September 2, 2024
Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.
At the moment of writing this article it is still unclear if Israeli politican and war criminal Tzipi Livni will arive on Monday, 2nd of September, to Slovenia to the Bled Strategic Forum to which she was invited by the Slovenian government. The event is organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and the Centre for European Perspective under the title “A World of Parallel Realities”. And parallel realities it is. While the Slovenian foreign minister Tanja Fajon defends the decision that the intention of the strategic forum is to confront different views (as if war criminals and their victims just have a different opinion on how to properly cook a dish), it does not seem strange to her and the rest of the government that the Palestinian guest of the forum, Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initative, can not attend in person because he can not leave the West bank which is under Israeli military siege. In the reality that the Slovenian politicians live in, it is also not cynical to invite an Israeli war criminal to Slovenia after you have officially recognized Palestine as as sovereign and independent state three months ago and have ever since been making a big show out of it (even though you continue to have normal diplomatic, economic and cultural ties with Israel).
However, Slovenian civil society recognizes the absurdity and cinicism of the forum’s title and continues to organize in support of Palestine, an ever present solidarity movement since the times of The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its initiation of the of The Non-Aligned Movement. It is an interesting fact that in 1948 Yugoslavia has proposed a confederative state solution for Palestine in the United Nations, a proposal backed only by Iran and India. In 1967 Yugoslavia stopped all diplomatic ties with Israel, even though Israel was at that time Yugoslavia’s second biggest economic partner in the region (after Egypt). The Slovenian Palestine solidarity movement has increased its activities from 2012 on and in the past 10 months during the ongoing genocide, has almost on a weekly basis been organizing protests, parliamentary sit-ins, lectures, discussions, theatre plays, film screeenings, concerts, poetry readings, publishing media articles and open letters to government etc. Some members of the movement are Palestinians who have come to study to Slovenia and other republics of Yugoslavia in the late 1960’s and 1970’s, have married here and been living and working here ever since, some have come in recent years, fleeing from increasingly difficult living conditions in Gaza.
A few days ago a group of NGO’s and initiatives has sent a request for the initiation of criminal proceedings against Tzipi Livni for alleged war crimes to The Office of the State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian police. In their request they wrote that Tzipi Livni is an Israeli politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Israeli military operations in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009 codenamed “Operation Cast Lead”. Over the course of 22 days, the “Operation Cast Lead” resulted in the deaths of at least 1,166 Gaza residents and the destruction of homes of over 100,000 people. The United Nations established the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.” Richard J. Goldstone, South African judge and renowned international lawyer, headed The Fact Finding Mission. In the publicly accessible report (A/HRC/12/48; September 25, 2009), presented in September 2009, the Fact Finding Mission meticulously documented the international crimes, collective punishment, use of disproportionate force, and killing of civilians by the Israeli military. The report notably states: “In the context of increasing unwillingness on the part of Israel to open criminal investigations that comply with international standards, the Mission supports the reliance on universal jurisdiction as an avenue for States to investigate violations of the grave breach provision of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, prevent impunity and promote international accountability”. The group calls upon The Office of the State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian police to immediately open a criminal investigation against Tzipi Livni on the basis of universal jurisdiction, set forth in the third paragraph of Article 13 of the Criminal Code (KZ-1). Universal jurisdiction allows national courts to prosecute individuals for serious crimes against international law regardless of where the alleged crimes were committed, as these violations concern not only the interests of the Republic of Slovenia but the entire international community. Universal jurisdiction is a pivotal principle of the international criminal law and reflects the commitment of states to prosecute individuals suspected of bearing the criminal responsibility for the most serious international crimes, committed anywhere in the world. Slovenian law enforcement offices and agencies have a duty to prosecute these crimes ex officio. Similiar investigations against Tzipi Livni have happend in December 2009 when a British judge confirmed an arrest warrant based on the principle of universal jurisdiction during her announced visit to the UK. In July 2016, Scotland Yard summoned Tzipi Livni for questioning about her role in war crimes committed during the “Operation Cast Lead”. In January 2017, Belgian authorities warned that Livni would be arrested if she came to Belgium, as a criminal investigation had been opened against her. In May 2017, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland also confirmed that a war crimes complaint had been filed against Tzipi Livni.
