Israel land grab law 'ends hope of two-state solution'

Salaam

Another update. Principled position.

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Meanwhile.

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Salaam

Situation is gloomy. Certain 'rulers' are in the process of selling them out.

But

People dont forget.

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And of course the usual antisemitism routine.

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Salaam

Another update.

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Blurb

A raid by Israeli special forces has left nine Palestinians dead. One of the dead was a 61-year-old woman.

The Palestinian health ministry said 20 people were also wounded.

The Israeli military said it launched the raid into the West Bank refugee camp in Jenin to detain members of the Islamic Jihad armed group which it accused of having carried out and planned "multiple major terror attacks".

They say their troops were shot at by Palestinian gunmen.

The death toll - the highest in Jenin in years - has been described as a "massacre" by Palestinians.

Hamas - the militant group which controls the Gaza strip - has threatened retaliation.




How generous of you.

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They dont even bother to mask their intentions.

And it escalates.

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Salaam

Yes - the situation is dire, (when is it not). Whats different now is that with Bibi back in power again (despite his past record). He has a mandate from his electorate to speed up the erasure of the Palestinians. This coupled with the lack of International opposition (not that there was much anyway over the past decades) they have carte blanche to do whatever they want. The only problem is tactical considerations. Bibi is notoriously crude and vulgar and his actions are too easy to discern. (hence why those 'civilised' leftists and liberals object to him).

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More generally.

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This chapter will mark the end of the post-Second Intifada period characterized by the cynical management of the occupation, disregard for Palestinians' political rights and lives, and lack of accountability for Israel's actions.

However, what is about to occur is not entirely new in nature, but rather an expansion in the scope of confrontation, the use of more aggressive tactics, and increased involvement of Palestinians, particularly the youth, against the Israeli state and settlers.

And when I refer to young people, I am referring to those born during and after the Second Intifada, particularly in the West Bank. These areas have been portrayed by Israel and its allies as examples of economic prosperity and stability, in contrast to a "violent Gaza."

But all attempts to control and suppress Palestinians have failed, and this is becoming increasingly evident. It is impossible to deny the rights and dignity of an entire people and expect them to accept their fate without a reaction.

No amount of aid, worker permits, incentives, or superficial development can compensate for the desire of an entire people to live with dignity in their own country. And no amount of violence inflicted on them will make them surrender. This is the crux of the issue at hand.

The central concept here is "dignity," and this is where Israel's supporters lack understanding of the current developments. This is what Palestinians are fighting against: the attack on their collective and personal dignity. When referring to Israeli attacks on Palestinian dignity, I am not only talking about the daily indignities of life under occupation, such as having to pass through checkpoints and the illegal detention of children by soldiers who raid homes in the middle of the night.

Most Palestinians feel existentially threatened by policies that deny their rights and existence. On a daily basis, not only do Palestinians hear about the looming possibility of a second Nakba, they see it happening before their eyes, particularly in the West Bank. As Israel continues its colonization of the West Bank and the Naqab, their vision for the future of Palestinians remains deeply cynical. Israel wants Palestinians to be confined to walled-off areas, occasionally thrown a few scraps, and that's it.

This vision is inherently racist and dehumanizing. It reduces people's lives and aspirations to living in cramped Bantustans, surrounded by walls and checkpoints, with barbed wire fences separating them from others who enjoy freedom, resources, and dignity at their expense. This is what's at stake - a fundamental question about the kind of vision for life in our small country. It's clear that the current vision of the Israeli regime and its supporters is flawed and will only result in continued suffering, violence, and bloodshed.

It's time to imagine a future that does not rely on denying Palestinians their rights to live with safety and dignity in their own land and that is not built on mutual exclusivity, supremacy, and oppression.

Finally, before "experts" suggest that Palestinians have not tried non-violent means to resist. Palestinians have tried numerous times, and it's only because their calls for justice and dignity were ignored by those in power that the situation has escalated to what it is today.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...377034758.html

Blurb

On Wednesday, 11 January Jadaliyya Co-Editor Mouin Rabbani spoke with Gideon Levy discussed about Israel’s new government. This episode of Connections focuses on the Netanyahu government’s program, and examine its various policies in the context of those of its predecessors.

Connections offers timely and informative interviews on current events and broader policy questions, as well as themes relevant to knowledge production. It combines journalism, analysis, and scholarship.

Guest:
Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli author and journalist. He has reported for Ha’aretz newspaper since 1982, where he writes the weekly column “The Twilight Zone” about Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.

Host:
Mouin Rabbani has published and commented widely on Palestinian affairs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He was previously Senior Analyst Middle East and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group, and head of political affairs with the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria. He is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine.




Gaslighting never ends.

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Two State was solution was a con.

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They do speak out but they are a tiny minority.

