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“Israel Genocide?” statement in response to the United Nations Human Rights​ “Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict” and call to action

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

The United Nations Human Rights “Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict” has been released and the word genocide appears only once, to define what an International Crime is.

Even though the numbers speak for themselves, the treatment of the occupying army and the population it besieges as some kind of equals, with equal responsibility and military ability, in this report is glaring. We feel that the report, while detailing Israel’s individual war crimes, both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, during Israel’s attack last summer, intentionally glosses over the context of 68 years of colonization and its subsequent on-going genocidal effects.

A crime of this magnitude- which lasted 51 consecutive days and resulted in the extermination of 89 whole families and the deaths of scores of others, and in devastating damage to civilian property and infrastructure in the context of Israel’s ever-tightening de-facto stranglehold on Palestinian land and lives and infinitely superior fire-power- cannot be assessed under the laws of war, but under the laws of genocide. We appeal to the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda to investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people.

We also call on each and every one of you, who agree with our appeal, to send this email below to the relevant offices. Seeing this report, we cannot stress enough the importance of such civil society action. Please help us preasure the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the ICC Prosecutor. Together we will end Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.

UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, International Criminal Court Prosecutor, International Court of Justice President: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Indigenous Palestinian People

To UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, ICC Pros., and ICJ Pres.,

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Letter of Support from the BDS National Committee (BNC) for the Israel Genocide? Campaign

Dear friends, organizers of the Israel Genocide? Campaign,

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) welcomes and supports your initiative to encourage people worldwide to write to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and demand that the UN conduct an enquiry into the possibility that Israel may have committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people and publish its findings and recommendations.

In light of earlier and alarming findings of independent experts, in particular since Israel’s hermetic siege and separation of the occupied Gaza Strip in 2007 and the consecutive waves of mass killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the BNC considers this initiative, which is directed specifically at the responsible UN personnel, to be important and timely. All, including the former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the OPT, Prof. Richard Falk, separate Arab League- and UN-led investigations into Israel’s 2008/9 war on Gaza, and the 2014 Russell Tribunal on Palestine special session on Israeli violations of international law in Gaza and elsewhere in the OPT, have all confirmed that Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated with impunity and, furthermore, that direct and public incitement to genocide by Israeli political, religious and parliamentary leaders have been well documented. Therefore, the UN Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide should be pressured to investigate if Israeli officials are responsible for the crime of genocide, including the crime of incitement to genocide, and to assess and prevent the risk of a future Israeli genocide against (parts of) the Palestinian people.

While supporting the Israel Genocide? Campaign, and irrespective of its results, the BNC calls on campaigners to continue to build public awareness and pressure for holding Israel accountable for its regime of colonialism, apartheid and occupation, including the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in this context against Palestinians since 1948, such as ethnic cleansing and mass killing of civilians.  Both, facts and international law strongly support this approach. Like the crime of genocide, colonialism and the crime of apartheid are internationally prohibited. They also result in similar legal responsibilities: all states and international organizations, such as the United Nations, are to isolate and suppress Israeli apartheid and colonialism, bring responsible individuals to justice, and ensure full reparation for the Palestinian victims.

In solidarity,
Mahmoud Nawajaa
BNC General Coordinator

TAKE ACTION now and write a letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor. Make sure to post a copy of the letter in our comments as well, so we can publish it.
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UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Palestinian People

Click to take action right now and demand the U.N. Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor investigate Israel for the possibility of the Crime of Genocide

The Crime of Genocide is defined in a declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946:

The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 3

The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.

Article 4

Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

We are people from all around the world who fear that we are witnessing the genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel. Witnessing Israel’s daily violations of Palestinian human rights- military take-over of land, restriction of movement, economic strangulation, house demolitions, restrictions on basic foodstuff, mass arbitrary arrests of both adults and children, torture, extra judicial executions, and large-scale massacres of whole families, openly calling for genocide and extermination by law makers and other public figures- we can not keep silent about this 67 year-old atrocity, unfolding before our eyes.

We demand the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor take action and investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinian People, and that the office publish its findings and recommendations.

Please see our call to action and act now.

 
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Five Journalists in Gaza Reflect on Ceasefire Announcement by Sharif Abdel Kouddous

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

“My feelings when I heard the announcement — I saw the happiness of people and their tears of joy. But with regard to myself, as a journalist and a human being and a Palestinian who lives in north Gaza, I have contradictory feelings ranging from joy to sorrow. I lost nearly 250 members of my family. Relatives of relatives: my nephews, nieces, aunts, their sons and daughters, my uncles and their wives and children. I lost a very large number of people. We are one of the families that has the highest number of martyrs in this genocidal war.”

