Scottish Friends of Palestine

Briefing Paper                                                       

June 2024           

SOURCE: Law for Palestine Organization

Judicial decrees, decisions, positions, and orders issued by official Israeli bodies

• In the context of discussing the possibility of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague against Israeli officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “No ICC action will impact Israel’s icrom-clad determination to achieve the goals of our war.” He added that the possibility of the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants against Israeli military and political leaders would be an “outrage of historic proportion,” claiming that “this is an attempt to paralyze Israel’s very ability to defend itself.” (April 30, 2024) For further details, click here.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his complete rejection of the idea of stopping the war before achieving all its goals. He added, “We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there – with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory” (April 30, 2024). For further details, click here

• The Israeli government warned the Biden administration that if the International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, it will hold the Palestinian Authority responsible and take retaliatory steps against it that could lead to its collapse. Among the possible measures is freezing the transfer of tax revenues collected by Israel for the Palestinian Authority, which would lead to its bankruptcy. (May 1, 2024) For further details, click here.

• Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan said that granting the Palestinians full membership in the United Nations would only lead to two “destructive results”: furthering terrorism and sending a clear message to the Palestinians that they never have to sit at the negotiating table, let alone make compromises. He claimed that “Palestinians rejected any peace plan and continue to support terrorism and boycott any negotiations. And now they know that their refusal is paying off!.” (1-2 May 2024) For further details, click here

·  National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says that the only response to Hamas is “an immediate order to conquer Rafah, increase military pressure, and continue to crush Hamas until it is utterly defeated.” (May 6, 2024).

·  Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls for intensified pressure on Hamas, rejecting talks without accompanying military action. He emphasizes the need to persist until victory, likening the conflict to Israel’s war of independence. Smotrich advocates for full occupation of Rafah, destroying Hamas’ underground infrastructure, and gaining control over the Philadelphi Route along Gaza’s border with Egypt. (May 7, 2024).

·  Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared his support for establishing a large new city east of Ariel settlement, “the capital of Samaria”, with the goal of further connecting the area to the center of Israel. The statement came as Gallant inaugurated an expansion of a security checkpoint on Route 5, a major traffic artery connecting central Israel with northern Samaria and the Jordan Valley. (May 7, 2024).

·  The official spokesman for the Israeli occupation army, Avichay Adraee, called on the Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate the eastern areas of the city of Rafah and move to Khan Yunis and al-Mawasi in order for the army to continue its military operations in the region. He announced plans to distribute leaflets, send SMS messages and make phone calls to ensure the message reaches the residents. The evacuation orders included areas such as Al-Shaboura camp, Rafah camp, Al-Jeneina neighborhood, and Khirbet Al-Adas. He also announced a new military operation that would target Jabalia Camp, Beit Lahia project, and Tal al-Zaatar in the northern Gaza Strip, calling on residents and displaced people to head to western Gaza. (May 11, 2023).

·  The Israeli Supreme Court has decided to overturn the eviction orders issued against three Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem. The Court granted the appeals filed against the rulings of both the Magistrate’s Court and the Central Court and is based on a legal precedent set in 2023, which banned the eviction of four other Palestinian families. (May 10, 2024)

• The Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, ordered the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Hertzi Halevi, to block Al Jazeera’s channel in the West Bank after it was blocked in Israel. The Israeli Army spokesperson unit confirmed that “the Israeli Army is working to implement the Defense Minister’s order.” (May 15, 2024)

• The Israeli Finance Minister stated that he does not agree with resuming trade with Gaza, even at the private sector level. He said that he had sent a message to the Israeli Prime Minister and the Security Cabinet, demanding clarification on goods that were set to be allowed into the Gaza Strip, in contradiction to the decision of the Israeli Cabinet. He wanted to know the source and destination of these goods. He stated, “we must defeat Hamas, and renewing trade with Gaza is not the way to do that.” (May 16, 2024)

• At oral hearings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding South Africa’s request for additional provisional measures to halt the military operation in Rafah, Israel’s lawyers have stated that the country has the right to move ahead with a full-scale offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza to defend itself against the Palestinian group Hamas. “The fact remains that the city of Rafah also serves as a military stronghold for Hamas, which continues to pose a significant threat to the State of Israel and its citizens,” Gilad Noam, Israel’s deputy attorney general for international law, told the ICJ in The Hague on Friday. (May 17, 2024)

• Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must take “tough decisions” to advance non-Hamas governance of Gaza, whatever the personal or political cost, because the gains of the war are being eroded and Israel’s long-term security is at stake. Gallant warned in his address that he will not consent to Israeli civil or military governance of Gaza, and that governance by non-Hamas Palestinian entities, accompanied by international actors, is in Israel’s interest. (May 17, 2024)

In response to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor’s decision to request arrest warrants for Israeli officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the outrageous decision made by the Prosecutor against Israel’s democratically elected leaders constitutes a moral violation of historic proportions. He added that this will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court. The Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel described the decision as morally twisted and “folly of the highest order”. He said that Israel is a democracy with an independent and effective judiciary system, and that it is not a state party to the ICC, and does not recognize jurisdiction over the conflict. (May 20, 2024)

The Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Amir Ohana, described the ICC Prosecutor’s decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials as outrageous. He added that the court has proven to the world that it is illegitimate and incapable of distinguishing between the aggressor and the defender. Ohana stated that Prosecutor Khan’s decision will be remembered as the turning point where international legal institutions lost their moral compass and that the decision denies the right to self-defense. (May 20, 2024)

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced the cancellation of the Disengagement Law in the northern West Bank. He confirmed that the repeal of the Disengagement Law would extend to all settlements that were evacuated in the northern West Bank. The repeal will allow settlers to return to the four settlements dismantled in 2005: Ganim, Kadim, Homesh, and Sa-Nur in the West Bank. (May 22, 2024)

• The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Israeli occupation government, Israel Katz, ordered the immediate return of the Israeli ambassadors in Ireland, Norway and Spain to Israel for consultations. This action follows the decision of these countries to recognize the Palestinian state. The Minister stressed that Israel “will not back down against those who undermine its sovereignty and endanger its security,” and added that there would be serious consequences. (May 22, 2024)

• Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for immediate punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority in response to Norway, Spain, and Ireland recognizing the State of Palestine. He called for a meeting of the Settlement Planning Council to approve the construction of ten thousand new units in the settlement units and establish new settlements for each country that recognizes Palestine. He also proposed the cancellation of an arrangement known as the ‘Norwegian Outline’ and the cessation of fund transfers to it. Additionally, he ordered the cancellation of permits for senior Palestinian officials and the imposition of financial penalties on them and their families. Furthermore, he decided to halt the transfer of clearance funds and compensate Israeli banks dealing with Palestinian banks until further notice. (May 22, 2024)

• The Knesset passed a preliminary reading of the bill to amend the Negev Development Authority Law, which stipulates “the annexation of lands in the West Bank to Israel, and the south of Hebron is considered part of the Negev.” (May 22, 2024)

• The Knesset approved, in the second and third readings, a law permitting the revocation of licenses or work permits and the confiscation of property for those convicted of transporting, housing, or employing Palestinian workers from the West Bank within Israel under aggravating conditions. The law allows the court to revoke licenses or work permits for up to one year, instead of six months. The law also mandates the court to confiscate property related to the crime or the value of that property, unless there are special reasons preventing it. (May 22, 2024)

• Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced that he decided to sever the connection between the Spanish embassy in Israel and the Palestinians and to prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing service to the Palestinians. This move comes in response to Spain’s recognition of a Palestinian state and the Deputy Prime Minister of Spain’s “anti-Semitic” call not just to recognize a Palestinian state but to “liberate Palestine from the river to the sea.” (May 24, 2024)

• In response to the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision to halt the Israeli military operation in Rafah, Israel stated that, “the charges of genocide brought by South Africa against Israel at the ICJ in the Hague are false, outrageous and morally repugnant… Israel has not and will not conduct military actions in the Rafah area which may inflict on the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part..” Israel also stated its commitment to continuing efforts to enable humanitarian assistance. (May 24, 2024)

The Nazification of Palestinians in Israeli School books Nurit Peled-Elhanan (01/11/2023)  School books justify the ongoing endeavor to distance Palestinian citizens from the land by the need to “Jewify” the entire country. For instance, “[we must] preserve the national land and protect it from illegal invasion by the non-Jewish population, to acquire land for development in order to prevent [the formation of] a territorial sequence of non-Jewish settlements, lest an Arab sequence brings about the detachment of the Galilee from the state of Israel.”[11] Read more: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375497707_The_Nazification_of_Palestinians_in_Israeli_Schoolbooks/link/654cc79db1398a779d74071c/download

