Countercurrent – February 15, 2024
The Unrepentant West:
Olaf Scholz and the Right to Commit Genocide in Gaza
by Dr Ramzy Baroud
On February 8, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in Washington on an officialﾠvisit, aimed at working jointly with the United States to make “sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself”.
If such a statement was made soon after the Al-Aqsa FloodﾠOperation of October 7, one may cognize its logic, based on the well-known, inherent bias of both Washington and Berlin towards Israel.
The statement and the visit, however, were conducted on the 125th day of one of the bloodiest genocides in modern history.
The purpose of the visit was highlighted in a press conference by White House spokesperson John Kirby, even though, hours later, US President Joe Bidenﾠadmitted that Israel has gone “over the top” in its response to the Hamas attack on October 7.
Ifﾠkilling and wounding over 100,000 civilians, and counting, is Israel’s version of self-defense, then both Scholz and Biden have done a splendid job in ensuring Israel has everything it needs to achieve its bloody mission.
However, in this context, who is entitled to self-defense, Israel or Palestine?
On a recent visit to a hospital in a Middle Eastern country which remains confidential as a precondition for my visit, I witnessed one of the most horrific sights one could ever see. Scores of limbless Palestinian children, some still fighting for their lives, some badly burned and others in a coma.
Those who were able to use their hands have drawn Palestinian flags which hung on the walls beside their hospital beds. Some wore SpongeBob T-shirts and others hats with Disney characters. They were pure, innocent, and very much Palestinian.
A couple of children flashed the victory sign as soon as we said our goodbyes. Little kids wanted to communicate to the world that they remain strong and that they know exactly who they are and where they come from.
The children were far too young to realize the legal and political context of their strong feelings towards their homeland.
UN General Assembly Resolutionﾠ3236 (XXIX) has ‘affirmed the inalienable right of the Palestinian people in Palestine (..), the right to self-determination, (and) the right to national independence and sovereignty”.
The phrase ‘Palestinian right to self-determination’ is perhaps the most frequently uttered phrase in relation to Palestine and the Palestinian struggle since the establishment of the UN.
On January 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alsoﾠaffirmed what we already know, that Palestinians are a distinct “national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
Those injured Palestinian children do not need legal language or political slogans to locate themselves. The right to live without fear of extermination, without bombs and without military occupation is a natural right, requiring no legal arguments and unfazed by racism, hate speech or propaganda.
Unfortunately, we do not live in a world of common sense, but in topsy-turvy legal and political systems that exist to only cater to the strong.
In this parallel world, Scholz is more concerned about Israel being able to ‘defend itself’ than a besieged Palestinian population, starving, bleeding, yet unable to achieve any tangible measure of justice.
Despite this, Israel still does not have the right to defend itself.
Logically, those carrying out acts of aggression should not demand that their victims refrain from fighting back.
Palestinians have been victimized by Israeli colonialism, military occupation, racial apartheid, siege and now genocide. Therefore, for Israel to invoke Article 51, Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations is a mockery of international law.
Article 51, often used by great powers to justify their wars and military interventions, was designed with a completely different legal spirit in mind.
Article 2 (4) of Chapter I in the UN Charter prohibits the “threat or use of force in international relations.” It also “calls on all Members to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of other states.”
Since Israel is in violation of Article 2 (4), it simply has no right to invoke Article 51.
In November 2012, Palestine wasﾠrecognized as an Observer State at the UN. It is also a member of countless international treaties, and is recognized by 139 countries out of the 193 UN members.
Even if we accept the argument that the UN Charter only applies to full UN members, the Palestinian right to self-defense can still be established.
In 1960, General Assembly DeclarationﾠNo. 1594 guaranteed independence to colonized nations and people. Although it did not discuss the right of the colonized to use force, it condemned the use of force against liberation movements.
In 1964, the UNGA voted in favor ofﾠResolution No. 2105, which recognized the legitimacy of the ‘struggle’ of colonized nations to exercise their right to self-determination.
In 1973, the Assembly passed Resolution 38/17 of 1983. The language, this time, was unambiguous; people have the right to struggle against colonial foreign domination by all possible means, including armed struggle.
