#The Illegal Regime of Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗: Isra-hell

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Tens of Thousands Join Pro-Palestinian Protests in London

Police Make 17 Arrests at March That Marks a Year since the War in Gaza Began

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered to march in central London on Saturday to mark the passing of a year since the 7 October attacks in Israel.

Groups of activists convened in two areas in central London on Saturday morning amid a heavy police presence – one in Russell Square, one in nearby Bedford Square.

Organisers of the former said they planned to march to Whitehall, where attenders would listen to speeches – including from the former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf.

According to organisers of the latter, they planned to “target” companies and institutions they say are “complicit in Israel’s crimes”, including Barclays and the British Museum.

The Metropolitan police said the second march came across counter-protests at the junction of Kingsway and Aldwych and at the junction of the Strand and Trafalgar Square.

People break down in tears during a minute’s silence. Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

The demonstrators blocked Tottenham Court Road by gathering outside a Barclays branch just after midday, with a sign held near the entrance reading: “Shame on those who looked away from the sadistic genocide of mainly children in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Later they blocked Gower Street near the British Museum and police appeared to form a line to prevent the group meeting up with the other pro-Palestine march that began in Russell Square.

They then gathered outside the British Library, chanting: “Yemen, Yemen make us proud. Turn another ship around,” and: “British Museum. Paint it red. Over 100,000 dead.”

In Bedford Square, some were holding Lebanese and Iranian flags and banners stating: “We do not stand with genocide” and “Zionism is racism”, with many chanting: “Free, free Palestine.”

Police made 17 arrests yesterday as marchers took to the streets. Image: Getty

In Edinburgh, thousands of people joined a similar demonstration, which included a silent march to commemorate all civilians killed. The event was organised by Scottish Friends of Palestine and the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee.

The Met said officers had made 17 arrests so far as part of a “significant” policing operation across the capital in response to planned protest and memorial events.

Two people were arrested on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation, one of which included a protester wearing what appeared to be a parachute, and there were eight arrests on suspicion of public order offences, four of which were allegedly racially aggravated. Parachutes and paragliders were used by militants from Hamas to launch their aerial assault to enter Israel from Gaza last October.

Speeches took place in Whitehall with crowds stretching to Trafalgar Square

Three people were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, three were arrested on suspicion of assault and one person was arrested on suspicion of breaching a Public Order Act condition.

The force said the arrests were made when people tried to get past officers who had formed a cordon to stop any groups breaking away from the main protest.

Cmdr Lou Puddefoot, who is leading the policing operation in London, said Scotland Yard had policed previous protests “without fear or favour”. She said: “Protests and related events have become a feature of the 12 months since the appalling terrorist attacks in Israel almost a year ago.

“We have policed them without fear or favour, ensuring that lawful protest has been allowed to take place but intervening where the line has been crossed into criminality. We recognise that, as we go into this weekend – so close to the anniversary of 7 October – emotions will be heightened and fears about safety and security understandably increased.

“Officers have been in regular contact with event organisers. We have detailed plans in place to ensure the safety of those attending and to be able to respond to any incidents or offences.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters marched in central London

A memorial event is due to be held in Hyde Park on Sunday, organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and other groups.

Scotland Yard said it was not aware of any major events planned for Monday – the precise anniversary of the attacks.

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Across the Middle East and Asia, Palestinian Solidarity Social Media Posts and Boycotts have made a significant dent in the sales of several Western Brands over their perceived support for the “Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗, the Isra-hell.” Seattle based Starbucks, a Prime Boycott Target, saw its shares tumble 8.96% within a span of 19 days in November 2023, accounting for $11 Billion in losses. This marked the longest decline in the Company’s history. Yet, despite being a Prime Boycott Target, Starbucks is not the only International Brand that has been affected.

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Love For All: Forever Palestine 🇵🇸!Remembering Rachel Corrie!

Rachel Corrie's legacy of human rights activism lives on 21 years after she was crushed to death by a 60-tonne Israeli-operated bulldozer while acting as a human shield in the Palestinian Rafah refugee camp.

The American activist was 23 years old and in her final year of college when she decided to see Gaza - which was in the midst of the Second Intifada — firsthand.

Since her death, Rachel's parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, have been fighting for accountability, suing the Israeli military and defence ministry in 2010.

An Israeli district court announced the verdict of the trial in 2012, ruling that Rachel was in a war zone and that Israel was therefore not responsible for her death, clearing the Israeli military and the driver of the bulldozer of any wrongdoing.

The ruling was condemned by human rights defenders and she has, since, become one of the symbols of the Palestinian Cause.

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In Gaza, Forever Palestine 🇵🇸, Where There is Little Food, Mosques Have Been Destroyed By the “God’s Cursed, Fucked-up and Terrorist Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗” and Millions of People Homeless and Living in Fear of Death ………….What is The Holy Month of Ramadan Going to Feel Like?

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A new poll has found that a majority of voters in the UK support a ban on British arms sales to “Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, Apartheid, War Criminal Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗, Isra-hell,” while a similar majority believe that “Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, Apartheid, War Criminal Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗 Isra-hell’s” actions in Gaza are violating human rights.

The poll, commissioned by Action for Humanity and conducted by YouGov, found that 56 percent of UK voters are in favour of banning the export of arms to Israel, while only 17 percent are against such a ban.

59 percent of voters also believe “Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, Apartheid, War Criminal Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗 Isra-hell” is violating human rights in Gaza.

Among voters who plan to vote for the Labour Party, 71 percent back a ban on arms exports to Israel. For Conservative Party voters, that number is 38 percent - this is still larger than the number of Conservative voters who want to keep exporting arms to Israel, which was 36 percent.

On Wednesday, more than 600 prominent lawyers, academics and former judges signed a letter warning the UK government that its continued arming of Israel is breaching international law.

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Islamophobia: Taking A Page From The French Anti-Islam Playbook, UK Redefines ‘Extremism’

The British Government’s New Definition of Extremism is Another Attempt at Thought Policing Muslims and Should Be Resisted.

— 19 March 2024 | Imam Omar Suleiman

A Pro-Palestinian Protester holds a placard on a march through the British capital during a demonstration for the Palestinian people, in London, Britain, 21 October 2023. EPA-EFE/Andy Rain

As the genocide in Gaza continues to be streamed live to our screens, many Western governments are not only refusing to end their complicity in the slaughter, but also trying to silence and demonise the Muslim movements and organisations resisting the Israeli occupation within their countries’ borders.

In January of this year, the British government proscribed Hizb ut-Tahrir as a “terrorist” organisation, making it a criminal offence to belong to or invite support for the decades-old movement. No matter your view on the movement itself, this proscription is clearly a convenient political play.

