The FT reported yesterday that:
Israel's parliament approved two pieces of legislation on Monday that ban a 74-year-old UN agency for Palestinian refugees from operating within Israeli territory and also cut diplomatic ties with the organisation.
As they noted:
The measures threaten the ability of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to provide food, medicine and shelter to nearly 2mn Gazans displaced by war in the Palestinian enclave.
This is not an accident, of course. This is a deliberate move by the Israeli government to do three things.
First, they want to force the Palestinian people of Gaza out of that territory. This is an act of warfare aimed at reclaiming that territory. Warfare of this sort is illegal in international law but is as old as recorded history.
Second, this is an act of collective punishment on the people of Gaza. Again, this is illegal in international law. The aim is ethnic cleansing. The consequence is genocide. The excuse is Hamas, and however wrong it was, nothing justifies this action.
Third, it is a deliberate snub to the United Nations and the international community. The Israeli government is making clear that it thinks it can act with impunity.
I note the first two of these points: they are facts.
The third is what concerns me here, because the UK has the power to address this issue.
We could unequivocally condemn Israeli government action at the UN.
We could halt all arms sales to Israel.
We could sanction Israel, and I think we should.
We could make clear that we walk our talk of concern and take steps to protect the people of Gaza.
We could, and I think we should, suspend Israel's membership of the UN whilst this continues.
But will Starmer do any such thing? No, of course not.
And will Harris? No, if she is elected.
There is a reason for that. They are enabling the fascist government in Israel to undertake these appalling acts and do not have the will to stop them any more than they will eventually have the will to stop fascism anywhere.
As Tim Snyder would have it, they are surrendering in advance of the onset of oppression, unwilling to do anything to stop it.
Right now, a few million are suffering.
Sometime, it will be many more.
By then, it will probably be too late.
This is the day when action is required, but I expect to hear nothing other than the polite shuffling of papers as blind eyes are turned yet again. The time for that has long passed. Sometime, those who are failing now must be held to account for their doing so. Appeasement of fascists now is as ugly as ever it was.
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As the UNHR website states:
“The landmark ruling of 19 July 2024 declared that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful, along with the associated settlement regime, annexation and use of natural resources. The Court added that Israel’s legislation and measures violate the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. The ICJ mandated Israel to end its occupation, dismantle its settlements, provide full reparations to Palestinian victims and facilitate the return of displaced people.”
By continuing to ignore this and enabling and arming Israel our government is in breach of international law. Remaining silent in the face of Israel’s latest legislation is disgraceful. Gaza is not “Israeli territory”. It is clearly illegally occupied.
Perhaps it is our Governments consideration of growth that drives their approach – so much to be made from all those weapon sales.
Quotes from a Declassified article on UK and genocides:
“There are considerable commercial advantages to be gained”, a ministerial committee stated, and “the scope for military exports is considerable”. re Biafra
In October 1989 foreign minister William Waldegrave noted that “I doubt if there is any future market of such a scale anywhere where the UK is potentially so well-placed”. Kurds/ Iraq
Just how sick a country are we / are our Governments?
Emily Thornberry was interviewed on this on Radio 4 Today and had to sit through a barrage of Israeli accusations called ‘context’.
Film documentary make Richard Sanders has with Al Jazeera and other produced a film exposing Israeli war crimes. In a conversation with Peter Oborne he says that the BBC and other mainstream media will not screen it.
The first link is the Sanders and Oborne interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI1qz2QtNG0
IDF livestreaming their activities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tKPXY0icAU
We are not being told the whole picture.
And Israel’s actions conveniently take the focus off anything else of significance happening in the world, such as the stolen election in Georgia, where Russia is once again trying to ensure a democratic country where the majority of people want to align with Europe, are pulled back into the fascist hold of Russia.
Ditto the US, where in recent days Trump has told audiences that they’ll be no need for them to vote again in four years if he wins this election, and that ‘he doesn’t need their votes’ – precisely because he and his acolytes have no intention of accepting the election results if they loose. See the second part of this report from Rachel Maddow for more details: https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
Why not enforce a no fly zone over Palestine and South Lebanon? Many seemed keen for it over Ukraine
Whilst Israel’s persecution of this conflict – which I have come to the conclusion is genocidal in nature, so I’m with you 100% Richard – is abhorrent, as I zoom back my conceptual zoom lens to a wider angle I can conclude that Israel behaves as it does ONLY because its actions have been tacitly approved of in the West. Israel has external sponsors. Whether it is for oil or other geo-political reasons.
