ICJ says Israel must prevent genocide in Gaza
The UN’s top court has ordered Israel to take all measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, but stopped short of telling it to halt the war.
The highly anticipated hearing was part of a controversial case brought by South Africa.
South Africa had asked the court to order Israel to stop military action straight away pending a decision on whether Israel has committed genocide.
Israel has vehemently rejected the accusation as “wholly unfounded”.
Friday’s hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague was the first time the judges have issued a ruling as part of the case which began two weeks ago. A verdict on the central allegation of genocide is expected to take much longer, possibly years.
Although the court did not call for a halt to Israel’s military action, as South Africa had asked it to do, it is being interpreted as a victory for those who support South Africa’s case.
The ICJ found it did have jurisdiction on the matter, and decided there was a plausible case under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and that the Palestinian population in Gaza was at real risk of irreparable damage.
In the wake of the UN ruling, our stance attacking the Houthi is even more obscene!
Let me be very clear to our more sleepy hobbits.
Yes, as a trading nation it is essential for our interests to see shipping lanes free and open.
No issue with that.
HOWEVER.
The solution we have jumped to by signing up to bombing one of the poorest countries on the planet is a fucking disgrace and moral abomination!
Let’s be very clear what we’ve signed up to. In the words of one of the best analysts in NZ, Dr Paul Buchanan…
…that’s right.
We are in the “kill chain” now. That’s what our NZDF deployment will be doing.
We are helping select targets for America to bomb.
We may as well be pulling the fucking trigger ourselves, so don’t you dare flinch when hear ‘kill chain’, don’t you dare pretend we won’t be killing people and destroying shit.
Again – want to keep sea lanes open, but bombing the Houthis isn’t the fucking solution!
REMEMBER: We claim we are doing this to support the Rules based Order, yet Israel is committing an active ethnic cleansing war crime and we aren’t doing jack shit about that!
REMEMBER: The Houthis are attacking Red Sea shipping lanes BECAUSE Israel is committing a current ethnic cleansing war crime! If we want the shipping lanes open, we should be demanding an immediate Israeli ceasefire!
REMEMBER: Bombing the poorest country in the Middle East is not a fucking solution, it’s an act of war!
Aside from the moral crime, the whole strategy is counter productive bullshit!
The Washington fucking Post isn’t a card carrying member of the Communist Party, and their assessment is that the current bombing campaign we have just enabled and signed up to will actually only strengthen the Houthi…
Analysts contend that this new phase of hostilities may strengthen the Houthis, rather than weaken them. The aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas has seen Israel conduct an operation unprecedented in its scale and ferocity, reducing much of Gaza to rubble, killing more than 23,000 people and immiserating Gaza’s population. The Houthis are part of the so-called “axis of resistance,” a network of Iran-aligned militant groups around the Middle East. While militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah seem to want to avoid a direct escalation with Israel, the Houthis thrust themselves into the spotlight by taking up the mantle of the Palestinian cause. They insist their actions in the Red Sea will stop when Israel ceases its bombardments.
…so we are bombing a poor country and using tactics that will only strengthen the group we are attacking?
Here’s The Guardian…
The Houthis are not a group that can be bombed into extinction – here’s why
But rather than acknowledge these groups as having motives and interests of their own, the US, UK and Israel continue to reduce them to a transnational network of Iranian proxies whom they believe can be threatened and bombed into submission, a point made clear by yet another wave of overnight airstrikes. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the underlying dynamics within the axis and of the unshakeable unity of its members, all of which could make western powers’ intervention in the region even more costly.
…here’s Jacobin…
Joe Biden’s Air Strikes on Yemen Are Reckless and Wrong
The Biden administration has chosen to open up a new front in Yemen instead of pressuring Israel to stop its onslaught against Gaza. Air strikes are unlikely to deter attacks on Red Sea shipping, but they could undercut a deal to end Yemen’s bloody civil war.
…here’s the brilliant Caitlin Johnstone…
The Biden Administration’s Absurd Justification For Its Yemen War
Ever since the Biden administration began bombing Yemen, its official spinmeisters have been babbling about commerce and global container shipping to justify it. The unspoken premise behind this justification is that an active genocide should be permitted to continue with zero economic repercussions of any kind, for Israel or anyone else.
It’s just taken as a given by empire managers and their defenders that the money must keep flowing and the gears of capitalism must keep turning at the same rate they were turning before Israel began massacring tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, if not faster. That the horrors being unleashed in Gaza should have no material impact on the rest of the world whatsoever.
The empire will permit you to think thoughts and feel feelings about the butchery in Gaza quietly in the privacy of your own head, and under the right circumstances it will even permit you to attend pro-Palestine demonstrations and share your opinions on social media. But as soon as it comes to physically interfering with the gears of the imperial machine, they’ll blow your guts out.
