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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 26 February 2024

U.S. airman dies after self-immolation in protest in front of Israeli embassy

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2024/02/26/exp-aaron-bushnell-protest-usaf-air-force-israel-gaza-022611aseg2-cnni-us.cnn

U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell has died after lighting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC to protest Israel's actions in Gaza.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/world/middleeast/israel-embassy-man-on-fire.html

The man, who filmed and livestreamed his protest of Israeli military action in Gaza, had been taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. The U.S. Air Force confirmed he was an active-duty airman.

A US airman has died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68405119

The man was identified by police as Aaron Bushnell, 25, of San Antonio, Texas. Officers from the US Secret Service extinguished the flames before the man was taken to hospital on Sunday afternoon. Before setting himself on fire, he said he would "no longer be complicit in genocide".

In a video aired live on a streaming site, Twitch, the man identified himself and said he was a serving member of the Air Force. He said he was "about to engage in an extreme act of protest." After setting himself on fire, he repeatedly shouted "free Palestine".

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington said that it was "not confirming the authenticity of the video".

No embassy staff members were injured in the incident, said a spokeswoman for the embassy. The incident happened at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT) on Sunday. A bomb disposal unit was sent to the site over concerns about a suspicious vehicle that could have been connected to the individual. This was later declared safe after no hazardous materials were found.


The media just can't help themselves but report it like a terrorist attack...



Kid Rock calls for killing thousands in Gaza if captives not released

Kid Rock has said in an expletive-laden tirade that Israel should give Hamas 24 hours to free all captives or else start killing people in the tens of thousands.

“I don’t disagree with what Israel is doing. It’s like they should just go in there and be like, ‘You know what, we want our hostages back. If we don’t have them back, the clock starts now. In 24 hours, we are gonna start bombing m************, and killing civilians, 30,000 to 40,000 a f****** time’,” he told the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

“That’s the only thing people understand … It’s what happened in Nagasaki and Hiroshima,” he said. The podcast was released on Thursday, but Kid Rock’s comments on Gaza started to go viral in subsequent days, stirring outrage. Several US celebrities and politicians have called for mass violence against Palestinians with little or no consequences, in what rights advocates say is the growing normalisation of anti-Palestinian hate.

In contrast, artists, academics and politicians who have voiced support for Palestinians have suffered professional repercussions. For example, last year, many Democrats joined Republicans in the US House of Representatives to censure Rashida Tlaib – the only Palestinian member of Congress.



Gaza authorities accuse Israel of 19 different kinds of war crimes

Gaza’s Government Media Office says Israeli forces have been committing rampant violations, including crimes against humanity, which together fit the legal definition of genocide. Here are some of the war crimes that the office said Israel has been carrying out since October 7:

  • Deliberate killings: Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians.
  • Torture: Israel has detained 2,600 Palestinians, and there are credible reports that many have been mistreated.
  • Forced displacement: Israeli forces have forced more than 80 percent of the people in Gaza to leave their homes.
  • Hostage-taking: The office says Israeli forces have taken Palestinian civilians hostage and used them as human shields in several military operations.
  • Using hunger as a weapon of war: Israel has been imposing a severe siege, preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and also targeting assistance convoys.
  • Bombing homes, houses of worship and schools: According to the office, Israel has destroyed more than 500 mosques and churches, 300 educational institutions and 360,000 residential units.
  • Targeting heritage sites: Israel has destroyed more than 200 cultural sites, including some that are centuries old.
  • Targeting medical centres: “Israel deliberately carries out military attacks against medical facilities throughout Gaza to deprive Palestinians of any chance of survival”, putting 31 out of 35 hospitals in Gaza out of service.

Israel is carrying out ‘cultural genocide’ in Gaza: Official

Abdel Salam Attari, director general of literature and publishing at the PA Ministry of Culture, says Israel has been deliberately targeting all forms of culture in the besieged coastal enclave.

“The occupation is destroying cultural life and creativity in Gaza, which is part of its policy of erasing Palestinian identity,” Attari tells Al Jazeera.

“The ferocity of attacks on Palestinian culture increased since October 7. Up until February 13, we have documented the killing of 44 writers and artists, in addition to the destruction of 32 cultural institutions, centres and theatres, as well as 12 museums, nine public libraries and eight publishing houses and printing presses.”

Attari adds that “Israel has been systematically targeting – with the aim to destroy – the Palestinian narrative. Cultural and social life has come to a near paralysis in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

 



Israeli soldiers filming own abuses shows ‘depth of tragedy’ in Gaza: UN expert

A video showing an Israeli soldier gifting his fiancee a pair of shoes he looted from a home in Gaza has sparked criticism on social media.

“Young Israeli soldiers finding the time [and stamina] to document their crimes cheerfully gives the depth of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza,” UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese said on X. Israeli soldiers have posted videos of themselves stealing from Palestinian homes, blowing up residential buildings and destroying medical centres in Gaza, among other abuses.

Gaza’s Government Media Office says that at least $25m in cash, gold and valuables has been looted from the territory in the first three months of the war.

There was further escalation after ICJ orders: UN expert

Margaret Satterthwaite, UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, has spoken to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic about the deteriorating situation in Gaza after the International Court of Justice’s order to Israel to prevent genocide in the territory.

Here is a summary of what she said:

  • The Israeli war against the health system in Gaza is deliberate.
  • Following the ruling of the International Court of Justice, there has been further escalation.
  • We fear a disaster due to the spread of decomposing bodies and the spread of epidemics.
  • We cannot do anything without an immediate ceasefire.

 

‘Catastrohic conditions’ at southern Gaza hospital

A UN delegation has visited the al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis to inspect the damage caused by Israeli forces, the Palestine Red Crescent Society has said.

“The delegation witnessed the extent of the damage caused by Israeli occupation artillery shelling to several floors of the hospital, as well as the catastrophic conditions inside due to severe shortages in food, drinkable water, medical supplies, and medication,” the group said.

The hospital has been under siege for weeks by the Israeli army.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 26 February 2024

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zeldaring on 26 February 2024

Kid rock Is real pos I would love to see him die a horrible death.



SvennoJ on 26 February 2024

Beautifully written piece about Sliman Mansour


We must ‘rehumanise ourselves’: Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/2/25/our-fight-is-to-rehumanise-ourselves-a-palestinian-painter-speaks-out

Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour says he is sad and angry at the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza.

