Zionism

Pope Francis calls Israel’s bombing of Gaza children a “great cruelty”

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Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Pope Francis before the “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024” in the Paul VI Hall. Photo: Vatican News

Israel continues to commit massacres in Gaza, and has launched attacks on Pope Francis for speaking up in defense of the Palestinian people.

Pope Francis issued a sharp condemnation of the ongoing Israeli genocidal aggression on the Gaza strip this past weekend, just ahead of Christmas. His statements came after the Gaza Civil Defense rescue agency reported the killing of 12 people from the same family, including seven children, in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s northern city of Jabalia on Friday, December 20.

The Pontiff lamented the bombing of children in Gaza with deep sorrow during his traditional address to the cardinals, bishops, priests and lay people of the Roman Curia at the Vatican on Saturday, December 21.

“This is cruelty. This is not war. I want to say this because it touches the heart,” Pope Francis said. He also pointed out that the airstrikes had prevented the highest representative of the Catholic church in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering Gaza the previous day.

Following Pope Francis’s Saturday address, the Israeli authorities allowed Pizzaballa to enter Gaza on Sunday, December 22, where he celebrated mass in the small Christian community of the Holy Family parish in Gaza City.

During a midday Angelus on Sunday, December 22, Pope Francis reiterated his repudiation of Israel’s continuous massacring of children in Gaza. “With sorrow I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children machine-gunned, the bombing of schools and hospitals…So much cruelty!”, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State said.

On December 8, Pope Francis had issued an appeal addressing political leaders and the international community to reach a ceasefire on “all war fronts” by Christmas. “I appeal to Governments and the International Community that a ceasefire may be reached on all war fronts by the Christmas celebrations,” the appeal reads.

One day earlier, Pope Francis unveiled the annual nativity scene at the Vatican featuring baby Jesus draped in a Palestinian keffiyeh, which highlighted the Holy Family’s connection to the occupied Palestinian city of Bethlehem and served as a poignant nod to the Palestinian struggle.

Last November, Pope Francis urged that allegations of a genocide in Gaza should be “carefully investigated”. “According to some experts…what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the Pontiff writes in a forthcoming book. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he writes.

Pope Francis also calls the leader of the Catholic Church in Gaza every night to check on them and hear news of how they are surviving which inevitably gives him an intimate look into the immense suffering and difficulties faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The nativity scene and Pope Francis’s call for an investigation into the Israeli genocide in Gaza were slammed by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and “Combating Antisemitism” Minister Amichai Chikli, who accused the Catholic leader of “deliberately adopting the Palestinian narrative.”

“Two weeks ago, you took part in a display that echoes the Palestinian narrative, portraying Jesus as a Palestinian Arab,” Chikli wrote in a strongly-worded letter sent to Pope Francis on Thursday, December 19. “Had this been a one-time matter, I would not have written. However, in a more severe expression, you recently insinuated that the State of Israel ‘might be’ committing genocide in Gaza,” the Israeli minister added. Chikli even went further by saying: “It is a well-known fact that Jesus was born to a Jewish mother, lived as a Jew and died as a Jew.”

Chikli’s statements once again reveal the paradox of the Israeli rhetoric, as people of the Christian community were among the first civilians to be crushed by the Israeli war machine in Gaza. In October 2023, St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City, which is believed to be the third oldest church in the world, was bombed by Israeli warplanes while providing shelter for an estimated 500 Palestinians, most of whom were Christians. 16 Palestinian Christians were killed and dozens others injured in the assault, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip.

In May 2024, the Palestinian State Minister of Foreign Affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shahin revealed during her meeting with a delegation from Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) that 3% of Gaza’s Christians were killed in the Israeli genocidal aggression on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

“The Israeli war has resulted in the death of 3% of Gaza’s Christians and the destruction of churches amid restrictions (on Christians) in the West Bank,” Shahin stated. Meanwhile, Gaza’s government media office estimated that at least three churches were destroyed in Israeli attacks in Gaza during the ongoing genocide.

Israel’s targeting of Christians and their holy sites is yet another evidence of its systematic ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous Palestinian people regardless of their faith.

For the second year, Palestinians are canceling Christmas celebrations to show solidarity with Gaza. “We chose to restrict Christmas celebrations to prayers as a stand against the oppression faced by Gaza and all of Palestine”, Bethlehem Mayor Anton Salman said a couple of days prior to the Christmas eve.


Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingPope Francis calls Israel’s bombing of Gaza children a “great cruelty”

Good and bad war criminals

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/good-and-bad-war-criminals/

Tony Blair sent the SAS to hunt down suspected Bosnian war criminals in the 1990s who were accused of lesser abuses than Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

…

Whitehall’s weak reaction to ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant stands in contrast to the exertions it made towards the former Yugoslavia and, more recently, Russia. 

