First Day In Genocide Court

Peers,

​  Gaza grandmother gunned down by Israeli sniper as child waved white flag
Shocking video shows Hala Rashid Abd al-Ati being shot and killed while leaving Gaza City, as her grandson, who had his arms interlocked with her, was waving a white flag https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israel-grandmother-killed-waving-white-flag

 ​  M. K. BHADRAKUMAR​ , Blinken’s window dressing tour of Arab capitals

​  What truly distinguishes the present crisis is that the Arab world is profoundly concerned and feels outraged by the barbaric Israeli behaviour toward hapless Palestinians — ‘animals,’ as Israeli politicians have described them. The Arab psyche is convinced that an enduring final settlement of the Palestine problem cannot be postponed indefinitely. Something has fundamentally changed even for Saudi Arabia which had clandestine dealings with Israel for decades and was inching toward establishing formal relations with it. https://www.indianpunchline.com/blinkens-window-dressing-tour-of-arab-capitals/

​  South Africa's statement begins at 15:50 on the time mark. South Africa on Thursday presented its case against Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and asked the World Court to order Israel to stop its military operation.  Watch the replay. Israel responds on Friday. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/10/watch-day-1-of-sa-v-israel-on-genocide-at-world-court/

 CRACK IN A 75-YEAR-OLD WALL OF IMPUNITY: SOUTH AFRICA CHALLENGES ISRAELI GENOCIDE IN COURT​   1948 was a year of tragic irony.​ That year saw the adoption of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, together promising a world in which human rights would be protected by the rule of law. That same year, South Africa adopted apartheid and Israeli forces carried out the Nakba, the violent mass dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Both systems relied on western colonial support.
​  In short, the modern international human rights movement was born into a world of racialized colonial contradictions. Seventy-five years later, the world is watching in horror as Israel has continued the Nakba through its months-long, systematic ethnic purge of Gaza — again with the complicity of powerful western governments led by the United States.
​  The horrors of the original Nakba were met with decades of absolute impunity for Israel, feeding further violence. But this time, three decades since the overthrow of apartheid in South Africa, the post-apartheid “Rainbow Nation” is taking the lead in challenging Israel’s genocidal assault.
​  On December 29, South Africa became the first country to file an application to the UN’s high judicial arm, the International Court of Justice, instituting genocide proceedings against Israel for “acts threatened, adopted, condoned, taken, and being taken by the Government and military of the State of Israel against the Palestinian people.” https://fpif.org/a-crack-in-a-75-year-old-wall-of-impunity-south-africa-challenges-israeli-genocide-in-court/

​  The initial hearing is not going to determine definitively whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The issue before the court this week is whether there is sufficient evidence to move the case forward, whether South Africa has legitimate standing to bring the case, whether the case is based on plausible treaty rights and obligations, and most importantly, whether to grant the provisional measures South Africa is seeking.
​  It is very likely that the Court will find that the legal questions of standing and legitimacy merit moving the case forward. That is particularly so because the Court does not have to rule definitively on those questions in order to move the case forward. They can decide later that, for some reason, South Africa does not have standing or that the ICJ doesn’t have jurisdiction over this case. By the time the case is fully adjudicated—a process that is likely to take months or years—the court could decide that the case for genocide is not conclusive. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/south-africas-icj-case-could-be-a-game-changer/

​  Pepe Escobar ,  BRICS member South Africa takes Zionism to court   Whatever happens at The Hague could go way beyond a possible condemnation of Israeli for genocide. Both Pretoria and Tel Aviv are members of the ICJ – so the rulings are binding. The ICJ, in theory, carries more weight than the UN Security Council, where the US vetoes any hard facts that tarnish Israel’s carefully constructed self-image.
​  The only problem is that the ICJ does not have enforcement power.​..
..Reading the full South African application is a horrifying exercise. This is literally history in the making, right in front of us living in the young, tech-addicted, 21st century, and not a science fiction account of a genocide taking place in some distant universe...  

