Zionism

US Rights Group Urges Media to Condemn Israel’s Killing of Journalists in Gaza

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

A funeral ceremony is held for Palestine TV correspondent Mohammed Abu Hatab, who was killed, along with his family members, in an airstrike on his home in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 3, 2023. (Photo: Abed Zagout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“The only thing that can explain the shocking silence of American and international media professionals about the mass killing of their Palestinian colleagues is the decadeslong and systematic dehumanization of the Palestinian people.”

The largest U.S. Muslim advocacy group on Friday implored American and international media outlets to speak out against Israel’s killing of more than 100 journalists, almost all of them Palestinians, during the ongoing assault on Gaza.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) renewed its plea following Israeli airstrikes on the homes of Palestine TV journalist Tamim Ma’mmar and Al-Aqsa TV‘s Abdullah Al-Sousi. Ma’mmar was killed along with his wife and two of their children, while the other attack killed Al-Sousi and two of his nephews, according to Quds News Network.

“The only thing that can explain the shocking silence of American and international media professionals about the mass killing of their Palestinian colleagues is the decadeslong and systematic dehumanization of the Palestinian people, in which the lives of Palestinians have lesser or no value,” CAIR national communications director Ibrahim Cooper said in a statement.

“Journalists worldwide must begin to speak out about these killings and about the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” he added.

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Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Its 308-day assault on Gaza has left more than 142,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing, according to local and international officials.

Preliminary investigations by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists found that at least 113 media professionals—including 108 Palestinians, three Lebanese, and two Israelis—have been killed during the war, “making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”

CPJ has condemned what it called an “apparent pattern of targeting journalists and their families,” noting cases in which media workers were killed while wearing press insignia and after being threatened by Israeli officials.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said this week that Israeli forces have killed 166 journalists since October.

In May, the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) filed a third complaint at the International Criminal Court alleging “war crimes against journalists in Gaza.”

RSF said it had “reasonable grounds for thinking that some of these journalists were deliberately killed and that the others were the victims of deliberate IDF attacks against civilians” and accused Israel of “an eradication of the Palestinian media.”

The following month, the Gaza Project—led by the Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories—published a report detailing a “chilling pattern” of Israeli forces apparently targeting journalists during the war.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have called for official investigations into Israeli killing of journalists including an October 13 attack that killed 37-year-old Lebanese Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded half a dozen other journalists who were covering cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.

Dylan Collins, an American deputy editor at Al Jazeera English, was wounded while administering first aid to Christina Assi, an Agence-France Presse journalist who was seriously wounded in the attack. Assi-one of whose legs was amputated—recently carried the Olympic torch in Paris.

CPJ president Jodie Ginsburg recently told Al Jazeera that the killing of journalists by Israeli forces “appears to be part of a broader strategy that aims to stifle the information coming out of Gaza.”

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

Continue ReadingUS Rights Group Urges Media to Condemn Israel’s Killing of Journalists in Gaza

Israeli Leaders Demand Probe of IDF Rape Video—To Find Out Who Leaked It

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

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich speaks during a rally in Sderot, Israel on October 26, 2022. (Photo: Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP via Getty Images)

“This is what Israelis rioted to protect, what the Knesset debated—the right to rape Palestinians,” said one critic.

While human rights groups called for an investigation of a leaked recording apparently showing Israel Defense Forces reservists gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman military base and detention center, Israeli leaders including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday also furiously demanded a probe of the video—not to seek justice for the victim, but rather to find and punish whoever leaked it.

Smotrich took to social media Wednesday to call for “an immediate criminal investigation to locate the leakers of the trending video that was intended to harm the reservists and that caused tremendous damage to Israel in the world, and to exhaust the full severity of the law against them.”

Israeli media on Tuesday aired footage in which Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists are seen attacking a Palestinian man at Sde Teiman while trying to hide their actions with shields.

According to Israeli media reports, the victim was hospitalized with a severe anal injury, ruptured bowel, broken ribs, and lung damage.

Nine alleged assailants—who include members of Force 100, the military unit tasked with guarding Sde Teiman prisoners—were arrested last week in connection with the attack. A mob of far-right Israelis including senior government officials subsequently stormed two military bases in an attempt to free the suspects.

While many Israelis condemned the alleged rape, others rallied around the accused reservists. Smotrich described them as “heroic warriors.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called them “our best heroes.”

Far-right Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot—who took part in last week’s riot—joined Smotrich in demanding an investigation of the video leak.

“Leaking and disclosure of investigative materials is a criminal offense that harms the proper legal process, the rule of law, public trust, and the principle of justice,” he said Wednesday.

