Gaza
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Famine in Gaza is now unavoidable and will kill many civilian noncombatants even if more food aid starts getting in now.
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The responsibility for this starvation of children, women and noncombatant males lies squarely with Israel, which is obstructing food aid deliveries.
Meet Hala Rharrit, First U.S. Diplomat to Quit over Gaza - YouTube
Democracy Now! speaks with Hala Rharrit, the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration’s policies backing Israel’s assault and siege of the Gaza Strip. Rharrit is an 18-year career diplomat who served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department in the region. “I could no longer be a part of the State Department and promote this policy. It’s an inhumane policy. It’s a failed policy that is helping neither Palestinians, neither Israelis,” Rharrit says. “We are not authorized to send military equipment, weapons to countries that commit human rights abuses. ICJ has determined plausible genocide, yet we are still sending billions upon billions of not just defensive weaponry, but offensive weaponry. It is tantamount to a violation of domestic law. Many diplomats know it. Many diplomats are scared to say it.” She adds, “I read the talking points that we were supposed to promote on Arab media. A lot of them were dehumanizing to Palestinians.” Rharrit also discusses how “corruption” in government allows for arms sales to continue. “I could not help but be concerned about the influence of special interest groups, of lobbying groups on our foreign policy and, as well, on Congress — on the people that decide whether or not some of those shipments of arms get sent. The bottom line is that our politicians should not be profiting from war. And unfortunately, we have some institutionalized corruption that enables that,” she says.
Divesting from an apartheid state actively engaged in land theft, war crimes and genocide is not controversial. We have become so completely corrupted that investing in genocide is now accepted.
Calls to Divest From Israel Put Students and Donors on Collision Course - The New York Times
The deals, which have eased tension on campuses with only a few days left before students break for the summer, would have been unthinkable even a week ago. And they’re a gamble, potentially putting universities on a collision course with influential donors, politicians and students who support Israel.
A War Against Humanity Itself | Common Dreams
Amidst the ongoing, unfathomable slaughter, hunger, maiming, razing in Gaza at the hands of Israel’s “voracious death machine,” its leaders now openly vow “total and utter destruction” by what they still grotesquely call “one of the most moral militaries in the world,” murdered newborns and all.
The litany from Israel’s mass killing, “monstrous and largely indiscriminate,” to date: Almost 35,000 dead Palestinians, including well over 14,000 “ungrievable” children; more than 77,000 wounded, half children; at least 17,000 orphans, 5,000 children whose limbs have been amputated, thousands more buried under rubble, a child killed or injured every 10 minutes; hundreds of dead journalists, doctors, teachers, poets, aid workers, academics; most homes leveled, along with 400 schools, 12 universities, over 30 hospitals; starvation levels “the highest ever recorded.” Thanks in part to $26 billion more the U.S. just awarded Israel, its “most decisive vote of confidence in genocide since the Indian Removal Act of 1830,” the hellfire still rains down. Each day the count grows: Air strikes kill 22, mostly children, kill 20, mostly children, kill 13, nine of them children, kill eight children and two women from one family, kill three women and six children. Fathers sob over small bodies, mourning “a world devoid of all human values.” A strike killed a man, his very pregnant wife, their three-year-old; doctors saved the baby. A sniper killed a West Bank man for going up on his roof; days later, his wife named their new son for him as their toddler played in sand strewn on his father’s blood.
Violence AGAINST Anti-War Student Protesters Escalates Across The US - YouTube
Sam parses through yesterday’s mass escalation of violence against anti-war student protesters on college campuses across the US, with the NYPD sending a SWAT team to infiltrate the Student occupation of Harold Hall, and police in LA allowing a pro-Israel violent mob assault UCLA protesters, also expanding on the absurd and constant attempts to completely misrepresent these campus protests and the student activists behind them.
