She said at a pro-Palestinian gathering in Pretoria attended by a number of officials from the ruling African National Congress, “I have already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and are fighting alongside or in the Israeli Defense Forces: We are ready. When you come home, we are going to arrest you.”

Minister Pandor also called on people to create posters saying “Stop Genocide” and to demonstrate in front of the embassies of the “five primary supporters” of the Israeli campaign against Gaza. She did not name them but they certainly include the US and Britain.

There are about 70,000 Jews in South Africa, a country of about 60 million. It wasn’t reported how many of them are dual nationals or are serving in the Israeli army.

The South African government took Israel to the International Court of Justice with a charge that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza. On January 26, the ICJ issued the equivalent of a preliminary injunction against Israel on this charge, admitting its plausibility.

Hindustan Times Video: “South Africa Vows To ‘Punish’ Own Citizens Serving As Soldiers In Israel Army; ‘Will Strip Your…'”

Minister Pandor maintains that she has been the victim of an intimidation campaign, receiving online hate mail with threats of violence against her and her family that required here to request security from the government. She blames, in part, Israeli intelligence for this campaign.

Her ministry, charmingly called “International Relations and Cooperation,” just last week made a further appeal to the International Court of Justice to intervene to halt the starvation of the people of Gaza. It requested the Court to issue instructions to the effect that:

“All Parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide must, forthwith, refrain from any action, and in particular any armed action or support thereof, which might prejudice the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts, or any other rights in respect of whatever judgment the Court may render in the case, or which might aggravate or extend the dispute before the Court or make it more difficult to resolve.

The State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address famine and starvation and the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, by:

(a) immediately suspending its military operations in Gaza

(b) lifting its blockade of Gaza

(c) rescinding all other existing measures and practices that directly or indirectly have the effect of obstructing the access of Palestinians in Gaza to humanitarian assistance and basic services; and

(d) ensuring the provision of adequate and sufficient food, water, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, alongside medical assistance, including medical supplies and support.

The United Nations has warned that a fourth of the people in Gaza are at imminent risk of starvation.

South Africa’s attempt to rally the signatories of the Convention against Genocide of 1948 against Israeli actions, and its raising of the possibility of jail time for soldiers fighting the total war against Gaza, distinguishes it from most other international actors, who have done no more than express regret the for the over 31,000 Palestinian deaths in the war so far, if they have done that much.

Pandor’s comments raise the question of whether dual nationals serving in the Israeli army could be found guilty of being complicit in genocide if they return to their home countries from Israel after the war. While this outcome is difficult to imagine in the case of US returnees, the question remains open in Europe, which has strong human rights laws and European courts bound by international humanitarian law.

They pointed to the obligations laid on states by the Third Geneva Convention to ensure respect for the law: “States, whether neutral, allied or enemy, must do everything reasonably in their power to ensure respect for the Conventions by others that are Party to a conflict. This duty to ensure respect by others comprises both a negative and a positive obligation. Under the negative obligation, High Contracting Parties may neither encourage, nor aid or assist in violations of the Conventions by Parties to a conflict. Under the positive obligation, they must do everything reasonably in their power to prevent and bring such violations to an end.”

They also called for a halt to all transfers of arms to Hamas.

The joint statement said, “All States must ‘ensure respect’ for international humanitarian law by parties to an armed conflict, as required by 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law. States must accordingly refrain from transferring any weapon or ammunition – or parts for them – if it is expected, given the facts or past patterns of behaviour, that they would be used to violate international law.”

The experts added, “Such transfers are prohibited even if the exporting State does not intend the arms to be used in violation of the law – or does not know with certainty that they would be used in such a way – as long as there is a clear risk.”

They slammed private arms manufacturers as well, saying “They have not publicly demonstrated the heightened human rights due diligence required of them and accordingly risk complicity in violations.”

As for states, they observed, “International law does not enforce itself. All States must not be complicit in international crimes through arms transfers. They must do their part to urgently end the unrelenting humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”

They cited approvingly the decision of an appeals court in the Netherlands forbidding the export to Israel from that country of spare parts for the F-35 fighter jet. A Dutch news site quoted Judge Bas Boele as saying, “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.” I also noted that the NL Times added that the court said, “Israel does not take sufficient account of the consequences of its attacks for the civilian population. Israel’s attacks on Gaza have resulted in a disproportionate number of civilian casualties, including thousands of children.”

They noted that the Dutch court of appeals pointed to indiscriminate bombing, the destruction of 60% of civilian homes, damage to hospitals, schools, mosques and other facilities, the displacement of 85% of the population, and the very high civilian death toll as indications that Israel is violating the laws of war.

