Western media and politicians are now firmly coalesced around the Israeli government narrative. Israel is unwillingly fighting a war of self-defence in Gaza after hostilities were commenced by aggressive Hamas military attack. The storming of Al Aqsa mosque, the shooting at people in prayer, the right wing mobs attacking East Jerusalem, the Krystallnacht style destruction of Palestinian businesses and lynching of Arab Israelis, none of that ever happened at all. What happened was that Hamas launched a missile war and Israel was obliged, ever so reluctantly, to exercise its right of self defence, with enormous care not to hit civilians, except that, entirely accidentally, the IDF has killed a couple of hundred civilians including scores of children.
Palestinians die in the passive voice in western media. The media always says they “have died”; they were never “killed”, and there is virtually never any attribution of the death. By contrast, Israelis are active voice “killed by Hamas” or “killed by missile strikes”. Look out for this journalistic sophistry – once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
I used to be a firm opponent of missile strikes from Gaza. My view was firstly, that they cannot be militarily targeted so constitute an attack on civilians, secondly that they were a gift to Israeli propaganda, and thirdly that they were militarily ineffective. All of those remain true, and yet my view has changed and I find myself celebrating the fact that Hamas has, against all odds, managed to acquire more and better missiles. Part of that change of view is that I have come to see that there is no such thing as an innocent adult coloniser. But the bigger part is that I cannot see what on earth else the Palestinians are supposed to do.
Western politicians obviously believe that the Palestinians should accept apartheid quietly, and should have the good grace silently to wither away. The ultra-venal leaders of the majority of Arab states also wish the Palestinians would just die and allow them to enjoy the lavish personal benefits of their new alliances with Israel. It is absolutely plain there is no political process of any kind in train to alleviate the Palestinian plight, that even those “liberal” western politicians who floated the idea of a “two state solution” meant, at best, internationally recognised apartheid and bantustans. Joe Biden manages the remarkable feat of being still more zionist than Donald Trump.
Were I a Palestinian, I should undoubtedly have concluded that for an entire nation to turn the other cheek to a power which is seriously intent on genocide, is not a viable policy. Military resistance may seem hopeless, but sometimes to attempt to live with a shout of defiance and an effort to fight is the only dignified option remaining to a human.
It was a beautiful day in Glasgow yesterday for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee demo, and it was great to be able to meet up again with so many magnificent and public-spirited people. It was an especially young crowd, which was excellent, and I was able to meet many Palestinians who drew comfort from the public support at a traumatic time.
Watching Mick Napier very much in charge of events, I was struck by the thought that there are so many really excellent and altruistic people who put their heart and entire lives into good causes for very little credit. Mick has been involved with SPSC as long as I can remember, has won important court victories in Scotland against ridiculous definitions of anti-semitism, and I have seen him at vigils on cold wet nights with a dozen people there. It made me realise how many Mick Napiers I have had the great privilege to know. We must not take the good-hearted for granted.
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Remember the
“Road Map”
Copyright Blair. ?
Republicofscotland
May 19, 2021 at 14:07
“…so the murders and systematic persecution continues, whilst the world looks on pretending not to see what’s really happening.”
————————————————————————————————-
Sadly RoS most people in Britain know next to nothing about the plight of the Palestinians. They know little if anything about the history of the Nakba. They only ever hear about the Jewish holocaust as taught in schools and the constant pro Zionist main stream opinion formers. I doubt that many people know what Zionism stands for. The general public are deliberately misinformed. A well educated and informed public would be seen as a threat by our superiors.
Those that look on pretending not to see, but know exactly what is really happening, are our ruling, lying elites democratically elected or not.
Good points Douglas, there’s no bigger offender than the BBC when it comes to sheer and utter bias against the people of Palestine.
Time has aririved to expose the evil within Israel…
The smashing of Gaza, the Palestinian holocaust and the murder of innocent Palestinians was an offensive by PM Netanyahu from the beginning after he realised he had lost the ability to form a new government. This heinous malevolent event happened on the last night of Ramadan when the Israeli police entered the Al-Aqsa mosque https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCDDRC4BvWg and fired tear-gas at worshippers and then forcibly remove families from a-Sheikh Jarrah and other villages in East Jerusalem.
