The resignation letter of Craig Mokhiber, Director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has gone viral on social media but most posts only show page one. Here is the full four page letter.
This needs no gloss from me. Craig is one of the world’s leading international lawyers.
I am writing this in Geneva where I am tomorrow meeting UN officials to pursue my own case: both my unprecedented in modern times jailing for contempt of court, and the current surreal persecution under the terrorism act. I shall also be raising the case of other journalists subjected to persecution under the terrorism act, including Kit Klarenberg, Vanessa Beeley and Johanna Ross.
This account from John Laughland is interesting in how precisely it accords with my own experience, particularly in being held for exactly an hour with no right to remain silent and no right to a lawyer.
By one of those astonishing coincidences in life, tomorrow is the United Nations International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists.
I am not making it up, that really is a thing.
And the major theme of the keynote meeting is
“to bring visibility to a new Study on the impact of counter-terrorism and other criminal laws on media freedom and safety of journalists. Panellists will explore legal challenges faced by journalists and the increasing practice of resorting to restrictive legal frameworks to unduly interfere with the work of journalists.”
So I could hardly have walked in at a more auspicious moment.
Subject to an “anti-terrorism investigation”, I do not view it as safe currently to return to the UK. Whether the investigation relates to my support for Wikileaks or to my support for Palestine, or to both, I do not know as the police have not said why I am being investigated.
I honestly believe I am not fighting for me, but against encroaching fascism in western societies. It is for freedom from an ever encroaching police state and from a political class trying to enforce a monopoly of information to the public. The fight can only happen at all with financial support from the amazing readers of this blog. You have seen me through so much, and I am very grateful.
Click HERE TO DONATE if you do not see the Donate button above
Alternatively:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
It would be extremely helpful if you could subscribe to this blog, even if only for £3 a month. Less than 0.2% of readers subscribe, and that does make it difficult. You can use the Paypal button below or standing order to the bank details above:
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
There seems to be some connection to Zionists and the Nazis, and not just through Israel’s current practices. Ron Unz reports on two books published in the 1980s that brought this connection out. These are apparent agreements between the zionist leaders with the Nazis to send Jews to Palestine. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Balfour’s declaration to create a Palestinian homeland may have been inspired by the desire to rid the UK of its Jews.
Thus Zionists, including Weisman and Ben Gurion, collaborated with Balfour and later the Nazis during the 30s. This might also explain the number of Nazi/Fascist ideologs that have become PMs of Israel, like Begun, Shamir, and Sharon, and most illuminating, the barbarous techniques they use to achieve their own “final solution” in Palestine.
https://israelpalestinenews.org/the-history-of-zionist-collusion-with-nazis/
None of this really is new, but rarely does it see the light of day in the MSM.
“Not surprisingly, perhaps, Balfour’s declaration to create a Palestinian homeland may have been inspired by the desire to rid the UK of its Jews.”
No, I don’t think so. Anti-semitism was not such a big thing in Britain as in Germany. As far as I remember, the motivating factor for the Balfour Declaration (apart from the financial aspects, and keeping everybody on board at a dark moment in the war) was that Lloyd George was an Evangelical Christian from among the chapel-goers of south Wales, and thus similar to the Christian Zionists today in the States. So he was ready to listen to the lobbying from the Zionists, and the the colonial administrations in Cairo and Delhi who had actual control and knowledge of the ground were not even consulted.
If “there is no greater treason than to do the right thing for the wrong reason”, what is doing the wrong thing for the right reason?
“Not surprisingly, perhaps, Balfour’s declaration to create a Palestinian homeland may have been inspired by the desire to rid the UK of its Jews.”
On balance, I would tend to agree with Laguerre on this one. That said, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the majority of the Jews in England in the first decade of the 20th century were arrivals from Eastern Europe and Russia and not necessarily, from a socio-economic and cultural point of view, the sort of people whose presence in England ruling circles would necesarily have seen as particularly desirable.