When the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Russian ruler Vladimir Putin in March 2023, the UK increased funding to the organisation and hosted an international conference in London. 

“The ICC plays a vital role in global efforts to end impunity for war crimes”, the UK Ministry of Justice said.

A year earlier the UK had galvanised a group of governments to refer Russian atrocities in Ukraine to the ICC to enable it to proceed straight to an investigation – a process known as ‘state party referral’.

David Lammy described the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin as “an historic step”, adding that “President Putin is now a wanted man”.

By contrast, the current foreign secretary has only grudgingly conceded that, in the cases of Netanyahu and Gallant, “there is an obligation on me to transmit to the courts should those named seek to come in to our country”.

When in 2006 former Liberian president Charles Taylor was undergoing a war crimes trial in The Hague for aiding rebels in Sierra Leone notorious for hacking off limbs of civilians, the British government offered to house him in a UK jail if convicted.

Sentenced to 50 years imprisonment, Taylor began serving his conviction at HMP Frankland near Durham. It seems inconceivable that Netanyahu and Gallant will ever see the inside of a British jail.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/good-and-bad-war-criminals/

UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
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/O74hZCKKdpA
UK 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.
UK 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.
Continue ReadingGood and bad war criminals

Palestinians Launch Legal Action Against BP for Fueling Israel’s War on Gaza

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Origin article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

A demonstrator is seen marching while holding a placard criticizing BP in London on November 16, 2024. (Photo: David Tramontan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“By facilitating the transport of oil that fuels military operations in Gaza, BP has contributed to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the region,” said the director of the organization backing the claimants.

A group of Palestinians whose family members have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip over the past 14 months have initiated legal action in the United Kingdom against the British fossil fuel giant BP, arguing the company is aiding the assault on the enclave via its ownership of a pipeline that provides Israel with crude oil.

In a 36-page letter before claim, the group contends that BP’s role in supplying oil to Israel violates the company’s stated commitments to human rights, including its expressed support for the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

“Israel relies heavily on crude oil and refined petroleum imports to run its large fleet of fighter jets, tanks, and other military vehicles and operations, as well as the bulldozers implicated in clearing Palestinian homes and olive groves to make way for unlawful Israeli settlements,” the letter notes. “Some fuel from refineries goes directly to the armed forces, while much of the rest appears to go to ordinary gas stations where military personnel can refuel their vehicles under a government contract.”

The group demands from BP an “immediate cessation of oil supply to Israel and facilitation through” the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline as well as an “admission liability and a commitment to mediation for assessing damages.”

“Our clients seek justice for the profound suffering and loss they have endured and call on BP to act responsibly by immediately halting its involvement.”

Tayab Ali, head of international law at Bindmans LLP and director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP)—which is supporting the group of claimants—said in a statement Monday that “this legal action marks a new phase in accountability for those that are complicit in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

“The evidence against BP demonstrates a clear failure to adhere to its own human rights policies and international law,” said Ali. “By facilitating the transport of oil that fuels military operations in Gaza, BP has contributed to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the region. Our clients seek justice for the profound suffering and loss they have endured and call on BP to act responsibly by immediately halting its involvement.”

According to ICJP, the claimants include “a British citizen of Palestinian origin who lost 16 family members to Israeli airstrikes,” “a second British Palestinian claimant whose relatives in Gaza have suffered fatalities and displacement,” and “additional claimants who have endured catastrophic physical and psychological harm including amputations and loss of family members.”

The group sent its legal letter just over a month after a coalition of environmental groups published a report identifying BP as one of the “top corporate suppliers of oil to Israel.”

“The major international oil companies, including BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies, may be linked to 35% of
the crude oil supplied to Israel since October [2023],” the report states. “These companies, as well as state-owned entities and other private and publicly traded oil producers, profit from supplying oil to Israel’s refineries, where a proportion is likely refined into fuels for Israel’s war machine.”

Last week, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations argued that “foreign governments have an obligation” under international law “to end the supply of fuel to Israel unless they can guarantee it will only be used for nonmilitary purposes.”

“This includes both a ban on the export of crude oil, military jet fuel, and other fuels, as well as a prohibition on the transport of these commodities through their territory,” the group said.

Origin article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingPalestinians Launch Legal Action Against BP for Fueling Israel’s War on Gaza

Israel Orders ‘Impossible’ Evacuation While Attacking One of North Gaza’s Last Hospitals

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Original article by Olivia Rosane republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

People check the damage outside the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, following Israeli strikes around the medical complex on December 6, 2024, as the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group continues. (Photo: -/AFP via Getty Images)

“If Kamal Adwan Hospital is decommissioned, there will be no way of preserving conditions of life to the remaining 75,000+ civilians in north Gaza,” the hospital’s director said.