In Bled on Monday there will be a protest held and Palestinian testimonials of the horrors taking place in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank will be read. Only in the past two weeks two public letters have been addressed to the Slovenian government written by various organizations joined in the Palestine solidarity movement. Both of them call upon the governement to cut all the political, economic, academic and cultural ties with Israel immediately. Both reminded the goverment of the historical Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 of the International Court of Justice that states that the State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful, that it is under obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible, that it is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that it is under the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It also states that all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
With the ICJ Advisory Opinion in mind in one of the public letters the movement asks the government why then hasn’t Slovenia yet cut diplomatic, academic, cultural and economic ties with Israel? Even after international lawyers, UN special rapporters and experts have in their joined statement written that: “The advisory opinion reaffirms peremptory norms prohibiting annexation, settlements, racial segregation and apartheid, and should be seen as declaratory in nature and binding on Israel and all States supporting the occupation.” So why does Slovenia still host Israeli cultural institutions or cultural projects funded by Israel, why do the universities and individual faculties continue to cooperate with Israeli universities and companies, why are Israeli produce and products, or produce and products grown or made in the Occupied Territories, still available on the shelves of shops in Slovenia? Why does it allow cargo ships carrying arms to Israel to dock in the Port of Koper? Why has the government still not summoned the Israeli Ambassador even for a defence, and why has it still not recalled the Slovenian charge d’affaires from the Slovenian Embassy in Tel Aviv?
In the light of the sanctions that the Slovenian government immediately imposed on Russia, at the behest of the USA, NATO and the EU, for its aggression against Ukraine, this inaction seems inexcusable, and in the light of the decision of the International Court of Justice and the ongoing genocide, inhuman, foolish and what Hannah Arendt calls – the banality of evil. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia cannot pretend that it does not understand the message of international lawyers and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, or that it does not know what is happening in Gaza and, increasingly, in the West Bank. Indeed, thanks to social networks, we can all watch the genocide against the Palestinians live. As a result, we can conclude that the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, with all its inaction, is tacitly acquiescing in genocide, occupation and apartheid acting at the behest of its superiors. As Adolf Eichmann did.In these days when Slovenia starts its month long presidency of the UN Security Council, the time has definitely come for it to finaly show some courage. Otherwise, how will Slovenia defend itself in the future, perhaps even at the ICJ, for its inability to respect international law? And how will it ask the Palestinians for forgiveness?
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Urška Breznik
Urška Breznik is a member of a municipalist assemblist movement struggling for direct democracy and the commons in Maribor, Slovenia. A founding member of a housing cooperative, she is involved in campaigning for access to quality non-for-profit housing. She is also active in ecosocialist and anti-speciesist collectives in Slovenia and is a member of Real Utopia: Foundation for a Participatory Society. Employed at an organisation situated in an autonomous social and cultural centre, she is mainly working as an educator in critical literacy.
At the moment of writing this article it is still unclear if Israeli politican and war criminal Tzipi Livni will arive on Monday, 2nd of September, to Slovenia to the Bled Strategic Forum to which she was invited by the Slovenian government. The event is organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and the Centre for European Perspective under the title “A World of Parallel Realities”. And parallel realities it is. While the Slovenian foreign minister Tanja Fajon defends the decision that the intention of the strategic forum is to confront different views (as if war criminals and their victims just have a different opinion on how to properly cook a dish), it does not seem strange to her and the rest of the government that the Palestinian guest of the forum, Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initative, can not attend in person because he can not leave the West bank which is under Israeli military siege. In the reality that the Slovenian politicians live in, it is also not cynical to invite an Israeli war criminal to Slovenia after you have officially recognized Palestine as as sovereign and independent state three months ago and have ever since been making a big show out of it (even though you continue to have normal diplomatic, economic and cultural ties with Israel).
However, Slovenian civil society recognizes the absurdity and cinicism of the forum’s title and continues to organize in support of Palestine, an ever present solidarity movement since the times of The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its initiation of the of The Non-Aligned Movement. It is an interesting fact that in 1948 Yugoslavia has proposed a confederative state solution for Palestine in the United Nations, a proposal backed only by Iran and India. In 1967 Yugoslavia stopped all diplomatic ties with Israel, even though Israel was at that time Yugoslavia’s second biggest economic partner in the region (after Egypt). The Slovenian Palestine solidarity movement has increased its activities from 2012 on and in the past 10 months during the ongoing genocide, has almost on a weekly basis been organizing protests, parliamentary sit-ins, lectures, discussions, theatre plays, film screeenings, concerts, poetry readings, publishing media articles and open letters to government etc. Some members of the movement are Palestinians who have come to study to Slovenia and other republics of Yugoslavia in the late 1960’s and 1970’s, have married here and been living and working here ever since, some have come in recent years, fleeing from increasingly difficult living conditions in Gaza.
