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International Law

Netanyahu’s Visit To Congress Underscores US Contempt For International Law

July 26, 2024 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , ,
The U.S. has long ignored many commands of international law, but its casual disregard of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has come into sharp focus this week as the U.S. Congress extends a warm welcome to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just five days after the ICJ notified all UN member states that they have a legal “obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The World Court’s historic 83-page advisory opinion, which was issued on July 19 and held that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, was quickly hailed by Middle East political expert Nomi Bar-Yaacov as a “legal earthquake” and the strongest decision that the court had ever issued.

ICJ Says Israel’s Presence In Palestinian Territory Is Unlawful

July 19, 2024 Al Jazeera. , , , , , ,
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible”. Nawaf Salam, president of the ICJ in The Hague, read out the nonbinding advisory opinion issued by the 15-judge panel on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory on Friday. The judges pointed to a wide list of policies – including the building and expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, use of the area’s natural resources, the annexation and imposition of permanent control over lands and discriminatory policies against Palestinians – all of which it said violated international law.

Thousands To Protest Netanyahu Congressional Visit In Washington, DC

July 19, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to speak on July 24 in front of the United States Congress following an invitation by leading politicians from both mainstream parties. Netanyahu is considered a war criminal internationally, with the ICC expected to issue a warrant for his arrest within the next two weeks—however, he is completely safe in the United States, which is not a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC.  Both the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” In May, Chief ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants for the two officials, which are expected to be issued within the next two weeks.

Top US Law Schools Present Undeniable Evidence Of Israel’s Gaza Genocide

June 21, 2024 Kit Klarenberg, MintPress News. , , , , , ,
On May 15, the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR), a U.S.-based advocacy group training undergraduates in human rights law at colleges and universities worldwide to counter abusive state, corporate, or private conduct, published a 105-page analysis of international law and its application to Israel’s military actions since October 7, 2023. Drawing on extensive evidence and historical legal precedents, the findings leave no doubt that Israel has committed horrific breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention in Gaza. A collaborative effort by some of the West’s most prestigious law schools, the report has now been submitted to the United Nations.

The US List Of Countries Allegedly Sponsors Of Terrorism

June 20, 2024 Alfred De Zayas, Scheer Post. , , ,
In the US State Department’s toolkit, unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) are used to blackmail, bully and intimidate States that do not readily accept US hegemony. Placing a country in the US list of countries sponsors for terrorism is intended to lend some phony legitimacy to UCMs imposed against targeted States. Unilateral Coercive Measures are not “sanctions”, since the US has no legal or moral right to sanction or “punish” other states.  Nor do the American UCMs satisfy the legal criteria to be considered “retorsion” or “countermeasures” for purposes of the International Law Commission’s code on State responsibility. 

Israel Claims Others Are Shredding International Law As It Does So

June 16, 2024 Sam Husseini. , , , , ,
One of the things my dad, who was driven out of Palestine in 1948 and tried to scrutinize every move on Palestine for decades, taught me is that there’s this trick of a thief crying “thief!” to divert attention from his crimes. It’s a mantra on X/twitter now that for Israel, every accusation is a confession. An example of that which was clear to me in October was: “Israel Falsely Claimed Hamas Slaughtered Babies So It Could Actually Slaughter Babies” And that has been borne out by various investigations since, from Al Jazeera and most recently by David Sheen from the Electronic Intifada for example.

United Kingdom Foreign Office Revolt Over Gaza

June 5, 2024 Matt Benson, Consortium News. , , , ,
Amid Britain’s ongoing complicity and support for Israel’s “plausible genocide” in Gaza, an increasing number of staff in the Foreign Office, I’m told up to 300, have formally raised concerns with ministers, seeking a change of course. They are questioning ministers’ actions and policy in relation to Gaza and asking to see the legal advice they received that this is based on — advice that they have so far refused to publish, despite calls to do so from some in Parliament. But Foreign Secretary David Cameron has not responded to these concerns directly. Instead, he sent the Foreign Office’s political director, Christian Turner, to have a meeting with a small contingent of those raising concerns about U.K. policy and breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 234: Israel Bombs Displaced Palestinians

May 28, 2024 Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians in multiple airstrikes that targeted a makeshift tent camp of displaced Palestinians in the northwestern part of Rafah. The bombed area is part of the Israeli-designated “humanitarian safe zone,” where the Israeli army ordered Palestinians to flee on May 6 as it began its ground invasion of the southern Gaza Strip city. The tent camp is adjacent to an UNRWA warehouse. Local media sources said that some eight Israeli missiles fell on the crowded camp after midnight, killing and wounding dozens of people and causing fires to spread across the camp. The Palestinian civil defense said its teams had to use all the remaining fire trucks in the Rafah governorate to put down the fires, while the Palestinian Red Crescent Society spokesperson, Nibal Farsakh, said that the PRCS teams rescued people with severe burns and wounds who “where trapped in the flames” for a long time before being rescued.

