The departure of the spectacular “Freedom Flotilla” to Gaza carrying 5,500 tonnes of aid has been postponed (again), because the flag state of the major vessels, Guinea Bissau, has withdrawn their registration.
The key question is why the organisers were proceeding with such an unreliable flag state in the first place?
In the 2010 Freedom Flotilla, the vessel Mavi Marmara was boarded by Israeli troops and ten aid workers were executed in cold blood. Just days before sailing, the Mavi Marmara had changed its flag from Turkey to the Comoros Islands.
On a vessel at sea outside the twelve mile territorial limit of a state (as the Mavi Marmara was when boarded), the law that applies is that of the flag state. Had the vessel still been Turkish flagged, the murderers would have been within Turkish jurisdiction and subject to investigation by Turkey and prosecution in Turkish courts.
I flew to Izmir to investigate the case and I concluded that it was Turkish security services who had obliged the change of flag to the Comoros Islands, thus facilitating the Israeli murderous attack.
Plainly the Mavi Marmara incident should indicate to organisers of aid to Gaza the vital necessity of having a vessel registered to a flag state which would be able to react strongly to an attack by Israel on its ship, and indeed whose flag might deter Israel from such an attack.
So it makes no sense to me that the organisers intended to proceed under the flag of Guinea Bissau.
On 8 April I received a Whatsapp message from organisers asking me to publicise the flotilla. This was my reply.
Hi Irfan and thank you. May I ask what are the flag states of the four vessels?
This is extremely important.
The Mavi Marmara organisers made the literally fatal mistake of allowing the ship to reflag to the Comoros Islands before sailing. Outside the 12 mile territorial sea the vessels are under the law of and entitled to the protection of the flag state
After a holding reply I received
Sorry for the late reply. It is still to be confirmed sir
I reiterated
OK, I am very keen that people understand that it is crucially important.
I have always believed pro Israeli security services influenced the change of flag of the Mavi Marmara.
Any Israeli forces boarding the ships beyond the 12 mile territorial limit are subject to the law of the flag state of the vessel. I should be grateful if you confirm to me the organisers fully understand this.
The reply was simply
Thank you sir
I am therefore entirely perplexed that the organisers went with Guinea Bissau as the flag state rather than a state likely to stand up to Israel and the US. Of course it failed.
Is the problem incompetence, or is it again security service influence?
I should make plain that I absolutely support the aims and the strategy of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. I have several friends on board, and I believe my good colleague Ann Wright is among the organisers. I am however intensely frustrated.
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Good catch!
Any of the Emirates?
Egypt?
South Africa?
Pakistan?
North Korea?
Serbia?
Spain?
Ireland?
CHINA !
Hands up anyone who is up for less genocide on the planet.
The dysfunctional UN is not capable.
Slightly off topic but it could be significant.
“The far-right Israeli cabinet is in a state of agitation over the possibility of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing an arrest warrant for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the regime’s senior officials in the wake of their months-long genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israeli media reported on Sunday that senior Israeli officials had held emergency meetings in Tel Aviv this week to discuss the possibility that the top United Nations court could issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant, and the occupation army’s chief of staff Herzi Halevi.
The Hebrew-language Maariv newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying that Netanyahu was “unnaturally afraid and worried” due to the possibility of the ICC’s arrest warrant in The Hague.
Netanyahu made telephone calls to international leaders and officials in recent days, especially to US President Joe Biden, to prevent the issuance of the arrest warrant.
This is while in an apparent rebuttal of the warrant, which could reportedly be issued in “the next few days,” Netanyahu said on Friday that an ICC ruling would not impact his war in Gaza, which has so far claimed more than 34,000 Palestinian lives.
“Decisions made by the court in the Hague will not affect Israel’s actions,” he said.
The Israeli regime has been ignoring the ICC’s preliminary ruling in January in which it was ordered to take all measures to protect civilian life in Gaza and to refrain from genocidal acts.”
On topic.
The flotilla would need to be sporting the flag of a country able to retaliate in one form or another to stop the Zionists from murdering some of those onboard to send a message, that like outside journalists, they are not welcome, Israel is indeed a rogue state backed by the west.
Maybe South Africa or Spain the latter making as much noise on the Zionist genocide in Gaza as the former, could offer the flotilla the security of their flags.
