President Joe #Biden’s administration is backing legislation that would let it seize some of $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to help pay for reconstruction of #Ukraine, a shift as the White House seeks to rally support in #Congress to further fund the war against Vladimir #Putin’s forces.
@martin Let me direct you to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, I'll start with a simple quote:
"Article II
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(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;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide."
Now, I don't believe you're really interested in learning about what constitutes genocide, I don't believe you're even interested in discussion about what is, or is not, in fact a genocide. I do, however, believe you're simply trolling in bad faith and have no interest other than polishing those fascist boots you so seem to admire. With your tongue. As per usual.
(Since you seem to be having a slight problem with understanding the written word: I'm calling you a boot licker.)
So I'll leave this discussion at that, I'll take any answer as proof of reading and will proceed to block you.
Instead of saying "atrocitied committed [by Hamas] in Israel", would it not be more correct to say "Atrocities committed [by Hamas] in Occupied Palestine"?
"D. Expressions of Genocidal Intent against the Palestinian People by Israeli State Officials
and Others
Evidence of Israeli State officials’ specific intent (‘dolus specialis’) to commit and persist in
committing genocidal acts or to fail to prevent them has been significant and overt since October 2023.
Those statements of intent — when combined with the level of killing, maiming, displacement and
destruction on the ground, together with the siege — evidence an unfolding and continuing genocide.
They include statements by the following individuals in the positions of the highest responsibility"
— Israeli Minister of Defence: On 9 October 2023, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in an Israeli Army ‘situation update’ advised that Israel was “imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”452 He also informed troops on the Gaza border that he had “released all the restraints”,453 stating in terms that: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything. If it doesn’t take one day, it will take a week. It will take weeks or even months, we will reach all places.”454 He further announced that Israel was moving to “a full-scale response” and that he had “removed every restriction” on Israeli forces.
— Israeli Minister for National Security: On 10 November 2023, Itamar Ben-Gvir clarified the government’s position in a televised address, stating: “[t]o be clear, when we say that Hamas should be destroyed, it also means those who celebrate, those who support, and those who hand out candy — they’re all terrorists, and they should also be destroyed.”
— Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure: ‘Tweeting’ on 13 October 2023, Israel Katz stated: “All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win.
They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world.”457 On 12
October 2023, he ‘tweeted’: “Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarianism for humanitarianism. And no one will preach us morality.”
— Israeli Minister of Finance: On 8 October 2023, Bezalel Smotrich stated at a meeting of the Israeli Cabinet that “[w]e need to deal a blow that hasn’t been seen in 50 years and take down Gaza.”
— Israeli Minister of Heritage: On 1 November 2023, Amichai Eliyahu posted on Facebook: “The north of the Gaza Strip, more beautiful than ever. Everything is blown up and flattened, simply a pleasure for the eyes … We must talk about the day after. In my mind, we will hand over lots to all those who fought for Gaza over the years and to those evicted from Gush Katif” [a former Israeli settlement].460 He later argued against humanitarian aid as “[w]e
wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid”, and “there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza”. He also posited a nuclear attack on the Gaza Strip
— Israeli Minister of Agriculture: On 11 November 2023, Avi Dichter in a television
interview recalled the Nakba of 1948, in which over 80 percent of the Palestinian population of
the new Israeli State was forced from or fled their homes, stating that “[w]e are now actually
rolling out the Gaza Nakba”.
Let me repeat this bit for those of you claiming this is not a genocide: "We are now actually rolling out the Gaza Nakba".
With a reminder that a Nakba is basically a Shoah. It's the Israeli Endlösung to "The Palestinian problem", to paraphrase. /m
— Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee: On 7 October 2023, Nissim Vaturi ‘tweeted’ that: “[n]ow we all have one common goal — erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth. Those who are unable will be replaced.”
