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Israel’s attacks on Jabalya camp in Gaza may amount to war crimes: UN rights body

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

Israel bombed the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza for the third time on Thursday. Israel’s attacks on the camp have killed at least 195 Palestinians with at least 120 more people missing under the rubble

Israel bombed the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza for the third time on the morning of Thursday, November 2, killing at least 29 more people, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Israel’s attacks on the camp have killed at least 195 Palestinians with at least 120 more people missing under the rubble. 

Over 800 Palestinians have been wounded in the attacks on the densely populated camp. 

The United Nations Human Rights office (OHCHR) said on Thursday that Israel’s repeated attacks on the Jabalya refugee camp are “disproportionate” and may “amount to war crimes.” 

At least five more Palestinians were killed on Thursday morning when Israeli warplanes targeted an UNRWA school which had been converted into a camp, known as al-Shati. Thousands of Palestinians who have lost their homes due to Israeli bombings are living in the camp.

Reports also claimed that the al-Shati camp was attacked with white phosphorus which is banned.   

A total of over 9,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 23,000 have been wounded in the Israeli war on Gaza. More than 70% of all Palestinians killed are children or women, according to the UN. 

The Israeli war began on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups breached the border fence and entered Israel in what they called Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Israel has also launched a ground offensive inside Palestinian territory. Reports indicate a large number of killings and destruction of civilian properties in the ground offensive too.  

More hospitals shut in Gaza

Due to the indiscriminate Israeli bombing, 16 out of 35 hospitals in Gaza are already out of service, according to the Health Ministry.  

More hospitals have announced they will be forced to cease their operations soon, citing lack of supply of electricity and essentials such as medicines.  

The Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the only cancer hospital in the Gaza strip, announced the halting of its operations following repeated attacks by Israel in its vicinity and the shortage of fuel caused due to a complete blockade on the supply of essential commodities by Israel on the territory since October 9. 

Reacting to the news, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca claimed that the hospital had shut down despite repeated warnings as “unfortunately, the international community and relevant institutions have not taken sufficient action to prevent the attacks on the hospitals” carried out by the Israeli war planes.  

The hospital was attacked by Israel on Monday, October 30, leading to damage. 

Meanwhile, a small number of severely injured Palestinians and some foreign nationals were able to leave the Gaza strip from Rafah border crossing on Wednesday for the first time since the war began. More people are expected to leave on Thursday. 

Israel continues to kill and arrest Palestinians in West Bank and East Jerusalem    

At least three Palestinians, including one child, were killed by the Israeli occupation forces in different parts of the occupied West Bank on Thursday morning. 

The total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7 has crossed 132 with at least 34 of them being children. The occupation forces have killed more than 343 Palestinians in these territories since the beginning of the year. 

Israeli occupation forces also arrested at least 65 more Palestinians from various parts of the occupied West Bank on Thursday. A total of over 1,900 Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli armed forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7.   

Israel’s repeated targeting of civilians in the Palestinian territories has been condemned by many countries. After Bolivia cut ties with Israel on Tuesday, Chile and Colombia recalled their ambassadors from Israel. 

On Wednesday Jordan joined these countries and recalled its ambassador from Israel. It claimed that it won’t send its ambassador back until Israel stops its war in Gaza.

According to Al-Mayadeen, Bahrain announced on Thursday that the Israeli ambassador has left the country and it has recalled its ambassador from Israel. It also claimed that it has halted all economic cooperation with Israel over its attacks on Palestinian people in Gaza. 

Bahrain was the first country in the Arab region to sign the US-backed normalization deal with Israel in 2020 called Abraham Accords. Later, the UAE, Sudan, and Morocco also signed the deal.  

Several other countries, including Argentina, Peru, and Mexico. also condemned Israel’s repeated attacks on the Jabalya refugee camp and on Palestinian civilians. 

Speaking at yet another UN General Assembly session on Palestine, Russian ambassador Vasily Nebenzia reiterated his country’s demand of immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza warning that it is necessary to “prevent the crisis from engulfing the entire region.” 

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on October 27 demanding an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza with over 120 countries supporting it. However, Israel has refused to adhere to it and continues its bombings targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.

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

Continue ReadingIsrael’s attacks on Jabalya camp in Gaza may amount to war crimes: UN rights body

Here’s how the Tories will continue their war on the less well-off in the King’s speech

One of the many occasions climate change denier and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.
One of the many occasions climate change denier and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/11/heres-how-the-tories-will-continue-their-war-on-the-less-well-off-in-the-kings-speech/

On 7th November, King Charles III will open the next session of the UK parliament. It is likely to be the last before the general election expected to take place towards the end of 2024.