​..Every grain of sand from the Negev to Arabia knows that the neocon psychos in charge of US foreign policy, including their pet, remote-controlled, senile occupant of the White House are not only complicit in the Israeli genocide but oppose any possibility of a ceasefire.
​  Incidentally, such complicity is also punishable by law, according to the Genocide Convention.  
​  Hence, it is a given that Washington and Tel Aviv will go no-holds-barred to block a fair trial by the ICJ, using every means of pressure and threat available. That dovetails with the extremely limited power exercised by any international court to impose the rule of international law on the exceptionalist Washington–Tel Aviv combo...
..The Israeli Foreign Ministry has regimented its embassies to arm-twist host country diplomats and politicians to swiftly issue an "immediate and unequivocal statement along the following lines: To publicly and clearly state that your country rejects the outrageous, absurd, and baseless allegations made against Israel." https://new.thecradle.co/articles/brics-member-south-africa-takes-zionism-to-court

​  An international law expert explains why South Africa’s case at the ICJ is so important​  “This is important in the history of the Palestinian cause, since we haven’t had an opportunity to get a binding international decision on any of the important questions that we have been dealing with, including for example, the issue of the Palestinian refugees, the [Israeli] occupation, etc,” Dr. Nuseibah continued.
​  The last time the ICJ made a decision in relation to Palestine was a 2004 advisory opinion that found Israel’s separation wall, which at that stage was still early on in its construction, violated international law and should be torn down.
​  However, because that decision was a non-binding advisory opinion, Israel was not obligated to stop construction or take down the wall. Instead, Israel continued constructing the wall, which today spans across hundreds of kilometers, cutting off Palestinians from their land and swallowing up swaths of Palestinian territory. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/an-international-law-expert-explains-why-south-africas-case-at-the-icj-is-so-important/

​  Jonathan Cook ,  War on Gaza: The West will stand in the dock alongside Israel at the genocide court   According to a cable from the Israeli foreign ministry, leaked to the Axios website, Israel hopes that, given the difficulties of making a legal case in defence of its actions, diplomatic and political pressure on the court’s justices will win the day instead. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-west-stand-dock-alongside-israel-genocide-court

Israel Calls South Africa The "Legal Arm Of Hamas" After 1st Day Of Hague Genocide Case https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-calls-south-africa-legal-arm-hamas-after-1st-day-hague-genocide-case

​  The Russian representative to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, attacked Western members of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, accusing them of "wasting the council's time in sessions far from what is happening in the Middle East, especially Gaza."
Nebenzia, speaking in an open debate, stated that "Israel" was seeking t​o "ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people in Gaza with American cover from top to bottom." https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--seeks-ethnic-cleansing-under-us-cover--russia-says

​  Balls of Steel: Today’s Most Despised Knesset Member.​   Mike Whitney
He signed a petition in support of “the upcoming hearing at the International Court of Justice … accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.”There are 120 members in the ​  Israeli Knesset, but one man towers above them all. His name is Ofer Cassif, and he is, perhaps, the most despised man in Israel. His crime—if you can call it that—is that he put his moral convictions into practice by signing a petition in support of “the upcoming hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague”… “accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.” (Times of Israel) Here’s what he said:
“My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents, not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide.” https://www.globalresearch.ca/balls-of-steel-todays-most-despised-knesset-member/5844884

​  British doctors forced to stop working and flee what appears to be the only hospital in the central Gaza Strip that is still functioning expressed “deep concern” about their patients and the remaining staff there as Israel’s war on the territory enters its fourth month. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2439536/middle-east

​  'Unimaginable situation' in Gaza as 600 patients and staff expelled from Al-Aqsa Hospital   Six hundred patients and medical staff have been forced to leave the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza's Deir al-Balah, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN, following an Israeli evacuation order.
​  The orders, which were reported by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, came amid an influx of injured people arriving at the medical centre.
Al-Aqsa Hospital is the last remaining hospital in operation in Central Gaza, with recent evacuation notices by Israeli forces seeing an exodus of medical staff from.
​  According to WHO official Sean Casey who had visited the hospital on Sunday, the hospital was operating with "30 percent of the staff that it had just a few days ago".
Casey added that the hospital was receiving "hundreds of casualties every day in a small emergency department". https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-expels-600-patients-staff-gazas-last-hospital

