Gaza
Linked: Palestinian and Gaza News
Not a surprise but with the latest UN Security Council Veto the US is alone in its ongoing support of Israel’s genocide against Palestine. In our support of war crimes and genocide we are guilty of war crimes and genocide.
US veto sinks Algeria’s ceasefire resolution at UN Security Council…
The United States has once again vetoed a draft resolution on Gaza at the UN Security Council. It’s the third veto by the US since the start of the war. The text put forward by Algeria called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, and had 13 members voting in favour. The US was the only country to vote against it.
More Than 50 Countries Argue Before World Court Against Israeli Occupation of Palestine…
Arguments are underway at the International Court of Justice, where more than 50 countries are asking the World Court to issue a nonbinding legal opinion against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967. The request is separate from South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ. “Israel has been instrumentalizing the rules of international humanitarian law … to further its settler-colonial project in Palestine,” says Ahmed Abofoul of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, which submitted an advisory opinion on the case. “I have no doubt that the court will decide that Israel’s occupation is illegal,” he says. We also discuss what comes after the ruling and Israeli society’s reaction to the war.
Hearing on Israeli occupation could help peace process under international law…
Daniel Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project think tank, says the likely response of Israel’s allies to this week’s proceedings at the ICJ is that the court should “keep its nose out” of an issue that they will argue is political and not legal. “Why is that so important? Because the question here is whether the peace process, the 30 years of agreements, … is something that should be untouched by international law,” Levy told Al Jazeera.
Momentum grows for protest vote against Biden in Michigan primary…
Activists are calling for a ballot protest at Michigan’s February 27 primary, in an effort to push President Joe Biden to support a ceasefire and end the administration’s support for Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza.
Our Revolution has become the latest organization to back the movement. The progressive action group recently sent an email to 87,000 of its members in Michigan and nearly 225,000 supporters in other states, calling on them to vote uncommitted.
“We need to send President Biden a message: We are outraged by U.S. complicity in the destruction of Gaza, the killing of thousands of civilians, including more than 10,000 children, and it must STOP!” read the email. “By voting uncommitted on 2/27, Our Rev supporters can push Biden to change course on Gaza now and increase his chances of winning Michigan in November.” I’m the Mayor of Dearborn, Mich., and My City Feels Betrayed…
Dearborn does not sleep. We have not slept. Our entire city is haunted by the images, videos and stories streaming out of Gaza. Life seems heavily veiled in a haze of shared grief, fear, helplessness and even guilt as we try to understand how our tax dollars could be used by those we elected to slaughter our relatives overseas.
We don’t have to imagine the violence and injustice being carried out against the Palestinian people. Many of us lived it, and still bear the scars of life under occupation and apartheid.
“What I Saw Wasn’t War — It Was Annihilation,” Says U.S. Doctor Who Volunteered in Gaza Hospital…
We speak with an American doctor just back from Gaza about the “unimaginable scale” of its humanitarian crisis. Irfan Galaria, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, recently wrote an op-ed for the L.A. Times describing Israel’s assault on Gaza’s civilians as “annihilation.” Dr. Galaria, who has worked in conflict zones around the world, says he and his team witnessed “a collateral humanitarian crisis of an unimaginable scale,” involving the “deliberate attempt” to both target civilians with military assault and to deprive them of aid. “I thought I was going to be prepared, but I was not prepared for what I saw,” he says.
Linked: Palestinian and Gaza News
Palestine awakens the revolution…
Since Israel began its slaughter in Gaza on October 7, I have felt my own heart become a grave for over 25,000 people in Palestine. I, along with the rest of the world, have borne witness to the world’s most documented genocide in history. I have watched, from my phone, the attempted annihilation of an entire nation.
These 100 days of genocide have replaced every cell in my body and made me into a different person. I am not the same as I was before witnessing these atrocities; my soul has shifted to revolve around this revolution. I’m not alone. The world has changed right along with me.
