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Friday, May 31, 2024
Russians With Attitude on X: "By @AndrisIoannis: During the last couple of weeks, we witnessed the most brazen and escalatory attacks against Russia, carried out by Ukraine, with presumably the knowledge and support of its Western backers and enablers. These attacks took aim at critical elements or Russia’s https://t.co/UutaE3vocV" / X
Robin Monotti on X: "PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: 'The West Has Placed the Survival of the World in the Hands of Three Artificial States': "All of the trouble in the world revolves around three artificial states: Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. Ukraine was part of Russia for longer than the United States has https://t.co/MeopegjBKB" / X
[Salon] Cultural genocide in Gaza - ArabDigest.org
Cultural genocide in Gaza
Summary: as the death and destruction wrought on Gaza by the IDF continues unchecked few have given thought to the concomitant erasure of cultural history that Israel is systematically carrying out in the Strip.
Joe Biden’s red line has not been crossed. So said John Kirby the National Security Council spokesperson on Wednesday as Israel continues its offensive into Rafah, one that on 26 May saw the killing of at least 45 civilians sheltering in an Israeli-declared ‘safe zone’. Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragic mishap” while extremist supporters of his National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took to social media to celebrate “the central bonfire in Rafah.”
As the atrocities pile up one upon the other day after day after day a sort of numbness sets in, a dangerous phenomenon that allows, for example, a red line to disappear in the haze of yet another Israeli missile strike.
Joe Biden was the vice-president in 2012 when another red line vanished, that time the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator.
Here in the UK as the election campaign unrolls, the government of Rishi Sunak has studiously avoided speaking of red lines with the Foreign Secretary going only as far as to urge the IDF to carry out a "swift, comprehensive & transparent” investigation into Sunday’s attack. That prompted the UK head of Amnesty to comment “You’d have to be totally detached from reality to expect that the IDF will adequately investigate Sunday’s attack.”
Keir Starmer said he was “horrified” by the attack and renewed his call for a ceasefire but the Labour Party seemed more concerned with sending out the message that the alleged anti-Semitism of the party under Jeremy Corbyn was history. Starmer refused to say if the first Black woman elected to parliament, Diane Abbott, would be allowed to run as a Labour candidate and on Wednesday evening the party deselected a candidate for liking a tweet that was apparently displaying anti-Semitism.
Corbyn was booted out of Labour last week after he announced he was standing as an Independent in his North Islington riding. (A year ago Labour’s National Executive banned him from running for the party.)
As the Rafah offensive continues and with a senior advisor to Netanyahu announcing that the war will continue for “at least another seven months” a little noted aspect of the Israeli campaign has been the systematic destruction of the cultural history of Gaza.
In March the board of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) an academic organisation representing over 500 institutions released a statement that decried the “accelerating scale of genocidal violence being inflicted on the Palestinian population of Gaza” while noting “the concomitant cultural genocide that is the result of the wanton destruction of the built environment and civilian infrastructure of the Gaza Strip.”
The statement quoted an earlier report by the Arab Regional Group at the International Council of Monuments (ICOMOS) that noted as of 9 January “more than 200 of the 325 registered sites in Gaza considered of national or global historic, archaeological, natural, religious and humanitarian importance have been destroyed or severely damaged by the Israeli military.”
The Israeli occupation destroyed the central archive of Gaza municipality containing thousands of documents, many more than a hundred years old [photo credit: Birzeit University]
The MESA statement notes that among the many cultural sites destroyed or severely damaged are over three hundred mosques and four churches some amongst the oldest in the world. Ten museums have been destroyed together with nineteen cultural centres, five public libraries and archives, four universities and their libraries, six publishing houses and three media and artistic production companies.
Traditional markets have been razed to the ground, archaeological sites, including the Roman necropolis (Ard al-Moharbeen) in northern Gaza despoiled and cemeteries desecrated.