The experts also pointed to the January 26 preliminary injunction against Israel by the International Court of Justice, which found the genocide case lodged against Tel Aviv by South Africa to be plausible and ordered that acts that constitute genocide under international law be halted by Israel.

They said, “The need for an arms embargo on Israel is heightened by the International Court of Justice’s ruling on 26 January 2024 that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the continuing serious harm to civilians since then. This necessitates halting arms exports in the present circumstances.”

The 1948 Genocide Convention forbids countries from exporting arms into a situation where it is plausible that genocide is taking place.

The experts said, “State officials involved in arms exports may be individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting any war crimes, crimes against humanity or acts of genocide. All States under the principle of universal jurisdiction, and the International Criminal Court, may be able to investigate and prosecute such crimes.”

Israel’s main arms suppliers since October have been The United States, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Australia. The experts are saying that the politicians and military men making these arms transfers to Israel could end up being prosecuted for complicity in war crimes, including the crime of genocide.

TRT World Video: “Israeli air strikes kill at least 104 people in Gaza in 24 hours”

Some countries have already halted arms shipments to Israel. They include not only the Netherlands but also Spain, Belgium’s Walloon regional government and Italy. The OHCHR says they lauded the Japanese company Itochu Corporation, as well, for ceasing exports to Israel.

The experts noted an obligation on UN member states to uphold international humanitarian law and urged that states take the following steps with Israel:

Diplomatic dialogue and protests;

– Technical assistance to promote compliance and accountability;

– Sanctions on trade, finance, travel, technology or cooperation;

– Referral to the Security Council and the General Assembly;

– Proceedings at the International Court of Justice;

– Support for investigations by the International Criminal Court or other international legal mechanisms;

– National criminal investigations using universal jurisdiction and civil suits; and

– Requesting a meeting of the parties to the Geneva Conventions.

Note that the ICJ proceedings have already been initiated. The Security Council has three times voted to impose a ceasefire, but the Biden administration vetoed it in each case. The General Assembly has also voted for a ceasefire but has no executive power.

The OHCHR press release listed the experts:

Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; Cecilia M. Bailliet, Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity; Claudia Mahler, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons; Farida Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Livingstone Sewanyana, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development; Attiya Waris, Independent Expert on foreign debt, other international financial obligations and human rights; Ashwini K.P., Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Tomoya Obokata, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; Carlos Salazar Couto (Chair-Rapporteur), Sorcha MacLeod, Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito, Chris M. A. Kwaja, Ravindran Daniel, Working Group on the use of mercenaries; Robert McCorquodale (Chair-Rapporteur), Fernanda Hopenhaym (Vice-Chair), Pichamon Yeophantong, Damilola Olawuyi, Elzbieta Karska, Working Group on business and human rights; Barbara G. Reynolds (Chair), Dominique Day, Bina D’Costa, Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls; and Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Fabián Salvioli, Special Rapporteur on truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.

The statement is endorsed by: Aua Baldé (Chair-Rapporteur), Gabriella Citroni (Vice-Chair), Angkhana Neelapaijit, Grażyna Baranowska, Ana Lorena Delgadillo Perez, Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; and David R. Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment.

The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.

The figure of 85,750 is a worst case scenario and deaths would reach that level only if the military assault on Gaza escalates and if the poor hygienic conditions of the 1.9 displaced Palestinians cause epidemics.

But if an immediate ceasefire were achieved and no epidemics break out, a further 6,550 excess deaths would occur, or 11,580 if there are epidemics.

If there is no epidemic and if the Israeli military campaign continues on its current pattern without a significant escalation, then the death toll would rise by 74,290 over the next six months.

Since the Israeli military had already killed at least 29,313 people in Gaza, 70% of them women and children and the bulk of the remainder being non-combatant men, the study is saying that the total death toll is now fated to rise to between 35,800 and 40,893 even if not another shot is fired.

If Israel goes on fighting for another six months just at its current pace, the death toll rises to 103,603 in the absence of major disease outbreaks.

It seems unlikely that the fighting will go on at the current pace for six months. But it seems highly likely that there will be epidemics. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported yesterday,

The dire water and sanitation conditions are also aggravating the state of health in Gaza, with more than 300,000 reported cases of acute respiratory infections and more than 200,000 reported cases of acute watery diarrhoea, of whom more than half are children under five, among other outbreaks.