A few days ago a group of NGO’s and initiatives has sent a request for the initiation of criminal proceedings against Tzipi Livni for alleged war crimes to The Office of the State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian police. In their request they wrote that Tzipi Livni is an Israeli politician who served as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Israeli military operations in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009 codenamed “Operation Cast Lead”. Over the course of 22 days, the “Operation Cast Lead” resulted in the deaths of at least 1,166 Gaza residents and the destruction of homes of over 100,000 people. The United Nations established the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.” Richard J. Goldstone, South African judge and renowned international lawyer, headed The Fact Finding Mission. In the publicly accessible report (A/HRC/12/48; September 25, 2009), presented in September 2009, the Fact Finding Mission meticulously documented the international crimes, collective punishment, use of disproportionate force, and killing of civilians by the Israeli military. The report notably states: “In the context of increasing unwillingness on the part of Israel to open criminal investigations that comply with international standards, the Mission supports the reliance on universal jurisdiction as an avenue for States to investigate violations of the grave breach provision of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, prevent impunity and promote international accountability”. The group calls upon The Office of the State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian police to immediately open a criminal investigation against Tzipi Livni on the basis of universal jurisdiction, set forth in the third paragraph of Article 13 of the Criminal Code (KZ-1). Universal jurisdiction allows national courts to prosecute individuals for serious crimes against international law regardless of where the alleged crimes were committed, as these violations concern not only the interests of the Republic of Slovenia but the entire international community. Universal jurisdiction is a pivotal principle of the international criminal law and reflects the commitment of states to prosecute individuals suspected of bearing the criminal responsibility for the most serious international crimes, committed anywhere in the world. Slovenian law enforcement offices and agencies have a duty to prosecute these crimes ex officio. Similiar investigations against Tzipi Livni have happend in December 2009 when a British judge confirmed an arrest warrant based on the principle of universal jurisdiction during her announced visit to the UK. In July 2016, Scotland Yard summoned Tzipi Livni for questioning about her role in war crimes committed during the “Operation Cast Lead”. In January 2017, Belgian authorities warned that Livni would be arrested if she came to Belgium, as a criminal investigation had been opened against her. In May 2017, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland also confirmed that a war crimes complaint had been filed against Tzipi Livni.
In Bled on Monday there will be a protest held and Palestinian testimonials of the horrors taking place in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank will be read. Only in the past two weeks two public letters have been addressed to the Slovenian government written by various organizations joined in the Palestine solidarity movement. Both of them call upon the governement to cut all the political, economic, academic and cultural ties with Israel immediately. Both reminded the goverment of the historical Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 of the International Court of Justice that states that the State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful, that it is under obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible, that it is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that it is under the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It also states that all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
With the ICJ Advisory Opinion in mind in one of the public letters the movement asks the government why then hasn’t Slovenia yet cut diplomatic, academic, cultural and economic ties with Israel? Even after international lawyers, UN special rapporters and experts have in their joined statement written that: “The advisory opinion reaffirms peremptory norms prohibiting annexation, settlements, racial segregation and apartheid, and should be seen as declaratory in nature and binding on Israel and all States supporting the occupation.” So why does Slovenia still host Israeli cultural institutions or cultural projects funded by Israel, why do the universities and individual faculties continue to cooperate with Israeli universities and companies, why are Israeli produce and products, or produce and products grown or made in the Occupied Territories, still available on the shelves of shops in Slovenia? Why does it allow cargo ships carrying arms to Israel to dock in the Port of Koper? Why has the government still not summoned the Israeli Ambassador even for a defence, and why has it still not recalled the Slovenian charge d’affaires from the Slovenian Embassy in Tel Aviv?
In the light of the sanctions that the Slovenian government immediately imposed on Russia, at the behest of the USA, NATO and the EU, for its aggression against Ukraine, this inaction seems inexcusable, and in the light of the decision of the International Court of Justice and the ongoing genocide, inhuman, foolish and what Hannah Arendt calls – the banality of evil. The Government of the Republic of Slovenia cannot pretend that it does not understand the message of international lawyers and the decisions of the International Court of Justice, or that it does not know what is happening in Gaza and, increasingly, in the West Bank. Indeed, thanks to social networks, we can all watch the genocide against the Palestinians live. As a result, we can conclude that the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, with all its inaction, is tacitly acquiescing in genocide, occupation and apartheid acting at the behest of its superiors. As Adolf Eichmann did.In these days when Slovenia starts its month long presidency of the UN Security Council, the time has definitely come for it to finaly show some courage. Otherwise, how will Slovenia defend itself in the future, perhaps even at the ICJ, for its inability to respect international law? And how will it ask the Palestinians for forgiveness?
ZNetwork is funded solely through the generosity of its readers. Donate
Urška Breznik
Urška Breznik is a member of a municipalist assemblist movement struggling for direct democracy and the commons in Maribor, Slovenia. A founding member of a housing cooperative, she is involved in campaigning for access to quality non-for-profit housing. She is also active in ecosocialist and anti-speciesist collectives in Slovenia and is a member of Real Utopia: Foundation for a Participatory Society. Employed at an organisation situated in an autonomous social and cultural centre, she is mainly working as an educator in critical literacy.
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