Looking at the timeline this barbarity was a calculated initiative by Netanyahu to stay in power, as in reality his grip on power was only in the form of a caretaker government. The net effect was to stop the Israeli opposition forming government and suspend any effort in that direction.
Now, at present with Israel potentially facing internal strife and warfare, Netanyahu has engineered his longevity in power and I suspect he could/would declare a national emergency to cement his authority.
It is within these acts that hate and wickness reside in that innocent souls have been terminated by this selfish deed leaving loss, sorrow and bereavement to many who have loved and cherished others.
I have to say Russian security interests have been threatened by Israel’s actions and although President Putin has a personal relationship with this devil Netanyahu, he once said he would have attacked Israel notably after the downing of a Il-20 surveillance plane, carrying 15 people, was struck by a Syrian surface-to-air missile during an attack by four Israeli F-16 jets on Latakia, a port city controlled by the Assad regime which Putin blames on Israel. This might lead to a kinetic effort by Russia in spite of the recent attempt by Lavrov at mediation.
Gone are the days when Israel can invade Lebanon. Iran has yet to take revenge for the many assasinations and attacks on its nuclear plants. The Lobby can influence and direct nearly all Western countries to do its bidding. The Lobby can engineer the demise of a Socialist anti war Labour leader together with a propaganda demonstrated talking points coordinated on radio TV and print media. Influencers with dirt, blackmailed, others corrupted by Lolita Express flights. But all to no end in my view. Yes there have been decades of wars and suffering to keep hold of ill gotten gains. Yet those gains are cursed and like sand running out slowly but inexorably down the time glass to judgement day.
The lobby is a myth, it is a proxy. That craven poltroon Corbyn sabotaged himself by apologising into oblivion. He presided over rich, white zionist antisemites purging a working class, black Jewish woman. Fuck him, the gutless bastard.
Judging by this week, Israel is unable to invade Gaza any more. This could be the end.
The pro-Zionist bias in the use of language in western media reports needs to be countered. The Palestinian side might fund a proper study some time. (Please don’t ask Chomsky.) It’s not just a variation between active and passive voice, which itself corresponds to a variation in who is the semantic subject, or in other words who is allowed “agency”. It’s far more than that. There is also a variation in nouns – Palestinian “rockets” and Jewish “missiles”. There’s even a difference in prepositions – ordinance is projected “AT” Gaza, as if Gaza were akin to an archery target; but it is projected “INTO” Israel, as if Israel were a stronghold it’s a sin to breach the walls of, an entity that has some kind of legitimate right to have borders.
Here is some help:
***********************
“The militant Jewish settler group ‘Yizrael’ today fired rockets into the heavily-populated city of Gaza in Palestine, releasing them from aircraft that flew from within its stronghold in the central part of the country. This is the 17th attack by ‘Yizrael’, also known as the so-called ‘Jewish State Group’, this year. Palestine responded by launching ground-to-ground missile strikes against installations maintained by the militants in Al-Quds. The eastern sector of that city, which has been in terrorist hands since 1967, this morning also experienced street clashes between the local population and heavily armed ‘Yizrael’ militants who yesterday opened fire at a religious service, murdering 11 unarmed worshippers. Palestine’s prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said that Palestine was not willing to sustain further terror attacks by ‘Yizrael’ militants and that Palestine would continue to strike against terrorist infrastructure.”
“Nuclear-armed ‘Yizrael’ is believed to benefit from a network of military and financial support from within Washington DC, New York, Paris, and London, in which a number of State actors may also be implicated.”
***********************
Your sentiments are fine, N_, but as usual you distort the facts to fit them.
Palestinian rockets are called rockets and not missiles because they are rockets (predominantly Qassam rockets), with no onboard guidance system – and not missiles, which do have a guidance system. Palestinian rockets are steel cylinders propelled by a mixture of sugar and fertilizer (potassium nitrate), with an explosive compound (typically urea nitrate, another fertilizer, or TNT). They’re just aerodynamic mortars with simple fuel systems which give them a longer range but no targeting capability. They are home-made, improvised devices. This was explained by Gerald in an earlier comment.