Irish PM Varadkar recently resigned after supporting Gaza. Now there’s talk of Spanish PM Sanchez also leaving office.
I wonder if Netanyahu in his phone call to Biden threatened to reveal that Biden, together with himself, Netanyahu, had planned the Gaza war in advance. The US decision to blow up Nordstream does not make sense unless they were already planning to use offshore Gaza oil and gas as a substitute for Nordstream.
Stopping Nordstream makes sense by virtue of the same motive that sought to draw Russia into Ukraine (their second Vietnam – after Afghanistan): “breaking the back of Russia”/”weakening Russia”, in line with point 1 of the unsanitised version of the Wolfowitz Doctrine: “Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union”. It also puts China firmly in the Pentagon’s sights, as has been obvious for some time now: Taiwan is the bait that might bleed away enough of China’s strength if China can be provoked into invading.
You are right that bombing Nordstream made sense for the US either way. What is missing in the picture, though, is the role of the German government. It was on the occasion of the first visit of Rudolf Scholz (the first German chancellor after Angela Merkel retired from politics) to the US that Biden announced during a joint press conference that the US would end the Nordstream project somehow in case of war in Ukraine. Although Germany was in a economic upswing at the time due to cheap Russian gas (and suffers a serious economic depression now due to its sudden lack), Scholz did not protest at all. This level of brown-nosing was so extreme that it was previously unheard-of for any German government ever. It makes a lot more sense if it was part of a trilateral deal in which Germany was promised massive military deals with Israel and cheap gas from the Gaza coast as (delayed) compensation. Which would then also explain the current pro-genocidal course of the German government.
To me, the key point is that it was Russia that decided to launch the “Special Military Operation” and when to do it. It was also Hamas that did the same regarding 7 October. In both cases, they will have taken advice and worked out the likely consequences, which are playing out much as anyone might have expected, and decided that these will end up to their advantage. This is a reversal from previous wars where it was the West that chose where and when.
My assessment is that WW3 is off and running. The major protagonists, China, Russia and the US all have the Bomb and, even without that, it’s politically impossible for the US to send its troops against an enemy that can shoot back. So a direct conflict is out of the question. China had discovered it would never be allowed to integrate with the Western “International Community”, AKA “the Golden Billion” so it set out to establish its own trading network, eg with Belt And Road. But its weak point is that the US, unable to compete any other way, would militarily threaten its trading partners on one pretext or another. To counter this, it needs its own military capability but China is not historically warlike. Enter Russia, which is. It was always obvious that Russia, knowing Western sanctions would ensue, already had China on board when it launched the SMO.
What decided the timing of the Special Military Operation was Zelensky’s speech at the Munich Security Conference February 19, 2022 where he suggested, in the presence of Kamala Harris and other US officials, that he would abrogate the Budapest Memorandum and seek nuclear weapons. When the Special Military Operation followed a few days after, the Russian Army immediately occupied Chernobyl and Zaporozhe, at each of which Ukraine could seize nuclear materials that could be used to make dirty bombs within days. The US wanted war then, and got it.
“unnaturally afraid and worried” – seems unlikely, I’d guess, unless the US was to approve, which would be extremely unlikely given the intimate relationship between Israel and the US; and, if a warrant for his arrest could somehow be executed, isn’t it probable – at least – that the US would invoke their “Hague Invasion Act” to extract him immediately . . ?
The report is not attributed to anything, and Netanyahu has acted terribly for decades without ever appearing “afraid” or worried. Even if indicted, the officials would not be at risk of arrest unless they foolishly travelled to an unfriendly jurisdiction.
However, there would be an inevitable hypocrisy factor when (not if) Israel’s patrons decry any indictments after previously blasting Putin as a “fugitive from justice” over charges for his alleged responsibility for removing children from a combat zone.
I was pretty confident the Hague Invasion Act would not protect Israelis, but I looked it up, and I was wrong. The act protects military personnel, officials, and government employees of several countries considered allied, including Israel.
Of course the “Hague Invasion Act” is only a US law, and has no international or moral validity. In fact it flies in the face of all international laws and principles.
Rather like the notorious “Monroe Doctrine” – a purely unilateral expression of wishes by the US government. No other nation has ever been under the slightest obligation to obey it.
