Original article republished from MEMO under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Palestinians and UN workers examine the destroyed makeshift tents and shelters after Israeli attack hits a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school, killing and injuring many in Nuseirat Refugee Camp of Deir al-Balah, Gaza on July 15, 2024 [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency]
The Basque Government has awarded UNRWA the 2024 Ignacio Ellacuria Prize for Cooperation and Solidarity as a result of its “dedication to the Palestinian people over 75 years in a context of continuous conflict”.
The jury highlighted “the more human side of the direct work that it carries out in favour of justice and human rights with the Palestinian population” and concluded that it deserves this award “because of the real risk of disappearing,” since “it would imply taking away the Palestinian population’s right to refuge and the right of return to their lands and homes.”
UNRWA works in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria and supports around 5.9 million Palestinians, providing them with education, medical care, camp infrastructure, microfinancing and other essentials.
Over the past few years, however, funding for the agency has been cut by donor states, while Israel has worked to defame and defund it.
Israel has lobbied hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.
I’ve been charged under the notorious s.12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 with expressing an opinion or belief in support of a proscribed organisation’.
It is clear that this is a clear attack on the right of people to express their opinions on the right of Palestinians to resist the genocidal Israeli military. It is perfectly fine to support Israel’s genocidal massacres but it is an offence to support any resistance.
This absurd situation is akin to criminalising the Resistance against the Nazi occupation of France. It is criminalising political opinion and has nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. Suffice to say I shall be mounting a vigorous defence in support of Free Speech on Palestine.
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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/O74hZCKKdpAGenocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
The Israeli military launched an airstrike on the al-Qassam Mosque and its surroundings in Gaza City’s Nuseirat refugee camp on November 27, 2024. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Biden administration seems to be ready and willing to keep piling more and more, despite Gaza descending into what President Biden just yesterday described as ‘hell,'” said Amnesty International USA.
Just hours after a cease-fire between the Israeli government and Lebanese group Hezbollah took effect, the Financial Times revealed that “U.S. President Joe Biden has provisionally approved a $680 million weapons sale to Israel,” which has also spent the past nearly 14 months decimating the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the British newspaper reported that “U.S. officials recently briefed Congress on the plan to provide thousands of additional joint direct attack munition kits to Israel, known as JDAMS, as well as hundreds of small-diameter bombs.”
The Biden administration’s decision to advance the sale was subsequently confirmed by Reuters, which reported that “the package has been in the works for several months. It was first brought to the congressional committees in September then submitted for review in October.”
Human rights advocates critical of Israel’s assaults on Lebanon and Gaza—which has led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—responded with alarm to the new reporting.
“If these reports are true, it’s heartbreakingly devastating news,” saidAmnesty International USA. “These are the weapons that our research has shown were used to wipe out entire families, without any discernable military objective.”
Amnesty highlighted a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have halted some arms sales to Israel. Although they failed to pass the Senate last week, the group was among several that noted over the course of three votes, 17, 18, and 19 senators supported halting weapons sales, “sending a clear signal that U.S. policy must change.”
“Yet, the Biden administration seems to be ready and willing to keep piling more and more, despite Gaza descending into what President Biden just yesterday described as ‘hell,'” Amnesty added Wednesday. “Sending more weapons that have been used to maim and kill with impunity doesn’t just put in jeopardy Palestinian lives and the elusive cease-fire the president is seeking, but also President Biden’s own legacy.”
The Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project declared Wednesday that “President Biden is spending the final days of his presidency going against the will of most Americans, U.S. law, and international law.”
“The weapons included in this package have been used by Israel in numerous apparent war crimes,” the organization noted. “On July 13, 2024, Israel attacked a so-called ‘safe zone’ in al-Mawasi, in which internally displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing at least 90 people and injuring hundreds more. A CNN investigation found that Israel carried out this attack with at least one JDAM.”
John Ramming Chappell, an adviser on legal and policy issues at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, similarly stressed that “these are the very same weapons that for months Israeli forces have used to kill Palestinian civilians and violate international humanitarian law.”
