Israel is starving Gaza - report from B'Tselem

Settlers killed a Palestinian teen. Israeli forces didn't stop it. From Washington Post

The threats were sent via Facebook on Oct. 9 to residents of Qusra, a Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank: “To all the rats in the sewers of Qusra village we are waiting for you and we will have no mercy. The day of revenge is coming.”

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A Washington Post review of exclusive visuals of the attack, medical records and interviews with witnesses and first responders reveals that one of the Palestinians killed, 17-year-old Obada Saed Abu Srour, was shot in the back by settlers, probably as he was running from gunfire.

Israeli troops, meanwhile, did not forcefully intervene, despite their obligation under international and Israeli law to protect all residents of the West Bank, including Palestinians. Soldiers and police were photographed at the scene of the deaths only after the attack ended, even though troops stationed at nearby military outposts were within earshot of the gunfire and had views of an earlier attack by settlers, the visual evidence shows.

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Abu Srour, the eldest of four children, with aspirations to become a policeman after finishing high school, was killed along with civil engineer and new father Muath Raed Odeh, 29. They were trying to protect the home of 30-year-old blacksmith Awad Mahmoud Odeh from attack. Musab Abdel Halim Abu Rida, 20, who worked in the fields and could always make his grandmother laugh, was killed near Abu Srour.

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In the month after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, more than 800 Palestinians were displaced from their West Bank homes amid increased violence by the radical Israeli settler movement, which has long held the aim of expelling Palestinians and expanding the Jewish footprint in the occupied territories. Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 4, more than 300 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, a dramatic increase in the rate of killing in the last months of 2023, the deadliest year since the United Nations began recording casualties in 2005.

Editorial The IDF Must Investigate the Kibbutz Be'eri Tank Fire Incident - Right Now

There is no demand more justified than that of relatives of people killed in the hostage incident at Kibbutz Be'eri to investigate the army's actions and to receive answers about the circumstances of their loved ones' deaths.

Moreover, the families should not have to make this demand alone. The Israel Defense Forces must give them and the public an explanation for the army's conduct on October 7 outside the home of Pesi Cohen.

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Porat, who was held as a hostage but released by one of the terrorists at the height of the incident, said in a television interview that members of the police's special counterterrorism unit had questioned her outside the house, and she told them there were 40 terrorists and 14 hostages inside.

Dagan, who was in the house when a tank fired two shells at it, was the only Israeli to survive, and she confirmed Porat's account.

The families' demand of the IDF – that it "conduct a comprehensive and transparent investigation of the decisions and actions that led to this tragic result" and release its findings "first to the families, and then to the public as well" – is based on what Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, who was in charge of the fighting in that area, said in an interview with The New York Times.


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The public has a right to know the following: Did Hiram act in accordance with the IDF's rules and ethos, or contrary to them? And is the spirit of the Hannibal Directive the dominant one in the IDF during its war on Hamas?

The answers to these questions are critical to what is happening right now. And the IDF therefore owes the public answers to them now.

Thousands Protest Across Israel Calling For Elections & Netanyahu's Dismissal

Opinion Keep Our Mouths Shut and Salute? It's Not the Time for Israelis to Keep Quiet

Written by Zehava Galon - an Israeli politician, the president of the research institute ZULAT for Equality and Human Rights and former leader of Meretz.

On October 7, in wake of the terrible massacre and war crimes committed by Hamas, the diplomatic and security conceptions of the Israeli governments over the past two decades collapsed. If all we learn from this is, once more, "Quiet, we're shooting," then we haven't learned anything. The conceptions that fell apart here did not belong solely to Benjamin Netanyahu, their progenitor. They were also taken for granted by politicians and military officials and commentators. We held entire election campaigns as though there were no Palestinian question at all. Naftali Bennett, who is currently warming up on the sidelines, referred to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a "piece of shrapnel in the ass."

Three months into the fighting in Gaza, more than 500 soldiers have been killed and thousands wounded. Estimates from Gaza say that more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, 70 percent of them women and children. These are not numbers that we've seen in the past, in any previous operations or previous ground incursions. Is it a consequence of imprecise bombings, as the Americans claimed, and as did some of the released Israeli hostages, who said they feared for their lives from the bombardments? Must we really be discussing proposals like the one to starve out the Gazans, even at the cost of thousands more dead, even at the cost of starving the Israeli hostages? Isn't it time that we discuss the need to bring more humanitarian aid into Gaza, and not because the United States is pressuring us to do so?