“But it fits the thinking of the Israelis,” Mansour told Al Jazeera. “For them, the narrative is very important. And who tells the narrative – it should be them only, because that’s the truth for them. Anybody who speaks another narrative should be put in prison. Or now they are killed.”


Homeland, painted by Sliman Mansour in 2010, Sliman Mansour shows the dehumanisation and confinement faced by Palestinians at checkpoints

Seventy-seven-year-old Sliman Mansour has spent half a century expressing the perseverance and resistance of the Palestinians through his painting. Born in rural Birzeit before spending his formative years in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, his youth was marked by what he saw as the active erasure of Palestinian identity; various elements of Palestinian culture, such as the flag and even its colours, were repressed or outright banned. In 1973 he co-founded the League of Palestinian Artists, which brought a new sense of political urgency to the art of Palestine. Since then his singular style — which fuses elements of realism, abstract expressionism, and Surrealism — has given rise to some of the most powerfully emotive images to emerge from the movement’s cultural opposition to oppression.

Mansour’s most recognisable works speak directly to the plight of Palestinians. In Rituals Under Occupation, a sea of forlorn people carry a cross, the pillar of which is a Palestinian flag that stretches off into the horizon. In Perseverance and Hope, a trio in traditional Palestinian dress looks up at a dove, their hands bound behind their backs, the backdrop a collage of terrible calamity. And of course, there’s Camel of Hardship, one of Mansour’s earliest works to find widespread acclaim, which portrays a man staggering forward with the burden of Jerusalem on his back.

The persistence of ‘sumud’

There is an almost pastoral stoicism to Mansour’s work that implores contemplation rather than cries out for attention. These paintings are some of the most internationally recognised works to present a concept known as sumud, a Palestinian concept that has also been captured by artists and writers such as Ismail Shammouth, Mahmoud Darwish, Issam Badr and many others.

“The meaning of it in English is steadfastness,” explained Mansour. “For me, sumud is to not forget who we are and to fight all the time for our liberation. Not to give in to the demands of Israel — that if we want to live in this land, we have to live like a second-class people. That is mainly what Israel wants of us — to accept that they are the rulers of this land. Sumud, for me, means that I don’t agree with that. And I will fight that. That — in short — is the meaning of sumud.”

And in the case of Mansour’s art, that fight is characterised by existence rather than violence. His painting, Memory of Places, for example, shows a man dressed in traditional Palestinian garb standing before a painting of an olive grove. The destruction of Palestinian olive groves on the part of Israeli settlers has been a fierce point of contention in recent years, and Mansour’s meta-portrayal of such a grove — which we presume has been destroyed, for the old man is standing before a painting rather than actual trees — insists that the view consider the obliteration of Palestinian identity.

“A painting shouldn’t be full of force and bloody violence. If I paint just a beautiful landscape or people working in the field, it’s part of the sumud thinking.”


From the River to the Sea is a 2021 painting by Sliman Mansour

Red, green, black, and white

In the 1980s, Mansour was among the artists who began using what is today a well-known symbol of the Palestinian movement — the watermelon — after Israel passed legislation censoring political art. “They gave us rules like that we should not paint in certain colours,” said Mansour. “That we should not paint in red, green, black, and white. This rule was published in newspapers and everywhere, including in Israel.” According to Mansour, when Israeli authorities asserted the colour ban, painter Issam Badr asked if the colours could still be used to paint flowers. No, said an officer, flowers were forbidden. Nothing in red, green, and black. Not even a watermelon.

“They wanted to fight the notion of a Palestinian identity,” explained Mansour. “Because our existence here, for them, is ‘antisemitic’. That we exist, only. It’s not what we do — just our existence here is something that they hate. It does not fit their narrative about Israel. What are these people doing here? We came to a land that should be empty. So our existence here is something that makes them angry. Existence as workers — that we work for them in the fields or in factories and so on — that’s okay. But existence, existence as a national identity, as Palestinians — that’s what makes them mad.

“And that’s the reason they forbid us to paint in these colours. Because these colours are the colours of the Palestinian flag and the flag is a symbol of the people.” Because the colours of a watermelon tested the bounds of the ban, it became a symbol of resistance among artists and is now commonly displayed at pro-Palestinian protests and by supporters online.


Peace, by Sliman Mansour, was created with mud and wood.

When I told Mansour that the idea of banning colours from a painter made about as much sense as banning a musician from playing certain notes, he nodded, adding that painting against the ban could also have very real consequences.

“In 1982 to ’84, many artists painted everything in red, green, black, and white,” he said. “A landscape, a portrait — anything. And in 1984, an artist from Gaza painted the Palestinian flag and they put him in prison for six months. His name is Fathi Ghabin. He’s now in Gaza running away from the bombs and so on, but he spent six months imprisoned in ‘84.”

Mansour recalls that the ban even inspired a number of Israeli artists to back their Palestinian counterparts by collaborating on exhibitions held throughout the early 1980s. “A group of Israeli left-wing artists came to Ramallah to support us and we became friends with many of them and we started making exhibitions,” explained Mansour, “and always the main title of the exhibition was, Down with the Occupation, and, For a Two-State Solution, and things like that. I understand the feelings of the Israeli artists who came to support us at that time. They were very embarrassed. They told us very frankly that they were embarrassed.”

The dangers of contradicting the narrative

There has been a historically high number of journalists killed in the latest war on Gaza, along with scores of writers, poets, and other artists. Mansour asserts that this is all part of an effort on the part of Israel to not only diminish Palestinian culture but eliminate threats to an enforced narrative.

“The whole idea of Israel is narrative,” said Mansour. “It’s a story, and they are building over that — stories, stories — and they want to keep these stories alive, and they hate anybody who tells another story. So that’s why they hate writers and poets and people who speak another side of the story. And now the journalists.”

And he’s quick to point out that the current violence is far from the first instance, and that these wordsmiths have faced even greater retaliation than the painters both today and in the past.

Mansour noted the assassination of author and politician Ghassan Kanafani, who along with his niece was killed by a car bomb in 1972, with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad claiming responsibility.“They were afraid of artists who dealt with the mass media, newspapers, and so on,” Mansour recalled. “ A visual artist was not such a great threat to them. They were angry with the people who wrote.”


Palestinian refugee school children sit by a wall painting featuring Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, assassinated in 1972, in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the outskirts of Bethlehem on January 4, 2001

The struggle for humanity

It is no secret that there is a stark narrative divide dominating the question of Palestine and Israel. When I asked Mansour how we can overcome this division, he said that it must start with the basic recognition of human rights.

