" Ever since the failure to implement the 1948 UN resolution 194, which gave Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes in what became Israel, we have been disappointed again and again." Yes, Israel’s plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza Raja Shehadeh

Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip – the planned site of Israel’s internment centre. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Yes, Israel’s plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza

Raja Shehadeh

Palestinians continue to hold on to the practice we call sumoud – refusing to give up or leave – despite the world turning its back on us

Over the past 21 long months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, voices all over the world have decried the demise of international law and the rule-based order. And indeed, the facade of Israel’s adherence to international law has vanished and policies that constitute war crimes are now brazenly declared.

This week, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has shared plans to forcibly move Palestinians into a camp in the ruins of Rafah. Once they enter, they cannot leave. In other words, a concentration camp, which by definition is an internment centre for members of a national group (as well as political prisoners or minority groups) on the grounds of security or punishment, usually by military order. Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, was quoted in the Guardian as saying that Katz “laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity”. Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded trying to access food.

I have tried hard to understand the incomprehensible suffering endured by Palestinians in Gaza and how it is that most Israelis do not acknowledge their humanity. How are they able to show no remorse for what their army is carrying out in their name? I believe the seed of our dehumanisation was planted during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Palestinians were violently deprived of land, property and belongings in what we would come to call the Nakba (Arabic for “the catastrophe”), on the grounds that the land was God-given to the Jewish people. From that time, Israelis have been able to use Arab homes, lands and orchards without any feeling of guilt. The 7 October attacks were the starting point of the war, but Israel has been systematically degrading and dispossessing the Palestinian people for decades.

Such violations of international law lead to a feeling of despair about the inability of institutions to prevent the horrors of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank and to hold perpetrators to account. The UN-backed international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts”. No arrests have been made. The west continues to supply military and political support to Israel. I ask myself: should we Palestinians feel helpless in the face of this failure?

And yet the truth is that international law, though used as a measuring stick and point of reference by human rights organisations, has... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/12/israel-rafah-plan-crime-international-law-palestinians

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Israeli settlers kill American-Palestinian visiting relatives in West Bank - Ambulances were reportedly stopped from reaching Sayfollah Musallet after attack in which another Palestinian man was shot dead

Israeli settlers clash with demonstrators in the West Bank villages north of Ramallah on 4 July 2025. Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP

Sayfollah Musallet, allegedly beaten and killed by settlers at his family’s farm in the West Bank, was born and grew up in Florida, the US. Photograph: Facebook

A 20-year-old Palestinian-American was killed by Israeli settlers while visiting relatives in the occupied West Bank, his family have said.

Sayfollah “Saif” Musallet was reportedly beaten by Israeli settlers while he was on his family’s farm in an area near Ramallah. A group then prevented ambulances from reaching Musallet for three hours, according to the family, who said he died of his injuries before reaching hospital.

“I was the first one to reach Saif,” said Mohammed Nael Hijaz, a 22-year-old friend of Musallet. “He was not moving when I got there and he could barely breathe. There was time to save him.”

Another Palestinian man, 23-year-old Razek Hussein al-Shalabi, was fatally shot during the attack and was left to bleed to death, the Palestinian health ministry said. The funeral for both men will be held on Sunday so they can be buried together, according to a cousin of Musallet.

The attacks come amid a wave of increasing Israeli settler violence targeting Palestinians in the West Bank – more than 1,000 Paestinians have been killed and at least 9,000 injured since Hamas militants launched a murderous assault in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/12/israeli-settlers-kill-american-palestinian-visiting-relatives-in-west-bank-says-family

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“Of course I’ve been critical of Israel. It has been committing genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes” UN's Francesca Albanese slams US sanctions as retaliation for exposing Gaza war crimes

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/10/un-expert-albanese-rejects-obscene-us-sanctions-for-criticising-israel

UN expert Albanese rejects ‘obscene’ US sanctions for criticising Israel

UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese tells Al Jazeera Washington’s move is retaliation for ‘pursuit of justice’ in Israel’s war on Gaza.

United Nations expert Francesca Albanese has slammed the decision by the United States to sanction her as “obscene”, saying she is being targeted for calling out Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Thursday, Albanese, who serves as the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, said she would not be cowed into silence by the US move against her on Wednesday.

Albanese stressed that the penalties imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration would not stop her “quest for [the] respect of justice and international law”.

The special rapporteur said Washington’s tactics reminded her of “Mafia intimidation techniques” before suggesting that “sanctions will only work if people are scared and stop engaging”.

“I want to remind everyone [that] the reason why these sanctions are being imposed is the pursuit of justice,” Albanese said.

