The United States and the Cult of Israel

BY M. REZA BEHNAM

APRIL 5, 2024
Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Photograph Source: U.S. Secretary of Defense – Public Domain

Ever since European Zionists invaded the land of Palestine, Israel has made the indigenous people prisoners and refugees in their own land.  Why, until now, have their colonization and imprisonment received so little attention in the United States?

Why has the nation that birthed the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence been willing to dismantle the long-established rules, norms and standards of international law and risk a wider war in the Middle East so that the apartheid state of Israel can “complete” its goal of physically destroying the indigenous population of Palestine to create a Jewish-only state?

Why do individuals, in-and-out of government, who have seen in real time the carnage in Gaza, continue to defend the indefensible and remain bound to Israel?

Israel has been waging an ideological war on the truth since it declared itself a state in 1948.  It has invested heavily, particularly in the United States, to manufacture a legitimacy it does not have; to embed the myth that Israel is a small, yet brave and vulnerable democratic state that deserves U.S. support no matter the cost.

Until the 7 October incursion by Hamas and other resistance groups, Israel had succeeded in establishing a gallery of cultish faithful in the United States who have effectively controlled the narrative and silenced dissenting voices.

If we are to accept the Merriam-Webster dictionary  definition of a cult as “great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement or work,” then the relationship between the United States and Israel can accurately be described as cultish.

Israel’s apocryphal narrative has seeped into the thinking and vocabulary of American politicians, academics, Christian ministers, mainstream media and finally, most Americans.

Consequently, for many in positions of power and influence, common sense has been supplanted with Zionist mythical ideology and a cultish belief in heroic Israeli leaders, noble warriors and peace makers.

There are no Palestinians in the Israeli story.  The mantra of the Zionist regime, “a land without people for a people without land,”—which reflects the belief of Israel’s Zionist founders that Palestinians are not “people,”—is a myth held today by most Jewish Israelis and by many in the United States.

Israel’s advocates are in some ways similar to former President Donald Trump’s MAGA disciples, who have been referred by some as a cult.  Presented with overwhelming evidence of Trump’s crimes and grift, they have remained loyal.

After hundreds of reports, like that of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem, documenting Israel’s 76-year history of land theft, apartheid, oppression, torture and genocide of Palestinians, Israel’s loyalists remain steadfast.

In 1983, after the condemnation it received for its disastrous invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Israel stepped up its propaganda campaign.  The goal of what came to be known as the  Hasbara (propaganda) Project was to guarantee that America never wavered in its political, economic and military support and to make it next to  impossible to critique Israel’s actions.  Israel has cynically wielded the cudgel of  antisemitism to quash criticism.

The threat of punishment—of being labelled antisemitic—looms over those who dare to question or challenge the ideology.  It has been a fatally effective dissuader; an accusation that has destroyed the careers and reputations of many journalists, academics, entertainers and politicians.

Helen Thomas, for example, a respected member of the Washington press corps, had her 57-year career end after she publicly questioned U.S. support for Israel.  An onslaught of well-orchestrated denunciations forced her retirement in 2010.  Thomas later remarked, “You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive.”

Popular host of a weekly MSNBC program, Mehdi Hasan, is a recent example of a journalist punished for making Palestinians’ visible to a national audience and for daring to criticize Israel.  After three years on the air, the cable “news” network announced in November 2023 that his program would be cancelled.

Corporate news organizations, like MSNBC, have come to expect immense pressure if they go outside the level of “acceptable” discourse regarding Israel.  They have, therefore, eschewed the Palestinian narrative and have become essentially an arm of Tel Aviv’s propaganda network.

Israeli hasbara has also framed Palestinian resistance against military occupation as terrorism.  The association of terrorism with Palestinians, Muslims and the Middle East has created an unhealthy climate of indifference and dispassion among many Americans; an indifference that has made the televised genocide of Palestinians acceptable—just another news event.

The venomous reach of Israeli cultism was demonstrated, for example, on 25 March when U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, abstained from a Security Council vote on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.  Administration officials then stated that the resolution, which passed with the U.S. abstention, was non-binding and unenforceable, giving Israel license once again to completely ignore UN resolutions.

The deception behind the administration’s vote to abstain is worth noting. The resolution was adopted under Chapter VI (Pacific Settlement of Disputes) of the UN Charter.  While Chapter VI resolutions are commonly described as legally binding, there is no consensus on whether they are legally enforceable.  The White House used this ambiguity to dismiss the resolution.

Until the March vote to abstain,—the first nominally serious act of the administration in the Security Council—the Biden administration has encouraged Israel’s violation of international law and atrocities by vetoing four earlier Security Council ceasefire resolutions.