Fast forward twenty or so years and we find the Polish government, in 1938/39, desirous of getting rid of some of Poland’s numerous Jewish population (including those in the professional classes), assisting Zionist Polish Jews in their endeavours to enter Mandate Palestine (illegally) and providing training and weapons, on Polish soil, for potential emigrants to that region. Which accounts for the fact that so many of the members of various Jewish terrorist organizations in Palestine were of Polish origin (Shamir, Begin…).
“Anti-semitism was not such a big thing in Britain as in Germany. ”
Possibly not amongst the people, but it’s the ruling elite that makes the decisions.
Blue Dotterel,
The detail in your link is something else, a lot of it new to me. Anybody who hasn’t read this link, please do so.
https://israelpalestinenews.org/the-history-of-zionist-collusion-with-nazis/
I was bemused as to what exactly Ken Livingstone said in his spat with Vanessa Feltz that was so wrong. I still am.
The Haavara agreement existed, it happened, it isn’t fiction…_
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/haavara
Yes, but he said that Hitler was a Zionist. And it must be true because the MSM have repeated that he did dozens and dozens of times since then! The DM repeated it three times in just one article alone later that day on their website, a few hours after he was suspended.
If you’ve never read Ken’s resignation statement, it’s well worth reading. And it was purely coincidental of course that John Mann just happened to be at the entrance to the studios when Ken arrived to appear on the Daily Politics, and there just happened to be a film crew there as well (as if they knew in advance what John Mann was gonna do). And ditto that Naz Shah’s tweets or whatever should just happen to come to light some two years after she posted them, and just nine/ten days before the local elections, the first elections JC was contesting since being elected leader.
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/ken-livingstones-resignation-from-the-labour-party/
Everyone Have look at Richard Medhurst’s Brilliantly Informative Video Re the Theft of Gaza’s Oil and Gas Resources. And It would seem one of the Main reasons for the Ongoing Genocide..
Is Israel’s War on Gaza Actually About Gas? | Ft. Richard Medhurst – 8 mins 44 secs. –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6SOZOwdfrg&t=343s
Ps remember Craig is on George Galloway’s MOATS tonight at 7pm. Also on the Show will be Norman Finkelstein.
“Is Israel’s War on Gaza Actually About Gas?”, NO.
But a little gas and oil does provide a nice lubricant for some genocide. And, the UK is right there at the front of the queue …
https://www.thecanary.co/global/2023/10/30/israel-offshore-oil-bp-eni/
You’re right. It’s actually about clearing the last Palestinians out. They’ve been waiting for more than fifty years to do this, and finally they’ve lost patience. Losing patience was not in my view the best choice for the Israelis, as it means they’re genociding the Gazans in full public view, and that’s not going down well.
Would you believe there are still some dafties out there who think it’s about getting the hostages back?
Astonishing, eh?
People are just so thick. It’s really difficult to get them to see that the UK and Israel bankrolled Hamas to attack Israel to give Israel the pretext to invade Gaza and grab the offshore oil & gas, with the UK on a favourable deal offering first dibs.
Until the cretins can get stuff like this right, history will just repeat, endlessly.
UNR 181 defines the borders of the Jewish State.
These are the only internationally recognized boundaries of Israel.
A claim [to self-defense] is being bandied about by Western leaders in relation to the attack on October 7th by Palestinian paramilitaries. Yet para. 139 of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on the legality of the wall, dated 2004, and in that paragraph, the court makes it clear that Israel does not enjoy a right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter in relation to attacks that emanate from within the occupied territory. This does not qualify as self-defense under International Law.
Ergo, Geneva convention signatories MUST bring prosecutions and indictments against israel, which they’re obliged to do by virtue of the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
All high contracting parties – that is, 194 states – have obligations under the Geneva Conventions to prosecute or extradite those who order or commit grave breaches of the Convention, which include the war crimes that we’ve seen take place across Gaza and beyond. And to the extent they don’t, they’re not abiding by their international legal obligations.
supporting israel against gaza is violating the geneva convention.