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Salaam

Salaam

Another update.

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The problem with Shahid Bolsen's analysis of Muslim countries(specifically Arab ones) normalizing ties with Israel

My response is focusing on two videos by Shahid Bolsen

Video 1: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5v6q8qIRThY

Video 2( 12:06- 13:20): https://youtube.com/watch?v=C6MalV5emcE

The 1st problem with Shahid's analysis(more so optimism) about Arab states normalizing ties with Israel is his thinking that this will lead to calls/lobbying for a one-state solution with equal rights from said countries.

Firstly many of these states aren't interested nor have the fortitude to campaign nor demand such a thing from Israel, and the Israeli leadership know this perfectly well. One just has to look at the recent normalization deals Israel made with the UAE, Morocco, Sudan, etc.

Far from getting Israel to back down on things like settlement building, persecution of Palestinians on both sides of the green line, these normalization deals have only emboldened Israel in continuing to carry out business as usual.

This is frankly were the crux of the problem lies these normalization deals could care less about the Palestinian plight and were mainly interested in things like getting better access to Washington(be it aid money, weapons, etc.), Israeli tech and investment, etc.

Why do you think the likes of Netanyahu and co. are pushing full steam ahead with normalization because they know they will gain benefits from said deals while hardly having to give up anything substantial.

Coming to another major problem in Shahid Bolsen's analysis is how he places way too much power in the potential of interdependency between the Arab states and Israel. Firstly Israel isn't too naïve to allow such a high level of interdependency that would.......(cont.)

make them vulnerable to economic and political pressures from Arab states to take hold. At this stage Israel is energy sufficient and is now an exporter of energy such as natural gas. Even in its relationship with Washington over the years Israel has taken steps....(cont)

to wean itself off of being totally reliant on Washington in areas such as military aid(it has a thriving sophisticated arms industry), people need to realize that if push came to shove Israel could still survive without Washington this isn't 1973.

Lastly, its crystal clear that Israel is in the driver's seat when it comes to dictating the reality of said normalization ties, such as controlling the levers of what U.S weapons get sold to Arab countries that have normalized ties as just one example.

In short the normalization process has frankly been a net negative as far as it relates to Palestinians going all the way back to Egypt when they singed a deal, and truth be told in the long run both Egypt and Jordan have drastically declined since signing such deals with Israel.

Second response

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A respectful criticism of brother Shahid Bolsen's argument FOR Gulf countries normalisation with Israel [Thread]

I took the time to watch Br Bolsen's video for normalisation of ties with Israel. With due respect to my brother, I feel his argument is naive and Islamically flawed

He argues that norm. with Israel by the Gulf countries is a good strategy when combined with Palestinians giving up their two state solution and becoming one state (thereby creating a 50/50 Jews/Arabs state) would 'end Zionism' and remove Israel's strategic interest to the US.

This is naive. Israel's two major neighbours, and its most potent threats, Egypt and Jordan, have long normalised relations with Israel - creating no easing in Israel's domestic policies towards palestinians -in fact, it has only emboldened them to harm palestinians with impunity

Bolsen argues US is only interested in Israel because neighbouring countries oppose Israel. Israel isn't interesting to US because it has enemies! That doesn't make sense. US is interested because Israel can monitor and interfere in the Strategic area of M.E. That won't change

Zionist father Theodore Hertzel even argued that Israel could be marketed to the West as an outpost of (Western) civilisation in the Middle East - and thereby receive support for it from the West. The US described Israel as cheaper than needing 10 US aircraft carriers there

Normalising ties with Israel won't improve the plight of the palestinians. How does opening trade & flight routes for a oppressive nation going to make them stop oppressing? India doesn't go gentle on its Muslims despite even receiving medals and awards from 'Muslim governments'

As for Palestinians dropping the idea of a Palestinian state & asking to be Israeli citizens, this is the one idea I already discussed last year. It could be a good tactical move because it will turn the Palestinian struggle into a civil rights struggle and this hurts Israel's PR

Muslim countries could all then boycott Israel as an apartheid state, until it grants all Palestinians citizenship and right of return. Like South Africa, Israel's international standing, and possible alliances, would be come untenable in the public view. But...

...never underestimate Zionist's capability to accelerate its racial policies and ethnic cleansing if they feel time is running out. Also don't underestimate the RISING Western right-wing's capability to support outright apartheid in Israel. West ignores India's policy to Muslims

Normalising the Israel only strengthens Israel's economy, more trade = more money for it (not less). And more money = more military.
Israeli businessmen can buy land in Muslim countries' territories now - BUT Israel has laws that prevent outsiders doing the same on 'their' land!

Shahed Bolsen's argument also inadvertently normalises nation-states, like the Gulf countries, which as a concept goes against Islamic concept of a unitary state of all Muslims. Zionism is built on the exact same nation-statehood concept.