The authors of the “Crisis in Gaza” report say, “Our projections indicate that even in the best-case ceasefire scenario, thousands of excess deaths would continue to occur, mainly due to the time it would take to improve water, sanitation and shelter conditions, reduce malnutrition, and restore functioning healthcare services in Gaza.”

The report only appears to consider deaths from military attacks and disease, and factors in hunger mainly as enabling the latter. People weak with hunger cannot fight off diseases and famine and epidemics go along with one another.

OCHA quotes Dr. Mike Ryan of the World Heath Organization as saying, “Hunger and disease are a deadly combination. Hungry, weakened and deeply traumatised children are more likely to get sick, and children who are sick, especially with diarrhea, cannot absorb nutrients well. It’s dangerous, and tragic, and happening before our eyes.”

Palestinians are also exposed to the cold and wet weather of February in the Levant, which weakens immunity.

France 24 English Video: “War-torn Gaza children ‘disproportionately impacted’ by acute malnutrition, family separation, death “

But I think they should have considered deaths from hunger alone, since the Israeli government appears to be deliberately keeping the civilian, noncombatant population malnourished by limiting the number of aid trucks, the goods of which are allowed to enter the Strip. The fascist Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has refused to allow US shipments of flour to reach Gaza, reneging on a promise made to President Joe Biden by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. On February 5, Israeli troops in Gaza fired on a food aid convoy they had previously authorized, destroying the food.

OCHA points out that the relief organization Anera “highlighted the ‘silent crisis’ of hunger-induced deaths: ‘In the tragic circumstances of starvation in Gaza, there’s a compounding issue: many who perish from starvation-related symptoms aren’t accurately documented. Their deaths often get attributed to other physical causes, masking the true toll of starvation.’”

I have argued, based on Gaza health statistics, that thousands are already dying silently of hunger in Gaza. I wrote, “OCHA says that the Israeli campaign has left 378,000 people at catastrophic phase 5 levels of starvation. US AID explains that Phase 5 levels of starvation indicate that “acute malnutrition levels exceed 30 percent, and more than 2 per 1,000 people are dying each day.” Given that 378,000 people are being categorized by the UN as at phase 5, this definition suggests that 756 Palestinians in Gaza are dying of hunger each day, which comes to a projected 22,680 deaths from starvation over the next month.”

OCHA observes,

“Catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity are reportedly intensifying across Gaza, with growing reports of families struggling to feed their children and a rising risk of hunger-induced deaths in northern Gaza. The Global Nutrition Cluster is reporting a steep rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip. The situation is especially serious in northern Gaza where 1 in 6 children under the age of two (15.6 per cent) who were screened at IDP shelters and health centres in January were found to be acutely malnourished, a decline in a population’s nutritional status that is unprecedented globally in three months. In comparison, 5 per cent of children under the age of two in Rafah were found to be acutely malnourished, evidence that access to humanitarian aid can help prevent the worst outcomes.”

Let me just reiterate that the finding is that among the 150,000 people left in North Gaza, 1 in six children under the age of two are “severely malnourished.” Severe malnutrition has skyrocketed under the Israeli military’s reckless disregard for civilian life.

The London/ Johns Hopkins study concurs: “Before the current conflict, the global acute malnutrition (GAM) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) prevalences were low amongst children 6-59 months (3.2% and 0.4%, respectively). As of 7 Feb 2024, we project they had already risen significantly (14.1% and 2.8%, respectively), albeit with likely geographical variations.”

They don’t think a ceasefire will help with this issue of child malnutrition very much, with GAM and SAM only reduced slightly — “(12.4% and 2.7% at 6 months, respectively.” In contrast, they fear that if the military campaign continues for six months, child malnutrition will increase many times over.

As for the possibility of epidemics, they write: “If epidemics also occur, those that are projected to cause the most excess deaths are cholera (3,595-8,971), polio (both wild-type and vaccine-derived; 1,1145-2,444), measles (260-793), and meningococcal meningitis (24-143).”

So cholera is the big threat and could cause almost 10,000 deaths over the next six months all on its own. When I lived in Eritrea in the 1960s I knew a teenager who contracted cholera. He survived, but spent days expelling liquid from all his orifices. It was horrible. You die of dehydration.

The citation for the report is: Zeina Jamaluddine, Zhixi Chen, Hanan Abukmail, Sarah Aly, Shatha Elnakib, Gregory Barnsley et al. (2024). Crisis in Gaza: Scenario-based health impact projections. Report One: 7 February to 6 August 2024. London, Baltimore: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. The pdf is here.

He continued, “It is not a war between soldiers and soldiers. It is a war between a well equipped army on the one hand and women and children on the other.”

