
many missions, consulates, and embassies as possible before the start of the
ICJ hearing on Jan. 11.
The
oral argument of South Africa will take place on Thursday 11th January 2024 and
Israel’s oral argument on Friday 12th January 2024. The hearings will be
streamed live and on demand on the ICJ’s Website and on the UN Web TV.
Thousands protest in Tel Aviv in ‘unprecedented’ anger towards
Netanyahu
A person in prison clothes wears a mask depicting Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu during a demonstration against Netanyahu’s
government in Tel Aviv, Saturday [Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters]
An
incredible unprecedented turnout since the war started, since the October 7
attack. This is an anti-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu protest; civil
society [groups] have come together to organise this.
This
is unprecedented because throughout the beginning of this war, everyone had
agreed, including the anti-government protesters, that they needed to be
unified at a time when there is war, at a time when captives are still being
held in Gaza,
The
turnout here is much, much higher than what we’ve seen in the last few weeks, a
few hundred, before that it was a few dozen, and now, quite a few thousand
people gathered here.
Just
to give you an idea of some of the things they’d been shouting: “Bushah bushah,
bushah”, which means “shame, shame, shame”. They’ve said this government is
morally corrupt, they’ve even pointed out that Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, including some of his ministers, haven’t even sent their children to
fight the war in Gaza.
They’ve
said that October 7 is directly to do with Netanyahu in that he is the reason
that it happened, and the reason being the incompetence, the decisiveness,
because of the political infighting in the most far-right government Israel has
seen in its history.
This
just gives you a sense of how angry some of these people are.
How Israel Leverages Genocide With Hamas ‘Massacres’
Kibbutz Be’eri four days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas offensive. (Kobi Gideon / Government Press Office of Israel, CC BY-SA 3.0)
In
the days after Hamas entered Israeli kibbutzim near Gaza on Oct. 7, foreign press accounts of what happened have
broadly reflected the Israeli interpretation of events of the deliberate
slaughter and dismemberment of innocent civilians by Hamas fighters.
Those
stories were blood-curdling in the extreme: Babies beheaded. People dismembered
and deliberately burned to death. And the total of innocent civilians murdered
in cold blood were said to be as high as 1,400.
The
Israelis quickly recycled parallels between Hamas and the Islamic State, with
its glorification of killing innocents.
But
a reconstruction of how that story line emerged as the dominant theme in early
press coverage shows that it was deliberately created by a decision by top
Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was done by inventing stories about
nonexistent atrocities and planting them with credulous U.S. news outlets.
Origins
of the Hamas Atrocity Stories
The
documentary evidence now available shows that the stories about Hamas
atrocities committed in the Kfar Aza Kibbutz and elsewhere were politically
motivated fabrications. And how and why those atrocity stories became the
dominant political reality within days of the offensive is an important
political question bearing on the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The
first explanation for those stories is that they came from Israeli private
“first responder” organizations with an obvious self-interest in peddling such
a line: they were competing with one another to generate the biggest donations,
as reported by Max Blumenthal at The Grayzone.
But
the real source of those Hamas atrocity stories from Kfar Aza was the Netanyahu
government itself, and it is now clear that the objective was to ensure that
the Biden administration would go along with the plan to reduce all of Gaza to
an inhabitable pile of rubble.
In
an address to the nation on Oct. 9 Netanyahu invoked a long-time basic Israeli
propaganda line: Hamas is ISIS. “We have always known what Hamas is,” he
declared. “Now the whole world knows Hamas is ISIS.”
When
he spoke to the nation the day after the Hamas offensive, of course, the rest
of the world had no such idea. That is why Netanyahu ordered a special project
of hasbara — the Israeli term for propaganda to reshape public opinion abroad —
to ensure that both the U.S. public and the Biden administration fully
supported the Israeli position on Hamas’ attack.
The
first part of that program was to have a senior IDF commander pass information
to the news media, who were allowed to enter Kfar Aza Kibbutz on the morning of
Oct. 10, while ensuring that a senior IDF commander would be on hand to speak
to the press about Hamas atrocities in the kibbutz.
Thus
Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv, commander of the Israel Defense Forces Depth Corps, told
CNN correspondent Nic Robertson that women, children, toddlers and the elderly
had been “brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action.”
A
later CNN story quoted Gen. Veruv as saying,
“I saw hundreds of terrorists in full
armor, full gear, with all the equipment and all the ability to make a
massacre, go from apartment to apartment, from room to room and kill babies,
mothers, fathers in their bedrooms.”
Veruv
had not seen anything of the sort himself, but it was emblematic of the IDF
manipulation of the Western press on the issue. When Business Insider contacted
the IDF from New York about the story, spokesperson Major Nir Dinar claimed
that its soldiers had found the decapitated corpses of babies at Kfar Aza.