Total Chaos: What A Palestinian American Doctor Saw In Gaza…
Dr. Thaer Ahmad, emergency room physician and assistant program director of the Advocate Christ Emergency Medicine Residency Program, discusses his recent experience volunteering at the Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.https://www.instagram.com/tahmadmd/?hl=enhttps://christem.com/Thaer Ahmad then walks through his assessment of the already shaky state of the healthcare system in pre-October 7th Gaza, as well as his relationship to the healthcare system, as a first-generation Palestinian-American doctor, before tackling the extensive effort it took to get into Gaza as a healthcare worker. Next, Dr. Ahmad explores the extreme changes in quality of life in Southern Gaza from his previous experiences providing healthcare, parsing through the impact of mass displacement into Rafah alongside the dwindling number of functioning hospitals in the region creating a system of severely overworked, underfunded, and under-resourced healthcare workers.
Gaza Besieged, Jews Divided, & a World in Pain: Gabor, Aaron, & Daniel Maté in Conversation…
This conversation took place in early 2024, three months into Israel’s bombardment and invasion and the ensuing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Gabor Maté and sons Aaron and Daniel got together in Vancouver BC to discuss what’s happening in Gaza, Israel, and the worldwide Jewish community.
Which Countries Supply Arms to Israel…
As civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza, global calls for countries to halt arms sales to Israel grow. The United States Senate has approved a bill committing $14bn to support Israel’s war on Gaza this week.
Even before the start of the war last October, the US firmly supported Israel with the supply of military equipment, contributing $3bn annually in military aid. Many other countries provide military support to Israel via arms sales.
Civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza – currently standing at more than 28,000 dead with thousands more trapped under rubble and presumed dead in just four months of bombardment and ground invasions. The rising death toll is prompting international condemnation.
Human Rights Discourse Has Failed to Stop the Genocide in Gaza…
Four months into the assault on Gaza, the Israeli military has forced over a million refugees to the edge of the Egyptian border and is now bombing them while threatening to mount a ground assault against them. In the following text, Jonathan Pollak, a longtime participant in Anarchists Against the Wall and other anti-colonial solidarity efforts, explains why we should not look to international institutions or protest movements within Israeli society to put a stop to the genocide in Gaza and calls on ordinary people to take action.
Ongoing link round-up of events in Gaza
Bombs, Disease, Starvation: Canadian Doctor Describes the Desperate Situation Inside Gaza…
As Israel continues to threaten to invade Rafah, where over a million Palestinians have sought refuge, we speak to a surgeon who recently returned from a humanitarian mission at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in Gaza. “What I saw in Khan Younis were the most horrific scenes in my entire life,” says Canadian ophthalmologist Dr. Yasser Khan. He describes the dire conditions of injured civilians in Gaza, the majority of whom are children. “The genocidal intent of Israeli politicians, the Israeli army, is really clear. What is really bizarre is that they haven’t hid it,” says Khan. “The killing machine that Israel has unleashed on the healthcare system, I think, is unprecedented. … If the bombings are not going to get you, then disease will surely get you.”
‘There will be no Gaza’: Palestinian policy expert slams U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza…
President Biden has been venting his frustration in recent private conversations over his inability to persuade Israel to change its military tactics in the Gaza strip, according to NBC News reporting. Yet, as Biden reportedly disparages Netanyahu in private, not much has changed in terms of U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza, as the death count soars. Rula Jebreal, a Palestinian policy expert and visiting professor at the University of Miami, joins Joy Reid with her analysis.
Is Israel in breach of the ruling by the ICJ? | Inside Story - YouTube…
The United Nations' top court has ordered Israel to prevent and punish actions that could lead to or incite genocide in Gaza. The ruling was widely viewed as a step towards ending Israel’s war. But in the weeks that followed, troops have continued to act with impunity – intensifying their indiscriminate killing of Palestinians. Now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening a possible military offensive in Rafah, the southern-most point of the territory. Palestinians are trapped, with nowhere to go. So, what can be done to end Israel’s brutality?
Mother in Rafah Desperate to Escape as Israel Prepares Ground Invasion…
As Palestinian health officials say overnight Israeli strikes killed dozens in Rafah, where over 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge, we speak with a teacher trying to evacuate Rafah with her young children, who urges the U.S. government to stop the bloodshed. “My message to President Biden: We are innocent civilians, and we have no fault in what is happening,” says Duha Latif. “Our children deserve to live a normal life like the rest of the world’s children.” Latif is fundraising to gather the money she needs to enter Egypt. The latest Israeli bombardment was conducted as part of an operation to free two Israeli hostages and came amid warnings from U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders against Israel’s expected ground invasion of Rafah. Aid agencies fear the offensive would cause massive casualties.
