Murder 409


Al Jazeera are leading their news with the execution of Palestinian civilians, including women and toddlers, inside the school in Jabalia where they were sheltering. They were all shot at point blank range, with no signs of a bomb or missile strike.

On the BBC, the Daily Politics show – which consists of discussion between senior British MPs – does not discuss Palestine at all, because the British political class supports the genocide, so for them there is nothing to discuss.

Also in Jabalia, the Israelis today destroyed the last remaining bakery.

It is worth stating why this is plainly a genocide in Gaza:

1) Deliberate destruction of the infrastructure which supports the civilian population, including water treatment, electricity, sewerage systems, bakeries and fishing boats;

2) Deliberate destruction of almost all medical facilities;

3) Deliberate destruction of educational facilities, from universities to primary schools;

4) Deliberate destruction of the infrastructure of civil society, including Supreme Court, Parliament, Ministries and Council buildings and deliberate destruction of administrative records;

5) Deliberate blocking of food aid inducing mass starvation;

6) Massive and indiscriminate bombardment. In wars the general percentage of children among those killed varies from 6 to 8%. In Ukraine it is 6%. In Gaza it is 42%. This is indiscriminate destruction of an ethnic group;

7) Mass executions of civilians;

8) Acts of dehumanisation of the Palestinians, including parading prisoners naked for public and media show and humiliation, beating and sexually abusing them;

9) Forced mass movement of population;

10) Deliberate targeting of religious and cultural heritage buildings;

11) Deliberate targeting of intellectual leadership, including journalists, doctors, poets, university lecturers and senior administrators;

12) Numerous declarations of open genocidal intent from the President and Prime Minister down through almost the entire fabric of both civilian and military establishment.

This is the official definition of Genocide in international law, from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:

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

Yesterday I attended a session called by Palestine at the United Nations in Geneva. Over 120 states attended. While the formal session consisted of statements of national position with few surprises, I was able to discuss with a large number of delegates in the corridors why the Genocide Convention has not been activated triggering a reference to the International Court of Justice.

The answer is now clear to me. It is not that people are worried that a claim of genocide will not be successful at the International Court of Justice. It is that everybody is quite sure it will succeed. There is no respectable argument that this is not a genocide in the terms outlined above.

The problem is that once the ICJ has determined that this is a genocide, it follows that not only are Netanyahu and hundreds of senior Israeli officials and military personally liable, but it is absolutely plain that “Genocide Joe” Biden, Sunak and members of their administrations are also criminally liable for complicity, having provided military support for the genocide.

The International Criminal Court cannot ignore a judgment of genocide from the International Court of Justice and will have no choice but to issue arrest warrants.

A genocide is the worst of crimes. Just how appalling this one is has been shown to the world like never before, through the power of social media.

But to the global 1% whose interests rule the world, no number of dead Palestinians makes any real difference to their interests. On the other hand, the ramifications for the international system of wealth concentration, if western political elites start to be held accountable for their crimes, are uncertain and therefore carry more risk. This is particularly the concern of ruling classes of both Western and Arab states.

It may sound astonishing, but to the world’s diplomats the enormity of a genocide appears less troubling than the enormity of doing something about it.

 
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409 thoughts on “Murder

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  • Allan Howard

    As I have recounted previously, on the 3rd of December – two days after the truce ended and Israel resumed its bombing of Gaza – the Sunday Times ran a story in which a guy said that whilst hiding under a stage at the music festival he witnessed 8/10 Hamas fighters rape a woman – who he described as beautiful with the face of an angel – then shoot her in the head and kill her, and then cut off one of her breasts and ‘play with it in the street’. And as I said in my post, it was the first time I’d heard of this.