It is the government that sets our policy in Gaza. There is no reason for us to just accept it as the gospel from on high. We don't need easy talk about unity, we need an intelligent discussion supported by facts. And we need it now, for one thing because the way we fight in Gaza directly affects the lives of the Israeli hostages there, the lives of thousands of Gazans who didn't do anything, our international legitimacy to carry on fighting, and the solutions that will be possible to implement once the fighting ends.

A Jewish-Arab Partnership Is Building a Young New Peace Camp in Israel

From Haaretz. A little bit of hope — this newly formed organization hopefully is the future for Israel and Palestine. I’ve posted about them before and continue to be impressed with their outreach. Sometimes I need a ray of hope.

It is a very long article filled with many stories. It is so worth reading (IMHO)

Amid the war in Gaza, Standing Together is on a roll: It has 5,000 dues-paying members, the number of its student chapters has doubled, and new groups of Jews and Arabs are working to preserve solidarity – and to instill hope for shared life in Israel

"You're not alone," said the Jewish woman to the Arab woman. Shedding tears, the two Israelis, who were meeting for the first time, embraced. The scene played out in the modest Lod apartment of the Arab woman, Isra Abou Laban Oudi. She's a single mother, and her 3-year-old son, Tareq, scampered merrily among the 14 strangers, Jews and Arabs, who were guests in his home.

From the beginning of the school year, Oudi says, her son, who speaks only Arabic, had attended a municipal Hebrew-speaking preschool. After October 7, when the children returned to school, Tareq too was happy to reunite with his friends after what had been a two-week break. However, Oudi says, when she heard him speaking Arabic, his teacher hit him and demanded he not use "that language."

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The whole situation left Oudi feeling helpless and very much alone. That is, until the solidarity encounter that took place in her home, when members of Standing Together – an Arab-Jewish social movement that seeks to advance a beneficent, egalitarian society in Israel through joint grassroots activity – came to show their support.

Three days after that visit, Oudi and her toddler son attended an event organized by the movement in the nearby city of Ramle which, like Lod, has a mixed population. There, in a banquet hall that had no banquets to host, Arabs and Jews were working side by side to prepare food packages for Jewish, Muslim and Christian families whose source of livelihood had been truncated because of the war.

Oudi and her son did not join in the activity of Standing Together ("Omdim Beyahad" in Hebrew) by chance. It's part of the "recovery plan" that the movement recommends for people who have been hurt by racism: to transform the affront into constructive activity. "It gives people the strength to translate the hurt into joint activity, restores a renewed sense of control and also brings us new and highly motivated members," explains Omri Goren, 24, who oversees the movement's activity in the Ramle-Lod area and also heads its student division.

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https://archive.is/1c3Kl]. Free Link

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-05/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/a-jewish-arab-partnership-is-building-a-young-new-peace-camp-in-israel/0000018c-daa9-d751-ad8d-ffadd6e00000]. Haaretz Link if you have subscription

Explainer: Charging Israel w/Genocide at the ICJ: The Petition, the Precedents and the Punishment. Questions & Answers

From Haaretz:

Free Link
https://archive.is/P9T3t]

Haaretz Direct Link
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-04/ty-article/.premium/charging-israel-with-genocide-at-the-icj-petition-precedents-and-punishment/0000018c-d449-ddba-abad-d6e91a480000]

This Explainer is a great primer on the ICJ and answers many questions some people may have.

Why did South Africa file the petition against Israel for its conduct in Gaza at the International Court of Justice in The Hague? Why is Israel interested in cooperating with the proceedings? What are the possible outcomes?

Among some of the questions:

What is the International Court of Justice and how is it different from the International Criminal Court?

As distinct from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which conducts trials against individuals, the International Court of Justice in The Hague deals with legal disputes between states, and it has the authority to deliberate on certain issues, such as genocide, by virtue of international covenants.

Israel does not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court, which is conducting an investigation into suspicions of war crimes committed by Israel and the Palestinians, including in the war currently being waged. However, Israel is a signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, from which the International Court of Justice derives its authority to hear the complaint filed by South Africa.

What are South Africa's complaints against Israel and what is the redress it is requesting?

South Africa is claiming that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and that it is not taking action to punish inciters to genocide. It is accusing Israel of "indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants" and claims that among the actions Israel is reported to have taken are "crimes against humanity and war crimes," as well as acts that fulfill the criteria for definition as genocide.

At the ICJ there are 15 judges from 15 countries. Israel and South Africa are entitled to appoint judges on their behalf, one from each of the countries. Joan Donoghue of the United States is currently the president of the court, and serving alongside her are three former court presidents, representing Slovakia, France and Somalia. Donoghue's deputy is Judge Kirill Gevorgian of Russia. In Israel it is said that the judges' rulings sometimes reflect the political positions of the countries they represent.

