Ziofascist Israel’s 2023 to 2024 Genocide of Palestinians During the ICJ Proceedings, Part 13: February 19 to 29
An article about the February 19–26, 2024 ICJ submissions from over 50 states and organizations on Israel’s genocide, contrasted with the atrocities that Ziofascist Israel committed during these proceedings and the judges’ deliberation process. [part 12 / part 14]
The Runup to the February 19–26, 2024 ICJ Proceedings
An unprecedented number of countries and international organizations are expected to participate in the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) oral hearings on Israel’s occupation beginning February 19, 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. Fifty-two countries and three international organizations will participate in the oral proceedings, more than in any other case since the world’s highest court began functioning in 1946.
The broad participation in the hearings and the many written submissions reflect growing global momentum to address the decades-long failure to ensure respect for international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The day before the ICJ proceedings, the Ziofascist Israeli regime aired some disturbing psychological torture porn and propaganda a) to discredit in advance and in the eyes of the Israeli public the for Israel devastating results of the ICJ proceedings and b) to increase the Israeli public’s paranoia about Hamas supposedly being everyone and everywhere:
Ziofascist Israeli officer [with omnious and threatening music playing in the background for emotional manipulation]: “These are Hamas terrorists. Some of them participated on October 7. There are Hamas Nukhba fighters here. There are commanders here. It’s tough feeling. In the end, there are terrorists here [yes, the Ziofascist Israelis]. They killed families, killed children [yes, the Ziofascist Israelis did that]. But we get to this checkpoint, we arrest them, investigate them. Whoever tries to fight will die.
Other Ziofascist Israeli soldier [on victimhood propaganda mode]: “It’s hard for me to stand next to them.”
Ziofascist Israeli officer: “It’s hard for all of us. But we are fighters, not mercenaries, and we are not like them [yes, you are far, far worse]. That’s exactly what distinguishes the IDF. … There are no innocent people here. There are no innocent people here. There are terrorists here [yes, you are all despicable genocidal terrorist settler-colonizers].”
An TV propaganda interrogation with a visibly scared Palestian man ensues:
Ziofascist Israeli officer: “Raise your head a bit. Where are you from?”
Detained Palestinian: “Bani Suheila [i.e. from Gaza].” […]
Ziofascist Israeli officer: “I asked you where you were on October 7. Just don’t lie.”
Detained Palestinian: “I was at home, really, in the furniture store.”
Ziofascist Israeli officer: “Furniture?”
Detained Palestinian: “Yes.”
Ziofascist Israeli officer: “Then why are you here? [BECAUSE YOU ZIOFASCIST TERRORISTS BROUGHT HIM HERE!] Do you think we take people as we please? [YES!]
Detained Palestinian [smartly evades the question]: “Really, I just work in a furniture store.”
Ziofascist Israeli officer: “They all start like that, and then later, you know [i.e. AFTER TORTURE], they tell the truth [i.e. WHAT WE SICK FUCKS WANT TO HEAR]. But this is a terrorist from Hamas.”
Ziofascist Israeli terrorist: “Where were you on October 7?”
Terrorized detainee: “I was at home. I went to the store to buy some things for the house. I came straight back home.”
Ziofascist Israeli terrorist: “And what did you see on October 7?”
Terrorized detainee: “I was at home, I didn’t see anything. I saw people. There was big mess on street. I saw a lot of people. I was shocked. I was shocked by what was happening. Because this is a sin.”
Ziofascist Israeli terrorist: “So you were completely shocked?”
Terrorized detainee: “Yes.”
Ziofascist Israeli terrorist: “On October 7?”
Terrorized detainee: “It’s a sin. It’s injustice. They destroyed the world.”
Ziofascist Israeli terrorist: “What do you think of Hamas?”
Terrorized detainee: “May God take revenge from them. May God make them pay. They destroyed the world. People were living happily[!], entrance permits to work, going to work, may God make them pay. The [sic!] were permits and good life.[!]”
Ziofascist Israeli terrorist: “Enough! Enough! [stands up] Come, come, I’ve had enough, really had enough. Come. [narrator:] After that I realized that one of the Nazis[!] who were less than a meter away from me was suspected[!] of murdering a Jewish girl on October 7.”
“He is connected to terrorism. Somehow, I don’t know, so I don’t want to say [i.e. JUST TRUST ME BRO!]”
Benjamin Satanyahu also did his share to try to discredit the ICJ proceedings against Israel the day before they started:
Onward to the proceedings themselves.
February 19
Palestine
The closing and most moving submission was given by the Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour:
Riyad Mansour: “The State of Palestine appeals to this court to guide the international community in upholding international law, ending injustice and achieving a just and lasting peace, to guide us towards a future in which Palestinian children *voice breaking* are treated as children *heaves repeatedly during a long pause*… not as a demographic threat in which the identity of the group to which we belong does not diminish the human rights to which we are all entitled; a future in which no Palestinian and no Israelis is killed; a future *voice breaking* in which two states live side by side in peace and security. The Palestinian people only demand respect for their rights. They ask for nothing more, they cannot accept nothing less and nothing else. The future of freedom, justice and peace can begin here and now. […]”
The same day:
UN experts* today expressed alarm over credible allegations of egregious human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls continue to be subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children, according to information received. “We are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing. Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces,” the experts said.