    So anyway, I just came across a Mondoweiss article (from December 1st) that someone posted a link to in a comment on JVLs website recently, and the article was about a report CNN aired on November 18th entitled ‘ISRAELI POLICE INVESTIGATE CLAIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE ON OCTOBER 7’, and begins as follows:

    CNN report claiming sexual violence on October 7 relied on non-credible witnesses, some with undisclosed ties to Israeli govt

    CNN’s Jake Tapper failed to adhere to professional and ethical journalism standards in a story claiming to offer proof of sexual violence by Palestinian

    On November 18, 2023, CNN aired a report by journalist Jake Tapper. The report claims to provide testimonies on “rape crimes” against Israeli women that allegedly took place on October 7, 2023. Within a few hours of the publication of the CNN report, an international media campaign by Israel and pro-Israeli groups was launched. Other media outlets, including The Washington Post, based their reporting on CNN’s report. Feminist activists and groups who have been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza were also targeted as part of this campaign…..

    And later in the article it says this:

    The CNN report then continues, “On Tuesday, the police held a press briefing in which a witness said…” then the reporter moves to read a written quote shown on the screen. The quote suggests that the witness- a woman with no further information about her at all- saw while hiding with another paramedic that “They bent someone over and I understood he was raping her and then he was passing her on to someone else (…) I saw him chop off her breast and then he was throwing it towards the road, and they started playing with it.”

    Hmm, so I wonder where THIS particular witness was hiding?! It then says this in the article (but doesn’t elaborate as to how they learnt this): She was accompanied by a paramedic who said he didn’t see what she mentioned. Hmm, that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever! I mean if you were hiding somewhere with someone else, then how could THEY possibly not see it as well. Or in a scenario where she peeps out from where the two of them are hiding and sees this happening, not tell the other person that it is, and they then peep out (where SHE was peeping out) and see it for themselves.

    And I can’t get my head round the police holding a press briefing on the Tuesday (the 14th), and then CNN air their report on the 18th, and only THEN – as it says in the article – a few hours after it was broadcasr, ‘an international media campaign by Israel and pro-Israeli groups was launched’. Surely such a media campaign would have been launched within hours of the police press briefing!

    https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/cnn-report-claiming-sexual-violence-on-october-7-relied-on-non-credible-witnesses-some-with-undisclosed-ties-to-israeli-govt/

    • Allan Howard

      Afterthought: And what a totally weird way to phrase it – ie that she ‘understood’ that the guy who bent her over was raping her! It’s too absurd!! Could it be that she actually MISunderstood that he was raping her?!

      • Mr Mark Cutts

        Hmm….

        If you look carefully at the pictures of the cars in the aftermath of the Music Festival you can see many vehicles smashed up and a lot are not just black with fire damage but exhibit a brown rust.

        To me that is unusual damage and I’m not sure that Hamas have (or had) the ability to do that much damage to that many cars. Bullet holes, yes – and maybe RPG weapons – but not that quality of military hardware.

        Some of the roofs of the cars are caved in as if a tank ran over them – an explosion would blow the roof off not cave it in.

        The interesting clues are the burnt and charred bodies, and the call for DNA of the families of the potential people who were killed. That is very serious damage to a body if you require the use of DNA for recognition, and yet again it suggests that whatever armoury hit those cars and the people who were killed, this was not from weaponry that Hamas had.

        The last time I saw the alleged amount of damage to a body so bad that you would need DNA evidence was in The Iraq War with Depleted Uranium fired from US helicopter Gunships. If so, the Gunships got there fast – but how did the tank (or some heavily armoured vehicle?) get there so fast?

        By the way, I read that The Israeli government is planning on shredding all these vehicles that were on the road and destroyed, and are going to bury them somewhere. Why would you want to destroy the evidence when you want Hamas to be tried for War Crimes?

        • Pears Morgaine

          This constant drive to get Hamas off the hook is really pathetic.

          A video of the damaged cars, footage at 2’33” might explain the damage and a burnt out car will turn to brown rust very quickly. The heat accelerates the process.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNl9UWArPBE

          Badly burnt bodies, ie anyone inside a car who got burned to death when the vehicle was torched, may well have to be identified by DNA.

          https://www.cnc3.co.tt/cops-need-dna-test-to-id-body-found-in-burnt-car/

          Awaiting the predictable ‘Ah yes but that’s different because….’