Going back to the options Zionists could use to justify apartheid, they could engineer (or simply invent) terror groups and claim 'terror incidents' prevent all Palestinians from being equal Israeli citizens. They could support anti-Israeli two-state solution Palestinian parties

Israel is no stranger to meddling in internal Palestinian politics. They cud make the Palestinians resist one state solution completely, until West bank is fully cut up and squeezes most of Palestinians out. Israel also hopes it can delay until Jewish demographics ratios improve

and lastly, Bolsen's argument that 'the ends justifies the means' is somehow Islamic because of a hadith that Allah (SWT) uses bad ppl to accomplish good things does not justify haram actions. Allah (SWT) can do with his servants as He wishes. His servants can't do as they wish

Furthermore, the hadith does justify bad actions, only that Allah (SWT) can use munafiqs to do good deeds (even if they only did so because of selfish reasons).

So his argument is flawed.

More comment.

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Salaam

You have a point, but the rulers have a very different perspective.

Saudi Arabia ‘getting closer’ to normalising relations with Israel, crown prince says

In a rare interview with Fox News, Mohammed bin Salman said major progress must be made in creation of a Palestinian state

A potential normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and what those negotiations could mean for the Palestinians, are top of the news agenda in the Middle East after the two countries and the US signalled progress on the matter on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.

In a rare interview with western media, Riyadh’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, told Fox News on Wednesday that ongoing talks with Israel meant the prospect of normalised relations was “getting closer every day”.

Asked what it would take to establish formal relations with the Jewish state – a former taboo in the Arab world – Prince Mohammed said: “For us, the Palestinian issue is very important. We need to solve that part.”

Under the auspices of the Biden administration, which is gunning for a major foreign policy achievement before next year’s elections, Riyadh is exploring an agreement to normalise relations with Israel in return for a formal defence pact with the US and assistance in developing a civilian nuclear programme.

Israel has grown closer to its neighbours in recent years over their shared concerns about Iran. Since 2020, in agreements brokered by Donald Trump’s administration, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan have agreed to normalise relations despite the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories.

But Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Muslim world’s geopolitical linchpin, has so far held out on recognising Israel until the conflict with the Palestinians is resolved. Palestinian officials say the Abraham accords, as they are known, deeply undermine the prospect of peace and a two-state solution.

The crown prince’s comments came shortly after a meeting between Joe Biden and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in which both leaders voiced optimism about such a deal.

Netanyahu’s office said afterwards that the meeting “mostly dealt with ways to establish a historic peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which could greatly advance an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and facilitate the establishment of an economic corridor to link Asia, the Middle East and Europe.”

The White House said that the two leaders “consulted on progress toward establishing a more integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Middle East region, including through efforts to deepen and expand normalisation with countries in the region.”

On Thursday, Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, told the country’s Army Radio that relations with Riyadh could be established by the first quarter of 2024 – ample time for such a deal to be ratified by both the US congress and senate before November’s presidential ballot.

Army Radio also reported that Netanyahu had asked his defence ministry to explore ways in which Riyadh enriching uranium could affect the fledgling relationship between the two countries.

Ahmad Deeq, of the Palestinian foreign ministry, told Radio Nas: “The Saudis have told us in closed-door meetings and openly that they will [demand] an agreement that is based on the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...wn-prince-says

To translate: they are selling them out. They want relations (trade/diplomatic) with Zios and want the Palestinian issue to 'disappear' or at best to be kicked into the long grass.

Zios are naturally pleased at these developments and celebrate the only the can.

Over 500 Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa complex on 4th day of Sukkot holiday

Hundreds of Israeli settlers on Tuesday forced their way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem on the fourth day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, according to the Islamic Waqf Department.

In a statement, the Department said that at least 506 entered the site under the protection of Israeli police.

Sukkot is a weeklong holiday, which started on Sept. 29 and will continue until Oct. 6, ending a season of Jewish holidays that started by observing the Rosh Hashanah (New Year) on Sept. 15.

Witnesses told Anadolu that dozens of settlers stormed the complex in groups through the Al-Mughrabi Gate in the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Police have imposed age restrictions and prevented young Palestinians from entering the mosque during periods of incursions, they added.

More than 1,100 settlers had stormed the complex on Monday and made tours of the mosque's courtyards and attempted to perform "Talmudic rituals," according to an official with the Islamic Waqf Department.

Israeli police began allowing the settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in 2003, despite repeated condemnations from Palestinians.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area the Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, a move never recognized by the international community.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east...oliday/3006511

This is part of their annexations campaign (settlers backed by the military etc) that has been going on for decades. Now they are speeding up the process.

Salaam

The situation in Gaza is going from bad to something much MUCH worse.

