There are 149 states party to the Genocide Convention. Every one of them has the right to call out the genocide in progress in Gaza and report it to the United Nations. In the event that another state party disputes the claim of genocide – and Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom are all states party – then the International Court of Justice is required to adjudicate on “the responsibility of a State for genocide”.
These are the relevant articles of the genocide convention:
Article VIII
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.
Article IX
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.
Note that here “parties to the dispute” means the states disputing the facts of genocide, not the parties to the genocide/conflict. Any single state party is able to invoke the Convention.
There is no doubt that Israel’s actions amount to genocide. Numerous international law experts have said so and genocidal intent has been directly expressed by numerous Israeli ministers, generals and public officials.
This is the definition of genocide in international law, from the Genocide Convention:
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
I can see no room to doubt whatsoever that Israel’s current campaign of bombing of civilians and of the deprivation of food, water and other necessities of life to Palestinians amounts to genocide under articles II a), b) and c).
It is also worth considering Articles III and IV:
Article III
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.
Article IV
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
There is, at the very least, a strong prima facie case that the actions of the United States and United Kingdom and others, in openly providing direct military support to be used in genocide, are complicity in genocide. The point of Article IV is that individuals are responsible, not just states. So Netanyahu, Biden and Sunak bear individual responsibility. So, indeed, do all those who have been calling for the destruction of the Palestinians.
It is very definitely worth activating the Genocide Convention. A judgement of the International Court of Justice that Israel is guilty of genocide would have an extraordinary diplomatic effect and would cause domestic difficulties in the UK and even in the US in continuing to subsidise and arm Israel. The International Court of Justice is the most respected of international institutions; while the United States has repudiated its compulsory jurisdiction, the United Kingdom has not and the EU positively accepts it.
If the International Court of Justice makes a determination of genocide, then the International Criminal Court does not have to determine that genocide has happened. This is important because unlike the august and independent ICJ, the ICC is very much a western government puppet institution which will wiggle out of action if it can. But a determination of the ICJ of genocide and of complicity in genocide would reduce the ICC’s task to determining which individuals bear the responsibility. That is a prospect which can indeed alter the calculations of politicians.
It is also the fact that a reference for genocide would force the western media to address the issue and use the term, rather than just pump out propaganda about Hamas fighting bases in hospitals. Furthermore a judgement from the ICJ would automatically trigger a reference to the United Nations General Assembly – crucially not to the western-vetoed Security Council.
All this begs the question of why no state has yet invoked the Genocide Convention. This is especially remarkable as Palestine is one of the 149 states party to the Genocide Convention, and for this purpose would have standing before both the UN and the ICJ.
I am afraid the question of why Palestine has not invoked the Genocide Convention takes us somewhere very dark. Anyone who, like George Galloway and myself, cut their political teeth in left-wing politics of Dundee of the 1970s has (long story) their experience and contacts with Fatah, and my sympathies have always very much lain with Fatah rather than Hamas. They still do, with the aspiration for a democratic, secular Palestine. It is Fatah who occupy the Palestinian seat at the United Nations, and the decision for Palestine to call into play the Genocide Convention lies with Mahmoud Abbas.
It is more and more difficult daily to support Abbas. He seems extraordinarily passive, and the suspicion that he is more concerned with refighting the Palestinian civil war than with resisting the genocide is impossible to shake. By invoking the Genocide Convention he could put himself and Fatah back at the centre of the narrative. But he does nothing. I do not want to believe that corruption and a Blinken promise of inheriting Gaza are Mahmoud’s motivators. But at the moment, I cannot grab on to any other explanation to believe in.
Any one of the 139 states party could invoke the Genocide Convention against Israel and its co-conspirators. Those states include Iran, Russia, Libya, Malaysia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Afghanistan, Cuba, Ireland, Iceland, Jordan, South Africa, Turkey and Qatar. But not one of these states has called out the genocide. Why?
It is not because the Genocide Convention is a dead letter. It is not. It was invoked against Serbia by Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ICJ ruled against Serbia with regard to the massacre at Srebrenica. This fed directly through to ICC prosecutions.
Some states may simply not have thought of it. For Arab states in particular, the fact that Palestine itself has not invoked the Genocide Convention may provide an excuse. EU states can hide behind bloc unanimity.
But I am afraid that the truth is that no state cares sufficiently about the thousands of Palestinian children already killed and thousands more who will shortly be killed, to introduce another factor of hostility in their relationship with the United States. Just as at this weekend’s summit in Saudi Arabia, where Islamic countries could not agree an oil and gas boycott of Israel, the truth is that those in power really do not care about a genocide in Gaza. They care about their own interests.
It just needs one state to invoke the Genocide Convention and change the narrative and the international dynamic. That will only happen through the power of the people in pressing the idea on their governments. This is where everybody can do a little something to add to the pressure. Please do what you can.
Hat tip to the indefatigable Sam Husseini who has been pressing the Genocide Convention on the White House.
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Craig you might be interested to know that there are attempts to sue the US government under the obligations they have signed up to in the Genocide Convention:
“On November 13, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a federal lawsuit, Defense for Children International—Palestine, et al. v. . Joseph Biden, et al., on behalf of Palestinian human rights organizations and Palestinians in Gaza and the U.S. Plaintiffs are suing President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Defense Secretary Austin for their failure to prevent and complicity in the Israeli government’s unfolding genocide against them, their families, and the 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza. The case against the three high-level U.S. officials argues that they are violating international law, including those codified in the 1948 Genocide Convention and the corresponding Genocide Convention Implementation Act (18 U.S.C. § 1091) passed by the U.S. Congress in 1988.
The lawsuit situates the unfolding genocide within a history of Israeli actions against the Palestinian people – starting with the Nakba in 1948. It sets out how Defendants Biden, Blinken, and Austin have not only failed to prevent the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza but have helped advance the gravest of crimes by continuing to provide the Israeli government with unconditional military and diplomatic support, coordinating closely on military strategy, and undermining efforts by the international community to stop Israel’s unrelenting and unprecedented bombing campaign and total siege of Gaza.
Plaintiffs are filing this federal complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief asking the court to declare that these U.S. officials have failed to prevent genocide and are aiding and abetting genocide, and to order an end to U.S. military and diplomatic support to Israel. The lawsuit is accompanied by a preliminary injunction (PI) motion, which seeks an emergency order to prohibit any further U.S. military and diplomatic support to the Israeli government while the case is being considered.”
https://ccrjustice.org/stop-the-genocide
If anyone still doubts that Israel is engaged in mass ethnic cleansing by killing Palestinians at will and levelling Gaza so that it beomes uninhabitable, Caitlin Johnson has a useful summary of what Israeli officials and citizens have actually said, and it is as damning and chilling as you would expect. They have now moved to claiming that it would be ‘humanitarian’ for other countries to accept the Palestinians. Their cynical, fascist, racist greed, their inhumane slaughter of human beings they don’t consider equal to them is laid bare for all to see.
https://x.com/caitoz/status/1724067986460610996?s=20
And accepted by the leaders of the West as acceptable behaviour under the Rules Based Order. How did it come to this?
Caitlin Johnson’s quotes are entirely plausible but they are mostly not sourced with links etc. Many of them could be fake. It’s suspicious that she only publishes on X (aka Twitter) – if she wrote for one of the independent news outlets like DeclassifiedUK or MintPress News there’d be a bit more credibility. Also, publishing on X means that if/when it’s bought by some other billionaire, all messages critical of Israel could disappear. If she published on one of the independent outlets (or if she had her own website, like Craig) there’d be a much better chance of permanence.
For weeks there have been video collations of such genocidal ravings by Israelis all over the internet. Said quite unabashed on-camera. Why would you imagine Caitlin is issuing fake quotes?
It’s always fake if it doesn’t support the official narrative.
I don’t. Read what I wrote: “Caitlin Johnson’s quotes are entirely plausible”. In my opinion, they’re probably authentic. But that’s just an opinion about a probability. Properly sourced, with links, we’d have more than just an opinion about a probability. Or if a known (fairly) reliable independent web publication published them, we’d have at least a firmer basis.
As it is, if some government shill points to one of Caitlin’s quotes and proclaims, “That’s fake! She made it up!” … what can anyone reply?
Caitlin Johnson is an apologist for Russian war crimes. The calculus of such people is easy: if a country is backed by, or receives support from, the U.S., then hate it; else support it – no matter what!
Shoot the messenger. Lol.
what Russian war crimes? are those like Iraqi wmd’s?
The Western media is an apologist for Ukraine/Israeli war crimes. The calculus of such people is easy: if a country is backed by, or receives support from, Russia/China/Iran, then hate it; else support it – no matter what!
Back in 2003, the UN General Assembly requested the ICJ to give their advisory opinion if the occupation, annexation and the israeli wall was legal:
The UN GA requests an advisory opinion from the Court on the legal consequences arising from the construction by Israel of a wall in OPT
https://press.un.org/en/2003/ga10216.doc.htm
The west abstained from voting while a bigger majority voted for the resolution:
https://press.un.org/en/2003/ga10216.doc.htm
In 2004 the ICJ came to the conclusion that occupation, wall and annexation was illegal.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/10/israel3
Why is there no effort today by the non-west today to put forward a similar UN resolution for the ICJ regarding the systematic onslaught in Gaza/West bank?
in June 1942 on orders from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and acting Reichsprotektor Kurt Daluege, successor to Reinhard Heydrich. It has gained historical attention as one of the most documented instances of German war crimes during the Second World War, particularly given the deliberate killing of children. In reprisal for the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942,[2] all 173 men from the village who were over 15 years of age were executed on 10 June 1942.[3] A further 11 men from the village who were not present at the time were later arrested and executed soon afterwards, along with several others who were already under arrest.[3] Out of a total 503 inhabitants, 307 women and children were sent to a makeshift detention center. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice_massacre
Fast forward over 80 years to Gaza now, the situations are very similar, then Germany occupied Czechoslovakia. Did Western leaders claim the Nazis had a right to self defence? No, they claimed quite rightly that it will go down as one of the greatest war crimes in history.