The experts expressed serious concern about the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women and girls, including human rights defenders, journalists and humanitarian workers, in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October. Many have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food.
“We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,” the experts said. They also noted that photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.
The experts expressed concern that an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army in Gaza. “There are disturbing reports of at least one female infant forcibly transferred by the Israeli army into Israel, and of children being separated from their parents, whose whereabouts remain unknown,” they said.
From the Ziofascist shill and war criminal Hillary Clinton:
First heckler: “Hillary Clinton, how dare you speak about human rights while Palestinians are being murdered in the name of protections of human rights! It has nothing to do with human rights. It has nothing to do with the protection of Jewish people. All you care about is white supremacy. Shame on you! Shame on you! Free Palestine!”
Second female heckler: “Israel is not defending itself! It’s a genocide that you’re paying for! And then you talk about women’s rights!? Are you serious!? What women’s rights are you talking about!? This is a genocide committed by the USA, the government that you are standing under. And now you’re speaking ‘cinema for peace’!? We’re watching a cinema of genocide! [… *while getting removed by security*] You should be ashamed of yourself! Free Palestine! You have blood on your hands!”
Third heckler: “Are you concerned about the Palestinian people whose rights you deny, whose genocide you support? You talk about extrajudicial killings: You have been responsible for the killings of hundreds of Pakistanis. You have supported force in Afghanistan, in Iraq, all over the Middle East. You are a war criminal! You are a hypocrite! Shame on you! Shame on all of you for supporting imperialism! Down with imperialism, whether in the East or the West!”
February 20
South Africa
Algeria
Saudi Arabia
Netherlands
Bangladesh
Belgium
Belize
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
The same day:
Ziofascist Israeli on Channel 14: “We need to encourage ‘voluntary immigration.’ There are a thousand ways. The first way is through the ‘correct statues,’ you see. Every house that has been demolished in the strip, forces people to move out. […] The more barren and destroyed the land is, the more they will leave voluntarily. But there are a thousand additional ways to make people want to move out.”
USA at UN:
UK at UN:
February 21
Colombia
Cuba
Egypt
UAE
USA
Russia
Gambia
France
Guyana
Hungary
The same day:
Ziofascist May ‘Fish Lips’ Golan: “So now listen up Mr. Fifth Column, Mr. Cassif, neither you nor your partners you are defending you from home and abroad matter to us even one bit. This government doesn’t stutter about you. You can keep dreaming that we will end the war without victory. We are not ashamed to say that we want to see the soldiers of the IDF, the holy heros of ours, catching [Hamas leader Yahha] Sinwar and his terrorists by their ears and dragging them all across the Gaza Strip on their way to the dungeons of the Prison Authority — but Ben-Gvir’s Prison Authority, not of [Omer] Bar-Lev or [Merav?] Michaeli. Or, in the best case scenario, to a coffin.
I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did. […] You and your friends can dream that we will allow you to build a government, because if you think that the prize for the slaughter of Jews, the rape of women, beheading and the kidnapping of civilians will be to sit in a ‘government of change’ you are dreaming. You can keep shouting ‘Peace now!’ or ‘Elections now!’ from Kaplan to Gaza, let them hear you. […] And the last thing we will allow you is for Ofer Cassif to go up to the Temple Mount with a flag for Palestine and for Sinwar to be the Minister of Defense of the Palestinian state, like his brother Arafat. Not a dove and not an olive branch, only a sword to cut off Sinwar’s head, that’s what he will receive from us.”
“So as you see, the trucks are on both sides of the road. Here, there, you go there, you go there, everywhere. There are trucks where both EU but also member states who are sending and sending. But the biggest, the biggest obstacle for this humanitarian aid to enter: One, is the lack of security, meaning there is no ceasefire. Two, is that the scanning on the Israeli side is taking far too long time.”
From that February 20, 2024 WFP report:
The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger. WFP is deeply committed to urgently reaching desperate people across Gaza but the safety and security to deliver critical food aid — and for the people receiving it — must be ensured.
Deliveries resumed on Sunday after a three-week suspension following the strike on an UNRWA truck and due to the absence of a functioning humanitarian notification system. The plan was to send 10 trucks of food for seven straight days, to help stem the tide of hunger and desperation and to begin building trust in communities that there would be enough food for all.
On Sunday, as WFP started the route towards Gaza City, the convoy was surrounded by crowds of hungry people close to the Wadi Gaza checkpoint. First fending off multiple attempts by people trying to climb aboard our trucks, then facing gunfire once we entered Gaza City, our team was able to distribute a small quantity of the food along the way. On Monday, the second convoy’s journey north faced complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order. Several trucks were looted between Khan Younes and Deir al Balah and a truck driver was beaten. The remaining flour was spontaneously distributed off the trucks in Gaza city, amidst high tension and explosive anger.