Israeli missiles are called missiles because they have sophisticated guidance systems, meaning that, barring malfunction, they hit precisely what they’re supposed to hit. That makes the Israeli military fully culpable for the consequences, in contrast to Palestinian militants, who don’t know exactly where their rockets will land. Israeli missiles cost a fortune, so they lose a lot of money every time one is deployed – which is scant consolation, I suppose.
You shouldn’t swap the terms around the way you just did. The inequality doesn’t lie simply in the superficial words the media uses to portray the situation – it’s in the vast technological superiority of one side over the other. Pretending that the Palestinians have actual missiles is doing them a huge disservice. They don’t have the capability because they’ve never been allowed to have it. And suggesting that the Israelis only have basic rockets entirely side-steps their moral responsibility for killing the people who were targeted (along with any foreseeable collateral casualties).
As Craig mentioned, the media’s bias shows up in the description of the deaths: Palestinians just “died”, whereas Israelis “were killed”. If anything, those terms should be other way around. The Palestinians were deliberately killed by the Israeli military, whereas the Israeli casualties died because they were within the (unpredictable) landing zone of the rockets.
You don’t need to distort the truth to express your anti-Israeli sentiments; in fact, doing so contradicts the criticism you’re trying to make.
Another example, if needed, of what sick fucks Israel and the USA truly are:
“Israeli Forces spokesman announced the start of the bombing of Gaza, specifying that “80 fighters are taking part in the operation, including the advanced F-35s”. It is officially the baptism of fire for the US Lockheed Martin’s fifth-generation fighter.”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/f-35s-bombing-gaza/5745665
Baptism of fire, WTF ? A fifth generation, high tec aircraft against a defenceless nation that has the military capability of China in the middle ages. Impressive or what ?
Stevie Boy.
Some of the young lads you see on tv are using slingshots and stones against state of the art snipers weapons, the young Palestinian lads in T-Shirts and jeans only have the smoke from burning tyres to give them a modicum of protection. Yet they feel the need to do something, as most will have lost a loved one or saw a loved one beaten or imprisoned, its almost a right of passage for a young Palestinian lad to defy their oppressors in this manner, as their fathers and elder brother would have, and who could blame them for doing so.
Interesting info, @Stevie. That should be more widely known..
I think Israel would sink without the $3.8 billion US dollars that American taxpayers hand over to it every year. the cash I imagine isn’t just to prop up the oppressive apartheid military regime, but also to stop the coming together and expansion of Arab states in the region in a force of unity that would severely damage the Great Satan’s interests in the M.E.
However from what I’ve read the Democrats, or current Democrats appear to be softening toward the oppressed people of Palestine, its a pity Bernie Sanders wasn’t selected as POTUS candidate for the Democrats, and that he didn’t go on to hold the office, for I think he might have found away forward, that no US President has been sincere enough to do so. Meanwhile the suffering of the Palestinian people goes on.
Shame Sanders is an empty shell of a compassionate entity willing and able to use intention against a powerful psychopathic entrenchment.
Mark
I have read some condescending articles about Sanders but not from a reputable outlet, though I suppose they could be true could you please point one out for me, I’m under the impression that the DNC will never allow Sanders to be their POTUS candidate, because of his socialist tendencies.
Unfortunately ROS Sanders is judged on his leaning towards Marxist past, anathema to a majority of Middle class US folks who want to keep most of their hard earned dollars.
With or without my sentiment rests on the words of Sanders who said this, “..both Israel and Palestinians have a “right to live in peace and security.” in a 2 state solution hogwash while I maintain Israel has no such right, arguing the land belongs to Palestine. The Israel body politic is riddled with apartheid, corrupt to the core, the genesis of terrror with no authority to exist.
..A citizen of Gaza: “Today I did the strangest thing; I gave 2 of my kids to my brother and took 2 of his. This way if (the Israelis) kill an entire one of our families something will still remain of all of us.”…
“..both Israel and Palestinians have a “right to live in peace and security.” in a 2 state solution “
Mark.
I understand your anger, you’re not alone, but realistically a two-state solution is the only way forward.