​  Gaza's child amputees face further risks without expert care ​  KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Eleven-year-old Noor's left leg was almost entirely torn off when her home in Jabalia, Gaza was hit by an explosion in October. Now her right leg, fitted with a heavy metal bar and four screws drilled into the bone, may have to be amputated.
​  "It hurts me a lot ... I'm afraid that they'll have to cut off my other leg," she said from her hospital bed, staring at her clunky fixation device.
"I used to run and play, I was so happy with my life, but now when I lost my leg, my life became ugly and I got sad. I hope I can get an artificial limb." https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gazas-child-amputees-face-further-risks-without-expert-care-2024-01-04/

​  Israel held Gaza civilians in “torture camp,” new evidence shows
​  Dozens of Palestinian men captured by Israel in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack were blindfolded, handcuffed, stripped to their underwear and humiliated in a "torture camp," a new investigation from Tel Aviv-based +972 Magazine has found. https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-01-10-israel-held-gaza-civilians-torture-camp-evidence.html

​  War on Gaza: Israel cages Palestinian towns in West Bank with iron gates
The movement of Palestinians is severely constricted as Israeli army erects gates and barriers at entrances of towns and villages ​  "The gate is closed." This phrase is repeated several times a day among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, describing their lives under the ongoing Israeli closure of their towns and villages. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israel-cages-palestinian-towns-west-bank-iron-gates

​  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's lengthy one-on-one meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was "tense", Channel 12 reports. ​  Indicative of the bad climate is that Anthony Blinken gave a press conference alone, without Netanyahu present.
At the same time, the Israeli prime minister's office did not release the minutes, as it is wont to do, which may indicate the rift.
​  The gap between the US and Israel is widening and Washington is losing patience, the Channel 12 report emphasizes.
Blinken met privately with Netanyahu at Tel Aviv's Kirya military base and then with the war cabinet.
​  Israel is going full steam ahead at war with Hezbollah (military preparations have escalated in the last 48 hours) with relations with the US and UK at a tipping point for the first time in history. https://warnews247-gr.translate.goog/istoriko-stratigiko-lathos-tou-israil-arpachtikan-agria-blinken-netaniachou-erchetai-polemos-idf-chezbolach-me-moudiasmenes-ipa-vretania/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Despite All Evidence, Blinken Calls Genocide Case Against Israel ‘Meritless’​  The U.S. secretary of state dismissed South Africa's case as he admitted 90% of Gaza residents are facing acute hunger. https://scheerpost.com/2024/01/10/despite-all-evidence-blinken-calls-genocide-case-against-israel-meritless/

​  The war within Israel's war cabinet
​  The Israeli body politic is beset with political and security differences exacerbated by the deadly costs of their Gaza war. Now they're fighting over whether to investigate their string of failures - before or after launching another war with Lebanon.   Undermining those efforts every step of the way is a growing Israeli chorus advocating for the reoccupation of southern Lebanon up to the Litani border as the only solution that would ensure the security of Israeli settlements. Recently, Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman proposed the occupation of southern Lebanon, placing the area between the Litani River and the border with occupied Palestine under Israeli control with UN supervision.
​  Recognizing the potential catastrophic consequences of a full-scale confrontation with Hezbollah which has formidable - and unknown - offensive, armament, and intelligence capabilities at its disposal, the Israeli military is keen on addressing the root causes of its recent failures before engaging in any further battles.
​  For its part, Hezbollah conditions any discussion about military actions with Israel on the cessation of the genocidal war on Gaza. The Lebanese resistance emphasizes that side actions intended to bait Hezbollah into war, such as targeting Hamas leaders in Lebanon, are not part of the debate. https://new.thecradle.co/articles/the-war-within-israels-war-cabinet

