Judicial review demanded of UK government’s arming of Israel
The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Al-Haq rights groups have been allowed by the UK government to participate in hearings that seek a judicial review of London’s refusal to stop arming Israel during its war on Gaza.
David Lammy, the shadow foreign minister, urged Foreign Secretary David Cameron to publish formal legal advice on whether Israel is violating international law.
“Speaking about intent in the context of international humanitarian law is quite misleading. If a state fails to distinguish military and civilian objects, or to take reasonable precautions or to make a proper proportionality assessment, that amounts to a violation and it’s immaterial whether or not they intended to cause such harm,” Charlotte Andrews-Brisco, a lawyer with GLAN, told the Guardian newspaper.
“This is a textbook case of the war crime of starvation of individuals as a method of warfare.”
US must suspend arms transfers to Israel ‘to stop genocide’
Democratic politician Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez told the US House of Representatives the American government must temporarily stop giving weapons to Israel in light of its “genocidal acts” in Gaza.
“If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like, open your eyes,” she said in a speech.
“It looks like the forced famine of 1.1 million innocents. It looks like thousands of children eating grass as their bodies consume themselves while trucks of food are slowed and halted just miles away. It looks like good and decent people who do nothing, or too little, too late.
“The time is now to force compliance with US law and the standards of humanity, and fulfill our obligations to the American people to suspend the transfer of US weapons to the Israeli government in order to stop and prevent further atrocities.”
There is no world in which the forced famine of 1.1 million people cannot be considered genocide. And that is exactly what we are watching unfold in Gaza now.
We must enforce U.S. laws and halt weapons transfers to the Israeli government to stop an atrocity in the making. pic.twitter.com/N40Jk3yKc7
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) March 22, 2024
‘Moral failure’: US House approves bill banning UNRWA funding
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/22/moral-failure-us-house-approves-bill-that-would-ban-unrwa-funding
Washington, DC – The US House of Representatives approved a $1.2 trillion funding bill that would ban funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) amid the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
The measure, which passed in a 286 to 134 vote on Friday, would keep the government fully functioning in advance of a partial shutdown deadline.
‘Famine is imminent’: UN says aid mission to northern Gaza thwarted
About 7,500 people in northern Gaza were supposed to get food assistance but the mission was unsuccessful because “access denied”. “Famine, particularly in the north, is imminent,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a post on X.
7,500 people in northern #Gaza were supposed to get food assistance today but the mission resulted in #AccessDenied.#Famine, particularly in the north, is imminent. This human-made disaster can be averted if unfettered, humanitarian access, food & lifesaving aid are allowed. pic.twitter.com/sTzgbjXqa2
— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) March 22, 2024
