Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay urged Parliament to force an urgent debate on the “dangerous escalation” in the Middle East that has seen the UK attack Yemen.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay October 2023.
Ramsay said:
“It is important for the international community to work together to defend shipping in the Red Sea from attack, but there is a significant distinction between internationally based defence and countries like the UK and US taking it upon themselves to launch attacks.
“This is a dangerous escalation taken without the approval of Parliament. The conflict is already spreading across Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. These attacks risk inflaming tensions and sparking further attacks.
“The Prime Minister needs to stand before Parliament and explain a strategy. It is unacceptable to escalate activity whilst evading scrutiny and the democratic process.
“The Green Party again urges the government to launch an urgent international peace effort. Now is the time to search for new peace initiatives that can break this cycle of pain and create the conditions for a lasting peace in the region.
“As we set out earlier this week, the UK government should pursue a strategy that reduces tensions and offers a path to peace. The key to that is ending the conflict in Gaza.
Demonstrators wearing orange jumpsuits and hoods over their heads rally outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on January 11, 2019 to demand the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Chlöe Swarbrick, then a Green Party Auckland Central candidate, attended an election night celebration on October 17, 2020 in New Zealand. (Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images)
Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra speaks during an October 26, 2023 press conference as he holds a list of 6,747 people killed by Israeli air and artillery strikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave since October 7. (Photo: Palestine Ministry of Health Gaza/Facebook)
South African attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi on Thursday used the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other high-ranking officials to make the case to the International Court of Justice—and to the world—that Israel’s military is acting with clear genocidal intent in the Gaza Strip.
“Let the prime minister’s words speak for themselves,” said Ngcukaitobi, pointing to Netanyahu’s November remarks urging Israelis to “remember what Amalek has done to you. Netanyahu has repeatedly likened Gazans to the Amalekites, whom the Old Testament God orders King Saul to massacre.
Ngcukaitobi went on to cite the deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset, who called on Israel’s military to “burn Gaza” to the ground—a statement he reiterated ahead of Thursday’s hearing at the United Nations’ highest court.
“There is an extraordinary feature in this case: that Israel’s political leaders, military commanders, and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent,” said Ngcukaitobi. “And these statements are then repeated by soldiers on the ground in Gaza as they engage in the destruction of Palestinians and the physical infrastructure of Gaza.”
The South African attorney played video footage of Israeli soldiers dancing and chanting that there are “no uninvolved civilians” in Gaza—a precursor to the war crime of collective punishment.
South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola speaks at a press conference outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague on January 11, 2024. (Photo: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Whatever the outcome, we are witnessing an amazing moment of rule of international law history,” said Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard.
Human rights defenders and legal experts on Thursday lauded what many called South Africa’s “compelling” opening presentation at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in a case accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in the embattled Gaza Strip.
In a bid to obtain an ICJ emergency order for the suspension of Israel’s relentless 97-day assault on Gaza, South African jurists including Justice Minister Ronald Lamola argued that Israel is violating four articles of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, commonly called the Genocide Convention. The landmark 1948 treaty—enacted, ironically, the same year as the modern state of Israel was born, largely through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s Arabs—defines genocide as acts intended “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.”
South African lawyers detailed Israel’s conduct in the war, including the killing and wounding of more than 80,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, forcibly displacing over 85% of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million people, and inflicting conditions leading to widespread starvation and disease. They also cited at length statements by Israeli officials calling for the destruction and even nuclear annihilation of Gaza in their presentations, which eschewed graphic imagery in favor of arguing “clear legal rights.”
Today's ICJ hearing was devastating. Horror after horror, laid out in plain sight for all to see.
South Africa spoke for millions around the world desperate for this massacre to end — and put the UK & US government to shame for their deplorable silence, cowardice and complicity.
“In its opening argument thus far, South Africa has made a compelling case showing how the genocidal statements by [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and other senior officials were interpreted as official orders by Israeli forces in their attacks against Gaza,” U.S. investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill said on social media.