Among those cemeteries are two under the authority of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) one in Gaza City and the other in Zuwaidah.
Arab Digest asked the CWGC for information on the cemeteries and the fate of its employees maintaining them. We were referred to a statement issued on 9 May which announced that all its workers and their immediate families had been safely removed to Egypt. The statement added:
We are aware that both cemeteries have suffered damage, but the extent is currently unknown. We will, however, restore those sites to a befitting standard as and when circumstances allow.
MESA notes that the cultural destruction ongoing in Gaza violates Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting the destruction of property by an Occupying Power; the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, ratified by Israel; Article 6 of the 1972 International Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage; the ICRC’s Rule 38 on customary rules of international law (IHL) which states that parties to a conflict “must respect cultural property.”
Embedded in the MESA statement is a paragraph that deserves to be quoted in full:
The current multipronged attacks against Gaza appear calculated to achieve nothing less than the total erasure of the Palestinians and their history from this small coastal strip. Horrendous in its nature and scope, this war is also just the most recent, if also most deadly, episode of a hundred-year-long policy, actively abetted and openly supported by the United States, along with a succession of other Western powers, to facilitate the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland, erase their material and cultural claims to it and by extension their historical memory, and indeed deny their existence as a people. In short, Israel is engaging in cultural genocide against the Palestinian people with the active support of its American and European allies.
A question then to our governments (and governments in waiting). Does your unwavering support for Israel include cultural genocide? Or is that a red line too far?
Thursday, May 30, 2024
You Can’t Turn Back the Clock on Genocide - TomDispatch.com
You Can’t Turn Back the Clock on Genocide - TomDispatch.com
Joshua Frank, Israel's Onslaught of Revenge
May 30, 2024
Forget the dead for a moment and think about the living. We're talking about a miniscule, 25-mile strip of land on which, before recent events began, an estimated 2.4 million people lived, went to school, worshipped, farmed, did whatever. When Israel responded to Hamas's nightmarish October 7th attack by bombing northern Gaza into rubble and sending in its military, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed a "complete siege" of the region with "no electricity, no food, no fuel" for what he called "human animals." The Israeli military did indeed promptly proceed to destroy most of the homes, schools, and hospitals, you name it in northern Gaza, while encouraging hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants to flee south, many of whom finally ended up in the city of Rafah, where an estimated nearly 1.4 million refugees were lodged, often in crude tent encampments.
Now, jump seven months or so and the Israeli military is, step by step, moving into and destroying parts of Rafah, while once again encouraging its population to flee. In the first weeks after they began doing so, it was estimated that at least one million (yes, 1,000,000!) Gazans did indeed flee that city. As Philippe Lazzarini, head of the chief U.N. agency that aids Palestinians, described it, "Every time they are forced to leave behind the few belongings they have: mattresses, tents, cooking utensils, and basic supplies that they cannot carry or pay to transport."
And it's not just the Muslim Gazans who are suffering. The small Christian community there has been brutalized and largely destroyed, too. Talk about a hell on earth! Worse yet, as of now, there's no end in sight and -- imagine this -- the Biden administration nonetheless continues to plan to send vast quantities of new weaponry to Israel.
With that in mind, let TomDispatch regular Joshua Frank explore the damage being done and what to make of it. Tom
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
Norman Finkelstein on X: "THE BLIMP AND THE GALLOWS (29 May 2024) Jeffrey Goldberg began his career as an accessory to torturing Palestinian detainees in an Israeli prison. He then moved on to greener pastures as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s stenographer in the US media, where, inter alia, he lobbied at the https://t.co/Az3B4xzW8B" / X
Fr. Bob's Reflection for Trinity Sunday
I'd like to recall the words Jesus told Nicodemus. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son."
Oscar Romero, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador, once said that if this short message represents the Gospel, then Jesus is the one who professes the homily, which explains to us that God is love. That God is power, that the Spirit of God is upon Jesus and He is the divine word. Jesus told us a great deal about God. That God is love, life and goodness.