Lula is not the first world leader to compare Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Hitler over his actions in Gaza — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan made the same comparison.

Since Hitler murdered six million Jews, the comparison is hurtful. It could also be rejected on grounds of scale. Hitler not only killed all those European Jews, he also killed 6 million Poles. And consider Ukraine: “of the 41.7 million people living in Ukrainian Soviet Republic before the war, only 27.4 million were alive in Ukraine in 1945. Official data says that at least 8 million Ukrainians lost their lives: 5.5 – 6 million civilians, and more than 2.5 million natives of Ukraine were killed at the front. The data varies between 8 to 14 million killed, however, only 6 million have been identified.”

The Times and the Sunday Times Video: “Brazil’s Lula likens Gaza war to Holocaust”

While Netanyahu’s policies are not like those of Nazi Germany in almost any respect if we consider absolute numbers and consider the scale of killing, Lula is not completely in error if we consider more qualitative aspects of history and look to European fascism as a whole and not just the German National Socialists (who were peculiar in many ways).

FIRST: KEEPING PEOPLE STATELESS ON THE BASIS OF ETHNICITY

For instance, the Fascists stripped citizenship from millions of people and made them stateless, without the rights that come from a direct relationship to a state of their own. Chief Justice Earl Warren defined citizenship as “the right to have rights.”

Hitler took citizenship from German Jews but also from the Roma and from persons of African heritage.

Netanyahu keeps 5.5 million Palestinians in the occupied territories stateless and without citizenship. So his policies in this narrow regard are similar to those of the National Socialists in the 1930s. In essence, the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are living under something like the Nuremberg Laws. Their establishments and homes are attacked by militant Israeli squatters with impunity in a sort of rolling Kristallnacht.

Note that by Israeli law, Israeli squatters in the occupied Palestinian territories have all the citizenship rights of other Israelis. So the lack of rights on the West Bank is not territorial. It is by ethnicity.

Netanyahu has boasted about derailing the Oslo Peace Accords and presents himself as the only one who can prevent a Palestinian state from being established. He reiterated his opposition to any international diplomatic track that leads to a Palestinian state just this weekend.

SECOND: DEPRIVATION OF BASIC INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Another feature of Fascism, underlined by Robert Paxton, is the elimination of individual rights. Israel’s regime over the occupied, stateless Palestinians fully demonstrates this feature. Palestinians can be arrested under “administrative detention” without charge or trial or habeas corpus and held for months or years. We have seen a treatment of detained Palestinians in Gaza that constitutes war crimes. It is alleged that forms of torture are practiced.

THIRD: TOTAL WAR

Netanyahu’s Gaza campaign has demonstrated a reckless disregard for the lives of innocent noncombatants, who make up nearly all of the nearly 30,000 people so far killed, and who have been deprived of domiciles and sufficient food and potable water by the Israeli military.

Total war was adopted as a military strategy by fascist states, according to historian Alan Kramer. One academic summarized his argument: “Kramer indicated a very interesting question regarding the specificity of the kind of war implemented by fascist regimes during the thirties and the forties, characterized by its genocidal nature and opened, according to him, with the colonial war launched by Italy in Abyssinia [Ethiopia] in 1935. Kramer underlined that the specificity of this particular way of waging war typical of fascism would define itself by the final elimination of the «distinction between combatants and non-combatants», pointing how in the six years of this conflict between 350.000 and 760.000 Ethiopians were killed, victims of an asymmetric war based on the overwhelming use of air force, chemical weapons and politics of collective terror against any sign of real or imagined resistance.”

The fascist way of war eliminates the distinction between combatants and non-combatants and wreaks mass death on the latter to achieve military aims. There doesn’t seem much doubt that Netanyahu is waging total war on Gaza and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and a whole plethora of Israeli officials have repeatedly insisted that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. This, even though half of Gaza’s population consists children.

Total war easily leads to genocide, of course, which is why the International Court of Justice has found it at least plausible that Netanyahu is waging a genocide in Gaza, attempting to destroy a people in part or in whole because of who they are.

So, no, Netanyahu is not a Hitler. But, yes, his policies bear a strong resemblance to those of inter-war Fascism.

The spare parts are technically owned by the U.S., but are kept in storage at Woensdrecht Air Base.

The news site quotes Judge Bas Boele as saying, “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

NL Times adds that the court said, “Israel does not take sufficient account of the consequences of its attacks for the civilian population. Israel’s attacks on Gaza have resulted in a disproportionate number of civilian casualties, including thousands of children.”