The same dynamics that ruled the UN in its early days continue to this day, where Western countries, which represented the bulk of all colonial powers in the past, continue to give themselves monopoly over the use of force. Conversely, the Global South, which has suffered under the yoke of those Western regimes, insists that it, too, has the right to defend itself against foreign intervention, colonialism, military occupation and apartheid.
While Scholz was in Washington to discuss yet more ways to kill Palestinian civilians, the country of Nicaraguaﾠmade an official request to join South Africa in its effort to hold Israel accountable for the crime of genocide in Gaza.
It is interesting how the colonizers and the colonized continue to build relations and solidarity around the same old principles. The Global South is, again, rising in solidarity with the Palestinians, while the North, with a few exceptions, continues to support Israeli oppression.
Just before I left the hospital, a wounded child handed me a drawing. It featured several images, stacked one on top of the other, as if the little boy was creating a timeline of events that led to his injury: a tent, with him inside; an Israeli soldier shooting a Palestinian; prison bars, with his father inside and, finally, a Palestinian fighter holding a flag.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is ‘Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out’. His other books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
World Socialist Web Site – February 15, 2024
Israeli strikes kill 7 civilians in Lebanon as war spreads throughout the Middle East
Andre Damon
Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed eight people, including seven civilians Monday as the genocide in Gaza continues to metastasize into a regional war throughout the Middle East.
The strike was the largest single-day death toll in Lebanon since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza. Since October 7, Israeli forces have killed more than 200 people inside of Lebanon.
On Wednesday evening, an Israeli strike killed four civilians, including two women, from the same family in a residential building in the city of Nabatiyeh.
“The residents of the apartment targeted have no links to Hezbollah,” a source told AFP.
In an earlier strike, Israeli forces targeted a house in the city of Sawwaneh, killing three members of a family, including children ages two and 13. Earlier in the day, a missile strike from Lebanon killed an Israeli soldier, Sgt. Omer Sarah Benjo, at a base in northern Israel.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said the strikes “caused major damage to commercial establishments, shops, homes, and cars.”
Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, threatened a further expansion of war with Lebanon.
“We are now focused on being ready for war in the north,” he said. “We are intensifying the strikes all the time, and Hezbollah is paying an increasingly heavy price. The next campaign will have a very strong offensive, and we will use all of our tools and capabilities.”
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz reiterated these statements, declaring, “We must be clear: Those responsible for the shooting from Lebanon are not only Hezbollah … but also the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese state that allows the shooting to occur from its territory.” He concluded, “There is no target or military infrastructure in the northern part of the country that is not in our sights,” he said.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan effectively endorsed Israel’s strikes, stating that the US is seeking to ensure “an outcome in which Israel’s security is guaranteed and their people can return to their homes.” He condemned the “terror threat from Hezbollah,” which “has moved closer and closer to the border.”
The escalation came as Israeli officials made it clear they would not resume negotiations over a temporary ceasefire in Gaza, with the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that he “insists that Israel will not give in to Hamas’s delusional demands.”
Airstrikes continued in Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, where over 1 million displaced people are sheltering, as Israeli forces prepared to launch an imminent ground offensive.
Between February 13 and 14, 103 Palestinians were killed, bringing the official death toll to 28,576 Palestinians killed in Gaza—not including the thousands still missing and presumed dead.
The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, the last major hospital in southern Gaza, where hundreds of medical workers, patients, and refugees have been under siege.
In a statement, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “I am alarmed by what is reportedly happening at Nasser Medical Complex in #Gaza after being under siege for around a week. Hostilities have reportedly destroyed storage facilities for medical equipment and supplies. Access to the hospital remains obstructed—there is no safe corridor for those in need.”
He added, “Two @WHO missions have been denied in the last four days, and we lost touch with the hospital’s personnel. We have seen before how depriving hospitals of resources and access halts lifesaving services. Nasser is the backbone of the health system in southern Gaza. It must be protected. Humanitarian access must be allowed. Hospitals must be safeguarded so that they can serve their life-saving function.”
