Tag: Jonathan Ofir

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Do not dismiss the Gaza genocide allegations by Jonathan Ofir, Yonatan Shapira and Ofer Neiman

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 response to Eitay Mack, a human rights lawyer whom we* know well from past campaigns we all cherish, we first note that his Haaretz piece, “Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza,” goes beyond strict legal arguments. He does not merely discuss the applicability of the crime of genocide to Israel’s current actions in Gaza. Mack’s piece is a multi-pronged political attack on a wide range of activists and experts, including “human rights activists, journalists, who may have honest intentions but are simply wrong.” We wish to address this political analysis and cast doubt on some of the claims put forward by Mack.

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/do-not-dismiss-the-gaza-genocide-allegations/

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Israeli doctors urge the bombing of Gaza hospitals by Tali Shapiro and Jonathan Ofir

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.

About 90 Israeli doctors have signed a letter calling for the bombing of hospitals in Gaza. 

Only last week, dozens of prominent Israeli rabbis had already assured Israeli leaders that they have a right to bomb al-Shifa’ hospital in Gaza, and this week’s letter signed by “Doctors for the Rights of IDF Soldiers” urges the bombing of any and every hospital in Gaza.

… The doctors claim that “the residents of Gaza… are the ones who brought their annihilation upon themselves” — echoing the genocidal rhetoric of centrist Israeli politicians who have even claimed that “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves.” 

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/israeli-doctors-urge-the-bombing-of-gaza-hospitals/

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An Israeli colonel helping to form Itamar Ben-Gvir’s ‘national guard’ called for killing ‘enemy’ civilians ‘between the eyes’ by Jonathan Ofir

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.

Since Monday a video has been circulating in the Israeli media of a lecture by Col. (ret.) Efraim Laor, one of about 15 steering committee members for forming a “national guard” that would be directly subordinate to the National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“Whoever doesn’t want to be involved is not involved. Whoever is in a line of conflict is there because he chose it, or it was chosen for them. There should be no distinction between gender, sex or age. Whoever is in a line of conflict has one right — either to win or to die. An enemy needs to be killed, you don’t shoot at [terror] cells, you shoot between the eyes – whoever can’t do that, 15 cm lower. Including those who are there and are not attacking. But you see an enemy – you do not find out with it whether he is involved or not — he’s involved — he needs to be eliminated.”

Laor’s genocidal advocacy also calls for Israelis to become civil combatants — creating civilian militias who would be given license to kill. The immediate threat inherent in this becomes evident in the context of the national guard… At the heart of Laor’s claims is an intentional erasure of the distinction between combatants and civilians, deeming any Palestinian as a legitimate target: “the wars that occur around us are not between organizations, but between peoples, and the fighting is a total devotion of one people against another people.” 

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2023/06/an-israeli-colonel-helping-to-form-itamar-ben-gvirs-national-guard-called-for-killing-enemy-civilians-between-the-eyes/

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Liberal Israeli icon calls to raze Gaza neighborhoods by Jonathan Ofir

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 response to Israel’s ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip, Amiram Levin, a former Labor Party hopeful, retired Major General, and former deputy head of Mossad, has called to “flatten” whole neighborhoods in Gaza… Levin says Israel should allow loosening the siege in some respects while also promising to “flatten every neighborhood,” This is Levin’s supposed balance – offer a carrot, and commit a genocidal war crime with no hesitation… this is far from the first time he has uttered such an outrageous call to genocide. In 2017, he threatened to “tear the Palestinians apart” and “toss them across the Jordan” – he said that the Palestinians “deserved the occupation” and that “next time we’ll fight here, they will not remain, we will toss them across the Jordan.” Levin is also on record for saying that “most of these [Palestinian] people are born to die anyway, we just need to help them to it.”

 

Continue watching at https://mondoweiss.net/2023/05/liberal-israeli-icon-calls-to-raze-gaza-neighborhoods/

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UN Special Rapporteur facing smear campaign for calling out Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid by Jonathan Ofir

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.

What else angers the Times of Israel?