In the post-9/11 era, Hizb ut-Tahrir has repeatedly been threatened with proscription and aggressively surveilled under the country’s inherently Islamophobic counter-radicalisation programme, Prevent. Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron tried to outright ban the group, in 2005 and 2010 respectively, but both times Home Office lawyers concluded that the group did not engage with or glorify any form of violence and advised that it should be allowed to continue its activities.

There is no suggestion that the group has since changed its approach to violence, or committed any crime under British law, so its official banning appears to be nothing but a French-style attempt at framing any Muslim movement, ideology or political expression that appears to challenge Western norms as violent and a threat to national security.

This week, the British government took yet another page from the French anti-Muslim playbook, and redefined “extremism” in a blatant attempt to subjugate and marginalise British Muslims who are taking a stance against the genocide of Palestinians.

In a clear attempt to curtail weekly pro-Palestine demonstrations attended by hundreds of thousands, and amid wider attempts to conflate all pro-Palestine activism with extremism, Communities Secretary Michael Gove announced that the state has expanded the official definition of extremism.

The new definition, Gove revealed, would include “the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others” or attempts to “undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights”. It would also classify those who “intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve” these aims as extremists.

While the former definition focused on actual acts of violence, this new one is broader and much less precise. It appears to have been purposefully crafted to open the door to loaded, ideologically driven interpretations that could lead to the branding of all Muslim thought and political action not explicitly approved by the government as “extremism”. The inclusion into this definition of those supposedly creating “a permissive environment” for extremist behaviour is especially dangerous, as it could result in the arbitrary criminalisation of large segments of Muslim civil society in Britain.

For years, France has used a loose, ideologically-driven definition and understanding of secularism to marginalise, criminalise and subjugate its citizens originating from its former colonies, who are overwhelmingly Muslim.

Today, with this new, loose and ideologically-driven definition of extremism, Britain is attempting to do the same to British Muslims, who are standing up in support of Palestinians facing genocide and doing so with ever-increasing support from other Britons of conscience.

The global Muslim community, which stood with French Muslims as their government tried to crack down on their basic rights under the guise of secularism, will also be firm in its support for British Muslims as their government attempts to curtail their rights under the guise of “fighting extremism”.

In a speech last week at the House of Commons, Gove suggested that a number of mainstream Muslim organisations, such as the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), may fall foul of this new definition of extremism and as a result be banned from access to public money, ministers and civil servants.

In response, the MAB, known for the extensive role it played in anti-Iraq war protests and movement in Britain, condemned the government’s redefinition of extremism as “a cynical move to appease the hard-right, targeting mainstream British Muslim organisations” and challenged Gove to repeat the allegations without parliamentary privilege so they can sue.

Other Muslim media organisations like 5Pillars were under threat of being included in the government’s list of extremist groups, only to be eventually excluded. Dilly Hussain, the editor of 5Pillars, responded to the initial suggestion that the media platform would be on the extremist list by saying, “it’s not the job of Rishi Sunak, Michael Gove, or [the UK Prime Minister’s office] to be labelling and targeting members of the free press [with] whom they ideologically disagree with while claiming to be champions and upholders of “freedom of expression”.

Other British Muslim civil society organisations such as Friends of Al-Aqsa, which had a prominent presence in protests against the genocide in Gaza, and CAGE, which led the efforts to challenge France’s crackdown on Muslim civil liberties, are also facing the risk of being classified as “extremist” under the new definition. Even a mainstream mosque like the Lewisham Islamic Centre is under threat due to the initial inclusion of its Imam, Shakeel Beg.

The British government’s redefinition of extremism requires deep scrutiny because it amounts to a feigned reinvention of what “extremism” actually means. Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), a well-established NGO, referred to this in its response to Gove’s slander. “Victory for resistance to Gove’s extremism, he has NOT placed MEND on an extremism list because the facts don’t allow it. Instead, he uses parliamentary privilege to slander.”

As Muslims, we must be proactive in condemning the thought policing of the British Muslim community. We must speak loudly against the British government’s efforts to silence and criminalise Muslim civil society for thought crimes, especially at a time when the same government is complicit in a genocide against Muslims in Gaza. And when we speak up, we must speak up for all groups and organisations facing such baseless and discriminatory attacks. This includes groups that may have ideas or approaches that aren’t representative of the majority of Muslims. At a time when Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bigotry is on the rise, we cannot allow the British government to pick and choose which Muslims have a right to cultivate ideas, campaign or protest – we should stand firmly in defence of all our Muslim brothers and sisters in the UK and everywhere else. We should also encourage members of the British civil society of all ethnic and religious backgrounds to speak up in defence of Muslims in their country who are currently under a multi-pronged attack. Only if we bravely speak up, and do so together, can we prevent Britain from transforming into an Orwellian dystopia, like France already did.

— Imam Dr. Omar Suleiman is an American Muslim Scholar and Theologically Driven Activist for Human Rights. He is the Founder and President of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, and a Professor of Islamic Studies at Southern Methodist University.

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Source: SO INFORMED

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US Senator Bernie Sanders Calls Satan-Yahu War Criminal

United States Senator Bernie Sanders

Washington (Sputnik) — US Senator Bernie Sanders has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal and should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress.

On Saturday, Satan-Yahu accepted an invitation from US congressional leaders to address a joint meeting of Congress in support of Israel in the fight against terrorism.

"Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend," Sanders said on his social media.

The senator said that he agreed with the International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrant for Satan-Yahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, adding that "these people are engaged in clear and outrageous violations of international law."

On May 20, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan filed requests for arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Satan-Yahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as for Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas political bureau head Ismail Haniyeh and the leader of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Masri, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since October 2023 based on evidence collected and examined by his office.

Chile Joins South African ICJ Case Against Israel

Chile 🇨🇱 is the latest in a growing list of countries that have joined South Africa in their case against Israel for genocide in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

President Gabriel Boric announced his country’s intention to join the case during a speech, accusing the Isra-helli 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Defense Force (IDF) of using “Indiscriminate and Disproportional” force.

“These acts demand a firm and permanent response of the international community,” he added.

South Africa brought the case against Israel last year, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, a charge that Israel denied. Chile is the latest in a growing list of countries that have joined the case. Earlier this week, Mexico announced that it would support South Africa. Nicaragua 🇳🇮, Colombia, Libya, Maldives, Namibia, Venezuela, Egypt, Bolivia, Türkiye, Ireland, Belgium, Indonesia and the Organization of Islamic Countries which has 57 members, have all either formally joined the case, announced their intention to, or expressed support for it.

Fascist, War Criminal, Complicit in Genocide in Gaza Germany is the only country that has said it will intervene on behalf of “The Illegal Regime of the War Criminal, Fascist, Zionist 🐗 Isra-hell” and The United States declared its opposition to it.

Chile hosts the world largest community of Palestinians outside of the Middle East.

In January, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling saying that it was “Plausible” that Israel was committing genocide and ordered it to take action to prevent genocide from happening in Gaza while allowing aid to reach needy Palestinians.