In a briefing, Dr. Ashraf al-Qudra, the Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson, said that more than 1,500 displaced people are still inside the hospital, alongside 190 staff and 273 patients who cannot move. The hospital is running out of food, power and other essential supplies after having been under siege for weeks.
In a statement on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to launch a ground offensive against Rafah. “We will fight until complete victory, and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah,” Netanyahu said.
In a press briefing Wednesday at the White House, National Security Advisor Sullivan admitted that Israel was not allowing food aid into Gaza despite having promised to do so.
Despite this, he restated that the goal of the United States is that “Hamas is ultimately defeated,” again endorsing the open-ended US support for Israel’s genocide.
On Monday, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was asked whether the United States will reduce its military aid to Israel if it assaults Rafah without taking into consideration “what happens to civilians.”
To this, Kirby replied, “We will continue to support Israel. They have a right to defend themselves against Hamas, and we will continue to make sure they have the tools and capabilities to do that.”
To drive this point home, Politico reported on Tuesday, based on statements by three US officials, “The Biden administration is not planning to punish Israel if it launches a military campaign in Rafah without ensuring civilian safety.” The report continued, “No reprimand plans are in the works, meaning Israeli forces could enter the city and harm civilians without facing American consequences.”
In a statement Wednesday, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention warned, “the Biden Administration is complicit in genocide and must take immediate steps to prevent further destruction, loss of life, and displacement in Gaza and the West Bank.” It concluded, “None of the Biden Administration’s tactics to deny genocide and avoid accountability will withstand the test of time. President Biden and key administration officials are on a path to be remembered as the principal enablers of one of the worst genocides in the 21st century.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/02/15/tpyr-f15.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws
Countercurrent – February 15, 2024
Gaza War Horrors
by Dr Marwan Asmar
And the horrors continue in Gaza. In this human slaughter, Israeli warplanes have had no compunction in bombing homes, houses, and flats in buildings of ordinary civilians.
Figures have been mind boggling as more than 12000 children have died in this war that began soon after 7 October. The Israeli war machines have killed more than 30,000 people so far.
Today, it is the turn of Rafah to be destroyed. Israeli big guns are already doing the rounds and killing and striking homes.
Originally a city of 280,000 today Rafah has exploded with a population of 1.4 million. The people have been assembled here through big guns and explosives reigning down on them. Ever since the carnage, Israelis have told Palestinian families to keep moving here, starting from the north, center, east and west.
Many, including those from the international community fear Israel plans to carry out a mass slaughter of civilians under the pretext of destroying Hamas. But Hamas fighters are nowhere to be seen here, just scared families.
Destroying Palestinian homes has become the usual thing. In this slaughter, through warplanes, missiles from ships and through ground troops, the Israelis have/are carrying out what can only be carried as mass slaughter against the Palestinian people. A genocide is happening with many in the world condoning it because they prefer to give it a different name.
Bombs and the destruction of babies has been a regular feature of this carnage. Now, when we look at dead babies and children, we become numb. It’s almost a surreal experience to watch what has been done in the last five months in terms of destruction and killing.
Babies, toddlers and children have frequently been brought out from under the rubble. Some barely alive but most are dead. Caked in dried mud and cement, they are held lifeless by their parents for the world to see. This is not to say anything about the people who are still underground, estimated at around 8000, 9000, 10000 people. Is difficult to measure
They can’t be dug up simply because there is no heavy machinery to remove the piles upon piles of debris.
One feature of this screaming war has been hunger and starvation. Many people, from newly-born babies to children, youths, men and women have and are dying because there is simply no food.
Israeli politicians including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says this is one of the instruments of war to starve what he calls as ﾓhuman animalsﾔ.
Official figures say people have one meal every three days. In the north of the Gaza Strip people have been cracking animal feed to make it into bread, and that is running out anyway with food trucks standing at the border of Rafah and the north and being prevented from entering. Israeli settlers are cowering in front of trucks and preventing them from crossing.
There is hunger, starvation and famine. US president Joe Biden has ordered the US to send shipments of wheat to be sent to Gaza but this is still waiting at the borders with the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich refusing to let these pass into the starving strip.