139. Under the terms of Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations:
“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.”
Article 51 of the Charter thus recognizes the existence of an inherent right of self-defence in the case of armed attack by one State against another State. However, Israel does not claim that the attacks against it are imputable to a foreign State.
The Court also notes that Israel exercises control in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that, as Israel itself states, the threat which it regards as justifying the construction of the wall originates within, and not outside, that territory. The situation is thus different from that contemplated by Security Council resolutions 1368 (2001) and 1373 (2001), and therefore Israel could not in any event invoke those resolutions in support of its claim to be exercising a right of self-defence.
Consequently, the Court concludes that Article 51 of the Charter has no relevance in this case.https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-178825/
Public Statement back in mid october: 800+ Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza
https://twailr.com/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/
Unfortunately we are in a situation where genocide is framed as something necessarily evil and for the better.
I believe Chomsky spell out the reason for this acceptance below in the video, simply, palestinians have no agency = they are not worth to be saved according to people in charge in the west.
Prof. Noam Chomsky explains why Palestinians have no international support
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tao55rIT0Wk
At the same time Palestinian Authority (PA) have this option:
We note also that the state of Palestine is entitled to initiate, in accordance with Article IX of the Genocide Convention, proceedings before the International Court of Justice in order to prevent the perpetration of genocidal acts.
https://twailr.com/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/
But the pro-western lackey PA leader Mahmoud Abbas refuse to initiate such a case.
thx, that´s one of the important and tricky issues. I say tricky since some German lawyer who would agree with most of what is on this site pointed out that 100 states have recognized Palestine as a state which would make invocation of Art. 51 correct.
Personally I just cannot see an legitimacy of Art. 51 but who cares about moral judgements. It´s about the law only. At least with the lawyers who speak in public and need to save their face and position within their professional environment.
(its a German video so it makes no sense to post it here.)
As in the case of RU/UKR but here even more so, the history until the attack occured should be taken into account.
Which Art. 51 does not do.
Which is a different point I know. But the possible deficencies of Art. 51 have led us to two major catastrophes within 2 years. So there is something wrong with that part of the UN (many others work better but they don´t concern geopolitics like UNESCO or UNICEF. Which eventually would lead us to the new question of WMDs.)
Scott Horton who I am always wary about on Judging Freedom is powerful in his presentation but there are those phrases which make Rabin or any other PM nice people since we have Netanyahu. Which is a naive look at history.
Horton says early on, that the US due to the disputed borders of Israel in fact should not be allowed to make treaties with Israel.
the entire thing is as usual 25 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmtGwRnwRT0
(TC 18:00 switches to UKR)
this is the piece Horton is quoting with the quotes by Netanyahu.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/netanyahus-support-for-hamas-has-backfired/
p.s. this is of course the moment when historic record shifts more to the right. Because whatever happens from now on Rabin and the entire lot appear as peace loving benign men and women. Which they never were. But in the light of Netanyahu the public will forget that.
Just when you think things cannot get any worse, up pops Boris Johnson.
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/boris-johnson-israel-hamas-scott-morrison
What can this incompetent, corrupt, clown bring to the process. Is he doing the same job he did in Ukraine and making sure there is no let up with the genocide ? Is he collecting his thirty pieces of silver ? Or maybe, he’s just shopping for material for Carrie’s new lampshades ?
Do you think he’ll choose Laura Ashley or something more gothic?
Johnson is so delusional that he thinks he could be the next President of the USA given half a chance. He’s certainly finished in the UK that’s for sure. In Israel “standing with the Israeli people” means that like Biden, Blinken and the rest he is colluding with the genocide.
Notice how the Arab militia groups are doing nothing.
They are very clever.
Satanyahu is falling into the dimwit trap of all fascists. He thought that never ending propaganda of the false flag operation in October would surely bring his hated muslims into a wider conflict where he could command the moral high ground.