“If they accept our existence then there is another way of connection. If Israelis respect our existence here and accept it, then it would be much easier to talk to each other and to make a bridge between these narratives.

“We have to decide first that everybody has the same rights here. We have to come to some kind of agreement.”

How, I wondered, can that be achieved?

“It’s a big question,” Mansour said, “But at the end, I think our fight is to rehumanise ourselves. There is a kind of dehumanisation of the Palestinian people — that these people, the Palestinians, are not fully human beings. They are less than human beings, so they don’t deserve full rights and so we can take the land and we can kill them. The formula is very clear.

“I think the people of the world should understand that we don’t fight because we like to fight. We hate to fight, even. But we have to. It’s like a cage that we are put in, and we have to get out of that cage. It’s a trap and history put us in this trap, starting from the big wars. England, France, and all these imperialist states wanted to create a state here, and they write the history. Because history is written by the victorious, and we Palestinians are lost in this formula.

“Then the United States took over from France and Britain as the big imperialist country. So it’s a big game and we Palestinians feel very small. We are not strong enough to fight this fight. Big powers stand in our way — we need the support of ordinary people in the world.”


Three Cities Against the Wall, an exhibition that protested the separation wall construction by Israel in the occupied territories of Palestine, was held simultaneously in Ramallah, Tel Aviv and New York City in November 2005. Mansour helped to organise the event in Palestine


The ultimate aim

When it comes to the US, I asked Mansour what he wanted Americans to know about the situation, when their government has been supporting Israel militarily, financially, diplomatically and in shaping its narrative.

“This is the big problem because the United States is the main factor here. And if they change their policy, everything could be changed here. But there is a policy of keeping the American people uninformed. You keep them in the dark all the time. And the Americans I know tend to think that the United States is the world. So they don’t care about anything else. But for us, this is a big problem. This attitude of theirs is killing us.”

And if Americans do recognise their complacency and push for a change of policy, what does Mansour hope will be the outcome?

“The future is peace. Peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Maybe starting with the two-state solution with the help of Egypt and Jordan. I personally don’t care how, I just want peace. I’ve been living all my life in this turmoil and slaughter and it’s too much for the people in it. Everybody wants a break. But I’m sure at the end it will be one state that people are living in with equal rights. I think this is the main objective for every wise human being, whether they are Israeli or Palestinian. This is the only way we can live on this land.


“I have feelings about Jaffa, about Haifa, about Acre, about the sea, and I wouldn’t live in a country where I couldn’t visit these places. And I’m sure the Jews have feelings about the sea and many places in — they call it Judea and Samaria — in the West Bank, and so on. We Palestinians understand that here there were Jews before. We don’t deny their existence as they do our existence.”

Despite the violence of Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7 and the brutal Israeli invasion of Gaza that followed, Mansour holds on to that hope for peace and equality.

“I’m not Hamas. Hamas came yesterday and I’ve been here for many years. Hamas came because of the occupation. And my friends and the Palestinian people — they are very peaceful. They hate fighting. They hate war. It’s not that we love to make wars. We hate it and would love to live as normal human beings — in peace. That’s our ultimate aim.”


The artist, Sliman Mansour, in 1992

So what is the artist to do in times of conflict or war, I asked him. He’s been at it for 50 years, capturing the spirit of Palestinian struggle and sumud.

“In my case,” he replied, “I think I’m siding with the right side of history and I’m doing my best in my ability to show that. I don’t think there is a formula for what artists should do. But they should be truthful with their feelings, and they should feel with other people. I can easily go and work in my studio and forget about anything else and make flowers and nice girls and make exhibitions and sell and so on. But that’s not how I am built. And artists should not do that. They should be more active in their society.

“I believe in art as a social instrument, not as decoration for wealthy people’s houses.”


SvennoJ on 26 February 2024

Palestinian diplomat says blocking of humanitarian aid a ‘war crime’

Nada Tarbush, a diplomat at the Palestine Mission to the UN, has urged world governments to intervene and ensure the “urgent delivery of food, clean water and medicine via airdrops in Gaza”. “Blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid is a war crime. Using starvation as a means of warfare is a war crime. Collective punishment is a war crime,” she said in a post on X.

‘We must never become numb to ongoing Israeli genocide’: US Muslim group

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has decried recent Israeli abuses, including reports of the death of a Palestinian baby in northern Gaza because of hunger due to the Israel-imposed siege on the territory. “The daily war crimes committed by the forces of the far-right Israeli government are so common that Western media have largely stopped reporting on them,” CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement.

“We must never become numb to the ongoing Israeli genocide, forced starvation and ethnic cleansing that the Palestinian people are experiencing and which the Biden administration is enabling.”


Palestinians rescue survivors after an Israeli strike on the Shaheen family home in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Saturday


At least 10 killed as Israel shells people waiting for aid: Report

The Israeli military shelled and fired on crowds of Palestinians waiting for food aid trucks to arrive in Gaza City, killing 10 people, the Wafa news agency reports. At least 15 people were injured in the attack, which occurred on the coastal road in northern Gaza City on Sunday evening, and they have been transferred to the nearby al-Shifa Hospital.

Elsewhere in Gaza City on Sunday, the Israeli military killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens after bombing a three-storey home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood. Ambulances were unable to reach the injured, Wafa reports. Also on Sunday, Wafa reports that three people were killed, including a woman and a child, when the Israeli military bombed a home in Rafah in southern Gaza.

West Bank update: Israeli military installs surveillance cameras at Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israeli forces have erected a tower and placed surveillance cameras on it at the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, the Wafa news agency reports. The report comes as the Israeli government is expected to place restrictions on worshippers trying to pray at Islam’s third-holiest site during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts on March 10.

Elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military has arrested two men at the Awarta checkpoint near the city of Nablus. Earlier in the night, another man was arrested in Nablus after the Israeli military stormed the city and fired bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian resistance groups.

