The failure of the Green Party parliamentary motion to recognise the state of Palestine says more about the Labour government than the predictable reaction of National and Act which opposed the motion for spurious reasons. Labour should have taken this step as soon as Nanaia Mahuta had her feet under the table.
Two days ago I sent this message to Act Party deputy Brooke Van Velden:
Kia ora Brooke,
I read online that you are objecting to a parliamentary motion which recognises Palestine as a state because you have been told the saying “From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free” is used by Hamas and was used also by a Green Party MP on Saturday.
This is NOT a Hamas slogan. It is used in demonstrations the world over because Israel now occupies and/or controls ALL of historic Palestine (one of the longest occupations in modern history) and the saying simply says that every Palestinian living between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea deserves their freedom – something I’m sure you will agree with.
It’s also important to note that Hamas itself supports a two-state solution based on 1967 borders – as does New Zealand, the US and most other countries we like to compare ourselves with.
There is a lot of misinformation deliberately spread by the pro-Israeli lobby here and around the world to derail pressure on Israel. Please don’t be dissuaded from supporting this motion by mischievous misinformation.
Please support the proposed parliamentary motion.
When Nanaia Mahuta was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs late last year there were hopes for a change in government thinking towards the struggles of indigenous people. The minister encouraged this by saying she hoped to bring her experience and cultural identity as an indigenous woman to her role on international issues.
Palestine, West Papua and Western Sahara are places where the indigenous people are struggling for freedom and human rights and early on there was hope she might have New Zealand join the 138 member states of the United Nations which recognise Palestine.
However the hope faded and after more than six months of silence Nanaia Mahuta finally spoke out in a tweet and a short media release. In the context of the rising tension and outbreaks of violence she said she was “deeply concerned” about the deteriorating situation in Jerusalem and Gaza. She called for a “rapid de-escalation” from Israel and Palestinians, for Israel to “cease demolitions and evictions” and for “both sides to halt steps which undermine prospects for a two-state solution”.
Speaking with reporters later she said she didn’t want to apportion blame and in a further statement on Thursday said New Zealand officials had raised with the Israeli ambassador Israel’s “continued violation of international law and forced evictions occurring in East Jerusalem.”
Mahuta is speaking as though there was some kind of political or military equality between Israel and Palestinians. But there isn’t. In reality it means the minister is appeasing the highly militarised state of Israel, with which we have extensive bilateral relations, against a largely defenceless indigenous Palestinian population which lives under Israeli occupation and/or control.
She is addressing only the symptoms of the problem. The rockets fired from Gaza are a micro issue. The heart of the problem is that for the last 53 years Israel has run what the Nobel Peace Prize winning organisation Human Rights Watch as called “crimes of apartheid and persecution” against Palestinians. Their detailed 213 page report on Israel’s systematic abuses of Palestinians across the entire area of historic Palestine was released earlier this year.
The problem showed up in Israeli plans to remove Palestinians from homes in the occupied East Jerusalem suburb of Sheikh Jarrah and replace them with Jewish settlers (“occupied” refers to Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, illegal under international law, following its capture by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war)
Such forced removals have been a routine practice by Israel both during and since it was formed in 1948.
With tensions rising Israel then mounted an extraordinary brutal attack on Muslims worshippers, as they were praying, in the Al Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem. This mosque is the third holiest site for Muslims and was seen around the world as an outrage against all of Islam.
From there the Hamas leadership in Gaza, after issuing an ultimatum to Israel to withdraw their troops from Al Aqsa, began firing rockets into Israel which has responded with heavy bombing of the densely populated Gaza strip.
I have a T-shirt which says “The first casualty of war is truth, the rest are mostly civilians” and so it has been this past week with Palestinians bearing the brunt of casualties with many dozens killed, including at least 10 children.
Despite all this, anyone reading the minister’s comments would think both sides are equally to blame when the problem lies with Israel’s denial of human rights to Palestinians over as many decades as the issue has remained unresolved.
