The United States must make it clear to Netanyahu that the we will not provide another dollar to support his inhumane, illegal war ….

Many of us are watching with horror the severe humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. Unfortunately, too many of my colleagues in the House of Representatives and US Senate are choosing to ignore this reality and evade their congressional responsibilities.

Let’s be clear: what’s happening in Gaza is not just some unfortunate tragedy taking place thousands of miles from our shores. The United States provides Israel with $3.8bn in military aid every year, and the bombs and military equipment that are destroying Gaza are made in America. In other words, we are complicit in what is happening.

And what’s happening is unspeakable.

My staff and I have spoken in recent days with the United Nations, the World Food Programme and other humanitarian organizations struggling to deal with the disaster in Gaza.

The bottom line is this: the coming weeks could mean the difference between life and death for tens of thousands of people. If we do not see a dramatic improvement in humanitarian access very soon, countless innocent people – including thousands of children – could die of dehydration, diarrhea, preventable diseases and starvation.

The World Health Organization predicts that the number of deaths from sickness and starvation could exceed the very high number killed in the war thus far.

And let’s be clear: this is not a natural disaster. It is a human-made crisis. This is the direct result of choices made by political leaders, none more than Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel’s extreme rightwing government.

 

Read more on The Guardian

Leading progressive and Jewish members of Congress have criticized the US’s “unconditional support” for Israel after Benjamin Netanyahu declared bluntly that he was opposed to a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza and directly rejected American policy.

The Israeli prime minister declared on Thursday that Israel would forever maintain control over all land west of the River Jordan, making an independent Palestinian state there impossible. “This is a necessary condition, and it conflicts with the idea of [Palestinian] sovereignty,” Netanyahu said. “What to do? I tell this truth to our American friends, and I also stopped the attempt to impose a reality on us that would harm Israel’s security.”

Pramila Jayapal, the US representative who heads the influential Congressional Progressive caucus, on Friday issued one of the sharper responses to Netanyahu, saying in a video that the Israeli prime minister’s stance “should cause us to reset our relationship of unconditional support to [his] government”.

“These are policies that are diametrically opposed to the US’s stated goals,” Jayapal said about Netanyahu’s calls for the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

 

Read more on The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/19/unconditional-support-israel-netanyahu-jayal-democrats

https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2024/01/11/israels-war-textbook-genocide/

 

Why Israel’s war on Gaza is textbook genocide.

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.

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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.

(more…)

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs The war in Gaza must end Statement by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

(New York, 5 January 2024) Three months since the horrific 7 October attacks, Gaza has become a place of death and despair. Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured. Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment. Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety. A public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over. Some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos. People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded. Famine is around the corner. For children in particular, the past 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food. No water. No school. Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out. Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on. The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than 2 million people, even as its own staff are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent. Meanwhile, rocket attacks on Israel continue, more than 120 people are still held hostage in Gaza, tensions in the West Bank are boiling, and the specter of further regional spillover of the war is looming dangerously close. Hope has never been more elusive. Gaza has shown us the worst of humanity, as well as moments of great heroism. We have seen how violence cannot resolve differences, but only inflame passions and build new generations of danger and insecurity. We continue to demand an immediate end to the war, not just for the people of Gaza and its threatened neighbors, but for the generations to come who will never forget these 90 days of hell and of assaults on the most basic precepts of humanity. It is time for the parties to meet all their obligations under international law, including to protect civilians and meet their essential needs, and to release all hostages immediately. It is time for the international community to use all its influence to make this happen. This war should never have started. But it’s long past time for it to end.

Biden administration promoted Israeli plan to “voluntarily relocate” 2.5-million Gazans to Sinai

The media has buried one of the most shameful stories regarding Biden ministration collaboration with Israel in a scheme for ethnically-cleansing Gaza. Harvard professor Sara Roy writes in the NY Review of Books:

” In November a USAID official approached a colleague of mine and asked about the feasibility of building a tent city in the Sinai, which would be followed by a more permanent arrangement somewhere in the northern part of the peninsula”

Rashid Khalidi has also said in a Foreign Policy video interview:

“At the outset of this war, the President sent Secretary Blinken to convey to the Egyptians and the Jordanians a request that they allow Palestinians to be expelled into their territory. That is disgraceful. That is direct American participation in the ethnic cleansing of part of Palestine, what is historic Palestine. They immediately pulled back on that when the Egyptians and the Jordanians slapped them in the face and said, “under no circumstances.” And explained why under no circumstances would they allow that to happen.

I think that’s one of the most disgraceful chapters in American diplomacy. That the United States would, for the first time in its history, be willing to participate in forcing Palestinians out of Palestine.

Read more at https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2024/01/03/us-advocated-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tikun-olam-new-posts-daily-digest_1

https://kinema.com/events/israelism-worldwide-rental-tdqdt3

When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel, revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity.

 

Watch Q&A with Co-Directors Erin Axelman & Sam Eilertsen, along with Rabbi Miriam Grossman and Unsettled podcast producer Ilana Levinson: https://youtu.be/6RMEQYNBytM

Watch Q&A with main film subject Simone Zimmerman, along with Judaism Unbound podcast host Rabbi Lex Rofeberg: https://youtu.be/owg8iRvjse8

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu recently posted an op-ed laying out his three prerequisites for “peace.” I place the word peace in quotes because his plan is basically a poison pill to avoid any serious move towards a just peace which acknowledges the rightful aspirations of the Palestinian people. It is, like many other previous Israeli offers, a cynical ploy meant to short circuit any serious negotiations. It is an “offer” designed to guarantee rejection by Palestinians. That way Israel can once again claim that it is Palestinian obstinance that stands in the way of peace. The facts belie this notion.