So, it is perhaps best in order to avoid being attacked as anti-Semitic to instead have a really good look at the sponsors because after all, if you agree with my proposition, Israel is just being used as a tool by the West – which could be said to be anti-Semitic anyway.
Christians have a long and ‘proud history’ of using their Jewish brethren to do their dirty work in society and in concentration camps. The fake Judeo/Christian tradition being used to mobilise against Islam, is fake because it is actually an abusive history. This seems another case of Christian based abuse to me.
As one Chinese entrepreneur has noted, the psychology of the Christian West is that it always wants to convert you – never live alongside you as you are. And you are dealing with a bunch of people who walk around thinking that someone else died for their sins! How convenient is that? It reminds me of investment banking, where someone else always pays hard for a easy financial gain.
So to me, this is as much genocide by dominantly Christian societies as much as a Jewish one. Who is using who? That is my sad conclusion.
And as Chris Hedges has said – well – I agree that we are ALL are lot more unsafe now and in the future.
It seems that the only peace we will ever have in this world is in our death. Samuel Beckett was right. Congratulations to all concerned.
BTW – Genocide is not a term reserved for Jews alone. It is term that defines humanity – especially when the genocidal covet what their victims have and choose to take it. That is what the Jewish Holocaust taught us all. Or did it?
PSR – I’m a follower of Jesus, with links to Palestinian and Israeli Arabs, but I don’t disagree with what you say, history and experience point very much in that direction. One analysis I have seen of the situation in Israel/Palestine, is that Palestinians are being forced by the West, to pay the price for the guilt of antisemitic Christian Europe, and not just for the Nazi genocides, but the centuries of pogroms and expulsions in Europe and Russia. There’s a lot of truth to that.
Interestingly, one voice that is rarely heard in the current conflict is the voice of the Christians who live in the region, and in particular, the Palestinian ones. They have been consistent advocates for peace, and largely ignored in the West. One Bethlehem pastor (whom I have personally met and heard lecturing at the 2023 Christ at the Checkpoint conference in Bristol in June last year https://www.csbvbristol.org.uk/annual-conference-2023/ ) tried to visit the Archbishop of Canterbury recently and was rebuffed by Lambeth Palace – although after the pastor had joined with other Middle Eastern church leaders in making his feelings known publicly about that, Welby did a U turn, agreed to see him. And then shortly afterwards, Welby made another significant U turn and called publicly for an end to settlements in the Occupied Territories – https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/archbishop-canterbury-ending-israel-occupation-legal-moral-necessity
and I am sure that the visit of Rev Munther Isaac to Archbishop Welby was part of that shift.
It is right to identify the driving force behind all this as Western rather than Israeli interests. It is a geopolitical battle and has been for a long time, going back to the Crusades and long before that – empires have marched up and down that strip of land between Euphrates, the Tigris and the Nile, and done what empires do. Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Ottoman, British and French, and now the USA.
RobertJ
I am pleased to make your acquaintance and thank you for your response.
I too am more likely to agree with Jesus than the Church. A Muslim colleague and I discuss Gaza (quietly) at work. He tells me the Muslims find it hard to believe that the Christians effectively terminated their prophet. We agreed that disposing/deposing of a human messenger from God was a bad idea because it allows other humans to declare that they alone know the word of God and it can lead to all sorts of abuse in His name. Thus God is commodotised. A typical Western trait.
I do know that the Christian church does a lot in western society – although in a properly ran society all a church would have to do is to worship and care for the spiritual health of its parishioners rather than mop up the mess we get in our societies, and make it bearable and even sustain the status quo somewhat.
One example was a local reverend who was an ex-drug addict who helped other recovering addicts by setting up of all things a coffee roasting company called ‘The Sacred Bean’. They have a Brazilian roast (from a sustainable source) called ‘Bom Jesus’ which I buy – it’s lovely. Give it a try. But it was a man of the church whose set it up. Many interesting conversations.
But of course your real message for me at least is that Christianity is not all bad – and when practiced with real spirit – has a lot to commend it.
I read ‘The Vanishing: The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East’ by Janine di Giovanni (2021) looking at the shrinking presence of Christians in the Middle East. We forget – even Mr Welby it seems – that we are talking about the Holy Lands where the descendants of Abraham came from. Christians too. A Middle East denuded of Christianity? It makes it far easier to treat it as it is being treated now and that is really bad. It sets up the Muslims and their land as a target, reinforces differences and ignorance’s and the few remaining Christians will be treated as collateral damage who should have known better or pay for the deeds of their distant kin.