So what should a small country at the bottom of the world do to influence events in the Middle East? How can we possibly hope to make a difference?
The answer is simple. New Zealand should implement its existing policy on the Middle East and give it some teeth.
It is a policy based on respect for international law and United Nations resolutions. These should be at the heart of our response and direct what we say, how we say it and what we do.
This means the government should:
- Demand an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land (UN Security Council resolution 242)
- Demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees expelled by Israeli militias (UN General Assembly resolution 194 – reaffirmed every year since 1949)
- Demand the end of the more than 65 laws discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel (These are illegal under the crime of apartheid as defined by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court)
- Demand Israel stop building Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land (UN Security Council resolution 2334 which was co-sponsored by New Zealand under John Key’s National government) These settlements are illegal under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Initially Israel will take not a blind bit of notice and these calls will need to be followed by escalating sanctions such as the steps we took against apartheid South Africa with its racist policies towards black South Africans.
Instead, Nanaia Mahuta is still tiptoeing meekly (unlike her stance on China or Myanmar) around the issue – apparently afraid to call Israel to account for fear of a false smear of anti-semitism which many in the pro-Israeli lobby spray around like confetti on social media at anyone who condemns Israeli actions or calls for international sanctions against Israel.
It’s time for the minister to speak up unequivocally for Palestinian human rights and bring Aotearoa New Zealand onto the right side of history.
It’s important to say what the end point here must be.
Israel has buried any two-state solution under illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land so the outcome can only be a single, secular, democratic state where all ethnicities and religions are protected in a democratic constitution where everyone has equal rights.
Of course Israel will object because it prefers what Israeli human rights group B’Tselem calls “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”. Israel’s arguments mirror those of the Smith Regime in Rhodesia and the apartheid regime in South Africa.
International pressure was an important factor in removing those racist regimes and it will be important in forcing democratic change in Israel as well.
Is this the same Brooke Van Velden that demanded justice for the Uyghurs? Why does she quibble over rights for Palestinians?
The Bear is stirring:
“Putin orders plan for evacuation of Russians from Gaza as Moscow warns Israel that more civilian casualties are ‘unacceptable’
https://www.rt.com/russia/524322-putin-orders-citizens-evacuation-gaza/
The Russians are supplying the missiles via Iran, playing the same dirty repugnant game they played in 1967. Human life means nothing to them, same as the mullahs.
I didn’t know that. It would be very useful to have a link to the source of this information Gaby. Not that I am doubting your word you understand.
Brewer: “I didn’t know that.”
I’d say it’s surmise on Gaby’s part. Putin is known for his Westphalianism, so (unlike US and UK) Russia is selling weapons to other polities, without making judgments about what those polities do with said weapons. Of course the US – and possibly the UK, if it has anything worth selling – is supplying weapons to Israel.
I’d guess that Iran is supplying weapons to Hamas. It is this to which Gaby will be referring.
As to the 6-day war (1967, which I remember very well, being by then a young adult), we were told by Western media what to think about that conflict. We did not hear at the time who was supplying weapons to whom, but of course we realised that it was the West arming Israel. In those times, it was the USSR, not Russia. And Brezhnev – then head of the USSR – isn’t Putin. Nor vice versa, of course.
Gaby claims that “the Russians” care nothing for human life. Russians – who know better than anyone else involved in WW2 the cost in lives that comes with conflict – would disagree. And they’d be justified in concluding that Gaby’s claim properly applies to the US, which even since 1945 has demonstrated over and over its callous disregard for human life.
My reply to Gaby was laden with irony. She has no such information.
There is very little that can evade the Gaza blockade except, possibly, small arms that can be carried through what few tunnels remain, if any.
It is only a gut feeling but I suspect Russia is steadily consolidating its influence in the region while assisting Syria. When the time comes they will take a more decisive role, particularly if America continues its downward slide.
Israel appears to be on its last legs – riven with internal strife and facing another intifada which the ordinary Israelis fear – it disrupts “normal” life – and the administration fears for its effect on Israel’s deteriorating international image.