Again, for those claiming "no genocide", there's this bit:
"Now we all have one common goal – erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth." /m
— Israeli Army Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (‘COGAT’): On 9 October 2023, in a video statement addressed to Hamas and Gaza residents, published by COGAT’s official channel, Major General Ghassan Alian warned: “Hamas became ISIS and the citizens of Gaza are celebrating instead of being horrified. Human animals are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza, no electricity, no water, just damage.
You wanted hell, you will get hell.”
— Israeli Army Reservist Major General, former Head of the Israeli National Security Council, and adviser to the Defence Minister:466 On 7 October 2023, Giora Eiland, describing the Israeli order to cut off water and electricity to Gaza, wrote in an online journal: “This is what Israel has begun to do — we cut the supply of energy, water and diesel to the Strip . . .
But it’s not enough. In order to make the siege effective, we have to prevent others from giving assistance to Gaza . . . The people should be told that they have two choices; to stay and to starve, or to leave. If Egypt and other countries prefer that these people will perish in Gaza, this is their choice.”467 On the same day, he asserted in a national newspaper that “[w]hen you are at war with another country you don't feed them, you don't provide them electricity or gas or water or anything else . . . A country can be attacked in a much broader way, to bring the country to the brink of dysfunction. This is the necessary outcome of events” in Gaza.468 He has repeatedly asserted the benefits for Israel of the creation of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, stating that “Israel has no interest in the Gaza Strip being rehabilitated and this is an important point that needs to be made clear to the Americans”,469 and that “[i]f we ever want to see the hostages alive, the only way is to create a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza”.470 He has indicated that water should be targeted, noting that water in Gaza “comes from wells with salt water unfit for consumption. They have water treatment plants, Israel should hit those plants. When the entire world says we have gone insane and this is a humanitarian disaster — we will say, it’s not an end, it’s a means.”471 In a Times radio interview on 12 October 2023, he reiterated the army should:
“[C]reate such a huge pressure on Gaza, that Gaza will become an area where people cannot live. People cannot live, until Hamas is destroyed, which means that Israel not only stops to supply energy, diesel, water, food … as we did in the last twenty years …but we should prevent any possible assistance by others, and to create in Gaza such a terrible, unbearable situation, that can last weeks and months”
— Israeli Army Reservist Major General, former Head of the Israeli National Security Council, and adviser to the Defence Minister:466 On 7 October 2023, Giora Eiland, describing the Israeli order to cut off water and electricity to Gaza, wrote in an online journal: “This is what Israel has begun to do — we cut the supply of energy, water and diesel to the Strip . . .
But it’s not enough. In order to make the siege effective, we have to prevent others from giving assistance to Gaza . . . The people should be told that they have two choices; to stay and to starve, or to leave. If Egypt and other countries prefer that these people will perish in Gaza, this is their choice.”467 On the same day, he asserted in a national newspaper that “[w]hen you are at war with another country you don't feed them, you don't provide them electricity or gas or water or anything else . . . A country can be attacked in a much broader way, to bring the country to the brink of dysfunction. This is the necessary outcome of events” in Gaza.468 He has repeatedly asserted the benefits for Israel of the creation of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, stating that “Israel has no interest in the Gaza Strip being rehabilitated and this is an important point that needs to be made clear to the Americans”,469 and that “[i]f we ever want to see the hostages alive, the only way is to create a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza”.470 He has indicated that water should be targeted, noting that water in Gaza “comes from wells with salt water unfit for consumption. They have water treatment plants, Israel should hit those plants. When the entire world says we have gone insane and this is a humanitarian disaster — we will say, it’s not an end, it’s a means.”471 In a Times radio interview on 12 October 2023, he reiterated the army should:
“[C]reate such a huge pressure on Gaza, that Gaza will become an area where people cannot live. People cannot live, until Hamas is destroyed, which means that Israel not only stops to supply energy, diesel, water, food … as we did in the last twenty years …but we should prevent any possible assistance by others, and to create in Gaza such a terrible, unbearable situation, that can last weeks and months”