The King’s speech, written by the government, is the key part of state opening of parliament. It sets out the government’s policy priorities and legislative programme. So what can we expect, or not expect, the Conservative government to do to save its skin?

After 13 years in office and five Prime Ministers the government is spent and is unlikely to reverse any of its economic policies that have resulted in the highest ever public debt of £2.6 trillion (97.8% of GDP) and highest rate of inflation for 41 years.

The government won’t end austerity and real wage cuts. The average real wage is lower than in 2005. 14.4m were living in poverty in 2021/2022. 3.8m people experienced destitution in 2022, including around one million children. In the period 2012-2019, government imposed austerity caused nearly 335,000 excess deaths (nearly 48,000 a year) in England and Scotland.

A government obsessed with privatisation, outsourcing and cuts to public spending may pay lip-service to public investment, but won’t do much to deal with crumbling schools and public buildings. Parts of the National Health Service have been privatised by stealth and the government won’t do much to relieve the healthcare crisis. Some 7.8m people in England are waiting for hospital appointment (1 in 7 of the population). Some .2.6m are chronically ill and unable to work. In the five years to 2022, around 1.5m died whilst awaiting a hospital appointment.

The government is trapped by its subservience to defunct ideologies. It won’t modify Brexit and reach out to Europe to boost investment, trade and jobs. It won’t increase investment in infrastructure. In an OECD league table of investment in productive assets, the UK is ranked at number 35 out of 38 countries.

…

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/11/heres-how-the-tories-will-continue-their-war-on-the-less-well-off-in-the-kings-speech/

Continue ReadingHere’s how the Tories will continue their war on the less well-off in the King’s speech

Do American Taxpayers Really Want to Fund Israel’s Genocide of the Palestinian People?

Congress should hold public hearings to get an answer to this question.

Original article by RALPH NADER and BRUCE FEIN republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Civilians try to reach survivors, dead bodies amid destruction caused by Israeli strikes on Bureij refugee camp located in central Gaza Strip on November 02, 2023.  (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Dear Congressional Leaders Sen. Schumer, Rep. Johnson, Sen. McConnell and Rep. Jeffries:

We strongly urge Congress to hold public hearings, with testimony from a broad range of witnesses, before voting on President Biden’s request for an additional $14.3 billion in military funding to further subsidize Israel’s overwhelming military superiority over Hamas in the war that erupted on October 7, 2023.

We believe these questions, among others, should be examined:

1. Why should American taxpayers pay for Israeli military spending incurred because of its stupendous intelligence failure and ongoing genocidal war?
2. Does Israel need the additional aid since the United States already provides Israel $3-4 billion annually and statutorily guarantees it “a qualitative military advantage” over its neighbors?
3. Can the United States afford the $14.3 billion in additional spending with a national debt soaring past $33 trillion, and annual trillion-dollar budget deficits?
4. Israel is among the top 20 global economies in terms of GDP per capita. Could the $14.3 billion be better spent on assisting the world’s 71 million impoverished internally displaced refugees, many created by undeclared, lawless, U.S. wars?
5. Would the military subsidies make the United States even more of a co-belligerent with Israel in a war against Hamas and, under international law, legally responsible for war crimes or genocide?
6. Should the additional $14.3 billion in deficit or unpaid-for funding be conditioned on Israel’s compliance with the laws of war and the Genocide Convention as certified under oath by the President, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense with an accompanying written explanation? All of these officials have urged the Israeli government to “comply with the laws of war.”
7. How did the Biden Administration come up with the outsized figure of $14.3 billion for a prosperous economic, technological, and military superpower having a greater social safety net for its people than the United States?

Asking the American people for their advice on sending $14.3 billion to Israel for its acknowledged, defense blunders is not difficult. Conservative Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie polled 49,000 people from his impoverished state. They registered overwhelming opposition to sending these billions of dollars for Israel’s daily slaughter of the civilians in Gaza, nearly half of whom are children.

Disaster is courted when the United States races to begin or join military conflicts without measured, sober second thoughts born of hearings and debates that entertain diverse views. The House held no hearings on the ill-fated Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 which expanded the Vietnam War. The Resolution passed unanimously with but 40 minutes of debate. Senate action was only modestly less rash in voting 98-2 to open the gates to a trillion-dollar military disaster.

Congress never inquired whether the Executive Branch’s dubious Domino Theory was fantasy. Indeed, Vietnam today is an ally of the United States.