Why does the US refuse to call for a ceasefire in Gaza? | The Bottom Line - YouTube…
The United States' support for Israel’s war on Gaza makes the country look ineffectual and hypocritical to the rest of the world, according to Harvard University professor Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. Walt tells host Steve Clemons that Israel and the US-Israel relationship have changed over the decades, but US President Joe Biden is holding on to a view of Israel formed in the West in the 1970s.
Gaza: 67 dead in Rafah strikes as Israel plans ground assault…
While in Gaza they mourned the nearly 70 who were killed by the bombardments that accompanied the raid. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza puts the figure of those killed since Israel began military action in response to the 7th of October attacks at more than 28,000. Israel is proposing a ground invasion of Rafah which is now estimated to be housing more than a million Palestinians.
How Israel automated occupation in Hebron | The Listening Post…
Palestinians in Hebron are some of the most heavily monitored and controlled people on the planet. In the first episode of a two-part special, Tariq Nafi reports from the occupied West Bank on the previously unknown facial recognition system ‘Red Wolf’, uncovered by Amnesty International and Breaking the Silence.
How Israeli Apartheid Destroyed My Hometown - YouTube…
Segregated streets. Settler violence. Military harassment. This happens all over the occupied West Bank, but perhaps nowhere are these scenes more concentrated than in the Old City of Hebron. The once vibrant Palestinian cultural center is now ground zero of Israeli apartheid. It’s also where AJ+‘s Dena Takruri’s family calls home. In this deeply personal documentary, Dena spends a day in Hebron retracing the footsteps of her father, who was born and raised in Hebron. She talks to Palestinians who are subjected to daily harassment from the Israeli military and settlers. And she is guided through the city by former Israeli soldiers, who tell her why their conscience is now forcing them to speak out against the occupation.
Linked: Palestinian Gaza News
Chris Hedges “The Genocide in Gaza”…
Best-selling author, foreign correspondent, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges addressed the Middle East crisis with a talk titled “The Genocide in Gaza” on December 6, 2023 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in North Troy NY.
31 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah after Netanyahu says invasion there is inevitable…
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 Palestinians in Rafah early Saturday, hours after Israel’s prime minister said he asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from the southern Gaza city ahead of a ground invasion.
Benjamin Netanyahu did not provide details or a timeline, but the announcement set off widespread panic. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are packed into Rafah, many after being uprooted repeatedly by Israeli evacuation orders that now cover two-thirds of Gaza’s territory. It’s not clear where they could run next.
Medical teams targeted: Israeli sniper fire hits operating room staff…
Palestinian medics targeted by Israelis; hospitals disrupted. Plea for foreign intervention. Blockades worsen situation. Medical workers in Gaza are under attack, as Israeli forces have deliberately shot and injured them while they were on duty. The shortage of medical personnel at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis has made it difficult to treat sick and injured Palestinians. The doctors at Nasser hospital are calling for foreign intervention to ensure the safety of medical workers. Israel’s blockade on food, fuel, and medicine entering Gaza has worsened the situation, making it harder for understocked hospitals to operate effectively.
Ex-UNRWA Official: Funding Cuts Make Donor Countries Complicit in Starvation of Gaza…
As Israel’s assault on Gaza has displaced the majority of Palestinians in Gaza, more than half are sheltering in facilities run by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Despite being the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza, UNRWA says it may run out of funds by the end of the month, after at least 18 states or institutions, including many of the agency’s biggest funders, announced they were suspending their donations in January. The cuts came after the Israeli government accused several UNRWA employees of participating in the Hamas attack on October 7. Israel made the allegations in a document it provided to foreign governments which apparently contained no direct evidence of the claims. “As of now, the evidence simply does not exist” outside of this “dodgy Israeli dossier,” says Chris Gunness, former chief spokesperson for UNRWA. He slams donors who have pulled their funding as “doing Israel’s political bidding” in its “scheme to dismantle UNRWA” and further dispossess Palestinians in Gaza.