RoS maybe we should turn over in our minds why the 2 state solution is open to doubt. Certainly the US Israeli lobby has prevented US authority from opposing settlement building. Between 1993 and 2000, Israel confiscated 40,000 acres of Palestinian land, constructed 250 miles of roads for settlers, doubled the number of settlers, and built 30 new settlements.
In the occupied territory some 500,000 settlers would resist roll-back. In any case it would be prevented, blocked, on account of there is no herculean pro-peace political party in Israel advocating for a two-state solution—something that would contradict Zionism’s vision of an Israeli state on all of historic Palestine.
America, the great satan inducts Christian Zionists, a powerful domestic political force who are opposed to a two-state solution because they believe the seizure by Israel of all of Palestine will hasten the second coming of Christ.
This is I believe the battleground, the arena on which Palestine’s future will be determined. There will be no unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the bulk of the West Bank to enable the emergence of a pro-tem Palestinian state.
I see a disaster in the making, a nuclear holocaust and Eretz Yisrael [Hashlema]) will consume itself, literally implode under the eventual gravity of unified exasperation, anger, fear and intention.
If Sanders had wanted, he could have gotten the Dem nomination for President in 2016 by making an issue of Hillary’s emails, as any presidential candidate with the necessary killer instinct would have done. If he had done so, he would have been elected and would be President today. But he didn’t.
Lysias
Maybe he realised that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Or, more likely imho the Zionists need to turn the page from destroying the Middle East, successfully accomplished by a combination of stuck-up morally superior British , French and US bombs and killer instinct proxy jihadists, to building a respectable Greater Israel in the trashed zone.
Sanders wanted peace when they wanted war. Now they want Triumph and Empire and he , and most US citizens , still only want peace.
Killer peace is not peace at all. It is called Empire.
Sanders’ function is to fool real left wing people into voting Democrat. He will never be selected as POTUS candidate.
“’Today we are Nazis,’ says member of Israeli Jewish extremist group”
“Israeli Jewish extremists used instant messaging services to organize armed militias to attack Palestinian citizens of Israel. The messages were released in the context of recent attacks by extremist Jewish Israelis on Palestinians, their homes and businesses as Israel escalated its attacks on the occupied West Bank and Gaza over the last week. ‘We are no longer Jews today,’ one user wrote in a Telegram group titled ‘People from Holon, Bat Yam and Rishon Lezion go out to bring war.’ … ‘Today we are Nazis.’ … These towns are suburbs south of Tel Aviv.”
https://electronicintifada.net/content/today-we-are-nazis-says-member-israeli-jewish-extremist-group/33081
Ken Garoo. The populations of North Africa, Egypt, the Potentates of the Gulf, Jordan, Lebanon, the Ottomans, the Persians and Iraqis, Suuni and Shia are also watching the shelling and bombardment of Gaza and desecration of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The ” Collective West ” and its very successful policy of Divide and Rule in the Arab world is now under threat of a very different type of ” Arab Spring “.
What were they at Deir Yassin?
I can only imagine what the poor folk of the six mile by twenty-five mile land area also known as the Gaza Strip are going through, as Israeli jets bomb them unfettered, as medical supplies, fuel, water and electricity begin to become low in supply.
Netanyahu said earlier this week, to foreign ambassadors, with regards to the Palestinian people, (You can either conquer them, and that’s always an open possibility, or you can deter them, we are engaged right now in forceful deterrence, but I have to see we’ve ruled nothing out).
Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh who resides abroad said that he’d been contacted by the UN, Russia, Egypt, and Qatar this week to try and broker some sort of ceasefire.
Craig, you might want to check the meaning of ‘active’ and ‘passive’ voice, together with ‘lynching’.
What about a 3 state solution? Make Jerusalem a city state.
The plan to make Jerusalem a Corpus Separatum, and ran by the UN took place in 1947, however it was rejected, its a sacred place for both Jew and Muslim and indeed Christian. East Jerusalem is and has been seen as a Palestinian area, I see no reason if, and its a huge if, the persecution of the Palestinian people draws to an end why it couldn’t be their capital in a two-state solution.
For 250 years India was sold by Indians who collaborated with the British , to the British. If they hadn’t, Britain would never have been able to conquer and maintain their power 5000 miles from.home.