The court noted that the Netherlands is signatory to treaties and instruments that make it unlawful under Dutch law to pursue such exports “if a clear risk of serious violations of international humanitarian law exists.”

An Oxfam spokesman expressed his hope to Aljazeera that the ruling would have an impact on other European exporters of military weaponry to Israel. Oxfam is providing aid in Gaza and its workers report that the situation there is dire.

F-35s need three hours of maintenance for every one hour of flying, and constantly need spare parts to keep flying. They are used both for surveillance and for bombing runs.

Although these stories do not say so, it seems clear that the ruling of the International Court of Justice on January 26 that it is plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, in which it issued a preliminary injunction against Tel Aviv, played a central role in shaping the views of the judges in The Hague.

The ICJ had written, “The Court considers that the civilian population in the Gaza Strip remains extremely vulnerable. It recalls that the military operation conducted by Israel after 7 October 2023 has resulted, inter alia, in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, medical facilities and other vital infrastructure, as well as displacement on a massive scale . . . The Court notes that the operation is ongoing and that the Prime Minister of Israel announced on 18 January 2024 that the war “will take many more long months”. At present, many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no access to the most basic foodstuffs, potable water, electricity, essential medicines or heating.”

Even President Joe Biden has referred to Israeli bombing as “indiscriminate,” which is a war crime. Biden, however, has not lifted a finger to stop that bombing, which makes him complicit in the war crime. Israel could not continue to thumb its nose at the International Court of Justice unless the US resupplied it with weapons and ammunition on a daily, real-time basis.

A lower court had rejected the case just last month, and this reversal points to the impact of the ICJ decision.

Aljazeera English Video: “Dutch government to appeal court order to halt export of F-35 jet parts to Israel”

According to Dutch News, Liesbeth Zegveld, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said, “We are extremely relieved,” at a news conference held after the ruling.

The case was brought by Oxfam Novib, Pax Nederland and The Rights Forum.

The government had said last fall that it knew there were potential human rights issues with the export to Israel of the military spare parts, but did not actually do anything about it. It says it will appeal.

The court, however, says that the exports must cease during the appeal process.

NL Times reports that outgoing center-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Ministry of General Affairs asked the Legal Affairs Directorate at Foreign Affairs: “What can we say so that it appears as if Israel is not committing war crimes?” Rutte played down the report on the grounds that asking questions is normal.

The court also rebuked Hamas’s continued holding of Israeli hostages.

Although a legion of newspaper headlines (intended to run interference for the extremist government of Binyamin Netanyahu) breathed a sigh of relief that the court did not order a ceasefire, it did in fact strictly prohibit, going forward,

(a) killing members of the group;

That is, the Israeli military can fight with and kill Hamas members under the doctrine of self-defense in the UN Charter, but it has to stop killing innocent Palestinian civilians immediately. My own guess is that 90% of the Palestinians killed so far are innocent non-combatants, and the Gaza Health Ministry says at least 70% are women and minor children.

The wide-ranging and no-nonsense ruling, which was nearly unanimous, strikes a serious and lasting blow to Israel’s reputation as a country born from the genocide of the Holocaust. It now stands plausibly accused of implementing genocidal policies against another people. In the weird Israeli information cocoon, there may be no Palestinians, or there may be no innocent Palestinians, or there may be no way for Israel ever to do any wrong, but the view from the Hague is quite different. There are millions of Palestinians, and it is plausible that Israel is committing massive war crimes against innocent noncombatants.

The court writes:

62. South Africa submits that there is a clear risk of irreparable prejudice to the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza and to its own rights under the Genocide Convention. It asserts that the Court has repeatedly found that the criterion of irreparable prejudice is satisfied where serious risks arise to human life or other fundamental rights. According to the Applicant, daily statistics stand as clear evidence of urgency and risk of irreparable prejudice, with an average of 247 Palestinians being killed, 629 wounded and 3,900 Palestinian homes damaged or destroyed each day. Moreover, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are, in the view of South Africa, at

“immediate risk of death by starvation, dehydration and disease as a result of the ongoing siege by Israel, the destruction of Palestinian towns, the insufficient aid being allowed through to the Palestinian population and the impossibility of distributing this limited aid while bombs fall”.

The Applicant further contends that any scaling up by Israel of access of humanitarian relief to Gaza would be no answer to its request for provisional measures. South Africa adds that, “[s]hould [Israel’s] violations of the Genocide Convention go unchecked”, the opportunity to collect and preserve evidence for the merits stage of the proceedings would be seriously undermined, if not lost entirely.”

