Nation whose case put Israel formally on trial for genocide joins Nicaragua in turning its sights on accomplices in genocide
A team of almost fifty South African lawyers is preparing a legal case to bring to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ top court, against the US and UK, for their complicity in Israel’s array of war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
South Africa’s successful ICJ case against Israel last month led to Israel being put formally on trial for genocide and resulted in a string of binding orders on Israel to stop its slaughter of Gazans and even to protect Palestinians from harm, as well as to ensure adequate aid reaches the strip’s 2.5 million people, many of whom are now starving and homeless.
Israel has flouted the rulings, continuing and even intensifying the mass murder and blockade, and is being supported in its flagrant disregard for international law by the UK and US, who are providing both material and financial aid, and giving political cover by refusing to condemn Israel’s actions or to call its crimes what they are, instead casting doubt on the mass deaths and brutality and denigrating the Court’s ruling.
The team of lawyers, which already numbers around fifty, is likely to grow further as more lawyers are set to join from other nations. Wikus van Rensburg, who is leading the action, said that it was time for the US and other complicit nations to “be held responsible for [their] crimes”.
Palestinians gather for a demonstration in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 30, 2024. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)
“People in Gaza are starving, and because of spurious allegations made in a dodgy dossier, they will experience worse hunger.”
An Israeli dossier that more than a dozen countries have cited to justify cutting off funding to the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency “provides no evidence” that a small number of the key U.N. aid body’s employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas-led attack, according to an investigation released Monday by the British outlet Channel 4.
The dossier merely states that “from intelligence information, documents, and identity cards seized during the course of the fighting, it is now possible to flag around 190 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist operatives who serve as UNRWA employees.”
“More than 10 UNRWA staffers took part in the events of [October 7],” reads the six-page dossier, which Israel provided to UNRWA donor countries—including the agency’s top contributor, the United States—shortly after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down an interim decision ordering Israel to take concrete steps to prevent genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The ICJ instructed the Israeli government to ensure that sufficient humanitarian assistance flows to desperate and starving Gazans, but Israel’s allegations against UNRWA employees led at least 16 countries to suspend funding for the agency, the most critical aid body operating in the Palestinian enclave. Around a million displaced Gazans are currently sheltering at facilities run by UNRWA, which has 13,000 employees across the strip.
The UNRWA is reportedly set to lose $65 million by the end of February as donors’ funding cuts take effect, imperiling the agency’s operations in Gaza and across the Middle East.
Channel 4 noted Monday that all 13,000 of UNRWA’s Gaza employees’ names “have been checked against the U.N. terrorism list and, as recently as last May, were vetted and approved by Israel.”
The UNRWA quickly fired nine of the employees named by Israel. On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres established “an independent review group to assess whether the agency is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches when they are made.”
The Daily Beast also obtained a copy of the Israeli dossier and—similar to Channel 4—reported Tuesday that it “includes little evidence to back up” Israel’s allegations against UNRWA employees.
Ashish Prashar, a spokesperson for Gaza Voices, said in response to the new reporting that “we now know that the document used to suspend funding to UNRWA ‘provides no evidence.'”
“This is the latest campaign in a decades-long attack on UNRWA by Israel and a subset of the broader campaign to eliminate the Palestinian refugee issue,” said Prashar. “People in Gaza are starving, and because of spurious allegations made in a dodgy dossier, they will experience worse hunger. This scandal should lead to resignations from officials in the U.S., UK, Germany, and elsewhere who all suspended funding to a besieged people experiencing a genocide as a result of a baseless accusation by the génocidaires themselves.”
“The fact that the U.S., U.K., and several other Western governments instantly attacked UNRWA on the orders of a genocidal foreign government (based on bogus claims) should make you very worried about your own democracy.”
Jeremy Scahill, a senior correspondent at The Intercept‘s criticized the Biden administration and The Wall Street Journal for characterizing the dossier as “some smoking gun.”
During a press conference last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the allegations in the dossier “highly, highly credible.”
The same day as Blinken’s remarks, the Journal ran a story stating that “around 10%” of UNRWA’s Gaza employees have ties to Islamist militant groups,” pointing to an “intelligence dossier.”
But questions about the reliability of the purported intelligence cited in the Israeli dossier have been swirling since the details of its contents began to trickle out in the press late last month. Citing one unnamed senior Israeli official, Axios reported that “the intelligence is a result of interrogations of militants who were arrested during the Oct. 7 attack.”