These pictures would shock the world if they are not in Gaza. It’s a big poster of kids in in the Strip, mistaking a time-bomb that blew up in their faces because they dug it up, thinking it’s a can of sardines.
In this war, there is a great deal of double standards. Western countries have been up-in-arms about supplying Ukraine with money and weapons to fight what are termed as the Russian invaders.
In the Gaza case all the money, weaponry and troops are coming from western countries to the Israeli army to fight the Palestinians. Its incredible and unbelievable how humanity and statehood has become twisted.
https://x.com/twit_inter/status/1757857335324680328?s=46&t=uuXyhIt3Vz3B6jBc2Fz1iA
Pope Francis has spoken time and again against the Israeli carnage in Gaza. But this time the Israelis, lashed out against the Vatican after the deputy of the Pope who called for a stop to what’s happening.
The Israeli statement described the comments from Rome as “deplorable” claiming many of the civilians killed, now standing at 30,000, are Hamas supporters and their death is justifiable.
But other important leaders are speaking their minds because they are seeing what is happening in front of them in plain daylight: Horrors of war. Josep Borrell, foreign policy chief in the EU, didn’t mince his words:
“Let’s be logical. How many times have year heard the most prominent leaders around the world saying ‘too many people are being killed’. President Biden says this is too much on the top, it’s not proportional. Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed. Is this not logical?
Everybody goes to Tel Aviv, begging please don’t do that, protect civilians, don’t kill so many. How many is too many, which is the standard. But Netanyahu doesn’t listen to anyone. They are going to evacuate but where? To the moon. Where are they going to evacuate these people to. So, if the International community believes this is slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe they have to think about the provision of arms…” he added.
Dr Marwan Asmar is a journalist based in Amman, Jordan
https://countercurrents.org/2024/02/gaza-war-horrors/
Countercurrent – February 15, 2024
Indian Muslims and Electoral Choices
by Dr Ram Puniyani
As the 2024 General Elections are looming on the horizon some Muslim elite are appealing to Muslim community to give a relook at BJP They claim that Indian Muslims are not being discriminated against. Such intellectuals also argue that BJP is giving special attention to Pasmanda Muslims and the Sufi Muslims. They also argue that Muslims are beneficiaries of BJP’s schemes for social welfare: food; housing; gas; water among others and lastly that there has been no major communal violence since 2014 and that India has been most peaceful during the last fifty years.
Such appeals are based on half truths and ignore the core problem which shapes the lives of Muslims in India. True, some elite Muslims may not be facing the problems so severely but overall the central issue of insecurity, marginalization and ghettoization as a whole is not accounted for in such appeals. The point that there is no major violence against Muslims since 2014 is a blatant lie. The horrific Delhi violence in the aftermath of massive Shaheen Baugh movement, instigated by BJP worthies, (Goli Maro, and ‘we will get them removed from the place of Dharna’) led to the death of 51 people, 37 of those being Muslims.
Day in and day out bulldozers are on the streets to target the Muslim properties, on one or the other pretexts. In BJP ruled states there seems to be a competition as to who can inflict more damage to Muslim properties. AP Shah, a retired chief justice of the Delhi High Court, affirmed to the news portal Coda, “Mere alleged involvement in criminal activity cannot ever be grounds for demolition of property.” While the cow beef politics has led to stray animals causing accidents on roads and in attacks on the standing crops on one hand on the other it has led to initiation of a new phenomenon of lynching on Indian streets. Starting from Mohammad Akhlaq there are many cases where Muslims (and also dalits) have been the target of the incited mobs.
The case of Monu Manesar who was part of the crime of Nasir and Junaid is most frightening. Harsh Mander who visited victims’ families wrote “I am profoundly chilled as I scan social media pages of Monu Manesar. He and members of his gang live stream as they openly brandish sophisticated firearms, sound sirens mimicking police jeeps, shoot at vehicles, and brutally thrash the men they catch.” The proper data of bovine related violence is not available as the state wants to hide it, but it has created a fear among large sections of Muslims. In Mewat in particular where Muslims deal with dairy business face a tough time. Just a couple of horrific incidents which give us chills in our spine are when Shambhulal Regar not only killed but videotaped brutal killing of Afrazul in Rajasthan. We saw those accused of murdering Kalimuddin Ansari feted by Jayant Sinha, a Union Minister at the time. Such incidents have now become ‘new normal’.