Raids have been reported elsewhere in the occupied West Bank in the following locations:

  • The city of Nablus
  • The town of Arabbuna in the Jenin refugee camp
  • The city of el-Bireh
  • The villages of Burqa and Shuqba, in the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate
  • Fire has been exchanged between Palestinian armed groups and the Israeli military at the Netsaniyaz checkpoint in Tulkarem

Children play in ruins of Rafah mosque

A child standing inside a damaged building stares at the wreckage of al-Farouq Mosque in Rafah on Sunday

Children play in one of the fallen domes of the Al-Farouq Mosque in Rafah

Israel has destroyed more than 500 mosques and churches since October 7, Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Sunday

Israeli journalist says he has received death threats over ‘anti-Semitic’ award speech

Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham says that he has received death threats for giving an “anti-Semitic” speech at the Berlin International Film Festival.

His film No Other Land – about young Palestinian activist Basel Adra, who is fighting against being displaced by Israeli settlers in the Masafer Yatta community in the occupied West Bank – won the Documentary Award at the festival.

Israel’s Channel 11 aired a section of Abraham’s acceptance speech – in which he criticised the “situation of apartheid” between him and Adra – and labelled it anti-Semitic, prompting a backlash against the journalist.

“In two days, we will go back to a land where we are not equal. I’m living under civilian law, and Basel is under military law,” he said in his speech. “We live 30 minutes from one another, but I have voting rights, and Basel does not have voting rights. I’m free to move wherever I want in this land, Basel is like millions of Palestinians locked in the occupied West Bank.”

Palestinian artist in London documents the Gaza war through her art

In London, renowned Palestinian Artist Malak Mattar is about to exhibit what she calls the most important artwork of her career.

The 25-year-old painter from Gaza, who came to the United Kingdom last October, has just finished a large canvas depicting real events of the war in Gaza and combining them into one single large painting called Last Breath. She says it is her way of documenting history.






As Israel continues lying through their teeth

COGAT claims ‘no limit’ on humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza

Israel’s coordination office for its activities in Palestine (COGAT) has released footage allegedly showing a humanitarian aid convoy in northern Gaza.

“There is no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid that can be sent to the civilian population of Gaza and northern Gaza,” it wrote in a post on X.

Earlier tonight, we reported that the Israeli military shelled and fired on crowds of Palestinians waiting for food aid trucks to arrive in Gaza City in northern Gaza, killing 10 people and injuring 15 more, according to the Wafa news agency.



SvennoJ on 26 February 2024

Israeli warplanes destroy heavy machinery critical for rescue efforts in Beit Lahiya

Israeli warplanes have destroyed all heavy machinery in the Beit Lahiya area north of the city of Jabalia.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reports from northern Gaza, where locals say this destruction of essential equipment is part of a larger effort by the Israeli military to impede rescue efforts for people trapped under the rubble.

What is this, some sick twist of "This hurts me more than it hurts you"

Hagari says Israeli military fighting with ‘with a heavy heart’ in Gaza

In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said that “Hamas has systematically embedded its terror infrastructure inside and under civilian areas in Gaza”, adding that Israeli forces are fighting “with a heavy heart” and are “aware of the tragic loss of civilian lives on both sides”.

“Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza, which is why we take extensive measures to minimise harm to the civilians Hamas puts in the crossfire,” he wrote.  Hagari added that Israel’s goal is to “dismantle Hamas and bring our hostages home” and “not to destroy Gaza or displace its people”.

The Israeli military has killed almost 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza since it began its offensive in October.


More on Israeli army’s plans for Gaza

As we reported earlier, the Israeli war cabinet has approved an Israeli army plan for “providing humanitarian assistance” in the Gaza Strip.

According to a brief statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office, the plan is reportedly designed to “prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern Strip and other areas”. However, the UN humanitarian organisation, OCHA, has said that people in Rafah are so desperate they are eating food immediately after taking it from trucks.

Rafah has been the only entry point for aid trucks into the Gaza Strip, but UNRWA says fewer than 35 trucks entered the besieged enclave on average per day last week. Aid convoys have struggled to move through Rafah to reach other areas after Israeli forces targeted and killed Palestinian police who were trying to help aid convoys navigate hungry and desperate crowds.



Israel’s military is targeting Palestinian police delivering aid

The Biden administration has called on Israel to stop attacking Palestinian police officers who escort aid trucks in Gaza, warning that a “total breakdown of law and order” is exacerbating an already severe humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.

That’s as the Israeli military is also destroying infrastructure from the north to the south, including hospitals, schools, roads, communication networks and the water system.


Israeli forces still firing near Nasser Hospital

Despite the Israeli military’s statement that it has completed operations inside Nasser Hospital, snipers are still in the vicinity of the hospital and, tragically, are still shooting at anything moving near it.

There is also still an ongoing blockade of relief convoys, stopping fuel or water supplies from reaching those inside the hospital.

The Israeli military previously conducted mass arrests of about 200 people in or around the hospital, including medical staff and patients. Their fate is unknown. Nobody knows where they are or what’s going to happen to them.

‘Not in our name’ – Jewish activists campaign against war on Gaza

Jewish people around the world are adding their voices to calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In New York City, home to the largest population of Jewish people globally outside of Israel, demonstrations demanding a halt to the bombardment of the besieged enclave have intensified in recent months.

Journalist associations mark international day for Palestinian journalists

Journalist unions and associations from more than 100 countries are marking today, Monday, February 26, as the International Day for Palestinian Journalists. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ) say they are holding the day in support of colleagues in Palestine.

The associations described the killing of 100 journalists in the four months since the war began as a “terrible and unjustified tragedy”. “Palestinian journalists are the eyes of the world in Gaza, and without them, the humanitarian crisis would go unseen,” the Australian journalists union MEAA said in a post on social media.

Aid trucks allowed to go to northern Gaza

Israel has allowed the entry of 10 aid trucks into the northern part of the Gaza Strip amid reports of starvation, according to Al Jazeera correspondents. This is likely to be only a trickle compared with the needs of the population, who are reportedly facing famine-like conditions and have been largely cut off from aid deliveries.

Last week, the World Food Programme announced it had to suspend its already limited operations in northern Gaza due to unsafe conditions, citing Israeli gunfire as well as “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” in the area.


Return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza not something Israel will ‘allow’: Report

One of the points of dispute in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas is the Palestinian group’s request to allow the return of displaced Gaza residents to their homes in the north of the Strip, says Israeli army radio correspondent Doron Kadosh in a post on X.

According to the post, Israel rejects the notion altogether, saying it’s not something it will “allow” as it wants to avoid a potential return of Hamas members.

Separately, Israel is reportedly considering setting up tent cities in Gaza’s central area and Khan Younis for residents who have lost their homes.