​  Hezbollah's use of anti-tank missiles unprecedented: Israeli media The Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that Hezbollah's utilization of this precision weapon is unparalleled in "Israel" and possibly globally.   Israeli media reported on Wednesday that Hezbollah's use of anti-tank missiles as a sniper weapon is "unprecedented."​... ..Moreover, the newspaper revealed that the "range of the anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon at civilian targets in the al-Jalil now comes to "Moshav Beit Hillel", located four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the border; and Kibbutz Kfar Szold in the Hula Valley, six kilometers from the border, whose residents have not been evacuated." https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-s-use-of-anti-tank-missiles-unprecedented--israeli

​  Shahed-238 Drone Makes Ukraine Combat Debut: Iran’s Enhanced New ‘Kamikaze’ Jets Built to Combat Enemy Air Defences​  (Cheap tech plays leapfrog.) ​  Its unveiling came less than a month before the Iranian-aligned Hezbollah militia group launching limited strikes against Israeli Iron Dome air defence systems, highlighting the value such aircraft could have not only for its extra-regional clients such as Russia but also for its strategic partners within the Middle East. https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/shahed238-debut-suppress-defences

UNSC adopts resolution demanding halt to Yemeni operations in Red Sea https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/unsc-adopts-resolution-demanding-halt-to-yemeni-operations-i

​  Blinken Admits Iran Behind 'Biggest Attack' Targeting US Ships, But There's No Plan ​  The Tuesday night attack saw up to 24 missiles and drones sent against international shipping lanes in the southern part of the Red Sea, and crucially directly against a US warship, as we detailed previously. The Pentagon said that three destroyers that are part of Operation Prosperity Guardian took part in shooting down the incoming barrage.
​  Secretary of State Antony Blinken has in fresh comments charged that ultimately Iran was behind this "biggest attack" by the Yemen-based Houthi rebels. He warned "there will be consequences" if the aggression continues. "We had the biggest attack just yesterday, aided and abetted by Iran​." https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/blinken-admits-iran-behind-biggest-attack-targeting-us-ships-theres-no-plan

​Tit-for-tat
​  Iranian naval forces, acting under a court order, seized Marshall Islands-flagged tanker "St Nikolas," Bloomberg reports, citing Iran's semi-official Tasnim agency reports. The report said St Nikolas is a "US oil tanker."...
..Bloomberg confirmed that the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker "St Nikolas" is the vessel that was hijacked. A previous report says that St Nikolas was seized by the US last year, sailing under a different name, "Suez Rajan," for transporting unauthorized Iranian cargo. ​  Empire Navigation, the vessel's operator, said the tanker was loaded with 145,000 tons of crude from the Iraqi port of Basra and was en route to Aliaga in western Turkey through the Suez Canal. It noted all communication with the vessel had been lost​.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/oil-tanker-hijacked-gulf-oman

 US government debt biggest threat to global economy – Russian NGO
The burden is unsustainable and could destabilize the financial system, Roscongress has warned https://swentr.site/business/590384-russia-us-debt-threat-global-economy/

​Still no pictures or video of "Lloyd Austin" in 2024. Pentagon inspector general to investigate mishandling of Lloyd Austin's hospitalization​ , Austin’s recent secretive hospitalization has been at the center of controversy. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/11/lloyd-austin-controversy-hill-dems-00134856

​  Jeffrey Epstein and his VIP associates had “prior knowledge” of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in the months before they happened, according to Prince Andrew’s ex-girlfriend Lady Victoria Hervey. ​  Hervey took to social media to break her silence regarding what she knows about Andrew’s relationship with the notorious child sex offender, claiming that Epstein’s contacts knew details about 9/11 before they happened, including the flight numbers of the commercial airplanes to be used in the attacks.
​  According to Hervey, Epstein and some of his close associates bought plane tickets “as souvenirs” of the horrifying and heartbreaking national tragedy.
“Regarding 9/11 which I’ll touch more on tomorrow, I have a story that connects it to Epstein,” she wrote on Instagram. “As in he knew it was going to happen and so did his close circle. They even bought plane tickets as souvenirs and never got on the planes. This is a whole new level of Sick.” https://www.eutimes.net/2024/01/prince-andrews-ex-says-jeffrey-epstein-had-prior-knowledge-of-9-11/

​ Court Reporter  (pictured in the other end of the listening area as it takes shape)