Israel perpetrates atrocity after atrocity, as some US politicians hold Biden admin accountable – Day 404
Australia backs UN resolution recognizing ‘permanent sovereignty’ of Palestinians in major departure
Australia has backed in a United Nations resolution to recognise the “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, marking a major departure from its previous position.
At a UN committee vote on Thursday, Australia voted with 158 other countries, including the UK and New Zealand, on a resolution to recognise the “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources”.
Seven, including the US, Israel and Canada, voted against the resolution while 11 others abstained. The vote will now proceed to the UN general assembly.
It is the first time an Australian government has voted in favor of the “permanent sovereignty” resolution since it was introduced in some form two decades prior.
Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians constitutes war crimes: Human Rights Watch
The Israeli army’s forced displacement of Palestinians amounts to a “crime against humanity,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a 154-page report released on 14 November.
“HRW found that forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity,” it added.
The Israeli army said in a statement,“This report, like many before it, both selectively presents information in a manner that obscures context, as well as makes certain blatant misrepresentations,” though the 154-page report is annotated and is based on actual interviews.
When asked about the HRW report, US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters, “We have not seen any kind of specific forced displacement. But as you’ve heard us say consistently, this is something that we’re going to pay incredibly close attention to.”
UN Special Committee finds Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapon of war
Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there, the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices* said in a new report released today.
“Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life — food, water, and fuel,” the Committee said.
“Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population,” the Committee said.
Israel disputes the findings.
US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said the US also unequivocally disagreeswith the findings.
Doctors Without Borders shocked and outraged as Israel blocks medical evacuation for kids
On 10 November, Israeli authorities blocked, without explanation, the medical evacuation of eight children and their caretakers from Gaza who are in need of medical care, including a two-year-old with leg amputations, to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Jordan.
We strongly denounce this decision. “It’s utterly shocking and outrageous that children who need essential treatment are being blocked by Israel from leaving Gaza. Israel’s denial of urgent medical evacuations defies reason and humanity,” says Moeen Mahmood, MSF country director in Jordan.
In recent months, MSF applied for 32 children and caretakers to be medically evacuated from Gaza to Jordan. Only 6 were allowed to leave. Lengthy procedures and unexplained denials block the provision of medical treatment for children who have been severely injured in Gaza.
Israeli strike on Gaza ‘safe-zone’ damages Doctors Without Borders clinic
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym, MSF, says an Israeli air attack that hit the Israeli-designated “safe zone” of al-Mawasi damaged the group’s medical clinic in the area.
“The blast was huge. We didn’t receive an official evacuation order from Israeli forces, we were notified by the residents,” Myriam, an MSF coordinator, said in a post on X.
“Both staff and patients fled the clinic. We later found the facility with equipment destroyed, and shrapnel damaged the desalination plant,” she added.
MSF condemned Israel’s use of heavy weapons in zones it had designated safe, saying the attack is “further proof of the blatant disregard for Palestinian lives and humanitarian law”.
How Israel has decimated local food production in Gaza
It’s not just Israel’s restrictions on the entry of food aid that are contributing to the hunger crisis in Gaza. It’s also the Israeli military’s decimation of local food production across the whole of the coastal enclave.
Before Israel launched its war on Gaza, about 42 percent of the Strip’s land was used for crops.
But according to the UN, the ongoing hostilities have resulted in “significant damage” to the agricultural sector, including cropland, greenhouses, agricultural infrastructure, wells and solar panels.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says:
- Nearly 70 percent of cropland – which contributed up to one-third of daily consumption – has been destroyed
- More than 70 percent of olive trees and orchards have been burned to the ground
- About 95 percent of cattle and more than half of sheep and goat herds have died.
One-year-old boy dies in Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital
“A one-year-old boy has died in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the past half an hour despite his case being treatable according to the doctors we spoke to,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Deir al Balah on Thursday.
He added, “Due to the lack of medical supplies, the hospital could not do anything to save him. A medical mission organized by the WHO was trying to get him out of the Gaza Strip but failed because the Israeli military banned this one-year-old boy from leaving the enclave.
“This is part of the silent death that is happening on an hourly basis in the Gaza Strip. We see more of it here because we are at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. We see people being brought out of the hospital and into the morgue on an hourly basis from all age groups due to the lack of medical supplies.”
Aid deliveries to northern Gaza blocked by Israel repeatedly in recent days: UN
Six attempts by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to deliver aid to besieged areas in northern Gaza were blocked over the past two days by Israeli authorities, the spokesman for the UN secretary-general said.
“Every attempt by the UN to access these areas with food, water and health missions this month were either denied or impeded,” Stéphane Dujarric said during a press briefing.
Dujarric cited a World Food Program report from the end of October that found that entire food groups have disappeared from Gaza’s markets, with dairy products and eggs “nearly non-existent” and raw fruits and vegetables also scarce.
“Many items have increased over 1,000 percent from pre-conflict prices,” he added.
Medical Negligence – Two Detainees, Including Hamas Leader, Die in Prison
Two Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli detention, according to reports from the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Prisoners’ Club.
