Tag: Israel

The Genocide Occuring in Gaza is Unmasked at the International Court of Justice

This week was marked by the opening of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

Many international experts in the field of genocide studies agree — Israel is committing both genocide and ethnic cleansing against the 2.3 million Palestinian people living in Gaza.

Whereas many US news outlets covered Israel’s defense against South Africa’s charges, very few offered coverage of South Africa’s case for the prosecution. Another example of western bias when discussing Israel.

Consequently, I offer here only a portion of the case made against Israel earlier this week. It is chilling and damning.

Israel deserves to be convicted, shunned and sanctioned by the international community until it not only stops the current war, but dismantles its oppressive apartheid state.

Watch and hear some of the abundant evidence presented for yourself:

Gideon Levy: Sanctions on Israel Are the Only Hope

What happens to a society where the vast majority endorse their government’s policy of committing genocide against a subject people?

Unsurprisingly, it will demonstrate increased levels of hard-heartedness and moral corruption.

Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli journalist who provides a chilling description of how Israeli society-at-large now illustrates such corruption as the people of Gaza are exterminated.

Watch and shudder.

Max Blumenthal Asks, “What is Wrong with Israelis?”

Max Blumenthal is the chief editor and investigative journalist at The Gray Zone, an independent news outlet.

He is also the author of two excellent books related to the current war against Gaza:  Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel (2013) and The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza (2015).

Given the recent Israeli poll showing that 68% of Jewish Israelis favor the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, I am sad to say that the evidence of anti-Palestinian sentiment in this sadistic video is not surprising.

To watch the video copy the url address contained within quotation marks:

“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vKuB1su43c”

 

More than 9,000 children in Gaza have undergone amputation, in many cases without anesthesia

More than 9,000 children in Gaza have undergone amputation, in many cases without anesthesia: In the Gaza Strip, the life of any child could turn into a nightmare in the blink of an eye. Families try to keep their children safe, but this becomes harder and harder with the intense bombardments. Many houses have been destroyed, and many children ended up under the rubble. More than 9,000 children have been injured in the Gaza Strip, leaving them grappling with the loss of an arm or a leg.

Read the story of 4-year-old Ghazala, who lost a leg, here.

This harrowing story is taken from the Israel-Palestine News site at If Americans Knew (IAK). It is an excellent source for daily updates on the situation in Palestine-Israel, bringing facts and figures to Western readers that you will never see on the mainstream, corporate media.

“Watchdog Submits Evidence of Israeli Executions of Gaza Civilians”

Common Dreams has published an article by investigative journalist, Brett Wilkins laying out the many accusations against Israeli soldiers charging them with mass executions of Palestinian civilians, men, women and children.

The article is titled, Watchdog Submits Evidence of Israeli Executions of Gaza Civilians to UN, ICC. Below is an excerpt:

Euro-Med Monitor documented nine separate cases in which Israeli troops executed Palestinians—including numerous women and children—during the ongoing invasion of Gaza.

A prominent European human rights group on Monday submitted a report to the International Criminal Court and United Nations special rapporteurs documenting “dozens of cases of field executions carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.”

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based nonprofit, requested the ICC and U.N. immediately investigate “the widespread killing operations carried out by Israeli forces targeting Palestinian civilians, especially the field executions and physical liquidations in the Gaza Strip.”

In addition to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, Euro-Med Monitor sent copies of its preliminary findings to Maurice Tydball Benz, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial or arbitrary executions; Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; and Navanethem Pillay, head of the Investigative Committee on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Nearly 10 days after the Israeli army began its ground attack in the Gaza Strip on October 27, the Israeli army carried out dozens of executions and direct physical liquidations against civilians as part of its all-out military campaign that started on October 7 in retaliation for the armed attack that Palestinian factions carried out in Israeli settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip,” Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement.

The group’s report lists nine separate instances in which it says Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops executed Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Victims include multiple elderly couples shot and left to bleed to death after being forced from their homes in Gaza City last week; a mentally ill man shot in his home in the Jabalia refugee camp; six members of the al-Khaldi family shot dead during an Israeli raid on their home; and nine forcibly displaced civilians including women and children who were massacred while seeking shelter in the Shadia Abu Ghazala School near Jabalia on December 13.

“The Israeli soldiers came in and opened fire,” one unidentified witness said of the school attack. “They took all men, then entered classrooms and opened fire on a woman and all the children with her,” including “newborn children.”

“The Israeli soldiers executed those innocent families point-blank,” she added.

You can read the rest of the article here.

 

Former Israeli Sniper Explains Israel’s Rules of Engagement: Shoot Anything that Moves

A former Israeli sniper explains the circumstances in which soldiers are instructed to “shoot anything that moves.”

