Palestine Update 620
Comment
Israel’s extreme right wing engages in hate and violence
Israel’s worst ever possible choice of government has expectedly started on the wrong foot. The mandate was less extreme than the way things have things turned out to be. Racist genocide has become the political fashion for Netanyahu and his political cohorts. The New Year began with two murders and, if that is the tone they are setting, one can expect far worse as the year proceeds. After all, the government has launched itself on a platform of anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia. And violence will be the tool of genocide. These punitive measures have been condemned in no uncertain terms by the Palestinians. Al Mezan from Gaza describes how Israeli actions are but a continuation of its policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people.
The politics of hate has absorbed identity-denying policies. Amnesty International has pointed out that disallowing Palestinians to raise the Palestinian flag in the lands of 1948 is ‘cowardly. It is also designed to breach the United Nations charters and human rights. The question is does Israel have that kind of sensitivity to international public opinion which will prompt them to retract their instructions.
The tentacles of racist of hate spread far and wide. In far-away Harvard, its ‘Kennedy School’ has had to withdraw a fellowship to the former head of Human Rights Watch, only because of his criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. And, when the international community seeks to set things right in the United Nations, there is revenge. Israel has resorted to spiteful measures by diverting the transferring of approximately NIS 139 million (nearly $39 million) from Palestinian Authority tax funds to the so-called “Israeli victims of terrorism”. This vengeance is Israel’s politically immature response to Palestine’s pursuit at the UN General Assembly of an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the Israeli occupation. Much too much of what Israel does to impair Palestinian dignity and rights violate international law. Israel will not bow to the rightful claim of “Palestinian natural and legal right to get rid of the decades-long occupation.”
The world watches with keenness if the ICJ will serve out justice with courage. More, the world knows there will be a backlash if Israel does not get its way, which it most likely will not. ICJ has previously declared that Israeli actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are unlawful under international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, the relevant provision of the earlier Hague Regulations and, of course, numerous UN General Assembly and Security Council Resolutions. This time it will rule on whether Israel can continue to root its foundations in the illegality of converting a temporary military occupation into a de facto land theft. Israel is likely to be delegitimized for what it has been doing so far. No wonder Netanyahu deems the UN decision “despicable”.
Please read these news items and disseminate widely so we can together create new perceptions in the body of international opinion.
In solidarity,
On behalf of MLN Palestine Updates
Ranjan Solomon
Stop Israel’s racist genocide! Free Palestine!
The racist, apartheid government of Israel wasted no time in starting off the New Year by murdering two young Palestinian men, while threatening further Zionist settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces murdered 22-year-old Mohammad Samer Hoshiyeh and 25-year-old Fouad Mohammad Abed on Jan. 2 in Kufr Dan, a town northwest of Jenin in the West Bank. The killings occurred after Zionist officers raided the community to demolish the homes of two other Palestinians, who had been shot down at a Jamaleh checkpoint last September. Additionally, Israeli occupiers killed at least 171 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2022. At least 9,000 more Palestinians were reported injured that year. (Al Jazeera, Jan. 2). The recent atrocities coincide with promises made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his new far-right government, formed following the Nov. 1 elections. Netanyahu made several extreme right-wing appointments, including his choice of scandalous ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir as National Security Minister. This reactionary bigot has a sordid track record of espousing violent anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia.
Netanyahu’s new coalition government, is so right wing that even the corporate media is expressing concern. A USA Today article warned, “The triumph clears the way for Netanyahu to form the most right-wing government in the history of Israel.” In addition to their pledge to enhance settlements in the West Bank, these reactionaries vow to legalize “wildcat” terrorist Zionist settlements.