“She has also said Israel may be guilty of alleged major crimes including genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

We don’t need to really scrutinize ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity because this is a fairly mainstream understanding… So, that leaves the charge of genocide. Tress links to Albanese’s post promoting a Jadaliyya interview with Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, author of the outstanding book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), on the concept of “incremental genocide.” Pappe’s immediate context is the 2014 Gaza onslaught, and it is certainly worth following his logic of how policies that may, in isolation, seem ad hoc policies amount to the strangulation of a civilian population. Indeed, Gaza has become officially “uninhabitable” by UN criteria. So there’s definitely something to consider there. It’s not at all antisemitic. 

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2022/12/un-special-rapporteur-facing-smear-campaign-for-calling-out-israeli-settler-colonialism-and-apartheid/

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Netflix’s “Farha” is a mild depiction of the Nakba by Jonathan Ofir

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.

And the Nazi-associations? They come from actual perpetrators and other Israelis. Shlomo Ambar, one of the perpetrators of the Tantura massacre, compared his own unit to Nazi soldiers… Such massacres seemed to invoke very real Nazi-comparisons in Israeli ministers, no less. Referring probably to the Dawaymeh massacre of October 29, Agriculture Minister Aharon Zisling told the Israeli parliament on November 17th that “Jews too have behaved like Nazis and my entire being has been shaken.” 
… But now the Israel apologists are trying to claim that all this is just outrageous, it didn’t happen, it smacks of blood libels. Yet even if it is just one person’s memory, this memory joins up with the myriad others who have the same account — from both victims and perpetrators. It paints an undeniable picture of a barbaric ethnic cleansing. 

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2022/12/netflixs-farha-is-a-mild-depiction-of-the-nakba/

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Israeli lawmaker warns Palestinians of another ‘Nakba’ if they fly Palestinian flag by Jonathan Ofir

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.

A member of the Israeli parliament, Israel Katz, warned Palestinians of another “Nakba” if they fly the Palestinian flag. The Likud lawmaker put up a video on his twitter this morning featuring him speaking at the parliament, with the message:

“Yesterday I warned the Arab students, who are flying Palestine flags at universities: Remember 48. Remember our independence war and your Nakba, don’t stretch the rope too much. […] If you don’t calm down we’ll teach you a lesson that won’t be forgotten.“

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2022/05/israeli-lawmaker-warns-palestinians-of-another-nakba-if-they-fly-palestinian-flag/

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The Israel hasbara machine is attempting to sanitize Naftali Bennett’s “I killed many Arabs” quote by Jonathan Ofir

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.

Israel just got its most right-wing Prime Minister ever, in the form of Naftali Bennett. We have already seen the signs that Israeli pundits were trying to sanitize his racist history, to make him a better sell than Netanyahu. But what do you do with phrases such as “I’ve killed many Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that”? I mean, that’s one of the singularly most racist things he’s said, it’s often quoted, and it’s not only racist but has a genocidal hint to it?

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2021/06/the-israel-hasbara-machine-is-attempting-to-sanitize-naftali-bennetts-i-killed-many-arabs-quote/

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Racism is at center of Israeli settler-colonialist venture — Ronit Lentin by Jonathan Ofir

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.

Inside the general paradigm of colonialism, there exist variations. Settler-colonialism, that is colonialism that does not involve a ‘mother-country’, is generally known to be the more deadly variant, in that it is inherently eliminationist regarding the native population, whereas in other variants there is that ‘mother-country’ option to go back to. Lentin defines the Israeli example as special in its multi-faceted racialization of both white supremacy and Jewish supremacy, yet under the overall paradigm of colonialism, and particularly settler-colonialism, she does not view the Israeli example as particularly special, nor surprising. And its eliminationist aspect is inherently genocidal, she says, though the project was not necessarily about making all the natives disappear at once.

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2019/07/israeli-settler-colonialist/

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Survival of the fittest has become survival of the fascists by Jonathan Ofir

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.

… with the increasing rise of right-wing and fascist leaders in what is generally considered the West and beyond, these expressions seem to survive with little condemnation, and the fascists even rejoice in their rejection of ‘political correctness’, and in the belief that now one may be more honest about one’s racism and genocidal policies.

This explains very well the bromance between Netanyahu and ultra-nationalists such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (who has engaged in Jew-baiting and praise of Nazi collaborators), Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (who compared himself to Hitler), or the newly elected Brasilian President Jair Bolsonaro…

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2018/11/survival-fittest-fascists/