Mondoweiss – December 29, 2023
South Africa files genocide case against Israel to the ICJ
South Africa filed a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday, accusing Tel Aviv of crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
“South Africa is gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants,” the South African government said in a statement.
The South African application to the United Nations-run ICJ — which is in charge of prosecuting governments, unlike the more widely known International Criminal Court (ICC), which prosecutes individuals — notably claimed that “acts and omissions by Israel… are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent… to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”
“The conduct of Israel — through its State organs, State agents, and other persons and entities acting on its instructions or under its direction, control or influence — in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, is in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention,” the application added.
Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and South Africa are all signatories of the Genocide Convention since 1950, 2014, and 1998, respectively, and are bound to abide by its terms.
South Africa, which endured a brutal apartheid regime for more than 40 years to which Israel’s oppressive colonial treatment of Palestinians has been repeatedly compared by human rights organizations, also requested that the ICJ order provisional measures to protect against “severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention,” WAFA news agency reported. While ICJ proceedings can take years, the separate request seeks to obtain a more immediate response to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza.
In November, South African lawmakers voted to close the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and sever diplomatic ties with Israel until a ceasefire was agreed upon.
Predictably, Israel has lashed out against the move, calling it “blood libel” — a term referring to accusations deemed to be antisemitic — and a “despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court.”
“Israel has made it clear that the residents of the Gaza Strip are not the enemy, and is making every effort to limit harm to the non-involved and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip,” spokesman Lior Hayat said, even as more than 70 percent of the more than 21,000 people killed in Gaza in the past three months have been women and children, and aid organizations have repeatedly decried the hurdles implemented by Israel in letting desperately needed aid inside the devastated Palestinian territory.
The Hamas movement, meanwhile, hailed the decision as “an important step towards holding the leaders of the entity, the criminals of our age, accountable for the most heinous massacres known to humanity in our contemporary history.”
Palestinian rights groups Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) welcomed the move while denouncing the inaction of other states in a thinly veiled reference to the United States’ continued military and diplomatic support of Israel’s rampage in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“As we witness this legal action, we stress that justice is a collective pursuit, requiring unwavering dedication from the international community,” the groups wroteﾠin a joint press release. “South Africa’s request for Provisional Measures before the ICJ is not merely a legal procedure; it is a clarion call for the international community to prioritise accountability, reject impunity, and champion the principles of human rights.”
“As we call upon other Third States and the international community to support the proceedings at the ICJ and promptly intervene for an immediate ceasefire,” the joint press release continued. “We remind them, history harshly judges those who stand by during genocide. Neutrality in the face of injustice and genocide is nothing short of complicity, and a genuine commitment to the principles of justice and human dignity demands active engagement in upholding the rule of law.”
Also on Friday, the UN Security Council convened for an emergency session requested by the United Arab Emirates over the escalation of Israeli military and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has meanwhile warned that the current violence, which has already drawn in armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, could further spiral.
“The risk of regional spillover of this conflict with potential devastating consequences for the entire region remains high given also a multitude of actors involved,” Guterres said in a statement on Friday.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza ‘to go down in history along with Dresden’
As always, Israeli forces continued to pummel the Gaza Strip between Friday and Saturday, bombarding Khan Younis, Rafah, al-Bureij, Jabalia, and Nuseirat refugee camp from the air and sea.
Al-Quds journalist Jabr Abu Hadros was killed alongside members of his family by Israeli bombardment in Nuseirat early on Saturday, the newspaper reported — bringing the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israel since October 7 to 106, according to WAFA news agency.
The Gaza Ministry of Health reported at midday on Saturday that at least 165 people had been killed and 250 wounded in the span of 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 21,672. Thousands more people have been declared missing.
In addition to the threat of bombs, the ministry said that more than 900,000 children who have taken refuge in shelters with their families were “exposed to the dangers of severe cold, dehydration, malnutrition, respiratory and skin diseases, and the lack of vaccinations for newborns.”
Fierce combat between Israeli ground forces and armed Palestinian groups was meanwhile reported in the areas of Khan Younis, Gaza City, al- Bureij, Tal al-Zaatar, and al-Maghazi.
The Israeli army claimed it found and destroyed a hideout used by Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has not commented on the claim.
The Wall Street Journal meanwhile reported on Saturday that the destruction waged by Israel in Gaza in the past three months was “comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record,” with 70 percent of homes in the enclave damaged or destroyed.
“The word ‘Gaza’ is going to go down in history along with Dresden and other famous cities that have been bombed,” Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago and author of a history of aerial bombing, told WSJ. “What you’re seeing in Gaza is in the top 25% of the most intense punishment campaigns in history.”