So the South Africa case is that A, the Israelis are killing over 200 Palestinians and damaging nearly 4,000 homes each day and B, they are destroying the evidence for the ongoing genocide even as they commit it.

The Court then reviews the evidence from UN agencies for the devastating situation under which Palestinians in Gaza are living. It concludes,

70. The Court considers that the civilian population in the Gaza Strip remains extremely vulnerable. It recalls that the military operation conducted by Israel after 7 October 2023 has resulted, inter alia, in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, medical facilities and other vital infrastructure, as well as displacement on a massive scale . . . The Court notes that the operation is ongoing and that the Prime Minister of Israel announced on 18 January 2024 that the war “will take many more long months”. At present, many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have no access to the most basic foodstuffs, potable water, electricity, essential medicines or heating.

71. The WHO has estimated that 15 per cent of the women giving birth in the Gaza Strip are likely to experience complications, and indicates that maternal and newborn death rates are expected to increase due to the lack of access to medical care.

72. In these circumstances, the Court considers that the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating further before the Court renders its final judgment.

The point about infant mortality and maternal mortality is brought up because one of the elements of genocide is preventing births within the group.

The Court reviewed Israeli denials that things are so bad in Gaza and rejects these assertions out of hand. Lack of food, water, medicine and protection from the elements (it is cold and rainy nowadays) are too well attested by UN aid experts to allow Netanyahu and his Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir to sweep them under the rug. Any ameliorative steps taken by Israel so far “are insufficient to remove the risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused before the Court issues its final decision in the case.”

Aljazeera English Video: “ICJ interim ruling on genocide case against Israel – Live”

So here is the meat of the provisional measures prescribed, which were voted in by 15 to 2 or 16 to 1 (even the ad hoc Israeli-appointed judge joined in supporting some of these instructions). It is a crushing decision against Israel:

78. The Court considers that, with regard to the situation described above, Israel must, in accordance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention, in particular:

(a) killing members of the group;

(b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and

(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

The Court recalls that these acts fall within the scope of Article II of the Convention when they are committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part a group as such . . . The Court further considers that Israel must ensure with immediate effect that its military forces do not commit any of the above-described acts.

As for (b), it is estimated that over 60,000 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli military action in Gaza in the past four months. Many of these injured are also women, children, and noncombatant men. Children have lost hands, arms, feet and legs. Since the Israelis have destroyed the hospital system, they have often been operated on without anesthesia or antibiotics. The court says that the Israelis must cease this carnage without delay.

(c) Addresses the unsanitary conditions under which Palestinians are living, without access to enough potable water (the last statistic I saw was that only 7% of available water is fit for human consumption) and vulnerability to the spread of infection diseases, including gastro-intestinal diseases that can kill infants and toddlers through dehydration.

The court went on to address the shocking statements of genocidal intent on the part of Israeli officials and members of the Netanyahu government:

79. The Court is also of the view that Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.”

The relevant word here is “punish.” The Court wants the Israeli Attorney General to charge and try members of the current government for incitement to genocide (which is a crime under the 1948 Genocide Convention). Large numbers of Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers and other officials would be hauled off to jail if this instruction of the court were implemented.

80. The Court further considers that Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In other words, the Israelis maintain that they are doing enough to get food, water and medicine in to the Palestinians. The court says, “no, you’re not.” It sides with the UNICEF, UNRWA and other officials who have been screaming at the top of their lungs about the danger of large scale death from starvation, dehydration, and disease unless the conditions for the civilian population, which is now mostly crowded into Rafah in the far south of the strip.

Finally, the court addresses the deliberate Israeli destruction of documents:

81. Israel must also take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Genocide Convention against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.

Israel destroyed the central archives of Gaza City, wiping out property and other records. Its ongoing targeting of municipal buildings and hospitals has resulted in the Ministry of Health sometimes losing the ability to document Israeli atrocities against Palestinian civilians. This cliocide, the destruction of the history of a people, must also cease, the Court insists.

The Court wants a report back from Israel on how it has carried out its instructions.

The International Court of Justice has no means of implementing its rulings. There is no UN police to make arrests or UN financial official to garnishee income. Israel can thumb its nose at the court, and Joe Biden will protect Netanyahu in the Security Council, where the US has a veto.

Still, the reputational damage here is enormous, and will certainly have serious consequences for Israeli diplomacy. It also undermines the credibility of the Biden administration, which is dismissing the ruling. To any extent that Biden goes on giving cover to Netanyahu and his fascist associates, he risks being tarred with the brush of genocide himself.