Instead they have just left him to destroy thousands of women and children in Gaza for no reason.
If it is a battle of intelligent activity – Israel, the UK, and the USA have lost hands down.
Not often that the UK and USA end up on the losing side. I wonder how their respective establishments feel?
AG,Palestine is a Non-member observer with no voting rights.
In 2012, the majority of the 193 members of the General Assembly voted to grant Palestine non-member observer status.
A total of 138 of the UN General Assembly’s 193 members voted yes, while nine voted no and 46 abstained or did not vote. Non-member state observer status is not officially recognised in the UN Charter. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/27/as-the-united-nations-votes-on-gaza-palestine-can-only-observe.
thx
but then the question comes up as to the relation between full statehood and observer status.
As the article says, Switzerland was also once observer only but that must have been independent from the question of statehood.
Art. 51 concerns I believe the conduct between nations.
In how far this makes sense is a different matter.
Namely as it is recognized Israel is illegally holding a blockade over Gaza. Now how can an area that has no sovereign rule of its own borders, like Gaza in this situation, be called a “state”? As force goes Israel has abolute hegemony over Gaza. And shouldn´t that be the major issue. What sense does the status of a state make (in order to invoke Art. 51 by its enemy) if that same state has no way to control its own electricity and water supply?
Anyway, I see, Craig has just written something new…
and so have you…
I’ve just come across ANOTHER part – episode – in the ‘Cenotaph’ series, this being Part 2, and ‘broadcast’ by the media on October 25th:
”Disgraceful’: Police forced to protect Cenotaph with huge barriers as protests threaten to trash monument’
Security barriers have been erected around the Cenotaph amid concerns that the monument will be trashed in protests ahead of Remembrance Sunday.
Recent protests from pro-Palestine rallies positioned a stage next to the war memorial, with a UK security minister labelling the decision as “disgraceful”.
For some strange reason I can’t copy and paste any more of the article, but further on it states that Tom Tugendhat, the UK’s security minister, said:
“I’m told the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign didn’t even ask Westminster Council if they could put it [the stage/platform] up…..”.
https://www.gbnews.com/news/cenotaph-barriers-police-israel-hamas-protests
I wonder if the PSC are aware they put it up. I have my doubts somehow (there appears to be a part – episode – missing in which it was discovered that it was the PSC who put up the stage/platfom!).
The thing is THIS of course: Why would anyone protesting against the mass murder of Palestinians and the mass destruction of Gaza and calling for a ceasefire, have any reason to think to vandalise the Cenotaph? And in the Real World – as opposed to the Black Propagandists World – why would someone have any reason to think that one or more protesters would think to vandalise the Cenotaph?
Oh, right, I was forgetting about the stage, which of course would make you think of such a scenario, wouldn’t it.
And contrary to what I said above about one or more protesters thinking to vandalise the Cenotaph, on re-reading the passage I posted from the GB News article, I see that it’s the protests themselves that threaten to trash/vandalise the Cenotaph.
Mod: Would be grateful if you could close the brackets in the last line before the link. I could swear I did so!
[ 🗹 ]
“I wonder if the PSC are aware they put it up. I have my doubts somehow (there appears to be a part – episode – missing in which it was discovered that it was the PSC who put up the stage/platfom!).”
I would be entirely unsurprised to discover that The Platform was put up for an entirely different reason, possibly connected with Remembrance Sunday, but some opportunist hung some Palestinian flags on it and now no-one is allowed to admit what its original purpose was because the Official Narrative says it was put up by the PSC and the Official Narrative must always be right.
Well, it’s not an impossibility, but then I very much doubt they would put it up a week before the event. A couple of days before, perhaps, but not a week before. No, given that it has directly led to the ‘fear that the Cenotaph could be vandalised’ smear, I have very little doubt that it was a false flag. And I really can’t see that the PSC or any other group involved with the protests would go to so much trouble, or even think of doing something like that in the first place. Cui Bono.