Now the Gaza Massacre of men, women and children (which happens to exceed Lidice 100-fold) is cheered on by our leaders in the West.
Craig Murray argues in an earlier post that the Gaza strip is Occupied territory since its entrances, exits, airspace and ports are controlled by Israel; that being the case, it is not true when the leaders of the West claim Israel is only defending herself. As an occupying power, it can only defend herself within the parameters of International law, in particular the 1949 Geneva conventions, they set out in detail the way in which Israel can administer occupied territory. See in particular para 139, https://press.un.org/en/2004/icj616.doc.htm
Israel’s actions since October 8th are grave war crimes and crimes against humanity, which some scholars say amount to Genocide. Be that as it may, Western leaders are complicit in these crimes; they will be judged by them, guaranteed.
Unfortunately the western mindset are still so far off, how could anyone say this with a straight face?
Israel “is a democracy” and “a country that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly. Therefore, the accusations against Israel are absurd,” Olaf Scholz told a press conference.
https://www.barrons.com/news/scholz-calls-erdogan-s-fascism-accusation-against-israel-absurd-d1476dc6
When they say stuff like this, do they really mean it? Are they totally clueless? Or is it deliberate misinformation to cover their own involvement in the grave human rights violations being perpetrated right now in Gaza?
It’s just “duckspeak”.
«In reprisal for the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942»
At the time reprisals including decimation of civilians for protecting war criminals such as “brigands” was an established part of international customary law of war, and was recognized as such by the manuals of all militaries involved. It was eliminated retroactively by the USA and the allies at the end of the war and only with respect to the german military. Someone recently posted this declaration by Churchill in a speech on 14 july 1941:
«if tonight the people of London were asked to cast their vote whether a convention should be entered into to stop the bombing of all cities, the overwhelming majority would cry, ‘No, we will mete out to the Germans the measure, and more than the measure, that they have meted out to us.’ »
The cancellation of the right of reprisal by the USA was not just retroactive and limited to the german military, but also very unwise, because it inevitably leads to *more* massacres and other horrors.
If every civilian in a war zone can suddenly pull out a bomb or a gun and kill soldiers (without being part of a military organization and wearing distinctive signs and carrying arms openly) most soldiers will open fire on any civilians at the slightest suspicion “just in case”, to protect themselves.
BTW, under Churchill’s right of disproportionate reprisal both the israeli and HAMAS reprisals are legitimate. But while under customary war law reprisals used to be legitimate they had to be proportional, and the decimation of the people of the village in that case was disproportionate (traditionally “decimation” means killing in reprisal 1 in 10, not all males).
A “reprisal” is a breach of international humanitarian law, which would otherwise be unlawful but in exceptional cases is considered lawful as an enforcement measure in response to a previous breach of international humanitarian law by the enemy, with the purpose of terminating the enemy’s violation.
Thus, reprisals are intended to put pressure on the enemy in order to obtain the enemy’s compliance with international humanitarian law.
Reprisals are only allowed under very strict conditions and there is a trend towards outlawing reprisals in international humanitarian law.
Reprisals against wounded, sick or shipwrecked persons, medical or religious personnel, medical units, transports and material, prisoners of war, the civilian population and civilian persons, civilian objects, cultural property, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, the natural environment, works and installations containing dangerous forces and the buildings and material used for the protection of the civilian population are always prohibited.
Israels “reprisals” are illegal because they are directed at an occupied people, and also directed at the list of non combatants listed in the last paragraph above.https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/reprisals
Re the right to defend. Given that this right does not apply and Israel has jurisdiction over Gaza under military law, the only remedy it has should some of the inhabitants murder Israelis or others is to prosecute them through the normal process for dealing with crimes in the OT. These laws are vicious, but nowhere do they include the right to bomb people not involved in the alleged crime.
Maybe it is because Hamas’s actions and policies satisfy the criteria of genocide you outline? Hamas has no objections to genocide, indeed actively pursues it.
Here’s news for you chief – Hamas isn’t being given enthusiastic official backing from any government worldwide for their murderous atrocities.
So what you are claiming is equivalent to saying that the Polish, French, Dutch and Yugoslav (& Jewish) WWII resistance movements were committing genocide, by their actions & policies, against the occupying Germans.
All these occupied countries had Governments in exile who encouraged the resistance to and the decimation of the German nation.
«So what you are claiming is equivalent to saying that the Polish, French, Dutch and Yugoslav (& Jewish) WWII resistance movements were committing genocide, by their actions & policies, against the occupying Germans. All these occupied countries had Governments in exile who encouraged the resistance to and the decimation of the German nation.»
International customary laws of war do not say “but these protections apply only to people who fight for a good cause, people (“orcs”, “israelis”, …) who fight for evil (“Putin”, “zionism”, …) are outlaws and anything can be done to them by anybody because they have it coming”.
Customary laws of war are not about who is fighting for a good cause or for evil, that does not matter to them, they are about limiting a bit (so killing a lot of civilians is fine as part of a military operation, but doing so gratuitously or to terrorise them is not) the horror of war.
I guess if you believe that one jewish life is worth more than one Palestinian, or any other Gentile, then you are right. ie. ‘even 1 million Arabs “are not worth a Jewish fingernail.” ‘, Rabbi Yaacov Perrin.
If we look at the 200 odd Jews killed by Hamas and assume each one is worth, say, 30,000 gentiles then hey those Hamas guys have killed 6 million Jews, QED Genocide !
We can all do stupid …
You do stupid peerlessly well. Hamas, according to your view, are not genocidal because they are not effective enough. Someone who wishes to murder Jews for no objective but their existence — the stated position of Hamas — is genocidal, whether they are good at it or not. Perhaps you should all read the definition Mr Murray has helpfully reprinted above.
Except that there is no genocidal intention. Eliminating the state of Israel is not genocide – the deaths of no Jews are implied. It is only colonial independence from a settler movement.
I feel that poster “tdg” should source his or her claim that the stated position of Hamas is to murder Jews simply because they exist.
I emphasize ” the stated position” of the organization, and not what some extremist may have said or written (in the same way as one assumes the ravings of Messrs Ben Gvir and Smotrich are not the stated position of the Israeli government).
If “tdg” cannot or is unable to do so, then Laguerre is right in saying that to call for the elimination of the state of Israel is a political elimination and not a genocidal one.
Tdg
Perhaps you should read the Hamas charter where they clearly point out that their problem is zionism and not jews.
16. Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full
I have read it, but you still appear to have not read what Craig reprinted further up the page. The definition includes national identity, which is all that marked the many civilians brutally murdered on October the 7th.
The double standard, and the incredible speed of its expression, even before Israel had reacted to the atrocity, is a phenomenon I thought I would never see in my lifetime: the public release of a universal latent antisemitism born of envy, bottled by the Holocaust for only so long.
Tdg
But no deaths of Jews are demanded. Genocide cannot mean and doesn’t mean just the death of a civil state, not the death of a people.
Two observations:
1/. Much depends on what’s included under “conflict” and especially “struggle”. The latter word, in itself, neither affirms extermination/expulsion etc, nor rules them out.
2/. The article appears to contain a certain ambiguity – whether it is deliberate or inadvertent is not for me to say. Is the struggle only against Jews in Palestine (for which read Israel) who are Zionists? However, even if this appears so, someone who is extermination-minded could argue that any Jew in Palestine (for which read Israel) is by definition a Zionist, otherwise he wouldn’t be there.
Having said that, even if you take the worst possible interpretation of the article, far too much fuss is made of it by the pro-Israel lobby. Charters can proclaim all sorts of things which the drafters well know, either immediately or with the passage of time, are unrealisable (on a very different register, Labour’s Clause IV). But tactically it might be worthwhile for Hamas to consider a re-wording, if only to remove a useful tool for Israeli hasbasa.
Aguirre
“Is the struggle only against Jews in Palestine (for which read Israel) who are Zionists? However, even if this appears so, someone who is extermination-minded could argue that any Jew in Palestine (for which read Israel) is by definition a Zionist, otherwise he wouldn’t be there.”
Even then to ‘struggle against’ someone does not imply a desire to murder them in cold blood either during the struggle or afterwards. It might be that Israelis would be welcome to stay in unified democracy, the same as South Africa. If crimes have been committed by Hamas that does not remove the Palestinians’ right to resist occupation.
“The definition includes national identity, which is all that marked the many civilians brutally murdered on October the 7th.”
“All the people killed were Jews” does not imply “all the people who were killed were killed because they were Jews”
0/10 for logic.
Johnny C
“Even then to ‘struggle against’ someone does not imply a desire to murder them in cold blood either during the struggle or afterwards”
I quite agree. Isn’t that the sense of what I wrote?
oh so people who oppose Israeli genocide in Gaza are doing it out of “envy”. how about people who opposed German genocide, were they also motivated primarily or solely by envy?
Tdg
Yeah right,like you were pro-palestinian before 7th of october. If you are really worried about civilian casualties one wonder why you do not care about the more severe, grandscale killing that Israel have been doing for almost 40 days straight.