This is of course absurd. The horrors in Gaza should be affecting the whole world. Our lives should not be proceeding normally, and it’s freakish and obscene that they do. It’s a sign of a profoundly sick civilization that so many of us in the west are able to lose ourselves in idle entertainment and laugh and stuff our faces with snacks and go out on the town while the nightmare in Gaza continues to unfold.
…oh and here’s the BBC highlighting how ‘our side’ have created a culture of political assassinations that have destabilised Yemen and inadvertently helped build the Houthi…
UAE has funded political assassinations in Yemen, BBC finds
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has funded politically motivated assassinations in Yemen, a BBC investigation has found.
Training provided by American mercenaries – hired by the UAE in 2015 – has then been used by Emiratis to instruct locals, sparking a surge in targeted killings, a whistleblower says.
The findings come as conflict in Yemen has returned to the international spotlight following attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
The UAE government has denied the allegations in our investigation – that it had assassinated those without links to terrorism – saying they were “false and without merit”.
The killing spree in Yemen – more than 100 assassinations in a three-year period – is just one element of an ongoing bitter internecine conflict pitting several international powers against each other in the Middle East’s poorest country.
The deadly atmosphere has discouraged the permanent return of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. This, it could be argued, has indirectly helped to embolden the Iran-backed Houthis. Washington has announced that it will now re-designate the group as “global terrorists”.
…that’s right!
Just when you couldn’t start feeling more sick about what this new hard right racist Government has signed us up to, ‘our side’ has been conducting a wave of political assassinations that hilariously have only made the Houthis more powerful.
What the fuck are we doing getting involved in this orgy of malice?
Obscenely the NZ mainstream media have done sweet fuck all in holding these war numpties to fucking account here!
It’s more important to shame Golriz for shoplifting than hold this Government to account over why the fuck they have signed us up to a new American war!
I get everyone still feels like they are on holiday and the C Teams are running the newsrooms, but sweet fuck everyone, Judith and Winston just led us into a fucking war and no one seems to be paying any attention.
What happens if we wrongly target something?
What happens if us targeting something escalates this conflict?
What happens if we kill civilians?
See we all need answers now because Judith and Winston signed us up and we need to know what the hell the exit strategy looks like.
With the UN ruling going against Israel, we are on the side of the bad guys here!
I love you all, I really do, but sweet Jesus we are an easily led and easily distracted people!
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The international reaction by the predictable nations against the UN by cutting funding following revelations that some of the locals it employed decided that Hamas had a better solution also reveals that they continue to fund Israel despite the many violations of law by the IDF & settlers there. While I do not support violence this 2-faced attitude by those nations will ensure that an equitable peace can never be achieved in that region. I’m glad that I put my hope in a higher power as those on Earth are well & truly past their use-by date.
Well, where is Hipkins in all of this?
They actually told Hamas to release the hostages. Did you miss that bit?
Israel have been stealing Palestinian land for years. Did you miss that bit?
The reason we are dealing with radical Islam today is because we fucking killed all the moderates you gronk.
Did you know that Hamas took hostages to swap them with the thousands of Palestinian hostages Israel is holding. If Israel gave up the hostages they are holding, Hamas would do likewise
Martyn you have got it wrong, it’s the Collective West & the US that is losing, not only in the Court of Public opinions in their own Countries but also the Globe? The UN Security Council & General Assembly ruling’s might appear like a loss but if you look at the numbers of the Countries who support a Ceasefire, it’s huge compared to those who oppose & veto this? Go to Zerohedge & or the UN website to confirm the numbers? NZ under the inept Natzo’s are on the wrong side of History! And what you don’t realise is that a bigger Geopolitical game is being played here at a Diplomatic level by China, Russia & others to end these endless Wars & conflicts being perpetrated by American Neocon’s? The US & NATO have been waging a Regime change operation against Russia & other Middle Eastern countries like Afghanistan & Syria etc, Israel has been used in the Middle East & Ukraine has been used as Proxies! The US & NATO has been soundly defeated in Ukraine just like in Afghanistan, the Proxy War they waged using Ukraine as a battering ram has failed utterly, Russia is moping up now, this War will be over by July! The US having been humiliated in Ukraine, now turns it’s murderous attention to the Middle East to set it on fire using Israel as it’s other battering ram to Regime change Iran but this will also end badly for the US & Israel, so there are two Wars taking place simultaneously, a Diplomatic war to isolate the US & Israel using International Law