Israeli forces have repeatedly been accused by U.N. experts and human rights groups of using torture to extract forced confessions from Palestinian detainees.
“The fact that the U.S., U.K., and several other Western governments instantly attacked UNRWA on the orders of a genocidal foreign government (based on bogus claims) should make you very worried about your own democracy,” Craig Mokhiber, a former U.N. official who resigned over the global institution’s failure to stop Israel’s assault on Gaza, wrote Tuesday.
Protesters with the #ShutItDown4Palestine movement took the streets of New York City once again on February 4 to demand an end to all US funding of Israel and a permanent ceasefire
New York City police cracked down on pro-Palestine activists with the #ShutItDown4Palestine movement for the third week in a row and arrested several protesters, including march organizers. The crackdown comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza completes four months. Israeli forces have killed over 27,000 Palestinians in the enclave including over 11,000 children.
People across the United States have mobilized week after week to demand an end to US complicity in Israel’s war on the people of Palestine and an immediate ceasefire. Major public opinion polls show that a majority of US voters from both parties support a ceasefire, yet the Biden administration has refused to call for one.
Organizers have vowed to continue protesting, in spite of the crackdown, until there is a ceasefire and Palestine is free.
U.S. President [‘Genocide’] Joe Biden speaks during an event at the White House complex on November 18, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“Except for core Democratic voters, the American public is telling Biden they are not impressed, despite the economy bouncing back and paychecks rising for many,” said one analyst.
Along with persistent protests at public events held by U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, recent polling is continuously demonstrating that the White House’s vehement support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza despite the rising civilian death toll is not winning them accolades among the voters whose backing they depend on in the upcoming election—and a new survey out Tuesday was no exception.
In the UMass Poll, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and YouGov found that out of 1,064 respondents nationwide, just under 60% said Biden is not handling “the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas” well, while just 31% approved of Biden’s policy regarding Israel.
Taken from January 25-30, the poll asked American voters about a wide range of topics, from inflation and their individual ability to afford necessities to their views on whether Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, where the Israel Defense Forces have killed at least 27,585 people in air and ground attacks as well as blocking nearly all humanitarian aid—plunging the enclave into a crisis of widespread starvation and disease.
Days after an Economist/YouGov survey found that 50% of 2020 Biden voters believe the Israeli assault that the U.S. has helped fund is a genocide, Tuesday’s poll found identical results for the country at large.
“We found that Americans are evenly split on this issue, with 50% viewing Israel’s actions as genocidal while 50% push back against this declaration,” said Tatishe Nteta, a political science professor at UMass Amherst. “Like many issues, both domestic and international, the question of whether the Israelis are committing genocide has become a reflection of the nation’s partisan, gender, racial, and generational divisions as majorities of Democrats, progressives, people of color, women, and young people believe that genocide is being committed while Republicans, conservatives, whites, men, and older Americans oppose this notion.”
Analysts at UMass Amherst said respondents held “persistently dim views of the national economy—even in the face of low unemployment, bullish stock markets, and easing inflation,” and Nteta warned that “with the specter of a rematch with former President [Donald] Trump on the horizon, Biden will need to work to bolster his low approval numbers or face the prospect of becoming a one-term president.”
Ray La Raja, another political scientist at the university, suggested that although Biden got voters’ “highest praise for creating jobs and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,” with 42% of respondents saying they approved of the president’s handling of those issues, their positive outlook on select actions by Biden was not enough to counter widespread disapproval of Biden, with just 39% of voters expressing overall approval.
“Majorities of voters have not been impressed with Biden on other issues,” said La Raja. “Except for core Democratic voters, the American public is telling Biden they are not impressed, despite the economy bouncing back and paychecks rising for many.”
Israel’s war in Gaza, which the Biden administration has insisted is targeting Hamas despite top Israeli officials’ statements about clearing the enclave of all Gazans, appeared to loom large for respondents when they were asked about their top fears about a second term for Biden, with many replying, “War.”
The new survey bolstered the analysis of The American Prospect co-founder Robert Kuttner last week regarding another recent poll by Quinnipiac University, which showed that Biden was leading Trump, who is leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination, 50-44 overall.
“All of these gains could make little difference as long as the Israel-Gaza conflict is a festering mess, sponsored and funded by the U.S., that splits the Democratic Party and alienates younger voters and voters of color,” wrote Kuttner of the Quinnipiac survey.