Last week, the ICJ issued another ruling, ordering Israel to stop its campaign on Rafah, the southern Gazan city where more than a million Palestinians were sheltering after “The Illegal Regime of the War Criminal, Fascist Zionist 🐖 Isra-hell” declared it the last safe zone in the enclave. Three days later, Israel bombed a tent camp of refugees in Gaza, sparking a fire and killing more than 50 people, many of whom were burned alive.

Israel initially said was carefully targeted to hit Hamas leaders, but after hellish images and videos of the attack spread across social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a “tragic mistake.” The attack received widespread international condemnation.

At least 35,984 Palestinians have been Killed since “The Illegal Regime of the War Criminal, Fascist Zionist 🐷 Isra-hell” began its campaign against Gaza in October, including more than 15,000 Innocent Children, according to the local authorities. More than 80,634 Palestinians have been Seriously Injured and at least another 10,000 Are Missing. Including Hamas’ October 7 attack and subsequent deaths during the fighting, at least 1,139 Isra-hellis have been Departed to the Hell Fire 🔥 Forever and more than 8,730 have been Injured.

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The Foreign Minister of South Africa 🇿🇦 Says Citizens Fighting For “Illegal Regime of the God’s Cursed & Terrorist Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗 Isra-hell” in Gaza, Forever Palestine 🇵🇸, Will Be Arrested When They Return. Those with Dual South African Isra-helli Citizenship Could Also have Their South African Citizenship Revoked.

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Students St Two Universities Strongly Associated With Lord Arthur Balfour Have Launched Pro-Palestinian Encampments On Campus To Protest “The Terrorist, Fascist, Apartheid, War Criminal, Illegally Occupier of Palestine and The Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗 Isra-hell’s War On Gaza.”

The protests at Edinburgh and Cambridge are part of a growing movement on campuses across the world, which involves students setting up protest camps to demand that their institutions break off ties with Israeli institutions, as well as companies involved in supplying arms to the state.

At Edinburgh, students wearing Palestinian scarves made their demands clear at the start of their protest at the university's Old College .

In one video taken on Monday and provided to Middle East Eye by activists, a student with a loudspeaker is seen addressing fellow protesters.

"We demand that the University of Edinburgh divest entirely from companies tied to Israel and complicit in the globally acknowledged genocide of the Palestinian people," the speaker says.

Middle East Eye has asked both universities for comment, while Edinburgh Univeristy has not yet responded, a spokesperson for the University of Cambridge said: "The University is fully committed to academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law and we acknowledge the right to protest.

"We will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia and any other form of racial or religious hatred, or other unlawful activity."

Balfour is infamous in the Middle East and beyond for his eponymous declaration, which paved the way for the Zionist settlement of historic Palestine and the eventual expulsion of its native Arab people.

He also served as British prime minister and was foreign secretary when he issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917 promising Jews a homeland in Palestine.

The decision paved the way for the mass migration of European Jews to Palestine under the British Mandate, culminating in the Nakba of 1948, which saw the establishment of the Israeli state and expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes.

Many of those expelled found refuge in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, where their descendants remain today.

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As “The Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, War Criminal, The Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗: Isra-hell” Orders Palestinians To Evacuate Gaza's Eastern Rafah, Where Around 1.4 Million People Have Been Taking Refuge, The UN 🇺🇳 Warns A Possible Terrorist Isra-helli Offensive Would Involve An Attack on Civilians, Leading To A “Massacre." Here's A Look At Rafah's Current Population Density

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Columbia University has failed to reach an agreement with Students Organizing the Pro-Palestine Encampment, the President has said.

In a statement, Minouche Shafik said "constructive dialogue" was held between academic leaders and students since Wednesday but no agreement has been found.

She added the University "Will Not Divest From The Illegal Regime of the Terrorist War Criminal 🐖 Isra-hell," a key demand by the students.

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The Nakba and ‘Forever Palestine 🇵🇸’ Refugees | Institute For Middle East Understanding (IMEU) Questions and Answers

Palestine refugees load their belongings onto a truck fleeing Al-Falouja village during the Nakba. © 1949 UN Archives Photographer Unknown. Photo used with permission.

What Is the Nakba?

Nakba is an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe” and refers to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine, its exiling of Palestinians and making them into refugees, its dispossession of Palestinian property, its destruction of Palestinian cities, towns, and villages, and its attempt to erase the existence of the Palestinian people from its homeland in 1948.

Before, during, and after the establishment of Israel in May 1948, first Zionist militias and later the Israeli military used terrorism and committed massacres and other atrocities to drive Palestinians from their homes. Zionist militias and the Israeli military also systematically looted and demolished Palestinian property. By the time Israel signed armistice agreements with neighboring Arab states in 1949, there were an estimated 750,000 Palestinian refugees (approximately 75 percent of the Palestinian population of that lived on land that became Israel). Israel demolished between 400 and 500 Palestinian villages, town, and cities.

The Nakba is not only a historical event; Israel’s ongoing dispossession of Palestinians and colonization of Palestinian land means that the Nakba is ongoing and accurately defines Palestinian life under Israeli military occupation, apartheid, and settler-colonialism.

What Was Life Like in ‘Forever Palestine 🇵🇸’ Before the Nakba?

Palestinians enjoyed a thriving and multi-religious society in Palestine long before Zionism began in the 1880s. Before World War I, Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in Palestine with equal citizenship rights and religious autonomy under the Ottoman Empire. Palestinians ran for elections to the Ottoman Parliament and represented their Palestinian constituencies there. The indigenous Palestinian economy was self-sustaining and also integrated into regional and global economic trade networks. Before and after World War I, Palestinian identity formed the basis for a modern-day Palestinian nationalism, expressed through newspapers, magazines, civil society organizations, and political parties.

After World War I, Great Britain was given a “mandate” over Palestine by the League of Nations. Mandates were supposed to provide for the self-determination and independence of indigenous populations. However, the Palestine Mandate was different from all other mandates in that it committed Great Britain to promoting the establishment of a vaguely defined Jewish National Home in Palestine. Throughout the mandate (1922-1948), Great Britain privileged the establishment of Zionist political institutions to the detriment of the indigenous majority Palestinian population.

Why Did Palestinians Not Accept the UN 🇺🇳 Partition Plan?

At the time of the UN Partition Plan, which was recommended by the General Assembly in November 1947, the Zionist movement owned just 7 percent of the land of Palestine and Jewish people constituted only one-third of the total population. Despite this, the partition plan called for the establishment of a Jewish State in more than 55 percent of Palestine. Even within the proposed borders of the Jewish State, there would have been only a tiny majority of Jewish residents (498,000 to 497,000 Palestinians).

Palestinian political bodies, led by the Arab Higher Committee (AHC), rejected the partition plan as a violation of the principle of self-determination and majority rights. Instead, the AHC proposed that Palestine remain a unitary, democratic state with strong minority rights, including proportional representation for Palestine’s Jewish citizens in the legislature, and Jewish communal autonomy in some spheres.