People from India are still worshipping Western power now, spying for their 24/7 hegemony through spying.
Frankly , until the Muslim world stops playing the Western game of sucking Western cock for money and personal power, nothing ever’s going to change. How long the Muslims will prostitute themselves to Britain for a nearly new white Mercedes E class to spy 24/7 on their fellow Muslims, there’s fuck all chance of anything ever changing.
So long as political Muslims in Al Qaeda or Daesh, Muslim Brotherhood or Deobandi, Naqshabandi or Shi’a, suck Anglo Saxon cock for money and personal power, they may as well sign up to fight for the IDF and persecute the Palestinians.
Muslims don’t know where to send our charity any more, because whenever we give to the distressed victims of continual Anglo Saxon crusader war, we find our donations are used to keep the Muslim political prostitutes in power to help the West subdue and ruin the Muslim populations.
So opinion on the question asked , what’s left for Palestine? is simply that Muslims have done this to Muslims. How many hundreds of years do the slaves of the CIA mossad and MI6, like Belhaj and Imran Khan, Barzani and Erdogan , plan to say to themselves, ‘ If I don’t work for these Taghout/ tinpot dictators, USUKIS , somebody else will , so kaifa chota? fuckit, I’m going to do it ?
There’s a very bright future for Palestine as soon as the cock sucking political Muslims come off the teats of Western worldly reward and come onto the promises of their Creator.
It is the educated Muslims , doctors, businessmen, IT engineers who collude with Islam’s enemies, to trash Libya and Syria, blow up churches in Sri Lanka. And these educated people despise other Muslims who don’t share their lust for destruction and hatred. But has their education got Assad off his throne? Or Sisi? Or Modi? Or Bojo ? Or Bibi?
No , because the intellectual Muslims despise the people and say ‘ in my personal case, my superior knowledge gives me the right to side with the tyrants.’
It’s fully explained in the Qur’an, If anybody reads that any more.
Ffs G – there was no such single country as ‘India’ until it was invented, just as a Sykes Picot invented the ME ‘countries’.
The BBC reporting that the UN and Egypt are going to try and negotiate a ceasefire, negotiations start tomorrow, so tonight will be a night of hellfire for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, as Israel will surely finish with a flurry of bombing.
Well Done Craig making it to the March / Rally, I’d have loved to be there but was unwell.. The last BBC Palestine bias protest I went to had around a thousand protesters..I see this one was Huge.. and in about every capital city in the world too.
I was watching some videos as the came out the other day.. compelling viewing
This one is by Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal – ‘Killing Gaza’
James North of Mondoweiss wrote, “If documentary films like ‘Killing Gaza’ appeared regularly on American television, public opinion would start turning against Israel overnight. The film, just released by Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal, is inspiring and sickening.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfDMXrcYw2I
Here Aaron Maté ( The Grey Zone ) talks to , Hamas official and former Gaza Health Minister Basem Naim discusses the civilian toll of Israel’s assault on Gaza and its damage to the besieged territory’s medical system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7xW1Yp7PRE
In this one Professor Norman Finkelstein talks to Harry Fear –
Harry Fear –
Dr Finkelstein tells me that Israel is committing a “massacre” in May 2021 in Gaza and that the term “apartheid” in application to Israel is now ‘spreading like wildfire’. He clarifies hopes for the future and ‘one person one vote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FWUR-U2550
Another annoying semantic for me is calling Palestinians, Arabs.
They are Arabs but we have words like Saudis Syrians Algerians Iraqis Lebanese etc.
This is subliminal propaganda implying that they can move to any other “Arab”country .
My Arab friends were Moroccan(Beduin) Lebanese(Christian), Palestinian( from Lebanon), Algerian etc.
By host country they were just Arabs.
In Uk they would just be Muslims amalgamated with Pakistanis Turks and all others.
All black skin people are just Black British even though they have different cultures history and identities.
I forgot my own amalgamation f#cking East European.
Don’t worry we are not that sensitive but we are annoyed to be put in the same basket with Poles?
Some of us are Slavs or Hungarian or Latin (Romania) .Some Catholics other Orthodox etc.
Some from North others in the South.
When you talk about East Europeans it is the other country you mean.