“These unlawful killings are in blatant violation of international human rights law,” said the rights group.
While Israeli officials continue to claim, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the Israel Defense Forces are targeting Hamas in their bombardment of occupied Palestine, a new report from Amnesty International on Monday details the extent to which the military has frequently used lethal force against civilians across the West Bank in addition to the more than 27,000 people it has killed in Gaza.
Calling for an investigation into possible war crimes, the group said it had analyzed four cases in which the IDF has used “unlawful lethal force” against people in the occupied West Bank and blocked medical professionals from reaching injured residents, with Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab verifying 19 videos and four photos of the incidents.
The events documented in the report account for the deaths of 20 Palestinians, including seven children. Since October 7, when the IDF began attacking the West Bank and Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, at least 360 people have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, including 94 children, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
🚨 Israeli forces have over the past 4 months unleashed a brutal wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings, including by using lethal force without necessity or disproportionately during protests and arrest raids, and denying…
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty’s director of global research, advocacy, and policy, said the surge in unlawful deadly attacks in the West Bank have been perpetrated “under the cover of the relentless bombardment and atrocity crimes in Gaza.”
“These unlawful killings are in blatant violation of international human rights law and are committed with impunity in the context of maintaining Israel’s institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination over Palestinians,” said Guevara-Rosas. “These cases provide shocking evidence of the deadly consequences of Israel’s unlawful use of force against Palestinians in the West Bank. Israeli authorities, including the Israeli judicial system, have proven shamefully unwilling to ensure justice for Palestinian victims.”
The report was released days after a team of Israeli forces disguised themselves as medical staff and civilians and raided Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing three Palestinians who they claimed—without evidence—were planning an attack on Israel.
OCHA has recorded a sharp increase in “search and arrest operations” by the IDF in the occupied West Bank since October 7, with 54% of the 4,382 Palestinians injured in Israel’s assault sustaining their injuries during raids.
In the early days of the Israeli onslaught, 13 people, including six children, were killed during a raid on Nour Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem that began on October 19 and went on for 30 hours. IDF soldiers “stormed more than 40 residential homes, destroying personal belongings and drilling holes in the walls for sniper outposts” during the operation, which Israel said was in response to an improvised explosive device that was thrown at border police by Palestinians.
Israeli authorities cut off water and electricity to the camp and used bulldozers to destroy infrastructure, while stopping at least two ambulances from reaching people who were injured.
One person killed in the raid was 15-year-old Taha Mahami, who was “unarmed and posed no threat to the soldiers at the time he was shot, based on witness testimony and videos reviewed by Amnesty International.”
“They did not give him a chance. In an instant, my brother was eliminated,” said Fatima Mahamid, the victim’s sister. “Three bullets were fired without any mercy. The first bullet hit him in the leg. The second—in his stomach. Third, in his eye. There were no confrontations… there was no conflict.”
When the children’s father, Ibrahim Mahamid, tried to carry his injured son out of the line of fire, he was shot in the back by the IDF, sustaining damage to his internal organs.
“Neither Taha nor Ibrahim Mahamid posed a threat to security forces or anyone else when they were shot,” said Amnesty. “This unnecessary use of lethal force should be investigated as possible war crimes of wilful killing and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health.”
In another “egregious” incident in October in Tulkarem, two eyewitnesses interviewed by Amnesty described Israeli forces opening fire from a watch tower on a crowd of at least 80 people who were holding a peaceful protest in solidarity with Gaza.
IDF soldiers opened fire on journalists wearing clearly visible “Press” markings as well as on a Palestinian man who was riding past the protest on a bike.
By carrying out such attacks, said Amnesty, Israel is violating international standards including the U.N. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
“These standards prohibit the use of force by law enforcement officials unless strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty and require that firearms may only be used as a last resort—when strictly necessary for military personnel or police to protect themselves or others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury,” said the group. “Willful killings of protected persons and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to protected persons are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and war crimes.”
Guevara-Rosas said the incidents documented in the report, and the Israeli onslaught in the West Bank and Gaza as a whole, “is a litmus test for the legitimacy and reputation” of the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes war crimes, and that “it cannot afford to fail it.”
“In this climate of near total impunity, an international justice system worth its salt must step in,” said Guevara-Rosas. “The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court must investigate these killings and injuries as possible war crimes of willful killing and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury.”