Hamas Denounces ICC Decision On Warrants Against Its Leaders

May 22, 2024 Workers' World. , , , , ,
The Public Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court issued arrest and detention warrants against a number of leaders of the Zionist occupation.  The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) followed up on the arrest and detention warrants issued today by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against only two war criminals of the Zionist entity. They are “Benjamin Netanyahu” and “Yoav Gallant,” who were proven to be involved in committing the crime of genocide, aggression and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people. The arrest and detention warrants against the aforementioned occupation leaders came seven months late.

Israel’s Extortion Leaflets And Namecheap: Corporate Accountability

May 21, 2024 Tali Shapiro, Mondoweiss. , , ,
On Friday Israel dropped another set of leaflets on Gaza. Israel’s use of leaflets for its psychological torture of the besieged Palestinian population is well known in these genocidal days. Ominous, gloating, taunting, and sadistic messaging is the lingua franca of these leaflets, which Israel claims is a humanitarian effort to evacuate the civilian population. Some of the most common leaflet content are calls to contact Israel’s secret service with information on Hamas or the Israeli hostages. The purpose of these particular leaflets is twofold: coercion of protected civilians to obtain information (which is a violation of the law of armed conflict); but most of all, to undermine the trust and cohesion of a community under siege and annihilation.

Now, International Criminal Court Must Investigate British Ministers Too

May 21, 2024 Mark Curtis, Consortium News. , , , , ,
With the ICC’s chief prosecutor issuing an application for an arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister for “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” attention must turn to those who have aided Israel. British ministers have for months been materially assisting Israel during its onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza. This support is being provided in three main ways. First, the U.K. is providing arms to Israel. Recently filed court documents reveal that, as of January this year, the U.K. government had 28 extant and 28 pending “high-risk” licences with Israel marked as “most likely to be used by the IDF in offensive operations in Gaza.”

White House: Israel Likely Violated International Law In Gaza

May 11, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , , ,
The White House on 10 May issued a highly anticipated report on Israel's conduct during its genocidal war in Gaza, saying it is “reasonable to assess” Tel Aviv used US-provided weapons in ways that are “inconsistent” with international law but stopping short of identifying violations that would put an end to the ongoing military aid. “It is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under [national security memorandum] NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” the report, drafted by the State Department, says.

Fearful Netanyahu Scrambles To Prevent ICC Arrest Warrant

April 29, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , , ,
The US is involved in a diplomatic effort to prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Hebrew media reports. Haaretz analyst Amos Harel said on 28 April that Washington is “already” engaged in efforts to block the ICC warrant against Netanyahu. The prime minister is reportedly in a state of extreme anxiety over the matter. Israeli journalist Ben Caspit wrote that Netanyahu is “under unusual stress” over the possibility of an arrest warrant being issued against him by the UN tribunal at the Hague, adding that he is leading a “nonstop push over the telephone” to prevent it.

US Veterans To President Biden: Arming Israel Violates The Law

April 19, 2024 Veterans for Peace, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
In a letter today to President Biden and top members of his administration, Veterans For Peace cited existing federal law that gives the President “…no discretion whatsoever to allow any military assistance of any form to be delivered to Israel,” based on that country’s “serial violations of the Symington-Glenn Amendments, codified at 22 U.S.C. § 2799aa.” The letter states, “The President may not waive the cutoff of the above aid and exports under the Glenn Amendment where there has been a nuclear weapons detonation, or the offending state has received a nuclear explosive device.

Why Iran’s Retaliatory Attack Against Israel Was Not A ‘Failure’

April 15, 2024 Palestine Bureau, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
Shortly after Iran’s retaliatory strike on Israel concluded seemingly without incident, the full-throated proclamations of Israel’s defensive feats followed. Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that Iran’s retaliation had “failed” after 99% of the launched missiles and drones were intercepted by Israeli air defense systems. U.S. President Biden hailed Israel’s “remarkable capacity” to defend against such “unprecedented attacks,” sending a message to Iran that it “cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel.”
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