Regarding “Palestinians die in the passive voice in western media” — Yes, and they also die as a result of things called “airstrikes,” not bombs, whereas Israelis are assaulted by “rockets.” Oh what a shameful word, “airstrike.” I presume it was invented to distinguish aerial bombing from roadside bombing. Still it is a euphemism that no one should use. A bomb is a bomb.
Even then, not all bombs are equal. For example barrel bombs are much more unacceptable than daisy cutter sophisticated bomb used by S in Vietnam and more recently in Afghanistan. As to inaccurate rockets are much more unacceptable than guided missiles used to destoy a high rise block of flats. The other big one of course is that Israel has the right to defend itself. It seems that like racism, there is also a hierarchy of rights to self defense, some have better rights to self defense than others.
I have made a similar transition in my thoughts on Palestinian Resistance; largely provoked by the realization that Israel, doesn’t have, and never has had, any intention to ‘live in harmony’ with Palestinians. Whatever came out of the Zionist’s mouths the reality was always, ”live with our boot on your neck, or die”. Viva Palestinia!!
I read today that Israel ordered $750 million of high precision bombs on the 5th May.
It appears it could predict the future events at the Al Aqsa mosque by a full week.
It appears the word genocide seems to have a very specific meaning and that what is going on in Gaza has nothing to do with that.
Personally, I enjoy watching Alexander Mercouris on YouTube and can highly recommend his detailed analysis of what is going on in the world.
I can’t help but wonder what the world would be like now if the British had honoured the Sir Henry McMahon assurance to the Sherif of Mecca instead of committing the greatest double cross of all time with the Balfour Declaration.
11 whole days for Israelis and Zionist fantasists to finally (one hopes) understand that some sky fairy nonsense from a couple of millennia ago really really really will not survive the C21st.
I don’t think any number of killed innocents will ever let the centuries old ambitions of a few nutty yahoo religo-facist extremist rich fuckers finally succeed in their goals of dominance of the Levant and thence EurAsia and the whole world!
As none of the other fairy tales for children and demented human sacrifices to appease natural forces are still being chomped up by the slaves.
Dual/multi nationals must consider their positions and states must stop them from holding government positions – yup that means EU/U.K. passport holders too, sorry – enough of a few having AND eating their cakes like French Queens.
Here’s to a riotously awakening Summer like we used to have in the 70’s and 80’s before the softening of political consciences with cheap holidays and booze cruises.
When one of the pillars of human rights/NGO complex labels an entity like Israel an ‘apartheid state’, then that’s because they don’t want anyone to recognise or acknowledge that its fascistic Zionist regime fulfills internationally accepted criteria for a genocidal regime. According to the UN definition of genocide, under Article II of its Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948):
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.
At a minimum the Zionist regime of Israel has for decades met conditions (a), (b) and (c) of Article II at a minimum, and it could be argued that the siege it imposes on Gaza is a measure under the rubric of (d). The Israeli Zionist state thus is a genocidal state that continues to commit acts of genocide. The label ‘apartheid state’ prettifies this grotesque and ugly reality.
Under Article III of the Convention appears the following:
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.
By meeting at least one condition under Article II, under Article III the Israeli Zionist regime fulfills all conditions (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e).
Even if the Zionist regime’s US godfather were absent, the UN still has a get-out-of-jail-for-free card, and this why the Israeli criminal regime will never be prosecuted, let alone ‘punished’, at least according to Article VI of the UN’s Convention:
“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.”
Israel is a signatory to this Convention (signed in 1949), but of course the nub is ‘jurisdiction’. Where is the ‘competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed’, but in Israel/occupied Palestine itself? Appeal to the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) wouldn’t help either. The ICJ only hears contentious cases put by nation states against other nation states, not non-state entities. Palestine isn’t recognised as a nation by the ICJ despite its UN membership as a ‘non-member observer state’. Palestine has no independent, sovereign state to speak of. Therefore Palestine has little ability to take the Israeli Zionist regime to the ICJ and charge it with genocide, and Israel’s Zionist rulers certainly wouldn’t be expected to take themselves to the ICJ and charge themselves with genocide. Thus there are no legal avenues on this earth to stop the Zionist Israel regime’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians.