A lot is happening but before we begin, lets get some background history on how we got to this point. (this is several years back so take that into consideration)

Blurb

Norman Finkelstein’s address to the UCD Philosophy Society, University College Dublin, on the current state of the occupied territories. Tuesday 10 Feb 2015.

In his address, Dr Finklestein discusses the recent conflicts in the occupied territories which followed the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli youths and a Palestinian teen; Israel's anti-missile defence system, the Iron Dome; Isreal’s Operation Protective Edge; and possible ways to resolve the conflict.

Finkelstein, a political scientist, has written extensively on the political, social and historical state of Israel and the occupied territories. He famously and successfully dismantled and deconstructed 'From Time Immemorial' by Joan Peters which, at the time, was considered a foundational and invaluable text on the Palestine - Israel Conflict.




Two books on the subject.

Blurb

Gaza is among the most densely populated places in the world. Two-thirds of its inhabitants are refugees, and more than half the population is under eighteen years of age. Since Israel occupied Gaza in 1967, it has systematically de-developed the economy. After Hamas won democratic elections in 2006, Israel intensified its blockade of Gaza, and after Hamas consolidated its control of the territory in 2007, Israel tightened its illegal siege another notch. In the meantime, Israel has launched no less than eight military operations against Gaza-culminating in Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9 and Operation Protective Edge in 2014-that left behind over three million tons of rubble. Recent UN reports predict that Gaza will be unlivable by 2020.

Norman G. Finkelstein presents a meticulously researched and devastating inquest into Israel's actions of the last decade. He argues that although Israel justified its blockade and violent assaults in the name of self-defense, in fact these actions were cynical exercises of brutal power against an essentially defenseless civilian population. Based on hundreds of human rights reports, the book scrutinizes multifarious violations of international law Israel committed both during its operations and in the course of its decade-long siege of Gaza. It is a monument to Gaza's martyrs and a scorching accusation against their tormenters.





Blurb

Israel’s 2009 invasion of Gaza was an act of aggression that killed over a thousand Palestinians and devastated the infrastructure of an already impoverished enclave. The Punishment of Gaza shows how the ground was prepared for the assault and documents its continuing effects. From 2005—the year of Gaza’s “liberation”—through to 2009, Levy tracks the development of Israel policy, which has abandoned the pretense of diplomacy in favor of raw military power, the ultimate aim of which is to deny Palestinians any chance of forming their own independent state. Punished by Israel and the Quartet of international powers for the democratic election of Hamas, Gaza has been transformed into the world’s largest open-air prison.

From Gazan families struggling to cope with the random violence of Israel’s blockade and its “targeted” assassinations, to the machinations of legal experts and the continued connivance of the international community, every aspect of this ongoing tragedy is eloquently recorded and forensically analyzed. Levy’s powerful journalism shows how the brutality at the heart of Israel’s occupation of Palestine has found its most complete expression to date in the collective punishment of Gaza’s residents.

Salaam

People of Gaza are trying breaking free.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah
@DrNkrumahKwame

Hamas has released a press statement in English.

I have added subtitles below for accessibility.

We need balanced reporting on the conflict in Israel/Palestine/Gaza.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1712900201864720525

Blurb

Hamas, the group running the besieged Gaza Strip, announces the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel.
Its statement comes after a barrage of rockets is fired from Gaza towards Israel; one woman has been reported killed.




Blurb

They attacked by air, land and sea - taking Israel by surprise during a major Jewish holiday.

Now, 13 and a half hours after Hamas launched its audacious assault, Israel says it's at war, and Palestinians are already paying a heavy price - air strikes raining down on Gaza and a warning that electricity supplies to the Strip will be cut.

Kiran Moodley reports.

Correction: The Gaza Strip is 141 sq miles not 16 sq miles as stated.



Blurb

Situation is tense on northern border.

Hezbollah has launched rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel.

Israel air strikes on the villages of Dharya and Yareen followed.

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem joins us now from Dhaira where fighting has been taking place for the latest developments.







Analysis.

Blurb

Sky News host Erin Molan has condemned Pro-Palestinian activist Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah for failing to call out Hamas in its conflict with Israel.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah said she “does not see Hamas as a terrorist organisation” following a heated debate with Ms Molan.





Blurb

From Tel Aviv, we hear from award-winning Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy, whose recent column for Haaretz is headlined "Israel Can't Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price." Levy discusses the reaction within Israeli society toward Hamas's unexpected attack and condemns the Netanyahu government for only mobilizing for further warfare rather than providing effective assistance to victims. "Nobody is leading Israel," declares Levy, who also calls for Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza and accept that its campaign of eradicating Hamas is "impossible." After decades of Palestinian subjugation under Israeli rule, "you can kill the current top people of Hamas, but you will not kill the ideology of Hamas," says Levy.




