South African lawyers gearing up to file war-crime complicity case against UK, US ... #Israel #WarCrimes

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https://skwawkbox.org/2024/09/17/south-african-lawyers-gearing-up-to-file-war-crime-complicity-case-against-uk-us/ 

South African lawyers gearing up to file war-crime complicity case against UK, US

By SKWAWKBOX (SW)17/09/2024

Far from bowing to US/Israel pressure, Van Rensburg team finalises complicity case

A team of forty-seven South African lawyers is finalising its lawsuit against the UK and US for their complicity in Israel’s genocide and other war crimes against Palestinians. The group, which is led by Wikus van Rensburg, is the same team that filed South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), successfully obtaining the finding of ‘plausible genocide’ that effectively put Israel on trial before the court for the crime.

The lawyers plan to use civilian courts to prosecute those who aid and abet Israel in its crimes through civilian courts, in cooperation with UK and US lawyers.

Rensburg told Turkish media outlet Anadolu Ajansi that it was time for the UK and US to be held to account for their complicity:

The United States must now be held accountable for the crimes it committed. No one says stop, enough is enough.

What happened in Iraq is an example of this; no one held the US accountable for the crimes it committed in the Middle Eastern country as the issue was not given the necessary importance.

The US is busy spending more money and more resources to (allow Israel) commit the crime. If the ICJ trial against Israel is concluded in favour of South Africa, the US may face sanctions even if it does not accept the verdict. The ICJ ruling will also strengthen a case against the Joe Biden administration.

The US must now be held responsible for the crimes it has committed. It must accept its responsibilities. You could not avoid responsibility. The US must now be held accountable for the crimes it committed.

Israel has been lobbying its US allies to use sanctions and diplomatic pressure try to pressure South Africa and the UN’s courts to drop the case, as well as to coerce the International Criminal Court (ICC) not to issue arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant. Far from bowing to the pressure, South Africa has responded by taking its legal preparations for the complicity cases forward.

The US and UK have provided direct military assistance to and political cover for Israel during its genocide, in which it has already killed as many as 200,000 Palestinians, while the Starmer regime in the UK is targeting journalists and activists who draw attention to and oppose Israel’s war crimes.

Dear America- We are in this collectively- no exceptions... Stop the hate- and the pollution of war.

Painting of The Good Samaritan by John Adam Houston 1812-1884 

 

 Dear America- letter sent to my elected leaders,

Killing people before even arresting them and giving them a fair hearing and trial is WRONG.  

Upholding the rule of law, specifically the rule of fair and just laws is crucial for everyone's sake- world wide.

We are in this collectively- no exceptions.  

Assassinations are a very bad idea, no matter who or what the excuse.  So please don't admire or excuse Israel for doing it, or HAMAS or Hezbollah, as they all abuse religion and use violence in order to gain as much money and power as they can grab.

The more the violence escalates, stoked by Israel armed to the teeth with American made weaponry, the more I realize that right now America and The West is VERY VERY RACIST... the powers that be are racist, with some hating Arabs, some hating Muslims, some hating Jews, and some just hating period.

Stop the hate- and the pollution of war.

We have the guidelines in place: Full respect for international law and basic human rights.

Please, we can build a better world, a fairer more sane and more just world, for ALL men, women, and children. 

Life is precious and can be beautiful when gardens are allowed to grow, and goodness can be shared.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

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

In A Climate Where All Palestinian Art Is “Controversial,” a Connecticut Museum Carves Space for Palestinian Dreams

Targeting Childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank

Are restrictions on pro-Palestine speech ‘the new McCarthyism?’

He argued that it was OK to combine the Star of David and swastika symbols because, he said, the star is used not only as a religious symbol, but a political symbol. It is found on the Israeli Air Force insignia.

Jewish American filmmaker, Sarah Friedland, calls out Israel's 'genocide in Gaza' at Venice Film Festival while accepting her Lion of the Future award

Imagine the size of the deep hole with dozens of tents above it that have disappeared and no signs of them remain, including those [the people] inside them.

Aid not reaching Gaza, say relief groups as ‘more than a million go without food’... "Aid trucks’ ability to enter Gaza “is at the arbitrary discretion of Israeli forces” "

"We order you to leave, in a week the entire area will become a military zone; No supply will enter" Former Israeli General Giora Eiland has launched a campaign called 'The General’s Plan,' demanding that the Israeli army "empty" northern Gaza by starving the remaining residents.

White House Statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on Aysenur Eygi "Aysenur was peacefully protesting in the West Bank—standing up against the expansion of settlements—when her young life was senselessly cut short. No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest. The shooting that led to her death is unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank."