How to End America’s Hypocrisy on Gaza…
The military campaign that Israel launched in response to Hamas’s brutal October 7 attacks has killed more than 27,000 people in the Gaza Strip and injured more than 60,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. About 75 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced. Some 400,000 people are enduring famine because of the blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza and the severe restrictions on humanitarian aid that have deprived civilians of what they need to survive. This number could grow if international funding for aid falters.
More on the International Court of Justice, UNRWA and ongoing violence in Gaza. Of course it is no accident that the news regarding the 12 UNRWA workers was released by Israel the day after the ICJ made its ruling. It’s also worth noting that, if proven true as it seems it may be, this is 12 employees out of 13,000 employees in Gaza. And for this the primary funding for aid has been cut by the US and other allies/backers of Israel.
As is true of the larger historical context of this conflict, the violence and reaction is wildly out of proportion. This is addressed in several current podcasts and YouTube videos covering the story.
I’ll start with Democracy Now: Despite Looming Gaza Famine, U.S. Halts UNRWA Funding After Israel Claims Staff Aided Oct. 7 Attack…
On the same day the U.N.’s highest court accepted South Africa’s case alleging genocide in Gaza, Israel accused 12 employees with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, of taking part in the Hamas attack on October 7. The United States and at least 10 other nations have now suspended funding to the agency, which retains a staff of over 13,000 and provides essential aid to most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. “It’s the worst possible reaction to these allegations,” says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He calls for an investigation but says donors must continue to support aid groups, with UNRWA being the most important. “All of us combined other groups are not even close to being what UNRWA is for the people of Gaza,” says Egeland. UNRWA has responded to the allegations by announcing the group will “immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation.”
Then there is this post at The Majority Report with Sam Seder…
The Guardian: Will the ICJ ruling change anything in Gaza? – podcast …
The ruling was significant, but both sides found cause for relief. For Israel it was that the ICJ stopped short of ordering a ceasefire; for Palestine it was that the court found the claims were plausible and required further investigation.
Alongside those findings the court ruled that aid must be allowed into Gaza. But at the same time, another story was breaking – that employees of UNRWA, one of the biggest aid agencies in Gaza, were involved in the 7 October attacks on Israel. The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, explains how the allegations unfolded.
In response, he tells Nosheen Iqbal, at least 11 countries including the UK have cut funding to the UN agency. With food, clean water and medical supplies so scarce, and UNRWA essential to the lives of many in Gaza, the defunding of the organisation could lead to catastrophic consequences the UN warns. What effect will this have on the shape of the conflict going forward – and on the negotiations currently underway over releasing the hostages and a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas?
What Happens Now That the ICJ Has Ordered Israel Not to Engage in Genocide?…
**Provisional Measures the ICJ Has Ordered Israel to Immediately Implement **
The ICJ ordered Israel not to commit genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza immediately, even as the ICJ continues its slow process of officially considering the merits of the genocide case.
The court concluded that “the catastrophic humanitarian situation” in Gaza “is at serious risk of deteriorating further before the Court renders its final judgment.” Moreover, the court said that the right of the Palestinians to be protected against genocidal acts and South Africa’s right (as a party to the Genocide Convention) to ensure Israel’s compliance with the convention could be safeguarded by provisional measures.
The ICJ found “a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused to the rights found by the Court to be plausible.” The court wrote, “It is therefore necessary, pending its final decision, for the Court to indicate certain measures in order to protect the rights claimed by South Africa that the Court has found to be plausible.”
The Worst Case Scenario Is Here…
Alex Pareene then joins, diving into Democrats’ ongoing attempt to pin the accountability for Biden’s war in the Middle East on Brett McGurk, Biden’s NSC Coordinator for the Middle East, and touches on Biden’s recent statements on his strikes on Yemen as a perfect encapsulation of US foreign policy. Alex and Emma also parse through Bibi Netanyahu’s recent statements outrightly rejecting the idea of a Palestinian state, the growing violence in the Middle East, and the hollowness of many 2-state solution arguments.