Tents turned into classrooms  Ruwaida Amer EI 02/05/2024

When they were forced to evacuate Gaza City, her children insisted on taking textbooks with them.In Rafah, Sawsan heard that basic reading lessons were being organized for children in tents next to the one where her family is staying. Her 5-year-old daughter Salma began attending those lessons. “She comes back from them happy,” Sawsan said. There are a large number of university graduates living in Rafah’s tents. Many are willing to help children with lessons. “We are trying to have some hope despite how difficult this war is,” Sawsan said. “The children have to be kept busy rather than bored or in a state of fear.” Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/tents-turned-classrooms/46136

Goals of Israel’s genocide - collapsing health system  Q Muaddi & Tareq Hajjaj M/Weiss 02/05/2024  Rotting wounds, starvation, babies born in tents without anesthesia, the spread of infectious disease, and the severe lack of medicine are all part of the new normal for over two million people living in Gaza. Last week, the Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry said that about 600,000 people in the northern Gaza Strip no longer have access to any kind of healthcare. It also warned that medicine fridges and the only oxygen plant in Gaza are at risk of shutting down due to the systematic lack of fuel. The World Health Organization has said that Israel is “systematically dismantling” the health system in Gaza. Save The Children has reported that Israel’s attacks on the health sector in Gaza have been higher than in any other conflict — at the rate of 73 attacks per day. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/gazas-collapsing-health-system-is-one-of-the-goals-of-israels-genocide/?ml_recipient=120318786842658666&ml_link=120318733213238687

Rampant disease  Tareq Hajjaj M/weiss  03/05/2024

Flooding sewage passes under the tents of the displaced and on the sidewalks and roads of Rafah. Piles of garbage litter the entrances to school shelters and around displacement camps, attracting flies and insects, which fill tents. Children play barefoot in the sand, mixing with mud, water, and sewage, and transporting germs and microbes to their tightly packed living quarters. In the heat wave, the nylon-covered tents trap in more heat and turn shelters into ovens. This level of pollution is a direct result of Israel’s deliberate targeting of infrastructure, which has led to the bursting and overflow of sewage wells . . . Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/palestinians-in-gazas-displacement-camps-face-rampant-disease-due-to-destroyed-infrastructure/?ml_recipient=120409313960265000&ml_link=120409285875205602

Renowned Gaza surgeon killed in Israeli detention  M C Murphy EI 04.05/24

Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, the 50-year-old head of orthopedics at Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, was killed in Ofer Prison in the West Bank on 19 April, according to the Palestinian Authority. His death was first reported on Thursday after a released detainee said al-Bursh had been tortured and killed. . . . Israeli authorities also transferred the body of 33-year-old Ismail Abdelbari Khader. Dr. Marwan al-Hams, the director of Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza, said that Khader’s body bore “torture marks … on his wrists, as well as swelling in his shoulders, knees and chest.” Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/renowned-gaza-surgeon-killed-israeli-detention

Blockade against Israel is working  Ahmed Alqarout M/Weiss 04/05/2024

The most recent blow to the IMEC project came last week when the UAE signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Turkey, Iraq, and Qatar to fund the IMEC’s rival, the Development Road Project, which offers alternative railway and highway routes for shipping between Asia and Europe through Iraq to boost local, regional, and international trade. This development signals waning international confidence in Israel’s ability to secure IMEC’s future, especially in light of the genocide in Gaza. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/the-land-and-sea-blockade-against-israel-is-working-as-israel-takes-a-strategic-hit/?ml_recipient=120499900789032163&ml_link=120499873670760066

PA oppose release of Marwan Barghouti MEE staff Middle East Eye 05/05/2024

Senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials have requested from mediators that Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti be excluded from a potential prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas, a source has told Middle East Eye. . . .  Barghouti, who has been jailed by Israel since 2002, is one of the most popular Fatah figures in the West Bank and Gaza, with a recent poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research finding that the 64-year-old would decisively win an election against the 88-year-old Abbas. Read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-palestinian-authority-oppose-marwan-barghouti-release-negotiations