It really is time – and well past time – that the rest of the world showed the USA that it is NOT God. (And actually, if any god or gods exist, they must disapprove strongly of Uncle Sam and his degenerate offspring. Except maybe Ares/Mars and Odin, who delight in slaughter…I shan’t speculate about Jehovah, for fear of hurting anyone’s feelings).
That “International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing an arrest warrant for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu”; I believe that when I see it. The ICC’ chief prosecutor, Karim Ahmad Khan, has a pretty dismal track-record when it comes to standing up to Western abuse.
Moreover, as we have seen with the ICJ’s verdict about Gaza, issuing judgment is the easy part. The question remains, who is to bell the cat? (Especially when it has the US puma ready to jump in on its side).
One tiny upside of the present chaos is that everyone can see clearly that laws and courts have no power whatsoever unless backed up by armed force. And since armed force alone can do the job, one wonders whether the laws and courts have a purely decorative role.
“has a pretty dismal track record”
Can’t say I see any track record H, however dismal – just a luxury legal widget in a vast machine of transnational tyranny
It’s “function” could be replaced by a couple of switches – labelled “for or against the Western oligarchy”on/off and “In the Club” on/off.
“It’s a Club and you ain’t in it”
George Carlin
Thanks Craig for your dauntless pursuit of the truth and Justice. I have also come across retaliation for exposing established corruption.
Stay strong 🤔
Seemingly no country is willing to offer… hence the public appeal for some country to offer their flag.
Countries would rather not have to deal with the legal issues of people murdered on their vessel, I suppose.
Guinea-Bissau [Population 2 million] Turkey population 85 million. are countries with zero self-respect, Guinea Bissau are easily threatened, whereas I can only agree with Boris Johnson’s poem about Erdoğan….
“There was a young fellow from Ankara, who was a terrific wankerer,”
“‘Til he sowed his wild oats, with the help of a goat. But he didn’t even stop to thankera,”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/19/boris-johnson-wins-most-offensive-erdogan-poem-competition
Unutterably vulgar, and so contemptuous of those countries and their presidents.
@ Hylton-Slater
Harry Law is not wrong. But rather than threats, I think Guinea-Bissau, being an extremely poor country, would have offered its flag as a way of getting some much needed foreign exchange.
Threats or a wish not to engage in confrontation probably explains why no other country offered.
Finally, note that at the time of the Marmara attack, Israel and Turkey were bessies. That regional rôle is now fulfilled by Greece (which is in the pocket of both the USA and France) and Cyprus.
I strongly recommend this book for a detailed investigation of all aspects of the 2010 Freedom Flotilla attack: Propaganda and the Murders on the Mavi Marmara (Lowde, 2014).
The Kindle version is full of links to contemporary videos and reports, including nasty Israeli hasbara, its subsequent debunking, and the relentless repetition of the hasbara by Western politicians and MSN after it was known to be false.
Ireland is my hottest suggestion out of Dungroamn’s list. My second would be South Africa, they must be seriously disappointed after the ICJ response silence
I don’t think that will happen. Ireland is too dependent on USA inward investment and EU “solidarity” relating to brexit, has no military to speak of and geographically between USA and GB and thus too easily leaned on (threatened). I’d be pleasantly surprised if they did. Perhaps the few EU nations, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Ireland that are aiming to formally recognise Palestine as a state might concoct some safety in numbers workaround but I can’t see it happening for now.
The only nations I can think of who wouldn’t be intimidated by the zionists and their lapdogs are Iran, Lebanon and Yemen, but realistically only Iran.
The big boys are far more concerned with politics than genocide and know that every day Israel is digging itself into a deeper and deeper hole.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Guinea Bissau are withdrawing the registration to prevent a bloodbath – they know they can’t act against Israel, and want to ensure that they aren’t put in the diplomatically embarrassing position of having to tolerate aid worker assassinations on their territory.
The responses just sound like the correspondent doesn’t speak English very well, unfortunately. It would be impossible for them not to know about vessel flagging given what happened on the Mavi Marmara.
I don’t suppose either the current Freedom Flotilla or its previous, ill-fated incarnation were offered many choices of flag nation?
I suspect that Flotilla is not going anywhere. I’m also amazed that no one has explained exactly why Israel would not do exactly the same thing to this one that they did to the last one – and perhaps even more brutally by actually sinking the ships.