Envy? Well I guess it was envy that made people dislike the germans, it was envy that made people dislike South African apartheid-regime.
“-the stated position of Hamas-”
Stated by Israel, that is, but not by Hamas.
I very much doubt that the Mail or the Sun or the Express mentioned the following in the run-up to Saturday’s demo:
‘……. the Royal British Legion… said: “Our armed forces play a vital role in protecting the rights and freedoms of everyone in UK society, including the right to protest.”
https://twitter.com/DailyMirror/status/1722743371934916773
Yes a vital role for which they are world famous, from Tonypandy to Palestine, Aden to Derry. Not to mention breaking strikes whenever instructed.
Let alone what they’ve been helping Netanyahu do to the people of Gaza for the last 5 weeks!
The International Criminal Court is “a Western government puppet institution”. The Rome Statute setting up the court stymied any investigation on the legality of the use of nuclear weapons. The UN is also a political rather than legal organization: the founding powers each have a veto. None of them will have their vital interests undermined. The League of Nations was the same, a body dominated by imperial Britain and France. None of the Great Powers allow their interests to be undermined. But they forget, it’s the pursuit of interests that leads to war – two world wars so far. All the signs suggest a third is approaching.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
To understand why the US won’t call for a ceasefire you need to read this excellent article, infact I’d advise everyone to read it and learn.
There are wonderful contributions by Mearsheimer and Walt, the US Congress has been captured by the likes of the AIPAC, and West Asian US Foreign policies mirrors not US needs, but Israeli needs.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/13/israel-lobbys-disastrous-domination/
Blinken has apparently given assurances that the US won’t tolerate Israel occupying and permanently annexing Gaza. He’s delivering the same message to Arab leaders in the region too. But I don’t trust him, nor the US Department of State.
Just look at opinion in Congress and the Senate. If Israel does defy Blinken and the White House, they still hold all the cards in the US legislative chambers, where the power resides to actually enforce & punish Israel. It’s not even certain Biden and his State Dept administration, including Blinken, will return after November next year. And Trump’s previous stint in office was appalling for the Palestinians. The US unilaterally recognised the contested Golan Heights as part of Israel.
Yeah Goose I don’t think Blinken is the most trustworthy of characters, the US has further damaged its already flagging reputation, by letting Israel do what it wants – namely murder as many Palestinians as possible, including babies who have died due to no power to supply their incubators.
The fact that the US hasn’t called for a ceasefire shows me at least the depth to which the likes of the AIPAC have penetrated into Congress etc. I would go as far as to say that Biden isn’t calling the shots on this one, in a similar fashion to Zelensky in Ukraine.
Biden and the Democrats have surely lost the American Arab vote come 2024, along with the moderates and possibly the coloured vote, this could reopen the door for Trump whose POTUS campaign was funded by rich Jewish/Zionists in America. Trump as POTUS again would add further suffering to the already deeply oppressed Palestinian people.
One of Trump’s first actions was to put the brakes on the JCPoA deal, a goal of the Zionist lobby groups in Washington, I think Trump would even go as far as to push for a war on Iran to appease his backers.
Turkey has filed a case against Netanyahu at the ICC, accusing him of Genocide in Gaza.
Could it be old Erdoğan peruses craigmurray.org.uk?
Reza.
I don’t trust Erdoğan, he’s a seasoned politician and a sly old fox, I doubt he gives a monkey’s about the oppressed Palestinians. No, Erdoğan is rattling the West’s cage, possibly hoping that his country will get a quick entry into the EU – something that’s eluded his country for years – or maybe he’s looking for permission to wipe out as many Kurds as possible, definitely those associated with the PKK.
I’d imagine the US could easily sanction both requests to stop Erdoğan rattling the cage; in any case the ICC will, in the end, take no action against Israel.
Craig’s piece makes clear that Turkey, as a recognized state, has the right to bring a case against Israel in the ICJ for violating the Genocide Convention.
Mondoweiss is now reporting that the NGO Center for Constitutional Rights, joined by others, has filed a complaint in federal court (Northern District of California) against Biden, Blinken, and Austin for failure to prevent and being complicit in genocide.
Lysias
Arab citizens might be up in arms at the slaughter in Gaza, but many ME governments are for the lack of a better word faking their outrage at the slaughter, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, whose online propaganda is coordinated with Israelis via the US Media Centre in Dubai.
There’s this as well.
“The Arab-Islamic “emergency” summit, convened a month after the slaughter in Gaza started, issued a long statement containing 31 articles. None of the articles (which talk about the need to document Israeli war crimes and the need to take Israel’s case to the International Criminal Court, as well as poetic descriptions of the suffering and the need for humanitarian aid to Gaza) matter except article 25, which states that the Arab countries are “reiterating the attachment to peace as a strategic option.””
“What kind of leverage do you have with Israel when you reassure it that no matter how many crimes it commits, Arab countries will continue to insist on peace with it, even when it has consistently and repeatedly rejected the Arab “peace initiative” of 2002? In fact, article 25 of the statement basically tells Israel that its crimes will be forgiven and that Arab potentates will be making peace with it.”
The head of religious affairs at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia urged people NOT to get involved in the slaughter on Gaza, he spoke to the masses under armed guard, the guard was to make sure he didn’t wander off script.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/13/asad-abukhalil-gulf-arab-regimes-fake-outrage-over-gaza/
RepublicofScotland … you are wrong. You mix up the sheik leaders of the likes of UAE and Saudi Arabia with the Arab people. The Arab people as a whole are horrified at the destruction of Palestinian people in Gaza. The sheik leaders in UAE and Saudi Arabia have to play out political games to protect their wealth and support from USA and Europe.
terence callachan.
Yes, I know they are, and I mention that at the very start of my comment. It’s the governments that are faking it. Again I said that Terence, this doesn’t just apply to ME countries: look at the EU the UK and even the USA, where many, many citizens are furious at the slaughter of the Palestinians, but their governments fake sincerity on the matter and won’t even call for a ceasefire.
Why just today at PMQ’s Stephen Flynn of the SNP, whom I have no time for, put Sunak on the spot and said why couldn’t he at least call for a ceasefire? You could hear some MPs vocally agreeing with Flynn’s point, to which Sunak obfuscated and side-tracked in his reply that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
This type callousness is going on in many Western parliament buildings, including the European Parliament, whilst the people on the streets are screaming and protesting for – at the very least – a ceasefire.
No ME government wants to upset or go against the USA. They all feign outrage to a certain degree about what’s happening to the oppressed Palestinians; but the reality is that NO government will put its neck on the line for them.
Yes, Reza, it’s in our news, too.
@craig
Mr.Murray, you may find it interesting.
“the Prosecutor General’s Office of Istanbul sent a request to the Turkish Ministry of Justice to initiate a criminal case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding that the International Criminal Court try him for genocide in the Gaza Strip”
Russian source
https://ria.ru/20231114/netanyakhu-1909472250.html
refers to CNN Turk
https://www.cnnturk.com/dunya/son-dakika-istanbul-bassavciligindan-netanyahu-hakkinda-suc-duyurusu
Tatyana
Out of interest. How is the breakdown in Russia–Israel relations being reported in Russia? As an outside observer, relations between the two seem to have deteriorated rapidly. Israel have openly criticised Russia for hosting Hamas representatives, and Mossad’s chief has been boasting how they’ve prevented Iran from providing Russia with short and long-range missiles for use in Ukraine. If Israel have infiltrated Russian and Chinese parts supply lines, can’t imagine Moscow and Beijing are very happy.
Israeli Spy Chief Says Iran’s Attempts To Supply Russia With Missiles ‘Foiled’
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-russia-missiles-foiled-israel/32586533.html
“If Israel have infiltrated Russian and Chinese parts supply lines”
But Israel did not know Hamas was planning an October surprise, despite Egypt warning them (twice)?
When Netanyahoo described it as Israel’s 9/11 and Pearl Harbor he wasn’t kidding.
Sorry, Goose, I’m too busy these days to follow the news.
The general mood among ordinary people used to be “the khokhols are completely crazy,” and now “the khokhols and the jews are completely crazy, and the Western countries are more crazy than anyone else and are doing whatever gets into their fucking heads.”
Sorry for the offensive words, in Russia this does not necessarily mean hatred, but rather the degree of intensity of the speaker’s emotions, their indignation at the sight of such a situation.
Society here is looking for glimmers of reason and rationality in the international community, and so far it has not been seen.
There is chaos in the world, the previously accepted order does not work, and in this chaos some countries are trying to finally gnaw out at least some territories for themselves, at least something in the political sense, before support for the current hegemon completely collapses.
They draw cartoons where Biden is carrying a suitcase with money, and Zelensky is running after him, tugging at his sleeve. Biden says “this is for the Jews,” and Zelensky shouts “I’m a Jew.”
Interestingly thousands of British citizens are have joined the IDF and are in Gaza with the IDF, could any of their actions constitute a war crime, Liz Truss when PM infamously urged Britons to go and fight in Ukraine.
Are Britons fighting in Gaza for the IDF breaking international law after all they are aiding and abetting Israeli troops an occupying force. The (ICJP) International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has grave concerns about Britons fighting for the IDF in Gaza.
“The ICJP’s concerns are likely to encounter stiff resistance within Westminster. Lord Wolfson, a Conservative peer who served as a justice minister from 2020-22, told parliament that his son “has now made his life in Israel” and was doing military service there. ”
“Jewish youths from foreign countries are allowed to enlist in the IDF as “tourists” and receive residence permits under Israel’s Mahal (overseas volunteers) scheme, according to its official website. Many choose to remain in Israel after their service and acquire citizenship.
