US implicated as Israeli impunity nears its end
Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronic Intifada, Apr 30 2024
Israel’s decades of impunity are over, or so its leaders fear and are leaking reports to the media that war crimes arrest warrants are imminent in an effort to get its allies to thwart them. The leaked rumors that members of Israel’s war cabinet (Netanyahu, Gallant and military chief Herzi Halevi) are at risk may very well be credible. Reuters reported on Monday that staff at Gaza hospitals, which over the past several months have been stripped of their ability to provide care and transformed into mass graves, were interviewed by International Criminal Court investigators. It is possible that arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials have already been issued in confidentiality.
An unnamed “Israeli diplomatic source” protested the perceived silence of the Biden administration over the ICC to the Jerusalem Post. That unnamed official’s anger at Biden is misplaced. Washington’s incantations declaring its “ironclad” support for Israel and Israel’s supposed right to self-defense should be understood as a declaration of preserving Israeli impunity at all costs. Informing Israel’s panic over the ICC is the fact that it can only maintain its regime of settler-colonization, apartheid and occupation in Palestine with the support of the world’s sole superpower. But that support is eroding due to widespread disgust towards Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Decades of bipartisan support for Israel is viewed by many as a strategic liability from which the US gains little benefit, increasingly so as a desperate Netanyahu attempts to drag Washington into a catastrophic regional war. The Biden administration’s hands-on role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza is a legal liability as well. ICC arrest warrants for Israeli war crimes could and should implicate US officials.
There are a number of barriers between senior Biden officials and justice at the ICC. Karim Khan, the ICC chief prosecutor who has been dogged by accusations of bias towards powerful states, dropped investigations into war crimes allegedly perpetrated by US personnel in Afghanistan; the court’s Palestine file is headed by a British establishment figure and a former US military prosecutor; and American law authorizes the president to order military action to protect its nationals from prosecution and free them from arrest by the court.
Like Israel, the US is not a state party to the founding treaty of the ICC. But Palestine has acceded to the Rome Statute and the court has territorial jurisdiction over alleged crimes perpetrated in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Khan has said that the court also has jurisdiction over alleged crimes perpetrated by actors based in those territories, and he will likely also issue arrest warrants against Hamas leaders in relation to the Oct 7 attack.
While the US has had a contemptuous relationship with the ICC, as evidenced by the Bush 43 era Hague Invasion Act, it has warmed up to the tribunal in recent years in support of its investigation of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. By doing so, Biden effectively recognized the ICC’s territorial jurisdiction in Ukraine, though neither Russia nor Ukraine are state parties to the Rome Statute, and there is bipartisan support for the court’s investigation of Russian officials following that country’s Feb 2022 invasion.
The Pentagon opposed Biden’s order for the US government to provide intelligence to the court for its Ukraine investigation, maintaining the previous position of the US that the ICC should not exercise jurisdiction over nationals of non-state parties. While accepting the court’s authority to investigate Russian officials, the Biden administration rejects its jurisdiction in the case of Palestine, as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday.
The US will surely continue to undermine the ICC’s Palestine investigation in a variety of ways. But given its working relationship with the court it may prove difficult to impose economic sanctions on the chief prosecutor and other senior personnel in the event of arrest warrants against Israeli officials, like the Trump administration imposed on Khan’s predecessor. In any case, the resulting US double standard position will surely be so huge as to be seen from outer space, as the Biden administration continues to provide cover for Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Officials with four US bureaux have told Blinken that Israel’s assurances that it is using American weapons in compliance with international law are not “credible or reliable,” according to an internal State Dept memo reviewed by Reuters. A national security memorandum issued by Biden in February requires Blinken to report to Congress by May 8 on the credibility of Israel’s assurances. US law prohibits military assistance to a state that obstructs the delivery of humanitarian aid provided by Washington. Officials with USAID said in a confidential paper that Israel has breached that US directive.
A separate internal memo sent to Biden from State Dept experts states that “Israeli-imposed administrative challenges are preventing the delivery” of humanitarian aid in Gaza. The subject line of that memo reads “Famine Inevitable, Changes Could Reduce but Not Stop Widespread Civilian Deaths,” according to the development publication Devex.
Additionally, a study by an independent task force on the application of the national security memorandum found “a clear pattern of violations of international law” by Israel in Gaza. That nonpartisan group of experts, including former State Dept and military officials, points to the systematic disregard of the fundamental principles of the laws of war such as launching attacks “despite foreseeably disproportionate harm to civilians and civilian objects.”
They also describe “wide area attacks without prior warnings in some of the most densely populated residential neighborhoods in the world” and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, “including those indispensable for the survival of the civilian population.” DAWN, a human rights watchdog based in Washington, said that these recent reports “conclusively confirm that Israel’s conduct impeding and blocking humanitarian aid has triggered the legal requirement to halt military aid,” irrespective of Blinken’s upcoming report to Congress.
