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UK Continues Use of Anti-Terrorism Law to Arrest Palestine Defenders

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson—seen here in an undated photo—was arrested on August 29, 2024 for what police said was “content that she has posted online” amid Israel’s Gaza onslaught. (Photo: Sarah Wilkinson/X)

“1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom,” said musician Roger Waters.

At least a dozen police officers raided the home of British pro-Palestine activist and journalist Sarah Wilkinson on Thursday over “content that she has posted online” that allegedly ran afoul of the United Kingdom’s anti-terrorism law.

“The police came to her house just before 7:30 am,” Wilkinson’s son, Jack Wilkinson, said on social media. “There were 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counterterrorism police… Her house is being raided and they have seized all her electronic devices.”

Police—who later freed Wilkinson on bail—did not disclose what content she posted that led to her arrest. Wilkinson has been a tireless critic of the U.K. government’s support for Israel and has posted many images of the death and destruction in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed and wounded more than 144,000 Palestinians. Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

“The British prime minister is determined to terrorize into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza.”

Pro-Israel media reported Wilkinson called the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants an “incredible infiltration” and hailed the late Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh—who was assassinated last month in Iran—as a “hero.”

Section 12 of the U.K.’s Terrorism Act of 2000 criminalizes anyone who “invites support for a proscribed organization” or “expresses an opinion or belief that is supportive” of such a group. Violators can be punished with up to 14 years’ imprisonment and a fine. Hamas is included on the U.K. government’s list of proscribed groups.

Critics say the U.K. government uses the highly controversial anti-terror law to silence dissent.

Israel-based British journalist Thomas Cook said in a Friday blog post that Wilkinson’s arrest is “definitive proof” that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s “authoritarian purges of the Labour left are being rolled out against critics on a nationwide basis.”

“The British prime minister is determined to terrorize into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza,” Cook added.

Musician and staunch Israel critic Roger Waters, who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd, said in a video posted Thursday on social media that Wilkinson was arrested “for standing up for human rights and campaigning against genocide.”

“If you allow this to stand, the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson and the persecution of my friend Craig Murray among others, then you have absolutely accepted that England is now a fascist state,” Waters asserted, adding that “1984 has arrived and is alive and well in the United Kingdom.”

In addition to her pro-Palestine activism, Wilkinson is a news contributor for the Lebanon-based news site MENA Uncensored.

“The pro-genocide U.K. regime has arrested MENA Uncensored‘s roving reporter and human rights activist Sarah Wilkinson for supporting the Palestinian resistance and relaying what is really happening in Gaza and the West Bank to the world,” the outlet said on social media.

Wilkinson’s arrest came one week after Syrian-British independent journalist Richard Medhurst was apprehended at London’s Heathrow Airport and held for nearly 24 hours for allegedly violating Section 12 with social media posts “expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organization.”

Richard Barnard, co-founder of the London-based group Palestine Action—with which Wilkinson has been involved—is also facing three criminal charges for two speeches allegedly supporting a proscribed organization.

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

Continue ReadingUK Continues Use of Anti-Terrorism Law to Arrest Palestine Defenders

Amnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of ‘Indiscriminate’ Israeli Attacks on Gaza Camps

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

A Palestinian woman holds the shrouded body of a child killed by Israeli bombardment of the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 26, 2024. (Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)

The human rights group said Israeli forces “failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives by using unguided munitions in an area full of civilians sheltering in tents.”

In an investigation focusing on a pair of Israeli massacres of forcibly displaced Palestinians in Gaza, Amnesty International on Monday urged the International Criminal Court—whose chief prosecutor has already applied for warrants to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders—to open a war crimes probe of the attacks, which it said were likely “indiscriminate” and “disproportionate.”

“On May 26, 2024, two Israeli airstrikes on the Kuwaiti Peace Camp, a makeshift camp for internally displaced people in Tal al-Sultan in west Rafah, killed at least 36 people—including six children—and injured more than 100,” noted Amnesty, which early in the assault on Gaza found “damning evidence” of Israeli war crimes including indiscriminate killing of civilians.

The Tal al-Sultan attack, which hit an Israeli-designated “safe zone,” ignited an inferno that burned people alive inside the tents in which they were sheltering. One survivor told Amnesty that “there were so many dead people all around us,” many of them “in pieces and in pools of blood.”

“The military could and should have taken all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize, harm to civilians.”