Blurb

The inhuman aggression by which Israel treats Palestinians is known to everyone who possesses an ounce of justice. This excludes, of course, Western nations for whom, apparently, history began last Saturday. However, they are very aware that the colonial outpost they set up in the Middle East is hell-bent on extracting as much land as possible to accommodate racist Americans and Europeans. They are aware that in the process, Israel slowly squeezes Palestinians and of the daily humiliations – the trigger-happy border guards that maim and murder. They know all of this yet remain deaf to the cries. They give the murderous state weapons of war, instruments of torture and diplomatic cover. Just this past week, the main political parties on both sides of the Atlantic were falling over each other to give Israel the green light. In an age of impunity, Israel has a free pass.

But what lay behind the events last week, and what can we expect in the coming weeks from regional and international actors? To help us untangle the political issues, we once again invite Sami Hamdi back on the programme. Sami Hamdi is the managing director of the International Interest and a ME commentator.



Blurb

Shaykh Issam Amireh joins our livestream directly from Palestine with Sharif Abu Laith, Dr Abdul Wahid, and Abdullah Andalusi (MDI). The topic is LIBERATION of Palestine, not Negotiation or Donations!



Shaykh Issam Amireh has been arrested by Zios recently (Oct 12).

To summarise

THE SLAVE REVOLT IN GAZA

Former progressive presidential candidate Bernie Sanders issued a second statement yesterday (12 October 2023) on the hecatomb in Israel and Gaza. The gist of what he had to say was that, before October 7 th, everything was going along more or less swimmingly in the struggle for justice:

For years, people of good will throughout the world, including some brave Israelis, have struggled against the blockade of Gaza, the daily humiliations of occupation in the West Bank, and the horrendous living conditions faced by so many Palestinians.

But then, along came “Hamas’s terrorist assault,” which constituted “a major setback for any hope of justice for the Palestinian people” and “will make it much more difficult to address that tragic reality.”

Here is a reality check. “For years,” no one was doing anything to end the blockade of Gaza. Not Bernie. Not me. Not anyone. The people of Gaza—70 percent of whom are refugees (from the 1948 war) and half of whom are children—had been left to languish and die in what Hebrew University sociologist Baruch Kimmerling called “the largest concentration camp ever to exist.” The “people of good will throughout the world” were not “struggling against the blockade.” The world had moved on. On the eve of October 7, the Biden administration was cobbling together an agreement with Saudi Arabia that would have rendered null and void any prospect of “justice for the Palestinian people.”

Israel is not “at war” with a foreign entity, let alone a foreign state. Gaza is an integral part of Israel. “There is one regime governing the entire area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” Israel’s leading human rights organization, B’Tselem, observed some years back, “based on a single organizing principle” of “Jewish supremacy.” What happened on October 7 was a slave revolt inside Israel.

https://normanfinkelstein.substack.c...medium=reader2

Salaam

Another update.

LAWLESS IN GAZA: WHY BRITAIN AND THE WEST BACK ISRAEL’S CRIMES

As Western politicians line up to cheer on Israel as it starves Gaza’s civilians and plunges them into darkness to soften them up before the coming Israeli ground invasion, it is important to understand how we reached this point – and what it portends for the future.

More than a decade ago, Israel started to understand that its occupation of Gaza through siege could be to its advantage. It began transforming the tiny coastal enclave from an albatross around its neck into a valuable portfolio in the trading game of international power politics.

The first benefit for Israel, and its Western allies, is more discussed than the second.

The tiny strip of land hugging the eastern Mediterranean coast was turned into a mix of testing ground and shop window.

Israel could use Gaza to develop all sorts of new technologies and strategies associated with the homeland security industries burgeoning across the West, as officials there grew increasingly worried about domestic unrest, sometimes referred to as populism.

The siege of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, imposed by Israel in 2007 following the election of Hamas to rule the enclave, allowed for all sorts of experiments.

How could the population best be contained? What restrictions could be placed on their diet and lifestyle? How were networks of informers and collaborators to be recruited from afar? What effect did the population’s entrapment and repeated bombardment have on social and political relations?

And ultimately how were Gaza’s inhabitants to be kept subjugated and an uprising prevented?

The answers to those questions were made available to Western allies through Israel’s shopping portal. Items available included interception rocket systems, electronic sensors, surveillance systems, drones, facial recognition, automated gun towers, and much more. All tested in real-life situations in Gaza.

Israel’s standing took a severe dent from the fact that Palestinians managed to bypass this infrastructure of confinement last weekend – at least for a few days – with a rusty bulldozer, some hang-gliders and a sense of nothing-to-lose.

Which is part of the reason why Israel now needs to go back into Gaza with ground troops to show it still has the means to keep the Palestinians crushed.