So what is wrong with Christianity? David Graeber’s last book (with David Wengrow) ‘The Dawn of Everything’: A New History of Everything’ (2021) gives us a clue. Back in time, invading Europeans apparently often entered into dialogue with the people they were displacing (getting to know your opponent also helped you to subjugate or wipe them out). Some of these interactions were recorded and on pp. 54-55 here is an excerpt from a reaction by a man called Kandiaronk, a notable person/leader from the indigenous Indian Wendat people in North America and his thoughts on European society recorded for posterity 1703 towards the French:
‘Kandiaronk: I have spent 6 years reflecting on the state of European society and I still cannot think of a single way or act that’s not inhuman, and I genuinely think that this can only be the case as long as you stick to your distinctions of ‘mine’ and ‘thine’. I affirm that what you call money is the devil of devils; the tyrant of the French, the source of all evils; the bane of souls and the slaughterhouse of the living. To imagine one can live in the country of money and preserve one’s soul is like imagining one could preserve one’s life at the bottom of a lake. Money is the father of luxury, lasciviousness, intrigues, trickery, lies, betrayal, insincerity – all the worlds worst behaviour. Fathers sell their children, husbands their wives, wives betray their husbands, brothers kill each other, friends are false, and all because of money. In the light of all this, tell me why we Wendat are not right in refusing to touch, or so much as look at silver?’
I mean, it’s timeless isn’t it? It could be Jesus responding to Thatcherism!! All this – being noted in the late 1600s, by a so called ‘native’ seen as ‘backward’ or ‘naive’. Much more is said and can be read in the book above. Fascinating as it is, it shows us that these issues have never gone away and that we have still even now not solved them. To address these issues – to make money work for the benefit of all with a moral force in it – would be an amazing policy to realise (our host has created something very close).
It’s all about sharing – sharing wealth, land, resources, life itself. Instead all we have is ‘taking’.
Such a shame…………………………
@ Pilgrim Slight Return says:
October 30 2024 at 11:34 am
RE: “Kandiaronk: “To imagine one can live in the country of money and preserve one’s soul is like imagining one could preserve one’s life at the bottom of a lake. Money is the father of luxury, lasciviousness, intrigues, trickery, lies, betrayal, insincerity – all the worlds worst behaviour.” … I mean, it’s timeless isn’t it?”
And WHY is it timeless?
It’s timeless because socalled civilized humans have a fatal disease… a ‘soullessness spectrum disorder’ — read The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon” at https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html
“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduces them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.” — Gustave Le Bon, in 1895
Thank you and well said, Richard.
With regard to the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah etc., it’s worth reading what Arundhati Roy, a Syriac Catholic, had to say recently:
https://johnmenadue.com/no-propaganda-on-earth-can-hide-the-wound-that-is-palestine-arundhati-roys-pen-pinter-prize-acceptance-speech/
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/arundhati-roy-palestinians-are-not-expendable/ (for the whole speech)
Please note this sentence: “I refuse to play the condemnation game. Let me make myself clear. I do not tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression or who their allies should be.” This echoes what much of the global south / zone b say. One hopes, in particular, Tim Rideout pipes up.
Thanks for posting. Her speech was inspiring.
I spent time on the Independent trying to counter the pro-Z people, over the issue of UNWRA. Emily Thornberry was almost talked down this morning on Radio 4 by a stream of Israeli justification called ‘context’. No mention of the 220+ UNWRA staff killed by the IDF.
I read the article too- well worth the time spent
Richard, you propose that Israel’s membership of the United Nations should be suspended, to which I agree. However this is unlikely to happen as the UN has consistently allowed Israel to abuse its membership ever since its acceptance in 1949. Israel’s membership was contingent on allowing the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes as set out in Resolution 194, to which Israel has never complied. This soft pedaling, over many years now, has made the UN virtually impotent against Israeli abuses.
We have the 1930’s to show us how we might ensure ‘never again’.
The lesson is – as you say Richard – walk the talk – and not just express ‘grave concern’ as Starmer is doing.
In our ‘managed democracy’ BBC – which manages our understanding of what’s going on- R4Today’s Emma Barnet simply barnstorming Emmily Thornberry with the Israel government’s case for cutting off aid through UNWRA – ‘they are all Hamas terrorists’ .
This isnt finding out the truth – this isnt investigating, this isnt journalism – its ‘BBC Balance’ – ie balance ‘truth’ with ‘opinion’.
Not a nod or even an ounce of concern at the daily slaughter (another 55 overnight) from bombs bullets starvation lack of medicines.
Barnett airily says Israel will work with world food programme – etc etc – as if there is no ethnic cleansing / proto genocide going on as she speaks.