          • Allan Howard

            Get Hamas off the hook?! So attempting to figure out what actually happened is now tantamount to trying to get Hamas off the hook! I guess you must have missed it, but the reason Israel revised the number of Israelis killed on October 7th from 1,400 down to 1,200 about six weeks ago is because two hundred of those killed turned out to be Hamas fighters who had been burnt beyond recognition and were identified by their DNA. Apart from which the IDF have admitted that many Israelis were killed by ‘friendly fire’ that day. And that’s just for starters:

            Israel admits to “immense” amount of “friendly fire” on 7 October

            https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-admits-immense-amount-friendly-fire-7-october

            And if Israel can fabricate and concoct stories about forty babies being beheaded by Hamas, which they DID, then they are capable of lying and distorting and inventing anything – as they have been, going back seventy-five years or more, including the massive big black lie that Palestine was ‘a land without people for a people without a land’, air-brushing Palestine and its long history out of existence. And lies don’t come much bigger than that! And I’m sure you’re aware that Egypt warned Israel on a number of occasions in the months before the attack on October 7th that Something Big was imminent. And Israeli spotters on the border of Gaza had repeatedly told their superior officers that Hamas were up to all sorts of things close to the border during the months prior to the attack:

            The women soldiers who warned of a pending Hamas attack – and were Ignored

            https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/israeli-women-soldiers-warnings-were-ignored/

          • Greg Park

            Awaiting condemnation of any Israeli lies or those of its enablers. “Ah, but they are the goodies so their lies are acceptable..”

          • Mr Mark Cutts

            Torched? That suggests setting the cars on fire.

            So whilst Hamas were rounding up hostages in a hurry, they had the time to grab a few gallons of petrol and ‘Torch’ the cars and the people they had killed within the cars?

            Get to 3.51 on the video and count the utterly wrecked cars – at least 100 plus totally wrecked cars. Not by machine guns on the back of a Hamas vehicle – not by RPG’s.

            Nearly all of the rooves are crushed inwards. The cleaner ones may possibly contain the victims of shooting and no DNA evidence will need to be required, but the 100 plus cars were not victims of that, but something much more deadly from the air. These are the victims DNA was required from their families.

            That much damage from the ground? Hamas do not have helicopters or planes.

            I’m afraid your ‘evidence’ only proves my point. It does not undermine it – it supports it.

            How would Hamas be capable of doing that?

            p.s. Ask yourself why so many passenger aircraft are parked up in The Nevada Desert for future use and come back with your answer re: how rust forms.

          • will moon

            “Awaiting condemnation of any Israeli lies or those of its enablers”

            Greg Park, should not these liars be charged with terrorism or hate crime? The death and destruction that has resulted from these lies is quantifiable.and public and of course deliberate. Enabling this stuff is criminal.

            If you publish material of such emotional intensity without verification, which results in harm to others, should you not be prosecuted?

          • Peter Mo

            Excellent contribution from Allan Howard.
            I hope world leaders can think constructively. The new UN resolution says “conditions for a ceasefire”
            Surely if it is obvious to so many credible authorities that Israel is committing war crimes then that is a condition for ceasefire.

    • Greg Park

      David Lammy’s lie was more extreme than anything you mention. Think about why he made it up. He will be British Foreign Secretary next year.

  • Allan Howard

    Something just this minute occurred to me…. So what we know is that initially Israel said that 1,400 Israelis were killed on Oct 7th, and then four or five weeks later revised it down to 1,200, and shortly afterwards down to 1,147. And yet at some point (I can’t be bothered to check it out, but it was either a week before, or a week after they revised the overall figure down to 1,200), the number of people killed at the music festival went up by about ninety from 280 to 360-something. The point is that this additional ninety or so was never at any point added to the overall figure, so they managed to make it vanish into thin air, because it should of course have been added to the overall figure, but it wasn’t. And the only reason I can think of for them doing that is because they exaggerated the number of people killed at the outset, and then using smoke and mirrors managed to disappear ninety or so. .