Continue reading at https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/five-journalists-in-gaza-reflect

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LIVE: Breaking Analysis of Gaza Ceasefire Agreement with Jeremy Scahill by Drop Site News

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

“One of the main things that Israel is extremely worried about is journalists and fact-finding missions going into Gaza and showing us the full extent of the genocide that’s been hidden largely from our view for the last 15 months. So in that regard, if the IDF gets to cut the main roads, they can just continue to prevent it and that’s the insistence on the maps.

Other loopholes as well; it does not say “this is an agreement of a ceasefire,” it says “this is an agreement of sustainable calm” or “sustainable quiet,” which will lead to a see a permanent ceasefire between the two sides, which can be also another loophole that Isreal will exploit. So as we’ve seen numerous times, Netanyahu will spare no effort to continue the war again. He’s just saying it today, this morning it was all of Israeli news as well.”

Continue watching at https://www.youtube.com/live/_qlsvPyhFUU

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New review of F-35 exports reveals no red lines for UK government in context of atrocities in Gaza by GLANlaw

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

Following a fresh review the UK Government has doubled down on its previous position that protecting global sales of F-35s takes precedence over its obligation to protect human life in Gaza. Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Al-Haq have responded to the Government’s final submission in our arms exports challenge before the Court decides on a hearing and which legal arguments can be taken forward. The organisations have requested a 5-day hearing in the next few months.

… Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq General Director, said, “It is outrageous that, despite acknowledging the clear risk that F-35 components could be used by Israel to commit serious violations of international law, including genocide, the government continues to export the components. In doing so, the UK government is displaying utter contempt for Palestinian life and the fundamental principles of international law.”

Continue reading at https://www.glanlaw.org/single-post/no-red-lines-for-uk-gov-on-atrocities-in-gaza

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Israel must be added to UN’s sexual violence blacklist by Euromed Human Rights Monitor

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

  2. It was disclosed last Wednesday that Israel has once again denied authorisation for an investigation by the UN Special Representative on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Pramila Patten. This refusal reportedly stems from concerns that a comprehensive investigation would expose Israel’s systematic use of mass rape against Palestinians, including women and children, as Patten had insisted that access to Israeli detention centres to investigate allegations against Israeli soldiers was a crucial requirement for the process.
  3. … The Israeli crimes involving the killing of Palestinians and the infliction of severe physical and psychological harm through torture, mistreatment, and sexual violence, including rape, are being carried out with extreme brutality and in a systematic nature that is clearly indicative of a specific intent to destroy the Palestinian people. These acts constitute components of the crime of genocide, as outlined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
  5. Euro-Med Monitor calls on the United Nations to include Israel on its blacklist of entities involved in sexual violence in conflicts. This call comes in light of substantial evidence documenting Israel’s systematic use of sexual violence, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse, as part of its broader campaign of annihilation against the Palestinian people.

Continue reading at https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6591/Israel-must-be-added-to-UN%E2%80%99s-sexual-violence-blacklist

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Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis by Zeina Jamaluddine, PhD, Hanan Abukmail, MD, Sarah Aly, DO, Prof Oona M R Campbell, PhD, Prof Francesco Checchi, PhD

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

  2. Our study uses capture–recapture methods to estimate total deaths from traumatic injury in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024. By combining three data lists—official hospital lists, an MoH survey, and social media obituaries—we provide an estimate of mortality that accounts for under-reporting. We estimate a total mortality from traumatic injury of 64 260 (95% CI 55 298–78 525), implying that the MoH reports underestimated deaths by 41%. As of October, 2024, the official MoH estimate stood at 41 909, which would suggest that the true mortality figures probably exceeded 70 000. This study emphasises the importance of leveraging statistical methods to accurately estimate armed conflict-related deaths, rather than solely relying on reported figures.

Continue reading at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02678-3/fulltext

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ICC Arrest Warrants: No Platforming of Suspected Israeli War Criminals in Academic or Cultural Settings by the BDS National Committee

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

Given the gravity of Israel’s Gaza genocide, in particular, and the near consensus support for it among Jewish Israelis1, and given Israel’s decades of perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity against Indigenous Palestinians, Israeli academics, scientists, programmers, college students2, artists, writers, athletes, among others, who fall under any of the following categories must be investigated and, if warranted, prosecuted by all States – as part of those States’ legal obligation to, inter alia, prevent genocide and ensure accountability for grave breaches of international humanitarian law:

  1. 1. Anyone who has served since 7 October 2023 in the Israeli military (including logistical and intelligence units).
  2. 2. Anyone who is reasonably suspected of aiding, assisting, or conspiring in the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide anytime3, whether during military service or not.
  3. 3. Anyone who is reasonably suspected of involvement in public incitement to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide anytime4, whether during military service or not.

Also, anyone who resides in an illegal Israeli colonial settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, or in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, is knowingly participating in a war crime and must therefore be held accountable.