But
when the Turkish Anadolu Agency and The Intercept sought confirmation of the
claim of beheaded babies from the IDF on Oct. 10 and 12, respectively, the IDF
couldn’t back up the statement by Veruv.
Anadolu
reported in a post on “X” that the IDF had “no information” confirming the
allegations of beheaded babies.
And
the IDF spokesperson told The Intercept that the military had not been able to
independently confirm the claim.
Despite
the absence of actual evidence for that propaganda claim, a cascade of such
stories were aired by major U.S. television networks and the BBC. It was a
major triumph of deliberate Israeli deception by manipulating broadcast media
eager for Hamas atrocity stories.
The
second part of the Netanyahu plan — ensuring the full political support of U.S.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Biden for the utter destruction of the
urban society of Gaza — was easy as well.
Blinken
was already fully committed to the Zionist cause. When he arrived in Jerusalem,
he invoked his Jewish ancestry and likened the Hamas attacks to those of the
Nazis against Jews.
And
he endorsed the Israeli claim of “babies slaughtered, bodies desecrated, young
people burned alive, women raped, parents executed in front of their children,
children in front of their parents.”
Behind
IDF’s ‘Preliminary Estimate’ of Civilians Killed
On
Oct. 14, the IDF put out a “preliminary estimate” of 1,400 innocent civilians
killed by Hamas in the attack, a figure that stood until Nov. 10, when the
Israeli Foreign Ministry reduced the estimate of civilians “murdered in cold
blood” to 1,200.
However,
that figure, too, was shown to be seriously misleading when IsraeI’s Social
Security Administration in mid-December released a complete list of those
killed in the attack, with the circumstances of death of each.
That
official document showed that 695 deaths were caused by the Hamas attack, of
which 373 were Israeli security forces and 71 were Thai workers. Thus 322 of
the Israeli dead were innocent civilians.
Hamas
gunmen certainly did fire indiscriminately during the rampage, and they caused
a large number of civilian deaths when their plan for taking hostages quickly
went awry, because people refused to come out of their houses.
To
force the occupants to jump out through open windows, some Hamas gunmen set
fire to the houses, but some families never made it and were burned to death.
Hamas
operatives were not the only ones to destroy houses and kill those inside it,
however.
In
the two communities where the largest number of civilians said to have been
killed — Kfar Aza, where total civilian deaths was variously estimated at
between 38 and 46; and Be’eri, where it was estimated at 112, numerous civilian
deaths from tank and/or helicopter fire — including the deaths of a number of
those who were being held as hostages — have been well documented.
The
IDF commanding officer who unleashed violence on Be’eri spun an elaborate lie
to cover up the actual circumstances in which many houses were destroyed by
Israeli tank fire or by rockets from helicopters.
In
a report in the Hebrew edition of Haaretz, the deputy commander of an IDF
armored reserve battalion, Brig. Gen Barak Hiram, described how his tank unit
“fought…from house to house, with tanks” in Be’eri, adding, “We had no choice.”
In
another interview, this time in The New York Times, Hiram also presented a
completely falsified and self-serving account of his handling of the situation
he encountered at one house where Hamas gunmen held 14 hostages.
He
claimed that one hostage, Yasmin Porat, had managed to escape, and that the
gunmen inside then fired two RPG rounds at IDF troops outside the house they
were occupying. In fact, however, the Hamas group’s leader had decided to
surrender and contacted the police by phone.
He
gave himself up along with Porat, according to her account, leaving the other
Hamas gunmen to fend for themselves. But Gen. Hiram immediately demanded that
the house be taken by force “even at the cost of civilian casualties,” with the
result that all 13 remaining hostages but one were killed.
In
Kfar Aza, which had more than 49 civilian deaths, a parallel process unfolded,
as Lt. Col. Golan Vach similarly ordered a tank attack on houses that Hamas had
taken over and in which 19 Israeli hostages were being held.
Both
decisions reflected the explicit implementation of the IDF’s “Hannibal
Protocol,” under which it is required to kill Israeli hostages to ensure that
they could not be exploited by Israel’s enemy — even though that requirement
was supposedly canceled by the IDF in 2016.
Most
of the civilian deaths appear to have taken place at or near the grounds of the
early morning music festival, where 260 bodies were found.
Hamas
operatives sought to take people hostage as they fled from the grounds, but
many of the victims were killed by firing from helicopters from troops who were
unable to distinguish Hamas operatives from revelers.
No
one knows how many were killed by each side but the 28 Israeli helicopters were
firing rounds of 30-millimeter cannon mortars, without any intelligence to
guide their shooting, certainly took a share of the human toll, especially in
the chaotic scene during the flight from the rave that morning, according to
Electronic Intifada.
In
light of the new evidence, the number of innocent civilians killed by Hamas was
clearly significantly less than the 322 victims identified by the Israeli
Social Security Administration and a fraction of the 1,200 civilians the
Netanyahu government has claimed, and the IDF itself was responsible for a
significant proportion of the deaths of innocent civilians.