“Beyond the citations of the vast civilian deaths and injuries caused by Israel in Gaza, [South Africa’s] lawyers argued effectively that Israel’s ‘evacuation’ orders were in and of themselves genocidal, demanding the immediate flight of a million people, including patients in hospitals,” Scahill continued.
“What becomes crystal clear listening to the openly genocidal words of Netanyahu and other Israeli officials is that they know exactly what they are saying,” he added. “And they are comfortable saying these things publicly because they know the U.S. will shield them from accountability.”
South Africa makes its showing of genocidal intent from the repeated statements of senior Israeli officials, repeated by troops on the ground, and the massive death, destruction, and deprivation in Gaza that reflects the implementation of that intent. https://t.co/yGBESCNQR4
Left-wing author and activist and former South African parliamentarian Andrew Feinstein said that “South Africa’s presentation to the ICJ thus far has been exceptional, overwhelming, and devastating,” opining that “the only way the ICJ doesn’t impose interim measures is if the judges are open to pressure from ‘the West.'”
“South Africa’s lawyers have done the nonracial, post-apartheid country proud,” he added.
Legal scholar Nimer Sultany, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, called South Africa’s presentation “compellingly argued and powerfully presented.”
Minister of Justice reminded the world that violence and suffering did not begin on 7 oct. Palestinians have been subjected to violence and dispossession for 75 years, and for every day since 7 oct. That Gaza is occupied, because Israel has effectively controlled it.
“Given the court’s case law, and given the lower threshold required for issuing provisional measures, it will be very surprising if the court does not issue provisional measures against Israel,” Sultany asserted.
“This also should prompt reflection amongst all those governments and media outlets who supported [Israel’s war,] because they have been supporting a genocide,” he added.
Sultany and numerous other observers said the most powerful presentation of the day was made by Irish lawyer and case adviser Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, who delivered South Africa’s closing statement.
Absolutely wow, I am speechless at the strength of the argument.
“This is the first genocide in history where people themselves are broadcasting it.”
“The world should be absolutely horrified, there is no safe space in Gaza. The world should be ashamed.” pic.twitter.com/jUnVwngOqn
Israel—some of whose officials have condemned South Africa’s case as a meritless “blood libel”—is scheduled to present its defense on Friday. Israeli jurists are expected to focus heavily on the atrocities committed by Hamas-led attackers who killed more than 1,100 Israelis and took around 240 others hostage on October 7. They will likely argue that the country has a right to defend itself, and that it is seeking to eliminate Hamas, not the Palestinian people.
While an emergency order from the World Court would not be enforceable, it would represent a major international embarrassment for Israel, which is increasingly isolated on the world stage. A growing number of nations including Brazil, Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Venezuela, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Jordan, and Bangladesh are supporting South Africa’s case, as are the Arab League, more than 1,250 international human rights and civil society group, and progressive U.S. Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.).
The United States, UK, and Israel were among the last countries to end their support for the apartheid regime in South Africa.
The legacy of a liberated South Africa lives on as a country that defeated apartheid takes the Israeli apartheid regime to The Hague for genocide.
“Whatever the outcome, we are witnessing an amazing moment of rule of international law history,” saidAmnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard.
Israeli soldiers move near the Israeli-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, January 8, 2024
From working closely with Apartheid South Africa to develop its nuclear weapons to supplying the far-right terrorists in Nicaragua with their famous Uzis, Israel has always been a malevolent force internationally, writes JOHN GREEN
WHEN the state of Israel was created in 1948, albeit under dubious circumstances involving the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians from their traditional homes, it enjoyed global sympathy and goodwill.
As the horrendous facts of the Holocaust became better known at the end of the war, a haven for the Jewish people was widely seen as an appropriate and justified solution to prevent such horrors from happening again.
That goodwill has, over time, become strained and misused. Israel’s role in oppressing the Palestinians but also in aiding and abetting some of the most reactionary forces in the world has more than tarnished its image.
The latter role, though, has been kept largely hidden from the public eye. Israeli co-operation with reactionary forces began very soon after its establishment as a state.