To be a whole person, we have to have a relationship with God. As humans, we are social creatures and do not like being out of relationship with those around us or our God. The worst moments of our lives are usually when we fall out of relationships with others.
Think about it. When you were rejected, or split up with your spouse. When you were cut off from family and friends, or perhaps when you felt betrayed by a friend, or felt isolated. We do not even like going to the movies or out to dinner alone. Solitary confinement is seen as a harsh and horrible form of punishment.
We are in constant need of union. Rejection is such a terrible hurt, because we need to be connected. So, why this driving need for union? The answer lies simply and profoundly in today's Feast of the Holy Trinity: We are made in the image and likeness of God. And God is communion, relationship. And therefore, so are we.
The Trinity says God is relationship, and so we search and seek. The Trinity says God is love, and so we love. God is love and unity, so we strive for the same. Think of the most satisfying moments in your life. I would suspect they were times where you felt safe and loved. When you sat in your mother's lap, or when you were held or hugged. When you were affirmed, or in the presence of someone you love. When you had someone in your life.
Relationship is what God is all about: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is no wonder that we, who are created in His image and likeness, are also essentially about relationships. Still, the Trinity is difficult to explain. In fact, I would not recommend trying to explain it.
If anyone asks, just say, "It is about me and about God, and about relationships."
I once heard a story about a young boy flying a kite on a cloudy day. The kite could not be seen from the ground. Someone asked the boy, "How do you know the kite is up there? You can't see it." The boy replied, "I know it is there. I can feel it when I the tug the string."
So, don't get caught up in the details of the Trinity. My friends, reflect on your personal exprience of God. And soon, like the boy in the story, you will find that the sight is unimportant. When it comes to God and His goodness, what is important is feeling the tug.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Robert Warren, S.A.
Spiritual Director
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
[Salon] Palestine Talks | In conversation with Max Blumenthal
[Salon] Palestine Talks | In conversation with Max Blumenthal - micheletkearney@gmail.com - Gmail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g53T-x1o4OU
Palestine Talks | In conversation with Max Blumenthal (Part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuo4JU-qncM
Palestine Talks | In conversation with Max Blumenthal (Part 2)
SSCP-Staff-Memo_Morens-5.22.pdf
SSCP-Staff-Memo_Morens-5.22.pdf
Page 1 of 35
STAFF MEMORANDUM
TO: Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Republican Members
FROM: Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Republican Staff
DATE: May 22, 2024
RE: Allegations of Wrongdoing and Illegal Activity by Dr. David Morens, Senior
Advisor to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases former-Director,
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Order of 24 May 2024 - 192-20240524-ord-01-00-en.pdf
Order of 24 May 2024 - 192-20240524-ord-01-00-en.pdf
Copyright © 2024 Intrigue Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Following South Africa’s request earlier this month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday reiterated and sharpened its orders from January:
The court reiterated its call on Hamas for the "immediate and unconditional release" of hostages, and for Israel to ensure the "unhindered provision at scale” of urgently needed aid, and
Noting the “catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians… had deteriorated further”, the ICJ called on Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part".
Interestingly, some of the court's judges dispute what that last bit actually means. In separate opinions, four argue the ruling isn't a blanket order for Israel to cease fire, but rather only restricts Israel's actions to the extent they engage the Genocide Convention (the basis of South Africa’s case against Israel).
A fifth judge argues the opposite, claiming the court has “in explicit terms" ordered Israel to "halt its offensive in Rafah”.
So either way, how have Israel and Hamas responded?
Israel says it "has not and will not" carry out operations that breach the Genocide Convention, and
Hamas has welcomed the ICJ ruling, while saying it's still "not enough" (the group didn't address the ICJ's call to release the hostages).