This is not the Israel of the last one, folks. This is an Israel that has decided to go all in on genocide. What part of that don’t these Flotilla folks understand?
Unless that Flotilla is escorted by warships of a sponsoring nation, it’s doomed.
yep
oh, a familiar name. well said.
So I’m just six paragraphs into the introduction of the book Alistair linked to up the page (having got the free sample, albeit on Amazon UK), and already Joe Biden has been mentioned. It also mentions a BBC Panorama programme on the topic which, by the sounds of it, was just outright Israeli propaganda lies.
It doesn’t actually give the title of the Panorama episode, but I just did a search on youtube re >bbc panorama flotilla 2010<, but it didn't come up in the list of results. But the following did, posted just two days ago, which looks interesting:
What Happened to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla | The Truth: Lost At Sea (2019) | Full Doc (56mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXgc6hFKqzI&rco=1
Also came across the following when I did a search on youtube (for the Panorama episode), posted by the Zionist Federation:
Jonathan Hoffman speaks on BBC News 24 re. flotilla (7mins 15secs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_pUMJjAp68
I expect most people who follow Craig are familiar with Hoffman, but for anyone who isn’t, he was one of the guys that Jeremy Corbyn referred to when he spoke about the Zionists who didn’t understand English irony.
Hoffman also said the following in a one star review of the book Bad News For Labour:
The estimable organisation Labour Against Antisemitism (whom I advise) said in February 2019 that it has reported 1200 cases [of alledged antisemitism by LP members to the LP] since 2016, so almost double Ms Formby’s number. It also submitted a 15,000 page dossier to the EHRC…..
Back then you could post comments in response to someone’s review, but Amazon stopped it several years ago and deleted all said comments (and there were a lot in response to Hoffman’s so-called review, including several of mine), and one of the things I put to him was the following:.’Did LAA also report these 1200 cases of alledged antisemitism to the police?’. He’d responded to other comments, including one or two of mine, but he didn’t respond to THAT one! And I knew he wouldn’t, because I knew they hadn’t.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-reviews/RQII1BRA827HN/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewpnt
PS And he was more-than-likely lying anyway. In fact almost DEFINITELY lying. As Zionists are prone to do!
Seems highly unlikely that the LAA themselves wouldn’t have notified the MSM that they’d done so, but I did a search at the time, and it would appear that they didn’t.
All this lamenting about a “huge” increase in anti-semitic “incidents” is bullshit. The question therefore of how many are actually reported to the police – as opposed to just peddled by a component of the Lobby – is crucial. False claims to the Lobby, or just invention by the Lobby, cannot give rise to any consequences, whereas false claims to the police could, at least in theory, give rise to charges of wasting police time if found to be unfounded upon investigation.
Then there is, of course, the question of the definition of an incident. Here, I’d suggest that to take the most serious thing that could happen, ie a murder, there has not been more than 1 murder of a Jew in the UK in the last God knows how many decades. As far as blacks and Asians are concerned, however, there have been quite a few. To take an “incident” from the other end of the spectrum, eg calling someone a “f…ing Jew”, I suggest that the ratio between such incidents and similar insults aimed at blacks or Asians is off the charts. But, funnily enough, one doesn’t hear much – if anything – about this in the MSM.
Chris Hedges has posted a powerful piece, a sermon he gave on campus.
(I admit sometimes his training at the seminary takes the overhand with his texts sometimes its for the better.)
e.g he says:
“Ruling institutions — the state, the press, the church, the courts, universities — mouth the language of morality, but they serve the structures, no matter how venal, which provide them with money, status and authority. All of these institutions, including the academy, are complicit through their silence or their active collaboration with radical evil.”
“All institutions, including the church, the theologian Paul Tillich once wrote, are inherently demonic.”
“And a life dedicated to resistance has to accept that a relationship with any institution is often temporary, because sooner or later that institution is going to demand acts of silence or obedience your conscience will not allow you to make.”
(I am not a Hannah Arendt fan)
but this too:
“As Hannah Arendt wrote, the only morally reliable people are not those who say “this is wrong” or “this should not be done,” but those who say “I can’t.””