(The Conversation) – Israel has emerged as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, according to a newly released census compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Each year, the committee releases a snapshot of the number of journalists behind bars as of December 1 2023 was the second highest on record with 320 in detention around the world.

In a small way, that is encouraging news. The figure is down from a high of 363 the previous year.

But a troublingly large number remain locked up, undermining press freedom and often, human rights.

China takes out unenviable top spot

At the top of the list sits China with 44 in detention, followed by Myanmar (43), Belarus (28), Russia (22), and Vietnam (19). Israel and Iran share sixth place with 17 each.

While the dip in numbers is positive, the statistics expose a few troubling trends.

As well as a straight count, the Committee to Protect Journalists examines the charges the journalists are facing. The advocacy group found that globally, almost two-thirds are behind bars on what they broadly describe as “anti-state charges” – things such as espionage, terrorism, false news and so on.

In other words, governments have come to regard journalism as some sort of existential threat that has to be dealt with using national security legislation.

In some cases, that may be justified. It is impossible to independently assess the legitimacy of each case, but it does point to the way governments increasingly regard information and the media as a part of the battlefield. That places journalists in the dangerous position of sometimes being unwitting combatants in often brutally violent struggles.

China’s top spot is hardly surprising. It has been there – or close to it – for some years. Censorship makes it extremely difficult to make an accurate assessment of the numbers behind bars, but since the crackdown on pro-democracy activists in 2021, journalists from Hong Kong have, for the first time, found themselves locked up. And almost half of China’s total are Uyghurs from Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of human rights abuses in its ongoing repression of the region’s mostly Muslim ethnic minorities.

The rest of the top four are also familiar, but the two biggest movements are unexpected.

Iran had been the 2022 gold medallist with 62 journalists imprisoned. In the latest census, it dropped to sixth place with just 17. And Israel, which previously had only one behind bars, has climbed to share that place.

That is positive news for Iranian journalists, but awkward for Israel, which repeatedly argues it is the only democracy in the Middle East and the only one that respects media freedom. It also routinely points to Iran for its long-running assault on critics of the regime.

The journalists Israel had detained were all from the occupied West Bank, all Palestinian, and all arrested after Hamas’s horrific attacks from Gaza on October 7. But we know very little about why they were detained. The journalists’ relatives told the committee that most are under what Israel describes as “administrative detention”.

17 arrests in Israel in less than 2 months

The benign term “administrative detention” in fact means the journalists have been incarcerated indefinitely, without trial or charge.

It is possible that they were somehow planning attacks or involved with extremism (Israel uses administrative detention to stop people they accuse of planning to commit a future offence) but the evidence used to justify the detention is not disclosed. We don’t even know why they were arrested.

Video added by Informed Comment, Democracy Now! “Israel’s War on Journalists”

Israel’s place near the top of the Committee to Protect Journalists’ list exposes a difficult paradox. Media freedom is an intrinsic part of a free democracy. A vibrant, awkward and sometimes snarly media is a proven way to keep public debate alive and the political system healthy.

It is often uncomfortable, but you can’t have a strong democratic system without journalists freely and vigorously fulfilling their watchdog role. In fact, a good way to tell if a democracy is sliding is the extent of a government’s crackdown on the media.

This is not to suggest equivalence between Israel and Iran. Israel remains a democracy, and Israeli media is often savagely critical of its government in ways that would be unthinkable in Tehran.

But if Israel wants to restore confidence in its commitment to democratic norms, at the very least it will need to be transparent about the reasons for arresting 17 journalists in less than two months, and the evidence against them. And if there is no evidence they pose a genuine threat to Israeli security, they must be released immediately.

Peter Greste, Professor of Journalism and Communications, Macquarie University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The U.S. government says it stands for justice and the rule of law. So why won’t it stand by those principles for Palestinians?

By Farrah Hassen | –

( Otherwords.org ) – “If I must die, you must live to tell my story,” wrote Dr. Refaat Alareer, a 44-year-old Gazan poet and literature professor. A few weeks later, Alareer was killed while sheltering in his sister’s apartment, along with six family members.

In the densely populated Gaza Strip, the loss of life is staggering. Israel’s two-month bombardment has killed at least 18,000 Palestinian civilians there, including nearly 9,000 children. Another 25,000 children have lost one or both of their parents.

President Biden has repeatedly assured the public that Israel is following international law. Yet Israeli forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure, in direct violation of international humanitarian law. With 90 percent of those killed in Gaza being civilians, only now is Biden finally admitting that Israel is bombing “indiscriminately.”

Homes, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, refugee camps, and government buildings have all been reduced to rubble. Israeli troops have forced Palestinian men to strip and parade through the streets. There are disturbing eyewitness allegations of torture and summary executions of civilians.