Blinken, who just reneged on the blacklisting of an Israeli military unit determined by the Biden administration to have committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinian civilians, will ignore DAWN’s recommendations too. But further action by the ICC and the UN’s World Court, also based in The Hague, will trigger global sanctions against Israel, whose days of impunity are numbered.
Smears must not deter students from acting against genocide
David Cronin, Electronic Intifada, Apr 30 2024
Heaven forbid that students would skip class to try and stop a genocide. Such a message is being sent by the French political elite, horrified that protests in solidarity with Palestinians have been held at SciencesPo, a well-known Paris university. No doubt fearing that such protests will spread, Israel’s supporters are alleging they have an ulterior motive. As the European Union of Jewish Students is prominent in efforts to smear protesters, an examination of the group’s policies and philosophy, if that’s the right word, is necessary. Far from being dedicated to preventing bigotry, the EUJS explicitly defines itself as Zionist. It is, therefore, wedded to the ideology undergirding the dispossession of Palestinians in the 1940s and the genocide being perpetrated against them at this very moment. The EUJS betrayed its real agenda in a summary of a recent discussion it held with other pro-Israel lobby groups. That summary showed that one of its biggest concerns is anti-Zionism in universities.
Because Zionism is premised on giving Palestinians an inferior status to Israeli Jews, opposing Zionism is a duty for everyone who genuinely cares about justice and equality. Anti-Zionism is completely distinct from anti-Semitism, hatred of Jews based on their religion or ethnicity. Being clear about the differences between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is essential, not least because groups such as the EUJS portray them as synonymous.
Emma Hallali, the EUJS president, has lately been claiming that Palestine solidarity protests in universities make it impossible for Jews to lead “a normal student life.”
The inference that the hidden objective of the protests is to turn campuses into a hostile environment for Jews must be exposed as dishonest. Whereas the protests are aimed at halting the genocide in Gaza, the EUJS is playing a sinister game by insisting that all self-respecting Jews have to side with Israel, the state carrying out that genocide. In January, the EUJS issued a statement criticizing anti-Zionist organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace.
The statement contended that the actions of such groups “risk perpetuating harmful stereotypes and misconceptions about the Jewish community, leading to increased prejudice and discrimination.” The opposite is actually the case. Anti-Zionist Jewish groups demonstrate that the Jewish community is not monolithic. A significant number of Jews are outraged by Israel’s crimes and determined to speak out against them. If anyone is perpetuating harmful stereotypes, it is the EUJS and its suggestion that the only Jews who should be listened to are those backing Israel. Shamefully, the EU treats the EUJS as being representative of all Jewish students. The EUJS received almost $900k in funding from the EU during 2022. The EUJS enjoys particularly close relations with Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Union’s coordinator against anti-Semitism.
Although von Schnurbein’s formal job description does not mention Israel even once, she acts as a propagandist for Israel. She has been amplifying the lie that Hamas committed mass rapes on and following Oct 7. That hoax is being used as a pretext for the genocide which Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. Von Schnurbein has spoken lately about there being a “tsunami of anti-Semitism” in Europe.
Her choice of words should be questioned. Von Schnurbein has frequently conflated antipathy toward Zionism with anti-Jewish hatred. Von Schnurbein complained recently that a conference on the forthcoming European Parliament elections was “hijacked in a way that Jews no longer feel safe.”
Her complaint was based on how the slogan “free Palestine” was chanted and the EUJS delegation was described as “fascists” by some participants in the conference. The video of the incident posted by the EUJS does not indicate that there was any threat whatsoever to the safety of its delegation at the conference. Instead, the video shows that the EUJS sought to shut down a discussion about the situation in Gaza, even though it is a matter of urgency.
If the EUJS had its way, students would either remain silent as Palestinians get slaughtered or applaud Israel, the state carrying out the slaughter. Fortunately, young and not-so-young people on both sides of the Atlantic are refusing to be bullied or intimidated by Israel’s supporters. The defiance displayed on campuses is a source of hope in these bleak times.
Medicines desperately needed in Gaza
Abubaker Abed, Electronic Intifada, Apr 28 2024
Dr Khalid Abu Habel has a 75-year-old patient with Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Two of the most important medicines that she needs are completely unavailable. Abu Habel said:
At the same time, malnutrition and infections are taking their toll on her health. People with chronic diseases are suffering more than anyone in this war.
According to Abu Habel, there is an acute risk his patient and others will die because of the situation. He points to how a newborn baby died recently at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, where Abu Habel works. If the hospital was better resourced and not working under such enormous strain, it should have been possible to save the baby. Abu Habel is extremely worried about the scarcity of antibiotics and other basic requirements for any hospital. With hunger on the rise, the hospital does not have vitamins and food supplements that are vital in treating malnutrition. Abu Habel said:
The lack of medicines means more complications, and more complications mean more deaths. It’s horrific that we are unable to provide help. Unless medical supplies are allowed into the Strip, we may see one of the worst health crises ever.