We are probably of an age – I too remember 1967 well – the Egyptians supposedly running leaving their boots behind (now suspected to be the boots of executed POWs):
https://www.wrmea.org/1996-february-march/as-evidence-mounts-toll-of-israeli-prisoner-of-war-massacres-grows.html
None of us foresaw the collapse of the Berlin Wall because we did not know anything about the East German internal situation.
Maybe not in our lifetime but Israel will collapse at some point.
Human life to Gaby is exclusively Jewish life, possibly only Zionist life, judging by her comments about Jews who support Palestine.
Brewer: “There is very little that can evade the Gaza blockade…”
Something is getting through, by the looks. We watched as the iron dome was apparently overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of missiles. Gaza has been obtaining resources from somewhere. More than it is able to produce itself, I’d have thought.
“…I suspect Russia is steadily consolidating its influence in the region while assisting Syria.”
That may well be so. Doubtless it desires to improve security for its own territories, and to trade. Polities need peace and security for trade to be feasible.
Thanks for the link. Yes, I’d guess we’re of a similar age. I knew about most of that, though not at the time, of course. I’ve found it out only since the rise of the internet.
I recall reading about the false flag incident which triggered one of the many conflicts there. It involved an attack on a ship, I think, but I don’t now remember which conflict. The 1956? The Six-Day war? Yom Kippur? There have been so many.
“None of us foresaw the collapse of the Berlin Wall because we did not know anything about the East German internal situation.”
No indeed. It was in part the extent of surveillance which brought down East Germany – and the wall. Years ago, a relative did some research into the GDR. After the collapse, it became clear that, in respect of intrusive surveillance, the GDR government simply took up where the Gestapo had left off. No other USSR countries had as extensive a system for snooping on citizens.
“Maybe not in our lifetime but Israel will collapse at some point.”
We agree. Such things are difficult to foresee: often the triggering events become apparent only in hindsight. We expected the fall of the USSR, but it happened about 20 years earlier than we thought it would.
The incident you refer to is the Liberty, a U.S. surveillance ship:
https://ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ussliberty.html
You may have read my reference to a dear mate (now deceased) who had been a ranking U.S. naval officer. I met him whilst sailing around the World. He told me he had met the commander of the torpedo boats that tried to finish the Liberty off. It was in a marina in the Med and my friend, Earl, asked him if they knew it was a U.S. ship.
The Israeli, whose name was Yomi, answered: “Of course.”
Earl then asked “Why then did you fire?”
Yomi shrugged and said: “Orders is orders.”
It was years later when I came across an interview with the former Israeli Naval commander responsible (retired and living on his yacht, I’m sure it was this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Barkai ) and indeed his name was Yomi. You can probably see why I believe the attack was indeed a deliberate attempt to sink a friendly vessel.
There are various theories as to why. She was a “listener” monitoring and recording any and all communications during that ’67 stoush. Some say it was because she may have picked up evidence of the killing of POWs but I suspect it more likely it was intelligence about the taking of the Golan which we know from Dayan, was being planned at that exact moment in time.
I must admit I am puzzled by the strength of some of Gaza’s missiles and the numbers. It does indeed look as though something is getting through. Iran is low on my list of possible suppliers however. Apart from the Sunni/Shia divide, Iran is meticulously avoiding any possible provocation/justification where Israel is concerned.
The raw materials for electronics are contained in many household goods and the propellants are also available. It could be that the Pals are getting more adept.
“So yes, the IDF is registering great achievements in Operation Guardians of the Walls, but meanwhile the house appears to be collapsing from within. Israel is winning battles for sure, but Hamas seems to be winning the war.
In just a week, Hamas succeeded in igniting a civil conflict between Jews and Arabs within Israeli territory and sparking one of the largest conflicts with Gaza in recent years.
WHILE THE IDF will eventually finish up in Gaza as it always does and the violence in the streets will likely eventually die down, what will be the state of the country? How does Israel move on?
