Netanyahu is now flattening the whole of Gaza – don’t pretend this isn’t genocide
Let’s be very clear about what Netanyahu is about to start, the total flattening of everything above and below surface in Gaza – it is a total annihilation of everything…
Israel threatens to flatten Gaza
Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan last night to reoccupy and eventually flatten all of Gaza if a new hostage-and-ceasefire deal isn’t reached soon, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports.
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- The plan calls for demolishing any buildings left standing and displacing virtually the entire population of 2 million people to a single “humanitarian area.”
🗓️ The latest: The Security Cabinet is using President Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week as a deadline for a new deal.
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- Many Israeli officials see this operation as a nuclear option and would much prefer a deal in the next two weeks.
- Trump isn’t playing an active role in efforts to reach a ceasefire, and has effectively given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a green light to do as he sees fit, Israeli officials say.
💡 The big picture: The return to full-fledged war would come after Israel already cut off all supplies of food, water and medicine to civilians in Gaza after the ceasefire broke down two months ago.
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- Netanyahu has rejected any proposal that ends the war entirely, pressing Hamas instead to sign a shorter-term agreement.
Israeli officials hope the threat of a large-scale invasion will press Hamas to accept a deal on Israel’s terms.
…this stopped being a legitimate response to October 7th a long time ago.
This is a disproportionate ethnic cleansing war crime that is a technical breach of genocide, and we have allowed it to happen because in the West we are terrified of displeasing Trump with any criticism and domestically Militant Zionist Apologists have excelled in attacking anyone who does criticise Israel’s genocidal ethnic cleansing war crime as anti-semitic.
We are figuratively drenched in the blood spray of this war crime and our silence condemns us.
We have to throw the Israeli Ambassador out while recognising a Palestinian Ambassador, anything less is complicity with their obscenity.
We are all responsible for this now.
Look at that map again dammit!
And what is Trump’s response?
Trump sent out an AI cartoon of Trump Gaza complete with insane gold statues, plush resorts and Musk walking around while money rains from the sky.
The narcissism required to spread this in the shadow of a quarter of a million dead Palestinians is so ghoulish, so bereft of morality, so evil in its banality, the song sounds like something the Hitler Youth would have sang:
‘Donald’s coming to set you free
bringing the life for all to see.
No more tunnels, no more fear,
Trump Gaza is finally here.
Trump Gaza shining bright,
golden future a brand new light.
Feast and dance the deal is done,
Trump Gaza number one.”
Jesus wept.
Our need in the West to gloss over Israel’s genocide and America’s enabling of that genocide has made us accomplices to horror.
It’s so sickening.
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Yes, completely ignoring anything that happened earlier in this region’s history. Ignoramus!
Just as Jim Bolger claimed that he was against sporting tours with the South African apartheid regime, after apartheToid ended.
One day everyone will have always been against this.
To which I would add; One day the Gaza genocide deniers will be as reviled and dispised as Holdocaust deniers are today.
We need to out the genocide deniers now.
The worst are every single one of the government MPs, in National, Act and New Zealand First. Cosely followed by the opposition Labour Party. The officially stated policy of the Labour party according Labour MP Phil Twyford Labour party leader Chris Hipkins is Genocide Denial
“Labour’s Damien O’Connor goes against party policy in calling Israel’s actions in Gaza ‘genocide’ “.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/504190/labour-s-damien-o-connor-goes-against-party-policy-in-
…..While the Greens and Te Pāti Māori have been calling it genocide for weeks, O’Connor’s colleague Phil Twyford – whose amendment calling for a two-state solution was adopted – said his comments did not reflect Labour’s position.
…..In a statement Chris Hipkins said: “Damien O’Connor is incredibly passionate about this issue and that was evident during his contribution today. I respect the emotion and feeling he showed during the debate.
“However the Labour Party’s position remains that it is for the relevant international bodies to determine whether actions by Israel are within the constraints of international law.”
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
by Omar El Akkad review – a cathartic savaging of western hypocrisy over Gaza
The novelist and reporter delivers a passionate indictment of complacent liberal responses to Israel’s brutal campaign
…..“This is an account of a fracture,” he writes, “a breaking away from the notion that the polite, western liberal ever stood for anything at all.” It is a deft, broken-hearted, rhetorical savaging of comfortable people who say nothing (or pay lip service) but care only about preserving normality, convincing themselves that these things only happen “to certain places, to certain people”.
…..The ugliness El Akkad describes is real and seems inescapable, too. Much of it is the unspeakable stuff nobody admits to but is clear to anyone who reads or observes: that once we’re safe, our empathy is often performative; that it’s more expedient to be against evil after it’s over….
For today’s genocide deniers we need to make certain that there is no coming back from this. They need to be publicly outed, and called out now.
Now the fuckers are starting on the west bank as Israel has bulldozers and diggers in there destroying Palastinian homes yesterday .What the fuck ? the world is sitting back watching .At the least there should be a raft of sanctions on Israel and the local embassy in Wellington should be closed and staff arrested and sent to the war crimes court .
Pragamatism vs. decency
Liberal politics vs, principled politics.
In 1978 by an act of parliament New Zealand ratified and solemnly agreed to uphold and be legally bound to act to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.
So why don’t we?
The very least the oppostion parties could do, is put a bill in the ballot to get the government to debate the issue.
Proposed bill
That the parliament of New Zealand officially recognise that a genocide is being committed in Gaza against the indigenous Palestinian population.
The significance of such a bill, if it was passed, is that New Zealand would be bound to take action by international treaty and New Zealand law.
Article 1 of the Genocide Convention
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/Genocide%20Convention-FactSheet-ENG.pdf
“….. the obligation to prevent genocide contained in Article I of
the Genocide Convention has an extraterritorial scope. As such, States that have the capacity to influence others have a duty to employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent genocide, including in relation to acts committed outside their own borders.”
Our Obligations under the genocide convention to employ all reasonable means avaiable to usl to prevent the crime genocide are clear.
On December 28, 1978. New Zealand officially agreed to be legally and contractually bound to act to prevent the crime of genocide, as defined by the International Convention on the prevention and punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
No doubt an opposition members bill calling on the government to recognise that genocide is being committed in Gaza will be voted down by the government parties. But at the very least we will have identified and outed the genocide deniers and this will be an albatross around their dirty necks for the rest of their miserable political careers.
Will the opposition parties take this simple proposed measuire?
Will any single MP dare to put a bill in the ballot calling on parliament to officially recognise genocide is being committed in Gaza?
If not, their lack of acton would mark the final victory of liberalism over principle in this country.
And shame us all.
Appendix:
Q: What is the definition of genocide? google search
A: [the] “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”;
“Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”
Q: When did New Zealand ratify the genocide convention? google search
A: New Zealand ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on December 28, 1978. This is also confirmed by the UN Treaty Collection.
Q: What does contractually bound mean? google search
A: “Contractually bound” means obligated or restricted by the terms of a legally binding contract. It signifies that someone has agreed to a specific set of conditions and is legally required to fulfill those conditions.
Q: Does New Zealand support the international rules based order? google search
A: New Zealand prime minister says to stand up for international rules-based order
By Lucy Craymer
Reuters, July 12, 2024
Q: Are the New Zealand opposition Labour Party officially genocide deniers? Google search
A: [Yes] “Labour’s Damien O’Connor goes against party policy in calling Israel’s actions in Gaza ‘genocide’ “.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/504190/labour-s-damien-o-connor-goes-against-party-policy-in-.