    • Allan Howard

      I just this minute went on to Skwawkbox to look up a recent article, and found that their most recent article was this:

      Exclusive: Greenstein arrested by anti-terror cops – for one tweet

      In the 15 November post, Greenstein – responding to yet another right-wing attack on Black Jewish activist Jackie Walker – told the person baiting Walker that he supported Palestinians and preferred Hamas to the occupying Israeli army that is perpetrating genocide in Gaza:

      Police arrived at Greenstein’s home at around 7am this morning, seized his phone and laptop and held him for around nine hours. His electronics were not returned on his release.

      Greenstein was released around 4pm and has not, as yet, been charged with any crime…..

      https://skwawkbox.org/2023/12/20/exclusive-greenstein-arrested-by-anti-terror-cops-for-one-tweet/

      He may already be on his way to Switzerland Craig.

      • will moon

        “should the Bible and Koran be fairly exempt?”

        These religious texts were written millennia ago, you should not forget this. Most people in the modern world think a bit differently nowadays – most. but not all.

        Consider the racist writings of some of the current crop of rabbis, like Yitzak Ginsberg and his vile witterings in the Kings Torah, discussing the religiously acceptable murder of non-Jews

        “There is justification for killing babies, if it is clear they will grow up to harm us”

        Hitler and Himmler had several conversations, preserved for posterity, where they discussed the killing of “enemy” children. They came to the same conclusion as the disgusting Ginsberg. This inhuman creep received a prize from the Israeli education minister for supplying his wisdom to the Israeli military. How this ignorant racist is able to see the future, when he is mere peddler of religious race-hate , I cannot imagine – perhaps he uses a crystal ball or reads tea leaves?

    • Feliks

      The people attending the music festival would predominantly have been of the same age as IDF members. So, perhaps you have uncovered an attempt to downplay non-civilian victims.

  • Willie

    Here is an extract from Wikipedia about how the Israeli company Keter that makes plastic resin sheds and garden furniture set up its plastics manufacturing facility illegally in the Palestinian West Bank.

    The extract explains how highly polluting companies set up in the Palestinian industrial settlement called Barkan and it is a concerning read.

    ” It is reported that many highly polluting factories from Israel moved into settlement industrial zones like Barkan to profit from the relative lack of environmental regulations there.

    In 1998 Barkan factories generated an estimated 810,000 cubic meters of industrial wastewater, which flowed untreated from the three storage tanks, after a design defect made them nonoperational when overloaded, into a nearby wadi into the agricultural lands of the Palestinian villages of Sarta, Kafr ad-Dik and Bruqin, and reportedly polluting the groundwater with heavy metals] According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health roughly 70% of cancers among Palestinians in the contiguous Salfit Governorate occur among people living near the industrial park and exposed to the waste overflow. ”

    As one of the biggest suppliers of plastic sheds in the UK selling their products through the major retailers, a couple of years ago I bought two garden storage benches. For the price paid I didn’t consider the quality very good after the self-construction interlock of the flat pack proved not very good.

    However, now that I have found out that Keter moved their plastic manufacturing to a Palestinian manufacturing settlement where local cancers are through the roof and where untreated industrial waste water is discharged into streams and wadis I have doubly resolved not to buy any Keter product ever again.

    But problem is you don’t see on any of the packaging information about Keter products being made in Israel.

    Were that clear, and the circumstances of manufacture clear, many many consumers would reconsider their product selection choice.

    • nevermind

      So what plastics are Keter manufacturing? Car parts? Toothbrushes? PPE equipment? Soft or hard plastics?, give us an idea What you will never buy again Willie, so we know what to BDS.
      thanks in advance.

    • will moon

      Willie there was commentator here recently who spoke of a phone app which is used to identify Israeli products. I think you feed the barcode into the app. My memory is no clearer than this, I guess if you look at some BDS sites you might find it. I think the barcode contains the origin of the product.

      I didn’t know about Israeli plastic garden accessories and I have built many of these things. I have never even noticed the origin of them – just automatically assuming they came from China. I will pay more attention in the future.