And in the face of these great challenges, what tools will we have?
Israel has gone over two years without a stable government. Incitement and sectarianism have plagued Israel for a long time, and this only intensified during the political and coronavirus crises, as all of Israeli society split, and hostile rhetoric from all sides plagued media and politics as officials attempted to garner favor during four rounds of elections.
Hamas saw the situation and used it to its advantage, taking the anger and hurt already simmering across Israeli society and putting it on a high flame. They may have lit the match, but we certainly had the firewood ready.”
https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/israel-is-winning-battles-hamas-is-winning-the-war-analysis-668280
“I’d guess that Iran is supplying weapons to Hamas.” – Yes, this is the level of stupidity that we usually expect from Gaby, the resident troll, Why buy into it?
Hamas are only using enlarged versions of the rockets that contemporaries at Wellington Technical College experimented with in the early 1960s! They are a product of a bit of backyard welding and fertiliser based explosives. On a good night, Hamas would have probably used less explosive might than a standard Wellington City Council fireworks display.
Purpose? Each cheap projectile costs at least 10’s and probably 100’s of thousands of US taxpayers dollars ($4.5 billion so far this year) to neutralize. No problem to Biden – he has already promised to replace the expended Iron Dome ordinance. The money-go-round only feeds the USMIC that Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. President warned about and keeps the corrupt Netanyahu and his gang of extremist racist right wing politicians on their thrones to piss the world off with their inhumanity.
Lethality? So far, reports seem to indicate one Israeli was killed by shrapnel. Others are reported as having died as a result of falls or panic and shock attacks. Please feel free to correct this with hard evidence as one does not seek to deceive!
Look out if Iran ever does assist Hamas! The stuff they are developing isn’t put together in a back-yard in a few hours. (https://www.rt.com/news/524428-iran-gaza-drone-missile/)
If that were true, why does Netanyahoo fly to Moscow every two weeks to kiss Putin’s arse? Looks like you’re wrong as usual, Gaby.
It took 11 days for Israel to buckle to the pressure of the worlds opposition to the Genocide committed by the IDF and Netanyahu and his frail government to heal.
26 of the EU 27 States opposed the Genocide. Also of the 193 UN members, only the US and UK objected to a cessation of the Genocide of the Palestinians.
Knowing how to count does matter.
Denny Paoa: “…the worlds opposition to the Genocide…”
You’ve lost me here. What genocide?
Look it up in the dictionary. The word, ‘Genocide’.
It goes something like this; Meaning of Genocide. “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.”
Denny Paoa: ““the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.”
I know exactly what a genocide is, which is why I asked you what you were referring to.
The Holocaust was a genocide. Assuming that you’re referring to the recent Israeli killing of Palestinians, that’s most certainly not a genocide.
To suggest otherwise is considerable overstatement on your part.
How many merciless murders make a genocide D’Esterre? The German genocide of Jews started with segregation, deprivations and random killings didn’t it?
Israel Is Wiping Out Entire Palestinian Families on Purpose
The numerous incidents of killing entire families in Israeli bombings in Gaza—Parents and children, babies, grandparents, siblings—attest that these were not mistakes. The bombings follow a decision from higher up, backed by the approval of military jurists.
Fifteen Palestinian nuclear and extended families lost at least three, and in general more, of their members, in the Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip during the week from May 10 through to Monday afternoon. Parents and children, babies, grandparents, siblings and nephews and nieces died together when Israel bombed their homes, which collapsed over them. Insofar as is known, no advance warning was given so that they could evacuate the targeted houses.
On Saturday, a representative of the Palestinian Health Ministry brought listed the names of 12 families who were killed, each one at its home, each one in a single bombing. Since then, in one air raid before dawn on Sunday, which lasted 70 minutes and was directed at three houses on Al Wehda Street in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza, three families numbering 38 people in total were killed. Some of the bodies were found on Sunday morning. Palestinian rescue forces only managed to find the rest of the bodies and pull them out from the rubble only on Sunday evening.