Even though the United States voted in support of the partition plan, the Truman administration quickly realized that the partition plan could not be implemented and instead threw itself behind a proposal to place Palestine under a UN trusteeship until a political resolution could be found. The Truman administration reversed itself again by recognizing Israel.

Was Illegal Isra-ll’s Ethnic Cleansing of ‘Forever Palestine 🇵🇸’ Planned?

Yes. In March 1948, Zionist leaders headed by David Ben Gurion, who would become Israel’s first prime minister, approved Plan Dalet (D), which called for the “Destruction of villages (setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris)...In the event of resistance, the armed force must be wiped out and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state.”

The implementation of this plan began before Israel’s establishment in May 1948. By that time, there were already between 250,000-300,000 Palestinian refugees who were expelled or fled from their homes often after attacks by Zionist militias on major Palestinian cities–Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, Tiberias–and villages, bombing campaigns targeting civilians, and massacres at villages such as Deir Yassin.

This ethnic cleansing campaign accelerated and intensified after the establishment of Israel, making an estimated 750,000 Palestinians into refugees by the time armistice agreements were signed with neighboring Arab states in 1949. Even after the armistice agreements, Israel continued to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their homes. For example, Israel continued deporting Palestinians from their homes in al-Majdal (known today as the city of Ashkelon) to the Gaza Strip until October 1950.

Who Are Palestinian Refugees Today?

From an original estimated population of 750,000 in 1948, today there are more than 7 million Palestinian refugees worldwide, 5.7 million of whom are refugees registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a specialized UN agency established in 1949 to provide social services to refugees.

In addition, there are estimated to be more than 400,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel who are classified as internally displaced persons (IDPs). These Palestinians were driven from their homes and dispossessed of their properties, too. Although they remained within the borders of what became Israel and received citizenship in the state, Israel has never allowed them to return to their lands and properties.

What Are Palestinian Refguees’ Rights?

Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”

In addition, UN General Assembly Resolution 194, adopted in December 1948, resolved that Palestinian “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible”.

In addition to international law recognizing refugees’ right of return, refugee status is also automatically conferred on the descendants of refugees. According to the UN, “Palestine refugees are not distinct from other protracted refugee situations such as those from Afghanistan or Somalia, where there are multiple generations of refugees, considered by UNHCR as refugees and supported as such. Protracted refugee situations are the result of the failure to find political solutions to their underlying political crises.”

The Palestinian refugee crisis has persisted for nearly 75 years because Israel refuses to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties in violation of international law.

What Is ‘War Criminal US’ Policy on the Nakba and ‘Forever Palestine 🇵🇸’ Refugee Crisis?

The United States voted both for UN General Assembly Resolution 194 in 1948, reaffirming Palestinian refugees’ right of return, and for the establishment of UNRWA in 1949. Except for a few years during the Trump administration, the United States has consistently supported UNRWA, contributing more than $6 billion to its budget since 1950.

The United States, through its chairing of the Palestine Conciliation Commission, originally pushed Israel to accept the repatriation of a significant number of Palestinian refugees; however, this commitment proved to be short-lived as the United States began favoring schemes to resettle Palestinian refugees in other countries as early as 1949.

The fate of Palestinian refugees was hardly addressed at all by the United States again until permanent status negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis began at Camp David in 2000. Shortly before his term ended, President Clinton issued “parameters” for Palestinian-Israeli peace that undermined Palestinian refugee rights. His parameters stated that “One should not expect Israel to acknowledge an unlimited right of return to present-day Israel,” and that repatriation of Palestinian refugees to Israel would be subject to its “sovereign decisions”.

In the most recent round of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in 2013-2014, then Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly put forward a figure of only 80,000 Palestinian refugees who would be allowed to return to their homes–less than two percent of registered refugees at that time.

How Is Congress Undermining ‘Forever Palestine 🇵🇸’ Refugees’ Rights?

Congress has also taken steps to undermine Palestinian refugee rights. Senate Report 112-172 to the 2013 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations bill directed the Department of State to issue a report to Congress detailing “the approximate number of people who, in the past year, have received UNRWA services: (1) whose place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948 and who were displaced as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict; and (2) who are descendants of persons described in subparagraph (1).” This reporting requirement attempts to differentiate between the refugee status of original refugees and their descendants, which is contrary to international law.

The intent of Members of Congress to utilize this report to try to extinguish the rights of Palestinian refugees is evident from a 2020 Dear Colleague letter, led by Rep. Doug Lamborn, pressing for the declassification of this report. The letter attempts to erase Palestinian refugees by claiming that their rights are a “fiction”.

Instead of passing legislation to try to negate Palestinian refugee rights, Congress and the Biden administration must center the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes as part of any principled effort to establish a just peace. Any attempt by the United States to broker Palestinian-Israeli peace that is not based on principles of international law and justice is bound to fail.

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War Criminal United States’ Foreign Policy Has Created A “Fascist, Liar Genocidal, Conspirator And The God’s Fucked-up Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗’s Illegal Regime of Isra-hell.”

Without Massive, Unconditional U.S. Military Subsidies, Isra-hell Would Have Had To Practice Diplomacy with Their Neighbors Years Ago.

— Sunjeev Bery | October 10 2024

War Criminals, U.S and Isra-hell, National Flags are waved during a demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on Sept. 20, 2023. Photo: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

As Beirut, Lebanon, Burns under Israel’s bombs, it is obvious for anyone who is paying attention that America has long incubated the emergence of the worst possible version of Israel. Decades of U.S. foreign policy have rewarded and accelerated a downward trajectory of genocidal politics and actions in both Israeli society and government. And now, with the full backing of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Israel is driving wave after wave of escalating violence in its ongoing push to eliminate any opposition to the continued expansion of a Jewish state in lands where millions of Palestinian, Lebanese, and other people already live.

The Israel that we see today is the worst of all potential outcomes, a chauvinist, racist, and genocidal country that perceives Christian and Muslim Arabs as bodies to be crushed and destroyed. This ugly reality is the direct result of decades of massive military subsidies and political support by the United States. Without this support, Israel would have had to compromise with their neighbors years ago.

U.S. support for Israel has totally insulated Israeli political elites from any consequences for their actions. As a result, Israeli society has now become a horrifying case study in the politics of genocide. Today, Zionist Israeli officials even call Palestinian infants “terrorists,” while Israeli snipers in Gaza put bullets in Palestinian children’s hearts and heads. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers openly daydream about Zionist colonization of Palestinian and Lebanese land. And as a reward for driving these genocidal politics, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has achieved newfound popularity among voters.

At every step along the way, Biden and Harris have rewarded these political developments with more weapons and supportive pro-Israel propaganda. The most recent utterance of support for Israel came during Harris’s interview on the U.S. news program “60 Minutes,” when she once again repeated her empty talking points about Israel’s “right to defend itself.”