The scheme is supported by various agencies such as Garin Tzabar, which has an office in London. It advertises how immigrants who join the IDF can earn almost twice as much as their domestic counterparts, partly due to grants from Israeli government departments. ”
https://www.declassifieduk.org/british-fighters-in-israels-military-is-it-legal/
Even employees in the US State Department recognise that the US is complicit in genocide and war crimes, and have drafted a memo to make their views known:
“According to Axios, the memo was organized by a foreign affairs officer who previously said on social media that President Biden is “complicit in Genocide” by supporting Israel’s war.
The memo says Israel’s actions “all constitute war crimes and/or crimes against humanity under international law” and criticizes the US for doubling “down on our unwavering military assistance to the (Israeli government) without clear or actionable redlines.”
President Biden was targeted in the memo for “spreading misinformation” and “questioning the number of deaths” coming from Gaza’s Health Ministry. Since Biden accused the Palestinians of lying about the death toll, a senior State Department official said the number is actually likely higher than what’s being reported.
“Members of the White House and (the National Security Council) displayed a clear disregard for the lives of Palestinians, a documented unwillingness to de-escalate, and, even prior to October 7, a reckless lack of strategic foresight,” the memo reads.
The memo was submitted to the State Department on November 3 through the dissent channel that was established during the Vietnam War to give diplomats a way to criticize policy. It’s the latest sign of the significant opposition to Biden’s full-throated support for Israel within the State Department.
Last week, POLITICO reported on a separate dissent memo that called for the US to push for a ceasefire and for Biden administration officials to publicly criticize Israel’s tactics. HuffPost reported earlier that a “mutiny” was brewing within the State Department.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/11/13/internal-state-department-memo-says-us-is-supporting-israeli-war-crimes/
As Craig said, the ICC is a western-gov.-puppet organization, scroll down to see the judges, only westerners and judges from pro-western nations.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/Publications/JudgesENG.pdf
This is the reason why they start cases against Venezuela, Libya, Russia and multiple African nations but never initiate a case against western nations/pro-western nations.
Let’s see if they can prove this critical thesis wrong this time on Israel.
Jack…correct, why are people here still not recognising the difference between ICC and ICJ
It’s interesting to note that Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has had meetings with the EU bigwigs and US envoy’s in order to get him to agree to taking a large number of displaced Palestinians. El-Sisi seems reluctant to take the Palestinians, claiming that armed fighters groups would set up in Egypt if he did.
Egypt’s national debt currently stands anywhere between $50 and $80 billion dollars, around half of this is owed to the IMF, a mainly USA playbook. It’s claimed offers have been made to wipe out most of this debt, if el-Sisi takes in displaced Palestinians. It has also been reported that Israeli President Netanyahu has lobbied EU leaders to try and compel el-Sisi to allow the Palestinians to enter Egypt.
To put further pressure on el-Sisi, a US Congress oversight committee has been building a case against the Egyptian president with regards to Egypt’s terrible human rights record under his tenure. If el-Sisi does succumb to the outside pressures to accept large quantities of oppressed and displaced Palestinians, surely one of the conditions on doing so, will be that the West turns a blind eye to his past, present and future domestic human rights violations, which will sadly include the oppressed Palestinians – from the frying pan to the fire as the saying goes.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/2/will-egypt-accept-palestinians-displaced-by-israels-war-on-gaza
The timing of von der Leyen’s EU €900 million to Jordan is also highly suspect. She posted this on Nov 7th: https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1721842285367763134
Jordan is a valued and strategic partner of the EU.
We support Jordan’s efforts to modernise.
Today, I have announced an EU package of over 900 million € in support of Jordan.
Bribe much? You can wager if / when the rebuilding starts in Gaza, Israel won’t have to pay a penny or lift a finger. No sanctions, nothing, if the more moronic Western leaders have their way. Israel are like an ultra spoilt rich kid, whose wealthy daddy (US & EU) pick up the bill when their reckless joyride/rampage ends in carnage.
You have to remember that Jordan is dependent on other countries for support for the government budget, the country being 80% desert and no oil, and home to many Palestinian refugees. Abdullah’s not that bright, not like his father Hussein who played his neighbours and outside powers to get his needs. Abdullah isn’t capable of that, so he gave in and accepted blackmail to make peace with Israel. The EU package is part of all that; Jordan doesn’t have a choice but to seek such aid.
On the whole I tend to dislike explanations for developments based on evaluations of the relative “intelligence” of the various actors involved. One reason is that I don’t consider myself to be in a position to pronounce from on high on whether X is more intelligent than Y or whether Y is more intelligent than Z; another, perhaps more important, is that on the whole (there are of course exceptions) history tends to be shaped by circumstances and broader trends than by individuals – and certainly more than by the “intelligence” or otherwise of those individuals.
As an example, it is pointless, I think, to single out Netanyahu for particular opprobrium in the matter of the Israel/Palestine conflict. Is he any more more responsible for the plight of the Palestinians than his predecessors in office going back to Ben Gurion? I think not – he is able to act as he does because the political landscape of Israel has changed and the political landscape has changed because of the increase in the size and composition of the Israeli people, and…etc, etc. Including how the outside world perceives Israel itself and how the outside world perceives Arabs and Muslims in general (a few minor events such as the Iraq-Iran war, the Iraq wars, Syria, etc have intervened). So the question of whether Netanyahu is more or less intelligent than, say, Golda Meir or Ariel Sharon, or indeed any of his adversaries on the Palestinian or Arab side is otiose; it is just that circumstances have changed.
The same approach can, I think be applied to explain the case of Jordan. Rather than to speculate about the relative intelligence of the two Kings, father and son, it seems more fruitful, not to say more scientific, to look at the circumstances under which the two of them acted. Hussein benefited from the need of the US and West to keep Jordan quiet (ie, its government stable) in the 1950s and 1960s following the Nakba, Suez, the 1967 war, etc. Slowly, the political need to keep Jordan quiet decreased because Jordan WAS stable – despite the continued occupation of and land grabs within the West Bank, the confinement of Gaza, etc. Combine that with the increased prosperity of Jordan and it’s easy to see why it was felt possible to pay less attention to Jordan’s “needs” as Laguerre puts it under King Abdallah. And now, after 7th October, there is, all of a sudden, the feeling that it would not be unhelpful to Israel if Jordan were to remain quietly on the sidelines rather than becoming a potential second or third front. Hence the sudden generosity of the EU…..to assist with Jordan’s needs.
As a quick after-thought to my post of a few minutes ago;
Do you remember Abba Eban, that smooth, smiling poster boy for Zionism, UK-educated (Cambridge, la, I think)? He’s often quoted as having said “The Palestinians (or perhaps it was “The Arabs”) never lose an opportunity to lose an opportunity”. Which was a way of saying the Palestinians (or Arabs) are less intelligent than we Israelis. But as you know, the chances of an equitable solution of the Israel-Palestine problem between 1948 and 1967 did not remain unrealised because of Palestinian lack of inteliigence…
Goose …..Jordan has more Palestinian refugees than any other country in the world
terence callachan
Yes, I know(see my earlier post on displaced Palestinian communities, on the first page). The EU money, coming now, looks like the EU saying, thanks to the king, for keeping a lid on things.
So many parties are accomplices to the occupation and the mistreatment of Palestinians. Without US military aid Israel couldn’t afford to defend itself.
Egypt has a huge population and is relatively, very poor. Hence it’s been easy prey for the US to exploit this. By giving hundreds of millions in so-called military aid. A similar thing has happened in Pakistan recently with the removal of Imran Khan – large population | poor country, with the US wooing the military leadership and various politicians with the promise of debt cancellation.
Many don’t see how the world works and how the US uses its dominant financial position to lock in place its hegemony, via friendly dictatorships and with them comes injustice. The stuff about supporting human rights ‘values’ and democracy, is transparent nonsense.
They do support democracy, but only when it refers to the system of electing governments that enables them to get the “right” people in power. True democracy, rule by the people, they are very much against, but then there aren’t any true democracies, so that isn’t really a problem.
Another German document of complete moral and scholarly bankruptcy:
A short Gaza statement issued by scholar Jürgen Habermas and three of his peers almost a verbatim repetition of the German government´s deprived position.
See statement below.
Another prime example of how useless German elite academia is – it is outstanding in one thing, namely ignorance, krypto-racism, double-standard.
https://www.normativeorders.net/2023/grundsatze-der-solidaritat/
“(…)
Principles of solidarity. A statement
The current situation created by Hamas‘ extreme atrocity and Israel’s response to it has led to a cascade of moral and political statements and protests. We believe that amidst all the conflicting views being expressed, there are some principles that should not be disputed. They are the basis of a rightly understood solidarity with Israel and Jews in Germany.
The Hamas massacre with the declared intention of eliminating Jewish life in general has prompted Israel to strike back. How this retaliation, which is justified in principle, is carried out is the subject of controversial debate; principles of proportionality, the prevention of civilian casualties and the waging of a war with the prospect of future peace must be the guiding principles. Despite all the concern for the fate of the Palestinian population, however, the standards of judgement slip completely when genocidal intentions are attributed to Israel’s actions.