Israeli media reported Wednesday that two of the accused reservists lied on polygraph tests when asked if they had sodomized the prisoner.

Numerous Israelis continued to express support for the accused rapists. Israel Today political reporter Yehuda Schlesinger said Wednesday on a popular morning show that “I don’t give a rat’s ass what they do to Hamas man.”

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“First of all, they deserve it,” Schlesinger said of the abuse at Sde Teiman and other Israeli military prisons. “It’s great revenge that we need to give them.”

“It’s just a shame that we don’t do it in an institutionalized way, as part of regulations for torture of prisoners,” he added, “because then the next guys who think about doing another October 7 will say, ‘Do you see what they’re doing to [us] in Israel?'”

Etan Nechin, the New York correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, accused the media of being the “main culprit” that “has normalized the most extreme voices, letting genocidal brutes, racists, and messianic zealots into Israeli’s TV sets.”

Some American media critics drew attention to the scant coverage of abuse at Sde Teiman in the U.S. corporate media.

“U.S. taxpayers continue to support this military and its torture camps,” Palestinian American author and political analyst Yousef Munayyer wrote on social media. “How is this not front-page news?”

In the United States—which supports Israel’s war on Gaza with billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover—State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said during a Wednesday press conference that “there ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee. Period.”

“It is appropriate that the IDF in this case, has announced an investigation, has arrested a number of people who are alleged to have been involved, and I won’t speak to the outcome of that investigation, but it ought to proceed swiftly,” Miller added.

Critics noted the IDF’s chronic failures to credibly investigate its alleged crimes. The Israeli rights group Yesh Din said in late 2022 that less than 1% of Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza were indicted over the previous five years.

The Israeli Supreme Court on Wednesday took up a petition by rights groups seeking to close Sde Teiman, where widespread—and sometimes deadly—torture has been reported. Last month, Israel’s High Court issued a conditional order seeking to shut down the prison in response to the flood of reports of torture there.

Former prisoners including children and Israeli whistleblowers at Sde Teiman—often called “Israel’s Guantánamo Bay”—have described rampant torture and abuse at the facility, which is used to imprison Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip. According to their testimonies, prisoners have been raped, electrocuted, mauled by dogs, burned with cigarettes, severely beaten, starved, and subjected to 24-hour shackling sometimes leading to amputations.

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said this week that at least 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October.

More than 1,100 Israelis and others died during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, during which more than 240 other people were kidnapped. Israel’s response—which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case—has left more than 142,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, according to local and international officials.

Smotrich suggested earlier this week that it is “moral and justified” to starve 2 million Palestinians to death. So far, at least dozens, mostly children, have died from malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care in Gaza amid Israel’s crippling assault and siege.

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

Continue ReadingIsraeli Leaders Demand Probe of IDF Rape Video—To Find Out Who Leaked It

Israel continues to systematically massacre and starve Palestinians in Gaza

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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.

A man searches through the rubble after an airstrike in Nusreiat refugee camp in May. Photo: Xinhua

After 10 months, Israel continues to commit horrific atrocities against Palestinians, indifferent to international law

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) launched several aerial attacks across Gaza on Thursday, August 8. At least 32 Palestinians have been killed and dozens of others were injured in the airstrikes, including children.

The airstrikes targeted Abdul Fattah Hamoud School and Al-Zahra School in Gaza City, in addition to several homes in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Another airstrike targeted a group of civilians in Zaytoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City. The Israeli army falsely claimed that its forces targeted the schools due to being used as “hideouts” by Hamas resistance fighters.

Deadly airstrikes have been taking place on a daily basis in Gaza, while starvation has also been used as a weapon against Palestinians in the besieged strip. The United Nations reported on Monday, August 5, that the malnutrition levels among children in northern Gaza witnessed a 300% increase from May to July.

The United Nations deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq explained at a press briefing on Monday, August 5, that the United Nations humanitarian partners attributed the deterioration in nutrition conditions in Gaza strip to access constraints, shortages in essential supplies, limited availability of fresh produce and meat, poor water and sanitation services and spreading diseases.

Nevertheless, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the prevention of humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza strip, on Monday, as “justified and moral”. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” Smotrich said.

The European Union, France and the United Kingdom condemned Smotrich’s statement on Thursday, August 8. The statement was also denounced by the US administration on the same day. The Times of Israel quoted a US State Department spokesperson saying: “We are appalled by these comments and reiterate that this rhetoric is harmful and disturbing.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs decried Smotrich’s statement on Thursday, saying it is an “explicit admission of adopting and bragging about the policy of genocide.” Moreover, the ministry urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Smotrich.