Giora Eiland has repeatedly been given a media platform to call for Gaza to be made uninhabitable, declaring “the State of Israel has no choice but to make Gaza a place that is temporarily, or permanently, impossible to live in.”473 In an interview on 6 November 2023, he suggested that, “if there is an intention for a military action at Shifa [Hospital], which I think is inescapable, I hope that the head of the CIA got an explanation of why this is necessary, and why the US must ultimately back even an operation like this, even if there are thousands of bodies of civilians in the streets afterward.”474 Further he proposed that “Israel needs to create a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, compelling tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in Egypt or the Gulf . . . Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.”475 Echoing the words of President Herzog, he has repeatedly underscored that there should be no distinction between Hamas combatants and Palestinian civilians, saying: “Who are the ‘poor’ women of Gaza? They are all the mothers, sisters or wives of Hamas murderers. On the one hand, they are part of the infrastructure that supports the organization, and on the other hand, if they experience a humanitarian disaster, then it can be assumed that some of the Hamas fighters and the more junior commanders will begin to understand that the war is futile . . . The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer . . . It is precisely its civil collapse that will bring the end of the war closer. When senior Israeli figures say in the media ‘It's either us or them’ we should clarify the question of who is ‘them’. ‘They’ are not only Hamas fighters with weapons, but also all the ‘civilian’ officials, including hospital administrators and school administrators, and also the entire Gaza population who enthusiastically supported Hamas and cheered on its atrocities on October 7th."
— Israeli Army reservist “motivational speech”: On 11 October 2023, 95-year old Israeli army reservist Ezra Yachin — a veteran of the Deir Yassin massacre during the 1948 Nakba — reportedly called up for reserve duty to “boost morale” amongst Israeli troops ahead of the ground invasion, was broadcast on social media inciting other soldiers to genocide as follows, while being driven around in an Israeli army vehicle, dressed in Israeli army fatigues: “Be triumphant and finish them off and don’t leave anyone behind. Erase the memory of them. Erase them, their families, mothers and children. These animals can no longer live . . . Every Jew with a weapon should go out and kill them. If you have an Arab neighbour, don't wait, go to his home and shoot him . . . We want to invade, not like before, we want to enter and destroy what’s in front of us, and destroy houses, then destroy the one after it. With all of our forces, complete destruction, enter and destroy. As you can see, we will witness things we’ve never dreamed of. Let them drop bombs on them and erase them.”
— Head of the Israeli army’s Air Operations Group: On 28 October 2023, Lieutenant colonel Gilad Kinan described the Air Force as “work[ing] together with all the bodies in the IDF when the goal is clear — to destroy everything that has been touched by the hand of Hamas”.
— Commander in the 2908th Battalion of the Israeli army: In a video posted online on 21 December 2023, Yair Ben David said that the Israeli army had “entered Beit Hanoun and did there as Shimon and Levi did in Nablus,” and that “[t]he entire Gaza should resemble Beit Hanoun”, referring to the city in northern Gaza which has been entirely devastated by the Israeli army..479 The biblical passage in issue reads: “On the third day, when they were in pain, Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob’s sons, brothers of Dinah, took each his sword, came upon the city unmolested, and slew all the males”
— Israeli Army Colonel, Deputy Head of COGAT: speaking in a video filmed in Beit Lahia — one of the areas of Gaza which appears to have suffered particularly severe levels of destruction — and broadcast on Israeli television on 4 November 2023, Colonel Yogev Bar-Sheshet stated: “[w]hoever returns here, if they return here after, will find scorched earth. No houses, no agriculture, no nothing. They have no future;” another Army Colonel recorded in the same video, Colonel Erez Eshel (Reserve), also commented that: “Vengeance is a great value. There is vengeance over what they did to us … This place will be a fallow land. They will not be able to live here”.
— Israeli army soldiers: Israeli soldiers in uniform have been filmed on 5 December 2023 dancing, chanting and singing “May their village burn, May Gaza be erased”;482 and, two days later, on a separate occasion inside Gaza on 7 December 2023, dancing, singing and chanting, “we know our motto: there are no uninvolved civilians” and “to wipe off the seed of Amalek”.