And many other “useful” quotes
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/sermon-for-gaza
The Israelis destroyed the largest humanitarian aid warehouse in Rafah over the weekend, an act deliberately intended to deepen the famine. There is no reason to believe this aid flotilla would be spared a similar fate if it ever embarks, regardless of flag.
It is noteworthy that there hasn’t been a single word of admonishment for the warehouse bombing from any of the governments that have recently resumed UNRWA funding.
It suggests that UNRWA funding was restored merely as a performative gesture, by leaders reassured the Israelis will ruthlessly enforce the famine regardless.
In any event, how does one explain the volte face on UNRWA funding by the EU and co? Are we expected to believe that they didn’t previously understand that withdrawing funding for food would cause mass starvation in Gaza?
Jack had already mentioned it via “sputnik”news I think but to make it official from Western sources
“US Working To Prevent ICC Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu
The US backed the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for Putin ”
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/04/28/us-working-to-prevent-icc-arrest-warrant-for-netanyahu/
“(…)
The US and Israel are working together to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other high-level Israeli officials, Israeli media has reported.
Haaretz reported that the Israeli government is working under the assumption that arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and IDF Chief-of-Staff Herzi Halevi could be issued as soon as this week. The report said that the US is already engaged in an effort to block the warrants.
(…)”
I am just pointing it out as I get the question – every.single.time.: “yeah but how can you believe that since it´s from RT and Sputnik and the RU MoD?” And then I try to talk about German insane double standards but to no avail.
If I say Haaretz, NYT, WaPo, The Guardian, Le Monde, German State Television, German dailies SZ and FAZ…”let us bow in silence, God has spoken.”
(Fuck me)
I was a member of the flotilla and have just come back from Istanbul. From the start I was slightly suspicious. As a seafarer I was interested in the logistics. Where are the ships? How are they to be discharged as there is no port? I received polite smiles and nothing else. It got to the point that I thought it was some kind of act. The presence of Codepink and Anne Wright reassured me. Then they said we were boarding the next day and I knew the ship was still in the dockyard and yet we didn’t even know which berth it would be on to board. They were blaming the Turkish govt for not letting us sail. When I challenged this saying that if the ship had valid certificates and had passed its inspections then it’s not for the govt to stop us. They finally admitted it was a flag issue.
If they refuse to let in the aid truck, why do people think aid ships will be allowed to deliver aid?
It does not matter what aid vehicle you use to deliver the aid. They will stop it as they want to starve these people out or, if not out, to death.
It is like thinking if we use aid hot air balloons they will miraculously be allowed in.
They just massacred seven aid workers pour les encourager les autres.
Nothing confirms it is a genocide like the refusal to allow in aid. Because aid is the very antithesis of genocide.
And that is why they don’t let it in. It is the opposite of what they are trying to achieve.
“Nothing confirms it is a genocide like the refusal to allow in aid.”
or the refusal to let in members of the international press to bear witness (I’m sure there are some who would).
“I’m sure there are some who would”
I can’t share your surety about this.
The craven Western press is structurally hobbled – remember it is all owned by a couple of oligarchs, there may be individuals who would be willing to report but the nexus of international media support for Israel is well-capable of neutering any individual who stray from the script
I have posted a piece by Michael Hudson in the Gaza Forum.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/breaking-news-gaza-only/page/12/#post-96404
Useful input: Exceptionalism: An Infantile Disorder | Ray McGovern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hffOOiGdqk
Ray McGovern, who has been CIA analyst, Presidential advisor, and involved in a 2011 US aid boat to Gaza discusses this and the absurdity of the US trying to order other countries what to do or how to behave, especially the recent Yellen & Blinken visits to China. He’s about the same age as me so there is some fellow feeling in seeing the same decline over the past decades. Other countries are biting back now.
Please allow us to make one-off donations via credit card. Subscriptions are easy to lose track of because bloggers worthy of support are scattered across platforms.
Craig’s 2011 account of visiting Cengiz Songur’s bereaved family is haunting, heartbreaking:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/04/for-cengiz-songur/
– “Cengiz died, age 47, when he was shot in the chest from point blank range by an Israeli soldier on board the Mavi Marmara. Cengiz was unarmed. he had never been armed in his life.”
Israel is a terrorist state.