The latest waves of destructive violence can all be traced back to recent U.S. efforts to shape a new geopolitical reality for the Middle East that lacked any real democratic support from the societies affected. Under the framework of the Abraham Accords, both the Trump and Biden administrations have sought to build public alliances between Israel and the neighboring oil monarchies of the Middle East.

This ongoing effort has come at a real cost to Palestinians. If Israel could establish full diplomatic relations with its neighboring dictators, it could get away with continuing its destruction of Palestinian society without any regional diplomatic cost. Of course, the only society that had any say in this matter was that of the Israeli electorate that put Netanyahu in office. Every other government in the region that participated in the Abraham Accords — including Morocco, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates — is fundamentally undemocratic.

It was in the context of this Palestinian marginalization under the Abraham Accords that Yahya Sinwar of Hamas launched the violent October 7 attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. Because the U.S. pushed an Abraham Accords agenda that would further enshrine apartheid, Hamas played the only real card that it holds: attacking Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Israel then began mass bombardment of Gaza, which it quickly escalated into a full-scale campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide, with a stated goal of destroying both Hamas and the Palestinian people. Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis responded along the way by staging their own attacks on Israel and Israeli interests. Israel’s further escalations — killing Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh inside Iran and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon — drove two calculated rounds of Iranian missile attacks on Israel.

The Ultimate Driver for all of this violence is U.S. foreign policy. There are many actors in the Middle East with their own agendas, and Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas all have blood on their hands, including for what Iran and Hezbollah separately perpetrated in Syria. But the violence we see today across the Middle East is fundamentally driven by U.S. interventions in the region. These interventions, ranging from diplomatic initiatives like the Abraham Accords to the never-ending blank check of U.S. military support for Israel, all serve to protect Israel from the pressure and costs it would normally face for its oppression of Palestinians.

The simple reality is that U.S. foreign policy remains just as bloody and horrific as it has always been. In earlier decades, “acceptable” losses included the 1 to 2 million civilians killed in Vietnam, another million dead in Indonesia, the carnage of U.S.-backed dictators across Latin America, and the hundreds of thousands killed during the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Today’s U.S. military and diplomatic interventions in the Middle East are no different.

To end Israel’s horrific actions in the Middle East, we must change the politics of America itself. This is no easy task, given the robust power and influence of pro-Israel — and pro-war — networks, donors, and lobbying groups inside the U.S. But it is the task at hand, and it should be the focus of every person of conscience, both within and outside the borders of the United States. As has been true in other regions of the world, U.S. foreign policy is the fundamental obstacle to justice, democracy, and peace in the Middle East.

[xtruss]

The White House’s Defense of “The Fascist, War Criminal, Genocidal and The Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 🐗s’ Illegal Regime of Isra-hell” Is Undermining International Law

The United States tends to hail the ICC when it prosecutes American enemies, but assails the court when it goes after U.S. allies.

— By Sarah Leah Whitson | September 18, 2024 | Foreign Policy

Two War Criminal, Corrupt and Genocidals: U.S. President Joe Biden meets with Fascist, Zionist 🐖 and Prime Minister of the Illegal Regimeof Isra-hell Benjamin Satan-Yahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 25, 2024 Andrew Harnike/Getty Images

The United States’ U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield struck an aggressive blow against the rules-based international order at a Council on Foreign Relations talk last week. In response to my question about whether the U.S. government would comply with the orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to cease assistance to Israel for its illegal occupation and expected International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Isra-helli Prime Minister Benjamin Satan-Yahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—both of whom have been indicted by the ICC—the U.N. ambassador was definitive: The U.S. government would not comply with any warrant because it has a “problem with the court’s ruling.”

“Let Be Be Clear,” she said. “We Would Not Arrest [Satan-Yahu].”

While the “Hypocrite, War Criminal, Genocidal, Corrupt and Morally Bankrupted United States” is not a member of the ICC and is therefore not obligated to comply with the court’s arrest warrants, Washington has cooperated when the ICC has targeted U.S. adversaries. Indeed, when the ICC issued arrest warrants against officials of other Non-ICC Member States, like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the U.S. government celebrated those decisions and urged cooperation with the court. Indeed, U.S. President Genocidal Joe Biden “Welcomed” the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes in Ukraine and ordered the U.S. government to start sharing information about possible Russian war crimes with the court.

Congress went so far as to revoke provisions in U.S. laws that prohibited cooperating with an ICC investigation at least insofar as they pertain to Ukraine, and issued a resolution commending the prosecutor for securing the warrant. Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham chimed in, saying that “this arrest warrant is extremely significant because it’s an action of an international evidence-based body that will stand the test of history.”

Graham took a markedly different tone when the court indicted Israeli officials however, calling them “outrageous actions by the ICC against the State of Israel and I will feverishly work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both chambers to levy damning sanctions against the ICC…” He attacked the very same prosecutor who had indicted Putin as “drunk with self-importance.”

This is not the first instance of states refusing to cooperate with the ICC. Even some member states have failed to execute arrest warrants the court has issued, like Mongolia’s refusal to arrest Putin earlier this month when he visited, or Jordan’s and South Africa’s failure to arrest Bashir.

Thomas-Greenfield’s declaration means that the United States, the supposed enforcer of the international rules-based order, is now keeping company with states that ignore the court’s orders. This sort of rhetoric from leading U.S. officials further erodes the standing of all international courts and will be used as a justification by authoritarian governments who will copy the U.S. playbook to reject international law and ignore those seeking to enforce it.

The War Criminal and Genocidal Biden Administration has made no secret of its disdain for the International Criminal Court’s decision to prosecute Isra-helli officials and members of Palestinian armed groups for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of the Rome Statute since 2014, following the State of Palestine’s 2018 referral.

On June 4, the U.S. House of Representatives once again passed a bill to sanction the prosecutor, and twelve U.S. senators responded to the prosecutor’s request for warrants by threatening, “Target Israel and we will target you. If you move forward … we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.”

While both War Criminal and Genocidal Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Joe Biden complained that the ICC had “Equated” Hamas and Israel, presumably because he requested arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas officials, Thomas-Greenfield’s comments are the first time that a senior U.S. official has baldly declared that Washington will defy an ICC arrest warrant.

To justify this stance, Thomas-Greenfield explained that the U.S. “has questions” about the court’s exercise of jurisdiction over Israel, presumably referring to the Biden administration’s rejection of the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli nationals. (She also incorrectly asserted that the U.S. had already reflected its unwillingness to arrest Netanyahu when he visited Washington in July, suggesting that the court had issued the arrest warrants, although it has not).

The question of territorial jurisdiction, however, is a matter that the court ruled on in 2021, refusing Israel’s arguments challenging jurisdiction, recognizing Palestine as a member state of the court with legal capacity to refer a case in its territory to the court, and reiterating the court’s authority to exercise jurisdiction over non-member state nationals who commit crimes in such a territory.