In December, the Integrated Phase Classification report compiled by 15 agencies including WFP warned of the risk of famine in northern Gaza by May unless conditions there improved decisively. At the end of January, after delivering food to the north, we reported on the rapid deterioration of conditions. In these past two days our teams witnessed unprecedented levels of desperation.
The latest reports confirm Gaza’s precipitous slide into hunger and disease. Food and safe water have become incredibly scarce and diseases are rife, compromising women and children’s nutrition and immunity and resulting in a surge of acute malnutrition. People are already dying from hunger-related causes.
A report issued Monday by UNICEF and WFP, based on recent data, finds that the situation is particularly extreme in the Northern Gaza Strip. Nutrition screenings conducted at shelters and health centres in the north found that 15.6 per cent — or 1 in 6 children under 2 years of age — are acutely malnourished.
WFP will seek ways to resume deliveries in a responsible manner as soon as possible. A large-scale expansion of the flow of assistance to northern Gaza is urgently needed to avoid disaster. To achieve this, WFP needs significantly higher volumes of food coming into the Gaza strip from multiple routes, additionally, crossing points to the north of Gaza must open. A functioning humanitarian notification system and a stable communication network are needed. And security, for our staff and partners as well as for the people we serve, must be facilitated.
Gaza is hanging by a thread and WFP must be enabled to reverse the path towards famine for thousands of desperately hungry people.
The BBC and Francesca Albanese also reported:
USA:
Britain:
February 22
China
Ma Xinmin: “The UNGA resolution 3070 of 1973, I quote, ‘reaffirms the legitimacy of the peoples’ struggle for liberation from colonial and foreign dom-
ination and alien subjugation by all available means, including armed struggle.’[…]”
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
The Substantive Issues
12. Mr. President, Israel has been in occupation of the Palestinian Territory since 1967. Accordingly, in that Territory it is obliged to respect applicable international humanitarian law, including the law of military occupation, and international human rights law.
13. The defining feature of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been continuous settlement activity. In our written statement, we have drawn on the authoritative reports of the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to set out the numerous different means by which this has occurred. But in summary, we say the following:
• Israel has used different means to take and exercise control for non-military purposes over as much land in the OPT as possible;
• Once in control, Israel has undertaken permanent construction on this land, in particular developing or encouraging the development of permanent settlements, onto which it has incentivised large numbers of its own citizens to transfer;
• Through its actions, Israel has fundamentally altered the demographics of the West Bank. As of 2022, almost 700,000 Israeli citizens were living in settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem;
• Israel has extended the application of domestic Israeli law to those living in settlements, blurring the distinction between Israel and the OPT; and
• Israel has transferred the exercise of authority in the OPT in certain areas from military command to civilian control, integrating administration of the Territory into that of Israel.
14. By transferring parts of its own civilian population into the OPT, Israel has violated Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention. It has continued to do this notwithstanding this Court’s confirmation of its unlawfulness in the Wall case and despite being exhorted by both the Security Council and the General Assembly to cease the practice.
15. Israel has also continued to unlawfully destroy and appropriate property throughout the OPT as part of its policy of encouraging and facilitating the expansion of settlements. This destruction and appropriation of property cannot reasonably be justified by military necessity. Rather, it is clear that it has been done to facilitate — and indeed encourage — the expansion of settlements. Such destruction and appropriation of property clearly breaches the Fourth Geneva Convention and the laws and customs of war codified by the 1907 Hague Regulations.
16. There has also been a recent, marked increase in reports of Palestinian civilians being subjected to sustained, serious violence by Israeli settlers, with little or no protection from the Israeli security forces, contrary to International Humanitarian Law. The security forces have been reported, and recorded, not only watching this violence without intervening, but in some instances, participating in it themselves. This has escalated since 7 October and the Secretary-General has warned that tensions have now reached ‘boiling point.’
17. The Secretary-General and High Commissioner have expressed concern that this violence, particularly when considered in light of the appropriation and destruction of Palestinian property, has compelled Palestinians to leave their homes, their farms and their grazing grounds. The Secretary-General has noted that the coercive environment created by Israel could amount to forcible transfer, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention which may amount to a war crime.
Annexation
18. Let me turn now to the question of annexation.
19. The evident permanence of the settlements can only be explained, in Ireland’s assessment, by Israel’s intention of annexing the land upon which they are built. In our view, the development and expansion of settlements clearly demonstrate that Israel is — and has been — engaged in a process of annexation of that land for decades. The absence of any declaration of annexation or formal de jure act of incorporation over most of the West Bank is immaterial. Despite references in the current Israeli Government’s coalition agreements, which the Secretary-General describes as promoting a policy of ‘application of sovereignty’ over the West Bank, previous history suggests that no announcement or formal act of incorporation may occur in the near future.