The Biden administration is claiming the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction to charge Israeli officials for war crimes. This comes after rumors that the ICC may be close to issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials over possible crimes in Gaza. The International Court of Justice has rejected a request by Nicaragua to order Germany to halt exporting arms to Israel, but the court declined to throw out the case. For more, we speak with human rights attorney and war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody, who says ICC charges would be a “huge” development. “Since Nuremberg, no international tribunal has issued an arrest warrant for a Western official. For decades, we’ve had this double standard where international justice has only been effective for crimes committed by leaders of developing countries or by enemies of the U.S. like Vladimir Putin.”
Some don’t seem to understand the connection between universities and Israel and the divestment demands of the student protests. Three links that may help:
Cornell student suspended over Gaza protest speaks out - YouTube
Across many American universities - student protesters have set up encampments on their campuses and are calling for their universities to withdraw investment from companies with links to the Israeli military.
The challenge colleges face with student demands for Israeli divestment | PBS NewsHour
Protests show no signs of letting up and universities are handling their respective situations differently. Columbia University warned of mass temporary suspensions, state troopers were called in at Texas and nearly 300 people were arrested at other schools over the weekend. Geoff Bennett has perspectives from student protesters and discusses their demands of divestment with Charlie Eaton.
Divestment was also used against South Africa to help end apartheid: Wikipedia
Disinvestment (or divestment) from South Africa was first advocated in the 1960s in protest against South Africa’s system of apartheid, but was not implemented on a significant scale until the mid-1980s. A disinvestment policy the US adopted in 1986 in response to the disinvestment campaign is credited with playing a role in pressuring the South African government to embark on negotiations that ultimately led to the dismantling of the apartheid system.
Biden is in danger of losing the election because of his support Israel’s war crimes and genocide. It would be best if he kept his mouth shut and his opinions to himself in regards to what protests are “acceptable”.
White House denounces Columbia protesters’ occupation of campus building | Semafor
The White House issued what is being viewed as its strongest condemnation yet of the pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations. “President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong.”
Why hasn’t the US called for an investigation into mass graves in Gaza? | The Guardian
Nothing screams ‘covering up war crimes’ like insisting that there should absolutely not be an independent investigation
Did you know that the Palestinians are the very first people in the world to ethnically cleanse and mass murder themselves? I know it sounds weird, but – as American and Israeli politicians keep reminding us – these are “savages” that we are talking about here. Normal rules don’t apply, you’ve got to follow the Palestine Rules.
The Palestine Rules dictate you do the following: ignore every international agency if that agency says anything remotely critical about Israel. Certainly don’t listen to international aid agencies like Oxfam when they argue that the government of Israel is “deliberately blocking and/or undermining the international humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip”. Nope, the fact that babies in Gaza are dying of malnutrition is all their fault. The fact that children in Gaza are starving at the fastest rate the world has ever known is nothing to do with Israel, it’s the fault of those pesky Palestinians.
The fact that there are an unprecedented number of child amputees in Gaza is the Palestinians’ fault. Let’s be very clear here: if every single Palestinian had fled the land they were born in back in 1948, when Israel was founded, if they’d just completely renounced their Palestinian identity, none of the horrors currently unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank would be happening. Can’t argue with that logic, can you?
They’re committing war crimes and genocide so yes, they should be arrested, tried and if found guilty, imprisoned.
Netanyahu asks Biden to help stop ICC arrest warrants over Gaza war
Israeli officials have grown increasingly concerned over the last two weeks that the ICC is preparing to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Herzi Halevi.
World Central Kitchen says it will resume operations in Gaza : NPR
The aid group World Central Kitchen said it was resuming operations in Gaza, less than a month after seven of its staff were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible,” CEO Erin Gore said on Sunday.
Gaza residents are experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger and a U.S. official said earlier this month that parts of Gaza are already experiencing famine.
Israel Has Already Imposed Unavoidable, Exponential Famine on Gaza outpacing Somalia’s - ZNetwork
Juan Cole summarizes a story by prominent foreign policy journalist Colum Lynch:
Lynch has seen a memo entitled “Famine Inevitable, Changes Could Reduce but Not Stop Widespread Civilian Deaths,” which was produced by food security experts in US AID and the State Department, and which they sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. These US officials gave the memo a subheading that is damning for the Israeli government of PM Benjamin Netanyahu: “Israel-imposed administrative challenges are preventing the delivery” of food.