Doctors in Rafah’s tent hospital speak of spread of infectious diseases

Doctors in Rafah have built a tent hospital to treat patients in the Sultan neighbourhood. In a video posted on Instagram by Palestinian journalist Hassan Aslih, doctors spoke of the spread of infectious diseases as well as gastroenteritis, respiratory diseases, rashes and jaundice due to water contamination and lack of hygiene.

Lack of medicines and medical equipment is also affecting patients’ treatment, according to doctors. Israel’s bombardment has left only one-third of Gaza’s hospitals functional. Last week’s attacks on the Nasser Hospital, the second-largest hospital in the strip left the facility nonoperational.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the Israeli military partially withdrew from the hospital, but snipers were still positioned in the vicinity and were shooting at anything moving near it.

Makeshift tent school in Deir el-Balah brings glimmer of hope amid war

Some 625,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have been out of school as Israeli strikes destroyed or damaged nearly half of Gaza’s 700 schools. More than 12,300 children have been killed since Israel launched its brutal military offensive on October 7.

However, in Deir el-Balah, one makeshift school convening in a tent is giving hundreds of children a moment to step out of the death and destruction surrounding them and think about a future after the war.



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SvennoJ on 26 February 2024

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh resigns

Shtayyeh has handed his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas, reports Reuters. The PM, who has headed the Palestinian Authority’s 18th government since his appointment in March 2019, submitted his resignation at the opening of Monday’s government meeting in Ramallah.

Announcing his resignation, Shtayyeh said he was moved to step down due to the “unprecedented escalation” in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, and the “war, genocide and starvation in the Gaza Strip”. Shtayyeh noted there are “efforts to make the [Palestinian Authority] an administrative and security authority without political influence, and the PA will continue to struggle to embody the state on the land of Palestine despite the occupation”.

“I see that the next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the new reality in Gaza and the need for a Palestinian-Palestinian consensus based on Palestinian unity,” he added.

Palestinian presidency denounces Netanyahu’s plan to ‘evacuate’ Gaza civilians

Spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh says the plan, referenced by the Israeli prime minister in a Sunday interview with CBS, is ultimately aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza and reoccupying the land. He also blamed the US government for supporting Israel as it “continues its aggression” against Palestinians and called on it to change course to stop the “madness … before it is too late”.

Security Council ‘perhaps fatally’ undermined by Gaza inaction: UN chief

Antonio Guterres has criticised the UN Security Council’s failure to counter Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which he said had “perhaps fatally” undermined its authority.

Speaking at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, he said: “The council needs serious reform to its composition and working methods.”

Antonio Guterres says a full-scale Israeli military operation on Rafah would deliver a death blow to aid programmes in Gaza, where humanitarian assistance remains “completely insufficient”. He noted that such an offensive “would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there; it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programmes”.

Aid deliveries to Gaza cut in half in February: UNRWA

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees reports that an average of 98 aid trucks have reached Gaza per day in February, far below its target of 500. These deliveries brought in just 50 percent of the amount of aid that was delivered in January, UNRWA said in its latest situation update.

Aid delivery was impeded by “security constraints” and unforeseen closures at the only available border crossings – the Rafah and Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossings. Intense fighting and air strikes have continued to hit UNRWA shelters, threatening displaced Palestinian civilians and UNRWA staff. As of February 25, 158 UNRWA staff have been killed in the Gaza war, the agency said.

Rights chief decries disinformation attacks on the UN

The UN rights chief decried on Monday disinformation and other attacks that aim to “undermine the legitimacy” and work of the United Nations and other institutions, describing them as “profoundly destructive”.

Speaking at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s main annual session, Volker Turk slammed widespread “disinformation that targets UN humanitarian organisations, UN peacekeepers and my office”. “The UN has become a lightning rod for manipulative propaganda and a scapegoat for policy failures,” he warned.

“This is profoundly destructive of the common good, and it callously betrays the many people whose lives rely on it.”

His comments come as the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has come under intense attacks from Israel. More than 150 of its staff have been killed in relentless Israeli attacks since October 7. Israel has also accused the UNRWA staff of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attacks that triggered the Israeli military offensive. The UNRWA chief says Israel has yet to provide proof of its claims.

 

‘Life is not livable in northern Gaza’, say Palestinians

Hundreds of desperately hungry Palestinians from northern Gaza are now heading south to seek food. Several Palestinians told Al Jazeera that a complete lack of food in the north had recently driven them to eat animal feed – and that conditions were the worst they had ever seen.

“Life is not livable in the north,” said one of the men. “We reach moments where we don’t fear Israel any more and we don’t fear the siege. We only fear starvation.”




Israeli strikes target Lebanon’s Baalbek for first time since Gaza war

At least two simultaneous Israeli strikes have hit around the Lebanese city of Baalbek in the first bombardment of eastern Lebanon since regional hostilities erupted following the start of the war in Gaza, security sources confirmed to news agencies.

The Israeli military told Reuters it was “currently striking Hezbollah terror targets deep inside Lebanon” but provided no further details. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

A security source has told the AFP news agency that Israel’s air strike on Lebanon’s Baalbek targeted “a building housing a Hezbollah civilian institution”



SvennoJ on 26 February 2024

Israeli military continues to shell Gaza amid ICJ hearings

Despite the ongoing hearings at the ICJ, the Israeli military is continuing to shell parts of the eastern side of Gaza City, as well as Khan Younis and Rafah city.

More than 90 people have been killed and 164 injured in the past 24 hours.

Israel is ignoring ICJ order to enable aid delivery to Gaza: HRW

On January 26, the ICJ ruled Israel must urgently act to prevent genocide in Gaza, including by enabling “the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid”. One month later, Israel has “failed to comply” with this order, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Israel continues to obstruct the provision of basic services and the entry and distribution within Gaza of fuel and lifesaving aid, acts of collective punishment that amount to war crimes,” said the rights group.

Omar Shakir, HRW’s Israel and Palestine director, added: “The Israeli government is starving Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, putting them in even more peril than before the World Court’s binding order.”

What happened in Gaza while Israel was meant to act to stop genocide

A month ago, the ICJ gave Israel a month to report back on how it was preventing acts of genocide in Gaza – but the killing hasn’t stopped. Watch our video report below to find out what has happened in Gaza since the World Court’s order in late January:

Israel fails to take steps to comply with ICJ genocide ruling: Amnesty

One month after the ICJ ordered “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from the risk of genocide by ensuring sufficient humanitarian aid and basic services, Israel has failed to take even the bare minimum steps to comply, Amnesty International says.