In particular, Israel’s actions in no way justify anti-Semitic reactions, especially not in Germany. It is intolerable that Jews in Germany are once again exposed to threats to life and limb and have to fear physical violence on the streets. The democratic ethos of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is orientated towards the obligation to respect human dignity, is linked to a political culture for which Jewish life and Israel’s right to exist are central elements worthy of special protection in light of the mass crimes of the Nazi era. The commitment to this is fundamental to our political life. The elementary rights to freedom and physical integrity as well as to protection from racist defamation are indivisible and apply equally to all. All those in our country who have cultivated anti-Semitic sentiments and convictions behind all kinds of pretexts and now see a welcome opportunity to express them uninhibitedly must also abide by this.
Nicole Deitelhoff, Rainer Forst, Klaus Günther und Jürgen Habermas
(…)”
The signers are:
Jürgen Habermas *1929
Habermas is the most famous member of the second generation of Frankfurt School proponents, he studied philosophy and sociology under the critical theorists Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno and became their successor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Habermas
Jürgen Habermas, a tragic example of how much German political scholars have failed this country by not being able to apply to current politics philosophical reasoning and the rules of scrutiny.
(some argue with his group of scholars with tenure in Germany came the demise of radical thinking in the realm of political philosophy and thus its eventual death.)
Nicole Deitelhoff *1974
She has been Director of the Leibniz Institute Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research in Frankfurt am Main since 2016. (Wiki German)
Rainer Forst *1964
“is a German philosopher and political theorist, and was called the “most important political philosopher of his generation” in 2012, when he won the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize.[1] Currently he is Professor of Political Theory at the Department for Social Sciences,[2] Goethe University Frankfurt. He is often identified with the newest generation of scholars associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.[3] He received his doctorate under the supervision of Jürgen Habermas in 1993, with additional supervision by John Rawls from 1991 to 1992. ” (Wiki-Engl.)
Klaus Günther *1957
Has been Director of the Leibniz Institute for Peace and Conflict Research in Frankfurt am Main since 2016 and has held the Chair of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Legal Theory at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main since 1998. He is regarded as an important representative of the so-called “third generation” of the Frankfurt School (Wiki German)
Of course this obviously is a “clan”, all originate from the same school of thinking with the same teacher.
But: With their groupthink they exert influence on other young generations of scholars all over Germany and well beyond who will provide future German governments with far reaching legal expertise.
(Habermas was more considerate in the case of UKR war? – of course he was!)
I translated and republished this article on my blog : https://www.levilainpetitcanard.be/activer-la-convention-sur-le-genocide/
Your work is essential, I think. Stay human in a savage world.
Everyone seems to lose his mind, those days.
Thank you Philippe
It seems to me that one of the major aces held by Israel in the battle for public opinion and sympathy is that Israel’s victims – the Palestinians – are acceptable victims in the eyes of many westerners. In other words, because they are Arabs and/or dark-skinned and Muslim.
If one looks at the comments on ghastly blogs like Guido Fawkes (and Conservativehome, for that matter) it seems clear that the main driver for support of Israel in the current war is a loathing for the Muslim presence in the UK (Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Kurds, Syrians, Afghanis, Somalis, whatever…). In France, there is a sizeable body of loathing for the North African ethnics in the banlieus – to the extent the right wing parties are not only picking up support from the man on the Parisian metro but also from French Jews (the last people one would have thought would lend support to the party of Le Pen). In Germany, Muslims immigrants (and that includes the Turks who have been there for decades now) are widely disliked and that dislike (hatred?) has even led to the formation and rise of parties like the AfD and movements like Pegida.
If the Palestinians were white Irish (for example) Israel would not get away with what it does.
I think “dark-skinned” is much more important than “Muslim”. Nobody is kicking up much of a fuss about the dead Palestinian Christians.
Bayard
You may be right but you’d be well advised to check out the amount of Islamophobia around by dippng into the Guido Fawkes website a few times. For a lot of people, Muslims are the new Commies/spades/coons/Micks/whatever….
Warning – it is noxious. Make sure to take a long hot shower because you’ll feel dirty after reading.
Most of the UK centre-right have very quickly degenerated into absolute barbaric mindlessness, using Hamas ‘atrocities’ (mostly Israeli Hasbara) as a convenient excuse.
Aguirre, I’m sure you’re right, but I do not think that the fact that the vast majority of Muslims are dark skinned is coincidental.
Aguirre
There’s quite a big difference though between attitudes in Britain and France. In Britain 300k at the minimum showed up for the London Pro-Palestine demo last Saturday. In Paris the “hundreds of thousands” (I never saw an actual estimate) showed up for the pro-genocide demo on Sunday (theoretically said to be against anti-semitism), with two former presidents (only one of whom is Jewish), the prime minister, and the leaders of the Assemblée and the Sénat. Only Macron had the good sense to absent himself. The pro-Palestine demo I went to last night was only 200 (but it was local; I expect more at the national demo next Saturday).
France has also chosen this of all moments to issue an arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad over the chemical attacks in Douma.
It seems determined to outmatch Germany in discrediting itself in front of the world.
Laguerre
Lots of food for thought in your reponse. If I might extend the discussion a little by mentioning a couple of things I picked up from the demos in London and Paris. But first, let me express my appreciation for your description of the Paris March as “the pro-genocide demo on Sunday (theoretically said to be against anti-semitism”) – although I’d probably nuance the opening words to have them read “the anti-Islam” or “Islamophobic”. But to business.
Re the London march, yes, the turn-out was impressive. But, as one of its even bigger ancestors, the Iraq march, revealed, it will have zero effect on government (or opposition) policy. And I have read somewhere that there were disappointingly few Caucasian faces among the marchers, the majority of whom seemed to be people of colour and therefore probably Muslim. I don’t know if that’s true (I was neither there in person nor did I see anything of it on television or the internet) but if it is then I’m not particularly surprised because one of my standing thoughts is that while the man on the Clapham omnibus might be somewhat disturbed at what’s going on, he doesn’t really care too much (and certainly not enough to go demonstrating). But that lack of caring applies to a lot of other matters as well…..
France. The figure for Paris I’ve seen (source is the French Huff Post) is 105.000, with another 80.000 or so in various other places. While you’re right in ridiculing its official title “For the Republic, against anti-semitism”, I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess on the extent to which it was mainly a pro-Israel demonstration or mainly an anti-Muslim/Islam/immigrant one. It may well have been both at the same time, since these days an increasing number of right-wing French Jews are making common cause with right wing parties. The composition? I have no info on that either, but if there are 600.000 Jews in France, it would be at least theoretically possible that the majority of the 105.000 were Jews. On the participation, I should imagine that Sarko, Braun-Pivet and Borne were there for personal reasons; Hollande was there at the Charlie Hebdo march and Larcher could hardly keep away when the Prezzie of the other house was there. Agree with you about Macron’s good sense – to which I’d add his guts, given the ubiquity and loudness of the pro-Israel narrative among the public intellectuals, the journaux d’opinion and most everywhere.
Aguirre
Just to comment that I don’t think you’ve got it quite right on some points.
“And I have read somewhere that there were disappointingly few Caucasian faces among the marchers, the majority of whom seemed to be people of colour and therefore probably Muslim.”
That’s not possible. When you have 300K on a march (police figure playing down the size; organisers much higher), it can’t be that they’re even majority Muslims or ethnics. It was true at an earlier stage, when the numbers were smaller, but not when you get to 300K and probably higher. I know someone who was on the march, and the mass nature of the demonstration was obvious.
I wouldn’t expect there to be an instant effect on policy. As you say the Iraq demo in 2003 didn’t. But it did have a longer term effect in delegitimising the invasion, which went ahead in controversial circumstances, which became more and more confirmed as events went on. The same is true here.
With regard to Paris, evidently the newspaper headlines talking of ‘hundreds of thousands’ were exaggerating. Given the official approval, it is even possible that the 105K was an exaggeration. I’d had the impression that it was a mainly Jewish affair, but I didn’t watch the TV reports, so I’ll have to go and look at the YouTube reports to see what can be detected.
PS. Having watched a lengthy video of the Paris event, I’d be surprised if it was really 105K. It wasn’t really packed from side-to-side of the street, though the column was quite lengthy. White nationalists and Jews, I would say. Not a single dark skin.
Thank you for those précisions, Laguerre, and of course I’m happy to accept them!
“If the Palestinians were white Irish (for example) Israel would not get away with what it does.”
I dunno, the UK did during the famine years. A million dead and two million emigrated. It’s a while ago but still Ireland has not recovered to its pre-famine population levels (approx 8 million).
ET
You’ve rather lost me. I thought I was talking about what people could get away with now, in 2023. How is what people got away with almost 200 years ago relevant to what they can get away with in 2023?
Pierce “It’s my show, I’ll scream and scream and scream till I’m sick” Morgan
https://youtu.be/HXiZHXkG-ac?
Piss ‘Viovet Evizabeth’ Moron, is one of Murdochs Monsterers, that the News International stable churned out as trained thugs to run the sordid soft porn and football News International media monopoly, since the 80’s.
It’s what the Dirty Digger as Rupert Murdoch was nicknamed, brought into British journalism – to kill it.
To turn it into the unmatched propaganda machinery since Himmler – accuser, trial, judge and jury by media fascist state.
To install and control the governments. Starting with Thatcher in 1979.
This is Morgan in his studio, The Turd of Turd Hole, built for him by Morrrddddorrrk, doing his demented sinister finger jabbing frothing at the mouth ‘job’, at attacking Jeremy Corbyn and ignoring Len McClusky and the British Populaces huge support for the civilians in Gaza and for Palestinians in general.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?
Why? Because the British Public has ignored the propaganda and are on the streets and there are many parliamentarians selected freely by local members, not imposed from Labour HQ that will vote for a ceasefire and justice finally for Palestine.