Two young American women—Rachel & Aysenur. Both from Washington State with hearts of gold... both were murdered

Dear America- Don't let Israel drive a wedge between you and the truth.

Dear America, Please Help Stop Institutionalized Bigotry & Injustice

Dear America- Israel can not be trusted, and should not be subsidized

Don't give Israel the power to destroy the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, International Law, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights... and America.

Accusing peaceful pro-Palestine protesters of being "antisemitic" pleases Israel but it does not make any Jews any safer anywhere.

Send an honorable message far and wide- we believe in freedom of and from religion... and we believe in real justice, peace, and security for ALL !

 

"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

 

In A Climate Where All Palestinian Art Is “Controversial,” a Connecticut Museum Carves Space for Palestinian Dreams

View of the Palestine Museum US in Woodbridge, Connecticut. Photo Meg Dalton/Connecticut Public

September 13, 2024 7:00am 

by

Carlos Valladares

 https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/palestine-museum-us-dreams-art-connecticut-1234717438/

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 “We can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s greatest artists.”

So says Faisal Saleh, founder of the Palestine Museum US. Since 2018, he has directed the space. He also owns the building—an office complex in Woodbridge, Connecticut—and so is free from worry over upsetting the various bureaucracies who might hesitate to showcase Palestinian art.

A soft ban on Palestinian artists is, and has been, all too pervasive. (Saleh tells me: “The name ‘Palestine’ is radioactive right now.”) This year’s Venice Biennale, with its theme “Foreigners Everywhere,” panders to an idea of inclusivity. But when the Palestine Museum proposed the exhibition “Foreigners in their Homeland” as a collateral event, the proposal was rejected. Palestine also does not have a national pavilion, since Italy does not recognize it as a sovereign nation. Besides, according to Saleh, any art from Palestine is instantly tagged as Political with a capital-“P.” Thus, art and expressions are swept away to escape a boogeyman controversy. What gets left behind? Tough-minded work that deals with the struggle of love, anger, jealousy, fear, survival, loss, and, beyond this, a desire for what can come. 

No matter: Saleh staged the exhibition anyway, renting Venice’s Palazzo Mora, where “Foreigners in their Homeland” is up until November 24, 2024. Most of the Venice artists have works on view in Connecticut, too, in the Palestine Museum’s permanent collection.

Loss—and the question of how to regain one’s bearings—is a common touchpoint in the works at the museum. Saleh wants to raise the profile of those Palestinian artists who know intimately the contours of loss, who long with passion for a space to give form to their dreams. When we face Khair Alah Salim’s painted solo cellist, who plays to her audience of three unpeeled oranges in an orange haze, we see how it is a clandestine joy—and a right too often taken as a privilege—to render a face, to paint fixed, concentrated eyes.

Raghda Zaiton: “Waiting,” 2020. Photo Carlos Valladares

The museum doubles as a library of Palestinian literature, with texts in Arabic, English, and French. I have spent hours just poring through these books—primarily donated, Saleh tells me, by Connecticut locals, now sitting on shelves nestled below the paintings. There are classics like Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape (2007); there are novels of identity crises with dashes and sweeps of the Kafkaesque and the science-fictive, like Emile Habibi’s The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist (1974); there is poetry by luminaries like Naomi Shihab Nye (who writes about my home country, Honduras), as well as Fadwa Tuqan, Fady Joudah, and the essential Mahmoud Darwish. Throughout the museum, one experiences a harsh montage of image and text. There are the Palestinian kids’ drawings of daily scenes of a military violence they know so well. And there is Darwish, instructing “Be a child again,” in In the Presence of Absence (2006). “Teach me poetry. Teach me the rhythm of the sea. Take my hand, so we can cross this threshold between night and day together.” 

 

What else is in the museum? There are photographs by Najib Joe Hakim, whose series “Home Away from Home: Little Palestine by the Bay” (2014–ongoing) centers portraits of Palestinians in the Bay Area. Alongside these photographs, one can also hear the subjects’ voice-recorded testimonials on Soundcloud.... READ MORE 

Targeting Childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank

Sep 09, 2024 

Ramallah, September 9, 2024—20 percent of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2000 have been killed after October 7, 2023 at a rate of one child every two days, Defense for Children International - Palestine said in a report released today.

The report, “Targeting Childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank,” details and analyzes Palestinian child fatalities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023, and July 31, 2024. Israeli forces routinely targeted Palestinian children with live ammunition and aerial attacks, prevented ambulances and paramedics from reaching wounded children, and confiscated children’s bodies in violation of international law.

“Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children with calculated brutality and cruelty all throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,” said Khaled Quzmar, general director at DCIP. “The international community must act urgently to enact an arms embargo and sanctions to protect Palestinian children’s lives.”

