On Jan 11, South Africa presented its case against Israel at the ICJ. Here are two important clips from the case:

Notable quotes from Jan. 11 hearing
From South African attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi:

“There is an extraordinary feature in this case: that Israel’s political leaders, military commanders, and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent… And these statements are then repeated by soldiers on the ground in Gaza as they engage in the destruction of Palestinians and the physical infrastructure of Gaza.”

“What state would admit to a genocidal intent? Yet the distinctive feature of this case has not been the silence as such but the reiteration and repetition of genocidal speech throughout every sphere of state in Israel.”

“We remind the court of the identity and authority of the genocidal inciters: the prime minister, the president the minister of defense, the minister of national security, the minister of energy and infrastructure, members of the Knesset, senior army officials, and foot soldiers… The evidence of genocidal intent is not only chilling, it is also overwhelming and incontrovertible.”

From South African attorney Adila Hassim:

“Israel has subjected Gaza to what has been described as one of the heaviest conventional bombing campaigns in the history of modern warfare. Palestinians in Gaza are being killed by Israeli weaponry and bombs from air, land and sea. They are also 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. This conduct renders essentials to life unobtainable.“

“…the level of Israel’s killing is so extensive that nowhere is safe in Gaza. … Palestinians in Gaza are subjected to relentless bombing wherever they go. They are killed in their homes, in places where they seek shelter, in hospitals, in schools, in mosques, in churches, and as they try to find food and water for their families. They have been killed if they failed to evacuate. In the places to which they have fled, and even while they attempted to flee along, Israeli declared safe routes.”

“Israel has killed an unparalleled and unprecedented number of civilians with the full knowledge of how many civilian lives each bomb will take.“

 

Why Israel’s war on Gaza is textbook genocide:

Breaking it down with Jewish Voice for Peace:

From the very beginning, Israeli officials have made their genocidal intentions in Gaza clear. And in the three months since October 7, they’ve followed through on their promises, inflicting incomprehensible suffering on the over two million Palestinians trapped in Gaza. 

Now, South Africa is charging Israel with genocide in Gaza, bringing its case to the International Court of Justice, the court of the United Nations. Hearings in the Hague began today, and will continue in the next week to determine immediate provisional measures. And in the U.S., the Center for Constitutional Rights is suing President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Secretary Austin for abetting Israel’s “genocide of the Palestinian people.”

In this Wire, we’ll explain that Israel is committing genocide — and why Israel’s prosecution under international law matters for our movement as Jews for Palestinian freedom.

The Genocide Convention

Both South Africa and the Center for Constitutional Rights are basing their cases on the Genocide Convention — the treaty that defines the crime of genocide under international law.

This definition has two requirements for determining that a state is committing a genocide: 

1. The state must demonstrate the intent to destroy a group of people.
2. There must be physical acts committed which put this intent into action. 

Israel’s months-long assault on Gaza clearly meets both of these legal requirements of genocide.

Intent 

The Genocide Convention was drafted in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust, in the face of a particular kind of horror: not just mass killing, but mass killing with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.”

Intent is often understood by scholars as the most difficult component of the genocide definition to prove in court. However, Israeli government officials have repeatedly made their intent to commit genocide remarkably evident. Both their rhetoric and actions illustrate that they are targeting and bombing Palestinians in Gaza for the sole reason that they are Palestinians in Gaza.

• On October 12, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said: “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware not involved. It’s absolutely not true. … and we will fight until we break their backbone.” 
• Israel has now carried out over three months of “indiscriminate” bombing in Gaza, targeting churches, mosques, hospitals, schools, U.N. facilities, refugee camps, homes, and the very roads on which Palestinians were fleeing Israeli bombing. Nowhere in Gaza is safe from the Israeli onslaught.

Physical acts 

Any of five different acts can constitute acts of genocide when they are committed with this intent. There is overwhelming evidence of the Israeli government committing at least four of these five acts, much of which is laid out in the South African case filing.

1. Killing members of the group

• On October 7, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nissim Vaturi said: “Now we all have one common goal — erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.”
• Israel has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, over 9,000 of whom have been children.

