Away..

 
Protecting Our emocracy..

If..

 

Mardi Gras..

 

Gift..

 

Stronger..

 

Debt..

 

Hague..

 

South Africa has filed a case at the main judicial body for the United Nations, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. “I believe South Africa will win an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Palestinians,” says Francis Boyle, an international human rights lawyer. 

As the death toll from Israel’s bombardment of Gaza since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel now exceeds 22,000, South Africa has filed a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of genocide and trying to, quote, “destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”  

In its filing to the ICJ, the main judicial body for the United Nations, South Africa says, quote, “The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group,” unquote. South Africa accused Israel of violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which Israel has signed on to.

Genocide..

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday pushed back against claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, calling such accusations “false” after South Africa filed a case against Israel at the U.N.’s top court.

“I would like to say a word about South Africa’s false accusation that Israel is committing genocide. No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas,”

 Netanyahu said during a Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, according to an English translation reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Nearly 70% of Gaza's 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The bombing has damaged Byzantine churches and ancient mosques, factories and apartment buildings, shopping malls and luxury hotels, theaters and schools.

Well, with the world watching what Israel is doing in Gaza, what do you call that? 

Vigil..

 

A group of junior staffers in the Biden administration last week chose to hold a public vigil in front of the White House, protesting the administration’s approach to the Gaza war. Standing behind a sign reading “PRESIDENT BIDEN: YOUR STAFF DEMANDS A CEASEFIRE,” a spokesman read remarks demanding a “permanent cease-fire” and “an immediate de-escalation now.”

We respect the Constitutional right of these individuals and indeed all Americans to express their views. But  .....................

Increasingly recognizing the dangers of ideological monocultures, the White House and U.S. government departments and agencies have developed formal channels for internal dissent. These processes were strengthened significantly in the State Department in 1971, to accommodate very valid objections to the conduct of the Vietnam war. The expectation of these established procedures is that once views have been aired and considered, employees are expected to support whatever the president decides.  

Humanitarian..

 

The United States government’s credibility on democracy and the rule of law has always been shaky. By supporting Israel’s war crimes and the ongoing illegal settlements and the theft of Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank, U.S. credibility has dissolved completely. 

Yes, war crimes. Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have detailed war crimes, from the use of white phosphorous to the bombing of schools and hospitals. AI and HRW, along with the Israeli human-rights organization B’Tselem, had already documented Israel’s crimes of apartheid. 

Israel has murdered over 100 members of the United Nations staff in Gaza. And we are to believe the Israeli ambassador to the UN, who says that those staff members, too, are Hamas? Absurd and criminal. 

Bret Gustafson | Professor of Anthropology November 16, 2023