Genocide is not a single act, but a process.  Like the process in Germany that led to the annihilation stage of genocide—the Holocaust—Israel’s madness in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian Territories has been driven by a genocidal logic integral to and an inevitable part of Israel’s ongoing intent on establishing an exclusive ethno-religious state in Palestine where Palestinians do not exist.

Unlike the citizens of the Third Reich, however, dependent on state-controlled newspapers and radio to understand their world, social media has allowed the entire global community to witness a 21st century genocide.

In spite of the brutality, Israel’s cultish minions continue to obfuscate and condone, refusing to recognize the historical context that led to the inevitability of 7 October. Nowhere is that more apparent than in White House and in U.S. Congressional news briefings and press conferences.

Biden has been a “friend of Israel” since he entered the senate in 1973, and has often declared, “I am a Zionist.” After receiving $5,736,701 (from 1990 to 2024) from pro-Israel lobby groups, his cultish mindset has hardened.

A recent example of the president’s dedication to Israel is the 29 March report that Biden secretly signed off on billions of dollars in additional bombs and warplanes for Israel (1,800, 2,000-pound bombs; 500, 500-pound bombs; 25 F-35 fighter jets and engines worth $2.5 billion).  He did this knowing that there is no place left to bomb but Rafah, where more than one million Palestinians have been forced to flee.  While the U.S. and Israel feign contention over Tel Aviv’s planned ground invasion of Rafah, Israel has intensified air and artillery strikes on that beleaguered city.

For over seven decades, America’s top priority has been insuring the safety of its citadel in the Middle East.  The lives lost and trillions of U.S. dollars spent on containing or waging war against countries that have stood with Palestine and that have rejected Israeli regional hegemony—countries like Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and currently Ansarallah (Houthis) in Yemen—have not made the Middle East or the United States safer.

American administrations have spent billions propping up Middle East despots,  leaning on them to legitimize Israel’s presence in the region.  Some have paid dearly for bowing to U.S. pressure or largesse, like the late Shah of Iran and Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat.  Washington’s goading of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to collaborate with Israel contributed to his downfall in 1979.  And U.S. pressure on Sadat to make peace with Israel, led to his assassination in 1981.

U.S. officials and Western media refuse to say publicly what many believe, that Israel is not strategically important to the United States, as was once believed during the Cold War; that it is in fact a strategic liability.

The Biden administration continues to plow recklessly ahead, even as Israel continues to provoke a wider war in the region, conducting lethal airstrikes into Lebanon and Syria.

Israel’s years-long air war on supporters of Palestinian resistance—Hezbollah in Lebanon and Ansarallah in Yemen—has thus far not led to a larger confrontation.

Tel Aviv has carried out hundreds of strikes, mostly against Iranian installations  inside Syrian government-controlled areas.  Since December 2023, more than half a dozen Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Syria.

The Israeli missiles, however, that leveled the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus on 1 April—in clear violation of international law regarding the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises—has the potential to inflame the region.

Israel’s provocative action that killed seven Iranian military advisers, including a senior Quds Force commander, has forced Iran to react.

Netanyahu has spent decades trying to convince the world that Iran is a threat and to draw the United States into a war with Tehran.

Since the October attack, Netanyahu has escalated his undeclared war on Iran, aware of how it would serve his interests:  It would distract the world’s attention away from the genocide in Gaza, rally the troops and public, and postpone his political demise.

Washington’s tone deafness to the Palestinian condition and unwavering support for Israel has fueled anti-Americanism, radicalism and chaos throughout the Middle East.  The horrific attacks on U.S. centers of power on 9-11 is just one example of that reality.  Clearly, as evidenced today, what is best for Israel is not best for the United States.

Since 7 October, the Biden administration has overtly committed the United States to the cultish ideology of destruction.   On his 22 March 2024 trip to Tel Aviv, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated America’s dedication to destroying Hamas.

Blinken asserted once again that the United States would work with Israel to destroy Palestinian resistance and nationalism.  He and other American politicians fail to understand that Hamas is an ideology that birthed a political resistance movement and cannot be destroyed.

Israel and its cult in the United States have used every means to break the spirit of Palestinian defiance and to make Palestine a permanent colony of the Zionist regime.  Washington has been a willful partner in Israel’s schemes.  The October Palestinian insurrection and the resistance it has generated have proven both delusional.

Irremediable Defeat: On Israel’s Other Unwinnable War

BY RAMZY BAROUD

APRIL 5, 2024

Image by Sohaib Al Kharsa.

Historically, wars unite Israelis. Not anymore.

Not that Israelis do not agree with Benjamin Netanyahu’s war; they simply do not believe that the prime minister is the man who could win this supposedly existential fight.

But Netanyahu’s war remains unwinnable simply because liberation wars, often conducted through guerrilla warfare tactics, are far more complicated than traditional combat. Nearly six months after the Israeli attack on Gaza, it has become clear that Palestinian Resistance groups are durable and well-prepared for a much longer fight.