The fact that Netanyahu is the head of government in Israel does not immunize him from international criminal prosecution. The ICC has previously held that such domestic immunities do not trump an ICC arrest warrant because they would undermine the ICC’s purpose, including Article 27 of the Rome Statute, which provides that “all people are subject to the statute without distinction based on official capacity.”

The court furthermore clarified that complying with an arrest warrant does not mean subjecting a head of state to domestic prosecution—something that domestic immunity statutes prohibit —but merely transferring them to the The Hague for international criminal prosecution.

More significantly, Thomas-Greenfield’s suggestion that compliance with a court’s rulings is optional depending on whether or not a government agrees with a ruling further undermines the very basis of the ICC’s capacity to act as an international court with the power to issue binding decisions. Basically, Washington’s message to the world is that it loves the ICC when it prosecutes America’s enemies and hates the court when it prosecutes its friends.

While the Biden administration in 2021 canceled U.S. sanctions against the Previous ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, her staff, and their families that the Trump administration imposed on them for pursuing the prosecution of Israelis and Americans, it has not stopped pressuring the New Prosecutor, Karim Khan, to back off; Khan said that “some elected leaders” even told him, that the ICC “was built for Africa” and for “thugs like Putin” but not Western or Western-backed leaders.

Israeli officials have continued their nine-year campaign to spy on, harass, pressure, smear and threaten both the current and former prosecutors in an attempt to derail the investigation. It is exactly such attacks on the court in the face of the first prosecution of a U.S. ally that have led a number of African states to threaten to withdraw from the court, seeing it as mere cudgel with which to beat African abusers, while never allowing it to move against U.S. allies.

A related question Thomas-Greenfield refused to answer was whether the United States would comply with the orders issued by the International Court of Justice, which hears disputes between states. In a recent advisory opinion ruling, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and that it must remove its forces and settlers from there and reverse its illegal annexations.

The court ordered states not to recognize any illegal Israeli acts, such as annexations (The Trump administration recognized Israel’s annexations of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, but the Biden administration has not reversed these.) More significantly, the court said that states are under obligation “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

This is a problem for the U.S government, if it is to obey the directives of a court of which it is a founding member, by virtue of Washington’s ratification of the United Nations Charter. That’s because the United States is Isra-hell’s largest aid provider, with over $20 billion in military aid provided in 2024, and more than that in arms sales authorizations.

As a result, such aid not only violates U.S. laws prohibiting arms to states that violate human rights, but a direct order from the ICJ. The U.S. Mission to the United Nation’s tweet this week stating that it will vote against a pending U.N. General Assembly resolution to enforce the advisory opinion is a pretty clear indication that the U.S. has no intention of complying with the ICJ.

The continued transfer of U.S. weapons to Israel may well become the source of charges against the U.S. government in the ICJ occupation case (as well as the separate case South Africa initiated concerning genocide claims against Israel), but also against individual U.S. officials in the ICC case, for aiding and abetting the crimes with which Israel is charged.

During Her Talk, Thomas-Greenfield made a point of remembering her “Friend and Mentor” Madeleine Albright (Now The Witch is Staying, Resting, Rotting and Burning 🔥 in Hell Forever). I suspect Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks last week may go down as her very own Albright moment.

In 1996, then-Secretary of State Albright infamously responded to 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl’s question about Whether the “Price” of U.S. Sanctions in Iraq, Which had Caused “Half a Million Dead Iraqi Children… More Children Than Died in Hiroshima” was “Worth It,” by saying “I Think It’s a Very Hard Choice, But the Price—We Think the Price is Worth It.”

It’s sad and somewhat ironic to have solicited an equally damning response from Thomas-Greenfield, highlighting, 30 years later, the persistence of the United States’ highly selective use of international law as a political cudgel against opponents, but never against itself or U.S. allies.

The downside of this approach, of course, is that International Law—and the courts responsible for upholding it—cannot survive the World’s leading Superpower’s continued assaults, and will continue to crumble, to the detriment of all those international legal institutions are meant to serve, Americans included.

— Sarah Leah Whitson is the Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). She was Formerly the Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.

[xtruss]

"The Death of Samson," Engraving By Gustav Doré (1866).

From Gaza To Iran, The Netanyahu Government Is Endangering Israel's Survival

Israel is Facing a Historic Defeat, the Bitter Fruit of Years of Disastrous Policies. If the Country now Prioritizes Vengeance Over Its Own Best Interests, it will Put Itself and the Entire Region in Grave Danger

— Haaretz | Yuval Noah Harari | April 18, 2024

In the coming days Israel will have to make historic policy decisions, ones that could shape its fate and the fate of the entire region for generations to come. Unfortunately, Benjamin Netanyahu and his political partners have repeatedly proven that they are unfit to make such decisions. The policies they pursued for many years have brought Israel to the brink of destruction. So far, they have shown no regret for their past mistakes, and no inclination to change direction. If they continue to shape policy, they will lead us and the whole Middle East to perdition. Instead of rushing into a new war with Iran, we should first learn the lessons of Israel's failures over the past six months of war.

War is a military means for achieving political aims, and there is one key yardstick by which to measure success in war: Were the political aims achieved? Following the horrendous massacre of October 7, Israel needed to liberate the hostages and disarm Hamas, but these should not have been its only aims. In light of the existential threat posed to Israel by Iran and its agents of chaos, Israel also needed to deepen its alliance with Western democracies, strengthen cooperation with moderate Arab forces, and work to establish a stable regional order. However, the Netanyahu government ignored all these aims, and instead focused on revenge. It has failed to secure the release of all the hostages, and has not disarmed Hamas. Worse, it intentionally inflicted a humanitarian disaster on the 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and thereby undermined the moral and geopolitical basis for Israel's existence.

The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the worsening situation in the West Bank are inflaming regional chaos, weakening our alliances with Western democracies, and making it harder for countries like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to cooperate with us. Most Israelis have now focused their attention on Tehran, but even prior to the Iranian attack we preferred to turn a blind eye to what was happening in Gaza and the West Bank. Yet if we don't change our behavior toward the Palestinians, our hubris and vengefulness will inflict a historic calamity on us.

Khan Yunis in ruins, last week. It was essential to fight and defeat Hamas, but this could have been done even without killing so many innocent civilians.Credit: Fatima Shbair/AP

After six months of war, many of the hostages are still in captivity and Hamas is still on its feet, but the Gaza Strip is devastated, many thousands of its people have been killed, and most of its population are now famished refugees. Together with Gaza, Israel's international standing is also in ruins, and we are now hated and ostracized even by many of our former friends. If an all-out war breaks out with Iran and its proxies, to what extent can Israel count on the United States, the Western democracies and moderate Arab states to risk themselves for us, and provide us with vital military and diplomatic assistance? Even if such war is averted, how long can Israel survive as a pariah state? We don't have Russia's ample resources. Without commercial, scientific and cultural ties with the rest of the world, and without American arms and money, the most optimistic scenario for Israel is to become the North Korea of the Middle East.