The Amnesty report states that the airstrikes, “which targeted two Hamas commanders staying amid displaced civilians, consisted of two U.S.-made GBU-39 guided bombs” and that “the use of these munitions, which project deadly fragments over a wide area, in a camp housing civilians in overcrowded temporary shelters likely constituted a disproportionate and indiscriminate attack, and should be investigated as a war crime.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Tal al-Sultan massacre a “tragic mistake.”

“On May 28, in the second incident investigated, the Israeli military fired at least three tank shells at a location in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah, which was designated by the Israeli military as a ‘humanitarian zone,'” Amnesty continued. “The strikes killed 23 civilians—including 12 children, seven women, and four men—and injured many more.”

“Amnesty International’s research found that the apparent targets of the attack were one Hamas and one Islamic Jihad fighter,” the publication notes. “This strike, which failed to distinguish between civilians and military objectives by using unguided munitions in an area full of civilians sheltering in tents, likely was indiscriminate and should be investigated as a war crime.”

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, said in a statement that “while these strikes may have targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and fighters, once again displaced Palestinian civilians seeking shelter and safety have paid with their lives.”

“The Israeli military would have been fully aware that the use of bombs that project deadly shrapnel across hundreds of meters and unguided tank shells would kill and injure a large number of civilians sheltering in overcrowded settings lacking protection,” she added. “The military could and should have taken all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize, harm to civilians.”

Israel—whose 325-day bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza has left more than 144,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and millions more suffering forced displacement, starvation, and disease—is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands.

In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to uphold its obligations under Article II of the Genocide Convention. Israel’s far-right government and military have been accused by human rights groups of ignoring the order.

As Israeli forces launched a major ground invasion of Rafah four months later, the ICJ issued another order for Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive” in the city, where around 1.5 million forcibly displaced and local Palestinian residents were sheltering. Instead of heeding the order, Israel ramped up its assault on Rafah.

At the International Criminal Court, Prosecutor Karim Khan is urging the tribunal to promptly act upon his May application for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom, political chief Ismail Haniyeh, was subsequently assassinated by Israel.

Guevara-Rosas on Monday reminded Israel of its legal responsibility to protect noncombatants.

“The avoidable deaths and injuries of civilians is a stark and tragic reminder that, under international humanitarian law, the presence of fighters in the targeted area does not absolve the Israeli military of its obligations to protect civilians,” she said.

“All parties to the conflict must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians,” Guevara-Rosas added. “This also includes the obligation of Hamas and other armed groups to avoid, to the extent feasible, locating military objectives and fighters in or near densely populated areas.”

The new Amnesty report was published on the same day that Human Rights Watch called upon the ICC to investigate alleged and documented incidents of Israeli forces torturing imprisoned Palestinian medical workers, including at the notorious Sde Teiman prison, where guards are accused of war crimes including murder, rape, and torture.

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

Continue ReadingAmnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of ‘Indiscriminate’ Israeli Attacks on Gaza Camps

Israel Launches Massive Attack on Lebanon, Heightening Fears of All-Out War

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

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on Zibqin in southern Lebanon on August 25, 2024. 
(Photo: Kawnat Haju/AFP via Getty Images

“Looks like Israel is now escalating in Lebanon in a major way in the hopes of kicking off a major war in the north that has thus far been kept to more limited exchanges,” warned one analyst.

Israel’s military deployed around 100 fighter jets to launch a massive bombing campaign in southern Lebanon on Sunday, endangering tens of thousands of civilians and heightening the chances of an all-out regional war.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) characterized the wave of airstrikes as an effort to preemptively “remove the threat” posed by a purportedly imminent Hezbollah attack, but observers argued the Israeli bombing marked a serious escalation that could further undermine hopes of a cease-fire deal in Gaza.

“Looks like Israel is now escalating in Lebanon in a major way in the hopes of kicking off a major war in the north that has thus far been kept to more limited exchanges,” wrote political analyst Yousef Munayyer. “Just as negotiations for a cease-fire were reportedly advancing.”

Hezbollah said Sunday that it had fired hundreds of drones and rockets at Israeli military sites in retaliation for the assassination of one of the group’s senior commanders last month. Hezbollah said the “first phase” of its response was complete and rejected the IDF’s claim that it preempted the group’s retaliatory action.

The Associated Press reported that “by mid-morning, it appeared that the exchange had ended, with both sides saying they had only aimed at military targets.”

“At least three people were killed in the strikes on Lebanon,” AP noted, “while there were no reports of casualties in Israel.”

Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, wrote on social media following the attack on Lebanon that he “sent a direct message to dozens of foreign ministers worldwide, urging them to support Israel against the Iranian axis of evil and its proxies, led by Hezbollah.”

Sunday’s dangerous back-and-forth, described by one newspaper as the two sides’ biggest exchange of fire since the 2006 war, further intensified concerns that the region is moving toward the precipice of an all-out conflict as Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip continues with no end in sight.

A White House spokesperson said Sunday that U.S. President Joe Biden is “closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon.”

“At his direction, senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts,” the spokesperson said. “We will keep supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability.”

One senior U.S. official said Israel did not give the White House advance notice of the Lebanon attack.

Monica Marks, professor of Middle East politics at New York University Abu Dhabi, wrote that the White House’s claim to be promoting regional stability “lands like a bad joke” given ongoing U.S. support for Israel’s “escalatory acts.”

“Lives on the ground are at stake. So are [Democratic presidential nominee Kamala] Harris‘ chances and Biden’s legacy,” Marks added. “D.C. is playing Middle East roulette.”

Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon came after another horrific day in the Gaza Strip, where the IDF killed dozens of Palestinians in southern Gaza. “Among the dead,” according to the AP, “were 11 members of a family, including two children, after an airstrike hit their home in Khan Younis.”

The atrocities preceded a fresh round of high-level cease-fire talks, negotiations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly thwarted with hardline demands.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that “Israel and Hamas were sending senior-level delegations to Cairo this weekend as U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian mediators prepared for a high-stakes summit they hope will break the deadlock in negotiations for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.”

“Hamas officials arrived in the Egyptian capital Saturday, while Israeli media reported that a team led by the head of Mossad, David Barnea, would travel there Sunday,” the Post added. “The summit, also on Sunday, will include CIA Director William J. Burns, Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.”

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

Continue ReadingIsrael Launches Massive Attack on Lebanon, Heightening Fears of All-Out War

ICC Prosecutor Urges Swift Ruling on Warrants for Israeli, Hamas Leaders

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (L) visit the site of a shooting in Hebron, West Bank on August 21, 2023. (Photo: Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“Any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims,” the chief prosecutor wrote.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor argued in a Friday filing that pretrial judges have the jurisdiction to rule on the arrest warrants he is seeking for Israeli and Hamas leaders and must “urgently render its decisions.”

The October 7 attack and Israel’s retaliation in the Gaza Strip led the ICC’s Karim Khan to apply for warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as three Hamas leaders—Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (also known Deif), Ismail Haniyeh, and Yahya Sinwar—in May. Since then, Israel has assassinated Haniyeh and also claimed to have killed Deif, which Hamas denies.

The Associated Pressreported that Khan’s new brief “came in response to legal arguments filed by dozens of countries, academics, victims’ groups, and rights groups either rejecting or supporting the court’s power to issue arrest warrants in its investigation into the war in Gaza and the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel.”

The prosecutor wrote that “Israel has occupied Palestine since 1967,” and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled last month that “Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT),” which includes Gaza, “is unlawful.”

“It is settled law that the court has jurisdiction in this situation,” the prosecutor asserted, citing a February 2021 decision. “Any unjustified delay in these proceedings detrimentally affects the rights of victims.”

“The situation in the OPT, including Gaza, is catastrophic, owing in large part to the ongoing criminality described in the applications,” he added. “The issuance of the requested arrest warrants could avert further harm to the victims who remain in Gaza and to those who were forced to leave but continue to suffer physical and mental harm.”

The Hamas-led October attack on Israel killed over 1,100 people and militants took over 240 others hostage, more than 100 of whom remain in Gaza. Since then, the Israel Defense Forces has slaughtered at least 40,265 Palestinians and injured another 93,144, according to local officials, while leveling civilian infrastructure across the coastal enclave.

The AP noted that “Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Netanyahu and Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for the Israeli leaders to travel abroad.”

U.S. political leaders including President Joe Biden have faced criticism for not only giving Israel billions of dollars in weapons to wage war but also condemning the ICC prosecutor’s pursuit of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

In addition to the potential ICC warrants, Israel faces an ongoing South Africa-led genocide case at the ICJ.

