Category: NGO accountability

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The Twisted Israeli Logic of Murdering Palestinian Children, and What Can We Do to Stop It? by Ramzy Baroud

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.

When the numbers of dead and wounded children are tallied, they are counted in the thousands – precisely, 8,700 Palestinian child casualties between 2015 and 2022, according to the UN.

Even the callous and often dehumanizing logic of ‘collateral damage’ cannot justify such figures. Though the war on Palestinian children is intentional, protracted and ongoing, not a single Israeli military or government official was ever held accountable in an international court.

Even the UN ‘List of Shame for Killing Children’ never branded Israel, though other countries have been ‘shamed’ for far fewer crimes against children.

As the killing of children is perceived – according to the twisted logic of the likes of Shaked – to be functional for Israel and, amid the absence of any accountability, Israel finds no reason or urgency to end its war on Palestinian children.

With the constant loosening of the rules of military engagement in Israel, and the terrifyingly genocidal language used by Israel’s far-right ministers and their massive constituency, more Palestinian children are likely to lose their lives in the near future.

 

Continue reading at https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/09/the-twisted-israeli-logic-of-murdering-palestinian-children-and-what-can-we-do-to-stop-it/

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The One Thing Netanyahu and Gallant Agree On? Blaming Iran by Ramzy Baroud

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.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 30 Israelis since January 2023, according to a statement to the U.N. Security Council by U.N. Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland on August 21.

Wennesland described the violence as a “concerning trend,” attributing it to a “growing sense of despair about the future,” U.N. News reported.

The U.N. humanitarian agency, OCHA, had similar findings. It said that nearly 600 settler-related “incidents” were reported in the Occupied Territories in the first six months of 2023. Settler attacks have resulted in “Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both.”

Neither Wennesland nor OCHA mentioned Iran in their statements, nor did the constant stream of reports on Israel’s ongoing violence, incitement or, at times, outright calls for genocide by settlers and their leaders in Netanyahu’s government.

…Aside from the “incremental genocide” happening daily throughout the Occupied Territories, at times large communities are being expelled, en masse.

Continue reading at https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/netanyahu-gallant

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Israeli Apartheid: Tool of Zionist Settler Colonialism by Rania Muhareb, Elizabeth Rghebi, Pearce Clancy, Joseph Schechla, Nada Awad, and Maha Abdallah for Al-Haq

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.

While discussions on Israeli apartheid have become increasingly mainstream over the last three or more years, some aspects of Palestinians’ decades long mobilisation against Israeli apartheid remain absent or insufficiently
addressed in the current discourse. For some, apartheid has materialised only recently due to what is perceived as increasingly repressive Israeli government practices or the entrenchment of Israel’s prolonged military occupation since 1967. What this approach misses is a more structural understanding of Israeli apartheid as an inevitable outcome of settler colonialism in Palestine and the Zionist movement’s policy to eliminate the
indigenous Palestinian people through removal from the land. (p. 32)

… As of the time of writing, the year 2022 has been the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Since 1948, Israeli authorities have systematically resorted to lethal and other excessive force against Palestinians, targeting Palestinian lives, bodies, and livelihoods throughout historic Palestine. The denial to Palestinians of their right to
life has been integral to the Zionist settler colonial project and is part and parcel of its ‘logic of elimination’ of Palestinians. Israel’s widespread and systematic violation of the right to life of Palestinians has been a pillar of
its establishment and maintenance of an apartheid regime since 1948. Arbitrary deprivations of Palestinian life serve to create a repressive environment designed to undermine the exercise by the Palestinian people
of their collective rights. (p. 122)

Continue reading at https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2022/11/29/israeli-apartheid-webversion-1-page-view-option-01-1669748323.pdf

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Response Mixed to PC(USA) Labeling Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Lands as Apartheid by Eric Ledermann on The Presbyterian Outlook

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.

In June 2022, the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), following decades of debates, voted overwhelmingly in support of Overture INT-02, declaring the Israeli government’s occupation and treatment of the Palestinian people and lands to be named as “apartheid.” Though INT-02 passed the committee with a vote of 90% and by the whole assembly with 70% of the vote, the response both inside and outside the denomination has been mixed.

… Despite efforts within the rationale of the overture and in the letter from the ten former moderators to clarify the overture is about the laws, policies and behaviors of the government of Israel, and not the people of Israel or Jewish people in general, the responses from many corners of the Jewish community in the U.S. and abroad have been highly critical.

… The American Jewish Committee (AJC) responded, saying, “The Presbyterian Church has been hijacked by anti-Israel activists,” claiming that over the years the PC(USA) has “flirted with or crossed over to antisemitism.”