Thank you, Andrew.
It beggars belief that Barnett still shows her face in public. I’m not talking about the recent interviews with the Israeli and Lebanese envoys which exposed her double standards. If readers want to know more, please read what former BBC grandee Anatol Lieven had to say.
I’m talking about: https://brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/the-sins-of-the-father-the-emails.
Richard and readers may be interested in: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/10/europe-is-not-prepared-for-the-looming-lebanese-refugee-crisis.html.
Agreed
Current developments simply illustrate how helpless/powerless most people are. This is by design. Can’t have people/citizens calling the shots.
As somebody noted – if democracy made a difference they would stop it.
The current set-up (taking the UK as an example) legitimises gov support for genocide.
However, for every action there is a reaction. We saw what happened post Iraq, one wonders what will happen post-Gaza – one thing for sure, it will be UK serfs/peasants that pay the price, not those in gov – their actions/lack thereof never, ever have consequences – for them – personally.
About 70% of all armaments supplied to Israel come from the US, Germany & UK. Despite UK’s % being small the arms’ exports includes crucial F16 & F35 spares. The US especially is the enabler of Israel to carry out this ‘plausible genocide’ (ICJ). We should have no role in that, continued UK complicity with its export licences is a disgrace. Your points are spot on.
This December marks the 75th year since the UN General Assembly (UNGA) established UNWRA. Its continued existence, as UNRWA itself notes, is because of global political failure to achieve a just settlement for Palestinians. Israel in its occupation since 1967, now affirmed by that ICJ ruling to be illegal, still has an obligation for the welfare of the Palestinian people. Its ruling to make UNRWA ‘illegal’ without any articulation of how the welfare of the Palestinians will be systematically addressed just compounds further the evidence for Israeli genocide.
Yesterday I listened to R4’s 1pm news, wherein Sarah Montague (Lady Brooke) was pathetically unprepared to push back at an Israeli spokesperson’s claims about UNRWA. UNRWA has 30,000 staff, with (pre-October 2023) 13,000 in Gaza. It has over the years performed a fantastic service for the welfare of the Palestinians.
We may recall that back in January, the last Friday, when ICJ’s preliminary view was being given out of ‘plausible genocide’, Israel ensured that verdict was knocked off news’ headlines, notably the BBC’s, when Israel launched its accusations against UNRWA. Yet, more recently, Israel has been buying ads on Google to perpetrate its fabrications about UNRWA.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-buying-ads-google-search-unrwa-discredit-agency
Apart from literally a handful of the 13,000 UNRWA staff, for which there appeared possible basis, there has never been any solid evidence produced. Historically, all UNRWA staff names are submitted to Israel for vetting. The accusation of UNRWA perpetrating terrorism is nonsense. The Jewish academic Norman Finkelstein, whose parents suffered in the holocaust, simply states: “the Israelis lie and they lie, and they lie”.
We, here, and journalists can only address that by being properly informed; “if only”, I would say about the BBC. Upon economics, I can imagine Richard too holds the same sense of despairing “if only” with related mainstream reports. But this website blog gives them no excuse.
Some repudiation by UNRWA can be found here: https://www.un.org/unispal/document/unrwa-claims-versus-facts-press-release-26feb2024/
Meanwhile, the hell continues unabated except for the work of UNRWA. I salute the 237 staff who have been killed in Gaza. UNRWA Commissioner General’s letter today to the President of the UNGA is linked here. But will journalist bother to read it?
https://www.unrwa.org/resources/un-unrwa/letter-unrwa-commissioner-general-philippe-lazzarini-president-united-nations
Thanks
Much to agree with
“… the rules-based international order is crumbling in a repetition of the horrors that led to the establishment of the United Nations… ” these words in Phillipe Lazzarini’s letter referred to above are perhaps the most sombre of all those penned about the Israeli state’s operations in Gaza and the occupied territories. I say the most sombre for they lay at the door of the present Israeli state the creation of the horrors that the UN was intended to prevent ever happening again.
In the light, not only of the killing of 43,000 Gazan citizens and the wholesale destruction of their homes, schools, universities and hospitals, the Israeli government and Knesset’s action in banning and disabling of UNRWA – the only credible route to the alleviation of life-threatening suffering which that government has itself created marks the ultimate nadir of its standing as a civilised state, which pretends to the ideals of the United Nations. Netanyahu’s state has indeed succeeded in creating ‘no hiding place’. It is now surely no hiding place from the moral, legal and political judgement which must fall upon it, for by its actions against UNWRA there now can be nothing left to protect it from the revulsion of any civilised government.