The above statements by Israeli decision-makers and military officials indicate in and of themselves a clear intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a group “as such”. They also constitute clear direct and public incitement to genocide, which has gone unchecked and unpunished. The clear inference from the acts of the Israeli army on the ground — including from the vast number of civilians killed and injured, and the scale of displacement, destruction and devastation wrought in Gaza — is that those genocidal statements and directives are being implemented against the Palestinian people. That is also the clear and necessary inference to be drawn from the emerging evidence from Israeli army soldiers serving in Gaza, including those stationed on the ground:
Notably, the second video of soldiers chanting that there are “no uninvolved citizens” in Gaza and that they will “wipe off the seed of Amalek” was filmed on 7 December 2023. By that date, 17,177 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed — an estimated 70 per cent of whom were women and children. 7-8 December 2023 was particularly devasting for Palestinians, with 350 people killed in the space of 24 hours — approximately one Palestinian in Gaza killed every four minutes.
This genocidal rhetoric of governmental and military officials is also widespread and commonplace amongst non-cabinet members of the Israeli Knesset (‘MKs’) who have repeatedly called for Gaza to be “wiped out”,485 “flatten[ed]”,486 “eras[ed]”,487 and “[c]rush[ed] . . . on all its inhabitants”.488 Parliamentarians have publicly deplored anyone “feel[ing] sorry” for the “uninvolved” Gazans, asserting repeatedly that “there are no uninvolved”,489 that “[t]here are no innocents in Gaza”,490 that “the killers of the women and children should not be separated from the citizens of Gaza”,491 that “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves”,492 and that “there should be one sentence for everyone there — death”.493 Parliamentarians have stated “[w]e must not forget that even the ‘innocent citizens’ — the cruel and monstrous people from Gaza took an active part . . . there is no place for any humanitarian gesture — the memory of Amalek must be protested”,494 and that “[w]ithout hunger and thirst among the Gazan population, we will not be able to recruit collaborators”.495 Parliamentarians have also called for “mercilessly” bombing “from the air”,496 calling for the use of nuclear (“doomsday”) weapons,497 and a “Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48”.
Similar genocidal rhetoric is also commonplace in Israeli civil society, with genocidal messages being routinely broadcast — without censure or sanction — in Israeli media. The media reports call for Gaza to be “erase[d],”499 turned into a “slaughterhouse”,500 that “Hamas should not be eliminated” but rather “Gaza should be razed”,501 on the repeated claim that “[t]here are no innocents… There is no 67
population. There are 2.5 million terrorists”.502 One local official, reportedly called for Gaza to be “desolate and destroyed” like the Auschwitz Museum, “demonstrating the madness of the people who lived there”.503 Former MKs have called for a level of destruction akin to that of Dresden and Hiroshima,504 asserting that it would be “immoral” for the Israeli army not to show themselves to be “vengeful and cruel”.505 In an Israeli news interview, one former MK called for all Palestinians in Gaza to be killed saying:
“I tell you, in Gaza without exception, they are all terrorists, sons of dogs. They must be exterminated, all of them killed. We will flatten Gaza, turn them to dust, and the army will cleanse the area. Then we will start building new areas, for us, above all, for our security.”
Note:
"In Gaza without exception, they are all terrorists, sons of dogs. They must be exterminated, all of them killed."
"We will flatten Gaza, turn them to dust"
They. Must. Be. Exterminated. All. Of. Them. Killed.
In accordance with Article 41 of the Statute of the Court, and Articles 73, 74 and 75 of the Rules of Court, South Africa requests that the Court indicate provisional measures. In light of the nature of the rights in issue, as well as the ongoing, extreme and irreparable harm being suffered by Palestinians in Gaza, South Africa requests that the Court address this request as a matter of extreme urgency.