Hamas agrees to Gaza truce  M C Murphy EI 06/05/2024 Israel swiftly rejected the Egyptian and Qatari proposal, saying that it “included ‘far-reaching conclusions’ ” that it couldn’t accept, according to Reuters. Late Monday, Netanyahu’s war cabinet unanimously decided to continue the military operation in Rafah “in order to apply military pressure on Hamas, with the goal of making progress on freeing the hostages and the other war aims,” the prime minister’s office stated. Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Israel will invade Rafah regardless of any ceasefire agreement. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/hamas-agrees-gaza-truce-israel-vows-move-rafah

Used as a human shield by the Israeli army Qasem Walid  M/Weiss 07/05/2024

Soldiers forced them to kneel in the middle of the street as they took cover behind Ahmad and his male relatives. They were forced to wear thin clothes in the winter cold, and their hands were zip-tied so tightly that they couldn’t feel their fingers. The soldiers at several points fired bullets next to their feet in an effort to terrorize them, perhaps to make them amenable to following orders. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/what-its-like-to-be-used-as-a-human-shield-by-the-israeli-army/?ml_recipient=120771805213361400&ml_link=120771751407781664

Netanyahu brags – Jewish lobby controls America Censored Men x 1980s

Netanyahu in the 80's brags about how the Jewish lobby controls America. "We own the senate, the congress, and we have a record strong Jewish lobby on our side. We have a strong influence over the general support. America won't force us into anything." Read more: https://x.com/CensoredMen/status/1788042333981725060

Hospitals into ‘military targets’ by lying about international law

Tamara K Brown M/Weiss 10/05/2024  The Israeli army justifies its attacks on healthcare by alleging that Hamas is operating from hospitals. However, in order for a hospital to lose its protected status under international law, it would need to be used to commit “acts harmful to the enemy.” Hamas fighters sauntering through a hospital to get a hostage treated hardly constitutes an act harmful to the enemy, nor does the strange presence of guns behind an MRI machine (surely the worst place to store a metal object), as they could easily fall under the provision of “small arms and ammunition taken from the wounded and sick…not yet handed to the proper service.” If such arms were to be found in a hospital, they would not deprive the hospital of its protected status under international law. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/how-israel-turned-hospitals-into-military-targets-by-lying-about-international-law/?ml_recipient=121043486560487093&ml_link=121043470097843291

Israel shuts down al Jazeera  Tamara Nassar EI 11/05/2024

The Qatar-based network does not explicitly disclose the source of such footage. Analysts speculate that the drones are apparently being captured by resistance groups in Gaza, either by commandeering the quadcopters in the air as the groups have demonstrated or they are being shot down and the data preserved. The videos serve as documentation of potential war crimes perpetrated by the Israeli military. One particular video shot by an overhead drone depicted the ruthless killing of four Palestinian men as they walked through a neighborhood in the southern area of Khan Younis to survey the aftermath of Israel’s ground invasion in the area. The drone footage captures the relentless pursuit of the four men, repeatedly firing missiles at them until all are killed Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-shutters-al-jazeera-continues-kill-journalists

Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center  Patrick Gallacher CNN 11/05/2024

Rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights.

A putrid stench filled the air and the room hummed with the men’s murmurs, the Israeli who was at the facility told CNN. Forbidden from speaking to each other, the detainees mumbled to themselves.  “We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold.” Guards were instructed “to scream uskot” – shut up in Arabic – and told to “pick people out that were problematic and punish them,” the source added. . . “They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who worked as a medic at the facility’s field hospital.Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/10/middleeast/israel-sde-teiman-detention-whistleblowers-intl-cmd/index.html

Resistance returns to the north  Qassam Muaddi M/Weiss  13/05/2024

UNRWA also said that it will not evacuate Rafah and would remain in the city to provide aid to the Palestinian population for as long as possible.

Meanwhile, the agency’s offices in Jerusalem were forced to close after an Israeli mob set fire to the perimeter of the offices twice on Thursday. UNRWA said that the fire was started while UNRWA staff was inside the offices and that they had to put the fire down themselves as Israeli fire trucks took too long to show up. Several videos circulated on social media showing fire around UNRWA’s Jerusalem offices, while Israelis could be heard chanting. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-220-resistance-returns-to-the-north-unrwa-says-300000-people-fled-rafah/?ml_recipient=121224707181643582&ml_link=121224700609169365

Haunting memories of genocide Haya Hijazi  EI 14/05/2024

I remember Wafa. Wafa was a woman in her thirties. She was dead when the paramedics brought her to the emergency department of al-Shifa hospital, where I was working that day.