To top it off, in truly Orwellian fashion all the UN material on genocide comes under the rubric of “The United Nations office on Genocide Protection And The Responsibility to Protect”, which by happy coincidence (ie, ‘The Responsibility to Protect’) is also the US’s latest foreign policy doctrine. Grotesque.
Palestine’s liberation will never come about by ‘legal’ means, and in the case of interpenetrated peoples (as is still the case in Israel/occupied Palestine), there is no solution for the Palestinians this side of a socialist revolution. Under capitalism, at ‘best’, the terms of national oppression would only be reversed.
It takes real mental illness to tot up all the US-backed Israeli weaponry, including dozens of nuclear weapons and then try and claim that a bunch of rag tag guerrillas in Gaza are about to invade and retake the whole of Palestine.
The only way you can follow such a pile of nonsense is to be a committed Zionist absolutist, brooking no questioning of official lines and believing everything that someone like Benyamin Netanyahu tells you. That is surely a very small minority of people.
Alternatively, you can be completely incapable of any kind of rational, critical, coherent thought, merely absorbing propaganda like a sponge, on a par with a newborn trusting its mother because, without her, they would die.
Of course, the rest of us are regularly exposed to ‘Belarus is a threat to the whole NATO security’ claptrap; North Korea is about to launch Nukes on the USA (which even on April Fools Day would get laughed out of court); ‘Venezuelan oil belonging to Venezuelans is the outrage of the century’; and ‘Donald Trump urinated on Russian prostitutes in a Moscow Hotel’ lies.
I really do wonder how anyone can actually still take their paycheck working in the media these days. It must be a horrible life, lying for people you don’t even know, didn’t grow up with and who view you as individually expendable in the extreme. I mean, salivating about bombing half a million Iraqis to death for no better reason that US billionaires want to get even richer does take serious mental illness, doesn’t it? The same about Libya, the same about Ukraine, the same about Syria.
I’m sure you can write an epic book in prison. No distractions, no mass media to distort your view of things, so I’m sure you can flesh out the meat of some really seminal insights after a 40 year career observing great events, powerful people and not a small number of crooks.
For the past two weeks, Israel has been carrying out war crimes against the Palestinian people, according to the wording of the Geneva convention. The US carried out war crimes against Iraqi civilians at various times, most notably the offensive against Fallujah.
I find it sickening that these two countries will never have to account for their actions in front of war crimes tribunals.
Professor Norman Finkelstein delivers a devastating Judgement on Grayzone. Aaron hardly got a word in – didn’t need to. The true story for me is that the Palestinians in West Bank and East Jerusalem are having a revolt against the Palestinian Authority who they see as collaborator. The worshipers at the Al Aqsa mosque shouting down the mufti as Abasa’s man. One million children in the concentration camp of Gaza. Do the concentration camp guards have the right to self defence ?
Here is a disgraceful article in the Daily Telegraph:
“Anti-Semitic chants and Nazi symbols overshadow pro-Palestine marches across UK“
“Footage on social media showed people burning Israeli flags and calling for a boycott of Marks & Spencer, which was co-founded by a Jew“
Listen. 1) Burning an Israeli flag is not anti-Semitic. 2) As for Marks and Spencer, that vile company has for many decades had the support of Israel as one of its main business aims. That’s for example how avocados came to start being imported into this country. It also happens to be connected to organised crime – look at the management of its car parks and who does its “security”.
Boycotting Marks and Spencer is fundamental if you live in Britain and care about the Palestinians.
But wait…a member of the family that controls Marks and Spencer, the Sieffs, is Boris Johnson’s stepmother. (Her own father was Teddy Sieff, who was shot in the face by “Carlos the Jackal” in St John’s Wood, “North London”, in 1973). She is the person who. together with an Israeli “former diplomat”, “organised” Boris’s stay on a “kibbutz” (a racist type of company, usually operating on stolen land, for which non-Jewish morons work for free because they’re allowed to enjoy the “feeling of community” with other morons)…
The scumbag comedian David Baddiel writes of “anti-Zionism” blurring into anti-Semitism.
What a shame he doesn’t write of how anti-anti-Semitism blurs into SUPPORT for Israel.