One of the prisoners, 61-year-old Samih Aliwi, was a leader in the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, hailing from Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The second, Anwar Aslim, hailed from Gaza.
Hamas issued a statement mourning the late Palestinian prisoners.
“The martyrdom of the imprisoned leader Samih Alawi from Nablus and prisoner Anwar Aslim from Gaza within the occupation’s prisons reflects the escalating crimes committed against detainees,” the statement said.
“It is a continuation of the systematic and deliberate slow-killing policy through medical negligence and the use of all forms of torture and abuse,” it added, and, “the suffering of our male and female prisoners inside the prisons (…) represents a stain of shame on the record of the criminal occupation.”
Israeli forces demolish a mosque, approved by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir
Exposed: The Oil and Gas Giants Profiting Most From Israel’s Gaza Genocide
On the fourth day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Azerbaijan, green groups highlighted how fossil fuel companies “enable and profit from Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” continuing “a long history of the industry’s complicity in mass atrocities worldwide.”
“The fossil fuel industry is culpable in death and destruction around the world, not only through the climate crisis they cause but through the violence they fuel,” Oil Change International said in a statement Thursday.
“Investor-owned and private oil companies supply 66% of oil to Israel—more than a third of that from major oil companies like Chevron, Shell, and BP—despite genocide warnings from the International Court of Justice,” Oil Change said. “BP is among the top corporate suppliers of oil to Israel. It operates and is the largest owner of the BTC pipeline, which transports Azeri oil that is ultimately sent to Israel.”
(Keep reading here.)
Bernie Sanders announces vote to block US arms sales to Israel
The US senator said he plans to bring to the floor of the Senate next week a number of resolutions to “block certain offensive weapons sales to Israel”.
“There is no longer any doubt that Netanyahu’s extremist government is in clear violation of US and international law as it wages a barbaric war against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Sanders said in a statement on X.
“This war has been conducted almost entirely with American weapons and $18 billion in US taxpayer dollars. Israel has dropped US-provided 2,000 pound bombs into crowded neighborhoods, killed hundreds of civilians to take out a handful of Hamas fighters, and made little effort to distinguish between civilians and combatants. These actions are immoral and illegal,” he wrote.
Congresswoman Tlaib calls on Blinken to resign after aid deadline passes
The first Palestinian American woman to serve in the US Congress says Antony Blinken must resign as secretary of state after his deadline for Israel to ramp up aid to Gaza passed without any consequences.
Rashida Tlaib, pointing to a picture of a starving Palestinian child, said Blinken set a 350 trucks per day goal for humanitarian aid, but only 57 trucks entered per day in October – even if official Israeli figures can be taken at face value.
“This week, Mr Speaker, Secretary Blinken exposed his lie by announcing that there will be no change to any policy, despite admitting that the Israeli government has failed to comply with all of their demands,” Tlaib said.
“Secretary Blinken has continued to lie to Congress and should resign.”
Elizabeth Warren denounces Biden administration over Gaza humanitarian situation
Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive voice in the US Senate, has denounced the Biden administration’s failure to punish Israel over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and endorsed a joint resolution of disapproval in Congress.
The amount of aid reaching the territory has dropped to the lowest level in 11 months, official Israeli figures show. The White House last month gave Israel an ultimatum of 30 days to improve conditions or risk losing military support. As the deadline expired on Tuesday, international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short.
But the US state department announced it would not take any punitive action, insisting that Israel was making limited progress and was not blocking aid and therefore not violating US law. Warren condemned the Biden administration’s decision to continue supplying arms to its ally.
For the first time on the issue, Warren threw her weight behind a joint resolution of disapproval, a legislative tool that enables Congress to overturn actions taken by the executive branch. Such a resolution must pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
ACLU Slams Senate Push to Crack Down on Campus Criticism of Israel
The ACLU on Thursday sent a letter to U.S. senators arguing that bipartisan legislation which backers claim would combat antisemitism on university campuses would actually be an affront to free speech protections and censor legitimate criticism of the Israeli government as it carries out atrocities in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and Lebanon.
“Instead of addressing antisemitism on campus, this misguided legislation would punish protected political speech,” said ACLU senior policy counsel Jenna Leventoff, who signed the letter with Christopher Anders, director of democracy and technology.
“At a time when civil rights enforcement on campus could not be more critical, this bill risks politicizing these vital protections by censoring legitimate political speech that criticizes the Israeli government,” Leventoff warned. “The right to criticize government actions is the most fundamental protection provided by the First Amendment—and this includes the actions of foreign governments. The Senate must continue to block this bill and protect free speech.”
On Sunday, the Knesset will discuss a bill that bans the raising of the Palestinian flag in “state-funded or supported institutions”, Israeli media has reported.
This would apply to state institutions such as universities, where protesters have at times used the Palestinian flag to protest against the war in Gaza.
The bill targets the flags of “enemy countries” and gives authorities permission to disperse gatherings, and impose prison sentences and fines of “no less than NIS 10,000 [$2,674].”
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