The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday ordered one of the last partly operating hospitals in northern Gaza to shutter and evacuate, even as hospital staff say there are not enough ambulances to do so safely and persistent firing on the facility makes people afraid to leave.

Israel launched bomb, artillery, and sniper attacks on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia beginning Saturday, as the Wafa news agency reported. The attacks killed three people in the area and wounded several, according to Wafu. On Sunday, an Israeli drone strike on the hospital’s fuel tanks and power generator shut off its electricity, the Anadolu Agencyreported.

“We currently have nearly 400 civilians inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators,” hospital director Dr. Husam Abu Safiya said in a statement on Sunday. “We cannot evacuate these patients safely without assistance, equipment, and time.”

“Every bomb that slams into Kamal Adwan Hospital, every nurse forced to watch a child slip away, every life lost from denied treatment indicts us all.”

Abu Safiya described the onset of what he called an “unprecedented” attack in a message Saturday evening local time:

The Israeli military has targeted the Kamal Adwan Hospital with different types of weapons without prior warning. We are being directly attacked, the ICU unit, along with the maternity and nursing departments, are coming under fire.

The bombing is being conducted with tank fire and quadcopters, directly targeting us while we are present inside the hospital departments. We don’t know why we are being targeted at this hour.

Several people were wounded in attacks on the hospital’s laboratory and mechanical department,according to Al Jazeera.

“What we are seeing now is a deliberate attack on the health facility,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Deir el-Balah. “The Israeli military has ordered evacuations from the hospital, but they have also created an intimidating environment that makes people feel it’s unsafe to leave.”

Mahmoud said he lost contact with the hospital Saturday night.

Footage shared on social media and verified by Al Jazeera also showed patients sheltering in hallways to avoid the Israeli attack.

https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1870641703935512846?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1870641703935512846%7Ctwgr%5E8cad33a662dfc7c427d734cd7155c78ea60a5cad%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fkamal-adwan-hospital-gaza

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Responding to reports from the hospital on Saturday, World Health Organization (WHO) director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for a cease-fire around the hospital and for the protection of patients and staff.

“Tonight’s reports of bombardment near Kamal Adwan Hospital and order to evacuate the hospital are deeply worrisome,” Ghebreyseus wrote on social media. “The hospital has been in the midst of fighting for too long, and the lives of patients are at risk.”

https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1870604629844881522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1870604629844881522%7Ctwgr%5E8cad33a662dfc7c427d734cd7155c78ea60a5cad%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fkamal-adwan-hospital-gaza

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Also on Saturday, the Palestine Mental Health Networks and Doctors Against Genocide issued a statement in support of Abu Safiya and Kamal Adwan, demanding that the international community act to open a humanitarian corridor in Gaza, protect healthcare facilities and staff, and end the blockade on the besieged enclave.

Arguing that the “relentless assaults on Kamal Adwan Hospital—a sanctuary meant to save lives in northern Gaza—are part of a deliberate genocidal campaign,” they wrote:

Humanity cannot pretend not to see. Neutrality in the face of genocide is complicity. Every bomb that slams into Kamal Adwan Hospital, every nurse forced to watch a child slip away, every life lost from denied treatment indicts us all.

The world is watching. Will it once again stand idly by as another hospital crumbles, another child’s breath is silenced, another fragile hope is extinguished? Or will it finally rise to restore the sanctity of life and the universal right to health?

In a video message shared by Drop Site News early Sunday morning Gaza time, Abu Safiya said that he had been ordered to evacuate patients to the Indonesian Hospital, but that this would be “impossible” since the hospital needs ambulances to transport the wounded and would need to move supplies as well. He said a successful evacuation would take days.

In a second message on Sunday, he linked the IDF’s attacks on Kamal Adwan to similar attacks on hospitals throughout Gaza. In October, a report from the United Nation’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that “Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system,” carrying out nearly 500 attacks on healthcare facilities between October 7, 2023 and July 30, 2024.

Abu Safiya said that the IDF did not provide hospitals with the support they needed when it ordered evacuations, such as equipment and safe passage:

We call on the world to witness this pattern once again. We have repeatedly requested assistance and have openly invited the occupation to see for themselves the internal workings of our hospitals so that we may continue to serve our population without fear of attack and death. These calls were rejected.

We also call on the world to witness, that if Kamal Adwan Hospital is decommissioned, there will be no way of preserving conditions of life to the remaining 75,000+ civilians in north Gaza.

We call on the world to witness these crimes of extermination and act now.

Abu Safiya also said the IDF was targeting the hospital’s fuel tanks, which would explode if hit, causing “mass casualties.”

Gaza’s Government Media Office urged the WHO to visit the hospital on Sunday, saying the attack was part of a concerted attempt to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system.

“These attacks are ongoing and have not stopped for nearly 80 days since the ground aggression on the northern Gaza Strip Governorate began, which has claimed the lives of thousands of martyrs, left many missing, wounded, or detained,” the statement said.