Many people from Gaza have also been subjected to severe humiliation at the hands of Israeli forces, especially those who have been arrested and detained. On Wednesday, August 7, Israeli media outlets broadcasted a leaked video from surveillance cameras in Sde Teiman detention centre. The video showed a group of Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee from Gaza, while hiding themselves behind their shields. The victim shown in the video is believed to be the Palestinian detainee from Gaza, who was taken to hospital due to sustaining severe injuries in his rectum as a result of sexual assault.

An Israeli lawmaker from the ruling Likud party Hanoch Milwidsky was asked in a meeting last week whether it is justified “to insert a stick in a person’s rectum, is that legitimate?” Hanoch’s answer was: “Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do him,” he answered, referring to Nukhba special forces with Hamas military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), has described the video as “shocking.” OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said in a statement: “These are shocking scenes and represent one of many instances of serious Israeli violations in recent months, including the mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, torture, sexual violence, and rape.” The US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller urged Israel to fully investigate the sexual abuse incident on Wednesday, calling for “zero tolerance” for perpetrators. However, despite the number of gross violations committed by Israel, the US government has still refused to leverage any pressure tactics against Israel to force it to change its siege on Gaza, namely cutting off aid and weapons shipments. Progressive organizations in the US and globally continue to demand the US end all aid to Israel and thus stop enabling its atrocities.

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

Continue ReadingIsrael continues to systematically massacre and starve Palestinians in Gaza

Top lawyer urges UK to halt arms sales to Israel following ICJ ruling

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Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.. Published on July 31, 2024, the article is still relevant.

Activists drop a banner from Westminster Bridge, calling on Labour leader Keir Starmer to say he’ll end arms sales to Israel if he becomes prime minister, on 3 June 2024, in London, Uk [Luca Marino]

A prominent lawyer who represented Palestine at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has called on the UK to stop selling arms to Israel in light of the court’s recent advisory opinion. Professor Philippe Sands KC, a member of Palestine’s legal team, has called on the new Labour government to comply with the ICJ ruling, which found Israel’s occupation and settlement policies in Palestinian territories to be illegal and found that Israel’s practice in the occupied territories amounted to the crime of apartheid.

The ICJ opinion, issued earlier this month, declared that UN member states have an obligation to neither recognise the occupation as lawful nor assist in its maintenance. Sands emphasised the significance of this ruling for the UK, stating: “The most immediate issue is the obligation in the advisory opinion on the states, which includes the United Kingdom, not to aid or assist in the maintenance of the current situation in the occupied territories of the West Bank, including [East] Jerusalem.”

He explained further: “That legal obligation precludes sales of military material which could be used directly or indirectly to assist Israel in maintaining its unlawful occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories.”

While ICJ advisory opinions are not directly binding on individual UN member states, Sands asserts that it will be “recognised as an authoritative statement of the law and one that the UN and its specialised agencies will follow as law.”

The lawyer also highlighted implications for trade, noting that, “Anything that is produced in the occupied territories, such as food, or that is sold there over the internet, is in principle subject to the international prohibition, if it can be said to aid or assist in the maintenance of the unlawful occupation.”

The ICJ ruling comes at a time when the UK is already under scrutiny regarding arms sales to Israel, particularly in light of Israel’s aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza. The apartheid state is also under investigation by the ICJ for the crime of genocide, the worst of all crimes against a people. The military offensive, launched in response to the 7 October cross-border incursion by Palestinian resistance groups, has claimed the lives of almost 40,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, and wounded 91,000 others. An estimated 10,000 Palestinians remain missing, presumed dead, under the rubble of their homes and other civilian infrastructure destroyed by Israeli bombs.

There has been widespread speculation about how the new Labour government will respond to the ICJ opinion, particularly concerning arms sales. Labour has recently stated that UK arms sales to Israel have been delayed as ministers review weapons potentially linked to war crimes in Gaza.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has indicated that officials are conducting a “comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law” and is considering banning certain arms sales to the country.

Sands also addressed the issue of Palestinian statehood, referencing the ICJ statement on “the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including its right to an independent and sovereign state.” He noted that while recognition of a state is ultimately a political decision, the UK remains part of a “small and diminishing group” that has not recognised Palestine as a state.

As the international community awaits the UK’s official response to the ICJ advisory opinion, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has stated that it is “considering it carefully before responding” and “respects the independence of the ICJ.”

Original article republished from Middle East Monitor under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.. Published on July 31, 2024, the article is still relevant.