This Application describes an exceptionally brutal military campaign by Israel in Gaza, which is extensive and ongoing, and which Israel intends to intensify further still.520
Israel has engaged in and failed to prevent or to punish acts and measures which are genocidal, constituting flagrant violations of Israel’s obligations under Articles I, III (a), III (b), III (c), III (d), III (e), IV, V and VI of the Genocide Convention. As further evidenced in the materials set out in the application, the acts of genocide in question in breach of Articles II (a), II (b), II (c) and II (d), in
particular, that collectively target the Palestinians in Gaza include, inter alia:
(1) killing Palestinians in Gaza, including a large proportion of women and children — estimated to account for around 70 per cent of the more than 21,110 fatalities — some of whom appear to have been summarily executed;
(2) causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in Gaza, including through maiming, psychological trauma, and inhuman and degrading treatment;
(3) causing the forced evacuation and displacement of around 85 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza — including children, the elderly and infirm, and the sick and wounded — as well as causing the large scale destruction of Palestinian homes, villages, refugee camps, towns and entire areas in Gaza, precluding the return of a significant proportion of the Palestinian people to their homes;
(4) causing widespread hunger, dehydration and starvation to besieged Palestinians in Gaza, through the impeding of sufficient humanitarian assistance, the cutting off of sufficient water, food, fuel and electricity, and the destruction of bakeries, mills, agricultural lands and other methods of production and sustenance;
(5) failing to provide and restricting the provision of adequate shelter, clothes, hygiene or sanitation to Palestinians in Gaza, including the 1.9 million internally displaced people, compelled by Israel’s actions to live in dangerous situations of squalor, alongside the routine targeting and destruction of places of shelter and the killing and wounding of those sheltering, including women, children, the disabled and the elderly;
(6) failing to provide for or to ensure the provision for the medical needs of Palestinians in Gaza, including those medical needs created by other genocidal acts causing serious bodily harm, including through directly attacking Palestinian hospitals, ambulances and other healthcare facilities in Gaza, killing Palestinian doctors, medics and nurses, including the most qualified medics in Gaza, and destroying and disabling Gaza’s medical system; and
(7) destroying Palestinian life in Gaza, through the destruction of Gaza’s universities, schools, courts, public buildings, public records, stores, libraries, churches, mosques, roads, infrastructure, utilities and other facilities necessary to the sustained life of Palestinians in Gaza as a group, alongside the killing of entire family groups — erasing entire oral histories in Gaza — and the killing of prominent and distinguished members of society.
(8) Imposing measures intended to prevent Palestinian births in Gaza, through the reproductive violence inflicted on Palestinian women, newborn babies, infants, and children.
Continuing on what constitutes genocidal intent:
Israel reportedly held secret talks to forcibly expel Palestinians in Gaza to countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Saudi Arabia.
"Forcible transfer of Gazan population is an act of genocide expecially given the high number of children. Congolese or other states' officials willb e guilty of aiding and abetting genocide if they agree to any transfer of population."
– Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN Special Rapporteur
To put it simply: "Voluntary resettlement" is forced displacement, is ethnic cleansing, is genocide, and the stench is just as rancid whatever the name you give it.
"‘You Carry Your Home With You’: A Palestinian Poet’s Journey Out of Gaza
This is the most powerful short film I can ask people to watch. Not because it is about me and my family, but because mine is the story of thousands of Gazans who couldn’t share theirs.
Huge thanks to the genius producers who worked with me on this film: Mona El-Naggar, Neil Collier and Santiago García Muñoz.
Throughout her work on the film with me, Mona El-Naggar, has become a close friend and support in our journey in Cairo. She is one of the few brilliant journalists I ever met.
Please watch this 5-minute film. Share it. It has videos I never shared before with anyone."
– Mosab Abu Toha
"We are houseless but we are not homeless. Because a house could be rebuilt, but home cannot vanish. It continues to exist. Even in you heart, you carry your home with you."
– Mosab Abu Toha
from Al Jazeera English （@AJEnglish X/Twitter）
【 The number of Palestinians killed continues to increase as Israel intensifies its attacks across the Gaza Strip.