Netanyahu, supported by far-right ministers and an equally hardline Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, insists that more firepower is the answer. Though the unprecedented amount of explosives, used by Israel in Gaza, killed and wounded over 100,000 Palestinians, an Israeli victory, however it is defined, remains elusive.

So, what do Israelis want and, more precisely, what is their prime minister’s end-game in Gaza, anyway?

Major opinion polls since October 7 continued to produce similar results: the Israeli public prefers Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, over the prime minister and his Likud party.

A recent poll conducted by the Israeli newspaper Maariv also indicated that one of Netanyahu’s closest and most important coalition partners, Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionist Party, Bezalel Smotrich, is virtually irrelevant in terms of public support. If elections were to be held today, the far-right minister’s party would not even pass the electoral threshold.

Most Israelis are calling for new elections this year. If they are to receive their wish today, the pro-Netanyahu coalition would only be able to muster 46 seats, compared to its rivals with 64.

And, if the Israeli coalition government – currently controlling 72 seats out of 120 Knesset seats – is to collapse, the rightwing dominance over Israeli politics will shatter, likely for a long time.

In this scenario, all of Netanyahu’s political shenanigans, which served him well in the past, would fall short from allowing him to return to power, keeping in mind he is already 74 years of age.

A greatly polarized society, Israelis learned to blame an individual or a political party for all of their woes. This is partly why election outcomes can sharply differ between one election cycle to another. Between April 2019 and November 2022, Israel held five general elections, and now they are demanding yet another one.

The November 2022 elections were meant to be decisive, as they ended years of uncertainty, and settled on the “most right-wing government in the history of Israel” – an oft-repeated description of Israel’s modern government coalitions.

To ensure Israel does not delve back into indecision, Netanyahu’s government wanted to secure its gains for good. Smotrich, along with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, wanted to fashion a new Israeli society that is forever tilted towards their brand of religious and ultranationalist Zionism.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, simply wanted to hold on to power, partly because he became too accustomed to the perks of his office, and also because he is desperately hoping to avoid jail time due to his several corruption trials.

To achieve this, the right and far-right parties have diligently worked to change the rules of the game, by curtailing the power of the judiciary and ending the oversight of the Supreme Court. They failed at some tasks, and succeeded at others, including an amendment to the country’s Basic Laws to curtail the power of Israel’s highest court, thus its right to overturn the government’s policies.

Though Israelis protested en masse, it was clear that the initial energy of these protests, starting in January 2023, was petering out, and that a government with such a substantial majority – at least, per Israel’s standards – will not easily relent.

October 7 changed all calculations.

The Palestinian Al-Aqsa Flood Operation is often examined in terms of its military and intelligence components, if not usefulness, but rarely in terms of its strategic outcomes. It placed Israel at a historic dilemma that even Netanyahu’s comfortable Knesset majority cannot – and most likely will not – be able to resolve.

Complicating matters, on January 1, the Supreme Court officially annulled the decision by Netanyahu’s coalition to strike down the power of the judiciary.

The news, however significant, was overshadowed by many other crises plaguing the country, mostly blamed on Netanyahu and his coalition partners: the military and intelligence failure leading to October 7, the grinding war, the shrinking economy, the risk of a regional conflict, the rift between Israel and Washington, the growing global anti-Israel sentiment, and more.

The problems continue to pile up, and Netanyahu, the master politician of former times, is now only hanging by the thread of keeping the war going for as long as possible to defer his mounting crises for as long as possible.

Yet, an indefinite war is not an option, either. The Israeli economy, according to recent data by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics, has shrunk by over 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023. It is likely to continue its free fall in the coming period.

Moreover, the army is struggling, fighting an unwinnable war without realistic goals. The only major source for new recruits can be obtained from ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have been spared the battlefield to study in yeshivas, instead.

70 percent of all Israelis, including many in Netanyahu’s own party, want the Haredi to join the army. On March 28, the Supreme Court ordered a suspension of state subsidies allocated to these ultra-Orthodox communities.

If that is to happen, the crisis will deepen on multiple fronts. If the Haredi lose their privileges, Netanyahu’s government is likely to collapse; if they maintain them, the other government, the post Oct-7 war council, is likely to collapse as well.

An end to the Gaza war, even if branded as a ‘victory’ by Netanyahu, will only further the polarization and deepen Israel’s worst internal political struggle since its founding on the ruins of historic Palestine. A continuation of the war will add to the schisms, as it will only serve as a reminder of an irremediable defeat.


Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

 

Killing Humanitarians: Israel’s War on Aid Workers in Gaza

By Vinay Kammark / April 3rd, 2024

Eulogies should rarely be taken at face value.  Plaster saints take the place of complex individuals; faults transmute into golden virtues.  But there was little in the way of fault regarding Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom’s messianic purpose, whose tireless work for the charity, World Central Kitchen (WCK) in northern Gaza had not gone unnoticed.  Sadly, the Australian national, along with six other members of WCK, were noticed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) around midnight of April 1 and 2 and targeted in a strike that killed all of them.

Other members of the slain crew included Polish citizen Damian Sobol, three British nationals whose names are yet to be released, a US-Canadian dual citizen, and the driver and translator Saif Abu Taha.

The charity workers had been unloading food supplies from Cyprus that had been sent via sea in a designated “deconflicted” area.  All three vehicles, two armoured and one “soft skin”, sported the WCK logo.  Even more galling for the charity was the fact that coordinating efforts between WCK and the IDF had taken place as it left the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the individuals had been responsible for uploading over 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid.

On April 2, Haaretz reported that three missiles had been fired in rapid succession at the convoy by a Hermes 450 UAV on direction of a unit guarding the aid transport route.  The troops in question claimed to have spotted what they thought was an armed figure riding a truck that had entered one of the aid storage areas with three WCK vehicles.  The armed figure, presumed to be a Hamas militant, never left the warehouse in the company of the vehicles.

In a public relations war Israel is increasingly losing, various statements of variable quality and sincerity could only confirm that fact.  IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated that he had spoken to WCK founder Chef José Andrés “and expressed the deepest condolences of the Israel Defense Forces to the families and the entire World Central Kitchen family.”

Hagari went on to add the IDF’s expression of “sincere sorrow to our allied nations who have been doing and continue to do so much to assist those in need.”  This was a bit rich given the programmatic efforts of the IDF and Israeli officials to stifle and strangulate the provision of aid into the Gaza Strip, from the logistical side of keeping land crossings closed and delaying access to existing ones, to aggressive efforts to defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

As for the operation itself, Hagari announced that “the highest levels” of military officialdom had been “reviewing the incident” to comprehend the circumstances that led to the deaths.  “We will get to the bottom of this and we will share our findings transparently.”  Again exalting the prowess of his organisation in investigating such matters, he promised that the army’s General Staff Fact-Finding Assessment Mechanism – yet another independent body designed to give the impression of thoroughness and impartiality – would look into this “serious incident” to “reduce the risk of such an event from occurring again.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a better barometric reading of the mood, and it was certainly not one of grieving or feeling aggrieved.  The killings had merely been “a tragic instance of our forces unintentionally harming innocent people in the Gaza Strip.  It happens in war.”  Israel would “investigate it” and had been “in contact with the governments and we will do everything we can so that it doesn’t happen again.”

This is mightily optimistic given the butcher’s toll of 173 aid workers from UNRWA alone, with 196 humanitarians said to have died as of March 20, 2024 since October 7 last year.  Aid workers have been killed in IDF strikes despite the regular provision of coordinates on their locations.  Be it through reckless indifference, conscious intent, or a lack of competence, the morgues continue to be filled with humanitarian workers.ntion to the obvious, yet repeatedly neglected fact in the Gaza conflict that aid workers are protected by international humanitarian law.  Gaza had become “one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a humanitarian worker.  This is unacceptable and demands accountability through the International Criminal Court.”

Responsibility for the killings is unlikely to translate into accountability, let alone any public outing of the individuals involved.  This is not to say that such exercises are impossible, even with Israel not being a member of the International Criminal Court.  The pageantry of guilt can still be pursued.

When Malaysian Airlines MH17 was downed over Ukraine in July 2014 by a Buk missile, killing all 298 on board, international efforts of terrier-like ferocity were initiated against those responsible for the deadly feat.  The MH17 Joint Investigation Team (JIT), comprising the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine, identified the missile as having come from the 53^rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian armed forces from Kursk.  Four suspects were identified.  Of the four, one was acquitted, with the district Court of The Hague handing down three life sentences in November 2022 along with an order to pay over €16 million in compensation to the victims.  The individuals remain at large, and the Kremlin largely unmoved, but the point was made.

In this case, any hope for seeking an external accounting for the event is likely to be kept in-house.  Excuses of error and misidentification are already filling press releases and conferences.  Doing so will enable the IDF to continue its program of quashing the Palestinian cause while pursuing an undisclosed war against those it considers, publicly or otherwise, to be its ameliorating collaborators.  With an announcement by various humanitarian groups, including WCK, Anera and Project Hope, that their operations will be suspended following the killings, starvation, as a policy in Gaza, can receive= its official blessing.Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com. Read other articles by Binoy.

