Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
Her report is to be presented next week
Ricky
Mar 21, 2024
The UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, has found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, following a four-month investigation. The ICJ had previously ruled it’s plausible that Israel is committing genocide, but Albanese’s findings are more concrete. Her report is set to be presented to the UN’s Human Rights Council next week.
I know what you’re all thinking, Francesca Albanese is only stating the blatantly obvious. At this point, saying Israel is committing genocide is like saying Dr Harold Shipman did not uphold his Hippocratic Oath. Like, no shit.
But this is still significant because it makes Israel’s genocide official and puts its apologists in a difficult position. They either have to concede the reality of the situation or declare that Francesca Albanese is the secret leader of the Qassam Brigades. Surely, the people who pretended UNRWA took part in October 7th and a teenage girl they’d murdered had a Hitler wallpaper on her iPad wouldn’t go that far…. would they? Actually, don’t answer that.
Let’s just focus on the UN investigation. Albanese said to Al Jazeera:
“I’ve been spending the last four months documenting, investigating, providing context, analysing Israel’s conduct of hostilities, Israel’s statements by political leaders and military leaders, and the actions of troops on the ground. I’ve concluded Israel is committing genocide. I’ve said it before, but I’m articulating why now.”
Israel has made life extremely easy for Albanese to collect evidence by incriminating itself with statements from its officials, and TikToks from its out of control soldiers who are really fond of women’s underwear, but to mitigate that, Israel has done its utmost to keep journalists out of Gaza.
It has killed an unprecedented number of journalists as well as beating up and kidnapping an Al Jazeera crew on Monday, after destroying their equipment. This combined with the cutting off of power and telecommunications mean Israel has done everything it can to commit genocide in the dark.
Israel has stated it will not cooperate with two UN investigations, presumably because that would mean turning their leaders into the Hague. Obviously, the UN is involved in an anti-Semitic conspiracy, along with all of the world’s human rights groups and Charlotte Church. This is a huge concern.
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Albanese has stated that Israel has attempted to hinder witness accounts, and she condemned their decision to deny UNRWA head Phillipe Lazzarini entry into Gaza. That decision might have something to do with how Lazzarini described the situation:
"The highest number of people ever recorded as facing human-made famine, along with mass killings, constant harm and creation of conditions that gut life of humanity has a name: Genocide."
The Israeli foreign ministry insists Lazzarini was not denied entry into Gaza, but given the denial of entry was confirmed by both Egypt and UNRWA, I know who I believe. Albanese said of the unprecedented decision:
"Israel wants no witnesses, no truth-tellers."
She pointed out on Twitter:
WHO says an increasing number of children in Gaza are on the brink of death due to acute hunger, with newborns “dying because of low birth weight”. Meanwhile thousands of trucks with essential supplies have been blocked at Rafah for months.
How could anyone argue that blocking aid trucks while babies die of starvation is anything other than mass murder?
Israel has ignored all of the recommendations by the ICJ to minimise civilian casualties and demonstrate that it’s not committing genocide. Instead, it has done the opposite, increasing its attacks on hospitals, massacring civilians and using starvation as a weapon of war.
Netanyahu publicly stated: “Nobody will stop us, not the Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else,” shortly before pretending UNRWA was Hamas and getting western governments to suspend humanitarian support. Are you proud your government has participated in the starvation of the most desperate people in the world?
The reality in Gaza is 85% of the population are internally displaced due to the destruction of their homes and they are regularly massacred while they queue for aid. Given the amount of video evidence that shows attacks on civilians, and mass graves, and the apocalyptic extent of the destruction, it’s impossible to deny what Israel is doing, unless you have no shame whatsoever, and most Zionists don’t, which is why they’ve been making the most pathetic denials. I even saw one troll call the UN rapporteur an “attention seeker” and insist she is not allowed to call this a genocide because only the courts can do that. This is interesting logic, considering Israel accuses Hamas of genocide all the time and also ignores the courts!
Strangely, western leaders are struggling to condemn Israel’s genocide with the same conviction they condemned the October 7th attacks, instead saying they would like Israel to let in more aid as though it’s an idealistic goal, something to aspire to.
If Israel started letting slightly more aid through, our leaders would hold this up as evidence there is no genocide and act like Netanyahu has been exonerated, but they would maintain that Hamas must be eradicated because their forgiveness only works one way: in favour of the occupier.
Famine is now officially imminent in Gaza - and expected to affect seven times more people than the famine in Yemen with “catastrophic levels of hunger” according to the IPC.
We are potentially looking at the most intense famine since World War II, despite all of the food needed waiting in trucks at the border. If those trucks aren’t allowed in, starvation and disease are likely to kill more civilians than the bombs and bullets, meaning we could see at least a doubling of the official death toll of 32,000.
While the civilised world rightly shows outrage, our government ministers insist that pointing out Israel is committing genocide is somehow anti-Semitic. Zarah Sultana and Beth Winter have both been rebuked in parliament in the past week for expressing concern about starvation being used as a weapon of war. In a real country, the ministers rebuking them would be facing prosecution for supporting genocide. It’s not like the police can’t involve themselves in this kind of thing either. If you doubt that, try tweeting something in defence of Hamas and watch how quickly anti-terror police arrive at your house and confiscate your devices.
Authorities can quickly punish support for Hamas, but not support for the genocidal IDF who kill at least 20 times more civilians and injure many, many times more. When this thing is over, we will need an inquiry into why our political establishment and mainstream media decided the lives of Palestinians matter so much less than the lives of Israelis.
One thing is for sure, we have an interesting few years ahead. If our leaders ignore findings that Israel is committing genocide and continue to support it, what will happen to organisations like the ICJ, ICC, and the UN? How will anyone take international law seriously, if it’s only applied selectively, even for the most serious crimes humanity can commit?
I’m no legal expert, but I’d love to hear from someone who is what they think is likely to happen going forward, or is this one of those times that’s so unprecedented no one knows? I suspect it is.
The last working-class hero in England.
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
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