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US President Donald Trump (R) meets with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) at the White House on February 11, in Washington DC, United States. [Avi Ohayon – GPO – Anadolu Agency]
US President Donald Trump criticised Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday evening for not granting a pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his ongoing corruption trial, prompting a firm reply from the Israeli president’s office.
Speaking to reporters about Netanyahu’s visit to Washington and other political and security issues, Trump said: “President Herzog should be ashamed of himself, a pardon over this trial that’s going on. The president of Israel, the primary power he’s got is the power to give pardons.”
Repeating his criticism, Trump added: “he said he’s given it five different times, but he doesn’t want to do it, because I guess he loses his power. I think the people of Israel should really shame him. He is disgraceful for not giving it.”
In response, the office of Isaac Herzog said: “The prime minister’s request is currently under review at the Justice Ministry for a legal opinion in accordance with the established procedures,” according to The Times of Israel.
The statement added, “Only upon completion of that process will President Herzog consider the request in accordance with the law, the best interests of the State of Israel, guided by his conscience, and without any influence from external or internal pressures of any kind.”
It stressed that “Israel is a sovereign state governed by the rule of law.”
The statement also noted that President Herzog appreciates the significant contribution made by Donald Trump to Israel and its security.
It concluded: “Contrary to the impression created by President Trump’s remarks, President Herzog has not yet made any decision on this matter.”
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Thousands arrested for supporting group since proscription are now in legal limbo as Mahmood says she will appeal
Three senior judges have ruled that the ban on the direct action group Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws was disproportionate and unlawful, handing the home secretary a humiliating defeat.
Shabana Mahmood was urged to respect the court’s decision after the judges said the ban, introduced by her predecessor Yvette Cooper, impinged on the right to protest and should be quashed.
However, the fate of more than 2,500 people, arrested for supporting Palestine Action since proscription, remained in limbo after Mahmood said she would appeal against the ban. Additionally, the three judges, led by the president of the king’s bench division, Dame Victoria Sharp, said the banning order would not be quashed until both sides had been allowed to make representations.
In the meantime, the Met police said they would stop arresting people immediately for showing support for Palestine Action after the high court ruling but would gather evidence for potential future prosecution.
…
The judges allowed the challenge on two of four grounds. They were that there was “a very significant interference” with the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and that the then home secretary, Cooper’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action was not consistent with her own policy, which required her to take into account factors including the nature and scale of the organisation’s activities, and the specific threat that it posed to the UK.
Palestine Action joke that appeared in the UK satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
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A general view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) building in The Hague, Netherlands on April 30, 2024. [Selman Aksünger – Anadolu Agency]
A group of Swiss lawyers has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court, accusing their government of failing to meet its international legal obligations in relation to Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The complaint relies on reports issued by United Nations bodies and independent international human rights organisations in characterising events in Gaza as genocide.
According to sources familiar with the filing, the complaint places particular emphasis on Switzerland’s status as the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions, arguing that this role carries heightened legal and moral responsibilities.
The plaintiffs include 25 lawyers from both French- and German-speaking regions of Switzerland, a move they say reflects broad concern within parts of the country’s legal community.
The complaint contains direct accusations that policies pursued by Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis facilitated Israeli military operations in Gaza.
The lawyers argue that Switzerland’s official position did not adequately reflect the gravity of Israel’s crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories and instead provided political and legal cover for their continuation.
According to the filing, Swiss exports of military equipment and dual-use materials to Israel during the war totalled approximately 16.7 million Swiss francs in 2024, rising to around 25 million francs the following year. The complainants described these exports as direct material support contributing to the ongoing conflict.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Protest at ICRC building in Gaza in support of Palestinian political prisoners in 2024. Photo: AA
The Israeli occupation authorities have banned the international organization from visiting political detainees held in its prisons since October 7, 2023, which many say reflects Israel’s collective punishment policy.
A press conference was held in front of the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Al-Bireh city, in the central occupied West Bank on Tuesday, February 10.
The event was organized as part of an international campaign to gather one million signatures demanding that the ICRC resume its visits to Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails.
A number of press conferences were held in parallel in nine other cities across the world, including Beirut, Gaza, Cairo, Rabat, Tunis, Brussels and Paris in coincidence with the one held in Al-Bireh.
It is worth mentioning that Israel has banned the international organization from visiting the prisoners since October 7, 2023.
The political detainees held by Israel have also been deprived of family visits, and their lawyers have rarely been able to meet them for 28 months, amid continuously deteriorating humanitarian conditions inside the prisons.
The brutal crackdown against the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement pre-dates the genocide in Gaza, but began in January 2023, by Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Israel has misused the presence of the ICRC in the occupied territories to whitewash its crimes, says Qadura Fares
During the conference, former head of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, Qadura Fares, highlighted the key role that the ICRC has played in safeguarding various humanitarian issues internationally and inside occupied Palestine, including the prisoners’ issue.
“We know that the ICRC operates in accordance with international conventions, and in a way that is consistent with its mission as an international humanitarian organization. We are not asking the ICRC to do anything beyond its capacity, but to exert pressure on Israel through the appropriate international legal channels,” Fares noted.
“Nobody can expect Itamar Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu or Smotrich as racist fascist leaders to reconsider their decisions and permit the visits to the prisoners again on their own,” the prominent Palestinian political leader added.
Fares emphasized that this goal will be reached only with pressure being exerted on the Israeli authorities in order to cancel the arbitrary measures against the prisoners.
He also affirmed that the ICRC is able to exert such pressure, but it opted to work “within the limits of the authorization given to it by the Israeli occupation government.”
Fares further pointed out that Israel is misusing the presence of the ICRC and other international organizations in the occupied territories to whitewash its image, by showing that these international bodies are allowed to operate there, while their jurisdiction is extremely restricted and confined by the unlawful Israeli regulations.
The prisoners’ issue is a concern of people of conscience worldwide
Meanwhile, director of the Center for the Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights (Hurryyat), Helmi Al-Araj, asserted that the fact that the campaign has been launched from many cities around the world, including European cities “provides a conclusive evidence that the segregation of the detainees in ghetto-like prisons led to an uprising by the people of conscience all over the globe to support them.”
“This once again proves that all the peoples who struggle for freedom worldwide consider the issue of the Palestinian prisoners, in particular, and the Palestinian cause, in general, their own cause,” Al-Araj maintained.
For his part, Palestinian political activist, freedom fighter, and former prisoner in Israeli jails, Omar Assaf, indicated that Lebanese and Syrian nationals have also been held in Israeli prisons, while the majority of the prisoners detained by Israel are Palestinians.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
