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/

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

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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

The ICC Must Step Up: Justice for Palestinians Awaits on Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK

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“The Palestinians, of course, want to enlarge the scope of that investigation to go beyond, or prior to 2014. And they also want to enlarge the scope of that investigation regarding the topics themselves. Because we all know that the ICC covers more than just war crimes. It covers war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, or crimes against peace, along with very specific criteria of crimes, including of course the crime of genocide. And all of these crimes can be argued, since 1948 until today, have actually been committed by Israel.”

Continue watching at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgPLvyXck4M

Victory is Defeat: Palestinian Children’s Art Exposes Israel’s Cultural Genocide by Ramzy Baroud

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 “We are delighted to report that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has removed a display of artwork designed by children from Gaza.” That was the summary of a news report published on the homepage of the pro-Israel group, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). The group is credited for being the party that managed to successfully persuade the administration of a hospital in West London to take down a few pieces of artwork created by refugee children from Gaza.

… As ridiculous as this story sounds, it is, in fact, the very essence of the anti-Palestinian campaign launched by Israel and its allies worldwide. While Palestinians are fighting for basic human rights, freedom and sovereignty as enshrined in international law, the pro-Israel camp is fighting for a total and complete erasure of everything Palestinian. Some call this cultural genocide or ethnocide. 

Continue reading at https://www.palestinechronicle.com/victory-is-defeat-palestinian-childrens-art-exposes-israels-cultural-genocide/

Palestinians are Native Americans, not ‘Red Indians’: it’s time to liberate our language by Dr 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.

 For this generation to succeed in reclaiming the struggle for justice, they must also reclaim a unifying discourse, not only to reconnect their own fragmented communities throughout historic Palestine, but also to re-establish solidarity lines of communication across the globe.

I say “re-establish”, because Palestine was a common denominator among many national and indigenous struggles in the Global South. This was not a random outcome. Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, fierce wars of liberation were fought across continents, leading in most cases to the defeat of traditional colonial powers and, in the likes of Cuba, Vietnam and Algeria, to true decolonisation. With Palestine being a compounded case of western imperialism and Zionist settler-colonialism, the Palestinian cause was embraced by numerous national struggles. It was, and remains, a raw example of western-supported ethnic cleansing, genocide, apartheid and hypocrisy, as well as awe-inspiring indigenous resistance.

Continue reading at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221114-palestinians-are-native-americans-not-red-indians-its-time-to-liberate-our-language/

From Tantura to Naqab: Israel’s long hidden truths are finally revealed by Ramzy Baroud

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Amnesty’s 280 pages of damning evidence of Israel’s racism and apartheid did not shy away from connecting Israel’s violent present with its equally bloody past. It did not borrow from Israel’s deceptive language and self-serving division of Palestinians into disconnected communities, each with a different claim and a different status. For Amnesty, as was the case with Human Rights Watch’s report in April 2021, Israeli injustices against the Palestinians must be recognised and duly condemned in their entirety. 

“Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has pursued an explicit policy of establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic hegemony… while minimising the number of Palestinians and restricting their rights,” the report stated. This could only happen through mass killing, ethnic cleansing and genocide, from Tantura to the Naqab, to the Moroccan Quarters, to Gaza and Sheikh Jarrah. 

Continue reading at https://www.jordantimes.com/opinion/ramzy-baroud/tantura-naqab-israels-long-hidden-truths-are-finally-revealed

On ‘gassing the Arabs’ and other diseases: Is Israel a ‘sick society’? by Ramzy Baroud

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…when Rivlin, in October 2014, had declared that “Israeli society is sick, and it is our duty to treat this disease,” a Haaretz columnist lashed out, suggesting that “Rivlin’s comments are positively bursting with Jew-hatred”.

“First he called Jewish society ‘sick’—dredging up anti-Semitic tropes about Jews as carriers of cultural and ideological disease. Then he asked whether Jews are ‘decent human beings’: Questioning their humanity itself,” the article argued. 

Of course, the sickness of “violence, hostility, bullying, [and] racism”, that Rivlin had then pointed out, is very much real. Other symptoms of this horrible disease also include military occupation, apartheid and genocidal violence like that frequently meted out against the besieged Gaza Strip.

Continue reading at http://www.jordantimes.com/opinion/ramzy-baroud/%E2%80%98gassing-arabs%E2%80%99-and-other-diseases-israel-%E2%80%98sick-society%E2%80%99

Dismantling the Violent Discourse of the State of Israel: On Zionism, Palestinian Liberation, and the Power of Language by Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo on Janus Unbound: Journal of Critical Studies

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However, Hamas is not ISIS, Al-Qaeda, or the Taliban. In fact, none of these groups are similar in any way. Hamas is a political actor that operates within a largely Palestinian political context. But what does Israel have to gain from mischaracterizing the Palestinian resistance in Gaza? Aside from satisfying its propaganda campaign of erroneously linking Hamas to anti-American Islamic groups, it also dehumanizes the Palestinian people entirely and presents Israel as a partner in the US-led global “war on terror.” In this manufactured reality, Israel’s rightwing, religious, and ultranationalist politicians assume the role of the dedicated US allies, the defenders of western civilization, and the saviors of humanity itself. Considering these supposed great moral challenges at hand, the violent language and action of Israeli leaders can then be discreetly swept under the rug where all is forgiven or forgotten. This is precisely how “genocide” can be twisted and rebranded as “self-defense.” Within this carefully molded discourse the term “colonialism,” the most relevant and accurate of all terms, is, unsurprisingly, nowhere to be found.

Continue reading at https://journals.library.mun.ca/ojs/index.php/JU/article/view/2325/1830

The cultural genocide in Palestine: On Sally Rooney’s decision to boycott Israel by Dr Ramzy Baroud

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One of the most interesting aspects of this conversation on language is that the Hebrew language has been used by the State of Israel since its establishment in 1948 as the language of oppression. In the minds of Palestinians, anywhere in Palestine, Hebrew is rarely the language used to communicate culture, literature, social coexistence and such. Instead, every military ordinance issued by the Israeli army, including closures and home demolitions, let alone the proceedings of military court hearings, and even the racist anti-Palestinian chants in football stadiums, are communicated in Hebrew.
…BDS does not target Israelis as individuals and, under no circumstances, does it target Jewish individuals because they are Jews, or the Hebrew language, as such. Israel, on the other hand, continues to target Palestinians as a people, downgrades their language, dismantles their institutions and systematically destroys their culture. This is rightly referred to as cultural genocide, and it is our moral responsibility to stop it.

Continue reading at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211019-the-cultural-genocide-in-palestine-on-sally-rooneys-decision-to-boycott-israel/

On ‘conflict’, ‘peace’ and ‘genocide’: Time for new language on Palestine and Israel by Dr. 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.

On 25 May, famous US actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted an apology for suggesting that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.

“I have reflected and wanted to apologise for posts during the recent Israel/Hamas fighting that suggested Israel is committing ‘genocide’,” Ruffalo wrote, adding: “It’s not accurate, it’s inflammatory, disrespectful and is being used to justify anti-Semitism, here and abroad. Now is the time to avoid hyperbole.”

But were Ruffalo’s earlier assessments, indeed, “not accurate, inflammatory and disrespectful”? And does equating Israel’s war on besieged, impoverished Gaza with genocide fit into the classification of “hyperbole”?

To avoid pointless social media spats, one only needs to reference the “United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”. 

Continue reading at https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210612-on-conflict-peace-and-genocide-time-for-new-language-on-palestine-and-israel/