2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

• On October 17, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir tweeted: “The only thing that needs to enter Gaza are hundreds of tons of explosives from the Air Force, not an ounce of humanitarian aid.”
• More than 55,000 Palestinians in Gaza are now injured. Half are at risk of starvation. And the World Health Organization is warning that both famine and the mass spread of disease are likely to kill even more Palestinians in Gaza.

3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part

• On October 9, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly…Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.” 
• On Friday, the UN warned that Gaza has “become uninhabitable” due to the Israeli bombardment and blockade. The Israeli military has since cut off Gaza’s access to food, water, fuel, and medical supplies, intermittently also cutting off internet and electricity. Half of all homes in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, and 30 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals are out of operation. 

4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

• On November 19, 2023, Major General in the Israeli Army Giora Eiland said: “Who are the ‘poor’ women of Gaza? They are all the mothers, sisters or wives of Hamas murderers.”
• There are about 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, all of whom are facing “uninhabitable” conditions. Women giving birth are unable to access obstetric care, an “ever-increasing number” of babies are dying from preventable causes, the risks of miscarriage and maternal death are elevated, and the Israeli military’s bombing of hospitals led in November to the deaths and severe illness of premature babies in the NICU.

Why this matters for our movement 

Decades of international impunity and U.S. support for Israeli atrocities against Palestinians make it likely that the Israeli government will disregard even a legal finding that it is committing genocide. But the cases in both the International Court of Justice and brought in the U.S. by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) remain significant as a tool for our movement. 

Decisions of the ICJ are legally binding under international law. And if the ICJ finds that Israel is committing genocide, all 152 countries that are party to the Genocide Convention are legally obligated to take steps in their own governments to penalize the state of Israel. 

These steps can include anything from the legal prosecution of individual state officials at a national level (one goal of the CCR case), unilateral economic sanctions, and political measures at the international level — like expulsion from international organizations.

All of these avenues are organizing opportunities for our movement. They are in line with the demands of BDS: to boycott, sanction, and divest from Israel as long as it continues to violate international law in its oppression of Palestinians. 

This isn’t a coincidence — the BDS movement is based in international law. It recognizes that the Israeli government systematically violates the human rights of Palestinians, and that these violations are repeatedly met with impunity. 

The exclusionary ideology of Zionism has always cast the very existence of Palestinians as a threat to the safety of Jews, in turn using this fear to justify the oppression, killing, and expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. It’s not a far leap from these policies of ethnic cleansing and mass displacement that have existed throughout Israel’s history to an all-out genocide. International human rights law — much of it drafted in the wake of the Holocaust — specifically recognizes how the dehumanization and oppression of a group of people can lead to genocide.

As Israeli atrocities are broadcast each day out of Gaza, international solidarity with Palestinians is strong and growing across the world. If the ICJ determines that Israel is committing genocide, it would help us further escalate our organizing for Palestinian liberation, giving us even greater opportunity to pressure governments around the world to end their support for the Israeli government — not only during this genocide, but for as long as the apartheid regime continues to exist.

Click to join JVP in digital and in person actions.

A Personal Message from Mazin Qumsiyeh:

Please share…please act…you can save lives

BRIEF ANALYSIS:  The brilliant presentation by the South African Team  is a
very, very strong case in my opinion and the opinion of non-engaged global
legal experts (and anyone who have seen the genocide unfold live). The body
of evidence to be presented is overwhelming and it connects so many
statements of intent to genocide from all high level officials of
theIsraeli govcernment with action son the ground. For example “Defense
minister” saying we will starve them and demnyy water and medicine for 2.3
million with actual execution. Video of Netanyahu addressing soldiers and
invoking Amalek (biblical enemy that Israelites were told by God to kill
all their women and Children) is paired with videos of soldiers bragging
about killing women and children and also invoking “Amalek”. Eight South
African judges are great minds and the evidence is overwhelming.