20. Nevertheless, in Ireland’s view, Israel is already engaged in the process of annexing Palestinian territory. It is doing so de facto, through its policy of encouraging demographic change in that territory by population transfer and the continuous development and maintenance of permanent settlements and infrastructure. Ireland is concerned that it may also be doing so de jure, by increasingly extending the application of domestic Israeli law and civilian administration to the settlements in the OPT, thereby integrating them into its own territory and erasing the differences in law between Israel and the settlements.
21. But whether de facto, de jure, or both, this process of annexation is in clear breach of the prohibition in international law against the acquisition of territory by threat or use of force, a fundamental principle of international law. To assert that this is not the case because Israel has not formally declared annexation would render the prohibition devoid of all meaning. That would permit States to acquire territory by force, without legal consequence, simply by declining to adopt a formal act of annexation or incorporation.
Unlawful Occupation
22. International Humanitarian Law does not classify a military occupation as either lawful or unlawful — rather it recognises that military occupation may occur during the course of an armed conflict and sets down rules to regulate the conduct of the occupying power, in particular its armed forces. Military occupation is necessarily temporary insofar as international law prohibits the acquisition of territory by force. Occupation does not confer sovereignty — rather, it is a temporary exception to sovereignty and, accordingly, it cannot be of indefinite duration.
23. Prolonged occupation over an extended period of time raises unavoidable legal questions, in particular whether it constitutes a disguised form of annexation and/or a determined effort to deny the people of an occupied territory the exercise of their right to self-determination. In either case, the legality of the occupying power’s presence in the territory inevitably arises. While it is of course possible that a military occupation effected by force may be undertaken in exercise of the right in international law to the use of force in self-defence, any such occupation may involve no more — and may endure no longer — than is necessary and is proportionate to the armed attack to which it is a response.
24. In the case of the OPT, Israel’s military occupation began in 1967 and has continued now, uninterrupted, for 57 years. It has also entailed, as I have said, extensive and continuous, permanent and deliberate settlement building. Neither the duration of the occupation nor the scale and extent of settlement activity is, in Ireland’s view, justified or permitted by the law regulating the use of force in self-defence. Indeed, if the security of one people can only be achieved by the occupation — over so many decades — of the territory of another people, one has to wonder whether there can be any military solution to the problem it purports to address. In our view, the only effective solution to the problem can be a political one.
Self Determination
25. Mr. President, I wish to turn now to the question of self-determination. As submitted in our written statement, Ireland has concluded that — by its prolonged occupation of Palestinian lands and continuous settlement activity on those lands — Israel has prevented the exercise by the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination. The principle of self-determination is a fundamental principle of international law, enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the two 1966 International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The content of that principle was elaborated in the 1970 Declaration on Friendly Relations, adopted by consensus at the General Assembly. That Declaration makes clear that:
‘Every State has the duty to promote, through joint and separate action, realization of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples … bearing in mind that subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a violation of the principle, as well as a denial of fundamental human rights, and is contrary to the Charter.’
26. The Declaration solemnly proclaims that ‘(e)very State has the duty to refrain from any forcible action which deprives peoples … in the elaboration of the present principle of their right to self-determination and freedom and independence.’
27. In the Wall case, the Court found that the construction of the wall and its associated regime severely impeded the exercise by the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination. It therefore breached Israel’s obligation to respect that right. In Ireland’s view, the combination of Israel’s prolonged occupation of the OPT and its escalating settlement activity has done so on a far greater scale. That escalating activity has increasingly fragmented Palestinian presence upon — and restricted Palestinian use of — the land and natural resources of the Palestinian people. It threatens the viability of a future Palestinian State. The nature, scale and duration of settlement activity is such that its purpose can only be to permanently obstruct the exercise of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
Character of the Legal Obligations Concerned
28. Both the prohibition of acquisition of territory by threat or use of force and the principle of self-determination are fundamental principles of international law, as are the basic rules of international humanitarian law. It is widely recognised that these fundamental principles have the character of peremptory norms of general international law, or jus cogens, from which derogation is never permitted (or, as the Court described them in its Advisory Opinion on the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, ‘intransgressible principles of international customary law’ ). In turn, peremptory norms of general international law give rise to obligations owed to the international community as a whole (obligations erga omnes), in relation to which all States have a legal interest, a conclusion also recently reached by the International Law Commission.
Japan
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Mauritius
The same day:
Nihal Abu Ayash was wearing his football kit and carrying his school bag when he was shot in the head and killed after Israeli forces opened fire in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar.
The first bullet reportedly hit the 16-year-old in the leg. He collapsed, and as he tried to stand up, he was shot for a second time in the head, according to the schoolboy’s family.
“It was an execution,” said Ziad Abu Ayash, Nihal’s father. “There was no need to kill him. He didn’t have a gun, he didn’t have a tank. There is no excuse. It is a crime.”
Surrounded by mourners at the family home in Beit Ummar, the 62-year-old added: “I cannot heal. This pain will not leave me. The shock and the devastation will not leave me.”
Nihal was the 100th Palestinian child to be killed in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, according to the human rights group Defense for Children International — Palestine (DCIP).