Palestinian human rights groups and many international experts, including Israeli scholars of the Holocaust, have warned that Israel’s actions meet the legal standard of genocide.

Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as specific acts taken “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.” Some of these acts include “killing members of the group,” “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,” and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

“Gaza Guernica 13: University,” by Juan Cole, Digital (Dream/ IbisPaint), 2023.

The mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza’s schools, medical facilities, shelters, and residential areas are all evidence of likely genocidal acts. As are the forced relocation of over 1 million Palestinians out of northern Gaza and Israel’s frequent bombing of civilian evacuation routes.

Meanwhile, Israel has intensified its complete siege of Gaza, depriving Palestinians of food, water, electricity, fuel, and medical supplies. Starvation and infectious disease are rampant. Gaza’s health care system has “completely collapsed” from ongoing Israeli strikes, according to Doctors Without Borders.

Proving genocidal intent can often be difficult. However, experts have pointed to dehumanizing statements by Israeli leaders that hint at it — including calling Palestinians “human animals” and “children of darkness.”

Others are more explicit. An Israeli lawmaker called for a “Nakba” — an Arabic reference to the violent mass displacement of Palestinians — “that will overshadow the Nakba of 1948.” The defense minister declared “we will eliminate everything” in Gaza. And a recent investigation by the Israeli +972 Magazine found that Israel’s bombing of non-military targets is “calculated.”

Many experts believe these actions and statements of intent are evidence of an unfolding genocide. Due to the crime’s gravity, all parties to the Genocide Convention — including the U.S. —  have a legal duty to prevent it from the moment they learn of a serious risk that a genocide will be committed.

Instead, the U.S has vetoed UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions and expedited lethal arms to Israel on top of the annual aid we already provide. Far from preventing a genocide, a lawsuit by the Center for Constitutional Rights argues, the U.S. is complicit in one.

The October 7 attacks by Hamas fighters on Israeli civilians were reprehensible crimes, but they don’t provide legal or moral justification for the collective punishment of Gazan civilians. Nor can genocide ever be justified.

No government is above the law and free to commit mass slaughter. The U.S. government often claims to stand for justice and the rule of law. But is it willing to stand by those principles for the Palestinian people?

At this dire moment, with the world watching, the U.S. not only has the ability but the obligation to secure a permanent ceasefire and save innocent lives.

Farrah Hassen

Farrah Hassen, J.D., is a writer, policy analyst, and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.

Otherwords.org

@loucharbon

( Human Rights Watch) – This week, US President Joe Biden warned Israel it was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, which are laws-of-war violations.

The United States should now back those words by acting at the United Nations Security Council to pressure Israel, as well as Palestinian armed groups, to comply with international humanitarian law and protect civilians. Since hostilities began on October 7, the US has twice blocked Security Council resolutions demanding Israel and Palestinian armed groups comply with international law. The US should also back calls to restore essential services to Gaza and allow humanitarian aid to reach all those in need.

Ever since Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killed hundreds of civilians in Israel and took more than 200 hostage on October 7, Israel has been relentlessly bombing Gaza. The hostilities have displaced more than 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million people, created a severe humanitarian crisis, and killed more than 18,700 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The US voting record at the UN has highlighted double standards in Washington’s commitment to the laws of war. While blocking two Security Council resolutions in October and December, the US abstained from a November vote on a resolution focused on the plight of children in Gaza, which enabled it to pass.

Calls to reform UN Security Council after US vetoes Gaza ceasefire | Al Jazeera Newsfeed

All three Security Council resolutions—the two that were vetoed and the one adopted—called on Israel to protect civilians and allow aid into Gaza and on Palestinian armed groups to release civilians held hostage. The one that passed is legally binding but Israel and Palestinian armed groups have defied it.

No permanent Security Council member—not the US, not Russia—should veto resolutions aimed at stopping mass atrocities.

The General Assembly, where no country has a veto but resolutions are non-binding, passed two resolutions demanding compliance with international humanitarian law and protection of civilians in Israel and Palestine. The US was among a handful of countries that joined Israel in voting against both.

The US should consistently call for respect for international humanitarian law. It says it has urged Israel to protect civilians, so it should support UN efforts to do the same. It should back the urgent adoption and implementation of a Security Council resolution that demands Israel and Palestinian armed groups end their laws-of-war violations that have cost thousands of civilian lives. And it should back efforts aimed at ensuring accountability for those responsible for war crimes, no matter who commits them.

Human Rights Watch