It
is also clear, however, that the Hamas offensive was poorly conceived and badly
executed. And most importantly, it handed Netanyahu and the whole extremist
Israeli socio-political system a golden opportunity to pursue their genocidal
plans in Gaza.
Within
24 hours of Hamas’ operation, that Israeli genocide plan had already gone into
operation with its campaign of phony atrocity stories. And nearly three months
later, little or nothing has been done to stop its murderous progress toward
its genocidal goal.
Gaza
death toll tops 30,000, as US escalates wider Middle East war
A bulldozer unloads the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel in a mass grave in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2023. [AP Photo/Fatima Shbair]
The Euro-Med
Monitor reported Friday that 30,676 Palestinians have been killed in Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) attacks since October 7, taking into account both those
whose bodies have been identified and those who have been missing for more than
two weeks, most buried under the rubble of demolished buildings.
This staggering
death toll includes 12,040 children, 6,103 women, 241 health workers and 105
journalists. A further 58,960 people have been wounded in the onslaught.
Throughout the
Gaza Strip, thousands of bodies remain unburied, including hundreds along roads
used by the Israeli occupation forces.
Euro-Med
reported that 4 percent of the population of Gaza is either dead, wounded or
missing. A similar share of the American population would equate to over 13
million.
To date, 1.9
million Palestinians have been internally displaced, amounting to 90 percent of
the population of Gaza. Many have been forced to flee multiple times.
In just under
three months, Israel has destroyed or damaged approximately 70 percent of
Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, Euro-Med reported, including a staggering
247,696 housing units, 318 schools and 169 healthcare facilities.
The ongoing
destruction of Gaza is accompanied by growing demands for the permanent
displacement of the Palestinian population.
On Wednesday,
the Times of Israel reported, “The ‘voluntary’ resettlement of Palestinians
from Gaza is slowly becoming a key official policy of the government, with a
senior official saying that Israel has held talks with several countries for
their potential absorption.”
In a statement
on Friday, United Nations humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths declared, “A
public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in
overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are
giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of
food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner.”
In a separate
statement, the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported, “Children in
Gaza are caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day.”
Catherine
Russell, UNICEF’s executive director, said, “Children and families in the Gaza
Strip continue to be killed and injured in the fighting, and their lives are
increasingly at risk from preventable diseases and lack of food and water. All
children and civilians must be protected from violence and have access to basic
services and supplies.”
She added, “Gaza
has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to
their very existence—while the world watches on.”
But this
bloodbath is only the prelude to what is rapidly becoming a major new US war
throughout the Middle East.
On Friday,
Politico carried an article reporting that Biden administration officials admit
that “the war in Gaza has officially escalated far beyond the strip’s borders.”
Politico, citing
four unnamed US officials, reported that “Biden administration officials are
drawing up plans” for “scenarios that could potentially draw the US into
another Middle East war.”
The publication
added, “The military is drafting plans to hit back at Iran-backed Houthi
militants who have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea, according
to three US officials with direct knowledge of the discussions.” It added,
“That includes striking Houthi targets in Yemen, according to one of the
officials, an option the military has previously presented.”
The Pentagon
planning to attack Yemen was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The US is also
seeking to “anticipate and fend off possible attacks on the US by
Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria, according to one of the officials,”
Politico reported.
Against this
backdrop, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Thursday for a trip
throughout the Middle East, including a prominent stop in Israel, to coordinate
the next phase of the war.
On the day that
Blinken left, the US carried out an illegal missile strike on Baghdad, Iraq on
Thursday in the latest escalation of the US-Israeli rampage throughout the
Middle East.
The strike
targeted Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al-Jawari, a member of a pro-Iran militia, whom
Iraq claimed was a member of its security forces. Iraq’s foreign ministry
issued a “strong condemnation” of what it called a “blatant attack” on Iraq’s
military headquarters.
In a letter to
Congress Friday, Biden justified the attack, declaring, “I directed these
discrete military actions consistent with my responsibility to protect United
States citizens both at home and abroad and in furtherance of United States
national security and foreign policy interests.”
In response,
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the Iraqi govenrment would
move to expel the 2,500 US troops stationed in the country.
“The government
is setting the date for the start of the bilateral committee to put
arrangements in place to end the presence of the international coalition forces
in Iraq permanently,” al-Sudani said in a statement.
The United
States, meanwhile, is continuing to mass troops, warships and aircraft in the
Middle East. In a statement Wednesday, White House National Security Council
spokesman John Kirby said the United States will not “shrink from the task of
defending ourselves, our interests, our partners and the free flow of
international commerce.”
Kirby warned,
“To accomplish these goals, we have established and will continue to maintain a
significant force presence in the Middle East, including significant
‘offensive’ military power.”
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