 

Killing Aid Workers: Australia’s Muddled Policy on Israel

by Binoy Kampmark / April 4th, 2024

The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, was distraught and testy.  It seemed that, on this occasion, Israel had gone too far.  Not too far in killing over 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, a staggering percentage of them being children.  Not too far in terms of using starvation as a weapon of war.  Not too far in bringing attention to the International Court of Justice that its actions are potentially genocidal.

Israel had overstepped in doing something it has done previously to other nationals: kill humanitarian workers in targeted strikes.  The difference for Albanese on this occasion was that one of the individuals among the seven World Central Kitchen charity workers killed during the midnight between April 1 and 2 was Australian national Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom.

Frankcom and her colleagues had unloaded humanitarian food supplies from Cyprus that had been sent via a maritime route before leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse.  The convoy, despite driving in a designated “deconflicted” zone, was subsequently attacked by three missiles fired from a Hermes 450 drone.  All vehicles had the WCK logo prominently displayed.  WCK had been closely coordinating the movements of their personnel with the IDF.

In a press conference on April 3, Albanese described the actions as “completely unacceptable.”  He noted that the Israeli government had accepted responsibility for the strikes, while Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu had conveyed his condolences to Frankcom’s family, with assurances that he would be “committed to full transparency”.

The next day, the Australian PM called the slaying of Frankcom a “catastrophic event”, reiterating Netanyahu’s promises from the previous day that he was “committed to a full and proper investigation.”  Albanese also wished that these findings be made public, and that accountability be shown for Israel’s actions, including for those directly responsible.  “What we know is that there have been too many innocent lives lost in Gaza.”

Australian Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, restated the need for “full accountability and transparency” and Australian cooperation with Israel “on the detail of this investigation.”  She further acknowledged the deaths of over 30,000 civilians, with some “half a million Palestinians” starving.

Beyond an investigation, mounted and therefore controlled by the Israeli forces themselves, nothing much else can be hoped for.  The Albanese approach has been one of copybook warnings and concerns to an ally it clearly fears affronting.  What would a ground invasion of Rafah do to the civilian population?  What of the continuing hardships in Gaza?  Push for a humanitarian ceasefire, but what else?

Australian anger at the government level must therefore be severely qualified.  Support roles, thereby rendering Australian companies complicit in Israeli’s military efforts, and in ancillary fashion the Australian government, continue to be an important feature. The F-35, a mainstay US-made fighter for the Israeli Air Force, is not manufactured or built in Australia, but is sustained through the supply of spare parts stored in a number of allied countries. According to the Australian Department of Defence, “more than 70 Australian companies have directly shared more than $4.13 billion in global F-35 production and sustainment contracts.”

The Australian government has previously stated that all export permit decisions “must assess any relevant human rights risks and Australia’s compliance with its international obligations”.  The refusal of a permit would be assured in cases where an exported product “might be used to facilitate human rights abuses”.  On paper, this seems solidly reasoned and consistent with international humanitarian law.  But Canberra has been a glutton for the Israeli military industry, approving 322 defence exports over the past six years. In 2022, it approved 49 export permits of a military nature bound for Israel; in the first three months of 2023, the number was 23.

The drone used in the strike that killed Frankcom is the pride and joy of Elbit Systems, which boasts a far from negligible presence in Australia.  In February, Elbit Systems received a A$917 million contract from the Australian Defence Department, despite previous national security concerns among Australian military personnel regarding its Battle Management System (BMS).

When confronted with the suggestion advanced by the Australian Greens that Australia end arms sales to Israel, given the presence of Australian spare parts in weaponry used by the IDF, Wong displayed her true plumage.  The Australian Greens, she sneered, were “trying to make this a partisan political issue”.  With weasel-minded persistence, Wong again quibbled that “we are not exporting arms to Israel” and claiming Australian complicity in Israeli actions was “detrimental to the fabric of Australian society.”

The Australian position on supplying Israel remains much like that of the United States, with one fundamental exception.  The White House, the Pentagon and the US Congress, despite increasing concerns about the arrangement, continue to bankroll and supply the Israeli war machine even as issue is taken about how that machine works.  That much is admitted.  The Australian line on this is even weaker.

The feeble argument made by such watery types as Foreign Minister Wong focus on matters of degree and semantics.  Israel is not being furnished with weapons; they are merely being furnished with weapon components.

Aside from ending arms sales, there is precedent for Australia taking the bull by the horns and charging into the mist of legal accountability regarding the killing of civilians in war.  It proved an enthusiastic participant in the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), charged with combing through the events leading to the downing of the Malaysian Airlines MH17 over Ukraine in July 2014 by a Buk missile, killing all 298 on board.

Any such equivalent investigation into the IDF personnel responsible for the killing of Frankcom and her colleagues is unlikely.  When the IDF talks of comprehensive reviews, we know exactly how comprehensively slanted they will be.Facebook

TwitterRedditEmail

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com. Read other articles by Binoy.