Wiping out entire families in Israeli bombings was one of the characteristics of the war in 2014. In the roughly 50 days of the war then, UN figures say that 142 Palestinian families were erased (742 people in total). The numerous incidents then and today attest that these were not mistakes: and that the bombing of a house while all its residents are in it follows a decision from higher up, backed by the examination and approval of military jurists. Read more
aom: “How many merciless murders make a genocide D’Esterre?”
What I said to Denny. It isn’t genocide until it is. And the situation with the Palestinians – awful as it is – isn’t a genocide.
I’m sure that you know all of this full well. I think that I can be forgiven for concluding that you respond thusly because it was me who commented.
There are others who do the same thing on this blogsite. I think that’s because you and others can’t produce countervailing arguments, therefore resort to ad homs and meaningless questions, such as that which I’ve pasted above.
Your usual style of deflection as expected. Just answer, HOW MANY?
One million Uyghur in a camp and a nebulous number of alleged killings seems to be the score for a Chinese genocide. This is according to some governments, activists, independent NGOs, human rights experts, academics, government officials, and the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile. I think you will find these numbers have already been far exceeded when it comes to the Palestinians.
The answer to your surmise – NO! The reason is far more obvious and it has to do with content – not the person. As yet, you haven’t attained the exalted status of Gaby, the resident troll (sarc).
Meh. Dester goes after everyone but Gaby. She’s not on our side. Probably never has been left-wing.
You sum them up perfectly. They deal only in lies and propaganda and when they have to fall back on defence because others know the truth and have the facts, they resort to dumb interrogatives and abuse, especially aom, Brewer and the potty mouth, Shona. Israel has nothing to fear from any of them. Obsessive idiots all.
Obviously the Israelis are very bad at genocide. The Palestinian population has increased 7-fold since 1948. D’Esterre, you are getting a taste of the lies and hyperbole the Israel-bashers excel at. All their fulminations are empty propaganda. Where are the death camps, furnaces and 6 million dead, aom?
Another masterful display of lack of comprehension skills Gaby! Well done.
By the way, didn’t you notice from his earlier comment that your ‘new friend’ D’Esterre doesn’t have too much faith in you propagandist ranting.
Not sure that semantics are helpful but I don’t think “genocide” is far from the mark.
In 1947-48, about 800,000 Palestinian villagers were ousted from their homes at gunpoint by a force comprising almost 100% recent immigrants. Israeli Historians have listed at least 25 massacres of non-combatant villagers:
http://www.logosjournal.com/morris.htm
Casualties are only estimates – the real figures are still kept secret after nearly 75 years:
1,953 Palestinian combatants, 11,047 Palestinian civilians missing presumed dead. These proportions are significant. In WWII Germany the ratio was 5.5 combatant deaths to 2 civilian despite the widespread civilian bombing and subsequent starvation etc.
In 1967 a further 300,000 Palestinian civilians were ousted. About 5,000 were killed – ratio not known but the Palestinians had no formal combatants.
Lebanon is too complex to analyse thoroughly but the Kahan Commission found Sharon responsible for the 3,000 Palestinians massacred in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
https://www.countercurrents.org/pa-fisk180903.htm
Operation Defensive Shield began on March 29, 2002 in the occupied West Bank. 500 Palestinians were killed and 1,500 were wounded (mostly civilians) according to the U.N. The World Bank estimated that over $361 million worth of damage was caused to Palestinian infrastructure and institutions, $158 million of which came from the aerial bombardment and destruction of houses in Nablus and Jenin.
On 25 January 2006 Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections. Israel and the White House backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan and touched off a civil war:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/04/gaza200804
On June 9, 2006, during an official ceasefire, Israel’s navy fired shells at a Gaza beach killing eight Palestinians and injuring thirty.
Thus began a series of events called the Gaza “Wars” although “War” hardly describes the carpet bombing of a concentration camp.