I do not underestimate Zionist legal team led by Justice Barak and
including dozens of lawyers to find some loopholes & exaggerate them. They
cannot say this but I can: the lead of the Israeli team himself (Aharon
Barak) was head of the Israeli High Court that ruled against international
law and even refused to force implementation of its own rulings (e.g. that
called on Israeli army to allow the return of the villagers of Icrit in the
Galillee). He also holds racist views and expressed them (but again this
does not need to be brought up), the case has overwhelming merit. But more
importantly the ICJ was pressured politically before and there is now I am
sure a frenzy of pressure on each of the governments of the judges and the
judges themselves especially by the US which shielded Israel for decades
from International law and should be on trial with Israel). That is why
other countries, the Islamic resistance forces, Fatah/the Palestinian
Authority (whose foreign ministry was not doing enough and should have done
much more and restructure and remove all corrupt ambassadors and promote
ambassadors like Husam Zomlot), media sites, and ALL people of conscience
should do more physical support, cosponsor, collate documents, videos, and
material to support bringing to justice the criminal regime members not
just at ICJ but globally.  That is why we need to write to governments to
pressure them not to succumb to Zionist lobbies and to use this opportunity
to save Israel from itself. If they love Israel, they should allow case to
be judged neutrally based on the overwhelming body of evidence and not flex
muscles which if they (God Forbid) succeed would mean the end of
International law and the “might-makes-right” becomes the rule for
everyone. Racism/Zionism will lose either way but the military might will
be much worse (no winners in wars). Lastly I think those who supported the
genocide should be tried. Incidentally even without genocide charge
sticking (this may take months), Biden and Blinken and other US officials
CAN AND SHOULD BE TRIED for violating US law: The Leahy Law, the Foreign
assaistance act; the Arms Export Control Act, the Conventional Arms
Transfer Policy (NSM-18 of Feb. 2023), The US War Crimes Act of 1996;  and
international treaties and conventions which were adopted by the US and
thus become national law (e.g. Geneva Convention, Convention against Racial
Discrimination and Apartheid). Need lawyers to pursue. Please help.

More info and actions:

The ghost of apartheid has come back to haunt Israel and give hope to
Palestinians

The ongoing expulsion of Palestinians is the central injustice that must be
addressed if we are to achieve peace.

March Saturday on Washington DC for ceasefire and to stop the genocide
https://march4gaza.org/

Consider signing and pass on about Israel and sports
https://i.diem25.org/en/petitions/93

New Tool to be used to challenge corporate support of Israel. The EU has
regulations adopted in regards to violations of the human rights and the
environment by Corporations (EU must enforce and companies must comply).
Please write and work on this

Today and tomorrow are #cyberIntifada days. Every should post to end the
genocide of Gaza. Here are some handles also #EndIsraelGenocide
#StandWithGaza #GlobalJustice #GazaGlobalAction #CeaseFireNow
#GlobalIntifada #StandWithPalestine #EndIsraelsGenocide #FreePalestine

I know this is already long, but three relevant PROPHETIC quotes:

“If the state of Israel aspires to perceive itself as a democracy, it
should abandon once and for all, any legal and ideological foundation of
religious, ethnic, and demographic discrimination.  The state of Israel
should strive to become the state of all its citizens. We call for the
annulment of all laws that make Israel an apartheid state, including the
Jewish law of return in its present form” (Israeli artists’ Declaration,
2002).

“We came and turned the native Arabs into tragic refugees. And still we
have to slander and malign them, to besmirch their name. Instead of being
deeply ashamed of what we did and trying to undo some of the evil we
committed…we justify our terrible acts and even attempt to glorify them”
Nathan Chofshi, Jewish Newsletter, New York, 9 February 1959, cited in
Erskine Childers, ‘The Other Exodus’ in Spectator, London, 12 May 1961

“I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis
of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from
practical consideration, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism
resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of
temporal power no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage
Judaism will sustain, especially from the development of a narrow
nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to
fight strongly, even without a Jewish state.”Albert Einstein, on April 17,
1938, in a speech at the Commodore Hotel in New York City.

Stay Human and keep Palestine alive

Mazin Qumsiyeh
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability
Bethlehem University
Occupied Palestine
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://palestinenature.org

From our friends at World Beyond War, Code Pink, and Roots Action:

Urge governments to join South Africa and invoke the genocide convention at the International Court of Justice. Find updates and take action with World Beyond War here.

Take action with Code Pink’s toolkit here.

 

 

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