'Indictments Now,' Says UN Expert After Israel Massacres World Central Kitchen Workers


"Israel is crossing every possible red line, still with full impunity," said Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.

The United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories demanded criminal consequences for Israeli officials on Tuesday after the country's forces attacked a World Central Kitchen convoy in the Gaza Strip, killing seven workers and sparking global outrage.

"Israel is crossing every possible red line, still with full impunity," Francesca Albanese wrote in a social media post, noting that the Israeli military's attack on the WCK convoy came on the same day that it bombed Iran's consulate in Syria.

"Sanctions now," Albanese wrote. "Indictments now."

The International Criminal Court, the global body tasked with trying individuals for war crimes, is currently investigating alleged Israeli crimes in the Gaza Strip.

Early accounts described the Israeli attack on the WCK convoy on Monday as a singular strike, but reporting and on-the-ground testimony have since made clear that Israeli forces launched three successive strikes on the vehicles.

WCK described the attack as "targeted," given that the convoy coordinated its movements with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the vehicles were clearly marked with the humanitarian aid group's logo. Photographs released in the wake of the attack show that an Israeli missile tore through the WCK logo on the roof of one of the targeted vehicles.


(Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

According to Haaretz, "an Israeli drone fired three missiles one after the other" at the convoy, reportedly believing that a suspected "terrorist" was traveling with the aid workers.

"At some point, when the convoy was driving along the approved route, the war room of the unit responsible for security of the route ordered the drone operators to attack one of the cars with a missile," the Israeli newspaper reported, citing unnamed IDF sources.

After the first car was hit, survivors attempted to flee and transfer the wounded into the other cars—at which point Israeli forces launched missiles at the two remaining vehicles.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes "unintentionally" killed innocent WCK staffers, but the Haaretz reporting indicates the IDF knowingly launched several lethal attacks on the aid convoy.

"Netanyahu is killing journalists, doctors, and humanitarian workers indiscriminately (or maybe discriminately) and doing everything in his power to provoke a war with Iran, but Biden is just sending more fighter jets."

Rescue teams from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society recovered the seven bodies from the gruesome scene and transferred them to nearby hospitals. The victims included a Palestinian WCK worker and a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada as well as Australian, Polish, and British nationals who had just unloaded 100 tons of food aid.

Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that he was "extremely saddened and appalled by the Israeli army's multiple airstrikes" on the WCK convoy and emphasized that the attack was "not an isolated incident."

"As of 20 March, at least 196 humanitarians had been killed in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 2023. This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year," said McGoldrick. "All parties to the conflict, including the government of Israel, must respect international humanitarian law, which prohibits the targeting of humanitarian personnel. The role of aid workers is to alleviate the suffering of people in crisis. Their safety, along with that of the civilians they serve, must be guaranteed."

Israel's deadly attack forced WCK and other aid groups to pause their operations in Gaza at the worst possible moment, with famine spreading and taking lives across the territory. Israel's blockade has restricted the entry of food, medical supplies, and other necessities.

"We feel that it's very hard for us to continue," said Naser Qadous of the American Near East Refugee Aid, which partners with WCK. "The humanitarian assistance people need to be protected."

Qadous went on to warn that the aid disruptions caused by Israel's attack would have devastating consequences for ordinary Gazans.

"The starvation in Gaza will be unbelievable," he said.

Sky News reported Tuesday that cargo vessels bound for Gaza from Cyprus were turned around following the attack on the WCK convoy.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the aid workers killed by Israeli forces as "heroes" and said they "have to be protected."

Blinken said Biden administration officials have "spoken directly" with the Israeli government about the attack and urged a "thorough" and "impartial" investigation.



But Blinken did not do what many aid organizations and U.N. officials have urged the U.S. and other countries to do for months: cut off arms sales to Israel.

Hours before Monday's attack, CNNreported that the Biden administration is "close to approving the sale of as many as 50 American-made F-15 fighter jets to Israel, in a deal expected to be worth more than $18 billion."

"Netanyahu is killing journalists, doctors, and humanitarian workers indiscriminately (or maybe discriminately) and doing everything in his power to provoke a war with Iran, but Biden is just sending more fighter jets," Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, wrote in response to the CNN story.

"Madness," he added.

Doctor at Israeli Detention Camp for Gazans Blows Whistle on War Crimes

"Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event."


Stripped, blindfolded, and bound Palestinian civilians are taken prisoner and ordered into a line by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza in December 2023.
(Photo: Social media post by Israeli soldier)

BRETT WILKINS
Apr 04, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

A doctor at an Israeli field hospital inside a notorious detention center where hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are temporarily held is sounding the alarm about torture and horrific conditions at what some human rights defenders—including Israelis—are calling "Israel's Guantánamo Bay" and even a "concentration camp."

