‘Largest’ cultural boycott against Israeli institutions launches: Statement
More than 1,100 authors have launched “a mass boycott of Israeli publishers complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people”, a coalition of solidarity groups has said in a press statement.
The declaration is the biggest cultural boycott against Israeli institutions in history, it said, adding that “signatories have stated that they cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement”.
Signatories include winners of the Nobel Prize, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award.
According to the statement, authors have joined the campaign launched more than 20 years ago by Palestinian civil society, which calls for “those working in cultural industries to refuse working with Israeli academic and cultural institutions that are complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people and upholding apartheid and genocide.”
See the letter and list of signatories here.
South Africa’s legal team says ‘intent is clear’ in Israel’s Gaza genocide
Last week, South African legal researchers were in an undisclosed location, racing against time to finalise hundreds of pages of evidence proving Israel’s intent to commit genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, leaders in Israel gathered near the Gaza border, calling for the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip to be emptied of Palestinians.
During the “preparing to settle Gaza” conference, held at a restricted military zone in Be’eri, Israel, last Monday, Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was recorded calling for the “migration” of Gaza’s current inhabitants and the possibility of future Israeli settlement expansion there – something considered illegal under international law.
“[We will] tell them, ‘’e are giving you the chance, leave from here to other countries’,” Ben-Gvir said, while Israeli forces continued their more than yearlong bombardment of Gaza. “The Land of Israel is ours.”
South African diplomats assert statements like these offer undeniable evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent – something they must prove before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in an ongoing case.
Read more here.
South Africa files evidence of genocide by Israel with ICJ
South Africa filed evidence of a genocide committed by Israel in Gaza with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa has said in a statement.
The document “contains evidence which shows how the government of Israel has violated the genocide convention by promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza”, the presidency said.
In a case brought by South Africa, the ICJ is considering allegations that Israel is committing genocide in its war on Gaza. A preliminary ruling has already been made in that case, with the court ordering Israel to prevent and punish incitement to genocide and to increase provisions of humanitarian aid.
In May, the ICJ also ordered Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah, citing “immense risk” to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians taking shelter there. But Israel has continued its attacks on Gaza, including Rafah, in defiance of the United Nations court.
South Africa has said that according to the ICJ’s rules, the so-called Memorial, which is the document recording the main case of South Africa against Israel, may not be made public. In a statement, the South African presidency said the evidence is detailed in over 750 pages of text, supported by exhibits and annexes of more than 4,000 pages.
The Memorial contains evidence that shows how Israel has violated the genocide convention. This includes:
- Promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza
- Killing them with an assortment of destructive weapons
- Depriving them access to humanitarian assistance
- Causing conditions of life which are aimed at their physical destruction and ignoring and defying several provisional measures of the ICJ
- Using starvation as a weapon of war and to further Israel’s aims to depopulate Gaza through mass death and forced displacement of Palestinians
“The evidence will show that undergirding Israel’s genocidal acts is the special intent to commit genocide, a failure by Israel to prevent incitement to genocide, to prevent genocide itself and its failure to punish those inciting and committing acts of genocide,” the statement said.
