genocide

Are restrictions on pro-Palestine speech ‘the new McCarthyism?’

From The Bottom Line – 8 Sep 2024 | Updated a day ago

Is there an attempt to chill debate on Palestine and Israel on both sides of the Atlantic?

The United States, and the West in general, are in a “dire period” of repression of speech on Palestinian freedom or criticism of Israel, argues Dima Khalidi, founder of Palestine Legal.

Khalidi tells host Steve Clemons that despite strong constitutional protections for free expression, “there seems to be this exception when it comes to Palestine”, as witnessed by the wave of censorship, intimidation, firings and restrictions on activism in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza.

https://aje.io/1zxct0

At what point are we permitted to…?

Five questions, and a sixth

JONATHAN COOK – SEP 9

  1. At what point does it become irresponsible not to compare Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinian people with the genocide westerners know best: the Nazi Holocaust?
  2. At what point does shielding Israel from the revulsion its actions naturally inspire not turn into complicity?
  3. At what point should western publics be offered proper historical context to make sense of Israel’s genocide: one that lets them understand how the Zionist movement was [ideologically shaped] by its exposure to ugly, century-old European ethnic nationalisms that culminated in Nazism, and how the Zionists chose to those supremacist ideologies rather than reject them?

https://bit.ly/3TKm7MP

David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say

David Cameron, the former foreign secretary, sat on advice from Foreign Office officials in Israel and London that there was clear evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said.

The source, who contributed to the drafting of the advice, was speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licences due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum published on Monday that they might be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

(https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/03/david-cameron-breaches-international-humanitarian-law-gaza)

You can’t arm a genocidal state into moderation. So why does the West keep trying?

Profits from slaughter

It isn’t just arms manufacturers and the hi-tech industries, with their booming surveillance businesses, whose shares are soaring on the back of the slaughter in Gaza and Ukraine. 
Bloomberg reported last month that Israeli air strikes on Gaza had turned the homes of 2.3 million Palestinians into 42m tonnes of rubble. That’s enough to fill a line of dump trucks from New York to Singapore. 


It won’t be Gaza companies raking in the profits from the mammoth clean-up operation. After a 17-year blockade of the enclave by Israel, Gaza’s industrial and commercial sector barely existed even before Israel’s current wrecking spree. The beneficiaries, once again, will be western corporations.

https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathancook/p/you-cant-arm-a-genocidal-state-into?r=7w1yj&utm_medium=ios

Zeteo | Substack

I still remember the joy I felt seeing Majed Abu Maraheel, the first Palestinian Olympian, as he entered the Olympic arena carrying the Palestinian flag at the 1996 Atlanta Games. The games were carried live on screens in Ramallah, where I had just arrived for the summer. The crowd erupted in cheers seeing the Palestinian team bearing the Palestinian flag for the very first time.

https://bit.ly/3yaWxJd

Netanyahu in Washington: Israel PM looks for US support in Gaza | AP News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and condemned American protesters in a scathing speech to Congress Wednesday that triggered boycotts by many top Democratic lawmakers and drew thousands of protesters to the Capitol to condemn the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis it has created.

(https://apnews.com/article/netanyahu-congress-gaza-hamas-israel-6ea5daf3cd1988b0ad6e874bd450f9bf)

Starmer learnt that the price of power was support for genocide

By a crushing majority, the 17 judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled more than five months ago that Israel was “plausibly” committing genocide in Gaza.
The highest court in the world put Israel on trial, accused of the ultimate crime against humanity.
Much has happened since that decision – and all of it is even more incriminating against Israel than the evidence considered by the World Court back in January.

https://open.substack.com/pub/jonathancook/p/starmer-learnt-that-the-price-of?r=7w1yj&utm_medium=ios

U.S. Pier for Gaza Aid Is Failing, and Could Be Dismantled Early

The $230 million temporary pier that the U.S. military built on short notice to rush humanitarian aid to Gaza has largely failed in its mission, aid organizations say, and will probably end operations weeks earlier than originally expected.

In the month since it was attached to the shoreline, the pier has been in service only about 10 days. The rest of the time, it was being repaired after rough seas broke it apart, detached to avoid further damage or paused because of security concerns.

(https://nyti.ms/4c497Zu)