Nihal was a bright student who dreamed of studying sports at university and becoming a professional football player. The talented goalkeeper was already playing for Beit Ummar football club.
His parents have struggled to come terms with the loss of their first-born son. His mother, Hanan, 47, has been unable to speak or eat and his father has refused to leave the family home, where he spends hours clutching his son’s football boots. The youngest of Nihal’s four siblings, Mahmoud, 13, has developed a stammer since witnessing his brother’s killing last week.
The family said the tragedy unfolded when Israeli forces entered downtown Beit Ummar in armoured vehicles at about 12.30pm on 14 February. They blocked roads in the town, preventing some people from reaching their homes.
Abu Ayash said he called his son to tell him to wait at a nearby family member’s house until the soldiers retreated. Nihal and Mahmoud, who had just left school, went to an aunt’s house.
“Minutes later, I received a call from my daughter saying that she had been told that Nihal was injured. Before I reached the hospital where my son was taken, the mosque declared that he was martyred.”
Ayed Abu Eqtaish, a programme director at DCIP, which documented the shooting, said “confrontations” erupted between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, who had also taken up positions on the rooftops of buildings. The Israeli forces reportedly responded to the tensions by opening fire.
Mahmoud said he saw his brother being killed by a sniper. The teenager said: “We thought that the army had left, so Nihal went to see what was going on. I followed him. But the moment we were in the street, the army was in our face. We wanted to run away but the army was close.
“They shot Nihal in the leg and he fell down. I went to pick him up, to rescue him, but other people pulled me back. Another person tried to help him and he was shot in the leg. Nihal tried to stand up but they shot him in the head while he was still on the floor.”
Nihal was taken to a medical centre in the town before being transferred to al-Ahli hospital in Hebron. A medical report seen by the Guardian confirmed that a bullet entered the right side of his head and that he was pronounced dead at 4pm.
[…]
Abu Ayash said he wanted the people who killed his son to be held accountable. “I’m so angry with the army for killing my son,” he said. “I want those responsible to be put on trial, I want them to be held accountable, like anybody else who commits a crime. Nihal was 16 years old; what did he do for them to shoot him, to execute him?”
The Israel Defense Forces directed all inquiries to the border police, who did not respond to a request for comment.
The USA and the moral collapse of the West:
February 23
Namibia
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Indonesia
Qatar
Britain
Slovenia
Switzerland
Syria
Tunisia
The same day:
“This is mass destruction. There is no Khan Yunis left. Khan Yunis doesn’t exist anymore. The burning, the bombing, the bulldozing, it’s everywhere.”
UN:
“All States must ‘ensure respect’ for international humanitarian law by parties to an armed conflict, as required by 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary international law,” the experts said. “States must accordingly refrain from transferring any weapon or ammunition — or parts for them — if it is expected, given the facts or past patterns of behaviour, that they would be used to violate international law.”
“Such transfers are prohibited even if the exporting State does not intend the arms to be used in violation of the law — or does not know with certainty that they would be used in such a way — as long as there is a clear risk,” they said.
The experts welcomed the decision of a Dutch appeals court on 12 February 2024 ordering the Netherlands to halt the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel. The court found that there was a “clear risk” that the parts would be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law, as “there are many indications that Israel has violated the humanitarian law of war in a not insignificant number of cases”.
Germany:
Berlin — 23 February 2024
Today, a group of German lawyers — representing families of two Gazans — is filing a criminal complaint against German Government officials[1], for the crime of aiding and abetting genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by providing Israel with weapons and issuing related export permissions. They are supported by civil society organisations ELSC (European Legal Support Center), PIPD (Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy) and Law for Palestine under the Justice and Accountability for Palestine Initiative. The charges are being filed at the Office of the Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe (‘Generalbundesanwaltschaft’).
In a historic ruling on 26 January 2024 in the case filed by South Africa against Israel for the crime of Genocide, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures against the “serious risk” of genocide and stated that the latter is “plausibly taking place”. Following that ruling, Germany, like other Third States, has a clear obligation to prevent genocide and German State officials should use their leverage and employ all lawful means at their disposal to influence Israel to refrain from genocidal acts.
German criminal law requires a ground for initial suspicion to start investigations on a potential crime being committed. The ICJ ruling clearly showed that there is such ground for initial suspicion when it comes to the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
When it comes to “aiding and abetting”, this can be done through logistical, financial or material support, but also by creating favorable conditions for the main crime. In particular, aiding and abetting includes the authorization of arms exports and political support.
The German state is one of the countries that has shown some of the strongest political and material to Israel in its assault on the Gaza Strip and the Palestinians, with many German officials also inciting to genocide in their statements since October 2023.
The plaintiffs have decided to act, attempting to hold Germany accountable for its complicity in the unspeakable horrors their families are living through. Nora Ragab, an activist and plaintiff in the case, who has relatives in Gaza, declared:
“We the living must remember the dead in Gaza, tell their stories and fight for justice. We, Palestinians in the diaspora, will not stand by and watch a genocide being committed against our families and our people. We will use all means at our disposal, from protests on the streets to lawsuits in criminal courts. Today we aim to hold the German government accountable for its complicity in the genocide in Gaza.”