“Not only has Israel created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, but it is also displaying a callous indifference to the fate of Gaza’s population by creating conditions which the ICJ has said places them at imminent risk of genocide,” said Heba Morayef, Middle East and North Africa director at the human rights group.

“Time and time again, Israel has failed to take the bare minimum steps humanitarians have desperately pleaded for that are clearly within its power to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” she added.

Gaza authorities detail Israeli abuses since ICJ ruling

Gaza’s Government Media Office says Israel has committed rampant attacks on Palestinian civilians since the top United Nations court ordered the country to take steps to prevent genocide in Gaza. According to the office, in the 30 days since the ICJ ruling, Israel has

  • killed at least 3,535 Palestinians, including 1,720 children and 12 journalists
  • injured 4,246 people
  • destroyed 17 civil government institutions
  • damaged 11 schools and universities
  • put one hospital out of service
  • destroyed two ambulances

Timeline: Attacks on aid convoys and aid seekers in Gaza

Israeli forces have once again opened fire on people waiting for aid in Gaza City. The injured are now being treated at al-Shifa Hospital. Here is list of some of the previous Israeli attacks on aid seekers and convoys:

  • February 19: Israeli forces open fire at crowds looking to receive aid in Gaza City. The attack sent people fleeing and killed at least one person.
  • February 5: A convoy of trucks en route to deliver food to northern Gaza was attacked by Israeli forces.
  • January 25: An Israeli attack killed at least 20 people waiting for humanitarian assistance in Gaza City.
  • December 29: Israeli soldiers fired on an aid convoy as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated as safe by the Israeli army.
  • November 7: An International Committee of the Red Cross aid convoy came under fire in Gaza City although the group did not assign responsibility for the attack.

Palestinians have consistently come under Israeli fire while waiting for aid

Palestinians have reported coming under attack by Israeli forces as they search for food assistance in Gaza, where millions of Palestinians are experiencing extreme food insecurity as Israel cuts off access to aid especially in the north of the Gaza Strip.

“Over the last few days there have been reports of ongoing shooting of people waiting for humanitarian supplies,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from Rafah in southern Gaza. “For the third day in a row, Palestinians have been reported killed and injured after being exposed to Israeli fire as they are trying to search for something to survive in the northern district.”

PRCS suspends coordination for Gaza medical missions for 48 hours

The PRCS has halted all coordination of medical missions in the Gaza Strip for 48 hours, citing its inability to guarantee the safety of rescue crews, patients and facilities due to the ongoing Israeli attacks and targeting of medical teams and hospitals.

Failure of aid delivery in Gaza ‘man-made’: UNRWA

Eighty-five percent of people in Gaza have been forced to flee after more than four months of the war, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said, adding that the majority of those displaced rely to some extent on aid provided by the agency.

“Aid struggles to enter #GazaStrip due to security constraints and temporary closures at both crossings. The crisis is a man-made disaster,” UNRWA said in a social media post.




Why can't we have this scaled up x 100

Jordan airdropping aid into Gaza

The Royal Jordanian Air Force carried out an airdrop across the Gaza Strip. It is the biggest airdrop operation so far to deliver much-needed aid to millions of Palestinians across the besieged coastal enclave. The operation deployed four C-130 planes, including one belonging to the French Air Force, Jordan army spokesperson Mustafa Hiyari has said.

The aid was dropped at 11 sites along the Gaza coast from its northern edge to the south for civilians to collect, Hiyari added. Previous airdrops that parachuted medicines and much-needed humanitarian provisions were sent to hospitals that the Jordanian army runs in Gaza.



SvennoJ on 26 February 2024

Israel says strikes near Baalbek in response to Hezbollah’s downing of drone

Israel’s army confirms its fighter jets have struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The strikes targeted sites used by Hezbollah for its aerial defence system, the army said.

It added that they came “in response to the launch of a surface-to-air missile” that downed an Israeli drone earlier in the day in southern Lebanon.

Israeli air strikes kill two people in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley

At least two people have been killed and three wounded as a result of two Israeli air strikes on the town of Budai near Baalbek in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, a Lebanese security source tells Al Jazeera.

Israeli air attacks carried out on southern Lebanon town

Three Israeli strikes have targeted the town of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera’s team on the ground.

The civil defence in southern Lebanon says two people have been killed in an Israeli raid that targeted a car in the town of Majadil in the Tyre district.

Hezbollah claims retaliation against Israel with dozens of rockets

The Lebanese group says it has fired 60 Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military headquarters in response to the Israeli air attack on Lebanon’s Baalbek region. At least two Hezbollah members were reported killed in that attack.

Shelling reported in southern Lebanese town of Al-Sarira

Israeli shelling has targeted the town of Al-Sarira in southern Lebanon for the first time after two air strikes hit nearby Wadi Al-Dalafa, according to local media.



Israel has become a little yappy dog, bitching at everyone that doesn't follow its narrative. Israel is no different from North Korea, self delusional keeping tight control of the narrative backed up by brutal force. The only difference is, the west fully backs Israel while completely ignoring what goes on inside North Korea.

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-02-22/ty-article-opinion/.premium/more-isolated-and-unhinged-than-ever-israel-is-becoming-the-north-korea-of-the-mideast/

Israel slams China for telling ICJ Palestinians have right to armed struggle

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson says Israel “laments the unfortunate statement of the Chinese legal adviser” at the ICJ, “according to which the armed struggle is part of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and a legitimate tool for achieving independence”.

“The laws of war do not allow a systematic and targeted attack against civilians and the use of civilians as human shields – two war crimes that Hamas commits under the title of ‘armed struggle’,” Lior Haiat said.

“At the current time, the Chinese statement could be interpreted as support for the murderous terrorist attack by Hamas on the 7th of October,” he added. Haiat went on to say that “China should ask itself why the terrorist organisation Hamas was quick to welcome the words of its legal adviser at the ICJ”.

 


Germany concerned about not having enough censorship?

Germany probes denunciation of Gaza war at Berlin film festival

German officials will investigate how Berlin International Film Festival winners were able to make “one-sided” comments condemning Israel’s war on Gaza at the event’s finale, a government spokeswoman has said. At Saturday’s awards ceremony, several winners made comments about the war which pro-Israel groups slammed as “anti-Semitic”.