Prices have skyrocketed of the few medicines that can still be found. A strip of paracetamol that would have cost 3 cents before the war now sells for approximately $3. Hazem al-Qernawi is a pharmacist in Deir al-Balah. His store has barely any stocks. He said:
Pharmacies in Gaza are in desperate need of medicines. We need to treat people with chronic diseases. They constantly feel unwell living in such terrible circumstances without proper medicine. It’s the same for painkillers. The lack of painkillers impedes the work of doctors, who are treating people with injuries.
The number of people living in Deir al-Balah has increased massively due to evacuations from northern Gaza, including Gaza City. The dreadful living conditions have led to an upsurge in infections, many contagious. Al-Qernawi said:
It’s not logical to isolate people, when more than half a million are taking shelter in Deir al-Balah. This pushes us to demand more medicines. It is the only solution. If the war continues, it will result in a sharp rise in amputations and deaths. This scene has been played out repeatedly in recent weeks. This is what Israel has done to us.
Refaat Alareer was special, so was his daughter
Hend Ghazi Alfarra, Electronic Intifada, Apr 28 2024
I hold my pen once again. Writing is harder this time. This time I am writing about our beloved Dr Refaat Alareer. As Dr Refaat helped me develop my writing skills, it is only appropriate that I should tell the world about him. Dr Refaat believed that writing can create magic. He said that writing can give you immortality. And because I trusted him and believed what he said, I also believe in the power of writing.
I first got to know Dr Refaat at a training course. The course was meant for seniors and graduates, and since I was only a freshman when I applied, it seemed that I had little to no hope of being accepted. Luckily, Dr Refaat was the one who was interviewing candidates. I entered the room that day and introduced myself. I expected him to tell me that I was too young for such an opportunity and that I wouldn’t be able to work at such an age. To my surprise, he was really happy when he learned I was thinking of working while studying. He encouraged me and told me that despite being a freshman I scored really high in the test for the training course.
He encouraged me to prove my skills and changed the way I think of my abilities. He was the first to recognize my talent. He would tell my older colleagues that I was younger than them yet had similar talent. Whenever I doubted that I could do a certain job, I ran to him and asked for advice. He would assure me that I could always approach him seeking help. When I got my first online job, I sent him a text message. “Proud of you,” he replied. He treated his students as friends and would never belittle their achievements. Whenever I expressed amazement at his writing, he would reply that we can all do similar or better things if we focus.
When Israel declared its current war on Gaza, he urged us to start writing. Our voices needed to be heard around the globe, he told us. I had never written articles for publication previously. But I decided I would try. I took up my pen and found that I was writing without being conscious of doing so. I had seen so much and wanted the world to learn about what was going on in Gaza. When I had finished writing an article, I sent Dr Refaat a text message. He replied within minutes. He would always reply quickly. He was always available even in times of war. That was a week before the brief truce in November. At that time, Israel was concentrating much of its violence on the area where Dr Refaat was taking shelter. I didn’t have to say much. He took care of everything else and in a matter of days my first article was published.
Being born and raised outside Palestine forced me to face an identity crisis. I had always felt like I didn’t belong to a certain place. In Gaza many people treated me as an outsider. I really needed someone to remind me of what it means to be a Palestinian and how being a Gazan can be a blessing. Dr Refaat was that person for me. He was the one who planted Palestine in us. A Palestine that would never be occupied. A Palestine that will forever stand up proud. I never got to tell him that. Whenever I was worried about Dr Refaat in the early stages of this war, I would send him a text message. He answered every time, except the day when my message didn’t reach him. I waited for two days and kept on fooling myself that he hadn’t received the message simply because he couldn’t find a phone signal.
One morning in December, I woke up to see numerous photographs of Dr Refaat on the internet. The news was terrible: Israel had assassinated him. Dr Refaat was precious to all Palestinians around the world. Even if they didn’t know him personally, he made a difference to their lives. He fought so that they could have a better future. As I read through the accounts of people who knew Dr Refaat, I learnt that he will live forever through his work, that he will be remembered when this horrible war comes to an end. He will be remembered as a great man, a man with ambitions and principles. He will be remembered for standing up to the cowardly Israelis, for exposing their lies. Now, several months after Dr Refaat’s assassination, we have received the news that Israel has killed his daughter Shymaa, her husband Muhammad and their newborn baby Abd’al-Rahman.