The recent shooting of three Jewish hostages — shirtless, waving a white flag and shouting in Hebrew — was anything but accidental or a mistake. It was the direct result of explicit rules of engagement in the Israeli army.

If Israel will flagrantly murder three of its own people in this way, just imagine how many Palestinian civilians have been gunned down under similar circumstances.

The murder of these three hostages illustrates the moral bankruptcy of Israel’s claims to having “the most moral army in the world.” Moral armies don’t teach 18 to 20 year olds to “shoot anything that moves,” no matter the circumstances.

Bethlehem Churches Live Out the Biblical Tradition of Lament in War Time

I am privileged to count both the Rev. Drs. Mitri Raheb and Munther Isaac among my friends. You will meet them in this video from Democracy Now.

Together with the other Christian leaders of Bethlehem, they are speaking prophetically to the rest of the world as public celebrations have been cancelled in Bethlehem this Christmas.

Oh, they are not neglecting the wonder of Jesus’ birth. But they are grappling with the contexual realities of remembering Jesus’ birth while also suffering brutal Israeli attacks in both Gaza and the West Bank.

Thus, they haver turned to the Old Testament tradition of lament, that is crying out to God in protest against both worldly injustice and his apparent absence.

The western Christian church has become immune to the biblical concept of collective, corporate lament. Even when we try to construct a lament service, we don’t really know how to be comfortable with it.

In part, this awkwardness is due to American isolationism, ignorance, and lack of empathy for others.

We fail to identify with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ because many don’t realize that Palestinian Christians exist.

We ignore the news of literal genocide occurring in Gaza because we are generally disinterested in the rest of the world.

And when we go to visit Israel, we are more feverish about visiting Zionist synagogue services than we are about worshiping with Palestinian brothers and sisters.

The Palestinian church is showing us once again what biblical lament means as they endure a multitude of the cruelest war time injustices.

As Gaza is Flattened, Land Theft and Ethnic Cleansing Continues Apace in the West Bank

Never before has the Jewish settlement movement held as much power as they do today. Several of their leaders are members of the Israeli cabinet. They now call the shots in the West Bank, accelerating Jewish attacks against Palestinians, stealing their homes, destroying their crops and killing them with impunity.

The following video compilation offers a glimpse into this world of daily threats and violence:

Meet My Palestinian Family as They Gather Together Following the Attack on Their Homes

Our friend, Layla, is a journalist working for the online news magazine, Mondoweiss. She filmed some members of the Amira and Al Azzah families after the Israeli soldiers, who had physically attacked them all, had finally left with Munther laying in the back of their truck.

This is our extended family in the West Bank. I admire their fortitude and resilience. I wish I was with them right now.

 

Munther Amira, Another Friend, is Kidnapped by Israeli Soldiers

Yesterday, I received the following message explaining the “arrest” (Israeli arrests are more like kidnappings) of my dear friend Munther Amira.

Munther is a well-known community leader who is committed to non-violence. I have watched him in action, working to defuse tense situations where Israeli soldiers were working to foment violence.

This is not the first time Munther has been arrested. He is a regular target of Israeli violence. If you are a praying person, I ask you to please pray for Munther’s release and safety.

Here is the notice from the Aida Youth Center about Munther’s arrest, (All emphasis is mine):

The Israeli occupation forces have arrested activist Munther Amira from his home in the Aida refugee camp. Munther is the the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aida Youth Center. He is also an activist with the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC), a collection of grassroots activist in the West Bank.

Munther was violently arrested from his home around 3 in the morning. Israeli soldiers broke down the door of Munther’s mother’s home and violently beat up Munther’s younger brother Kareem for more than 15 minutes. They then broke into Munther’s house and began beating him while they locked his wife and children in a bedroom. They tied up Munther’s sons, and took a knife and slashed the t shirt of Munther’s youngest teenage son, because it had a map of Palestine on it.

They then dragged Munther out of his home, tied him up, blindfolded him and left him in the street for over an hour.

Israeli forces screamed at and shot live ammunition towards a young boy who was watching the arrest from the window of his house. Israeli forces also prevented ambulances from entering the camp to treat Munther’s brother Kareem who was badly injured.

After more than an hour, the soldiers abducted Munther and took him into the military base.

Munther’s brother Kareem is now in the hospital.

Munther is a prisoner of conscience. This is not the first time he has been targeted for his activism. In 2017 he was arrested for participating in a peaceful demonstration demanding the release of then child prisoner Ahed Tamimi. Munther was sentenced to 6 months in prison for “disturbing public order” and “participating in a protest without a permit”.

We demand the immediate release of both our colleagues Munther Amira and Anas Abu Srour from their illegal detention.

Please raise your voice to put as much pressure as we can in the media to #FreeMuntherAmira and #FreeAnasAbuSrour