In a letter to Israel's attorney general and defense and health ministers viewed byHaaretz—which reported the story Thursday—the anonymous physician describes likely war crimes being committed at the Israel Defense Forces' Sde Teiman base near Beersheva. Palestinian militants captured by IDF troops, as well as many civilian hostages ranging in age from teenagers to septuagenarians, are held there in cages, 70-100 per cage, until they are transferred to regular Israeli prisons or released.

"From the first days of the medical facility's operation until today, I have faced serious ethical dilemmas," the doctor wrote. "More than that, I am writing to warn you that the facility's operations do not comply with a single section among those dealing with health in the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law."




Gazans arrested and detained by Israeli forces are not legally considered prisoners of war by Israel because it does not recognize Gaza as a state. These detainees are mostly held under the Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows the imprisonment of anyone suspected of taking part in hostilities against Israel for up to 75 days without seeing a judge.

Human Rights Watch has warned that the law "strips away meaningful judicial review and due process rights."

Sde Teiman detainees are fed through straws and forced to defecate in diapers. They're also forced to sleep with the lights on and have allegedly been subjected to beatings and torture. Other Palestinians taken by Israeli forces have described being electrocuted, mauled by dogs, soaked with cold water, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, and blasted with loud music at temporary detention sites.

The whistleblowing Sde Teiman physician said that all patients at the camp's field hospital are handcuffed by all four limbs, regardless of how dangerous they are deemed. In December, Israeli Health Ministry officials ordered such treatment after a medical worker at the facility was attacked. Now the camp's estimated 600-800 prisoners are shackled 24 hours a day.

At first, the cuffs were plastic zip ties. Now they're metal. The doctor said that more than half of his patients at the camp have suffered cuffing injuries, including some that have required "repeated surgical interventions."

"Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event," he told Haaretz.

The whistleblower also alleged substandard medical care at the facility, where there is only one doctor on duty, who is sometimes a gynecologist or orthopedist.

"This ends in complications and sometimes even in the patient's death," he said. "This makes all of us—the medical teams and you, those in charge of us in the Health and Defense ministries, complicit in the violation of Israeli law, and perhaps worse for me as a doctor, in the violation of my basic commitment to patients, wherever they are, as I swore when I graduated 20 years ago."

The doctor claims in his letter that he warned the Health Ministry's director-general about the appalling conditions at Sde Teiman, but that there have been "no substantial changes in the way the facility operates."

An ethics committee visited the camp in February; the physician said that its members "are worried about their legal exposure and coverage in view of their involvement in a facility that is operated contrary to the provisions of the existing law."

Last month, Haaretzrevealed that 27 detainees have died in custody at the Sde Teiman and Anatot camps or during interrogation in Israel since October 7. While some were Hamas or other militants captured or wounded while fighting IDF troops, others were civilians, including some with preexisting health conditions like the diabetic laborer who was not suspected of any offense when he was arrested and sent to his death at Anatot.

One former Sde Teiman detainee claims that he personally witnessed Israeli troops execute five prisoners in separate incidents.

"Israel's indifference to the fate of Gazans, at best, and desire for revenge against them, at worst, are fertile ground for war crimes."

Responding to the 27 detainee deaths and invoking the U.S. military prison in Cuba known for torture and indefinite detention, the Haaretz editorial board wrote last month that "Sde Teiman and the other detention facilities are not Guantánamo Bay and... the state has a duty to protect the rights of detainees even if they are not formally prisoners of war."

"Israel's indifference to the fate of Gazans, at best, and desire for revenge against them, at worst, are fertile ground for war crimes," the editors said. "Indifference by Israelis and desire for revenge must not constitute license to shed the blood of detainees... The fact that Hamas is holding and abusing Israeli hostages cannot excuse or justify the abuse of Palestinian detainees."

In December, the Geneva-based advocacy group Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor—which has also accused IDF troops of allowing Israeli civilians to witness the torture of Palestinian prisoners—demanded an investigation of what it called the "new Guantánamo."

Israeli rights groups and individuals have also condemned the abuses at Sde Teiman, which, like Guantánamo, has been described as a "concentration camp."

"Enough, just enough. We have to stop this gallop into the abyss," urged Hebrew University senior lecturer Tamar Megiddo on Wednesday. "This war has to end. This government needs to end."

Ugandan Court Upholds 'One of the Most Extreme Anti-LGBTI Laws in the World'


"It is shocking that an opportunity was missed to revoke a law that undermines the rights of LGBTI persons in Uganda, their allies, human rights defenders, and activists," said one Amnesty International campaigner.