By the response of those governments who have till now sustained the current Israeli regime in these policies, we and all the world will know them. Are they – you, Sir Keir Starmer, for let us start at home – ready and fit to be judged as to whether you will condemn, in active and in practical terms, the fact that in Gaza and the occupied territories “… the rules-based international order is crumbling in a repetition of the horrors that led to the establishment of the United Nations… ” – or will you and others “walk by on the other side of the road”?
Here’s what he is doing about it.
‘Craig Murray
@CraigMurrayOrg
15h
I am now staying in Beirut to report from the resistance to the Israeli terrorist state.
Been several days getting together logistics but hope to write my first article tomorrow. Visited 9 sites of Israeli bombings today
We must all do what is in our power to oppose genocide.
This is what I can do.
Oct 28, 2024 · 10:13 PM UTC ‘
We can only do what we can – I try with my words and protests too – until I am not allowed.
Why does the government not follow your suggestions? Maybe the answer is here –
:”… I support Zionism without qualification” Kier Starmer quoted in Times of Israel, 9th para from end of this article:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-uk-labour-leader-tries-to-win-back-jews-while-working-with-corbyn-allies/
Do we need to know more?
Try Israeli historian Prof. Ilan Pappe’s latest book on the Israel lobby to understand the deep links between Israel/Zionism and the Labour Party.
https:www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/why-ilan-pappes-new-book-on-the-israel-lobby-is-a-must-read/
Here’s what I sent my Labour MP today:
“Thank you for your detailed reply on this issue. However, the time has come to act even more resolutely. With the Knesset banning UNWRA today, it matters little how much money is given – no aid will arrive where it is needed. It is clear that it’s not just a few lunatices running Israel that are the problem, it runs much deeper and their intent to dismember Palestinian society – people, institutions, communities is clear. Genocide is too mundane a term for the Israeli barbarity. Israeli businesses and the government should be sanctioned immediately, all arms and dual use technologies and supplies cut off.”
I don’t hold much hope of resolute action, but one must try.
Thanks
I agree with you when you say Starmer and Harris won’t do anything
But do you think the tories or trump would? I don’t think so, but it’s implied that you do when you single out specific parties
No it is not. On this blog I refer to the ‘single transferable party’ and its hold on power here, andn8nnthe US at one time. Check it out. Then you would see your claim is wrong. The system is wrong.
Then I guess I misunderstood, you wrote
“ We could, and I think we should, suspend Israel’s membership of the UN whilst this continues.
But will Starmer do any such thing? No, of course not.
And will Harris? No, if she is elected.”
Neither Harris nor Trump is elected, but you call out one of them. I find that odd, in a way that I wouldn’t had you written “will the next president of the US?”. no, neither of the candidates will.
I don’t see this other text you refer to here
Anyway I’m not trying to derail your thread, I really enjoy your content and agree with pretty much everything you say, I wish you were in charge of the UK to be honest,
Forensic Architecture have just released an extensive report entitled, A Cartography of Genocide.
“Since October 2023, we have collected and analysed data related to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Our findings indicate that Israel has systematically targeted all aspects of civilian life.”
This was never really about the hostages or Hamas.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1851405924164125128.html
https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/a-cartography-of-genocide
To those who keep referring back to the 7th October 2023 Hamas atrocities to justify what Zionist Isreal is doing to Gaza and the Palestinians, our response ought to be “you think nothing justifies October 7th, and yet October 7th justifies everything!?”
So many of those who defend Israel have no idea of the 100 year history of that region.
Richard perhaps you can apply your fine analytical mind to the bigger picture for us. No doubt – All the suffering has to stop, and no doubt Israel has done some counterproductive measures over many years which have contributed to this crisis.
But what is the endgame? Given:
1. Hamas will not surrender though they have badly miscalculated, and have actually motivated Israel to force a regime change – a process which has caused so much harm to innocents. I gather even in these circumstances they are launching rockets.
2. Hezbollah has gotten bolder and bolder and forced the evacuation of North Israel – leading to another determination for regime change.
3. Iran has been funding and supply both groups and harbouring their leaders. And they too have become bolder and bolder.
Apparently neighbouring Arab nations look upon these three Islamist groups as the enemy too.
Richard do you have any proposals for an endgame?
No, but I do not believe there can be a violent endgame that is sustainable
So, the first stage is a denial of arms on all sides
And I mean all sides
No endgame. Yikes.
If the theocratic Iran is not going to stop supplying arms to Hamas and Hezbollah – then what?
Good question
Oh I am good with questions.
It is the answers part that I have to work on