  • DunGroanin

    What makes IDF so berserk that they mindlessly kill anyone including their own citizens ?
    It turns out the commander who shot the 3 shirtless unarmed Israelis – also previously shot 4 unarmed shirtless Israelis , still they carry on shooting civilians , even in churches. As confirmed by U.K. bishop.

    ‘@MyLordBebo
    10h
    🇵🇸🇮🇱‼️🚨 CRAZY: An Israeli company commander wants to kill every man in Gaza and kidnapp every woman and child to restore ‘the honor’ of Israel ‘
    https://nitter.net/MyLordBebo/status/1737609120662880515#m

    & how they have been primed to do just that level of mindless violence – every single mf one of these needs to be hauled into prison for life.

    ‘@MyLordBebo
    Dec 19
    🇮🇱‼️🚨 INSANE: “Being the slave of a Jew is the best!”
    — Israeli military academy teachings, by David Sheen
    Must watch, pretty crazy stuff. ‘
    https://nitter.net/MyLordBebo/status/1737255275164254644#m

    There is no way anyone can support the illegal apartheid entity in the Levant which has had such xenophobic, self-declared superiors-of-all-mankind ‘European’ invaders landed upon it. Not if that is support of the belief that the rest are of us are just their willing slaves as taught to the insane commanders and children of that illegal state.–>

    • will moon

      Gosh DunGroanin – that is a whole lot of hate. Unbelievable – we are allied with these murderous freaks!

      I didn’t know David Sheen but now I do I will look up more of his work. Thanks

      • Tom Welsh

        Well, will, actually *we* are not allied with those murderous freaks. The bunch of lying crooks who are posing at HMG are allied with them. Murderous freaks stick together.

  • harry law

    Sanaa has reportedly fired at least 100 drones toward Israeli-linked commercial vessels for the past month in support of the Palestinian people. US estimates place the cost of the domestic-made drones at $2,000 each. In comparison, each munition used by US warships in the Red Sea cost between $1 million and $4.3 million. The US navy has reportedly shot down at least 38 of the drones fired by Yemen. Mick Mulroy, a former US defense official and CIA officer, told POLITICO. “We, the US, need to start looking at systems that can defeat these that are more in line with the costs they are expending to attack us.”
    .https://new.thecradle.co/articles-id/16050
    I have heard this before in Iraq, then the US armoured vehicles and tanks were being decimated by a phenomenon called the explosively formed projectile [EFP] is a special type of shaped charge designed to penetrate armor effectively, from a much greater standoff range than standard shaped charges, these devices are very simple to make and consist of a piece of scrap pipe filled with high explosives with a concave copper disc at one end of the pipe, this propels the disc at approx 3,000 feet per second. this device placed at the side of the road in urban areas disguised as some road feature or in the desert as a rock or such like, when a US convoy came along the EFP was set off using a cell phone, garage door opening device or some other electonic means, the resulting explosion sent a stream of dutile metal forming an explosively formed projectiles (EFP), also known as self-forging fragments (SFF). penatrating completely through the tank from front to rear, the unfortunate occupants were called crispy critters. The EFP is unstoppable the US lost many soldiers and armoured vehicles.
    Something had to be done, the Defence Dept asked for the help of Universities, scientists at defence establishments etc. this combined effort costing god knows how much produced a truck bristling with electronic devices and antenni to lead the convoy, it worked for a short time, EFP’s were detonated prematurely or communications were disrupted, job done thought the military. A short time later the attacks started up again, why, the insurgents started using a lenght of string to physically detonate the device. Game over.
    The Houthis are resourcful fighters, just like Hezbollah there can only be one winner in the quest to drive the Empire from the Middle East.

