Our Wednesday News Analysis | Israel must end its occupation of Palestine to stop fuelling apartheid and systematic human rights violations

©MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images

“All states must review their relations with Israel to ensure that they are not contributing to sustaining the occupation or the system of apartheid. As European foreign ministers gather in Brussels today, the need to make a clear and united call for an end to Israel’s occupation has never been more urgent … ”

Israel must end its brutal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which it has maintained since 1967, said Amnesty International, as public hearings begin at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to examine the legal consequences of Israel’s prolonged occupation.

The public hearings are taking place in the Hague from 19 to 26 February after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in December 2022 to request an advisory opinion from the ICJ on the legality of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and the consequences of Israel’s conduct for other states and the UN. More than 50 states, the African Union, the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are scheduled to participate in the proceedings.

The world must recognize that ending Israel’s illegal occupation is a prerequisite to stopping the recurrent human rights violations in Israel and the OPT.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

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“Israel’s occupation of Palestine is the longest and one of the most deadly military occupations in the world. For decades it has been characterised by widespread and systematic human rights violations against Palestinians. The occupation has also enabled and entrenched Israel’s system of apartheid imposed on Palestinians,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

“Over the years, Israel’s military occupation has evolved into a perpetual occupation in flagrant violation of international law...

Read more: Israel must end its occupation of Palestine to stop fuelling apartheid and systematic human rights violations

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WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE STOPPED SUPPLYING ARMS TO ISRAEL?

Source: Al-Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/15/which-countries-have-stopped-supplying-arms-to-israel

By Al-Jazeera staff
Published February 15, 2024

As civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza, global calls for countries to halt arms sales to Israel grow.

An Israeli soldier holds a weapon in Gaza City [File: Israeli military via AP]

“Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms to prevent so many people being killed,”

The United States Senate has approved a bill committing $14bn to support Israel’s war on Gaza this week.

Even before the start of the war last October, the US firmly supported Israel with the supply of military equipment, contributing $3bn annually in military aid. Many other countries provide military support to Israel via arms sales.

Civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza – currently standing at more than 28,000 dead with thousands more trapped under rubble and presumed dead in just four months of bombardment and ground invasions. The rising death toll is prompting international condemnation from humanitarian and civil society groups in the form of statements, protests and lawsuits filed against countries alleged to be providing military support to Israel. Some countries are responding to this pressure.

On Monday, the European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, commented on US President Joe Biden’s description of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attacks as “over the top”. “Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed,” Borrell told reporters.

So which countries continue to send weapons to Israel and which are taking steps to suspend supply?...

Read more: Which countries have stopped supplying arms to Israel?

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ZIONISM AND COLONIAL MODERNITY

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/zionism-and-colonial-modernity/?utm_content=buffer16de3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer

By MUHANNAD AYYASH
Published January 16, 2024

Palestinian resistance is a decolonial struggle against Israeli settler colonialism and U.S. imperialism. This resistance is also confronting the brutal nature of colonial modernity, which is exemplified in Zionism.

Screenshot from a video showing Israeli soldiers saluting the Israeli flag while singing the Israeli national anthem on a beach in Gaza in November 2023

"We are seeing this fault line between the imperial West and large parts of the neo-colonized world currently on display at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa is charging Israel with genocide against Palestinians.

The US, UK, and Germany oppose the case South Africa brought forward. In contrast, many countries from the Global South support it.
The stand against colonial modernity must be made now.

This means nothing short of the end of the US-led Western imperialism."

The ongoing destruction of Gaza is too difficult to describe and put into words. What makes this moment even more painful is that this is not the first time that Palestinians have experienced a genocidal operation. The 1948 Nakba and the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people add to the pain and horror that Palestinians everywhere are today experiencing and feeling. It is critical to emphasize also that this not the first time that colonized peoples, more broadly, have experienced such unimaginable brutalities over the last 500 or so years of colonial modernity.

Colonial modernity is the development of modern social, economic, and political life (the nation-state, private property, individualism, capitalist division of labour, international law, etc.) in and through the European colonial project from the 15th century onwards, which is marked by the genocide, enslavement, and slaughter and exploitation of millions of colonized people.

Zionism, as a modern political ideology, is a child of this colonial modernity and arguably its most clear manifestation in our world today. Following in the footsteps of other colonial projects, the genocide of the colonized Palestinians was always the only path that Zionism could have traveled...

Read more: Zionism and colonial modernity