Collective punishment

Which brings us to the second purpose served by Gaza.

As Western states have grown increasingly unnerved by signs of popular unrest at home, they have started to think more carefully about how to sidestep the restrictions placed on them by international law.

The term refers to a body of laws that were formalised in the aftermath of the second world war, when both sides treated civilians on the other side of the battle lines as little more than pawns on a chessboard.

The aim of those drafting international law was to make it unconscionable for there to be a repeat of Nazi atrocities in Europe, as well as other crimes such as Britain’s fire bombing of German cities like Dresden or the United States’ dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

One of the fundamentals of international law – at the heart of the Geneva Conventions – is a prohibition on collective punishment: that is, retaliating against the enemy’s civilian population, making them pay the price for the acts of their leaders and armies.

Very obviously, Gaza is about as flagrant a violation of this prohibition as can be found. Even in “quiet” times, its inhabitants – one million of them children – are denied the most basic freedoms, such as the right to movement; access to proper health care because medicines and equipment cannot be brought in; access to drinkable water; and the use of electricity for much of the day because Israel keeps bombing Gaza’s power station.

Israel has never made any bones of the fact that it is punishing the people of Gaza for being ruled by Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to have dispossessed the Palestinians of their homeland in 1948 and imprisoned them in overcrowded ghettos like Gaza.

What Israel is doing to Gaza is the very definition of collective punishment. It is a war crime: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of every year, for 16 years.

And yet no one in the so-called international community seems to have noticed.

Rules of war rewritten

But the trickiest legal situation – for Israel and the West – is when Israel bombs Gaza, as it is doing now, or sends in soldiers, as it soon will do.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the problem when he told the people of Gaza: “Leave now”. But, as he and Western leaders know, Gaza’s inhabitants have nowhere to go, nowhere to escape the bombs. So any Israeli attack is, by definition, on the civilian population too. It is the modern equivalent of the Dresden fire bombings.

Israel has been working on strategies to overcome this difficulty since its first major bombardment of Gaza in late 2008, after the siege was introduced.

A unit in its attorney general’s office was charged with finding ways to rewrite the rules of war in Israel’s favour.

At the time, the unit was concerned that Israel would be criticised for blowing up a police graduation ceremony in Gaza, killing many young cadets. Police are civilians in international law, not soldiers, and therefore not a legitimate target. Israeli lawyers were also worried that Israel had destroyed government offices, the infrastructure of Gaza’s civilian administration.

Israel’s concerns seem quaint now – a sign of how far it has already shifted the dial on international law. For some time, anyone connected with Hamas, however tangentially, is considered a legitimate target, not just by Israel but by every Western government.

Western officials have joined Israel in treating Hamas as simply a terrorist organisation, ignoring that it is also a government with people doing humdrum tasks like making sure bins are collected and schools kept open.

Or as Orna Ben-Naftali, a law faculty dean, told the Haaretz newspaper back in 2009: “A situation is created in which the majority of the adult men in Gaza and the majority of the buildings can be treated as legitimate targets. The law has actually been stood on its head.”

Back at that time, David Reisner, who had previously headed the unit, explained Israel’s philosophy to Haaretz: “What we are seeing now is a revision of international law. If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it.

“The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries.”

Israel’s meddling to change international law goes back many decades.

Referring to Israel’s attack on Iraq’s fledgling nuclear reactor in 1981, an act of war condemned by the UN Security Council, Reisner said: “The atmosphere was that Israel had committed a crime. Today everyone says it was preventive self-defence. International law progresses through violations.”

He added that his team had travelled to the US four times in 2001 to persuade US officials of Israel’s ever-more flexible interpretation of international law towards subjugating Palestinians.

“Had it not been for those four planes [journeys to the US], I am not sure we would have been able to develop the thesis of the war against terrorism on the present scale,” he said.

Those redefinitions of the rules of war proved invaluable when the US chose to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq.

‘Human animals’

In recent years, Israel has continued to “evolve” international law. It has introduced the concept of “prior warning” – sometimes giving a few minutes’ notice of a building or neighbourhood’s destruction. Vulnerable civilians still in the area, like the elderly, children and the disabled, are then recast as legitimate targets for failing to leave in time.

And it is using the current assault on Gaza to change the rules still further.

The 2009 Haaretz article includes references by law officials to Yoav Gallant, who was then the military commander in charge of Gaza. He was described as a “wild man”, a “cowboy” with no time for legal niceties.

Gallant is now defence minister and the man responsible for instituting this week a “complete siege” of Gaza: “No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel – everything is closed.” In language that blurred any distinction between Hamas and Gaza’s civilians, he described Palestinians as “human animals”.

That takes collective punishment into a whole different realm. In terms of international law, it skirts into the territory of genocide, both rhetorically and substantively.