    • harry law

      The focus of American concern is known as an “explosively formed penetrator,” a particularly deadly type of roadside bomb being used by Shiite groups in attacks on American troops in Iraq. Attacks using the device have doubled in the past year, and have prompted increasing concern among military officers. In the last three months of 2006, attacks using the weapons accounted for a significant portion of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/world/middleeast/10weapons.html
      As you might expect the US wrongly blamed Iran for this EFP device, then US soldiers raided workshops in Iraq and discovered piles of machined copper discs used to make the devices; when asked to explain this, the Iraqis said they have been producing metalwork a lot more complicated than this, since they have been servicing the Iraqi oil industry for decades.

  • harry law

    Sorry my link to the NYT is behind a paywall, below is a summary of the deadly consequences of the EFP in this NYT blog post
    “The single most lethal weapon American forces faced in Iraq was the explosively formed penetrator, or E.F.P
    What makes E.F.P.’s so deadly is that they form “slugs” at detonation that maintain their shape over distances of over 100 yards or more, traveling at speeds of nearly a mile per second. This allowed insurgent forces to hide these weapons far from the road, better camouflaging them and making them far more deadly. In some I.E.D. factories, American forces found E.F.P.’s camouflaged to look like trash or rocks.

    Much has been made of E.F.P.’s generally being “new Iranian weapons,” but that conflates two unrelated facts. First, E.F.P.’s technology was invented in the late 1930s by the oil industry to punch holes through the metal pipe in wells and into the rock outside. These are called oil well perforators or perforator guns. Any country engaged in oil field development has access to E.F.P.’s. Iran lists their domestically produced perforators for sale online. Second, militaries applied this technology to anti-armor weapons as early as World War II. (The United States military currently employs several weapons incorporating E.F.P. warheads, to include the M2 SLAM, the TOW-2B, and the M303 SOF Demolition Kit.)

    But they became known as Iranian weapons because American intelligence agencies reported that Iran passed E.F.P. technology to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which in turn passed E.F.P. kits to proxy groups fighting in Iraq. In the case of the Iraqi insurgent weapons, E.F.P.s arrived in kit form, and were hand-packed with plastic explosives by bomb makers in Iraq just before use.
    https://archive.nytimes.com/atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/the-most-lethal-weapon-americans-faced-in-iraq/

  • Jack

    Quite a difference how social media approach this war, remember in the Ukraine war, social media companies announced publicly that they would accept posts, tweets that called for death against ‘russian invaders’
    Facebook and Instagram let users call for death to Russian soldiers over Ukraine
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/11/facebook-and-instagram-let-users-call-for-death-to-russian-soldiers-over-ukraine

    Meanwhile, social media have not announced that they accept posts that call for violence against ‘israeli invaders’ – matter of fact I sent a tweet to Netanyahu official account the other day regarding what a disgraceful person he is and that he should kill himself – for this I got banned for 24 hours – does anyone believe that if I tweeted to Putin account (not sure if he have one but for arguments sake) that he should go kill himself that social media companies would ban me for that? Of course not.
    Human Rights Watch came out with a report the other day that Facebook censoring pro-palestinian voices.

    HRW: Meta: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content
    Overhaul Flawed Policies; Improve Transparency
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/11/facebook-and-instagram-let-users-call-for-death-to-russian-soldiers-over-ukraine

    Remember also how former(?) israeli intelligence agents work at these social media companies.
    https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1716144144685445193
    Again, just imagine if these were former russian intelligence agents, they would of course never be allowed to work anywhere near these companies.

  • uwontbegrinningsoon

    So, Israel is struggling to justify murdering thousands of children in Gaza. World opinion is against them. They need some evil, easily influenced Muslim to commit an atrocity in Europe, USA etc. Get the public in Europe back on their side. Create a common enemy etc etc, Anyone know what the background of the Loony who has massacred at least 15 students in the Czech republic!!