The Great Knight Dope, jailer of Assange , NatZionist stooge and Washington DC lackey, Starmer , the back stabbing traitor leader of the current Labour uniparty, has threatened to fire any of these elected representatives if they vote with their conscience today.
Piss Moron , who got owned TWICE recently by the Egyptian American Bassem Youssef over the genocide in Gaza being conducted after the ‘surprise false flag’ attack by Hamas – gathering huge amounts of egg on his face , but 10’s of millions of views as Bassem wiped the floor with his arse , TWICE as I said, has been sent to attack JC as a means of targeting these MP’s.
We are living again in that Himmlerian fascist state, but we ARE resisting.
DunGroanin
Your post is sublime. All of the greatest satirists that ever lived would be lining up to applaud you if only they get out of their fecking graves. Your free use of language breaks ground never dreamed of by Swift, Wilde, Rabelais, Voltaire, Twain,, Vonnegut, Ali G or Youssef.
Any country trying to indict Netanyahu via the ICC could be in for a hard time ‘Hague invasion Act becomes law’ in the US. https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law
U.S. President George Bush today signed into law the American Servicemembers Protection Act of 2002, which is intended to intimidate countries that ratify the treaty for the International Criminal Court (ICC). The new law authorizes the use of military force to liberate any American or citizen of a U.S.-allied country being held by the court, which is located in The Hague. This provision, dubbed the “Hague invasion clause,” has caused a strong reaction from U.S. allies around the world, particularly in the Netherlands.
In addition, the law provides for the withdrawal of U.S. military assistance from countries ratifying the ICC treaty, and restricts U.S. participation in United Nations peacekeeping unless the United States obtains immunity from prosecution. At the same time, these provisions can be waived by the president on “national interest” grounds.
Hello!
Thank you very much for this article! This is probably a very stupid question but there is no private citizen that invoke the Genocide Convention? Very stupid question but very relevant since the behaviour – as you wrote in your article, Craig – of Abbas is very weird. And of all the other countries too.
Chris Williamson, ex-Labour MP for Derby North posted on X, formerly Twitter, “Israel has forfeited any right to exist”. Derbyshire Police say they had received “multiple reports” about the comment.
Are citizens not allowed to express their opinions now? Which is all this is. If he’d said the same about Russia – in fact, I’ve seen lots of similar comments about destroying Russia and calls for Putin to be assassinated etc. Some encouraged by the govt.
This is what happens in a country with no constitution or first amendment. What can and can’t be said, ends up solely at the discretion of politicians and the police. Many hold the view Israel’s collective punishment and destruction of civilian infrastructure is totally indefensible and amounts to war crimes. Yet we’ve got a bunch of people more concerned about the potential for Israeli hurt feelings upon seeing such criticism
“Israel is one of five countries (along with New Zealand, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom) that operate entirely or in part according to an uncodified constitution consisting of both material constitutional law (based upon cases and precedents), common law, and the provisions of these formal statutes.”
I believe that Israel is also one of the few states in the world (perhaps the only one?) not to have defined its borders. (Craig perhaps to confirm?)
Surely just an oversight!
Aguirre
Yes, that’s true. And it has been seriously challenged in expert testimonies by leading scholars Professor John Dugard and Professor Avi Shlaim.
Very interesting read: Israel’s ‘right to exist’ challenged in expert testimonies
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230303-israels-right-to-exist-challenged-in-expert-testimonies/
International law experts tell Starmer: you don’t know what you’re doing re Israel’s Gaza war crimes, 40 top International Law experts write to Starmer and Cc: to Emily Thornberry, It looks like the UK has repudiated International law, in favour of aligning with the US and EU.
It is worth noting that two joint letters from over 40 UK academics, with expertise in international law, merits a formal response from the Labour Party. Why then was the response not checked for legal accuracy and why were such fundamental legal issue given such cursory treatment?
The Role of the Opposition
The response to our letters also states that Labour’s position must be “in line with Britain’s global allies, namely the United States of America and the European Union”. In this regard, it behooves us to remind you that it is the job of His Majesty’s Opposition to hold the government of the United Kingdom to account, not to follow policy lines of foreign governments.
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/11/14/international-law-experts-tell-starmer-you-dont-know-what-youre-doing-re-israels-gaza-war-crimes/
Hard to Believe that Sir Kier Starmer and Lady Nugee (Thornberry) are both Human Rights Lawyers, isn’t it?
SKS and Lady Nugee left any human rights inclinations behind near the bottom of the greasy pole.
French lawyers have filed a case for palestinian victims to the ICC about israeli crimes:
Lawyers for Gaza victims file case at International Criminal Court
Lawyers say Israel’s acts against Palestinians in Gaza amount to genocide, call on West to refrain from abetting crimes.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/15/lawyers-for-gaza-victims-file-case-at-international-criminal-court
When it comes to the crime of genocide the intent is usually the hardest to prove, but when it comes to Israel they have been telling the world in a very clear manner that they judge everyone/everything a target in Gaza.
Norman Finkelstein, Yaniv Cogan and Jamie Stern-Weiner have compiled a list of the many many genocidal statements by various israeli reps past month.
https://normanfinkelstein.substack.com/p/fighting-amalek-in-gaza-what-israelis
The problem is that racism is so rife in israeli society, normalized, there are from what I know really no anti-war dissent at all inside Israel which is very dangerous but also abnormal. Usually there is a significant part of a population that do not agree to wage war but not in Israel and that is why mass killing of palestinians come so easy for them. Dehumanization is a pre-stage to genocide.
‘Erase Gaza’: War Unleashes Incendiary Rhetoric in Israel
Experts say that inflammatory statements by prominent Israelis are normalizing ideas like the killing of civilians and mass deportations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-rhetoric.html
In Israel it is popular to go up the mountains and watch while their military destroy Gaza and kill palestinians as some entertainment.
Video https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1721550086512013773#m
Article on this phenomenon https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/israelis-cheer-gaza-bombing
A Heartbreaking Account of the Genocide by Chris Hedges –
” I am in the studio of Al Jazeera’s Arabic service watching a live feed from Gaza City. The Al Jazeera reporter in northern Gaza, because of the intense Israeli shelling, was forced to evacuate to southern Gaza.
He left his camera behind. He trained it on Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex. It is night. Israeli tanks fire directly towards the hospital compound. Long horizontal red flashes. A deliberate attack on a hospital. A deliberate war crime. A deliberate massacre of the most helpless civilians, including the very sick and infants. Then the feed goes dead.
[Israeli troops have since invaded the hospital itself and are in the midst of an operation there.]
We sit in front of the monitors. We are silent. We know what this means. No power. No water. No internet. No medical supplies. Every infant in an incubator will die. Every dialysis patient will die. Everyone in the intensive care unit will die. Everyone who needs oxygen will die. Everyone who needs emergency surgery will die.
And what will happen to the 50,000 people who, driven from their homes by the relentless bombing, have taken refuge on the hospital grounds? We know the answer to that as well. Many of them, too, will die.”
Full Piece is at – Chris Hedges: Pinnacle of Horror – at Consortiumn News –
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/15/chris-hedges-pinnacle-of-horror/?
A deliberate attack on a hospital. A deliberate war crime. A deliberate massacre of the most helpless civilians, including the very sick and infants. Then the feed goes dead.
Indeed and this is very important because there are no legal justification for Israel at all regardless of what they will purportedly “find” inside:
Jennifer Cassidy, a legal expert from the University of Oxford: Israel’s hospital raid ‘a war crime plain and simple’
She says targeting medical facilities is a war crime “plain and simple”.
“Even if we take everything the Israeli government is saying to be true [about Hamas using al-Shifa], it is still a war crime because the proportionality and the outcome effect in relation to the gains they are achieving still is breaking international law. And they’re actually providing that evidence in real-time. They’re essentially making a case against themselves,” Cassidy told Al Jazeera.
On Aljazeera.com
Roddy McLeod, Barrhead Boy’s ‘Through a Scottish Prism’ midweek special has an excellent discussion today with Craig, speaking from Switzerland and Roddy and Lloyd Quinan. A program not to be missed.
https://www.barrheadboy.com/midweek-through-a-scottish-prism-15-11-23/ (YouTube, 1h 1m 35s)
You’re right, that was excellent.
If there had been any indication that Hamas had a base under al-Shifa hospital the evidence would’ve been widely reported by the right wing pro-Israeli media, and it hasn’t reported as such.
Still the likes of National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have both been parroting Israeli propaganda that Hamas has or had a base under the hospital without providing a shred of evidence, it would appear that Biden’s administration is willing to play along with whatever Netanyahu says.
With nothing forthcoming evidence wise, it makes you wonder if Israeli intelligence knew that there was no Hamas base underneath the hospital, and that the IDF attacked the hospital for the sake of attacking it.
On November 14, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters that US intelligence had no “boots on the ground,” nor any intelligence assets capable of independently gathering intelligence from or about Shifa. When asked if the declassified intel briefing spun out by Kirby and Sullivan arrived through Washington’s “Israeli counterparts,” she refused to answer. But she strongly suggested the intelligence dump was politically motivated.
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/11/15/biden-israels-gaza-hospitals-intelligence/
Indeed, I have been waiting the whole day for the big evidence, Israel have been in the hospital for some 20 hours, where are the grand command and control center – of course the photos of such room would be spread within hours by Israel, where is it??
Sure, there are photos released which are just ridiculous and most likely arranged with weapons placed in the hospital by Israel itself.