Israel then announced it’d found three more dead hostages (including a Mexican tourist), before Hamas went on to claim it had captured more Israeli soldiers (a claim Israel denies), and fired ~eight rockets at Tel Aviv.
Later Sunday, Israel conducted airstrikes on tents sheltering Palestinians near Rafah, claiming it killed two "senior" Hamas targets. But after reports of 45+ civilian deaths, graphic footage, and widespread condemnation, Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has now described the strike as a "tragic mistake".
Meanwhile, an incident yesterday (Monday) between Egyptian and Israeli troops near Rafah has left an Egyptian soldier dead, though it’s unclear what exactly happened. The two neighbours’ 1979 peace deal has been a key stabilising force in the region, but ties have grown frosty as the humanitarian toll in Gaza mounts.
And that brings us to today (Tuesday), which is when the recent move by Ireland, Norway, and Spain to recognise the State of Palestine takes effect. The argument is that, by joining 140 others, their recognition helps pave the way for talks on a two-state solution “between two sovereign states on an equal footing”.
But many European (and Western) countries still argue a Palestinian state should come via direct negotiations between the two sides, including on the recognition of Israel itself (~25 Arab and Muslim-majority countries don't recognise Israel).
And that's a lot for a single long weekend…
INTRIGUE’S TAKE
As ever, the timing here is interesting. Israel-Hamas talks are due to resume this week, which makes us wonder if any of this is an effort to boost negotiation positions, or even derail the talks.
But either way, a pause still looks like a stretch.
We see four possible triggers for any pause: i) a decision by Hamas to release the hostages, ii) the capture or killing of top Hamas leaders (Sinwar and Deif), iii) the ousting of Netanyahu in Israel, and/or iv) any meaningful withdrawal of US support for Israel.
But these triggers are - to varying degrees and for different reasons - still unlikely:
Hamas has little incentive to release its hostages (and cede its leverage) so long as Israel vows to destroy the group either way
Hamas leaders are still managing to lead operations and hold 100+ hostages despite seven months of Israeli bombardment
Israel's leadership is split and this latest Hamas flex highlights the limits of Netanyahu’s strategy, but he continues to benefit from a 'rally around the flag' effect (possibly boosted by the ICJ’s ruling), and
It's hard to see any US administration stepping away from Israel during an election year, particularly as polling from April still shows high favourability towards Israel (higher than for the Supreme Court).
So for now, we still see more of the same ahead.
Monday, May 27, 2024
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Order of 24 May 2024 - 192-20240524-ord-01-00-en.pdf
Order of 24 May 2024 - 192-20240524-ord-01-00-en.pdf
FM: John Whitbeck
Anyone watching the oral presentation of the latest ICJ Order (at the link below) in the genocide case against Israel would have expected it to order an immediate halt to Israel's military offensive against Rafah and would have believed that it had unambiguously done so.
However, while Israeli politicians instantly blasted ther ICJ's Order and promised to ignore it, some Israelis have started to argue that the Order does not require Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah but only to conduct it in a manner that, reflecting the wording of the Genocide Convention, does not "inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part," which, of course, they assert that Israel is not doing and could and would never do.
Indeed, HAARETZ has published an article entitled "ICJ Ruling Doesn't Tie Israel's Hands in Rafah, but Israel Must Prioritize Humanitarian Situation."
How so? It's all a question of commas.
As all lawyers know, commas can have a profound impact on meaning by determining whether a phrase is "restrictive" or "descriptive".
By way simple example, consider the sentence "John likes women who are beautiful." As written, the phrase "who are beautiful" is restrictive, making the sentence applicable only to John's sentiments toward beautiful women while not addressing his sentiments toward women who are not beautiful. However, if a comma were inserted after "women", the phrase "who are beautiful" would become "descriptive", meaning that all women are, at least in John's eyes, beautiful and that John likes all women.