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 ReadingTop lawyer urges UK to halt arms sales to Israel following ICJ ruling

Netanyahu Isn’t Interested in Peace, So Why Does Biden Keep Pretending Otherwise?

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Rear Adm. David Saar Salama at the Ashdod Naval Base on October 29, 2023. (Photo: Office of Benjamin Netanyahu)

Instead of turning a blind eye to Israel’s behaviors that are deliberately designed to provoke more war, the U.S. needs to stop playing games and get serious about holding Israel accountable.

Why—in the midst of critical negotiations to implement U.S. President Joe Biden’s plan to bring about a cease-fire in Gaza, release Israelis held captive by Hamas and a significant number of Palestinians held by Israel, and move toward a negotiated permanent end to the conflict—would Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu decide to assassinate the chief Hamas negotiator while he was visiting Iran? And why—while the U.S. says it was working to deescalate tensions with Lebanon’s Hezbollah—would Israel choose to up the ante by assassinating Hezbollah’s number two?

We know the answers to both questions: Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t interested in peace. He doesn’t want a negotiated deal to release hostages and end the war on Gaza. He doesn’t want to deescalate the conflict there or in the north with Hezbollah. And he most certainly doesn’t want a “two-state solution” that would grant the Palestinian people independence in a sovereign state of their own.

There are two things Netanyahu does want, and, at this point, both are perversely connected. Above all, he desperately wants to remain in office, because should he lose his post as prime minister, the prosecution of the corruption charges against him will continue in full force. As the charges are so serious and the evidence so clear, he will likely be convicted and humiliated. This is not speculation—it’s widely discussed in Israel and was even hinted at by President Biden in a May 28 interview with Time Magazine. When he was asked “Is Netanyahu prolonging the war for political reasons?” Biden responded, “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”

Why hasn’t the administration condemned the assassinations in Beirut and Iran when they know that they will surely sabotage the efforts of negotiators?

The second reason is that Netanyahu wants the war to continue and even be accelerated. He made this clear in his remarks before U.S. Congress and in an address to the Israeli public a few days ago. He seeks “total victory,” which he defines as more than the military defeat of Israel’s enemies. Without acknowledging any Israeli culpability, he charged that the Palestinians had created a hate-filled culture which in the post-war period would require massive deradicalization—the outcome of which would have Palestinians accepting Jewish hegemony in Eretz Israel and understanding their place as a conquered and subordinate people.

This is the messianic Zionist vision that has long driven Netanyahu and which he now sees as possible, but only if all of Israel’s enemies—meaning Iran and its surrogates—are brought to heel. And this can only be realized if Israel can involve the U.S. in their regional conquest.

Netanyahu’s worldview raises several additional questions that must be considered. If we know that Netanyahu has never accepted the terms of the Biden plan, why has the president continued to maintain that it was “Israel’s plan” and placed the burden on Hamas to accept it? And if we know that Netanyahu is unwilling to make any peace agreement for fear of losing his other extremist coalition partners (who have threatened to abandon his government should he accept any terms leading to peace), why do we continue to dance around that fact? Why hasn’t the administration condemned the assassinations in Beirut and Iran when they know that they will surely sabotage the efforts of negotiators? Why, when we know that Netanyahu has no intention of completing a deal to release those held captive, do we continue to allow him to exploit the pain of their families, pretending that negotiations are close to completion, when we know they aren’t? And why, when we know that the demands and actions of Netanyahu’s extremist coalition partners are wreaking havoc in the West Bank and Jerusalem—terrorizing the Palestinian population, annexing more land, building more settlements, and erasing the possibility of Palestinian self-determination—have we been so passive and tolerant in response?

Let’s be clear: Hamas and Hezbollah are not good actors. The former was born of the brutal and sustained Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. It was nurtured by Israel to create division in the Palestinian ranks and fueled by Israel’s ruthless decades-long strangulation of the population of Gaza. The latter was born of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and by that country’s corrupt sectarian system that denied the Shia community adequate representation and resources. It was fueled by Israel’s decades-long occupation of Lebanon’s south and massive devastation of the country’s infrastructure in 2006. To be sure, both have engaged in condemnable actions. But to criticize only them, while absolving Israel of its far greater crimes, is hypocritical at best.

If the U.S. were serious about ending conflict in the region, instead of turning a blind eye to Israel’s behaviors that are deliberately designed to provoke more war, we need to stop playing games and get serious about holding Israel accountable. This leads to one final question: Why, when we continue to massively supply Israel with weapons and block all efforts to sanction their deplorable behaviors, do we expect that anything will change?

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

Continue ReadingNetanyahu Isn’t Interested in Peace, So Why Does Biden Keep Pretending Otherwise?