Read full report in Workers World
Al Mezan condemns punitive measures imposed by new Israeli government against PA and their repercussions on Palestinians
Within days of being officially sworn in, the new Israeli government imposed a series of punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinians at large following the United Nation (UN) General Assembly’s formal request for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an advisory opinion on Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory. Israeli cabinet approved a series of sanctions against the PA, including withholding approximately $40 million of tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the PA per the 1994 Protocol on Economic Relations (also known as the ‘Paris Protocol’) and deducting from the revenues to payments made by the PA to Palestinian prisoners under Israeli custody and their families as well as to families of Palestinian martyrs in 2022.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights unequivocally condemns Israel’s illegal punitive measures, which are a continuation of its policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. Simultaneously, we express our concern that these measures may prelude to undermining the work of the PA. Al Mezan also warns about the international community’s condescension to Israel’s new fascist far-right government, which openly plans to commit more violence against Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.
The international community must relinquish its inaction, silence and inability to hold Israel accountable for its violations and take immediate action to prevent Israel from committing further violations and crimes against the Palestinian people and compel it to comply with international law and end its settler-colonial occupation of the Palestinian territory. Al Mezan further urges the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the High Contracting Parties to activate accountability mechanism and immediately begin investigating and prosecuting those suspected of perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Read press release from Al Mezan
Harvard school in row over fellowship for human rights advocate
The prestigious Kennedy School at Harvard University is under fire over a decision not to award a fellowship to the former head of Human Rights Watch, which one academic said was due to the campaigner’s criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. The school’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy last year approached Kenneth Roth, who served as HRW’s executive director from 1993 to 2022, and agreed on the terms of a fellowship, according to both Roth and the Carr Center. The fellowship was subject to approval by Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf. Kathryn Sikkink, a human rights academic at the Kennedy School, told The Nation magazine that Elmendorf told her he rejected the appointment because of what he called HRW’s “anti-Israel bias.” The decision, reported by The Nation last week, drew criticism from some alumni, the American Civil Liberties Union and HRW itself. Freedom of expression advocacy group PEN America said the decision “raises serious questions about the credibility of the Harvard program itself.”
Read full account in Reuters
Amnesty International slams ban on raising Palestinian flag in 1948 lands
Amnesty International said that the decision of the Minister of National Security in the Israeli occupation government to ban raising the Palestinian flag in the lands of 1948 is a cowardly and expected attempt to obliterate the identity of a Palestinian people and a blatant violation of the United Nations charters and human rights. Amnesty called on Israeli authorities to retract their instructions, warning that these instructions were considered a clear violation of Articles 2, 7, 19, and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN charters, which is the cornerstone of international law.
According to a survey conducted by the organization, incitement against the Palestinian flag by Israeli politicians and organizations over the past years has been highly successful in instilling fear in the hearts of most Jews upon seeing it. The survey confirmed that more than 80% of those who wave the Palestinian flag intend to express their national identity, or protest against the Israeli policy of racial discrimination.
Read more from the Peninsula Qatar
Foreign Minister says leadership mulling legal response to Israel’s vindictive measures
The Israeli Ministerial Committee also ordered offsetting of the welfare payments made by the Palestinian governments to the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in 2022. “The Israeli occupation’s measures violate international law, and come in response to the State of Palestine’s natural and legal right to get rid of the decades-long occupation,” al-Maliki told official Voice of Palestine radio.
Read more in Palestine News network
What will happen after the ICJ delegitimizes Israel’s occupation of Palestine?
The last time that the ICJ was asked to offer a legal opinion on the matter was in 2004. However, back then, the opinion was largely centred on the “legal consequences arising from the construction of the [Israeli Apartheid] wall.”
ICJ has concluded that the totality of the Israeli actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are unlawful under international law — the Fourth Geneva Convention, the relevant provision of the earlier Hague Regulations and, of course, numerous UN General Assembly and Security Council Resolutions — this time around the court will be offering its view on Israel’s attempt to make permanent what is meant to be a temporary military occupation. In other words, the ICJ could — and most likely will — delegitimize every single Israeli action taken in occupied Palestine since 1967. This time around, the consequences will not be symbolic, as is often the case in UN-related decisions on Palestine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has done more than any other Israeli leader to “normalize” the Israeli occupation of Palestine, was understandably angry following the UN vote. He described it as “despicable”.
Read more in The Middle East Monitor