The ICJ's order relating to Israel's Rafah offensive requires Israel, "in conformity with its obligations" under the Genocide Convention, to "[i]mmediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
If there were no commas in this order, the "which ... part" phrase, which the court presumably judged necessary to include since it was ruling in the context of compliance with obligations under the Genocide Convention, would be restrictive but apply only to "any other action", and the order would unambiguously require an immediate halt to Israel's military offensive in the Rafah Governorate.
If the first comma were omitted, the "which ... part" phrase would be descriptive, and the order would unambiguously require an immediate halt to Israel's military offensive in the Rafah Governorate.
If ", and any other action" were omitted, the "which ... part" phrase would be descriptive, and the order would unambiguously require an immediate halt to Israel's military offensive in the Rafah Governorate. (It is unlikely that the reference to "any other action" was added with the express intention of rendering an otherwise obligatory order non-obligatory.)
However, the inclusion of both commas makes the order not totally unambiguous, and, if one interpets it on a stand-alone, out-of-context basis, it is not totally laughable to argue that the "which ... part" phrase is restrictive with respect to both "any other action" and the "military offensive" in the Rafah Governorate, thereby rendering the halt of all aspects of Israel's military offensive in the Rafah Governorate not necessarily obligatory.
Since it is barely imaginable that the court's majority was unaware of these basic comma rules, it is probable the majority of the judges preferred to have an impressive 13-2 majority for the order as punctuated, with only the Ugandan judge and the ad hoc Israeli judge dissenting, rather than having a somwhat less impressive majority for a totally unambiguous order, being confident that most people are not nitpicking lawyers and would therefore interpret this order, as the argumentation within the Order made clear and as most commentators have done, in the manner that the majority of the judges wished it to be interpreted, as obligatory.
In any event, this element of ambiguity opens up interesting possibilities with respect to the forthcoming UN Security Council resolution to require compliance with the ICJ's orders.
If the Israeli government were to adopt as its official position the commas-permitted interpretation of the ICJ's order as not requiring it to halt its military offensive in Rafah, which would automatically and instantly become the U.S. government's official position, and if the proposed resolution were to simply require compliance with the ICJ's orders without specifically requiring a cessation of Israel's military offensive in Rafah or in the Gaza Strip as a whole, there would be no rational reason for the United States to veto the resolution.
After all, the U.S. government has itself been publicly urging Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing and permit a surge of humanitarian assistance, and it would be difficult, even for the United States, to justify a veto on the basis of the third order, to permit access to the Gaza Strip for UN-mandated fact-seekers, alone.
In these circumstances, it is conceivable that Israel might permit the United States to abstain in the vote on such a resolution. It is even conceivable that the United States might make a limited assertion of sovereignty and independence by abstaining even if Israel did not grant it permission to do so.
In this context, it is worth recalling that, when the United States abstained on a recent Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire, it stunned the world by declaring that Security Council resolutions are non-binding, a claim that was and remains more outlandish than a potential claim that, on a strict reading of the wording and punctuation of the ICJ's new order regarding the cessation of Israel's military offensive in Rafah, that order is not necessarily obligatory.
The Complicity of Israeli Academia
The Complicity of Israeli Academia
Maya Wind: I study how settler societies reproduce themselves through violence—not only through militaries and the security state, but also through ostensibly civilian institutions. Israeli universities are sometimes thought of as independent of the state, but they are actually central to sustaining it. I’m a Jewish Israeli, but for over a decade I’ve been based in the North American higher education system, where I’ve witnessed how Israeli universities are often understood in the West as bastions of liberalism, democracy, and freedom. I was struck by the gap between this narrative about Israeli universities and what Palestinian scholars and activists have been saying for decades. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, formed in 2004, has called for a boycott of Israeli universities, which [PACBI founding committee member] Omar Barghouti claims are “one of the pillars of [Israel’s] oppressive order.” I wrote this book to research this question posed by Palestinians: How are Israeli universities complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights?
Saturday, May 25, 2024
Friday, May 24, 2024
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