But the dial has shifted so completely that even centrist Western politicians are cheering Israel on – often not even calling for “restraint” or “proportionality”, the weasel terms they usually use to obscure their support for law breaking.

Listen to Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour opposition and the man almost certain to be Britain’s next prime minister. This week he supported the “complete siege” of Gaza, a crime against humanity, refashioning it as Israel’s “right to defend itself”.

Starmer has not failed to grasp the legal implications of Israel’s actions, even if he seems personally immune to the moral implications. He is trained as a human rights lawyer.

His approach even appears to be taking aback journalists not known for being sympathetic to the Palestinian case. When asked by Kay Burley of Sky News if he had any sympathy for the civilians in Gaza being treated like “human animals”, Starmer could not find a single thing to say in support.

Instead, he deflected to an outright deception: blaming Hamas for sabotaging a “peace process” that Israel both practically and declaratively buried years ago.

Confirming that the Labour party now condones war crimes by Israel, his shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, has been sticking to the same script. On BBC’s Newsnight, she evaded questions about whether cutting off power and supplies to Gaza is in line with international law.

It is no coincidence that Starmer’s position contrasts so dramatically with that of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. The latter was driven out of office by a sustained campaign of antisemitism smears fomented by Israel’s most fervent supporters in the UK.

Starmer does not dare to be seen on the wrong side of this issue. And that is exactly the outcome Israeli officials wanted and expected.

Britain has been leading the way in helping Israel to rewrite the rulebook on international law.

Israeli flag on No 10

Starmer is, of course, far from alone. Grant Shapps, Britain’s defence secretary, has also expressed trenchant support for Israel’s policy of starving two million Palestinians in Gaza.

Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, has emblazoned the Israeli flag on the front of his official residence, 10 Downing Street, apparently unconcerned at how he is giving visual form to what would normally be considered an antisemitic trope: that Israel controls the UK’s foreign policy.

However much this schoolboy cheerleading of Israel is sold as an act of solidarity following Hamas’ slaughter of Israeli civilians at the weekend, the subtext is unmistakeable: Britain has Israel’s back as it starts its retributive campaign of war crimes in Gaza.

That is also the purpose of home secretary Suella Braverman’s advice to the police to treat the waving of Palestinian flags and chants for Palestine’s liberation at protests in support of Gaza as criminal acts.

The media is playing its part, dependably as ever. A Channel 4 TV crew pursued Corbyn through London’s streets this week, demanding he “condemn” Hamas. They insinuated through the framing of those demands that anything less fulsome – such as Corbyn’s additional concerns for the welfare of Gaza’s civilians – was confirmation of the former Labour leader’s antisemitism.

The clear implication from politicians and the establishment media is that any support for Palestinian rights, any demurral from Israel’s “unquestionable right” to commit war crimes, equates to antisemitism.

Europe’s hypocrisy

This double approach, of cheering on genocidal Israeli policies towards Gaza while stifling any dissent, or characterising it as antisemitism, is not confined to the UK.

Across Europe, from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Bulgarian parliament, official buildings have been lit up with the Israeli flag.

Europe’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, celebrated the Israeli flag smothering the EU parliament this week.

She has repeatedly stated that “Europe stands with Israel”, even as Israeli war crimes start to mount.

The Israeli air force boasted on Thursday it had dropped some 6,000 bombs on Gaza. At the same time, human rights groups reported Israel was firing the incendiary chemical weapon white phosphorus into Gaza, a war crime when used in urban areas. And Defence for Children International noted that more than 500 Palestinian children had been killed so far by Israeli bombs.

It was left to Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied territories, to point out that Von Der Leyen was applying the principles of international law entirely inconsistently.

Almost exactly a year ago, the European Commission president denounced Russia’s strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine as war crimes. “Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming – these are acts of pure terror,” she wrote. “And we have to call it as such.”

Albanese noted Von der Leyen had said nothing equivalent about Israel’s even worse attacks on Palestinian infrastructure.

Starmer, not wishing to be outdone, has called for Wembley stadium’s arch to be adorned with the colours of the Israeli flag.

Sending in the heavies

Meanwhile, France has already started breaking up and banning demonstrations against the bombing of Gaza. Its justice minister has echoed Braverman in suggesting solidarity with Palestinians risks offending Jewish communities and should be treated as “hate speech”.

Naturally, Washington is unwavering in its support for whatever Israel decides to do to Gaza, as secretary of state Anthony Blinken made clear during his visit this week.

Even those officials whose chief role is to promote international law, such as Antonio Gutteres, secretary general of the UN, have started to move with the shifting ground.

Like most Western officials, he has emphasised Gaza’s “humanitarian needs” above the rules of war Israel is obliged to honour.