The case notably draws on the fact that in 2023, Germany’s arms exports to Israel amounted to EUR 326.5 million, most of which were approved after October 7, 2023, a tenfold increase of arms exports to Israel compared to 2022. Weapons imported from Germany make up 28 percent of Israel’s military imports
The German government approved more than 300 additional export applications for military equipment worth EUR 306.4 million. It is currently examining Israel’s request for the delivery of tank ammunition, namely 10,000 rounds of 120-millimeter precision ammunition, to which the federal ministries involved have already agreed in principle.
USA:
February 24
Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th there were no submissions, so onward to Ziofascist Israeli atrocities that never stop on weekends. The following video shows a young and dying Palestinian daughter who had her brains blown out by the Ziofascist Israelis but she still blinks her eyes and tries to touch her head wound which her father prevents:
From what was formerly The Palestine Post and is now a Ziofascist propaganda outlet:
February 25
Two Palestinians, including an old man, murdered by Ziofascist occuption snipers on a rooftop:
USA:
February 26
Türkiye
Zambia
League of Arab States
One of the very best submissions that ended with a quote from the murdered Palestinian writer Refaat Al-Areer was delivered by Dr. Ralph Wilde (who starts speaking at the 57:15 mark in the UN footage):
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (57 member states):
African Union
Spain
Fiji
Maldives
The same day:
February 27
Israel is intentionally starving Palestinians and should be held accountable for war crimes — and genocide, according to the UN’s leading expert on the right to food.
Hunger and severe malnutrition are widespread in the Gaza Strip, where about 2.2 million Palestinians are facing severe shortages resulting from Israel destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of food, medicines and other humanitarian supplies. Aid trucks and Palestinians waiting for humanitarian relief have come under Israeli fire.
“There is no reason to intentionally block the passage of humanitarian aid or intentionally obliterate small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza — other than to deny people access to food,” Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian.
“Intentionally depriving people of food is clearly a war crime. Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian. In my view as a UN human rights expert, this is now a situation of genocide. This means the state of Israel in its entirety is culpable and should be held accountable — not just individuals or this government or that person.”
In every famine — whether its human-made or climate-driven — children and infants, pregnant women and the elderly are the most vulnerable to malnutrition, disease and premature death.
Nutrition screenings at health centers and shelters in January found almost 16% of children under the age of two — the equivalent of one in six infants — were acutely malnourished or wasting in northern Gaza, where 300,000 people are trapped with virtually no food aid being allowed in by Israel. Of these, almost 3% are suffering from severe wasting, at high risk of medical complications or death without urgent help, according to a recent UN report. Reports have emerged of parents feeding their children animal feed in hope of keeping them alive.
In Rafah in the south, where Israel is currently focusing military attacks, 5% of children under two years were acutely malnourished. Wasting was not a major concern in Gaza before the conflict, when 0.8% of children under the age of five were acutely malnourished.
The screenings took place in January, and the situation is likely to be even worse today, warned Unicef — which has been not had access to the north despite frequent requests since 1 January.
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“The speed of malnourishment of young children is also astounding. The bombing and people being killed directly is brutal, but this starvation — and the wasting and stunting of children — is torturous and vile. It will have a long-term impact on the population physically, cognitively and morally … All things indicate that this has been intentional,” said Fakhri, a law professor at the University of Oregon.
Intentionally starving civilians by “depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies” is a war crime, according to the Rome statute of the international criminal court. Indispensable objects include food, water and shelter — which Israel is systematically denying Palestinians. Starvation is a war crime under the Geneva conventions and the Rome statute. It was also recognized as a war crime and general violation of international law by the UN security council in 2018.
Across Gaza, 95% of households are restricting meals and portion size, with adults going without to feed small children. Yet the little food people have lacks essential nutrients needed for humans to grow and thrive physically and cognitively.
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On average, the households surveyed had less than one litre of safe water per person per day. At least 90% of children under five are affected by one or more infectious disease.
“Hunger and disease are a deadly combination,” said Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s emergencies programme.
The speed of the malnutrition crisis speaks to the fact that even before this war, half of Gazans were food insecure and almost 80% relied on humanitarian aid due to the 16-year blockade.
A 2019 study on small-scale agriculture in the Palestinian territories found that “the Israeli occupation is the most important single driver of food and nutrition insecurity.”
“It was already a very fragile situation due to Israel’s chokehold on what goes in and out of Gaza. So when the war started, Israel was very easily able to make everyone go hungry because they had most people on the brink,” said Fakhri.
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“We have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts. Israel is not just targeting civilians, it is trying to damn the future of the Palestinian people by harming their children.”