So two things are being asserted:
That is all you need to know. These experts have never seen a situation so bad.
People are rightly disgusted by the puppy killer Kristi Noem.
But let’s keep in mind how many months Congress and the Biden administration have supported Israel in its ongoing and intentional killing of 34,000+ Palestinian civillians. A number that does not include the missing buried under rubble.
Anyone paying attention the past 7 months is not surprised and it’s taken too long to get to this point of acknowledgment.
State Department Internal memo: Israel may be violating international law in Gaza | Reuters
A joint submission from four bureaus - Democracy Human Rights & Labor; Population, Refugees and Migration; Global Criminal Justice and International Organization Affairs – raised “serious concern over non-compliance” with international humanitarian law during Israel’s prosecution of the Gaza war.
“Israel’s assurances were “neither credible nor reliable.”
Excellent commentary on recent White House statements on anti-semitism and the current protests against Israel. Just as Judaism is not Zionism, protests of Israel are not anti-semitism.
Manufactured Panic Over Peaceful Campus Protests Used To Distract From Genocide In Gaza - YouTube:
The White House Deputy press secretary putting out that particular statement once again makes it seem as though these protests are anti-semitic in nature against Jewish people broadly, it furthers a culture of violence toward Jewish people by continuing to conflate Zionism with Judaism…
Klein is lighting the way forward.
Thousands of Jewish Americans and allies gathered in Brooklyn on Tuesday for a “Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel” on the second night of Passover…
“Too many of our people are worshiping a false idol, they are enraptured by it. They are drunk on it. They are profaned by it. And that false idol is called Zionism.” - Naomi Klein
Human solidarity.
“Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel” | Democracy Now!
Hundreds of protesters were arrested in Brooklyn on Tuesday when Jewish New Yorkers and allies gathered for what they called a “Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel” on the second night of Passover…
“At the core of the Passover story is that we cannot be free until all people are free… The Israeli government and the United States government are carrying out a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, over 34,000 people killed in six months in the name of Jewish safety, in the false name of Jewish freedom.”
Palestinian solidarity protests and encampments are appearing on college campuses from Massachusetts to California to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza and to call for divestment from Israeli apartheid. This week, police have raided encampments and arrested students at Yale and New York University….
Uptown in New York City, the encampment at Columbia University is entering its seventh day despite mass arrests of protesters last week.
Great to see these protests gaining momentum.
On April 22, 2024, inspired by the resilience of the Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia University and other demonstrations around the country, students at Cal Poly Humboldt campus in Arcata, California occupied a building in solidarity with Palestinians, precipitating a showdown with police from throughout the region. In the following report, participants in the occupation describe what took place and what they learned.
Most nations have resumed funding to UNRWA which is the main channel of humanitarian support to Palestinians in Gaza as well as Palestinian refugees across the region. But with no evidence the US Congress permanently banned funding to UNRWA agency.
The US and Israel: Genocide, war crimes, apartheid.
I posted earlier today that I’d seen a drop off in reporting on the famine in Gaza. The April 9 article from Human Rights Watch that I linked was reporting famine stats from April 2. I’ve not seen any more recent stats. We’re now at April 20 and articles like the following from the Guardian today continue to describe the famine as looming with little to no new information. Is this just the result of journalists being restricted from the area?
Famine looms, made worse by acute shortages of shelter, medicine and clean water. Almost everyone in the enclave now depends on donated food, after more than six months of war has destroyed homes and decimated Gaza’s economy.
Daily aid shipments are still not even half the minimum levels the UN says are needed to keep more than two million people alive.
Israeli authorities, the US and humanitarian organisations have all said that deliveries should return to prewar levels of about 500 truckloads of aid a day. On Friday, only 250 trucks entered the enclave, UN figures showed, and that was the highest in April.