“Continuing arms transfers risks making the United States and US officials complicit in war crimes,” he said. “These arms sales are unlawful as a matter of both U.S. and international law. They are immoral. The congressional committees of jurisdiction can and must place a hold on the sales.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, pointed out that “aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity is itself a crime for which U.S. officials may (and should) face prosecution at the ICC.”
Neither the U.S. nor Israel is a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, though Palestine is. Both the Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national security adviser have attacked the warrants for Israeli leaders.
In a speech to Israelis on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that one of the reasons for the cease-fire in Lebanon “is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks. And I say it openly, it is no secret that there have been big delays in weapons and munitions deliveries. These delays will be resolved soon. We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission.”
According to the Financial Times:
U.S. officials have denied there is any explicit link between the cease-fire deal and approval for the latest weapons delivery. While the cease-fire deal includes a so-called side letter from the U.S. to Israel, setting out Washington’s support for a certain freedom of Israeli action, people familiar with the text said it included no guarantees of weapon sales.
U.S. officials also deny that there have been deliberate delays to weapons shipments, aside from shipments of 2,000-pound bombs, which Biden paused earlier this year over concerns about their use in densely populated areas of Gaza.
The Times of Israelreported that Biden’s State Department declined to confirm the advancement of the package but said that U.S. support for Israel in the face of Iran-backed threats is “unwavering” and all weapon transfers are carried out in line with federal law.
“We have made clear that Israel must comply with international humanitarian law, has a moral obligation and strategic imperative to protect civilians, investigate allegations of any wrongdoing, and ensure accountability for any abuses or violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law,” the State Department said.
As of Wednesday, officials in Gaza said the death toll had hit at least 44,282 Palestinians with another 104,880 people injured.
Palestinian children queue at a food distribution kitchen in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, November 22, 2024
More than 60 signatories urge Foreign Minister to sanction Israel in line with ICC and ICJ
MORE than 60 MPs and lords from seven parties wrote to the Foreign Secretary yesterday calling on him to implement comprehensive sanctions over Israel’s repeated violations of international law.
The letter, organised by MPs Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain, follows a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world’s top court, which labelled Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestine unlawful and demanded it end as rapidly as possible.
The court has called on all states not to provide aid or assistance to Israel or enter into economic or trade dealings that maintain this illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The letter follows a separate ICJ decision last week to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.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/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
At large: Benjamin Netanyahu. (Ohad Zwigenberg / Alamy)
International Criminal Court’s stance on Gaza should trigger an end to British military ties with Israel, critics say.
Britain’s ongoing involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza “opens the UK up to charges of complicity in war crimes”, an opposition politician has told Declassified.
Liz Saville Roberts MP spoke out after seeing UK spy flights continue to surveil Gaza despite Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu now being wanted for war crimes.
Flight tracking data shows Royal Air Force surveillance planes over the besieged enclave have not been interrupted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing arrest warrants.
Although ministers claim the flights, which began last year, are solely looking for hostages, Saville Roberts said “there is a clear risk that the information shared with Israel from these flights may have been used in attacks on civilians.”
Labour has also refused to implement a complete arms embargo on Israel. Spare parts for Israel’s most advanced fighter jet, the F-35, can still be shipped to Tel Aviv if they go via the US.
Human rights lawyers say this loophole is “unconscionable”. General Herzi Halevi, the Israeli army’s chief of staff, was even allowed to visit the UK on Monday for talks with military officials.
Sharing intel with war criminals?
UK contact with Israel’s military has come under increasing scrutiny since the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant last week.
Both men are accused by the ICC of “the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population” and using “starvation as a method of warfare”.
Britain is sending surveillance flights over Gaza almost every day to gather intelligence for Israel, claiming it could find hostages held by Hamas.
dizzy: Israel’s genocides should be regarded as a joint pursuit involving the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel.
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/O74hZCKKdpAGenocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