The catastrophic situation could still get worse. In late January, more than a dozen countries including the US, the UK, Germany, Australia and Canada suspended funds to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
Financial aid was suspended immediately after Israel made unsubstantiated allegations against 12 UNRWA employees having links to Hamas — on the same day the international court of justice (ICJ) made its interim ruling ordering Israel to take all possible measures to prevent genocidal acts, and to take immediate steps to ensure the provision of basic services and humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.
UNRWA, which has about 30,000 employees, provides emergency food, healthcare, education and other basic services for almost 6 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and East Jerusalem. On Friday, UNWRA said it could no longer function in north Gaza, where food was last delivered five weeks ago.
“Ending funding almost instantaneously based on unsubstantiated claims against a small number of people has no other purpose other than collective punishment of all Palestinians in multiple countries. The countries that withdrew this lifeline are undoubtedly complicit in the starvation of Palestinians,” Fakhri said.
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Israel has for years targeted Palestinian food and water sources.
Israel has made foraging for native wild herbs like za’atar (thyme), ‘akkoub (gundelia) and miramiyyeh (sage) a criminal offense punishable by fines and up to three years’ imprisonment. Palestinians fishers have for years been shot at, arrested and sabotaged by Israeli forces — in violation of the 1995 Oslo accords permitting them fishing access up to 20 nautical miles.
And the current violence — against Palestinians and their food and water supplies — extends to the occupied West Bank.
After the 7 October attack, 24,000 acres of olives were left unharvested in the West Bank after Israel largely prevented farmers from accessing their orchards, resulting in the loss of 1,200 metric tons or $10m of olive oil — a key Palestinian export and powerful symbol for Palestinian identity.
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“The destruction of olive trees isn’t just an issue of food or commerce, it’s at the core of what it means to be Palestinian and their relationship to the land, just as the sea is central to what it means to be from Gaza,” Fakhri said.
The Israeli government did not respond to requests for comment about the statements from Fakhri, the UN rights expert.
Fakhri added: “Israel will claim there are exceptions to war crimes. But there is no exception to genocide and there’s no argument as to why Israel is destroying civilian infrastructure, the food system, humanitarian workers, and allowing this degree of malnutrition and hunger … The charge of genocide holds a whole state accountable […]
Swedish EMP Abir Al-Sahlani: “There are no more words to speak about what’s going on in Gaza. Mr. President of this session. There are no more laws to break. There are no more appeals we can do to what’s going on. The hypocrisy is obvious. Our collective humane [sic!] has failed. We said that we wont fail, but we are failing again. Human rights have a skin color, and the darker you are, the less human rights you have. We have been tried to be silenced. They have tried to make us look like antisemites. They have tried to make us look like we don’t care about the safety of the Israeli people. All of that still to make it possible to kill more Palestinians. Unfortunately.”
February 28
In the fotograph, Seldowitz may be the second person on the left whose face is partially hidden by the woman’s:
Here is the full list of names which includes a “spiritual healer”:
“He served in the state department in their office of Israel and Palestine affairs, as deputy director during the Bush years. This racist man had a role in managing the lie of the two-state solution. […] Stuart Seldowitz also was a national security adviser to President Obama, the same President Obama who led the NATO intervention of Libya which saw the country bombed 7000 times in a 6-month period.”
Rebuttals:
February 29
Automatic gunfire and people ducking can be seen and heard repeatedly throughout the Al Jazeera video:
A few ‘lucky’ Palestinians are carrying sacks of flour while many more are searching for food:
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and some 700 others wounded after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, health officials say, as the besieged enclave faces an unprecedented hunger crisis.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said on Thursday said at least 112 people were killed and more than 750 wounded, with the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemning what it said was a cold-blooded “massacre”.
[…]
People had congregated at al-Rashid Street, where aid trucks carrying flour were believed to be on the way. Al Jazeera verified footage showing the bodies of dozens of killed and wounded Palestinians being carried onto trucks as no ambulances could reach the area.
“We went to get flour. The Israeli army shot at us. There are many martyrs on the ground and until this moment we are withdrawing them. There is no first aid,” said one witness.
Reporting from the scene, Al Jazeera’s Ismail al-Ghoul said that after opening fire, Israeli tanks advanced and ran over many of the dead and injured bodies. “It is a massacre, on top of the starvation threatening citizens in Gaza,” he said.
The dead and wounded had been taken to four medical centres: al-Shifa, Kamal Adwan, Ahli and the Jordanian hospitals. Ambulances could not reach the area as the roads had been “totally destroyed”, said al-Ghoul.
“The numbers will rise. Hospitals are no longer able to accommodate the huge number of patients because they lack fuel, let alone medicine. Hospitals have also run out of blood.”
Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith said the Israeli military “initially tried to pin the blame on the crowd” saying that dozens were hurt as a consequence of being crushed and trampled when aid trucks arrived.
“And then, after some pushing the Israelis went on to say that their troops felt threatened, that hundreds of troops approached their troops in a way they posed a threat to them so they responded by opening fire,” Smith added.