The article went on to quote the Shelter Cluster, a coalition of aid groups, as estimating that it could take at least a year to clear out the rubble in what the U.S. newspaper described as Gaza’s “landscape of crumpled concrete.”
“In a best-case scenario, it’s going to take decades” to rebuild Gaza, Caroline Sandes, an expert in postconflict redevelopment at Kingston University London, told WSJ.
Amid such a dismal analysis, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden once again bypassed Congress to approve weapon sales to Israel amounting to $147.5 million, the second time this month.
Washington has come under fire for not only providing Israel with the weapons through which to commit what numerous experts have called genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, but for blocking a number of U.N. resolutions seeking to obtain a ceasefire — all while claiming to advocate for the protection of civilians.
“We’ve been hearing from all the top Biden administration officials for weeks that it is time for Israel to move to a lower-intensity conflict. In essence, stop the mass bombing. Stop the mass deaths of civilians,” Al Jazeeraﾒs Patty Culhane said on Saturday. “So, in that context — knowing that is what they say they want — they are now selling to Israel the exaction munitions they need to continue a high-intensity campaign.”
Middle East Monitor - December 28, 2023
What the international community’s silence over Israel’s
colonial violence has reaped in Gaza?
by Ramona Wadi
“We cannot let the idea take root that an efficient fight against terrorism implies to flatten Gaza or attack civilian populations indiscriminately,” French President Emmanuel Macron stated a week ago. Israel, he said, should: “Stop this response because it is not appropriate because all lives are worth the same and we defend them.”
Macron should be stumbling over his words. Early on, he was one of the first leaders to express complete support for Israel’s security narrative and was completely cognisant of the fact that the Israeli prime minister intended to flatten Gaza and attack civilian populations. This means that for Israel, France and the international community, all lives are not the same and not all lives are equally defended.
As Israel plans to forcibly transfer Palestinians to the Sinai and expects the international community to collaborate by taking in Palestinian refugees for resettlement in host countries, the lack of action over Israel’s ethnic cleansing plans mirrors the path taken during the 1948 Nakba, when Israel was rewarded with recognition as a state after it forcibly displaced 750,000 Palestinians to replace them with settler-colonists. In real-time, and as more details of Israel’s atrocities come to light, the United Nations (UN) is merely using Gaza as a talking point from a distance, repetitively stating that the forced transfer of a civilian population constitutes an international law violation. That much is obvious – does the UN require a round of applause for stating basic facts?
The 51st state? The US continues to shield Israel at the UN – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]
Euro-Med Monitor has published a report that calls for the investigation of organ theft from killed Palestinians after medical professionals found several corpses were missing vital organs. Israel has been suspected in the past of organ theft due to its policy of holding the bodies of killed Palestinians in the Cemetery of Numbers in subfreezing temperatures, thus preserving the corpses. A CNN report dating back to 2009 states that organs were: “Harvested from Palestinians and foreign workers.”
Among the more visible atrocities was the rounding up of Palestinian civilians on a football field in Gaza, which even mainstream media picked up. However, Sky News, for example, included a disclaimer beneath the video: “The IDF has told Sky News the individuals detained are treated in accordance with international law.” Where is it inscribed in international law that stripping detainees naked, torturing them and summarily executing them is permissible? At this point, who is still taking the IDF’s rhetoric seriously? Either idiots or willing collaborators.
Take this video, where an Israeli soldier brags about killing a twelve-year-old girl and jokingly laments that there are no babies left to kill in Gaza. Are there any forthcoming excuses from entities and individuals supporting Israel’s ethnic cleansing? The IDF’s standard statements can no longer pose as a veneer for Israeli colonial violence, whether this is committed by the state’s institutions or individual acts. And international silence has been so consistent that the parameters for what constitutes a human rights violation or, indeed, a war crime have been expanded beyond recognition.
What we are witnessing in Gaza must not be separated from the UN’s deafening silence since 1948.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231228-what-the-international-communitys-silence-over-israels-colonial-violence-has-reaped-in-gaza/
Middle East Monitor – December 28, 2023
No Difference between Netanyahu and Hitler
says Erdogan, leader of NATO Member Turkey
There is “no difference” between what Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is doing in the months-long attacks on Gaza and what Nazi leader Adolf Hitler did decades ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today.
At a science awards ceremony in the capital Ankara, Erdogan said: “How do you [Netanyahu] differ from Hitler? These [actions] will make us look for Hitler as well. Is there anything Netanyahu does that is less than Hitler? No.”
Just like 80 years ago in Nazi Germany, Erdogan said that today, scholars worldwide who have the courage to decry the oppression and persecution in Gaza are facing pressure and threats, referring to academics in the US and elsewhere being fired or censured for standing up for Palestinians.