Too many Israeli citizens deny or repress what is happening, as well as the reasons we find ourselves here. In particular, too many deny the severity of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza – which is why they cannot understand the severity of the diplomatic crisis we are facing. When they encounter reports about the devastation, carnage and hunger in Gaza, they claim it is fake news, or they find moral and military justification for Israel's behavior.

Those who rush to blame antisemitism for all our troubles should remember the first weeks of the war, when Israel enjoyed unprecedented international support. The American president, the French president, the German chancellor, the prime minister of Britain, and a long list of additional prime ministers, foreign ministers and other dignitaries visited Israel, and expressed their support for it in its fight to defeat and disarm Hamas. International aid came in the shape of weapons as well as words. Enormous amounts of military equipment were rushed to Israel. Arms exports from Germany to Israel, for example, rose 10-fold. Without that materiél, we could not have conducted the war in Gaza and Lebanon, and prepare for conflicts with Iran and its other proxies. Meanwhile, in the waters of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, an international fleet assembled to fight the Houthis and keep open the commercial lane leading to Eilat and the Suez Canal.

Of equal importance, during most of its previous wars, Israel had to fight against the clock, too, since its allies forced it to agree to cease-fires within days or weeks. But given the murderous nature of Hamas, this time its allies gave Israel free rein for many months to conquer Gaza, liberate the Israeli hostages, change the situation in the Strip according to Israel's best judgment, and create a new order in the region.

The Netanyahu government wasted this historic opportunity, and also wasted the bravery and dedication of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces. The Netanyahu government failed to exploit its battlefield victories to reach an agreement on the release of all the hostages and to advance an alternative political order in Gaza. Instead, it decided to knowingly inflict on Gaza an unnecessary humanitarian disaster – and in so doing, inflicted on Israel an unnecessary political disaster. One by one, our allies have become horrified by what is happening in Gaza, and one by one, they are calling for an immediate cease-fire, and even for a weapons embargo on Israel. Moderate Arab countries whose interests dovetail with ours, and who are afraid of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, have found it difficult to cooperate with us while we devastate Gaza. The Netanyahu government has managed to derail even our relations with the United States, as if we have an alternative source for arms and diplomatic backing. The younger generations in the United States, and around the world now see Israel as a racist and violent country that expels millions from their homes, starves entire populations, and kills many thousands of civilians for no better reason than revenge. The results will be felt not only in the coming days and months, but for decades into the future. Even during the worst moments of October 7, Hamas was nowhere near vanquishing Israel. But the ruinous policy of the Netanyahu government following October 7 has placed Israel in existential danger.

Destruction in Hawara, following a settler pogrom last year. Most Israelis have now focused their attention on Tehran, but even prior to the Iranian attack we preferred to turn a blind eye to what was happening in Gaza and the West Bank.Credit: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa

The Samson Syndrome

The failure of the Netanyahu government during the war is not accidental. It is the bitter fruit of many years of disastrous policies. The decision to inflict on Gaza a humanitarian catastrophe resulted from a combination of three long-term factors: lack of sensitivity to the value of Palestinian lives; lack of sensitivity to Israel's international standing; and skewed priorities that ignored Israel's real security needs.

For many years Netanyahu and his political partners cultivated a racist worldview that accustomed too many Israelis to disregard the value of Palestinian lives. A direct line leads from the Hawara pogrom of February 2023 to the current humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. On February 26, 2023, two Israeli settlers were murdered while they were driving through Hawara, in the West Bank. In revenge, a settler mob torched houses, shops and cars in Hawara, and injured dozens of innocent Palestinian civilians, while the Israeli security forces did little or nothing to stop the outrage. Those who became accustomed to burning a whole town in revenge for the murder of two Israelis, took it for granted that it was acceptable to devastate the entire Gaza Strip in revenge for the atrocities of October 7.

There is no doubt that Hamas is a murderous organization that on October 7 committed heinous crimes. But Israel is supposed to be a democratic country, which even when confronted by such atrocities continues to respect international laws, protect basic human rights and abide by universal moral standards. This is why countries like the United States, Germany and Britain stood by us following October 7. Of course, democratic countries have the right – nay, the duty – to defend themselves, and in war it is sometimes essential to take very violent actions to achieve vital political aims. It seems, however, that many of the actions Israel took after October 7 were motivated by a thirst for revenge, or worse, by the hope that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be forced permanently out of Gaza.

For many years, Netanyahu and his allies also cultivated a vainglorious worldview that accustomed many Israelis to downplaying the importance of our relations with the Western democracies. In one recent election campaign, huge roadside posters declared "a leader from a different league" and showed Netanyahu smiling and shaking hands with a beaming Vladimir Putin. Who needs Washington and Berlin when the Israeli superpower has new friends in Moscow and Budapest? And if Putin is our new friend, why not act like Putin? Even today there are Israelis who look longingly at how Putin behaves – e.g., cutting off the ears of terrorists – and think Israel should learn from him. Needless to say, after October 7 Putin stabbed Netanyahu in the back, and Victor Orban didn't bother to visit. It was the liberals in Washington and Berlin who rushed to help Israel. But perhaps out of sheer inertia, Netanyahu keeps biting the hands that feed us. Israel's deepening international isolation, and the hatred being expressed toward Israel among academics, artists and young people is not only the product of Hamas propaganda – it is the product of Netanyahu's skewed priorities over the last 15 years.

Putin with the Netanyahus. Needless to say, after October 7 Putin stabbed Netanyahu in the back.Credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO

For many years, Netanyahu and his political partners shaped an agenda that ignored not just the importance of our alliance with Western democracies, but also Israel's most profound security needs. Much has been written about what led to the debacle of October 7, and much more will be written. No doubt a prime minister cannot be held responsible for every small detail. But a prime minister is responsible for the most important thing – shaping the country's priorities. And Netanyahu's chosen priorities were calamitous. He and his partners preferred to consolidate the occupation rather than to secure our borders, so that the same leader who for years proved unable to evacuate a single illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied territories succeeded in a single day to evacuate the Israeli towns of Sderot in the south and Kiryat Shmona in the north, with their tens of thousands of inhabitants.

Worse yet, when Netanyahu formed his last government, he had to decide on which of Israel's many problems it should focus. Should Israel prioritize fighting Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran? After much thought, Netanyahu decided to fight the Supreme Court. If between January and October 2023, the Netanyahu government had given Hamas a quarter of the attention it gave to fighting the Supreme Court, the catastrophe of October 7 would have been prevented.