Initial investigations by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor confirm that Israeli army gunfire killed and wounded dozens of starving Palestinian civilians who were attempting to receive humanitarian aid in western Gaza at dawn on Thursday. The Israeli army is striving to disassociate itself from the atrocity, Euro-Med Monitor said, by releasing a shattered aerial video clip and arguing that the large number of civilian deaths was caused by a stampede and trampling.
In a brief statement, the rights organisation said that its research teams observed the event from the very first moments and recorded that Israeli tanks opened heavy fire on groups of Palestinian civilians attempting to receive humanitarian aid west and south of Gaza City. As a result, 112 civilians were killed and 760 were injured, while many victims are believed to remain in the targeted area.
Euro-Med Monitor stated that the evidence — which is supported by video footage showing the shooting operation — demonstrates that dozens of victims suffered gunshot wounds, rather than being run over or crushed, in contrast to what the Israeli army spokesman claimed.
The evidence for Ziofascist Israeli perpetratorship:
The rights group highlighted four pieces of evidence confirming the Israeli army’s killing and wounding of starving civilians, the first of which is the signs of injuries on the bodies of the dead and injured. These injuries were documented by a Euro-Med Monitor researcher as soon as the victims arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital, as was the blood on flour bags and aid boxes.
The second piece of evidence is the footage released by the Israeli army itself, which includes audible evidence of gunfire emanating from Israeli tanks positioned near the coast, which the army purposefully covered up in the video using black; eyewitnesses have confirmed that the tanks were present close to the crime scene.
The third piece of evidence concerns the bullets’ distinct sound signature, said Euro-Med Monitor, which is audible in the footage released at the time of the shooting and identifies them as coming from an automatic weapon used by the Israeli army with 5.56 bullets.
Finally, the rights group stated that the aerial video published by the Israeli army is intentionally fragmented and distorted. At minute 1:06, however, the video footage does indicate the existence of at least two Israeli tanks, as well as multiple bodies, in the path of the tanks rather than the aid trucks.
The Geneva-based organisation noted that during minutes 1:06–1:28 in the video, the majority of those in attendance — including individuals who had initially been far from the aid trucks — can be seen fleeing from the trucks, i.e. running in the opposite direction. This indicates that the danger did not originate from the trucks themselves or from the surrounding crowd of people, but rather from an outside source that terrified everyone in the area, both close to and far away from the trucks. Furthermore, the video clip released by the Israeli army does not depict any ramming operations, which aligns with numerous survivors’ accounts of being shot in the back as they attempted to flee the scene.
From a BBC analysis:
At about 04:00 local time on Thursday 29 February, a convoy of lorries carrying the aid from Egypt passes through an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) location, making its way north along al-Rashid Street.
The IDF says there were 30 lorries in the convoy, while an eyewitness told the BBC there were 18 — even at the lower figure, it would have stretched for at least a few hundred metres.
The IDF’s chief spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, said that at about 04:45 lorries in the convoy were surrounded by crowds of people as the vehicles approached the Nabulsi roundabout, on the south-western edge of Gaza City.
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This is a screengrab from infra-red drone footage released by the IDF.
The video released by the IDF is not one single sequence. It has been edited into four sections.
It shows events at two locations, both of which BBC Verify has geolocated.
The first two sections of video show people surrounding two or more lorries just south of the Nabulsi roundabout.
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Dr Mohamed Salha, interim hospital manager at al-Awda hospital, where many of the dead and injured were taken, told the BBC: “Al-Awda hospital received around 176 injured people…142 of these cases are bullet injuries and the rest are from the stampede and broken limbs in the upper and lower body parts.”
Ziofascist Israeli propaganda:
US and British mainstream media ‘reporting’:
Before their February 29 flour massacre, the Ziofascist Israelis already attacked and murdered other aid-searching Palestinians:
Palestinian man: “I have to die for the flour bag. We must die in Gaza, and feel humiliated for the bag of flour, because the world is silent and complicit.”
From a possibly post-February 29 shooting:
Also from Ziofascist Israel:
But the as usual unintentionally ironical and satirical Ziofascist Israeli UN ambassador Gilad Erdan wants you to believe that his terrorist state is the poor little victim. This time he rambled about Russia and its supposedly “indiscriminate missile and drone attacks” while Ziofascist Israel actually did and keeps committing that and many other crimes:
Ziofascist Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan [projecting Israel’s own behavior on Russia and using Russia to distract from its own and far worse actions]: “Two years ago, Russia, with disdain for its neighbors sovereignty and territorial integrity, invaded Ukraine, causing tragic loss of human life and immense damage to civilian infrastructure. […] forces of instability act with impunity. International law be damned, morality be damned, and peace and security be damned. But today, not only do these military forces use power or terror, but they have another tool. They have converted the UN and its bodies into a weapon against freedom and liberty. This is what the UN has become. Today, the Security Council cannot fulfill its basic mandate to defend sovereign states [i.e. Palestine] from invasion […]. The Security Council is paralyzed, […]and the entire UN is held hostage by political interests.
[…] The audacity of those who invade others and attack civilians to baselessly lecture the law-abiding democracy of Israel on international law is the perfect example of how destructive this institution has become.”