For scholars who face pressure for defending human dignity in Gaza, the doors of Turkish universities are open, he stressed.”We realised that the institutions that talk big and spend big budgets are completely hollow when it comes to Israel and its atrocities,” the president said.”From the UN Security Council to press organisations, from the EU to journalist groups, all institutions that serve as apostles of democracy have failed,” he said.
Not only international organisations, but also the prestigious Western universities have failed on the Gaza issue, Erdogan added.
Israel launched a massive military campaign on the Gaza Strip on 7 October, killing at least 21,110 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 55,243 others, according to local health authorities.
The onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly two million people displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.
Al Jazeera – December 30, 2023
Houthis show no sign of ending Red Sea attacks: US commander
Yemen’s Houthi rebels show no signs of ending their “reckless” attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, the top commander of US naval forces in the Middle East says.
Since Operation Prosperity Guardian was announced 10 days ago, 1,200 merchant ships have travelled through the Red Sea region, and none has been hit by drone or missile strikes, Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper said in an Associated Press interview. He said additional countries are expected to sign on.
Cooper says the coalition is in direct communication with commercial ships to provide guidance on “manoeuvring and the best practices to avoid being attacked”, and working closely with the shipping industry to coordinate security.
The Houthis threatened to attack any vessel they believe is either going to or coming from Israel. That has escalated to apparently any vessel with container ships and oil tankers flagged to countries such as Norway and Liberia being attacked or drawing missile fire.
Monroe Doctrine: Two Centuries of Implacable Imperialism
By: Heinz Dieterich
Latin America must forge a path toward a future where self-determination and international cooperation prevail. Since its inception in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine has been the ideological manifestation guiding the United States' foreign policy toward Latin America. Its intrinsic nature has served as an instrument of American expansion and domination in the region.
From the early years of the United States' independence, the Monroe Doctrine emerged as a guiding principle. After the war against the English monarchy, the North American country adopted an expansionist approach, initially intervening in Canada and extending its influence into Latin America and the Caribbean.
It is at this point that an endless chain of interventions, military coups, and political assassinations begins, all aimed at maintaining the exploitation of Latin America.
The Monroe Doctrine, at its core, is the formalized expression of a state piracy policy: the appropriation of others' wealth, even if it requires shedding blood to achieve it.
Over these two centuries, it has been a constant obstacle to the autonomous development of Latin America, ignoring international law and unleashing a series of imperialistic tactics aimed at ensuring American supremacy in the region.
In recent decades, we have witnessed changes in the methods used by the United States to intervene in Latin American and global politics. After the rise of state terrorism in Latin American dictatorships, euphemistically called States of National Security, Washington's propaganda, which previously advocated for democracy and social well-being, became a tool to suppress any attempts at democratization and autonomous development in Latin America.
The transition to "color revolutions" in the 1990s marked a new phase in the application of the Monroe Doctrine. These events, like the case of Salvador Allende in Chile years before, combine popular uprisings with military tactics to change governments that do not align with American interests. Although less "spectacular" than traditional military coups, these color revolutions have proven equally effective in overthrowing independent governments.
When assessing the dangers of the Monroe Doctrine for Latin America, it is evident that its historical persistence has systematically hindered the progress and autonomous development of the region. However, the rise of China, Russia, and other countries as alternative powers has provided a new hope.
Despite lingering limitations, China, for example, offers a different option for Latin America in terms of trade and development, providing an alternative to the continent's historical dependence on American colonialism.
Regarding the indirect effects of the Monroe Doctrine on the world, it is crucial to highlight how it has stifled strategic alternatives for liberation, particularly socialism.
The global expansion of liberal democracy ideology has legitimized U.S. domination over other countries and weakened resistance through effective ideological control. This "lobotomization" of the masses has led to the acceptance of an international order favoring imperialist countries.
Looking to the future of the American interventionist and expansionist tool, the continuation of Washington's efforts to destroy any attempts at social democratic development in Latin America seems inevitable.
The restoration of Washington's control over the region appears inevitable, except perhaps for countries like Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba, which resist.
The struggle against the Monroe Doctrine will depend on a massive awareness campaign in Latin America, supported by strong collaboration with China, Russia, and other centers of global power challenging the usual unilateralism of Washington and its allies.
China's proposal to establish international relations centered on cooperation is the only viable alternative. The future of the Monroe Doctrine will hinge on its continuation or extinction, depending on the results of the struggle between imperialism and the openness proposed by emerging powers, confirming whether this doctrine is limited to the Western Hemisphere or persists as a global threat.
In an ever-evolving world, it is imperative that Latin America seeks and consolidates alliances and partnerships that promote its autonomous development and liberation from the historical chains imposed by the Monroe Doctrine.
In this challenge, the region must look beyond the shadows of the Monroe Doctrine and forge a path toward a future where self-determination and international cooperation prevail over persistent imperialism.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