LGBTQ+ advocates protest Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act in Pretoria, South Africa on April 4, 2023.
(Photo: Phil Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images)

BRETT WILKINS
Apr 03, 2024
COMMON DREAMS

Human rights defenders on Wednesday condemned a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Uganda upholding most of the African nation's so-called "Kill the Gays" law criminalizing sex between consenting adults of the same sex and imposing the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality."

The court's five justices largely affirmed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 (AHA)—signed into law last year by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni amid widespread condemnation from Western nations and international human rights groups—as being consistent with the country's constitution.

However, the justices struck down four sections of the law that criminalized renting properties for use in same-sex sexual acts and failure to report such acts to the authorities, finding that those provisions violate portions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights related to health, privacy, and religious freedom rights.

"This ruling is wrong and deplorable," said Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda. "Uganda's Constitution protects all of its people, equally. We continue to call for this law to be repealed. We are calling on all governments, [United Nations] partners, and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the Global Fund to likewise intensify their demand that this law be struck down because it is discriminatory."



Tigere Chagutah, a regional director at Amnesty International, said that "it is shocking that an opportunity was missed to revoke a law that undermines the rights of LGBTI persons in Uganda, their allies, human rights defenders, and activists by criminalizing consensual same-sex acts, 'promotion' of homosexuality with all its vagueness as an offense, and contemplates the death penalty for the offense of 'aggravated homosexuality."

"As we mark the 10th anniversary of the African Commission's Resolution 275 on the protection against violence and human rights violations against persons on the basis of their real or imputed sexual orientation or gender identity, the government of Uganda must repeal the entire Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 and ensure accountability for the attacks against LGBTI people," Chagutah added.

Amnesty called the Ugandan law "one of the most extreme anti-LGBTI laws in the world."

Human Rights Campaign president Kelly Robinson said in a statement: "For the Constitutional Court of Uganda to uphold such a draconian law in any capacity is a horrific display of hatred that will mean further discrimination and physical harm for LGBTQ+ Ugandans. Over the last year, we have mourned the wave of violence targeting the LGBTQ+ community, and we know that this decision will only result in further damage."



Rightify Ghana, which advocates for sexual minorities in Africa, called Wednesday's ruling "deeply disappointing" and "a significant setback for human rights and democracy in Uganda."

"Human rights and democracy are under attack, not just in Uganda, but across Africa," the group added. "It is crucial that our courts uphold the constitution and protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity."

Under the Ugandan law, people convicted of "aggravated homosexuality"—defined as same-sex sexual acts by HIV-positive people or with children, disabled people, or anyone deemed vulnerable—can be hanged to death. The law punishes same-sex acts with life imprisonment and attempted same-sex acts with 10 years behind bars. It also criminalizes the "promotion" of LGBTQ+ rights.

According to the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, a Ugandan advocacy group, 55 people have been arrested under the law, including three who face possible execution. At least eight people have been subjected to forced anal examinations, while 254 people accused of either being or associating with LGBTQ+ people have been evicted from their homes.

Rights groups have also sounded the alarm on anti-gay "witch hunts" and violence targeting LGBTQ+ Ugandans.



The law has sparked international outrage and alarm. In the United States, the Biden administration responded by cutting aid to Uganda, imposing visa restrictions on its citizens, and canceling a planned regional military exercise.

"The announcement that some provisions of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act have been removed by the Constitutional Court is a small and insufficient step towards safeguarding human rights," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday in response to the ruling.

"The United States is deeply concerned about the remaining provisions which undermine public health, human rights, and Uganda's international reputation," she added. "As the president has said time and time again, no one should have to live in constant fear nor be subjected to violence or discrimination. It is wrong. We will continue to work to advance respect for human rights for all in Uganda and also around the world."

The Delegation of the European Union to Uganda also condemned Wednesday's ruling, calling the AHA "contrary to international human rights law."

"The E.U. also regrets the retention of the death penalty, to which the E.U. is opposed in all circumstances," the delegation added.

Advocates have noted the role of European colonization and U.S. evangelicals in demonizing and outlawing homosexuality in Africa.



The Ugandan LGBTQ+ advocacy group Convening for Equality lamented that the Ugandan court missed an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of other African nations including Mozambique, Botswana, Seychelles, Mauritius, Gabon, Cape Verde, South Africa, and Angola that "have recognized anti-gay laws as remnants of colonial rule, and repealed them through law reform processes and court decisions."

"In the summary released describing the basis for their ruling, the court only cited one case by name: the U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the right to abortion, Dobbs v. Jackson [Women's Health Organization], as providing justification for upholding criminalization of [LGBTQ+] Ugandans," the group added. "Advocates noted that this could point to influence on Uganda's judiciary by the U.S. extremist hate groups who funded that U.S. Supreme Court challenge."

SEE

Uganda’s most prominent LGBTQ activist says newly upheld anti-gay law will prompt violence