not the bullshit Rules based order law of the US, the ICJ & UN rulings you denigrate as a defeat ain’t a defeat, they might appear like it but they aren’t in the eyes of the Global South & the Global majority, its a triumph because the US, Israel & the Collective West are being exposed for their genocide, war crimes & hypocrisy & double dealing, the murderous mask has been torn off the US Empire & they are becoming isolated in the World, via the UN! Then there’s the physical War, Hamas & Herzbollah are defeating Israel & Ansarallah Houthis are creating a Economic blockade against Israel which is having real world results in order to force a Ceasefire, it’s a two pronged attack to force the US & Israel to the negotiating table for a Ceasefire & note that only Israeli ships are being disrupted contrary to what the MSM is reporting! So we have the Diplomatic pressure being brought on the US at the UN & ICJ & Military pressure to force a outcome via attacks on the Apartheid State of Israel & attacks on the illegal US Military Bases occupying Syria & Iraq & other places which are facing daily attritional attacks & they will eventually be driven out! The West, the US & Israel, being isolated both diplomatically & on the ground & being forced to pay the physical price by seeing their Troops coming under attack for their Genocidal behaviour in Gaza & Palestine & the Middle East? It’s like a small boxer fighting a lumbering beast of a boxer, a jab here, a jab there until the flailing, lumbering beast is knocked out on his ass? What you are witnessing Martyn is the collapse of the US Empire & the Collective West which includes NZ & along with it the death of the Neoliberal deathcult capitalism system that has exploited Nations for 500 yrs & that is huge, History is being rewritten &. New Multipolar World is emerging!
Thanks for this analysis, it makes things pretty clear in amongst the obfuscation and simplicity of MS media presentation on what the hell is going on in the middle east. Quid pro quo it is not the answer it’s bloody stupid as you point out. What should be simple and clear is our nations support of peace and standing by oppressed Palestinians getting bombed out of existence. The hospitals have now run out of medical supplies even water…it would be a living nightmare in Gaza and for Israel to deny they are doing what they are doing – murdering women, children, civilians….is simply crazy, why is the world (USA) letting them get away with it….NZ should be supporting an end to all fighting, not adding to it. I am really missing Helen Clarke’s backbone here, and she has recently pointed out it is very foolish for NZ to be so easily dragged into conflicts in the middle east. That is exactly what is happening.
And not only that- the zionist puppets in Wellington are endorsing cutting off funding for humanitarian aid to children targeted by the genocidal zionist regime.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/01/28/nz-assessing-funding-for-un-agency-with-alleged-hamas-link/
On the sole basis of lies invented by the zionists, which they claim are substantiated by ‘interrogations’ (torture).
The ICJ found for the Palestinians and it logically follows that the Yemeni resistance has also been vindicated (the passage of trade in the region is unaffected if it is not enabling the genocide).
Piracy is mobile so many programmes and initiatives cornered piracy in the straights either side of the canal now piracy moves to open waters. Just look at a map of the straights along Iran’s border and west Africa.
A constant error by some-people is………… ‘(Yes, as a trading nation) it is essential for our interests to see shipping lanes free and open’…
The shipping lanes ARE FREE and open, to ALL who do NOT support Israels genicide.
So originally only Israeli ships and those taking stuff to and from Israel, an embargo if ‘you want’…
Now however, it includes the USA, UK, Aus, NZ etc etc BECAUSE (and ONLY because) they bombed the country trying to STOP genocide.
So let’s be HONEST about the shipping lanes.
Where’s Gaby?
Probably still crying into their bagel and lox because the whole world knows israel are genocidal scum
I think you may be right .
Question : Do the Germans require Zyklon B to be used before they consider the requirements for a Genocide to be met? ,,,,, nein Zyklon, nein Genocide.
I would have liked to ask German embassy staff this question,,, but none came out their bunker like building while messages/banners were hung from their embassy fence in Wellington.
Short Video of the signage hung in front of their embassy here https://www.bitchute.com/video/QK2qmiEShTOG/
…. I’ll be back as I have some genuine questions for the German officials …. and I’ve also checked out our Parliament to emphasis the Genocide/war crimes message to our politicians.
Dirty Politicians.
It would be good to hear the truth from Germany. They know genocide back and forward, given their thorough amends. I thought them the best of nations on that basis. Now I know they have a blind spot still — ‘never again, except Jews have a pass’.
Israel accusing them of Naziism would be the end of Israel.
” ICJ says Israel must prevent genocide in Gaza ”
Wrong ! The genocide is being committed and is ongoing since October 8th !
Just another toothless international body that can’t prevent Israel and the US from waging war on the Palestinian people.
We must ask ourselves; Does boycotting Israel mean boycotting the global system? If your answer is yes, this is a success! Maybe for our country? NO! If the boycott is not successful, what kind of failure can we consider this?