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#un_resolutions

May 23, 2024 8:15am

As the ICC seeks arrests, I ask those who facilitated the Gaza slaughter: what were you thinking?

The Guardian

The deaths, the atrocities – all were predicted. Those who ignored all the warnings should be held responsible too.

As the international criminal court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, officially seeks arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders, a question must be asked of the politicians and media outlets that legitimised Israel’s western-backed destruction of Gaza, which is one of the great crimes of our age: what were you thinking?

(Text continues underneath the photo.)

Karim Khan (centre) requested arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, 21 May 2024. Photograph: International Criminal Court/Rex/Shutterstock.

The arrest warrant requests detail, firstly, how three Hamas leaders should be held criminally responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity including extermination, murder and hostage-taking. Their guilt is incontrovertible, and no cause justifies such depraved crimes against civilians.

But there is a distinction to be made. For while Hamas’s crimes were obscene and indefensible, the prosecutor’s proposed charges against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, describe atrocities that were directly facilitated by cheerleader politicians, most notably in the US, UK and Germany, and legitimised by multiple media outlets. (...)

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Tags: #israel #palestine #palestinians #occupied_territories #gaza #war #war_crimes #un #united_nations #un_resolutions #us #united_states #icc #media #news #journalism #journalist

Bert Ernste • NL | BR

May 6, 2024 12:13pm

A Middle East Peace That Could Happen (But Won’t)

In Washington-Speak, “Palestinian State” Means “Fried Chicken”

Noam Chomsky (Tom Dispatch)

The fact that the Israel-Palestine conflict grinds on without resolution might appear to be rather strange. For many of the world’s conflicts, it is difficult even to conjure up a feasible settlement. In this case, it is not only possible, but there is near universal agreement on its basic contours: a two-state settlement along the internationally recognized (pre-June 1967) borders — with “minor and mutual modifications,” to adopt official U.S. terminology before Washington departed from the international community in the mid-1970s.

The basic principles have been accepted by virtually the entire world, including the Arab states (who go on to call for full normalization of relations), the Organization of Islamic States (including Iran), and relevant non-state actors (including Hamas). A settlement along these lines was first proposed at the U.N. Security Council in January 1976 by the major Arab states. Israel refused to attend the session. The U.S. vetoed the resolution, and did so again in 1980. The record at the General Assembly since is similar. (...)

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