Music: John Børge Askeland with Arve Henriksen — ‘Sanctus’
Germany and Israel’s genocidal partnership draws strong rebuke from Namibia
The Times of Israel reports: The German government sharply rejects allegations before the UN’s top court that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza and warned against “political instrumentalization” of the charge. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit says in a statement that Israel was “defending itself” after the “inhuman” attacks by Hamas on October 7. He says Germany would intervene as a third party before the ICJ under an article allowing states to seek clarification on the use of a multilateral convention….
For many Palestinians in Gaza, the fear of Israeli airstrikes has become secondary to the slow, agonizing threat of starvation
Mahmoud Mushtaha reports: The struggle for survival has morphed into a haunting and totalizing reality for Palestinian residents here in Gaza City, as it has for Palestinians across the entire Strip. Against the backdrop of intensified Israeli military attacks, the deprivation of food and water under a tightened siege, and the pervasive threat of epidemics with no medical aid, the city’s remaining inhabitants — even as they fight to stay alive — feel as if they have been left with…
Israeli teacher held in solitary confinement for posting concern about Gaza deaths
The Observer reports: An unlikely charge of intent to commit treason landed Meir Baruchin, a grey-haired, softly spoken history and civics teacher, in the solitary confinement wing of Jerusalem’s notorious “Russian Compound” prison in early November. The evidence compiled by police who handcuffed him, then drove to his apartment and ransacked it as he watched, was a series of Facebook posts he’d made, mourning the civilians killed in Gaza, criticising the Israeli military, and warning against wars of revenge. “Horrific…
US-UK airstrikes risk strengthening Houthi rebels’ position in Yemen and the region
Houthi supporters rally in Yemen following U.S.-U.K. airstrikes. Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images By Mahad Darar, Colorado State University The U.S.- and U.K.-led strikes on the rebel Houthi group in Yemen represent a dramatic new turn in the Middle East conflict – one that could have implications throughout the region. The attacks of Jan. 11, 2024, hit around 60 targets at 16 sites, according to the U.S. Air Force’s Mideast command, including in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, the main port of Hodeida and…
Houthis show resolve that Western air strikes will be hard pressed to shake
Patrick Wintour writes: The near-official slogan of the Houthi movement is: “God is the Greatest / Death to America / Death to Israel / A curse upon the Jews.” Crowds of supporters in the group’s northern Yemen strongholds have been chanting it for more than 20 years, ever since the phrase was brought back from Tehran at the turn of the century, when it was first directed at the then Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. So those who claim the…
NASA scientist on 2023’s record-breaking temperatures: ‘We’re frankly astonished’
Ars Technica reports: Earlier this week, the European Union’s Earth science team came out with its analysis of 2023’s global temperatures, finding it was the warmest year on record to date. In an era of global warming, that’s not especially surprising. What was unusual was how 2023 set its record—every month from June on coming in far above any equivalent month in the past—and the size of the gap between 2023 and any previous year on record. The Copernicus dataset…
Donald Trump’s 50-year mission to discredit the justice system
Michael Kruse writes: What happened in Room 300 of the New York County Courthouse in lower Manhattan in November had never happened. Not in the preceding almost two and a half centuries of the history of the United States. Donald Trump was on the witness stand. It was not unprecedented in the annals of American jurisprudence just because it was a former president, although that was totally true. It was unprecedented because the power dynamic of the courtroom had been…
Music: John Børge Askeland with Arve Henriksen — ‘Beneath the Ripples’
Don’t turn away from the charges of genocide against Israel
Megan K. Stack writes: The word genocide rings loudly in our imagination. We think of Rwanda, Bosnia, the Armenians, the Trail of Tears and, of course, the Holocaust. I have heard many people balk at the suggestion that Gaza could be experiencing genocide. The Holocaust, after all, wiped out over 60 percent of European Jews. Israel’s war — instigated, no less, by the murder of Jews — has killed about 1 percent of the Palestinians in Gaza. One percent is…
World Food Programme: Gaza is on the brink of famine
Gazans are facing a desperate humanitarian crisis, with food shelves empty, and around 85% of the enclave’s population displaced since October 7 according to the U.N. The World Food Programme’s executive Cindy McCain says we’re at a tipping point. She speaks to Walter Isaacson about the dire situation and why food insecurity is a global concern.
Israel will lose genocide case at The Hague, human rights lawyer predicts
Professor Francis A. Boyle, Human Rights Professor and Lawyer who was the first to win a genocide case at the International Court of Justice spoke to Andrew Marr on Thursday, praising South African lawyers performance in rebutting Israeli defences. South Africa has formally accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians and pleaded with the United Nations’ top court to order an immediate halt to Israeli military operations in Gaza. Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust,…
Can South Africa’s court case against Israel end war in Gaza?
The eyes of the world are on Israel as it stands accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice. It’s being forced to answer for its actions in Gaza. Israeli forces have killed more than 23-thousand Palestinians. Most of the population has been forced from their homes, and a blockade is depriving them of basic necessities. The case was launched by South Africa – and it’s calling on the court to issue a provisional order for Israel to…
Will the ICJ find Israel guilty of genocide?
The Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, says: Contrary to what many people think, the Nazis were not tried for genocide. The crime of genocide did not exist in the “London Agreement,” which is the charter of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal. They were tried instead for the crime of extermination. But after Nuremberg, the argument arose that the crime of extermination was not enough, and that it did not grasp the peculiarity of mass extermination designed to wipe out a…
Russia finds way around sanctions on battlefield tech, report finds
Politico reports: Russia has largely succeeded in finding ways to get around sanctions on the technology it needs to fight its war against Ukraine, and that means the West needs to make the trade curbs more effective if it is to restrict Vladimir Putin’s aggression. That’s the main takeaway of an in-depth report by a U.S.-Ukrainian research team, which found that Russian imports of “battlefield goods” sanctioned by Washington and its allies totaled nearly $9 billion from January to October…
January 6 is exactly what the Fourteenth Amendment was talking about
Quinta Jurecic writes: The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, concerning his role in the January 6 coup attempt, began on February 9, 2021. Almost exactly three years later, on February 8, 2024, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over whether that last, desperate effort to illegally hold on to power might now disqualify Trump from returning to the Oval Office. Many commentators have argued that the nine justices should overturn the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision barring Trump’s candidacy…