Continue reading at https://bdsmovement.net/resources/icc-arrest-warrants-no-platforming-suspected-israeli-war-criminals-academic-or-cultural

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Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel): DECLARATION OF INTERVENTION BY CUBA (ICJ, January 2025) // L’Application De La Convention Pour La Prévention Et La Répression Du Crime De Génocide Dans La Bande De Gaza (Afrique Du Sud C. Israël): Déclaration D’Intervention De La République De Cuba (La Cour Internationale De Justice, Janvier 2025)

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

198… We are faced with the genocidal policy of a State against a national subgroup, the Palestinians, who claim their right to self-determination and to the defence of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State in the Territory illegally occupied by Israel.

199. This policy, pursued over a prolonged period of time with the unequivocal objective of concealing its dolus specialis, consists of a series of acts and omissions which, even if they could have gone unnoticed due to ignorance of their context and duration, confirm the execution of a genocide that has been ongoing for several decades. 

200. Violations of international humanitarian law or the establishment of a disgraceful apartheid regime are crimes per se, but they are also part of this policy of generalized genocide, aggravated by the condition of the State of Israel as an occupying power. This holistic vision must lead to interpretative declarations on the Convention that are capable of avoiding any present and future impunity.

201. Impunity is precisely the other salient feature of the present case, to the point that the failure of the United Nations system in this regard for decades merits special declarations that guarantee the effectiveness of the Convention.

202. It is precisely in this context that the Republic of Cuba decides to file this Declaration of Intervention before the Honourable International Court of Justice. The people, State and Government of the Republic of Cuba are convinced that the exercise of the rights and obligations granted under Article 63, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Court and the Convention itself, is a sine qua non of Cuba’s status as a member of the United Nations and a State party to relevant international instruments.

Continue reading at https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20250110-inv-01-00-fr.pdf

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New York University Launches Unprecedented Campaign of Collective Punishment Against Students Protesting Genocide by NYU Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

  2. NEW YORK, January 8, 2025 – In a draconian case of collective punishment, New York University has issued blanket year-long suspensions to students who participated in nonviolent protest on campus on December 11, 2024. As of today, at least eleven students have been suspended until January 2026.

… Following on the heels of widespread public condemnation of NYU’s arrests and declaration of a number of its own faculty as Persona Non Grata (PNG), the university’s administration is once again setting a shameful precedent with this mass suspension of students protesting an ongoing genocide.

Continue reading at https://facultyforpalestine.education/2025/01/08/january-8-2025-press-release-new-york-university-launches-unprecedented-campaign-of-collective-punishment-against-students-protesting-genocide/

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The silent killer: Long-term impact of war | The Stream on Al Jazeera

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

“We know that in the past year and two months, 100,000 tons of bombs have been dropped on Gaza. Gaza is a quarter of the size of London. 100,000 tons of bombs on a small area like that- and by the way, 100,000 tons of bombs is equivalent to several atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima.
So when we speak to this massive, incredibly unprecedented bombing in an area the size of Gaza, we’re talking about introducing- not only asbestos, but also- incredible amounts of toxic Metals into that environment. We are introducing lead and Mercury, which are neurotoxins, we are introducing all kinds of teratogens and carcinogens. And what I can see happening in Gaza is that it has become a place that does not allow for healthy reproduction. We have looked at this issue of reproduction in Iraq, in multiple cities (and I will talk about it when time comes) and what we do show is that metals like titanium, like tungsten, like lead and mercury, and cadmium and chromium, they go up in the bodies of children who have been exposed to military pollution, including bombings, and bullets, Etc. So what this does is that it creates health issues in the children in the form of birth defects. If a mother, a pregnant mother, is exposed to all these toxins during her pregnancy, it will end up in the body of the fetus, and we will see increased risk of congenital anomalies or birth defects in that child. So what I see unfolding in Gaza, in this genocide, is that we are looking into the future where Gaza is not a good place for reproduction. And I might add that that is a war crime. If you inflict so much damage onto a place, where it becomes impossible to have healthy children, you are committing a war crime.”

Continue reading at https://youtu.be/H8dV8D0uLHI?si=3RqNKJLPk2f_1751&t=246

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Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel): DECLARATION OF INTERVENTION BY IRELAND pursuant to Article 63 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

  2. On behalf of the Government ofireland, I have the honour to submit to the International Court of Justice (‘ the Court’) the following Declaration of Intervention pursuant to Article 63, paragraph 2, of the Statute of the Court (‘the Statute’) in the Case Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel). 
  4. … in Ireland’s view the Convention should be considered not only as a criminal law instrument that obliges Contracting Parties to establish jurisdiction over, and punish commission of, the crime of genocide by individuals, but also as a human rights instrument that obliges them not to commit genocide as well as to prevent genocide against any national, ethnical, racial and religious group (a ‘protected group’) under their protection or within their power. 

Continue reading at https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20250106-int-01-00-en.pdf