According to a survey conducted in 2021 by the Jewish Electorate Institute, only 25% of U.S. Jewish voters agree that Israel is an apartheid state, with 22% agreeing that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Continue reading at https://pres-outlook.org/2022/10/response-mixed-to-pcusa-labeling-israeli-occupation-of-palestinian-lands-as-apartheid/

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British Quakers capitulate to Israel lobby lies on The Electronic Intifada

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.

“At some point groups like Quakers in Britain will have to decide between their stated pursuit of ‘equality, peace, truth, justice and simplicity,’ on the one hand, and being used to give cover to the ongoing ethnic cleansing, indeed creeping genocide, of the Palestinians, on the other,” David Miller said. “There is no middle way. The crime of the occupation of Palestine cannot be resolved by a ‘balanced’ approach to the relation between the oppressor and the oppressed.”

Continue reading at https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/british-quakers-capitulate-israel-lobby-lies

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Unabated sufferings of Palestinians by Imran Khalid

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.

… UN and other global human-rights organizations that are letting the Israeli politicians, whether Lapid, Netanyahu or their predecessors, kill innocent Palestinian civilians on a whim, merely to gratify their domestic political interests. Courtesy of the Abraham Accords and continued patronizing by the Western capitals, the arrogance and haughtiness in Israel’s behavior has reached the point where Israel considers itself above any accountability for what many believe to be a planned genocide of the Palestinians…

Continue reading at https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/08/12/unabated-sufferings-of-palestinians.html

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NEHAWU condemns apartheid Israeli continued attacks on Gaza issued by General Secretary, Zola Sapheth

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 National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] strongly condemns the continued violent attacks on Gaza by the Apartheid Israel military. The continued repression and genocide of innocent Palestinians must stop.

…Even though a truce was agreed upon on, the world can no longer be silent about the continued genocide of Palestinians by the Apartheid Israeli government. The people of Gaza live in constant fear. We have to stop Israel by boycotting all that the Israeli government uses to fund these inhumane attacks on the Palestinian people. We call on all trade unionists, all friendly countries to Boycott, Divestment and Sanction apartheid Israel.

Continue reading at https://www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/apartheid-israelis-continued-attacks-on-gaza-conde

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How international aid has normalised Israel’s 15-year siege of Gaza by Ismail Patel

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.

Over the past 15 years, the international community has donated $ 5.7bn to provide relief for Palestinians in Gaza. These humanitarian relief efforts have saved the Palestinians in Gaza from genocide. However, the international humanitarian aid has unwittingly become a means for Israel to continue with the siege and normalise it…

..In 2012, it was revealed that Israel had calculated to allow, based on a person’s average requirement, 2,300 calories a day to enter Gaza. This was just sufficient enough “not to make them die of hunger,” as Weisglass stated.. foreign aid helps Israel as an occupier deflect its responsibilities under international law, the Hague Convention and the Fourth Geneva Convention to protect the Palestinian population and its property. Israel avoids its duty because humanitarian aid is preventing Palestinians from dying of hunger.

Israel’s neo-colonial blockade has ensured that, for every dollar the international community sends to Gaza, Israel enforces damage of over two dollars. The Israeli siege policy thus creates a perpetual deficit, leaving the people of Gaza in a state of permanent humanitarian crisis. 

Continue reading at https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-israel-international-aid-siege-normalised

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The National Union of Metalworkers spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, during the Global South rally launching the initiative in 2020, calls for #UNinvestigateApartheid on the BDS National Committee Twitter account

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.

“Ultimately I think this is the goal of this rally, is to mobilise the world, mobilise the globe, mobilise the working class, mobilise the masses to defend the people of Palestine. This is a moral and just war. No other position on the issue of Palestine is acceptable, quite frankly. Because if you’re going to support Israel, then you are supporting genocide, you are supporting racism, you are supporting ethnic cleansing.”

Continue watching at https://twitter.com/BDSmovement/status/1545002810441404421

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WHO’s erasure of Palestinians must cease by Richard Horton on The Lancet

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.

Palestinian life expectancy, infant and under-5 mortality, and maternal mortality were all worse than those of the occupying nation. Occupation created successive financial crises for the health sector. Movement restrictions, violence, obstructions to the delivery of health care, the arrest and detention of health workers, and damage to health facilities have all shrunk the humanitarian space for Palestinians. Dr Ghada Jadba, who leads UNRWA’s Gaza field health programme, reported the effects of four wars on the Gaza Strip since 2007. Dr Ameer Qoulaq, a UNRWA medical officer in Gaza, described how 22 of his relatives were killed during an attack in May, 2021.

… One choice his agency has made is to erase the existence of over 5 million people from its “comprehensive” assessment of world health—WHO’s flagship World Health Statistics 2022… WHO is guilty of nothing less than statistical genocide—the deliberate elimination of a people with the aim of extinguishing their existence.

Continue reading at https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01010-8/fulltext