Wafa had struggled with infertility for 16 years. But after several attempts at artificial insemination, the treatment finally succeeded. And then some: In August 2023, Wafa gave birth to quadruplets, three boys and one girl. They were all killed in an Israeli airstrike on her husband’s home not long after 7 October. He survived, but I have no further information about him. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/haunting-memories-genocide/46391

Mental health care to Palestinians living through genocide Sondos Alfayoumi M/weiss  13/05/2024  Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP) is a non-profit organization offering primary, secondary, and tertiary mental health interventions in the Gaza Strip since 1991. Despite the complete devastation of its two headquarters in Gaza City and Khan Younis and the evacuation of its Deir al-Balah office due to severe damage, the organization remains committed to its mission. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/how-one-organization-is-providing-mental-health-care-to-palestinians-living-through-genocide/?ml_recipient=121315373962233566&ml_link=121315298575910784

Court overturns German ban on surgeon Ali Abunimah EI 15/05/2024

A court in Germany has overturned a Europe-wide travel ban imposed by German authorities on Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, the British Palestinian surgeon who spent weeks saving lives in Gaza at the beginning of Israel’s ongoing genocide. In recent weeks, Abu Sitta has been barred from entering France and the Netherlands in order to speak about the Israeli war crimes he witnessed during his 43 days working as a doctor under Israel’s savage and indiscriminate bombardment. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/court-overturns-german-ban-surgeon-who-witnessed-gaza-war-crimes

South Africa returns to the ICJ  David Kattenburg M/Weiss 16/05/2024

“[The] evidence has to be faced,” Vaughan said – “evidence of continued bombings, attacks on people in so-called safe areas to which they’ve been directed by Israel, attacks on aid convoys and of mass graves and the horrors of which the corpses speak.”

“[It] has become increasingly clear that Israel’s actions in Rafah are part of the endgame in which Gaza is utterly destroyed as an area capable of human habitation,” Lowe said. “This is the last step in the destruction of Gaza and its Palestinian people.” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/south-africa-returns-to-the-icj-to-demand-a-stop-to-the-israeli-genocide-in-gaza/?ml_recipient=121579564753225037&ml_link=121579516397094326

Israel’s status as a pariah  MC Murphy EI 16/05/2024

Meanwhile in Gaza, the Israeli military has attacked civilians seeking aid, aid convoys, humanitarian aid personnel and aid infrastructure no fewer than 80 times since January, according to the UK-based research group Forensic Architecture. “The frequency and widespread nature of these attacks suggests that Israel is systematically targeting aid,” Forensic Architecture said. While Ben-Gvir was censured by some in Israel’s military and political establishment for his remarks, denying Palestinians in Gaza the means to sustain life is clearly the policy. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/gaza-genocide-cements-israels-status-pariah

The ‘ancient desire’ to kill Jews lies with the West Robert Clines M/Weiss 18/05/2024   An informative article https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/the-ancient-desire-to-kill-jews-is-not-hamass-its-the-wests/?ml_recipient=121760694777415614&ml_link=121760690590451189

Israeli campaign to deny the Gaza genocide Jonathan Ofir  M/weiss  18/05/2024

According to a story in Mekomit by Yuval Avraham, who last year broke news about the Israeli military’s use of AI for targeting purposes, the numbers were accepted for inclusion in briefings to senior Israeli officials after intelligence services conducted operations and analysis to monitor the health ministry’s information collection methods and its internal communications and determined the statistics were credible. An Israeli intelligence official confirmed the Israeli government’s use of the Gaza ministry numbers to VICE News, while two officials from European intelligence services said they were widely used in official briefings internationally.” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/unpacking-the-israeli-campaign-to-deny-the-gaza-genocide/?ml_recipient=121760694777415614&ml_link=121760690619811324

Inside one Israeli death and torture camp  Tamara Nassar EI 19/05/2024

Torture, amputations and the fetid smell of untreated wounds hang heavy in the air at the Sde Teiman facility. An army base situated between Beersheba and Gaza in the southern Negev region, it was turned into a detention center for Palestinians, including abductees from Gaza, before they are transferred to other prisons. Three Israelis who worked at the facility, and possibly participated in abuses against Palestinians, gave testimonies and pictures to CNN of what they witnessed. The whistleblowers painted a grim picture of what amounts to a torture camp, where Palestinians are held without charge, interrogated and filtered through to detention centers or sent back to Gaza. Read more:  https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/inside-one-israeli-death-and-torture-camp