One shouldn’t take any opposition to anti-Semitism seriously if it supports Israel. Israel is an ethnic-supremacist construct. The reason to be against anti-Semitism is because it is right to oppose all racism. It’s not because you support Jewish gangsterism.
Is Baddiel unware that Jesus was a Jew? Or does he think a Jew who rejects the racist collectivity in general, or Israel in particular, or the Jewish religion, is a piece of poop, a race traitor?
Wait until he learns that Jesus was not only a Jew but also a Palestinian refugee born on the West Bank.
Stop trying to troll by playing the strawman – Baddiel’s stance is easy to dismantle without giving him the excuse of abuse.
What is left for Palestine?
What is left for Israel?
THE INHERENT IRONY IN THE PALESTINIAN/ISRAELI STRUGGLE – Effective Learning Report
Access the link here:-
https://blog.effectivelearning.net/the-inherent-irony-in-the-palestinian-israeli-struggle/
Courtenay Barnett. Indeed. Its not whats left for Palestine. Its actually whats left for Israel ! and whats left for the total failure of the Palestinian Authority, who police their own people on behalf of the occupying power.
Wikikettle,
” who police their own people on behalf of the occupying power.” – for a price of course.
However, the ordinary Palestinian and the masses have woken up; should be interesting to see how the Palestinian election turns out.
Courtenay. They’ve been cancelled
The Groans favourite neo fascist poster boy ‘Tommy Robinson’ that they insist on referring to him as – and his renta mob English Defenders were belatedly called to parade with Israeli flags today! ISRAELI FLAGS. Who’d have thunk Facists and Zionists were such happy travellers. Lols.
When Anti Palestinian Yaxley-Lennon anti EDL turned up to show them what’s what -the Metropolitan police protected the Guardians fav facists and had a go at the counter protestors!
Just like Cable street almost hundred years ago!
The Met no longer ‘institutionally’ fascist ?
Pull the other one.
Very important analysis by Colonel Wilkerson about what the US military chiefs of staff said to Truman about Israel then and how today it has become a liability to US after the end of cold war. On YouTube ” Wilkerson – Is Israel a Strategic Asset or Liability ? ” If someone could post link please.
Good short vid showing just what it is to be in the crosshairs of fundamentalist settlers in East Jerusalem:
https://youtu.be/DZOUGc5yJcE
Blumenthal & Dore have a good go at it too:
https://youtu.be/7dbLAiEdQv4
Which public figures stood up, who hid and who sang straight from the Israeli hymn sheet? A quietly impassioned retrospective by Jeffrey St Clair
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/28/roaming-charges-15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFl4U2NRJTg
the rise and fall and rise of Israel’s biggest racists
brilliant vid, looks at the diversity of political thought within Israel & an eye opening history of the Kahanist faction, who’ve gone from being on the terrorist list back to the Knesset – explaining some of the current extremism.
Great to see something from ‘within’ Israel, looking at the complex realities there rather than the binary “goodies & baddies” narratives wrt Palestine/Israel.
There has never been anything complex about it.
fonso,
nothing “complex about it.”
yes & no,
I’d agree the ‘problem’ is fairly straightforward, but I think there are complexities in addressing the problem just because it’s now such an entrenched sh!tshow.
For a lot of folk who just hear a very cursory & binary “Goodies & Baddies” narrative (on both sides of the conversation), certain realities get sidelined.
I thought the video was quite useful in exploring & exposing a lot of internal Israeli political history that doesn’t get much of a mention, outside of Israel, but is actually pretty extraordinary (in a terrible way!).
“Far-right politician would be Israel’s next PM in proposed deal”
Pontificates a Groaniad headline today!
My question – How can you tell the difference?
What is a ‘far-right’ ?
Wtf is NuttyYahoo in that case?
Is that comparison supposed to excuse Nutties Killings of civilians? And land grab?
Will the Far-Right Israelis dress up in their Gucci uniforms and goose step around the wailing wall with posters of Il Duce and Adolf? Will they be wearing swastikas?
Will they invite Yaxley-Lennon, the Groan’s fav Right-whinger, to Palestinian shooting parties?
Right-Wing Israeli prime minister!!!
How will we tell the difference?????