Operation “Hot Winter” February 2008 – 112 Palestinians killed, three Israelis, over 150 Palestinians and seven Israelis injured.
Operation “Cast Lead (AKA The Gaza Massacre) December 2008 – 1,500 Palestinians (288 children and 103 women, 85% of those killed were not combatants and 13 Israelis died (3 Israeli civilians were killed by rocket attacks).
Operation “Pillar of Defense” October 2012 – 158 Palestinians killed, 102 civilians (30 children and 13 women), 5 Israelis.
Operation Protective Edge 8 July 2014 – 2,205 Palestinians (at least 1,483 civilians), 66 Israeli soldiers and 5 citizens killed.
When we consider the relative civilian/combatant ratio and that under every relevant International Law and by several U.N. resolutions, the Palestinians own and are entitled to return to over 90% of the land on which the Israeli State claims for its own people and that it has moved about a million onto occupied West Bank land in contravention of Geneva IV, I think that “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group” is an unreasonable description.
Further proof that the antisemitism virus makes those infected insane.
To be labelled insane by someone who can view the above unassailable facts and see heavily armed soldiers firing through a fence at non-violent protesters without questioning the fanatical belief system that allows them to commit such atrocities is an honour Gaby.
“Since the spring of 2018, at least 260 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces — and more than 20,000 wounded— during a sustained nonviolent protest. They were among tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza taking part in the Great Return March.”
https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/what-is-great-return-march
Sorry about the giant text – I have no idea how that happened. Feel free to correct it Mods. The last sentence should read: “I do not think that “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group” is an unreasonable description.
Brewer: “Not sure that semantics are helpful but I don’t think “genocide” is far from the mark.”
I’m certainly not interested in defending Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. But Denny was referring to the most recent conflict as a genocide. Which cannot be right. One might so characterise the death toll since 1948, but it’s overstatement to apply that term to this latest conflict by itself.
Though I’d add that, if Israel’s intention were genocide, it’s been spectacularly unsuccessful, given the size of the contemporary Palestinian population.
Oh, so you want to buy into semantics when it suits eh D’Esterre? Semantically, Denny’s only problem may have been that he thought the latest onslaught was the end of the ongoing genocide, an ill-considered assumption!
What does this mean? “Though I’d add that, if Israel’s intention were genocide, it’s been spectacularly unsuccessful, given the size of the contemporary Palestinian population.” Does it really require industrialised killing of the scope of the holocaust to define genocide in your books or, referring back to a previous comment, are the Uyghurs just accidental victims of circumstance, overblown by the exaggerations of some governments, activists, independent NGOs, human rights experts, academics, government officials, and the East Turkistan Government-in-Exile.? Besides, you still haven’t quantified genocide but now bat around numbers of Palestinians suggesting it is numerical proportion that determine the seriousness of human rights abuses.
“I’m certainly not interested in defending Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.” Are you sure? Your comments certainly leave a different perception.
The UN rulings on what constitutes genocide varies from case to case. The onslaught victimising the Palestinians is protracted over many decades with no sign of reduction of the land stealing and orchestrated of killing of innocent civilians. This persists with concentrated sessions of criminal activity by Israel incrementally confining Palestinians to a shrinking area within their land as set out in the Shocking decision in 1948 with no consultation of agreement from the Palestinian Nation about their land..
This makes applying UN judgements on genocide difficult.
Their are other UN ruling about Israel crimes of land theft that are being ignored.
It is fairly obvious to most that Israel is moving towards domination and occupying more that the remnant of Palestine and that has been reflected in many statements by Israeli political Leaders.
Genocide does not describe the persistent stealing of land and imprisonment of Palestinians along with the locking out of aid from other countries.
The long game of Israel is obvious.
D’Esterre
“if Israel’s intention were genocide, it’s been spectacularly unsuccessful”
I’ll concede, along with other posters, that it is slow but within the terms of “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group” I think it is a reasonable description.
In any event, it is certainly ethnic cleansing which is bad enough on its own.