Some automatic guns and…. 1 Hamas uniform.
https://img.haarets.co.il/bs/0000018b-d470-df9a-ab8b-def85ac70000/92/ff/7b03dc744a3abbd390228988b7a3/whatsapp-image-2023-11-15-at-17-53-35.jpeg?precrop=1600,900,x0,y0&height=804&width=1429
LOL what is this? An abandoned room with mock toy guns (they do not even have triggers!)
https://img.haarets.co.il/bs/0000018b-d268-df9a-ab8b-dee8fc740001/83/d6/e0fb9f2f4c36b06ecd708f5e9f11/18459.jpg
They did the same yesterday at another hospital, assembled some light fire arms and had a children’s cartoonish background to really get the propaganda out, I like that they piled some laptops in the frame too to really show how evil Hamas is!
https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2023/11/hagari.jpeg
Even if, for argument sake, Israel indeed found the above items the attack against the hospitals was obviously not justified as everyone can clearly see now! They are discrediting themselves though and through with their deceitfulness and stupid propaganda, but of course Israel will arrange more photos coming days though.
Heck even right-wing Jerusalempost admit there is no smoking gun.
IDF found Hamas weapons, tech in Shifa hospital, but no smoking gun
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-773285
No worries, the ICC will take care of everything. It’s a matter of time, once the proper claim is filed.
Craig is perfectly right. For the time being, Geneva is A LOT safer than Gaza. Good choice.
Beware of Swiss banks though. They’re not always as neutral as you would like to think.
Propaganda is currently everywhere, and the victims couldn’t care less. Good morning, emperor.
Indeed Jack Israeli bigwigs have been claiming that Hamas had a huge base under the al-Shifa medical complex for at least fifteen years. Even as far back as 2009, when Yuval Diskin, was the head of Israel’s domestic intelligence service Shin Bet, the Israeli big wigs only “suspected” that Hamas had a base under the hospital.
The Israeli big wigs were also convinced in 2014 when they slaughter many Palestinians that al-Shifa had a Hamas base underneath it, and were contemplating attacking the complex. Now that they have attacked it and raided it, and found nothing they must be scratching their heads at how they could’ve gotten this one so wrong, after all Israeli intelligence is said to be very accurate, and admired from afar, maybe it not what the Israeli’s have made it out to be, here’s hoping.
Anyway the big question is did they attack the hospital for the sake of attacking it? and if they did surely that’s one war crime they can’t wriggle out of? then again they have the USA, the EU the UK and the ICC on their side, so on second thoughts they will wriggle out of it.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/15/israeli-deceit-the-battle-of-shifa-hospital/
Yes, the ICC, the ICC !!!!
Nobody seems to recall even Craig precisely mentioned the ICC can never be active on such a situation…
Republicofscotland
Al jazeera wrote an article about the israeli obsession with this hospital:
Why is Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital so important for the Israeli army?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/15/why-is-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-so-important-for-the-israeli-army
Taking over hospital after hospital will reduce palestinians a chance from getting hospital care (more palestinians will die) and the forced evacuation from hospitals will speed up the ethnic cleansing, pushing the palestinians southward Gaza which is another goal by Israel.
There are also claims floating around that Israel built this hospital when they occupied Gaza with troops on the ground decades ago and Israel, the claim goes (might be israeli disinformation!), “know” there are a bunker below the hospital.
See: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/breaking-news-gaza-only/page/2/#post-92863
They have been there for what, 48 hours now, have they not not reached this bunker yet or are they busy rearranging, moving in Hamas’ props and setting the scene for the perfect photo-op? Yes most obviously.
a reader´s comment on Moon of Alabama on the new UN resolution 2 hours ago:
“After the binding resolution of UNSC for an hour ago was adopted, Zionist Apartheid regime representative informed security council that his government is not going to follow and comply with the humanitarian rule of the international community.
Now, it’s interesting to see if there will be a no-fly zone over Gaza and multinational boots on the ground, neutralizing the occupation army which continue the atrocities and genocide of the population of Gaza … A “Coalition of the willing”, should be the next step, right?”
That´s my question from yesterday or so – are we then going to bomb Tel Aviv with B2s?
Israeli schizophrenia on full display at the UN: first declares that Israel will not be complying with the resolution that demands humanitarian pauses and corridors from the conflict, then claims that Israel always adheres to international law.
I mean, are these people on drugs, they can’t even be bothered to lie convincingly, they just utter meaningless phrases with zero conviction as if that will satisfy people. Now they are widely seen as a murderous, genocidal terrorist state, they still think that preposterous lying and obviously false claims somehow gets them off the hook. It is patently obvious there is no Bond villain’s secret lair under the hospital as they have been claiming for weeks, so they are apparently bulldozing the area in order to claim the ‘evidence’ is buried in the rubble. No doubt we will be told that Hamas destroyed it, because the enemy is so cunning they can never be caught by Israel with any evidence. Meanwhile they circulate such amateur videos and photos (one claimed that a calendar in Arabic was a list of terrorists), it tells you what contempt they have for anybody pointing out their cynical and pathetic PR bodges. And then they wonder why their arrogant fascism is despised by so many.
This will be remembered by all who have witnessed it for their lifetimes, and of course create in time a new generation in the Middle East who will seek revenge. And so the cycle of violence and death will continue. If I even thought Israel cared about their hostages I would credit them with a sliver of remaining humanity, but they have rejected all deals for them, in order to have excuses to keep pounding Gaza into oblivion, which of course was the goal from the beginning. It is beyond shocking, beyond reason, beyond compassion, beyond humanity. And we have to sit here unable to help, listening to the worst kind of Western politicians and media constantly making excuses for them, in utter denial of what is happening. Shameful, horrifying and despairing.
A history of racist dehumanisation of Palestinians by the West:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-west-smear-palestinians-antisemitic
on that note:
below link: one of the interviews made by Robert Wright that I very often struggle with.
But I think to shutting off one´s ears from opposing views is not good. (albeit tiring.)
Robert Wright & Ron Kampeas on Israel, Palestine, and America
https://nonzero.substack.com/p/israel-palestine-and-america-robert#details
I guess this kind of relativism and alleged non-biased views (which in fact is totally biased by omitting certain aspects; Arabs play basically no meaningful souvereign role as equals by all means) – is the bigger problem than crazy Palestine haters.
Because Kampeas despite all his “ifs” and “buts” e.g. seriously engages into a reasoning whether:
-congress woman Tlaib might or might not be antisemtic
-many of those 10,000 (at that time) killed in Gaza were not also victims of Hamas during fighting the IDF
-Hamas might always be lying or not always
So he is argueing from the dark side admitting a few human treats to the Palestinian cause but because he is “nice” not because he would question anything elementary.
(It´s like describing the UKR/RU situation now as military stalemate. Complete misrepresentation of the structural reality in its entirety.)
I have had only time for a part of it so far. So may be I had a wrong impression:
Anyhow here are the time stamps:
2:21 Ron’s initial reaction to the October 7 atrocities
8:10 How Israel’s far right undermined Israel’s national security
17:12 Support for the Gaza war in Israel
26:06 The trouble with “eradicating” Hamas
31:55 How American Jews are responding to recent events
42:38 Post-October-7 prospects for solving Israel-Palestine
52:41 The rhetorical abuse of the Holocaust
57:09 The origins and meaning of “From the river to the sea…”
1:09:38 Could the Gaza war cost Biden the election?
1:16:48 Competing visions of Zionism
1:23:15 How terrorism impacts the Palestinian cause
p.s. I can´t recall any MSM text as of late pointing out that Iraelis could hate Arabs. Its completely only the other way around. It´s like a Jew cannot hate and intentionally harm an Arab, never ever. The world is full of hatred but in Palestine it is only existent with one ethnic group. Not the other. And seemingly this goes without any comment. Crazy world.
Ian
“And we have to sit here unable to help, listening to the worst kind of Western politicians and media constantly making excuses for them, in utter denial of what is happening. Shameful, horrifying and despairing.”
Yes its very very strange.
And the worst: people stop talking out of fear for legal consequences.
In the UKR war case it was in order to not fight with friends over the war and ruin a friendship.
Now they dont speak out, of fear of police and law enforcement.
And those who share the government views are happy about that.
People who praise our democracy – many many many individuals – and not only of the Chatham House type, but that kind I would usually spend time with – are content to hear people who do not share the government and thus their views are afraid of that democracy.
Schezophrenia as you say, on all “fronts”.
I dont think I have ever in my lifetime witnessed anything as terrifying as Zionism. Zionists are as evil as any terrorist group I have heard of.
Look at this popular Israeli singer Lior Narkis singing yesterday for Israeli soldiers after a month of murdering children.
“Gaza you black woman, you trash”
https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1724935620735205680
If there had been such images from Nazi, Klan or SA apartheid rallies they would be some of the most notorious films on record.
What makes these freaks uniquely terrifying is their global influence. Observing western elites bow to these racist war criminals is insane.
There are so so many reports of the ugly behaviours of the fascist Apartheid Zionist supremacist colonial states demented violence against babies, children, women and civilians.
The internet has destroyed the ability to control the Narrative by Mainstream and Social Media MONOPOLY.
The artificial nation raises their children and youth with such xenophobic attitudes that they do not realise they are not normal emphatic human beings anymore. Just Fascist and Nazis.
The exact same as has happened in the ukraine.
You’re right, the Internet has changed things and Zionists are full of angst about it. There was some leaked audio yesterday of ADL director Jonathan Greenblatt complaining that milennials and Gen Z have not been relying on TV framing of the “war”. He says Zionists urgently need to come up with “innovative techniques” to address young people’s disgust for Israel.