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

Continue ReadingICC Prosecutor Urges Swift Ruling on Warrants for Israeli, Hamas Leaders

Slamming Israeli Media Lies, Freed Hostage Says IDF Strike—Not Hamas—Wounded Her

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

Noa Argamani, an Israeli woman who spent 245 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza after being kidnapped last October 7, meets with representatives of Group of Seven nations in Tokyo on August 21, 2024. (Photo: Richard Brooks/AFP via Getty Images)

“I cannot ignore what happened here over the past 24 hours, taking my words out of context,” said Noa Argamani. “As a victim of October 7, I refuse to be victimized once again by the media.”

An Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas militants on October 7 and held hostage for 245 days before being rescued lashed out on Friday at Israeli media outlets that twisted her words to make it seem as if she was wounded by her captors when in reality she was injured in an attack by the military in which she once served.

Responding to reports in outlets including The Jerusalem Post—which on Thursday ran the headline “Hamas Beat Me All Over”—Noa Argamani said on Instagram that “I can’t ignore what happened in the media in the last 24 hours.”

“Things were taken out of context,” the 26-year-old navy veteran from Be’er Sheva said of her earlier comments to Group of Seven diplomats in Tokyo. “I was not beaten… I was in a building that was bombed by the Air Force.”

“I emphasize that I was not beaten, but injured all over my body by the collapse of a building on me,” Argamani added. “As a victim of October 7, I refuse to be victimized once again by the media.”

Prominent Israelis including President Isaac Herzog and pro-Israel voices around the world including writer Aviva Klompas and the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council amplified the false claim that Argamani was “beaten” by her captors.

Argamani was partying with her boyfriend Avinatan Or at the Nova rave near the Gaza border when the festival was attacked by Hamas-led militants in the early morning hours of October 7. In now-famous video footage, she is seen begging, “Don’t kill me!” as her captors whisk her away toward Gaza on a motorcycle. Or was also kidnapped and is believed to still be in Hamas custody.

“Every night, I was falling asleep and thinking, this may be the last night of my life,” Argamani said Thursday of her time in captivity.

Argamani was one of four Hamas captives rescued during a June raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, an operation in which Israeli forces killed at least 236 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Three other Israeli hostages taken from the Nova rave were also rescued in the raid.

“It’s a miracle because I survived October 7, and I survived this bombing, and I also survived the rescue,” Argamani said in Tokyo on Thursday.

Argamani’s rescue fulfilled a dying wish from her mother, who had terminal cancer, to be reunited with her daughter before she passed. Argamani was also freed on the birthday of her father, Yakov Argamani, who, from the start of the hostage ordeal, urged Israeli leaders to eschew revenge after the October 7 attack.

There are believed to be around 109 Israelis and others still held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Argamani implored the government to make freeing them its top priority.

“Avinatan, my boyfriend, is still there, and we need to bring them back before it’s going to be too late,” she said Thursday. “We don’t want to lose more people than we already lost.”

More than 1,100 Israelis and others including Thai farmworkers were killed on October 7, at least some of them in so-called “friendly fire” attacks by Israeli forces. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) employed a protocol known as the “Hannibal Directive” authorizing lethal force against Israeli soldiers in order to prevent them from being taken prisoner by enemy forces. More than 240 Israelis and others were abducted by Hamas and other militants.

Freed hostages have recounted being fired upon by Israeli aircraft as they were being taken by Hamas militants to Gaza. One former captive said in December that “every day in captivity was extremely challenging. We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas, but Israel, that would kill us, and then they would say Hamas killed you.”

Numerous Israeli hostages have been killed by their would-be rescuers, including a trio of men who managed to escape from their captors and were waving white flags and shouting for help in Hebrew when they were shot dead by IDF soldiers in Gaza in December, and five Israelis who likely suffocated to death due to a fire sparked by an Israeli assault six months ago on the tunnel where the hostages were being held.

In contrast to former Palestinian prisoners held by Israel—who, along with Israeli whistleblowers, have reported systemic torture, rape, starvation, and even murder committed by their captors—numerous Israelis kidnapped by Hamas have reported being relatively well treated. Other former hostages said they were physically, sexually, and psychologically abused.

Taking civilian hostages is a war crime in itself.

Israel’s 322-day retaliation for October 7 has left at least 144,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing. Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced by Israel’s bombardment and invasion, which has flattened much of the coastal enclave. A crippling siege has pushed hundreds of thousands of Gazans over the brink of starvation, with at least dozens of children dying of malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care. Preventable diseases including measles, hepatitis, and polio threaten public health not only in Gaza but also in Israel and other neighboring nations.

Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.

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Continue ReadingSlamming Israeli Media Lies, Freed Hostage Says IDF Strike—Not Hamas—Wounded Her