I first encountered Shymaa through Asma, our mutual friend. I had been talking to Asma when Shymaa came up to her from behind and hugged her. Shymaa had bought some candies for her little sister and wanted to give Asma some of them. I just stood there in silence the whole time. I was thinking of how much Shymaa resembled her dad Dr Refaat. Shymaa had to leave because Dr Refaat was waiting for her in the car. The next day, Asma told me that Shymaa felt guilty as she hadn’t said “hi” to me. She wanted Asma to apologize for that. I laughed and thought Shymaa was really sweet. I was the one who had stood aside so that I could give Shymaa and Asma a moment to talk in private. Yet Shymaa insisted on apologizing as she didn’t want me to feel unwelcome.
I can only imagine what it was like for Shymaa to give birth in the conditions which she did. First, she had to bear the pain of losing her dad. And then she had to give birth without medical supervision. After Abd’al-Rahman was born, Shymaa wrote a social media post addressed to her late dad. She asked:
Do you know you have become a grandfather now?
Dr Refaat never got to see his grandson. The news that Shymaa, Muhammad and Abd al-Rahman have been killed is heartbreaking. But I take some comfort in knowing that Dr Refaat and Shymaa have been reunited in a place where there is justice and peace. Dr Refaat can see his child again. And Shymaa can see hers.
Israel murders daughter and grandson of Refaat Alareer
Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, Apr 26 2024
Israel on Friday murdered the daughter, grandson and son-in-law of Refaat Alareer, the beloved writer, poet and educator who was assassinated by Israel in December. The airstrike on a building in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City killed Shymaa Refaat Alareer, her husband Muhammad Abd’al-Aziz Siyam and their 3-month-old son Abd’al-Rahman. They had been sheltering in the building of Global Communities, an international relief charity formerly known as CHF, in Gaza City, according to Abdallah Abd’al-Aziz Siyam, Muhammad’s brother.
In a voice message heard by The Electronic Intifada, Abdallah al-Siyam said members of his family had moved to the CHF building months ago, after their neighborhood was destroyed. A few days ago everyone except for Muhammad, Shymaa and their baby had left the building, Abdallah said. At around 11 am on Friday morning, Abdallah spoke to Muhammad by phone and said he was on his way to the CHF building to see him. Moments later, Abdallah, who said he works for Global Communities, received a call that the building had been bombed. He ran to the location and found his brother, Shymaa and their baby son dead. According to Abdallah, they were the only people at the building when it was attacked. Abdallah said that no one thought the CHF building would be bombed without warning, given that it was the headquarters of an international aid agency. The Electronic Intifada has reached out to Global Communities and this article will be updated with any new information. Funeral prayers were held for the family after their bodies were brought to al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City:
The killing of Refaat’s daughter Shymaa and the grandson he never had a chance to meet is being received with renewed outrage and grief from Refaat’s close friends, former students and people around the world who have been touched by Refaat’s life and work. “I am out of words, tears and ways to comprehend this endless loss, this pain, this criminal annihilation of our people,” wrote Jehad Abusalim, one close friend of Refaat. Ahmed Nehad, another close friend and colleague, noted that Refaat’s now world-famous poem “If I Must Die” was written to Shymaa. Nehad wrote:
She’s the one that was told to tell his story, to sell his things, and to not lose hope.
In an interview with Al Jazeera some years ago, Refaat described how Shymaa, then just 5 years old, inspired him to start telling stories during Israel’s first major war on Gaza in Dec 2008-Jan 2009. During the first war on Gaza, the most painful thing was the horror the children went through. Refaat recalled Shymaa asking him:
Dad, who created the Jews?
Refaat recalled:
I could not answer her question, but I realized that the war made Shymaa think there is a loving and merciful God, and another cruel God who created these Israeli soldiers, these killing machines, who terrorize us, destroy and turn our lives into a living hell. I had to find a way to distract my kids from war and bombs by telling them stories.
Following news of her killing, Palestinian media circulated a message Shymaa had posted shortly after the birth of her son, addressed to her martyred father. Shymaa wrote:
I have beautiful news for you, and I wish I could tell you while you were in front of me, handing you your first grandchild. Did you know that you have become a grandfather? Yes, father, this is your grandson. He is a month old. This is your grandson Abd’al-Rahman, who I always imagined you holding. But I never imagined I would lose you so early, even before you saw him.
Shymaa was a talented calligrapher who cherished her father’s memory and what he meant to people all over the world. Fatima Said tweeted:
She was an artist in her own right. A person worthy of remembering in her own right. May you be reunited with your father in Firdaws, Shymaa.
Razan Abu Salem, one of Refaat’s former students, writes in a tribute for The Electronic Intifada:
Dr Refaat always spoke to us about his immense love for his daughter. Shymaa is now joining her dad in heaven, not by choice but because Israel has killed her. Through this terrible crime, there are now fewer members of Dr Refaat’s family left to tell his story. But those of us still alive will continue to remember and honor Dr Refaat and lament his loss.
And now we must tell Shymaa’s story as well.
Niqnaq 