In this report, evidence and documentation collected by DCIP indicate that Israeli forces are deliberately targeting Palestinian children with the intent to unleash cruel and degrading treatment up until the moment of the child’s death.... READ MORE  https://www.dci-palestine.org/targeting_childhood_palestinian_children_killed_by_israeli_forces_and_settlers_in_the_occupied_west_bank

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The full report can be read and downloaded here.

Key findings

1. 20 percent of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2000 have been killed after October 7, 2023 at a rate of one child every two days.

2. Israeli forces deliberately target and shoot unarmed children with live ammunition and trained snipers. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 116 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024.

3. Israeli forces have killed 25 Palestinian children in aerial attacks in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024. Some children were directly targeted while others were collateral damage as Israeli forces deployed aerial attacks in densely populated civilian areas.

4. Israeli forces and authorities systematically deny Palestinian children their right to medical care when preventing ambulances, paramedics, or bystanders from providing medical care to a child shot with live ammunition or struck in an Israeli airstrike. In 43 percent of cases in this report, Israeli forces deliberately prevented injured Palestinian children from receiving medical care by detaining and firing live ammunition toward ambulances, paramedics, and civilians attempting to provide aid.

5. Israeli authorities and forces systematically, deliberately, and specifically embolden Israeli settler violence towards Palestinian children. Israeli forces present during armed Israeli settler attacks fail to prevent the aggression, fail to help the Palestinian victims, and often collaborate with the settlers in inflicting lethal harm. In two cases, Israeli forces and settlers fired toward Palestinian children simultaneously, and DCIP was unable to determine which perpetrator fired the fatal bullet.

6. Israeli forces killed at least 49 Palestinian children during the intensified large-scale and deadly incursions into Palestinian refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024. 

7. The fatal shootings of child protesters in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the use of expanding bullets during the crackdowns constitute war crimes prosecutable at the ICC. In October 2023, Israeli forces shot and killed four Palestinian children with expanding bullets designed to increase in size upon impact, inflicting fatal internal injuries.

8. Israeli authorities’ practice of confiscating and withholding Palestinian bodies is a violation of international humanitarian law and international criminal law, which include absolute prohibitions on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Israeli authorities have confiscated 18 Palestinian children’s bodies in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024.

9. Israeli authorities work to ensure Israeli forces continue enjoying impunity and face no consequence for the extrajudicial killing of Palestinian children. There are no known accounts of accountability during this reporting period.

Are restrictions on pro-Palestine speech ‘the new McCarthyism?’

VIDEO INTERVIEW 24 MINUTES LONG- CLICK HERE https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-bottom-line/2024/9/8/are-restrictions-on-pro-palestine-speech-the-new-mccarthyism

Is there an attempt to chill debate on Palestine and Israel on both sides of the Atlantic?

The United States, and the West in general, are in a “dire period” of repression of speech on Palestinian freedom or criticism of Israel, argues Dima Khalidi, founder of Palestine Legal.

Khalidi tells host Steve Clemons that despite strong constitutional protections for free expression, “there seems to be this exception when it comes to Palestine”, as witnessed by the wave of censorship, intimidation, firings and restrictions on activism in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The situation is similar across Europe, says British journalist Richard Medhurst, who’s been covering Gaza closely and was arrested for “speech crimes” upon arrival in London recently.

He argued that it was OK to combine the Star of David and swastika symbols because, he said, the star is used not only as a religious symbol, but a political symbol. It is found on the Israeli Air Force insignia.

He argued that it was OK to combine the Star of David and swastika symbols because, he said, the star is used not only as a religious symbol, but a political symbol. It is found on the Israeli Air Force insignia.

"The swastika, to me, is equivalent to the Star of David," Atta said.

Atta also disagreed with the concept that Jewish residents could feel threatened by the mural. He said he thought Jewish people "should be able to relate" to how painful a genocide is for a population."

2024:  The mural is posted on a building at North Holton and East Locust streets owned by Ihsan Atta, a Palestinian-American landlord who is the registered agent for the property management company.

The mural replaced one on Breonna Taylor that was well-known to those in the area. Taylor, a Black woman, was shot and killed in her home in 2020 by Louisville police during a botched raid. The police killings of Taylor and George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests about police violence. Another prominent mural of Floyd on a building also owned by Atta remains at the corner of East North Avenue and North Holton Street. Milwaukee

Jewish American filmmaker, Sarah Friedland, calls out Israel's 'genocide in Gaza' at Venice Film Festival while accepting her Lion of the Future award

METROPOLITAN CITY OF VENICE  Film Festival

Sarah Friedland won Best Debut Film at the Venice Film Festival, accepting the Lion of the Future award in the Italian city at the weekend. 

