Our Wednesday News Analysis | The World Court has put Israel and its allies on trial for genocide

Pro-Palestine protesters gather near the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands on 12 January, 2024 (Reuters)

Other states are in similar jeopardy. Before the ruling, Israel's allies could plausibly argue that their transfer of arms to Israel was made in good faith,
even if it was later shown that some of those weapons ended up being used, inadvertently or otherwise, in the commission of war crimes.

It was easy to miss the welcome news from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday amid the huge wave of disappointment that swept Palestinians and much of the watching world when its judges failed to order an immediate halt to Israel's slaughter in Gaza.

The World Court's justices decided, by an overwhelming majority, that South Africa had made a plausible case that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza.

In doing so, many members of the 17-strong panel openly defied, and embarrassed, the governments of their own countries – not least the court's president, Joan Donoghue of the United States.

US President Joe Biden's administration had called South Africa's case "meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever".

In a sign of how isolated Israel - and the US - is on the legal facts, its arguments found favour only with its own appointee, Aharon Barak, and Uganda's judge. Even Barak agreed that some of the provisional measures against Israel were needed to protect civilians...

Read more: The World Court has put Israel and its allies on trial for genocide

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THE FAILURE OF ZIONISM AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE ISRAEL LOBBY

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/the-failure-of-zionism-and-the-triumph-of-the-israel-lobby/

By PHILIP WEISS
Published January 27, 2024

Zionism's promise to give Jews freedom in their own land has utterly failed. Jews are more insecure in Israel than ever, while American Jews' promise to support Israel blindly has allowed Israel to paint itself into a fascistic supremacist corner.

DEAD BODY OF A 5-MONTH-OLD PALESTINIAN BABY NAMED MUHAMMAD HANI AL-ZAHAR, IS BROUGHT TO THE AL-AQSA MARTYRS HOSPITAL BY HIS MOTHER ASMAHAN ATTIA AL-ZAHAR AND GRANDFATHER ATTIA ABU AMRA AFTER THE ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES AT THE END OF THE HUMANITARIAN PAUSE IN DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA ON DECEMBER 1, 2023. 32 PALESTINIANS WERE KILLED WITHIN 3 HOURS OF THE END OF THE HUMANITARIAN PAUSE IN GAZA. PHOTO BY OMAR ASHTAWY APAIMAGES

The purpose of Zionism was simple: The desire of Jews “to be a free people in our land.” The words are right there in the anthem.

We grew up being told that Israel was the great project of the Jewish people in the 20th century.
Because we were told we had an essential role to play in that project, to support Israel politically and diplomatically in the bosom of the superpower.

Judged by that goal, any reasonable person would conclude that Zionism has utterly failed. Today Jews feel less secure than ever in Israel, and they are fighting yet another in an endless series of wars, to try and gain the sense of security they have never had.

Today’s war is an “existential” war — the commentators on i24 say — and yet it is against the non-Jewish people among whom the Zionists live. And it is also vast and open-ended, threatening peace across the Middle East and even the world. Because Israel’s war with Iran is also “existential.” And the war against the boycott campaign is “existential.”

The Israelis are widely hated for their actions. “The world sees Israelis as monsters” — even a liberal American-Israeli Jew declares to Americans for Peace Now...

Read more: The failure of Zionism and the triumph of the Israel lobby

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Ironclad Support For Starving, Blinding, Shattering Children

Source: Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/further/ironclad-support-for-starving-blinding-shattering-children

By Abby Zimet
Published January 24, 2024

Hungry Palestinians in a tent camp in Deir Al Balah await soup distributed by aid workers Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images

"The savagery goes on."

Harrowingly, confoundingly, Gaza's horrors grow. Israel kills 250 people a day, attacks hospitals, bombs survivors in tents, blocks over 75% of humanitarian aid from reaching a place where "every single person is hungry," a quarter are starving, most are cold, 60,000 are maimed. At a beleaguered hospital, a visiting Canadian doctor just saw 15 amputations a day; he himself removed 10 eyeballs ruptured by shrapnel from children as young as two. As we watch, he mourns, "Humanity has failed these people."

By now the litany likely numbs, but still: To date, Gaza’s Ministry of Health estimates over 25,490 people have been killed, at least 10,000 of them children, and over 63,354 wounded, many permanently disabled. In the last 24 hours, at least 195 Palestinians were killed and 354 injured. Intent on "suffocating" Gaza's health system - after having razed hundreds of medical clinics, killed over 340 doctors or nurses, and left 350,000 ill patients without medication - Israeli forces have now encircled Khan Younis and are bombing areas around Nasser Hospital, the only major hospital still functionial in the south. Doctors Without Borders report a "catastrophic" situation: Wards packed with thousands of injured patients, hallways full of displaced, traumatized people, bullets striking inside the hospital, staff feeling the ground shake under heavy bombardment as debris falls on them from ceilings, shrapnel hitting the grounds and a sense of panic" made worse by the presence of Israeli tanks and forces blocking all exit routes.

The savagery goes on. Israeli troops also stormed smaller Al-Khair and Al-Amal Hospitals, run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, where they arrested medical staff and blocked ambulances from recovering bodies. Israel's project of "systematically obliterating" Gaza hasn't stopped with hospitals: They also destroyed 1000 of about 1200 mosques and recently blew up Israa University, Gaza's last surviving institution of higher learning, in their march toward cultural genocide. This week, they bombed displaced families living in tents in Al-Mawasi neighborhood outside Khan Younis, killing at least 40 and injuring more; they also bombed families sheltering in Al-Mawasi school and four other nearby sites housing up to 30,000 homeless people. So far they've somehow refrained from bombing the million Palestinians, half of Gaza's population, crammed into plastic tent camps in Rafah - a "pressure cooker environment (of) utter chaos, pervasive fear and anger (where) everyone is hungry and cold" - but give them time...

Read more: Ironclad Support For Starving, Blinding, Shattering Children