“Terrorist state” is not in the allowable lexicon for those in The Western Empire of The Rules Based Order. “Terror”, “terrorism” and “terrorist” may only be applied to wicked indigenous people violently striking back at an empire or colonial settler state.
Exactly, it is breathtaking that people do not see that what Israel – the jewish state – is doing, is in principle what the IS – the islamic state – have done namely terrorism and by now Israel have killed far more civilians than IS did.
Netanyahu exploits Passover for more biblical genocide propaganda
As Passover begins, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is once again using the bible to justify genocide in Gaza as he compares Hamas to “Pharaoh” and promises to “land additional and painful plagues” upon the Palestinians.
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/04/netanyahu-exploits-passover-for-more-biblical-genocide-propaganda/
You can’t have “striking back”. That infers the the indigenous peoples were provoked and the colonialists are, of course, virtuous and civilised and above such criticism, which therefore marks one out as a terrorist sympathiser. The colonialists’ violence is always, always provoked and justified, on the other hand. That is a central Rule of the Rules Based Order.
for a view against Hamas I recommend this in the Forum:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/breaking-news-gaza-only/page/12/#post-96427
It´s a new piece on JACOBIN
I would have thought it’s remarkable how little opposition there has been to Hamas’ leadership role in the war in Gaza. Everyone knows that it doesn’t make much difference who is the leadership in Gaza; Israel would be doing the same anyway.
The sad state of affairs is that no state care so much for the situation that they would lend their flag to the ship. But I believe the flag is a secondary issue, the ship could have the american flag and the israelis would still stop it. I reckon that the idea of the Flotillas are primarily meant to bring world attention, awareness to the situation in Gaza and show how callous Israel is by them blocking humantarian aid and by that put pressure on the world to act against Israel.
Of course the flotilla really isn’t needed because those lovely people at WCK are building a freedom jetty so that the magnanimous West can pour tons of aid into Gaza. At least that’s what they tell us …
… “so that the magnanimous West can poor tons of aid into Gaza”, while the Israelis mow the Palestinians down trying to collect it, and … crickets.
Stevie Boy
Without a trace of irony (the UK has picked up the US non-ironic model – they’ve been to close for too long) the Pontoon Harbour was described as a risk for UK Troops delivering the aid as it could: “Put them in harm’s way.”
Begging the question as to who would “Harm” them? Hamas are very busy at the moment so that’s them out therefore that leaves only one group of people who could “harm” the UK soldiers. As usual the BBC never asked the question.
For those who think the UK government is bent on suppressing pro-Palestinian demonstrations, speech and so on, they should look at what goes on in those standard bearers of democracy and free speech otherwise known as the French and German governments.
AG has provided excellent testimony about the German government. But this forum’s Paris correspondent has been keeping quiet.
So I,for my part, will bring to your attention an amusing (not) example of where the French government stands; there has been a sit-in – about Gaza – at the Parisian university known as “Sciences-Po”. Now, it appears that the Rector is suspending the legal action brought against the students concerned by the uni; HOWEVER, the Minister for Higher Education, in the name of the government, has said the government has no intention of dropping the charges IT has brought against the students.
Furthermore, the state intends to bring charges of “public insult” against the politician Jean-Luc Melenchon who, in response to the cancellation by the university of Lille of a talk he was going to give there, compared the boss of the uni to Adolph Eichmann in that both of the latter used the argument “it wasn’t me, boss, I was just following orders”.
The big squeeze is on!
Mossadia shall not fall.
The French authorities are scared of radical Islam. The French and Germans have much poorer race relations, and specifically, Police – Muslim community relations, than in the UK. Police brutality and subsequent rioting in the poorer Paris suburbs is never far away. France also suffered some horrendous high casualty terrorist attacks in the recent past too : the Bataclan concert hall attack in Nov 2015 came after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in January the same year. Then the horrific 2016 Nice, truck attack. I’m not saying France is a volatile Islamic hotbed, but authorities fear if they allowed marches like the huge marches we’ve seen in London, they’d be hijacked by extremists or other protesters eg. Yellow vests and turn v.violent.
Germany have other concerns related to perceived antisemitism. But in Germany too, they are nervous about Islamic extremists radicalising others. The UK, Londoners and the Met should all be proud of the fact we can hold such large, impassioned protests, peacefully, without such concerns.