First, the ICJ has international status and prestige. Second, the Convention on Genocide from which the court derives its authority to deliberate on South Africa's complaint was established following the Holocaust, and Israel is a signatory to it. Therefore, it cannot claim that the court has no authority, as it does with regard to the International Criminal Court.

First, as noted, the court can order Israel to stop the fighting in Gaza. Though it does not have enforcement powers, the court's proceedings are liable to establish that Israel has committed genocide, thereby causing its isolation and a boycott, sanctions against it or against Israeli companies and other sanctions in the international arena.

In such a case, countries would be liable to take measures of their own against Israel, at the international level. As noted, a declaration that Israel is committing acts that constitute genocide could materially affect its status in the world and the attitude towards it in the international arena, as well as towards Israeli companies, Israelis in academia and more.

'Much Harder for Children': Severe Hunger Is Spreading in Gaza. Four Voices From a Human Catastrophe

From Haaretz:

The impossible reality of Gaza: Mothers who are too malnourished to breastfeed, searches for food under the threat of bombings and aid organizations collapsing under the strain

"There is fear in the children's eyes that we see," said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, after his visit to the Gaza Strip last month. "They don't know where to go, they have nowhere to stay, and we have no answers for them, and that's the most frustrating part, really." Families in Gaza are now living in the daily reality of a hunger crisis, he said.

Reports from the United Nations and independent aid organizations paint a very grim picture of the hunger situation in the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people. Throughout the war, bakeries have been bombed, many stockpiles have run dry, and there is no electricity and fuel that would allow food production. The commercial entry of food has been discontinued, and the entry of humanitarian assistance is limited. Aid organizations have a hard time transferring even what does arrive to the needy.

'We’re dying slowly. I haven’t eaten for two days, and I’m thirsty all the time'

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Four Gazans spoke with Haaretz and explained how hunger was affecting their lives – from secondary consequences to the daily struggle to get some food, as little as it may be. One comment came up repeatedly in conversations with them and reflects the feeling of many in Gaza: If death doesn't come in an airstrike, they say, hunger will bring it.

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'We got two cans of preserved food. We're 22 people'
Maha
Age: 26
Family situation: single
Present location: Rafah
Pre-war residence: Gaza City
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"It's not ordinary hunger, when you can eat very soon and then the feeling disappears. I feel hungry all the time. My stomach rumbles. I suffer from weakness, headaches, [and] sometimes dizziness. I eat very small amounts because you have to share the food with those who are with you.

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It's physically hard for me to get up and to stand'
Alham
Age: 38
Family situation: married with three children
Present location: Rafah
Pre-war location: Gaza City

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'I didn't tell the children where we got the food'
Noel
Age: 43
Family situation: married with four children
Present location: Rafah
Pre-war residence: Beit Lahia

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'A man who arrived with children begged to eat. I gave them what I had'
Alaa
Age: 28
Family situation: single
Present location: Rafah
Pre-war residence: Rafah

Why is Gaza so central to the Palestinian struggle? From Israeli +972 Magazine

Absolutely fascinating but very long and detailed article by Dr. Anne Irfan, Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Race, Gender and Postcolonial Studies at University College London.

The history of Gaza illuminates why the tiny enclave has long embodied Palestinian identity — and is now the focal point of a major regional crisis.

More than half a century after beginning its occupation of the Gaza Strip, there are mounting signs that Israel is using its current military offensive to remake the territory completely.

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While defending its actions in Gaza as necessary and denying accusations of war crimes, the Israeli government is describing its war in existential terms. Hamas’ raid on October 7 was one of the deadliest attacks on Israel in the state’s history. For the first time since 1948, Israeli forces temporarily lost control of territory within the Green Line, as Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis, injured more than 5,000, and kidnapped about 240 people, the majority of them civilians. The impact on the Israeli psyche, and the resulting collective trauma, has been profound.

Capitalizing on such feelings, the Israeli government, with the wide support of the public, has framed the attack on Gaza as a battle for survival. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said “it’s either them or us,” and described the air-and-ground assault as “a war for Israel’s existence as a prosperous Jewish state in the Middle East.” Netanyahu has dubbed it “the second war of independence.”

Yet these bombastic statements jar with the fact that Gaza, at least on the surface, appears as little more than a tiny speck on the globe. How has such a small piece of territory — comprising less than 1.5 percent of historic Palestine, and smaller than most U.S. cities — become the focal point of a major national, regional, and global struggle?