ADL director Jonathan Greenblatt complaining that milennials and Gen Z have not been relying on TV framing of the “war”. He says Zionists urgently need to come up with “innovative techniques” to address young people’s disgust for Israel. They already have, students are being told by big Israeli donors they will never get jobs in big law firms and will forever be blaclisted for the rest of their lives.
Crushing Dissent: Zionist groups target Harvard students for criticising Israel https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231019-crushing-dissent-zionist-groups-target-harvard-students-for-criticising-israel/
This blacklisting of activists through public intimidation, known as “doxxing”, has become a major tactic to suppress pro-Palestine expression on campus, warns Palestine Legal. Students now receive death threats for their advocacy.
From Jonathan Cook on Twitter:
“The late Israeli actor Juliano Mer Khamis recalled that his military service in the first intifada was to plant guns on dead Palestinian civilians to justify the IDF killing them.
Let’s assume this feeble ‘haul’ is real. How does it possibly justify committing genocide in Gaza?”
The pathetic IDF videos are being widely mocked on social media. It would be funny to see such blatant stupidity, but these amateur theatrics are being used to justify genocide. Fascists never had either a sense of humour or were able to see how ridiculous they are when daylight is shone on their malignant children with deadly weapons image. On the contrary, their actions are the worst kind of horror film made real.
I now live in Germany and the silence here to what is happening is deafening, with peace marches banned in nearly every city. I lived here also in the 70’s and regarding Israel criticism, nothing has changed. Education has drummed into the population the guilt (and rightly so) of Germany’s Holocaust atrocities, but education has failed to differentiate between anti-semitism and anti colonial zionism which now rules in Israel and committing genocidal atrocities. How much Palestinian blood will it take to wash off the guilt of the Germans for their past before they start to speak up.
U Watt
I can only agree, I am horrified, saddened not only what people in Israel say publicly but there is something more than their racism, many have a sadistic, humiliating bent to many of their acts and statements, And there is actually photos from nazi germany when they humiliate jews on the streets.
Perhaps I was naive the whole time but I always thought there was a significant anti-war, rational, kind/humane base in Israel which stood against the occupation and dehumanization of palestinians, but what I have seen lately have have totally crushed that worldview.
Here is another israeli artist that chant about annexing Gaza and bringing light against the “non jews”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXIr_fNQI68
This thing of “bringing light” that also Netanyahu have used in speeches is so typical of a colonial mentality. German nazis used it too:
: “If the light clashes with darkness there is no making of agreements, there is only a fight of life and death until the one or the other part is destroyed.”
Dietrich Eckart member of the german nazi party
Here is United Nations resolution 3246 November 29th [1974]
Affirms the legitimacy of armed resistance by oppressed peoples in pursuit of the right to self determination, and condemns governments which do not support that right.
If people are reminded of this resolution now, then someone might accidentally ask whether the self-determination of Crimea and Donbass was legal, and whether they had a legal right to armed resistance in response to military coercion by Kiev.
As you understand, no one will allow this idea to spread in the mainstream media, since the prevailing narrative serves some other political interests. Such as “an order based on some rules” as an alternative to “an order based on international law.” And “the right of Kiev/Tel Aviv to territorial integrity/self-defense” as a counter to the right of peoples to self-determination, self-government and armed resistance against military coercion.
You’re over complicating things! The West has just torn up international law and international humanitarian law – see Gaza. It’s might makes right now. Russia had the might to take Crimea – good for Russia! If Russia can take Ukraine, too, then Putin deserves to be congratulated. Anything goes now. Absolutely anything!
It is both logical and common sense to agree with the UN resolution on armed resistance.
Gandhi was right when he said…
“I do believe that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence…I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour.” Just substitute Palestine for India and dishonour for destruction or Genocide, then Gandhi was 100% correct.
Mandela said the same when he went to Palestine after his release.
Today there was a footage of a South African Diplomat with some Palestinians who are trying to collect olives as the IDF turn up and tell them to stop. The IDF officer accepts that the diplomat is allowed to stand there but the Palestinians can’t collect their own olives and must leave.
The racist attitude of the Aryan IDF is brimming through as he accuses the diplomat of causing trouble and having a camera crew. He demands to know if the diplomat is carrying his diplomats card!
Such footage must be constantly collected and more widely spread to by-pass the draconian lockdown of free speech and reporting. Especially to the young who seem to be finally waking up as they become immune from mainstream 24/7 propaganda. They don’t sit in front of tv’s and don’t ogle the daily rag sheets. Well except the Bin Laden letter that the Observer published in 2002 to back up the fake war on terror – which has gone viral on the youth channels – so the pathetic Grauniad has deleted its own record ! That is panicked Orwellian rewriting of their own history. They are no longer even interested in pretending they do journalism.
from Ian´s above link:
“How Israel and the West smear the Palestinians as antisemitic”
by Joseph Massad
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-west-smear-palestinians-antisemitic
Just a few worthwhile historic quotations of European blatant racism against Non-Whites which are being repeated today:
— historic colonialist quotes:
“The beloved 19th-century French democrat Alexis de Tocqueville had the following to say on French colonialism in Algeria: “I have often heard men whom I respect, but with whom I do not agree, find it wrong that we burn harvests, that we empty silos, and finally that we seize unarmed men, women, and children. These, in my view, are regrettable necessities, but ones to which any people who want to wage war on the Arabs are obliged to submit.”
The liberal icon John Stuart Mill was explicit that “despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians”.
During the German genocide of the Herero people of Namibia, the German Social Democrats, led by August Bebel in parliament, were just as racist as their conservative and liberal counterparts. In response to the dehumanisation of the Hereros as inhuman “beasts” by conservative and liberal parliamentarians alike, Bebel expressed sympathy for the struggle of the Herero people but agreed that they were not civilised: “I have repeatedly emphasised that they are a wild people, very low in culture.”
Even the French communards, who were exiled to New Caledonia to reform them after their 1871 Paris Commune uprising was put down by the French state, actively participated in the genocide of the indigenous Kanak people.”
— partying by Whites in Namibia next to areas subject to suppression:
“Following the 7 October attack, many social media commentators wondered how some Israeli Jews could stage a music festival three miles from the Gaza concentration camp. Others explained that “outdoor ‘nature parties’, or music festivals in Israel’s wooded valleys and southern deserts, are a popular pastime among young Israelis”.
The question of proximate partying is hardly unique to Israelis. A South African attorney-general in the then South African-occupied settler colony of Namibia stated in 1983 that the white “public haven’t the foggiest idea what’s going on in the operational area”, where black resistance was active. “Whites in the south,” he said, “continue to have parties.”
Historians of the Namibian struggle explained that due to being “used to turning a blind eye to rebellion in black suburbs five miles from their homes, it was small wonder the whites of the region” ignored “the havoc” nearby.
The continued reliance on discredited Orientalists, not to mention fanatical pro-Israel Zionists, as experts and advisors to governments and media, including the likes of Bernard Lewis and others after 9/11, whose views had been discredited since the 1970s, shows the adamant commitment of western political power to white supremacy. It insists that only Orientalist Zionism and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism will be sought out to help imperial ventures.
FYI Joseph Massad is a professor of intellectual history at Columbia University. His books are excellent, and this collection of articles is a treasure trove of historical facts, analysis and arguments which are the product of years of research, work and writing around the Israel question. They are a superb repository and source of material you may wish to use when confronted by the ignorance and prejudice which prevails on this topic. Invaluable as well as sobering:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/users/joseph-massad
Thanks
thx
Skimmed Massad´s Wiki: Appears to not been hijacked by CIA yet.
worth a look
Especially the Columbia investigation from 2004/05 re: allegation against him – how would have that ended to-day???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Massad
When was the last time a pro-Israel-occupation Prof. was charged with racism against Arabs???
I dont think anyone should be charge with anything. But I have to pose the rhetoric question.
p.s. for comparison the German site – they know nothing about these scholars.
1 sentence CV!
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Massad
AG
“The continued reliance on discredited Orientalists, not to mention fanatical pro-Israel Zionists, as experts and advisors to governments and media, including the likes of Bernard Lewis and others after 9/11,”
I have to say that I’ve known quite a number of Orientalists, and I don’t think many correspond to your description. Your definition evidently references Edward Said’s book “Orientalism” in constructing an image of an eternal unchanging backward Orient. There were some who collaborated with western governments in the post 9/11 invasions, but not many. Bernard Lewis did what he did not as an Orientalist but as a Jew which he was. He came to see Islamic society as a failure, which it certainly isn’t (except to a lunatic fringe of commenters here). His Jewishness and support for Zionism took over his objectivity as a historian. Not everybody was or is like that.
Laguerre
I am not an expert on “Orientalism”, MidEast studies, etc.
I have read a few texts / books by Said, Ahmad, Hedges and some others. But that´s certainly not covering this giant field.
However in the current example I was only linking to Massad´s Wiki page. I myself have nothing to do with it. Until yesterday I didn´t know Massad.
May be Ian is better with this from first hand reading. Since he suggested Massad in the first place.
p.s. it´s true that any older Chomsky reader (but also Finkelstein, Pappé, Hass, AbuKhalil) like myself has been aware of the criticism of Bernard Lewis by possibly more progressive scholars than himself.
I knew Lewis when I worked at the Institute for Advanced Study. That institute houses a lot of pompous, supercilious jerks, but I thought Lewis was the worst.