ICC Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants   Jon Queally  Common Dreams 20/05/2024

"There's no spinning this one: Israel's President and Minister of Defense are formally accused at the ICC of 'exterminating' Palestinians in the course of a starvation campaign," said Alonso Gurmendi, a lecturer on international relations at Kings College, London, in response to the announcement. Read more: https://www.commondreams.org/news/icc-arrest-warrants-israel-hamas

Another genocidal biblical reference  Jonathan Ofir M/Weiss 21/05/2024

Netanyahu, of course, was livid. It was the moral comparison with Hamas that seemed to have enraged him most, and he was, in fact, not alone — Israeli liberal leaders who have fiercely criticized Netanyahu for his conduct during the Gaza war now rallied to his defense, including opposition leader Yair Lapid, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, and former PM Ehud Olmert.  But for Netanyahu, the ICC news was an occasion to once again make allusions to the biblical war of extermination against “Amalek.” This was the same biblical reference Netanyahu invoked in a statement on October 28 at the outset of the Israeli ground invasion in Gaza. “Remember what Amalek did to you,” he said, quoting the biblical verse where God commanded the Israelites to wipe out the enemy nation of the Amalekites down to their babies and animals. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/netanyahu-invoked-another-genocidal-biblical-reference-in-his-response-to-the-icc/?ml_recipient=122032531842270799&ml_link=122032486143231796

Time for outrage over Israel’s meddling  David Cronin EI 21/05/2024

Lobbying for Israel can be lucrative. David Siegel heads the organization called Friends of the European Leadership Network. He commands an annual salary exceeding $350,000.

Over the past few days, Siegel has been thanking those Western politicians who are willing to criticize the International Criminal Court after its chief prosecutor sought warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, as well as leading players in Hamas. Outrage at the ICC’s move is proof of “moral clarity,” Siegel has contended. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/time-outrage-over-israels-meddling-european-affairs

Motherhood during genocide  Ruwaida Amer EI 23/05/2024

Her 9-year-old son Abdul Rahman went downstairs with his father to sit with his grandfather and his cousins one day last October, she recalled. “My daughter Masa was playing in her room, and I was arranging clothes in my room,” Odeh said. “Suddenly there was a huge explosion. I felt like I was on the street. I hugged Masa and looked around.” “There were no stairs for me to go down, so I descended on piles of stones. They took me to the hospital, and I was crying hard. I wanted to see my son.” She would never do so. He died along with his father in the blast. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/motherhood-during-genocide/46586

Hell for Gaza’s pregnant women  EI  23/05/2024

Pregnant women in southern Gaza have only had access to three hospitals recently.

Two are located in Rafah: al-Helal al-Emirati hospital and a field hospital run by the International Medical Corps. The third is Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which has resumed some services after coming under a major Israeli attack. When Israel invaded Rafah earlier this month, many medical staff evacuated, fearing for their lives. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-making-life-hell-gazas-pregnant-women/46591

Slaughter in Jenin  Tamara Nassar EI 23/05/2024

Israeli forces fatally shot a surgeon, Osayd Kamal Jabareen, while he was en route to work at the Jenin governmental hospital. “The deliberate killing of the doctor by the occupying forces compounds the ongoing series of daily crimes and assaults on the Palestinian healthcare sector in all its facets across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/doctor-teacher-and-children-killed-israel-jenin

Israeli rights group admits it helped spread false claims about 7 Oct. rapes Ali Abunimah The Electronic Intifada  19 May 2024  “In the extensive investigations conducted in the months following the publication of the position paper in November, some testimonies referenced within it have been disputed or deemed unverifiable, and more may face similar scrutiny in the future,” Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said this month in a “clarification” statement it has also added to the online version of its November report. “We regret their inclusion in the position paper,” the group states, claiming that “a substantial portion of the information that is now available was not accessible when the document was originally drafted.” Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israeli-rights-group-admits-it-helped-spread-false-claims-about-7-oct-rapes

ICC warrants both historic and cynical  Ali Abunimah EI 21/05/2024

While Khan can attempt to market all this as demonstrating equal justice, it is no such thing: It is an outrageous and false equivalence. He could not maintain a shred of credibility if he did nothing against Israeli leaders, so he did the minimum he thought he could get away with.But this will also be of no surprise to anyone, least of all Hamas leaders, who would have expected to be charged as the price of obtaining some measure of international justice for their people. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/icc-warrants-both-historic-and-cynical