  • harry law

    Nikki Haley Tries To Tie Putin To Israel Attackers, Says Gazans Should Be Resettled In ‘Pro-Hamas Countries’
    “Hamas invaded Israel on October 7th, October 7th is Putin’s birthday,” Haley told a crowd of supporters. Meanwhile Vivek Ramaswamy said Nikki Haley is now psychotically claiming that Putin’s birthday is on Oct 7 & that’s somehow related to Hamas’ attack on Israel.
    You can see the $$ signs flashing in her eyes. She needs to publish her tax returns & clients of her defense contractor – now.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nikki-haley-gazans-should-be-resettled-pro-hamas-countries-qatar-iran-turkey
    This Neocon fool makes a truism of the phrase attributed to H L Mencken “nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people”


    [ Mod: This type of news announcement should be posted in the !! Breaking News (Gaza) !! thread in the discussion forum, as it isn’t commenting on Craig’s article or engaging in an ongoing conversation. ]

  • Jack

    Türkiye has been a disappointment throughout this massacre, but, as usual, Erdoğan is big on words but is nowhere to be seen when it comes to actually do something of practice against Israel: taking measures that would actually have real impact.

    Failure to stop Israeli attacks on Gaza a shame for humanity: Erdoğan
    “I hope that 2024 will be the year when the oppressors receive punishment they deserve, and the wounds of the oppressed are healed,” Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says.
    https://www.trtworld.com/turkiye/failure-to-stop-israeli-attacks-on-gaza-a-shame-for-humanity-erdogan-16318963

    Sure, it is a “shame of humanity” but since Türkiye is part of this “humanity” Erdoğan is speaking of, why are not Türkiye doing something themselves? 20000 muslims have been massacred in Gaza and Erdoğan did not even have the courage to kick the israeli ambassador/diplomats…..out as he did earlier, with Syria:

    2012: Turkish premier confirms expulsion of Syrian diplomats
    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan confirmed Turkey was expelling Syrian chargé d’affaires and all other personnel with the Syrian Embassy

    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/turkish-premier-confirms-expulsion-of-syrian-diplomats/364777

    The arab/turkish/islamic world seems to be focused only on sectarian shia/sunni infighting/policies so much that they turn a blind eye to what Israel or the west do in the region.

    • GreatedApe

      Apparently Hamas have an office in Istanbul, where the leader of Hamas may have been on Oct 7th before going to Qatar. What did Erdogan know about the planned attacks?

      In his attempted renewal of an Ottoman empire, what’s his definition of terrorism because he’s previously talked about widening it?

      I’m curious that he said “Israel’s attacks on Gaza, for both itself and those supporting them, amount to murder and mental illness.”

      I wonder how they use that accusation inside Turkey, where since Atatürk they’ve removed virtually any educational reference to what humans actually are from evolution, and have in fact tried to teach a lie that Darwin was Jewish. There’s also “accusations against Darwin for stoking anti-Turkish sentiment within Europe which resulted in the demise of the Ottoman Empire.”

      • Aguirre

        A curious post, Greated Ape.

        1° The leader of Hamas “may have been” in Ankara on 7th October. On what basis are you raising that thought?

        2° “What did Erdogan know”? Are you suggesting he might have known something, and if so, what is the basis for your thought?

        3° “Attempted renewal of an Ottoman Empire” : could you set out what Erdogan has actually done to meet that alleged objective?

        4° What precisely is the connection between what you say in your third and final paragraphs? You seem to be establishing a connection between murder and mental illness and opposition to Darwinism. Could you tease out that assumed link in some detail?

        I hope your explanations will help rid me of the thought that your post was triple-distilled horse manure.

        Thank you.

  • Republicofscotland

    This wouldn’t surprise me one little bit if it is happening, I put nothing past the USA.

    “US diplomats are trying to persuade Switzerland – the custodians of the Geneva Conventions governing the rules of conduct during war, with the ability to decide when meetings are held to discuss non-compliance – to set aside the application of the Conventions to Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, according to documents seen by the HuffPost US.”

  • ET

    I mentioned Reza Nasri and his contention that there are legal arguments for the UN security council and the general assembly to condemn and not recognise the USA veto. Apologies to mods for the long cut and paste but I can’t express as succinctly as he has in his tweet and it ties in with CM making arguments for peace in Geneva.
    https://nitter.net/RezaNasri1/status/1737924762205057170#m

    “A US veto at the UNSC that prevents the adoption of a ceasefire resolution would also prevent member-states of the UN – and the UN itself – from fulfilling important obligations they have under other international legal instruments, including the Charter and the 1948 Genocide Convention.