And what would clinch it given that it’s now been pinned on the PSC, is if they refute the claim, and also demand that they are shown the evidence/proof that led whoever to conclude it was them.
As you say, no-one is going to put up such a platform, in London, simply to display a few flags and banners. The idea that it is connected with the march planned for Saturday is laughable, so either there was something else planned for this last weekend that might or might not have had a connection with Remembrance Sunday, or the platform had some other purpose.
Two other things that struck me: someone was there to take a photograph, but they didn’t ask the men in high-viz what the platform was for, why not? The barriers that were “subsequently” put there by the police to “protect” the cenotaph appear to be already there in the photo of the platform.
Looking at history especially that of South Africa, I’m of the opinion that the only way to deal with Israel is to use boycotts and sanctions to put pressure on Netanyahu.
Like South Africa during its apartheid stage, Israel must face hefty sanctions by the International community, it mustn’t be allowed to participate in many fields such as international sports, EU events such as the Eurovison Song Contest etc.
Its businesses and goods must be boycotted at every level, and this kind of pressure must be kept up until things become intolerable, and it forces the Israeli government around the negotiating table, where a two-state solution can be thrashed out.
Yes the US will keep funding Israel as will the EU, but EU officials and European governments can be removed via the ballot box, I’d imagine that already some European politicians know that come voting time, that if they’ve backed Israel that its likely they’ll be out of job, on that subject surely Ursula von der Leyen will be shown the door for her rabid support of Israel and a non-ceasefire on Gaza.
Boycotts and sanction worked with South Africa, they can work again with Israel in mind and force them to participate in the set up of a two-state solution, which in my opinion is the only way the Palestinian people will find some sort of security, if not the slaughter will continue but a concerted effort is needed by the international community, Israel IS NOT above International Law and boycotts and sanctions MUST take place to bring it into line.
What to boycott.
https://bdsmovement.net/
The efficiency – or at least the potential – of the BDS movement appears to have been implicitly acknowledged by those governments (and US state legislatures) which are busily trying to prevent public authorities from using this non-violent tool.
Luckily, such legislation can only make BDS illegal for public bodies; it cannot make BDS illegal for individual citizens who decide to follow their consciences. Mind you, the day might come when advocating for BDS will be classified as a hate crime or a sub-species of “terrorism”….despite the fact that the Israeli propaganda machine is slowly but surely losing ground.
Excellent Post Craig.
So…. given that we know that war crimes have been and are being committed by Israel, and given that we support these war crimes, is it possible that we are all scared of Israel? And is appeasement of a territorially limited genocide opening the door to land grabbing by Israel not just of the Golan Heights, which Priti Patel bought mining shares in, on behalf of the government’s overseas development fund, or the current offer of shares in offshore drilling for oil near Gaza, both of which can provide private security forces with an excuse to defend their operations, but to put business above human rights more effectively?
The carpet bombing of civilians in Gaza contrasts greatly with Russia’s careful efforts to avoid harm to civilian infrastructure in its defence of the Russian speaking people in Eastern Ukraine, who were under siege from after the coup replaced the democratically elected leader in 2013, and who voted to secede from Ukraine after Russia had stepped in to pay teachers, infrastructure and pensions, because only Ukrainian was now the official language and it was not used in these regions.
The war in Ukraine has served to keep Putin occupied and deplete his weapons stockpile, so that he is less engaged with policing tensions between Israel and Iran.
Saudi is of course the wild card. Allegedly Bin Salman had agreed to purchase all the latest weaponry from Israel, but was refused some items, and then it declared it supported the Hamas attack on the festival which an IDF spokesman said had all the hallmarks of Islamic State.
Apparently it is now rumoured that Iran has offered its support to Russia. And UK missiles were used to attack the shipyard in Sevastopol. The chess pieces of the Great Game are moving into position. Oh and Kissinger is still alive.