German foreign minister says she saw non-existent 7 Oct. rape video  Ali Abunimah  EI 27/05/2024    Since Israel began propagating the 7 October mass rape hoax, at no point has any official Israeli source claimed that a video exists of any rape in progress.This was confirmed in an article in Haaretz last month.“From inquiries put to three bodies in the defense establishment by Haaretz, it emerges that the intelligence material collected by the police and the intelligence bodies, including footage from terrorists’ body cameras, does not contain visual documentation of any acts of rape themselves,” the Tel Aviv newspaper stated. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/german-foreign-minister-says-she-saw-nonexistent-7-oct-rape-video

Rafah - dozens of displaced Palestinians killed MC Murphy EI 27/05/2024

An Israeli aerial attack on the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, southern Gaza, set off a fire that ripped through a tent camp for displaced people, killing at least 45 Palestinians late Sunday. The deadly attack came less than three days after the International Court of Justice demanded an immediate halt to Israel’s military offensive in Rafah “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-strike-rafah-kills-dozens-displaced-palestinians

Israeli prison doctors assist in the torture of Palestinian detainees Kanav Kathuria M/Weiss 28/05/24 When chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant on Monday, he remarkably chose not to include torture or sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners in his list of Israel’s ​​war crimes and crimes against humanity. Khan’s omission of torture is exceptional. Over the past seven months, hundreds of reports, testimonies, and investigations have shed further light on Israel’s brutal torture of Palestinian detainees and prisoners held captive in Israeli occupation prisons. Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/how-israeli-prison-doctors-assist-in-the-torture-of-palestinian-detainees/?ml_recipient=122666685535618696&ml_link=122666680511890914

How the ICC case was made possible Qassam Muaddi M/weiss 29/05/2024

“We have been submitting documentation of Israeli crimes during major events that extend beyond the current genocide,” Tahseen Alian, senior researcher at the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, told Mondoweiss. “We’ve made this case at the ICC over crimes Israel committed in military assaults on Gaza in 2014 and 2021, in the killing and maiming of peaceful protesters during the Great March of Return in 2019 and 2020, and in the ongoing settlement building, confiscation of land, and population transfer — both the forcible transfer of Palestinians out of their lands and the transfer of Israelis into settlements in the West Bank.” Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/how-the-icc-case-against-israeli-leaders-was-made-possible/?ml_recipient=122757272436737209&ml_link=122757267977143460

Embryos aren’t even safe in Gaza  Randa Shehada EI 29/05/2024

“Our consolation was that we still had five frozen embryos,” she added. A doctor informed Hana and her husband Sari that another embryo transfer could be arranged within the following six months .  . . In December, Israel attacked al-Basma Center, Gaza’s largest fertility clinic. More than 4,000 embryos were destroyed. They included the five belonging to Hana and Sari. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/content/embryos-arent-even-safe-gaza/46671  

A ‘new’ Israeli proposal for Gaza?? Ali Abunimah EI 31 May 2024

In its broad outlines, the proposal is very similar to an American-backed proposal that Hamas accepted in early May after Israel had approved it. But Israel then reneged on the deal and escalated its attack on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city and where the majority of the territory’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians had fled after being forcibly displaced from other areas. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/biden-admits-israels-defeat-gaza

UK related articles

Pro-Israel group  legitimises Gaza genocide on UK campuses Shaida Nabi M/Weiss 27/05/24 Furthering the de-legitimization of Palestinian narratives and deflecting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza, they provide the necessary rationale and distraction for “unfinished Zionist business.”[1]  Read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/this-influential-pro-israel-group-is-legitimizing-the-gaza-genocide-on-british-campuses/?ml_recipient=122576068333799075&ml_link=122576063362499882

Labour Friends of Israel hides “supporters” list ahead of election  Asa Winstanley EI 30/05/24   Israeli embassy front group Labour Friends of Israel has deleted its public list of “Parliamentary supporters” ahead of the UK’s upcoming general election on 4 July. The deletion appears to be a way to protect pro-Israel Labour candidates from electorial challengers on their left flank. But copies of the list made as recently as 5 April are still available on internet archives. You can also read a full copy of the most recent list at the end of this article. Read more: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/labour-friends-israel-hides-supporters-list-ahead-election

Hugh Humphries  

Secretary                                   

Scottish Friends of Palestine     0141 637 8046       info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org