“Of course I’ve been critical of Israel. It has been committing genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes,” she added.

While announcing the sanctions on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio charged Albanese with waging a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”.

The UN rapporteur hit back on Thursday, noting that the atrocities being committed in Gaza were not just down to “the unrelinquished territorial ambitions of Israel” and the backing of its supporters but also “companies who are profiting from it”.

Last week, she released a report mapping the corporations aiding Israel in the displacement of Palestinians and its genocidal war on Gaza in breach of international law.

Albanese told Al Jazeera that she was still evaluating the effects the US sanctions would have on her.

However, she said her problems are nothing compared with what Palestinians face in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing bombardments, ground operations and blockade of the territory.

Albanese also took aim at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), calling it a “death trap”. The Israeli- and US-backed group runs the aid distribution sites where hundreds of Palestinians have been shot and killed since late May while queueing for food.

Move against Albanese ‘a dangerous precedent’

The UN expert also defended the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) investigation into Israeli actions in Gaza and its decision to call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest on charges of war crimes.

Rubio has described Albanese’s push for the prosecution of Israeli officials at the ICC as the legal basis for the sanctions.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman was among those to criticise the US sanctions on Albanese.

While highlighting that Albanese reports to the UN Human Rights Council rather than the secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric called the decision “a dangerous precedent”.

“The use of unilateral sanctions against special rapporteurs or any other UN expert or official is unacceptable,” he said.

UN Human Rights Council Ambassador Jurg Lauber also lamented the move against Albanese.

“I call on all UN member states to fully cooperate with the special rapporteurs and mandate holders of the council and to refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal against them,” Lauber said.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has destroyed most of the territory and killed more than 57,575 Palestinians over the past 21 months, according to local health officials.

 https://aje.io/wl6n6h?update=3830656

MORE from Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur:

• “This is a moment, a defining moment in history. It’s a turning point and moment of reckoning,” she told Al Jazeera.
  
• Albanese compared the pressure she has faced for speaking out against Israeli crimes against Palestinians to “mafia intimidation techniques” that involve “destroying the reputation and then intimidating and then threatening anyone who dares to denounce the system – the collusion – between political and economic and financial interests”.
• “I come from a place that has been plagued by this kind of logic, a place where judges, lawyers, activists … have been killed for their stance on the side of justice. So I know what people risk when they stand against big powers,” she said.
• “But what I also know are lessons that come from my part of the world – that these techniques work only if they manage to silence the people … The sanctions will only work if people are scared and stop engaging.”
• “Together we can stop this disgrace but we need to awaken and stand united against it.”

United Nations’ special rapporteur for Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese says US sanctions against her a sign of ‘guilt’: “All eyes must remain on Gaza, where children are dying of starvation in their mothers’ arms, while their fathers and siblings are bombed into pieces while searching for food...”

 ... The US sanctions are the culmination of an extraordinary and sprawling campaign of nearly six months by the Trump administration [using “mafia-style intimidation techniques”]  to quell criticism of Israel’s handling of the deadly war in Gaza. Earlier this year, the Trump administration began arresting and deporting faculty and students of American universities who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and other political activities.

UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese says ‘it looks like I’ve hit a nerve’ after the US imposed sanctions on her amid her investigation of human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories. Photograph: Darko Bandić/AP

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, has responded to news that she will be sanctioned by the Trump administration with a post on X saying “the powerful punishing those who speak for the powerless, it is not a sign of strength, but of guilt”.

On Wednesday, as part of its effort to punish critics of Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza, the state department sanctioned Albanese, an independent official tasked with investigating human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories.

In two posts on Thursday, she wrote “Let’s stand tall, together” and urged international observers to focus on the crisis inside Gaza.

“All eyes must remain on Gaza, where children are dying of starvation in their mothers’ arms, while their fathers and siblings are bombed into pieces while searching for food,” she wrote.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/11/francesca-albanese-un-gaza-investigator-us-sanctions-guilt

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US issues sanctions against Francesca Albanese, UN official investigating abuses in Gaza

Art by Safia Latif - Gaza 2025 Palestine

Safia Latif - Gazza 2025 PALESTINE

Dear America- The Texas floods killing children are a heartbreaking natural disaster, whereas Israel armed with American weaponry killing children is a cruel choice made by human beings who really should know better.

MAPS

letter I just sent to my elected leaders

Dear America,

The Texas floods killing children are a heartbreaking natural disaster, whereas Israel armed with American weaponry killing children is a cruel choice made by human beings who really should know better.

Did we learn nothing from the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, nothing from the state sponsored terrorism & land grabbing that shaped Killing Zones and Concentration Camps in Europe then and Palestine now !!!