Congress held no hearings before approving the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) with but one dissenting vote, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). After spending more than $2 trillion fighting the Taliban over 20 years, the United States de facto conceded defeat in 2021 with an even more militant version of the Taliban now in power in Afghanistan.

Such hearings will not place Israel in jeopardy. Hamas is no existential threat. And all the world can see Israel pulverizing Gaza daily, including its civilian population, half of whom are children, with brutal air and land attacks on critical civilian infrastructure.

Sincerely,
Ralph Nader, Esq.
Bruce Fein, Esq.

Original article by RALPH NADER and BRUCE FEIN republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingDo American Taxpayers Really Want to Fund Israel’s Genocide of the Palestinian People?

Activists call for global shutdown on November 9 to support the Palestinians

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/activists-call-global-shutdown-support-palestinians

A Palestinian man carries a dead child that was found under the rubble of a destroyed building, following Israeli airstrikes in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, November 1, 2023

ACTIVISTS in the United States called on Thursday for a Global Shutdown for Palestine on November 9.

Since Israel began its brutal bombardment of Gaza, activists have been mobilising to demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to all aid to Israel and a lifting of the siege on Gaza which many experts have described as a war crime.

Activists from organisations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement, National Students for Justice in Palestine, ANSWER Coalition, The People’s Forum, and International Peoples’ Assembly have called for direct action such as “marches, walk-outs, sit-ins and strikes directed at the politicians, businesses, and workplaces that fund, invest in and collaborate with Israeli genocide and occupation.”

Palestinian poet and writer Mohammed el-Kurd said: “We must not wait for history to pass us by. Everyone, regardless identity or sector, must heed the calls coming from the Palestinian streets and take action against genocide.

Yara Shoufani, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, said: “We are calling for a total anti-normalisation of zionism.

“We will continue to fight until any and all material support for zionism is made unsustainable and ends.”

…

https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/activists-call-global-shutdown-support-palestinians

Continue ReadingActivists call for global shutdown on November 9 to support the Palestinians

TWO-FIFTHS OF KEIR STARMER’S CABINET HAVE BEEN FUNDED BY PRO-ISRAEL LOBBYISTS

Image features the Labour Party's Keith Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting and Rupert Murdoch. Thanks to the Skwawkbox for the image.
Image features the Labour Party’s Keith Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting and Rupert Murdoch. Thanks to the Skwawkbox for the image.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/two-fifths-of-keir-starmers-cabinet-have-been-funded-by-pro-israel-lobbyists/

Some 13 of the 31 members of Labour’s shadow cabinet have received donations from a prominent pro-Israel lobby group or individual funder, it can be revealed. 

The list of recipients includes party leader Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, and even the former vice-chair of Labour Friends of Palestine, Lisa Nandy, who is now shadow international development minister.

These donations were provided by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a pro-Israel lobby group which takes MPs on “fact-finding” missions to the region, and Sir Trevor Chinn, a multi-millionaire business tycoon and long-time pro-Israel lobbyist.

More than half of Starmer’s shadow cabinet are listed as parliamentary supporters or officers of LFI.

…

Pro-Israel lobbying

Sir Trevor Chinn is a British multi-millionaire who has spent decades working in the motor industry, chairing such organisations as the AA, the RAC, and Kwikfit.

Chinn is also a longstanding pro-Israel lobbyist. Since the 1980s, he has funded LFI and Conservative Friends of Israel and played a leading role in groups such as Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) and the Jewish Leadership Council.

The Guardian described BICOM in 2009 as “Britain’s most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation – which flies journalists to Israel on fact-finding trips and organises access to senior government figures”. 

It added that the organisation had “received nearly £1.4m in two years from a billionaire donor whose father made a fortune manufacturing arms in Israel”, referring to Poju Zabludowicz, a London-based business tycoon.

Starmer received a £50,000 donation from Chinn during his campaign for the Labour leadership in 2020 – and failed to declare this until after he’d won the election.

Declassified has found that Chinn has donated to eight other members of the shadow cabinet, including Rayner, Lammy, Reeves, Streeting, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, shadow work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, and shadow environment secretary Steve Reed.

…

https://www.declassifieduk.org/two-fifths-of-keir-starmers-cabinet-have-been-funded-by-pro-israel-lobbyists/

Continue ReadingTWO-FIFTHS OF KEIR STARMER’S CABINET HAVE BEEN FUNDED BY PRO-ISRAEL LOBBYISTS