N.B. All three have long supported apartheid, smeared its opponents and are currently abetting the mass starvation and relentless slaughter of women and children.
” but authorities fear if they allowed marches like the huge marches we’ve seen in London, they’d be hijacked by extremists or other protesters eg. Yellow vests and turn v.violent. ”
Maybe.
But I’d point out that the two instances I offered have nothing to do with large (and possibly violent) marches and demonstrations) – the point I was trying to bring across was that the French government is trying to shut down free debate.
Since you raised the question of violence, though, I’d remind you that the préfets (these are Paris’s strongmen, they keep an eye on what goes on around the country) of a couple of départements have tried to ban pro-Palestinian marches but their bans were overturned by local judges.
There’s a different cultural tradition around protest to that in the UK. We here in the UK, tend to be extremely apathetic; only resorting to protest when all else fails. It’s a sad reflection on the state of UK politics, that people feel the need to keep marching for Gaza each weekend. In France, protests are typically a lot more common and there’s more solidarity / unity of purpose: esprit de corps.
The idea of 500,000 pro-Palestine protesters marching through Paris, with many other live unresolved grievance issues in play, and Macron’s not exactly popular. Authorities probably fear they could fan another revolution if they went nationwide, and I’m only half joking.
A march on Saturday, April 27th, in Hamburg, Germany, is making headlines and creating a political storm across Europe. Even Elon Musk has pounced on it.
Images & video from the event look like a scene from Raqqa, Syria c.2013-15. That it happened, at all, seems very strange indeed. German authorities have had police violently disperse even small, pro-Gaza/Palestine sit-ins across Germany. There are videos of the brutality, in one a young German woman has her head slammed, and various other videos show knees and faces being tested. German thugs wearing uniforms seem to have the green light to use disproportionate force when policing incidents.
On the Islamist Hamburg rally. I tend to agree with this post by someone who goes by the name Lord Bebo. He(?) expresses scepticism about the march, at which speakers demanded a German caliphate under Sharia law: https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1784322428539183604
A march for the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in Germany took place in Hamburg today.
1) The police is not beating down this demonstration. Why?
-> Because they can use this to discredit the Palestine protests as Islamists
2) ISIS pops up again when the west needs it’
As others have pointed out. It’s strange how ISIS have never taken action against Israel. In fact, they seem to be a thorn in the side of all Israel’s enemies.
ICJ rulings now apparently are turning into a cynical game:
Our beloved German SoS intends to bring to the UN GA a case to condemn Srebrenica officially as genocide, together with the state of Rwanda.
What is behind this? diversion? Trying to increase pressure on the current Serbian government?
I haven´t looked behind this scheme yet.
For sure it has nothing to do with the people killed in 1995.
And the most obvious question is, why are the 8000 a case of genocide but not the 34.000 now (or where are we now? 40.000…)
Nobody forces them to do this. These people are sick and sickening cynical, hypocritical bastards.
I am lacking the vocabulary. (may be “cunts” would be appropriate but I assume native speakers would not want me to use it, so I don´t…)
(p.s. when I was in high school in the US many decades ago, whenever I mentioned the German philosopher Immanuel Kant I caused quite some laughter. Frankly in the beginning I didn´t know why. Nobody had told me.)
AG I take it you know the “Philosopher’s Song” written by Eric Idle of Monty Python fame.
“Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.
David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel,
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.
There’s nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach ya
‘Bout the raising of the wrist.
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
Plato, they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
Hobbes was fond of his dram,
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart:
“I drink, therefore I am”
Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he’s pissed“
There’s “name-dropping” and then there’s “NAME-DROPPING” lol
Sounds like Erdoğan’s fingerprints all over it: Hosts the flotilla but won’t flag the ships. Good optics and no accountability.
The huge flow of armaments into Israel is allowing the country to continue daily shipments of arms to Baku, Azerbaijan. Recently, a corridor between Türkiye and Azerbaijan passing through Armenia was proposed by the Azerbaijani strongman, Aliyev who is demanding concessions from Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s banjaxed leader.
The talk of a Turkic-speaking block/empire has been getting louder of late – stretched as it would be betwixt Russia and Iran. Pashinyan is an “integrationist” – meaning he can find arguments why Azerbaijan should have their corridor, though I am not sure the Armenian people are buying his arguments.