This is Israel’s success. The language of international law that should apply to Gaza – of rules and norms Israel must obey – has given way to, at best, the principles of humanitarianism: acts of international charity to patch up the suffering of those whose rights are being systematically trampled on, and those whose lives are being obliterated.

Western officials are more than happy with the direction of travel. Not just for Israel’s sake but for their own too. Because one day in the future, their own populations may be as much trouble to them as Palestinians in Gaza are to Israel right now.

Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself is their downpayment.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/lawle...sraels-crimes/

Blurb


The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has written a warning to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that it intends to prosecute UK government officials for complicity in war crimes in Gaza.

ICJP co-director Crispin Blunt spoke to Sky News on Saturday morning to discuss the warning.

Jonathan Cook

@Jonathan_K_Cook

Former British ambassador Craig Murray:

In both the UK and the US there can be no more stark illustration of the lack of any kind of meaningful democracy, than the fact that there is no major political party that opposes the genocide [in Gaza] – despite massive public opposition.

The bought and paid for media and political class in the west are extremely nervous, throughout the western world. Now they have come to the final genocide for which zionism has always aimed, they face a good deal of popular resistance...

We are witnessing almost all western governments deliberately facilitating massacre, ethnic cleansing and genocide. We are witnessing almost all western governments turning on their own people to crush dissent at that complicity in genocide.

This feels not so much like the week that western democracy died, as the week it was impossible any longer to deny that western democracy died some time ago.

From: https://craigmurray.org.uk/archives/...-in-palestine/

Waqas Tufail
@_WaqasTufail

Nothing will be the same after this. The levels of deceit, callousness and inhumanity demonstrated by Western politicians, governments and media are unforgivable.

Sahar Glumcore
@theprimalplot

I'm feeling the same. There is no going back. What we are witnessing will go down in history as the moment when post-WWII western morality and ethics - the 'civilised nations' - lost all pretence, exposing itself for its naked racism and support for mass murder.

Yes, but this is nothing new. Every generation goes through their 'awakening' phase. For myself it was the 9/11 / Iraq war

For the British political elite, the invasion of Iraq never happened

But the brazeness were witnessing here is really shocking. Its a return to the 'War on Terror' mindset and ideology.

Having said that there has been immense push back.

Blurb

In this week's episode of our Islamic Thought series, we expose the blatant double standards in British foreign policy concerning Israel's war on Gaza, compared to other international conflicts.

Discover why the recent outbursts from British politicians reveal more than just bias—they signal a narrative in crisis.

Join us for an insightful analysis, historical parallels, and a call to action for justice.

The Ummah's struggle for Palestine is more than a fleeting crisis; it's a test of our collective morality and resolve. Will you stand on the right side of history?



NEVER expected Mohammed Hijab to be interviewed on the Piers Morgan show. Interview begins at 31:23 ends at 56:35.



Good summary of the conversation.

Tauqir Tox Sharif

@toxaidworker

I wasn't really a @mohammed_hijab fan before this @piersmorgan show but he has done what nobody else has. Articulate, well versed, persistent and had piers back-pedaling throughout. Well done

Meanwhile in the West Bank

Blurb

At least 16 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry, amid protests against the continuing Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Protests were held in cities across the Israeli-occupied territory on Friday, including Ramallah, Tulkarem, Nablus and Hebron, hours after Israel ordered residents in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes ahead of an expected ground invasion.

At least 51 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since Saturday, according to the health ministry

Salaam

More analysis.

Blurb

What we are seeing in the occupied Gaza Strip and Israel has no precedent - the barbarism, the talk of vengeance, the war crimes. And the signs, all too familiar ones, of journalists succumbing to the pressures under the powers that be.

In this special episode, we delve into the news coverage of the war in Palestine and Israel. We examine the narratives that have emerged since Hamas’s surprise attack - a seismic news event that is destined to take ownership of the date on which it happened - October 7, 2023.



Blurb

Norman Finkelstein, an American author and political scientist, says Israel is aiming to expel Palestinians from the northern sector of Gaza and declare a new security zone there.

He described the Israeli operation in Gaza as “somewhere between a crime against humanity and genocide under international law”, and said the nuclear-armed state’s goal appears to be “to ethnically cleanse the northern sector of Gaza and declare it Israel’s new security zone”.

He added that “the cutting off of water, food and fuel to a civilian population, when keeping in mind Netanyahu’s claim that this situation will go on for a protracted period of time, and if you connect those two facts, no food, no water, no electricity for a protracted period of time, then its hard for anyone to concede that being anything but the crime – under international law – of genocide”.



A more overarching view.

Blurb

The conflict in #Israel has to do with peace deals, arms deals, nuclear deals, and most of all, it has to do with #Iran and #SaudiArabia.



Youtube and its 'age restricted content'. We know the game your playing but the truth will out.