Nazi Germany did not want Jews and Zionist Israel does not want Palestinians: FYI Racism is EVIL & WRONG!

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese, is right to criticize Israel and America- we are totally in the wrong to arm Israel's war on the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of historic Palestine.

We are wrong to help fuel Israeli bigotry and injustice, and we are wrong to let corporate corruption undermine and destroy international law and respect for human rights. 

Francesca Albanese's heroic refusal to be bullied into silence and complicity is quite admirable, and most certainly actually worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

The rules of the institutions that define our lives bend like reeds when it comes to Israel – so much that the whole global order is on the verge of collapse: The destruction of Palestine is breaking the world

Mireille Rebeiz, Ph.D, Chair of Middle East Studies & Associate Professor, Dickinson College: "In November 2024, United Nations Special Committee found Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including the use of starvation as weapon of war. In December 2024, Amnesty International concluded in a damning report that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. ..."

USA: Sanctions against UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese are a disgraceful affront to international justice - "This is a shameless and transparent attack on the fundamental principles of international justice."

Marco Rubio has received over a million $$ in donations from AIPAC, the pro Israel lobby. Don’t let the US silence Francesca Albanese @FranceskAlbs ! She deserves the Nobel prize more than anyone.

"Israel’s definition of ceasefire: you cease & we’ll fire." James J. Zogby

Mosab Abu Toha poem ... "Every house is my heart"

11 year old Renad Attallah of Gaza "... but i am just exhausted like everyone else in gaza, exhausted from war, starving, from waiting ceasefire, but I still have hope- Love you all

2025-07-08 Israeli settlers set fire to the St. George Monastery and the Christian cemetery in the Christian village of Taybeh, West Bank—one of the oldest Christian sites in Palestine.

Priests Urge Immediate International Intervention

22,495 Haunting Cries: Children Affected by Conflict Endured an Unconscionable Number of Grave Violations in 2024: Israel and the State of Palestine: For the purposes of the present report, the present section provides information on grave violations in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and Israel

These are Gaza's taxi stories now, snapshots of an entire society being starved...

The best Nobel Peace Prize candidate shows us all what true moral clarity looks like—embodying the best in us: Francesca Albanese

Top Economists Back Francesca Albanese's Report on the 'Economy of Genocide' in Gaza

James J. Zogby: "Today’s Trump/Netanyahu meeting was an embarrassingly gross “log-rolling” exercise in flattery. Netanyahu says he nominating Trump for Nobel Peace Prize. Trump calls Netanyahu “the greatest man alive.” It made me sick. Meanwhile the genocide of Palestinians continues"

Map of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and a blow-up map of East Jerusalem and its environs – 2023: The settlements have created a one-state reality in Israel, wherein Israelis have rights and Palestinians don´t. This oppressive system of control must be stopped.

Palestinians fear razing of villages in West Bank, as settlers circle their homes. An Israeli directive gives a green light for demolitions in Masafer Yatta, where residents keep watch at night for attackers in the darkness

Israeli plan for forced transfer of Gaza’s population ‘a blueprint for crimes against humanity’. Military ordered to turn ruins of Rafah into ‘humanitarian city’ but experts call the plan an internment camp for all Palestinians in Gaza

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” ― James Baldwin

Peace is not built in conference rooms. Peace is built in classrooms, in clinics, in communities. Peace is built when people have hope, opportunity and a stake in their future. Investing in development today means investing in a more peaceful tomorrow. Let’s re-commit to the solidarity and multilateral spirit that has defined our organization across eight decades. And let’s ensure that the dividends of peace, prosperity and security are shared by all. — ANTÓNIO GUTERRES

The Secretary-General is appalled by the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Multiple attacks in recent days hitting sites hosting displaced people and people trying to access food have killed and injured scores of Palestinians. The Secretary-General strongly condemns the loss of civilian life.

Sorry America, while you’re struggling to pay for your health care, rent, and education, remember that your government couldn’t help you because they have to give Israel billions of dollars in US citizen tax money to bomb and kill innocent children in Gaza.

"If the UN is allowed to fail or is so diminished that its agencies cannot fully function, there is nothing to take its place. Nothing, that is, except the law of the jungle, as seen in Gaza and other conflict zones where UN agencies are excluded, aid workers murdered and legal norms flouted. The UN system has many failings, some self-inflicted. But a world without the UN would, for most people in most places, be more dangerous, hungrier, poorer, unhealthier and less sustainable." Simon Tisdall

Israel rushes to ‘depopulate’ northern Gaza before possible ceasefire: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that 85% of Gaza’s area is now considered either an Israeli military zone or under evacuation orders, or both.