‘Genocide’ is too soft, too gentle a word to cover the sadism, the atrocities being committed by that murderous nation. That level of monstrosity does not yet have a word that fits.
You trivialise the word ‘genocide’ and dishonour those who have suffered it with deaths in the millions; Armenia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and of course the biggest stain on human history, the Holocaust. What is happening in Israel is not genocide in any sense of the word. It is a sovereign country, the world’s only Jewish state DEFENDING itself against those whose Charter openly states that their aim is genocide of ALL Jews, everywhere.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/05/22/israel-gaza-hamas-terror-jewish-people-column/5163782001/
“Defending itself”, by bombing a refugee camp, the Red Crescent, the Humanitarian Centre, all those infants, essential doctors, major infrastructure, the remnants of independent Media…
Well, I get the last one. What the world doesn’t see, the world does not learn.
“Charter openly states that their aim is genocide of ALL Jews, everywhere.”
Again you seem to be possessed of information I do not have. Please point to the phrase in the Hamas Charter that you refer to. A link to it would be helpful.
Obviously no response.
For anyone still following this thread, here is the Hamas Charter:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full
My life’s work as an anti-racist and anti-Zionist activist makes me an antisemite according to Labour
https://mondoweiss.net/2020/02/my-lifes-work-as-an-anti-racist-and-anti-zionist-activist-makes-me-an-antisemite-according-to-labour/
Excerpt:
“I am an academic, author and filmmaker, an ex-Israeli Jew who has been active for over five decades as a socialist, anti-Zionist and anti-racist activist. My parents were Polish Jews, survivors of Auschwitz and other camps. They ended forced onto death marches to the Third Reich after the Auschwitz camp was vacated by the SS in Mid-January 1945. ……………..I served in the Israeli Army (IDF) as a junior infantry officer, and took part in two wars, in 1967 and 1973, after which I turned into a committed pacifist. I came to study in Britain in 1972, and a short while afterwards I have learnt much about Zionism which I did not while in Israel, thus becoming an ardent supporter of Palestinian rights, and an anti-Zionist activist. I was an active supporter of the Anti-Apartheid Movement as a Labour member in the 1970s and acted against racist organisations throughout my life. My films, books and articles reflect the same political views outlined here; these include a popular book on the Holocaust (Introduction to the Holocaust, with Stuart Hood, 1994, 2001 2014), among others, a BBC documentary film (State of Danger, with Jenny Morgan, BBC2, March 1988) about the first Intifada, and a forthcoming volume on the Israeli Army (An Army Like No Other, May 2020) …….It is evident that my background qualifies me as an antisemite according to the Labour coda based on the flawed IHRA ‘definition’ of antisemitism, or rather, the weaponised version of Zionist propaganda aimed against supporters of the human and political rights of Palestinians. But I would like to add some more damning evidence, so as to make the case watertight, if I may…….
More from ex-IDF Haim Bresheeth-Zabner:
Israel’s illusion of normality collapses: May 2021
May 2021 has shattered Israeli illusions that they are immune from the volcano the country has created through its history of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
BY HAIM BRESHEETH-ŽABNER
For decades Israelis have basked in the light of success. After fifty years of brutal, illegal occupation and control of the whole of Palestine, they have managed to habituate the world to the realities of Israeli Apartheid. They even started believing that they have managed to get the Palestinians to accept such success. Israel was gearing up to welcome many tourists in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis in Europe and elsewhere, being one of the only countries which have managed to control the virus successfully. Israel may not have a properly elected government for the last 28 months, its Prime Minister is facing criminal charges in court, and the ICC is preparing its case against Israeli war crimes, but none of this stopped Israel from committing more war crimes daily. ………
https://mondoweiss.net/2021/05/israels-illusion-of-normality-collapses-may-2021/
From Haaretz
The world – and some of Israel is watching!
Thanks for the link Kheala. One wonders how Haaretz got that front page past the IDF that apparently has the power of media censorship.
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