US filmmaker Ben Russell, wearing a Palestinian scarf, said Israel was committing “genocide” with its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra said people in Gaza were being “massacred” by Israel, to applause from the audience.

Please do not upset Israel

‘Gentlest kid’: Tributes pour in for US serviceman who self-immolated to protest Gaza war

People have paid homage to Aaron Bushnell, the 25-year-old US Air Force member who set himself on fire outside of the Israeli embassy in protest of what he called a US-backed “genocide” in Gaza. Bushnell yelled “free Palestine” as he burned. He later succumbed to his injuries.

Talia Jane, a reporter who has covered the act of protest and obtained video footage of it, said in a social media post that a friend of Bushnell’s described him as “the kindest, gentlest, silliest little kid in the Air Force”. Jane cited another associate of Bushnell, who called him one of the “most principled” people they knew.

Tributes poured out over social media, with “RIP Aaron” trending on X. Some have criticised US media coverage that failed to mention Bushnell’s stated purpose for the act, or gave it little attention.

“How would American media cover a Russian soldier self-immolating in Moscow to protest Putin?” progressive organiser Waleed Shahid asked in a social media post. “It would probably mention a reason for the tragic act of defiance in the headline."

‘Unless we invade them’: Biden administration pressed on lax approach to Israel

When asked about Israel’s rejection of a Palestinian state, the Biden administration has been arguing that Washington cannot dictate its allies’ policies.

But critics say Biden is not merely letting Israel pursue its own plans. He is enabling and funding them. Washington has vetoed three Gaza ceasefire proposals at the UN Security Council and the White House is working with Congress to secure $14bn in additional aid to Israel.

Today, reporters at the State Department pressed spokesperson Matthew Miller on the issue. “You can use all the leverage you want, including weapons that you sell to Israel, so this plan [the two-state solution] is at least on the right path for implementation,” one journalist said.

Miller appeared to reject the notion that the US could influence Israeli policy. "People often tend to forget that Israel – like other countries in the region – is a sovereign country that makes its own decisions. The United States does not dictate to Israel what it must do, just as we don’t dictate to any country what it must do,” he said.

Another journalist interrupted saying, “Unless we invade them.”


State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says the US does not ‘dictate to any country what it must do’

His Pinocchio nose betrays him.

Hind Rajab: Were Israeli troops around where the six-year-old was killed?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/26/hind-rajab-were-israeli-troops-in-the-area-where-6-year-old-was-killed

An Al Jazeera investigation has shown that three Israeli tanks were around the car where a six-year-old girl was killed after hours of pleading for help.

However, Israel’s army denied this on Saturday, saying its troops were not in the area on January 29, the day Hind Rajab and her family were killed.

According to a report by the Times of Israel, Israeli officials said an initial investigation showed that troops were not present in the Tal al-Hawa suburb of Gaza City on January 29 when Hind and five other family members were killed.

“It appears that … troops were not present near the vehicle or within firing range of the described vehicle in which the girl was found,” a statement from the Israeli army read.

The statement directly contradicts the evidence as recorded in the circulating phone call between the PRCS and Hind.

“Also, given the lack of forces in the area, there was no need for individual coordination of the movement of the ambulance or another vehicle to pick up the girl,” the statement said, which goes counter to PRCS’s statement that it had been working to coordinate with the Israeli army.

The statement went on to claim that medics are moving without restriction throughout the Gaza Strip, which goes against multiple accounts out of Gaza.

What did Al Jazeera find?

Sanad, Al Jazeera’s investigations unit, analysed phone records and satellite imagery to prove that there were Israeli troops near the car belonging to Hind’s family that day. The vehicle, the investigation found, had been stopped by the Israeli military near a petrol station in Tal al-Hawa around early afternoon on January 29.

A phone call from Hind’s uncle to a relative in Germany triggered the PRCS intervention. Al Jazeera obtained messages between the relatives, time-stamping the last few hours of the deadly ordeal when Hind and one of her cousins, 15-year-old Layan, were still alive.

Layan, who was the first on the call with the PRCS, identified Israeli tanks near the car, saying: “They are firing at us; the tank is beside me.” Within minutes, a round of what sounded like gunfire went off and a screaming Layan went quiet.

When Hind picked up the phone and spoke to the PRCS, she also identified Israeli military vehicles near the family car. “The tank is next to me. [It’s] coming from the front of the car,” she said. Around three hours later, the connection with Hind was cut off.

Al Jazeera’s analysis of satellite images taken at midday on January 29 corroborated Hind and Layan’s accounts, and put at least three Israeli tanks just 270m (886 feet) from the family’s car, with their guns pointed at it.

When rescuers found the remains of Hind and her family on February 10, the car was riddled with bullet holes likely coming from more than one direction.

What happened to the ambulance?

Medics Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun arrived at the scene around 6pm on January 29, after hours of the PRCS trying to get permission from the Israeli army. “I’m nearly there,” Zeino told his colleagues as the ambulance edged closer to Hind. But the two rescue workers never got to her.

“We heard gunfire, we couldn’t imagine [they] would fire at them,” Rana Faqih, the PRCS official who held the line with Hind, told Al Jazeera. After the gunfire, there was complete silence.

It was only 12 days later on February 10 that the remains of the two men were found, following the Israeli military’s withdrawal. The ambulance was destroyed and appeared to have been run over by a tank, according to Sanad’s analysis.



SvennoJ on 26 February 2024

The reports are definitely escalating, good thing, keep the pressure on and keep calling out the USA and Europe for their complicity in genocide.

Here's the another big thing that happened today

Final day of the hearings in the IJC case about the occupation of Palestine

Israel-Palestine conflict did not start on October 7 – Yildiz

Turkey’s representative at the ICJ hearing says the conflict could have been settled by now if international law and human rights law had been upheld and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people had been recognised.

“The conflict is not about a certain Palestinian faction or group. The conflict dates back to an earlier century,” he says. “The real obstacle to peace is obvious,” he adds, identifying the “deepening occupation by Israel of the Palestinian territories” and a failure to implement a two-state solution as the underlying issues.

Israeli attacks on holy sites encouraged by politicians, says Yildiz

Turkey’s legal representative highlights Israeli actions that have violated the sanctity of holy sites, including Al-Aqsa Mosque. He claims incidents such as the storming of the mosque by settlers were a response to “heinous calls by Israeli politicians”.