ALLEGATIONS ARE NOT EVIDENCE: The Government of Israel has continued to make claims against UNRWA's neutrality, putting our staff at risk and harming the Agency’s reputation. “Last month, I wrote to the Foreign Minister of Israel, requesting once again information and evidence to substantiate these allegations. In my letter, I also noted that the Government of Israel has not pursued any prosecutions within its criminal justice system, which would also require the presentation of credible evidence. We have not received a response.” — UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini to the press on 24 June 2025

The UN emblem is a symbol of hope, peace and unity around the world. As the UN turns 80, we remain committed to advancing peace, dignity and equality for all on a healthy planet.

Dear America, Happy Fourth of July... Happy that we have the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, The Rule of Fair and Just laws, and all the brave civil rights heroes through out our history who helped America become a more real democracy for all people... Not so happy that America is funding and arming Israel's ongoing violations of international law and human rights in both Gaza and the West Bank.

LETTERS  https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/letters

Dear America, Set the right example by scorning violence and racist hate... The world does not need more weapons of war. We need to prioritize peace and progress with respect for ALL human beings, regardless of supposed race or religion.

Dear America- Invest in the people's needs... Be for real freedom, justice, true equality, and respect for all of humankind!

Dear America- Stand up for international law and Human Rights, not the weapons industry.

Dear America- PLEASE SCORN VIOLENCE and stop arming Israel with lethal weaponry plus dumb excuses to cause cruel harm to others!

Life is not a video game. These are real human beings and American made weaponry has been creating a Holocaust with The Rule of Lawlessness in the Holy Land.

Taxpayers' money should not be shoring up greed, corporate corruption, injustice, and war.

Please, let Golden Rule thinking and the rule of fair and just laws guide US all towards a better way forward.

State sponsored violence is not the way to convince vulnerable people to veer away from arming religious tyranny and terrorism.

Hate crimes are escalating here in America with people primed by to think, say and do horrible things...

Slavery, Segregation and Forced Displacement are wrong. Wrong then and wrong now

This Earth Day please start noticing how much pollution and injustice war creates.

Building a Culture of Peace ...

"The United Nations was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." ~Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

The rules of the institutions that define our lives bend like reeds when it comes to Israel – so much that the whole global order is on the verge of collapse: The destruction of Palestine is breaking the world

by Moustafa Bayoumi

Sun 6 Jul 2025

Sereen Haddad is a bright young woman. At 20 years old, she just finished a four-year degree in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in only three years, earning the highest honors along the way. Yet, despite her accomplishments, she still can’t graduate. Her diploma is being withheld by the university, “not because I didn’t complete the requirements”, she told me, “but because I stood up for Palestinian life”.

Sereen Haddad. Photograph: Olivia Cunningham

Haddad, who is Palestinian American, had been raising awareness on her campus about the Palestinian fight for freedom as part of her university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The struggle is also personal for her. With roots in Gaza, she has lost more than 200 members of her extended family to Israel’s war.

She was part of a group of VCU students and supporters who attempted to set up an encampment in April 2024. The university called in the police that same night. Protesters were pepper-sprayed and brutalized, and 13 were arrested. Haddad was not charged, but she was taken to the hospital “because of the head trauma that I endured”, she told me. “I was bleeding. I was bruised. Cuts everywhere. The police slammed me down on the concrete, like, six different times.”

But last year’s attempted encampment wasn’t even the reason Haddad’s degree is being withheld. This year’s peaceful memorial of it was. And how that scenario played out, with the university and campus police constantly changing the rules, illustrates something worrisome far beyond the leafy confines of an American campus.

Israel’s war in Gaza is chipping away at so much of what we – in the United States but also internationally – had agreed upon as acceptable, from the rules governing our freedom of speech to the very laws of armed conflict. It seems no exaggeration to say that the foundation of the international order of the last 77 years is threatened by this change in the obligations governing our legal and political responsibilities to each other.

We are ignoring the collapse of the international system that has defined our lives for generations at our own collective peril

This collapse began with the liberal world’s lack of resolve to rein in Israel’s war in Gaza. It escalated when no one lifted a finger to stop hospitals being bombed. It expanded when mass starvation became a weapon of war. And it is peaking at a time when total war is no longer viewed as a human abhorrence but is instead the deliberate policy of the state of Israel.

The implications of this collapse are profound for international, regional and even domestic politics. Political dissent is repressed, political language is policed, and traditionally liberal societies are increasingly militarized against their own citizens... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jul/06/destruction-of-palestine-is-breaking-the-world

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