The events of the Nakba produced the modern-day Strip in both territorial and demographic terms. Egypt, which had joined other Arab states in declaring war on Israel in 1948, signed an armistice agreement with its new northern neighbor in February 1949. The armistice established the Gaza Strip with its current borders — a significantly smaller stretch of land than that designated by the UN in 1947 — under Egyptian administration.

At the same time, the creation of the Israeli state forcibly expelled and displaced at least three quarters of the Palestinian population, creating 750,000 Palestinian refugees. While this exodus transformed the demographics of the entire Levant, nowhere received more refugees per head than the Gaza Strip. Home to around 80,000 residents prior to the Nakba, by the end of the 1940s it had absorbed more than 200,000 refugees, tripling the area’s population. The Strip’s dense population in the 21st century, two-thirds of whom descend from those first refugees, can be traced directly to the impact of the Nakba.

Despite its severance from the rest of Palestine, though, Gaza remained closely intertwined with the rest of the world in the 1950s and early 1960s. It was integrated into the Global South’s anti-colonial solidarity politics, especially after Gamal Abdel Nasser took the Egyptian Presidency in 1954, regularly citing the Palestinian cause as key to his pan-Arab leadership.

Accordingly, this period saw leading anti-colonial figures visit the Strip, including Che Guevera in 1959, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1960, and Malcolm X in 1964. All three of them visited refugee camps during their time there, highlighting the significance of the Palestinian refugees to the Strip’s politics and national aspirations.

Nonetheless, this period was not one of liberation for Palestinians. They were still living as a stateless people under Egyptian rule — first under a British-backed autocratic monarch until 1952, and then under the Free Officers’ regime that would come to be dominated by Nasser.

While 1967 is usually cited as the starting point of the Israeli occupation, the Gaza Strip had already experienced an interlude of what was to come a decade earlier. In late October 1956, Israel invaded and occupied the Strip as part of its joint attack on Egypt with Britain and France, following Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal Company. The Israeli army took over the Strip, coming face-to-face with many of the Palestinian refugees it had expelled just a few years earlier.

While that first Israeli occupation only lasted 4 months — ending at the command of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, who threatened to sanction Israel if it refused to withdraw — researchers have uncovered evidence of Israeli plans from that time for a longer-term presence in the Strip, and even the construction of Jewish settlements. When the Israeli army re-conquered Gaza a decade later, in June 1967, such plans were resumed, initiating the longest-running military occupation in modern history.

Twenty years into the Israeli occupation, an entire Palestinian generation had grown up knowing nothing else. By the late 1980s, Israeli settlements were expanding and even prospering while Palestinians remained stateless and impoverished. Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and siege of Beirut, the Sabra and Shatila massacre that year, the failures of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the rightward shift of Israeli politics following Likud’s rise to power in 1977, all added to Palestinian anger.

Experiencing the most acute forms of dispossession and military rule, Gaza became the birthplace to perhaps the most significant Palestinian uprising of the past century: the First Intifada.

The spark came in December 1987, when an Israeli army vehicle crashed into a Palestinian car in the Gaza Strip, killing four people; three of them lived in Jabalia camp, home to refugees who had been expelled from villages in southern Palestine during the Nakba. While Israeli authorities insisted the crash was accidental, many Palestinians were skeptical given the widespread experience of brutality and disinformation by the army.

The Woman Who Saved Israel's Fragile Democracy - for Now

Ex-Supreme Court President Esther Hayut did Israeli society a huge favor on Monday by presiding over the ruling to effectively kill off the government's judicial overhaul. But Israel remains as divided as ever, and will still be when the war ends

The High Court of Justice's ruling Monday to nullify the law passed by the governing coalition last July, which eliminated the reasonableness standard clause, extends to 738 pages of dense reasoning for and against the decision. It will be studied by legal experts and taught in courses on constitutional law for decades to come. But beyond the issues of jurisprudence, it has immediate political and social implications.

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The first and most important conclusion from the ruling is that the Netanyahu government's judicial overhaul is over. Just before the first anniversary of Justice Minister Yariv Levin's unveiling of his "legal reform" program last January 4, and after the most turbulent 362 days in Israel's history, the plot to eviscerate Israel's Supreme Court and hobble its democracy has failed.

This government will not have the power or the credibility with the public – or most likely the time – to try it again. That doesn't mean a future right-wing government won't make another attempt at weakening the judiciary, but it must be hoped that any future constitutional changes will be made in a more consensual manner.

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Hayut is now a target for condemnation from the right, and shamefully even some centrists – not only for having led the ruling against the reasonableness clause (which gave the top court the power to disqualify certain executive branch decisions it deemed as unreasonable), but for having published the ruling at a time of war.

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