Türkiye and Azerbaijan are allies, Azerbaijan and Israel are allies. Israel is packing Azerbaijan with weapons. Is this Erdogan getting his reward – business as usual and no political or diplomatic support for the Palestinians? Just empty words to soothe his base?
If a “Greater Türkiye” was established in the north, would it mirror “Greater Israel” in the south? The Gulf States wouldn’t last long and NATO and America would be firmly established in West Asia. A West Asian carve-up between Türkiye, America and Israel would seem possible.
Phrase of the day to watch: Exceptionally generous offer by Israel.
This is the go-to phrase we will hear again and again, that everyone agrees that Israel has offered an amazingly generous deal. All Hamas has to do is give up all it has to bargain with (the remaining hostages that somehow survived the IDF bombardment and starvation plan, and obviously forget about the many, many thousands of Palestinian hostages Israel has tortured and brutally mistreated for decades), and they will have a 40 day ‘reprieve’ in which Palestinians can continue to starve, until the bombing resumes prior to a complete invasion.
The generosity of Official Allies – most particularly Israel – is overwhelming, we are surely churlish not to be in awe of their wondrous humanity in the face of intolerable threat, unprovoked assault and completely unwarranted criticism.
Yeah, such an obvious psy-op. going on in the media now and it is so obvious what is going to happen next: palestinians will reject this “generous” offer > Israel will justify Rafah invasion > Palestinian deaths in Rafah will be blamed on palestinians themselves because they rejected this “generous” offer. Sigh.
Beware [suitable derogatory term] bearing gifts …
apparently German SoS Baerbock expressed concern to her Israeli colleague over the ICJ case which could make her a war criminal theoretically.
That´s sort of funny considering the stuff Baerbock was putting up online 15 years ago on the GREEN-party website and the image she then was projecting: girl with glasses and long black hair (because that was the fashion among German movie stars)
As the ICJ is concerned there is 1 (O-N-E) German parliamentarian present, Sevim Dagdelen.
The Germans appear to argue in a less warmongering fashion in front of the court.
But I have had no time yet to look into the case presentations more closely.
Same attitude in the US towards the ICC now:
US Congress threatens ICC with retaliation over arrest warrants for Israeli officials
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/04/30/724635/US-Congress-retaliates-against-ICC-over-arrest-warrants-against-Israeli-officials
That is the rules-based west alright.
Russia says United States is being hypocritical over ICC and Israel
https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-says-united-states-is-being-hypocritical-over-icc-israel-2024-04-30/
How could the US be so brazenly hypocritical? They are so morally corrupt.
The Invasion of the Hague Act (2002) will likely be extended to cover the entire axis of genocide. (Greeted with as much outrage by journalists as the original law was).
such people, like the Nazis, like the various colonial empires and the empires of the ancient times, only understand the use of force.
Only if you intimidate them do they listen.
This is the only lesson any government can draw from this sickly hypocritical corrupt pack of liars.
If they had no nuclear weapons that would protect them they would have long shut up.
And on the public level they are being seconded by delusional racist intellectuals who are incapable of abandoning their closely guarded “gardens” of elitist thought and look beyond those philosophical “principles” of their hollow concepts.
Jack
It’s doubly hypocritical, farcical even, because the same people were praising the I.C.C and defending its independence, when it went after Putin.
Does Mike Johnson et al, have a short memory, or just think everyone is stupid?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-uk-troops-aid-sea-b2535788.html
Covered quite widely. Apparently Whitehall is considering sending British Troops to deliver much needed aid to Gaza along some kind of prefabricated floating causeway. I also believe that the US has already declined the opportunity to contribute to this humanitarian mission. It will be interesting to see just what happens if /when the IDF open fire on these valiant tommies. Perhaps we’ll ask Netanyahoo to investigate.
The purpose of the ’causeway’, from what I understand, is not to bring in aid but to concentrate the remaining gazans into one area so that the zionist pigs can use a creeping artillery barrage to drive them onto an ‘international aid flotilla’ and transport them to safety in ‘concentrated camps’ in the Sinai desert.
since it might get lost over the ongoing shocks concerning Gaza, I have posted 3 good pieces about Western influence on public opinion and news media in Ukraine and Georgia.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/ukraine-date-nov-2023/page/10/#post-96457