We also saw the scare created around Love Jihad and then types of Jihad were tabulated, UPSC, Land Jihad among others. The amusing one was Corona Jihad, where the Tablighi Jamaat meeting was blamed for the spread of Corona, the Muslims hawkers were denied entry into societies.
Islamophobia is reaching new heights by the day. This intimidatory atmosphere is leading the rise in the process of ghettoisation of Muslims in the cities. Muslims are being denied housing in the mixed localities in most places. This is accompanied by the decline in their educational and economic status. One example of this is the scrapping of Maulana Azad Fellowship, the major beneficiaries of which have been the Muslim students trying to pursue higher education. The economic climb-down of the community continues in recent years. Gallup data shows that, “For both groups, (Hindus and Muslims) perceptions that standards of living were worsening shot up between 2018 and 2019, as the Indian economy entered a deep slowdown. Among Muslim Indians, the percentage jumped to 45% in 2019, up from 25% the previous year. And among Hindu Indians, the percentage saying the same hit 37% in 2019, an increase of 19 percentage points from 2018.”
The threat of disenfranchising the Muslims through exercise of NRC, CAA is very much there. The Assam exercise showed that among the 19 Lakh people who did not have proper papers the majority were Hindus. For Hindus the safety clause of CAA is in place and for Muslims, detention centers are coming up.
The present show of sympathy for Pasmanda Muslims is a mere eye wash. We understand the majority of victims of violence inspired by majoritarian politics are Pasmanda Muslims. The Muslim Ashrafs do need to ensure better treatment of the Pasmandas, but the bigger threat for the community as a whole is the insecurity, which affects them both and makes a fertile ground for orthodox elements to flourish. Reform amongst Muslim community is a must, however the point is reforms remain in the backyard till the community feels the threat to their existence and to their citizenship.
The BJP Government in different states is now planning things which are further discriminatory against Muslims. With Ram Temple inaugurated the RSS-BJP’s majoritarian politics may become more assertive. Already Muslims have been losing representation in the political institutions. We remember that in this Hindu nationalist party not a single MP is a Muslim.
Even earlier governments could not alleviate the suffering of this community. The major obstacle in this direction has been the opposition from RSS-BJP. Sachar Committee has been an example of how any affirmative action for this deprived community is marred. In the aftermath of this report, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that deprived and marginalized communities have the first right on national resources. That was propagated as if Singh is saying that Muslims have the first right on national resources. And then there was a brake in any initiative to alleviate the miseries of this community.
BJP’s claim that its free rations etc. are reaching all sections of society. Such schemes and the very concept of Labharthis is so much against the democratic ‘Rights based approach’. We do need to introspect about electoral choices in general for all the communities, and of course the luring of Muslim community is a hollow drum bereft of any substance.
https://countercurrents.org/2024/02/indian-muslims-and-electoral-choices/
Australia's National Anthem Needs Rehashing
By Syed Rifaquat Ali
The first stanza of Australia's national anthem says:
Australians all let us rejoice For we are young and free We've golden soil and wealth for toil Our home is girt by sea.
Instead of 'Our home is girt by sea', it will be appropriate to say 'Our land is girt by sea.'
All credit to Peter Dodds McCormick, who composed the national anthem in 1878, which was proclaimed Australia's national anthem on 19 April 1984. He was a great lyricist and I fully respect him.
I am no poet, yet I composed two poems in my entire career as a writer and columnist. One was on boxing legend Muhammad Ali which he highly appreciated, and the other was on Princess Diana, who died in a car accident in France.
The late Queen Elizabeth, liked the poem 'Requiem' and expressed her thanks to me through her Senior Correspondence Officer, Mrs. Sonia Bonici.
The Australian Prime Minister, Hon'ble Anthony Albanese, may kindly take note of my suggestion and just not brood over the subject which has national significance.
Syed Rifaquat Ali is Sydney correspondent of JoA.
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