When after October 7, Netanyahu had to decide on the aims of the war, no wonder that security was again placed too low on the list of priorities. Israel obviously had to enter Gaza to disarm Hamas. But the war's long-term aim should have been to create a stable regional order that would keep Israelis safe for years. Such an order could be created only by strengthening the alliance between Israel and the Western democracies, and deepening cooperation with moderate Arab forces. Instead of cultivating these alliances and partnerships, the war aim Netanyahu chose was blind revenge. Like the eyeless Samson in the biblical Book of Judges, Netanyahu chose to collapse the roofs of Gaza on everyone's heads – Palestinians and Israelis – just to exact revenge.

Israelis know their Bible well, and love its stories. How is it that after October 7, we forgot Samson? His is the tale of a Jewish hero kidnapped to Gaza, where he was held in dark captivity by the Philistines, and severely tortured. Why didn't Samson become a symbol following October 7? Why don't we see his image everywhere, on stickers, graffiti and internet memes?

The answer is that Samson's message is too scary. "May I take vengeance," said Samson, "and let my soul perish with the Philistines." Since October 7, we have become so similar to Samson in so many ways – the hubris, the blindness, the vengeance, the suicide – that it is just too terrifying to remember the vainglorious hero who let his own soul perish just to get even with the Philistines.

Smoke billows above the Gaza Strip in October. The blindness of the public gives the government a free hand to continue its spree of destruction.Credit: Ariel Schalit/AP

The Echo Chamber

Following October 7, it was essential to fight and defeat Hamas, but this could have been done even without killing so many innocent civilians and without starving the civilian population. The IDF has achieved many victories on the fields of battle, giving it control over most areas of the Gaza Strip and the routes leading into it. Even if in the midst of combat it is sometimes difficult to separate civilians from combatants, what prevented Israel from flooding Gaza with aid? Some argue that inefficient distribution within Gaza, and theft by Hamas operatives, are what led to the images of starving children and of thousands of desperate people storming aid trucks. Even if those difficulties are real, Israel could have pushed so much food, medicine and other supplies into Gaza that no scale of mismanagement or theft would have resulted in hunger. After all, what can thieves do with stocks of food other than sell it to the population?

Conversely, if Israel found it difficult to deliver enough aid into Gaza, and since Egypt and other countries refused to host Palestinian refugees, Israel could have created safe havens for Palestinian civilians on Israeli territory near the Egyptian border, south of the Strip. Hundreds of thousands of women, children, elderly and sick refugees from Gaza could have found shelter in these safe zones. There, Israel could have made sure the refugees received all the basic necessities and were protected from attack, as long as the fighting in Gaza continued. This idea was suggested already in the first days of the war by Benny Morris, Benjamin Z. Kedar, and several other leading Israeli academics who foresaw the dangers ahead. Such a move would have fulfilled Israel's moral obligations, won it international approval, and simultaneously enabled the IDF to operate with greater ease within Gaza. It isn't too late to implement such a plan.

Netanyahu continues to promise Israelis "total victory," but the truth is, we are a step away from total defeat. Whatever could have been achieved by fighting – rebuilding domestic trust in the IDF following the October 7 debacle, rebuilding Israeli deterrence abroad, and eliminating most of Hamas' military capabilities – have already been achieved. Nothing more will be gained from continuing the war. It is a dangerous illusion to believe that one more victory, in Rafah, will bring about the collapse of Hamas, the release of all the hostages, and the surrender of Israel's many enemies. Every additional day of war only serves the purposes of Hamas and Iran, and intensifies Israel's international isolation.

Large parts of the Israeli public are blind to what is happening. For too many Israelis, time came to a stop half a year ago. Every day, our media is still full of updates from October 7, 2023, seemingly without taking notice that it is already April 2024. It is of course important to remember and investigate what happened in Israel on that cursed Saturday, but it is also important to know what is happening in Gaza right now. The entire world sees the horrific images coming out of the Strip, but too many Israeli citizens either dare not look or regard all such images as deceitful propaganda. The blindness of the public gives the government a free hand to continue its spree of destruction, which devastates not only Gaza, but also what remains of Israel's international standing and moral compass. How can we break the echo chamber that entraps us, and see what is really happening?

Divine Voice

In history, it sometimes happens that entire populations are trapped in an echo chamber and lose touch with reality. It is particularly likely to happen during wars. For example, in early August 1945, when isolated Japan stood on the verge of defeat, the Japanese continued fighting for the victory promised them by the government and the media. Japanese who dared think otherwise were denounced as defeatist, severely punished and sometimes executed.

What broke the Japanese echo chamber were two atom bombs – one dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, the other on Nagasaki on August 9. In fact, even the atom bombs didn't suffice. Divine intervention was also required. For another week the citizens of Japan continued to believe in victory, until on August 15, 1945, they turned on their radios, and heard a divine voice talking to them.

For many Japanese, Emperor Hirohito was a living god. Hitherto, he had never spoken to them directly. No person outside of his inner circle and Japan's highest officials was permitted to hear the voice of the god Hirohito. But a week after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government realized it had no alternative to surrender. Having previously promised its citizens victory, the government was afraid they wouldn't understand and accept the abrupt change in policy. Even the atomic bombs couldn't explain it. So the Japanese god was called upon to intervene. "Despite the best that has been done by everyone," explained the divine emperor in his historic broadcast, "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest … [therefore] We have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace … by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable."

The Netanyahu government, December 2022. A government that adopted a Samson-like policy of revenge and suicide.Credit: Ammar Awad/Reuters

Israel of 2024 is of course not Japan of August 1945. Israel did not seek to conquer half the world, and it hasn't killed millions. Israel still enjoys local military superiority, and its international isolation is not complete. Most important, in our region nuclear weapons are yet to be used, and there is still time to prevent a Middle Eastern Hiroshima. But despite all these huge differences, there is also one point of similarity. Like the Japanese in 1945, many Israelis in 2024 are trapped in an echo chamber that promises them victory, even as we are on the verge of defeat. How to break this echo chamber? It would be unwise to wait for the atomic bomb, or for God to speak on the radio.

The Netanyahu government, which has failed in so much, must finally take responsibility. It is the Netanyahu government that adopted the disastrous agenda that brought us here, and it is the government that adopted the Samson-like policy of revenge and suicide. Woe to us if the same Samsons are now permitted to make the most important strategic and political decisions in Israel's history.

This government has reached the point at which it must endure the unendurable, admit failure, and immediately resign so that someone else can open a new page. It is vital to establish a new government, one that will be guided by a different moral compass, will end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and will begin to rebuild our international standing. If we don't change our policy toward the Palestinians, we will be left to face Iran alone, and our end will be like that of Samson, who in impotent rage brought down the house on the heads of everyone.

— Professor Yuval Noah Harari is a Historian, Author of "Sapiens," "Homo Deus" and "Unstoppable Us," and Cofounder of the Social-Impact Company Sapienship.