In his closing comments, he says Turkey is concerned by the Israeli government’s plan to limit access for Muslims to holy sites during the holy month of Ramadan.


A solution should not ‘put the blame squarely on one party’, says Zambia

Zambia’s solicitor general, Marshal Mubambe Muchende, says his country recognises the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination as well as the legitimate security needs of the Israeli people.

He adds that both have a duty to respect international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

He concludes that a solution to the conflict should not place “blame squarely on one party” but rather advance a negotiated solution that would culminate in a two-state solution.

Israeli occupation an ‘affront to international justice’ – League of Arab States

The organisation’s representative, Abdel Hakim El Rifai, tells the World Court that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is the “last oppressive, expansionist apartheid settler colonial occupation still standing in the 21st century”.

“This prolonged occupation is an affront to international justice. The failure to bring it to an end has led to the current horrors perpetrated against the Palestinian people, amounting to genocide.

“There can be no moral or juridical justification for occupying lands, killing, terrorising and displacing their populations. “Only the rule of law, not the prevailing law of the jungle, will pave the way to peace in the whole region."

“Ending the occupation is the gateway to peaceful coexistence.”

Israel perpetrates ‘racial domination’ against Palestinians, says Arab League

Ralph Wilde, second representative of the League of Arab States (LAS), begins by saying the “Palestinian people have been denied the exercise of their legal right to self-determination through the more than century-long, violent, colonial racist effort to establish a nation-state exclusively for the Jewish people in the land of Mandatory Palestine”.

His presentation then addresses the violations of international law arising out of the Israeli regime of what he describes as “racial domination and apartheid perpetrated against the Palestinian people”.

He then looks at the “existential illegality of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem since 1967”.

Arab League concludes oral arguments with words by poet killed in Israeli air strike

In his closing remarks, Ralph Wilde says: “There is no backdoor legal basis for Israel to maintain the occupation, through the imperatives of occupation and human rights law.”

He then concludes his presentation by quoting Refaat Alareer, the Palestinian writer, poet and activist who was killed in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza in December.

“If I must die, you must live to tell my story. If I must die, let it bring hope. Let it be a story.”


OIC calls for peace based on ‘two-state solution’

Hissein Brahim Taha, secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), says the body condemns the Israeli aggression on Gaza, which he said has given “rise to massive war crimes and a risk of genocide”.

He then denounced crimes committed by Israel in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Taha then said the OIC calls on a “just lasting and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution”.

He also requested that countries “cease exporting arms and munitions to the occupation authorities, knowing that the army and the settlers are using them against the Palestinian people”.

OIC calls on ICJ to bring Israeli-Palestinian conflict ‘back under the spotlight of the law’ “Israel’s unjustified and unpunished use of violence against the Palestinians leads to more violence in response” that, in turn, leads to an “infernal cycle of vengeance”, says the OIC’s second representative Monique Chemillier-Gendreau.

“Vengeance naturally favours the strongest. This is the murderous chain of events tragically taking place,” she said, adding that an impartial third party was needed to break this chain. “It falls to your court when you hand down this opinion to bring all of this conflict back under the spotlight of the law,” Chemillier-Gendreau said.


Israel’s war on Gaza ‘shameful attempt to create another Nakba’: AU tells ICJ

The African Union’s first representative, Hajer Gueldich, says “nothing can justify the unspeakable suffering and horrors inflicted on the population of Gaza”. She also said the Palestinian people have been “the victims of subjugation, displacement and dispossession”.

The Israeli “ruthless war machine” has led to the devastation of the Palestinian population, schools, places of worship, homes and hospitals, Gueldich said. This case, Gueldich argued, is an opportunity for the court to end Israel’s “impunity”.

In her closing remarks, she reminded the ICJ that the case did not hinge on a dispute between two “equal parties, but an asymmetrical situation in which an oppressed people is confronted with an occupying power”.

International community let Palestinian people down: African Union at ICJ

The African Union’s second representative, Professor Mohamed Helal, reiterates the bloc’s call to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. “The injustice being wrought against the people of Gaza makes it imperative to end Israel’s impunity and hold it accountable for the rule of law,” he said.

Helal warned, “The court of history may very well judge the credibility of international law on the basis of the outcome of these proceedings.” “The international community has let down the Palestinian people, but the African Union has faith that in this court, justice will prevail,” he said.

“The betrayal of the sacred trust that is the self-determination of the Palestinian people is an enduring injustice that pleads to be remedied,” he concluded.


ICJ case shows most of the world understands Palestinian plight: Professor

Muhannad Ayyash, a professor of sociology at Mount Royal University in Cape Town, says the ICJ case considering the legality of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories shows that global opinion, especially countries from the Global South, sympathises with and understand the nature of the Palestinian struggle.

“It shows definitively that the majority of the world not only stands with the Palestinian struggle but also understands the nature of the Palestinian plight. Words like ‘colonial domination’, ‘settler-colonialism’, ‘apartheid’, ‘genocide’ were used throughout the hearings by a number of different states, largely from the Global South,” Ayyash told Al Jazeera.

“So this was really important in the shaping of global opinion and of public discourse,” he added.

ICJ case has received ‘little attention’ in Israel

While the world waits for an ICJ decision on the status of the occupied Palestinian territories, the case has been largely ignored in Israel itself.

“First of all, there’s a real awareness here that the ICJ has no powers of implementation and is ignored by countries that end up being ruled against,” Dan Perry, a reporter in Tel Aviv, told Al Jazeera.

“Secondly, they’re so distracted by the extremely messy situation in Gaza, which also, of course, attaches to a different case before the ICJ. That really has priority. The West Bank in general is currently on the back burner.”


A Palestinian woman crosses a street that has been bulldozed by Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024



Qwark on 26 February 2024

The ICJ case so far is a joke. A lot countries crying, yet noone is willing to actually lift a finger against Israel or it's allies outside of this court. You would think that the Arabian and African world combined would be a bit stronger than this.

Stop sending oil and other vital products to Israel and there allies, isolate them, sanction them. Hell stop exporting LNG and oil to the EU and UK as long as they send weapons to Israel. Wanna stop weapon exports from Europe to Israel stop exporting LNG to Europe. Drop them in another energy crisis. Show them you can hit their economy too and hard.

This whole case is just a big virtue signal from countries who are not willing to stand for their ideals if it costs them a bit of money. Yet the Palestinians are paying the price for it.



Please excuse my (probally) poor grammar