Familiar Touch won won three prizes at the festival’s 81st edition—one for best debut feature, another for Chalfant as best actress in the Orizzonti section (which the performer accepted in Italian), and a third for Friedland as best director.

Imagine the size of the deep hole with dozens of tents above it that have disappeared and no signs of them remain, including those [the people] inside them.

Imagine the size of the deep hole with dozens of tents above it that have disappeared and no signs of them remain, including those inside them.

Mike Hanini Odetalla

Aid not reaching Gaza, say relief groups as ‘more than a million go without food’... "Aid trucks’ ability to enter Gaza “is at the arbitrary discretion of Israeli forces” "

A queue of of aid lorries wait at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photograph: Amr Nabil/AP

 “We estimate that over a million Gazans will go without food in September”

@UNRWA  Sam Rose to   @guardian   [on twitter/x]

 

Medicines, chlorine for water purification & hygiene products are running low in #Gaza. "So little aid is getting in that we can’t meet basic needs."

Aid not reaching Gaza, say relief groups as ‘more than a million go without food’

Medical supplies, toothbrushes and shampoo also remain stuck in backlog of lorries unable to enter from Egypt

Relief groups have said more than 1 million people in Gaza will not have enough food this month, while trucks loaded with fresh vegetables or meat spoil waiting to cross Israeli checkpoints, and thousands of aid packages of food, medical supplies and even toothbrushes and shampoo remain stuck in a backlog of lorries unable to enter from Egypt.

“We estimate that over a million Gazans will go without food in September,” said Sam Rose, a senior deputy director of UN’s relief agency for Palestinians (Unrwa), in Gaza. “Over half the medicines in our health centres are running low, as is chlorine for water purification and other basic supplies.” ... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/12/gaza-aid-food-medical-supplies-backlog

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"We order you to leave, in a week the entire area will become a military zone; No supply will enter" Former Israeli General Giora Eiland has launched a campaign called 'The General’s Plan,' demanding that the Israeli army "empty" northern Gaza by starving the remaining residents.

Giora Eiland, a reserve major general in the Zionist army*, calls for ethnic cleansing of the entire northern Gaza and for the Palestinians who remain in their homes to be left to starve.

"We order you to leave, in a week the entire area will become a military zone; No supply will enter" 

Israel's "Netzarim Corridor"* aims to separate Gaza City from the rest of the strip. No movement is allowed between the enclaves. Israel wants to make "the world's largest prison" into two smaller ones.

Senior IDF officials are increasingly on board with a plan conceived by Major General Giora Eiland which would see the northern Gaza Strip turned into a closed military area with the civilian population required to leave. 

According to the plan, the entire area north of the Netzarim Corridor, including Gaza City, would become a closed military area in which approximately 250,000 people [Palestinian men, women, & children], would be required to leave immediately. 

After a week in which the population will be given the opportunity to evacuate, a full military siege would be imposed on the area.

*Zionist army refers to Israel's "IDF" Israel Defense Forces also known as "IOF"  Israel Occupation Forces"

*The "Netzarim Corridor"cuts Gaza in two halves: Israel's IDF/IOF expanded its width from 2km to 4km & demolished every single building & infrastructure in that area & on both sides of it.

White House Statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on Aysenur Eygi "Aysenur was peacefully protesting in the West Bank—standing up against the expansion of settlements—when her young life was senselessly cut short. No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest. The shooting that led to her death is unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank."

Statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on Aysenur Eygi

2. Briefing Room
3. Statements and Releases

The killing of Aysenur Eygi is a horrific tragedy that never should have happened. Doug and I are keeping her family and loved ones in our prayers. Aysenur was peacefully protesting in the West Bank—standing up against the expansion of settlements—when her young life was senselessly cut short. No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest. The shooting that led to her death is unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank.  Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.
 
Israel’s preliminary investigation indicated it was the result of a tragic error for which the IDF is responsible. We will continue to press the government of Israel for answers and for continued access to the findings of the investigation so we can have confidence in the results. There must be full accountability.
 
The United States will continue to hold accountable anyone in the West Bank – Israelis and Palestinians – who stokes violence and undermines peace and stability.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/09/11/statement-from-vice-president-kamala-harris-on-aysenur-eygi/

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Two young American women—Rachel & Aysenur. Both from Washington State with hearts of gold... both were murdered

 

Huwaida Arraf

Two young American women—Rachel & Aysenur. Both from Washington State with hearts of gold. They traveled to PAL [Palestine] to witness and to stand with the oppressed; to make a difference. Both were murdered. By America’s great ally. With U.S. supplied weapons. With U.S. assured impunity. #RIP