In response to the reports from the hospital, the IDF told The Washington Post that it had not targeted Kamal Adwan on Saturday to its knowledge. It also said separately that it was operating in Beit Lahia. Israel has intensified military operations in northern Gaza over the past three months, according to Reuters. The IDF further told Reuters on Friday that it had helped to evacuate more than 100 patients from Kamal Adwan and provided fuel and food to the hospital. It did not respond to a request for comment about Saturday’s attacks.

Also on Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that Israeli attacks had killed 32 people and wounded 54 in the last 24 hours. At least eight people, including children, were killed in a strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City.

“We came out to see the scale of destruction, with dead bodies, blood, and body parts all over the place. Israeli warplanes fired three missiles on this school. The explosion was huge and frightening to us and to our children,” witness Um Aref Ahel, who has been displaced by the war, told Al Jazeera. “We appeal to the whole world to bring this war to an end.”

The official Gaza Health Ministry death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza, which began October 7, 2023 in response to a deadly Hamas attack on Southern Israel, stands at over 45,000, though many remain unaccounted for beneath the rubble. This month, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued reports labelling Israel’s assault a genocide.

Original article by Olivia Rosane republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingIsrael Orders ‘Impossible’ Evacuation While Attacking One of North Gaza’s Last Hospitals

Only 3 aid trucks reach North Gaza in 2 months, Oxfam reveals

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241223-only-3-aid-trucks-reach-north-gaza-in-2-months-oxfam-reveals

Palestinian truck drivers and United Nations vehicles wait near the Rafah border gate on the Gazan side to cross the Egyptian side after the Israeli army took control of the Rafah Border Gate, Gaza on May 14, 2024. [Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency]

Over two months, just three trucks carrying food and water have reached North Gaza Governorate, where families scavenge through rubbish for scraps, Oxfam reports. While 25 trucks were granted entry by Israel, most were obstructed or delayed by the Israeli occupation military, leaving countless Palestinian civilians without aid.

Since October, Oxfam and other humanitarian organisations have been unable to deliver consistent aid to north Gaza as Israel’s intensified siege of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun blocks access. Thousands remain cut off without food or water, with trapped families making desperate calls for help.

One convoy of 11 trucks was stopped at Jabalia, where supplies were seized and redirected to a militarised zone inaccessible to Palestinian civilians. Another convoy of 14 trucks saw only three reach Mahdia Al-Shawa school in Beit Hanoun. Hours after distribution, Israeli forces attacked the school, forcing families to flee and shelled the building the next day.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) recently warned of a strong likelihood that famine is already occurring in northern Gaza, with famine risks spreading across the entire Strip. Families are resorting to unimaginable measures to survive, exposing themselves to disease and injury from sharp debris and unexploded bombs.

Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees in the world as its healthcare system collapses, lacking critical supplies like anesthetics.

Oxfam has condemned Israel’s ongoing blockade, warning that these actions violate international law. Aid organisations continue to call for unrestricted access as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis spirals further into catastrophe.

Oxfam warned of an “apocalyptic” situation, with famine likely underway in northern Gaza. Sally Abi-Khalil, Oxfam’s regional director, condemned the international community’s inaction, saying: “The absolute desperation of having no food or shelter for your family in the biting cold of winter. It is abhorrent that despite international law being so publicly violated by Israel and starvation being used relentlessly as a weapon of war, world leaders continue to do nothing.”

“Gaza has been widely destroyed and the entire population is suffering. The public sector has collapsed and the humanitarian system is on its knees. We plead with the entire international community – stop this, now. You have the diplomatic and economic levers to make Israel stop. Every day that passes without a ceasefire is a death sentence for hundreds more civilians.”

READ: IDF officers make shocking confessions about horrific violations in Gaza Strip

The Palestinian Civil Defence reports 2,700 deaths in North Gaza since October, with half of the bodies unrecovered amid relentless shelling. Over 130,000 have been displaced, most of them women and children now sheltering in overcrowded, freezing conditions in Gaza City.

Aid delivery remains severely hampered as critical crossings are barely functional. Winter weather will worsen conditions for over 1.6 million people living in makeshift shelters, with half a million in flood-prone areas. The UN reports that only 23 per cent of displaced Palestinians have received materials to shield them from cold and rain, leaving over 900,000 at risk of exposure.

Food prices have skyrocketed, forcing families into dire situations. One Palestinian man, who evacuated from Al-Maghazi refugee camp, shared: “Adults tell the kids not to play so they don’t get dizzy. One pack of biscuits is all we have for 15 grandchildren. We need shelter but a simple plastic tarpaulin costs $180. We’re doing everything we can, but it’s not enough.”

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
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/O74hZCKKdpA
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Continue ReadingOnly 3 aid trucks reach North Gaza in 2 months, Oxfam reveals