Netanyahu’s three prerequisites are: 1. The total destruction of Hamas, 2. total demilitarization of Gaza, and 3. the “deradicalization” of the population there.
In other words, an unconditional surrender by Palestinians (after which any negotiations would be total irrelevant). I would say they are all impossible to achieve, but the final one is really puzzling. Is Israel going to brainwash the population of Gaza? Is it going to put the people there into reeducation camps? Just what does “deradicalization” mean and how do we know when it is achieved? Thought police? The Spanish Inquisition?

(more…)

Ultimately, unless something changes, the world faces the prospect of almost a quarter of Gaza’s 2 million population – close to half- a million human beings – dying within a year. These would be largely deaths from preventable health causes and the collapse of the medical system. It’s a crude estimate, but one that is data-driven, using the terrifyingly real numbers of deaths in previous and comparable conflicts.

Read more on The Guardian

The situation in Palestine is often falsely described as “ancient, complex, and insoluble.” In fact, the modern problem began with the growth of political Zionism in 1895. In The Jewish State, which he published that year, Theodore Herzl announced his plan quite clearly: Palestinians were to be removed to make room for Zionist settlers. That was, and remains, the Israeli plan today. Palestinians are often criticized for resorting to violence as they resist removal. Since 1895, Palestinians have largely tried to get justice through non-violent means. Even today, most resistance is still non-violent- it just doesn’t get the attention that violent outbursts do. When things settle down, the world simply ignores the problem. Another reason the problem shouldn’t be considered ancient is that like systemic racism in the US, it continues unabated to this day. It has nothing to do with ancient Jebusites, Hittites, etc.

The situation is not complex either. It is simply the story of Zionist settlers taking land from the native Palestinians, and resistance from their victims. In my long study of the subject, I am not aware of Palestinians ever getting any of their land back. It has been a one-way street. As a result, five generations of Palestinians have lived in exile. The current war in Gaza hasn’t interrupted Zionist settlement and violence in the West Bank (which is not run by Hamas and hasn’t fired rockets).


Along the way, violence by Zionists has been aimed at taking the land: violence by Palestinians has been in defense of their land. When this situation is discussed, there is often talk of “being balanced.” There really is no way to correct this basic imbalance. If there is truth on one side and a lie on the other, splitting the difference does not get you to the truth- it just gets you to a milder lie. The Palestinians have always been greatly overmatched. There has never really been any “balance” in this struggle.

The notion that the problem is insoluble is simply nonsense. Israel could solve the problem on any given day by simply honoring their previous and long-standing commitment to treaties and UN resolutions (194, 242, 338, etc.). It is only their intransigence that stands in the way. Serious US pressure is probably the only solution.

All the other problems (skyjacking and rockets, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, and Iran) that have come up along the way make the situation seem more complicated than it is. They all developed over time as the basic problem was left unresolved. Overall, things have always gotten worse- not better. This latest outburst of violence demonstrates this. The fatal mistake most people make is accepting the idea that Netanyahu’s goal is “to eliminate Hamas.” Actually, his goal is to eliminate ANY and ALL Palestinian resistance. It just won’t happen.

Since I first called for a ceasefire on November 3, another 15,000 Palestinians have been killed. They are largely women and children. Of some 40 hospitals in Gaza, almost none are functional. They have become morgues and hospices. Can anyone truly believe that Israel is “not targeting” hospitals? With disease and starvation, the death toll is set to soar. So far, Netanyahu’s strategy of force has freed only one hostage. About a hundred were released during the brief ceasefire. Yet he persists in this savagery and will continue as long as the US stands by him. Since any just, lasting peace will have to begin with a ceasefire, why not start now?

Finally, a few simple observations on antisemitism. Antisemitism is an ugly, dangerous ideology. Like any ideology that promotes the idea of racial or ethnic supremacy by any group, it should be rejected. That said, it is simply untrue to assert that the current state of Israel speaks for all Jewish people or that political Zionism truly represents the Jewish religious tradition. Many passionate advocates of Palestinian rights are Jewish. Fair criticism of Israel is not antisemitic and to claim that it is actually confuses the issue of combating the spread of real antisemitism. In that regard, Israel’s current reprehensible conduct is extremely counterproductive. It is also a disaster for the standing of the US in the world.

https://www.972mag.com/gaza-health-crisis-disease

Untreated sewage and overcrowding are leading to the rapid spread of disease, while three-quarters of the Strip’s hospitals have stopped functioning.

In late November, Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, warned that without urgent action to repair the Gaza Strip’s rapidly collapsing health system, more people would soon die from disease than from Israel’s bombings. “[There are] no medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene and no food,” she said, summarizing the dire humanitarian conditions amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment and intensified siege.

Nearly a month later, the full extent of the crisis is still not being fully comprehended outside of the Strip, according to Palestinian health care professionals in Gaza. “The information, statistics, and news circulating worldwide only scratches the surface of the actual reality,” Dr. Adnan al-Wahidi, a child health expert from Gaza City, told +972. “It captures just a small fraction of the alarming health situation in the Gaza Strip.”

Read more on +972 Magazine