    At least, 153 member-states of the UN have specific treaty obligations under the Genocide Convention which include the obligation to “prevent” genocide! A US veto at the UNSC evidently obstructs them from fulfilling that obligation.

    Furthermore, as stated by the ICJ in its 2004 “Wall” Advisory opinion: “ALL states parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention […] have in addition the obligation, while respecting the United Nations Charter and international law, to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention.”

    A US veto at the UNSC obviously obstructs them from fulfilling that precise obligation as well.

    Moreover, a US veto at the UNSC also prevents the United Nations itself – as an independent subject of international law – from fulfilling its own legal obligations, which include upholding the fundamental norms of international law and the “Purposes and Principles” of the Charter.

    These obligations involve subordinating its organs, namely the Security Council, to the norms of jus cogens; To the provisions of Article 24(2) of the Charter [which require that in discharging its duties the Security Council shall act in accordance with the “Purposes and Principles” of the United Nations]; And to the provisions of fundamental treaties such as the Genocide Convention and IHL instruments.

    In addition, a US veto at the Security Council also engages the United States’ own responsibility as enshrined in Article 16 of the ILC’s “Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts” which states:

    “A State which aids or assists another State in the commission of an internationally wrongful act by the latter is internationally responsible for doing so if…that State does so with knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act; and the act would be internationally wrongful if committed by that State”.

    So there is ample ground for member-states of the UN to adopt a resolution at the General Assembly – which would include the points stated above – in condemnation and non-recognition of US vetoes against SC ceasefire resolutions. ”

    Given the USA has again stymied a resolution for a ceasefire perhaps it’s an option to move forwards.

  • Melrose

    REDRUM
    REDRUM

    Sometimes, things are not what they look like.
    Fortunately, the time difference between Geneva and Edinburgh is only one hour.
    Time for the Emperors to go to sleep though

  • Republicofscotland

    The SG of the UN had this to say, yet Guterres still can’t say in public who killed them, but we all know it was the Zionists who are committing war crimes on their way to completing their genocide of the oppressed Palestinian people.

    “136 of our colleagues in Gaza have been killed in 75 days – something we have never seen in @UN history.

    Most of our staff have been forced from their homes.

    I pay tribute to them & the thousands of aid workers risking their lives as they support civilians in Gaza.”

    https://nitter.net/antonioguterres/status/1738364044979896821#m

  • Jack

    The most absurd in this murder-fest-spree by Israel is this:
    @DrGaborMate
    on Israel: “It’s unusual to see an example in history where the perpetrator succeeds in portraying themselves as the victims.”
    Video: https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1738260052639719473

    It is mind-blowing that in 2023 with all the information technology, smartphones everywhere and live reporting of warcrimes and where the perpetrator even brags about commiting them yet the same perpetrator is able to successfully paint itself as the helpless victim of the story.

    • zoot

      successful only because of the connivance of western politicians and journalists. they are trying to impose collective insanity on their populations, wanting them outraged by chants against Israel not by thousands of children being blown up.

    • Tom Welsh

      Much to my regret I never learned to draw cartoons. But I submit this (far from original) theme:

      A huge jackboot smashing down on a heap of crushed, bleeding bodies. One victim has managed to get his mouth high enough to make a last dying bite at the boot’s heel. From far above comes a voice crying, “Help! Save me! They are trying to exterminate me!!”

  • Republicofscotland

    Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has created a list of forty-one Israeli military commanders that should be charged with war crimes in Gaza, the dossier containing their names has been submitted to the ICC.

    Will the ICC act, I personally doubt it.

    “Although Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, the court’s jurisdiction includes Palestine, subjecting anyone who commits war crimes there to prosecution.

    DAWN’s list includes only Israeli officers “from the rank of lieutenant-general and up who command units no smaller than battalion level forces.””

    https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/21/israeli-commanders-reported-to-icc/

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