Zion and the Art of Armageddon

[JohnD]

"But it is not just the military’s greater use of force that has transformed life in the West Bank. Since October 7, the military has also set up dozens of new barriers and roadblocks across the territory, bringing the number of “movement obstacles” to more than 800, according to OCHA, and turning once short journeys into hours-long, unpredictable odysseys.

Meanwhile, violence by Jewish settlers in the West Bank has surged. According to OCHA, since October 7, settlers have carried out more than 2,200 attacks on Palestinians that resulted in casualties or damage to property, disrupting the olive harvest, damaging livelihoods, and forcing the displacement of dozens of Bedouin and herding communities.

Activists estimate that settler violence, settlement expansion, access restrictions and land seizures have cut Palestinians off from hundreds of thousands of dunams of their land since October 7."

 

[Odds]

Israel has restricted Palestinians’ access to 70 percent of Gaza, either by declaring large areas as no-go zones or issuing forced displacement orders, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Al Jazeera

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Gaza’s more than two million people “will be moved” in a new ground offensive* that will involve Israeli troops holding on to seized territory, establishing a “sustained presence” in Gaza.

Since Israel broke the nearly two-month-long ceasefire with Hamas on March 18, its military has killed at least 2,459 Palestinians in Gaza, bringing the total number of confirmed killed in the besieged Strip to 52,567.

*Operation Gideon's Chariots

( It can be inferred that the IDF armoured divisions are the Chariots, symbols of divine retribution, in this modern offensive to clear Palestine for Jewish settlers to control, and the allusion to Gideon is a rebuke to dissenting voices in the Israeli forces that only those who believe in God's will shall be blessed by the Lord in this venture. )

 

[transam]

Hmm David Lammy interviewed today on the news ( radio)

Challenged several times as to the UKs stance on genocide

He refused multiple times to use the G word

Said he suspended arms related contracts with Isreal

In fact they suspended 30 such contracts

What he did not tell you is that 300 similar contracts are still in place

Yes exactly

 

[Odds]

Somebody should ask whether he considers Israeli actions in Gaza as war crimes then. Genocide is not so easily proven but the war crimes committed by the IDF are well documented, even filmed by the troops themselves.

Said he suspended arms related contracts with Isreal

In fact they suspended 30 such contracts

What he did not tell you is that 300 similar contracts are still in place

Yes exactly

I'd ask if you'd be in favour of suspending more of those contracts but won't rely on a coherent response.

 

[Odds]

A documentary film has shed new light on how the administration of United States President Joe Biden responded to the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, suggesting Washington had evidence indicating her shooting death was likely intentional. The new film; a 40-minute investigative documentary from the Washington, DC-based media company Zeteo, was released on Thursday just ahead of the anniversary of her death [three years ago]. Al Jazeera

Democracy Now!

“The US government has acted as an accomplice to Israeli war crimes, not only against Palestinians but Americans, too, trumping loyalty to its own laws and citizens,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at the human rights organisation Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), in a statement responding to the documentary.

 

[Odds]

Fresh evidence of Zionist perfidy emerges today in the Guardian where a member of the Knesset*, no less, details how Israel laid out a blueprint to eradicate the prospect of a Palestinian state titled the Subjugation Plan (sometimes translated as the Decisive Plan) in 2017. Bezalel Smotrich. In a harrowing document that discusses people as if they were pawns on a chessboard, reshaped the borders of Israel. First, he demanded annexation of Palestinian territory without granting basic political, civil or national rights to Palestinians, treating them instead as colonial subjects. Second, those Palestinians who would not accept their lot as second-class subjects would be physically expelled from their homes, lands and their homeland altogether. And third: those who resist, who struggle for their fundamental rights as human beings, would be hunted and killed.

In the ongoing disputation as to what extent the actions of Israel constitute the crime of genocide, this plan should serve as the prime exhibit for the prosecution. “Subjugation” for Smotrich and his gang translates to ethnic cleansing, forceful transfer, illegal annexation and killings that break international law. In essence, this plan aims for the complete destruction and dissolution of the Palestinians as a national community, as a shared people, in their own homeland – isn’t this the definition of genocide?
*Ofer Cassif is a member of the Knesset, representing the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash)

“Any attempt to annex land in Gaza would be unacceptable” said the UK’s Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, this week. His words, which came with no sanctions or consequences attached, dispersed into thin air. It remains to be seen what the government of this country will do once this 'Subjugation Plan' is done and dusted.

 

[JohnD]

Israel's policy of extermination by creating famine continues.

"Much of Gaza’s agricultural land lies in the 2km-wide band along its borders, now a so-called military buffer zone. The remaining arable land is constantly shrinking.

Maraab Masalma, whose farm sits along Gaza’s north-eastern border, has been unable to cultivate most of his land because of Israeli attacks, which have wounded 15 of his farmhands.

But a tiny slice remained in reach. He planted peppers, eggplant, cauliflower and cabbage. Then this week, Israeli quadcopters fired bombs at people working the land, which was suddenly designated as a military zone. Masalama was forced to abandon it, too.

.“Our tractors, our tools, they’re all gone,” he said, adding that water wells and irrigation networks had been ruined."

FT.com

 

[JohnD]

And killing fishermen who attempt to fish

"Fishermen are not allowed into the sea any more, but the turtles come close to shore, where Hamad can catch them. Gaza’s port has been destroyed by bombs and more than 1,000 boats, including his own, have disappeared. The shallows swirl with sewage and refuse from overwhelmed hospitals.

Recently Hamad entered the sea again, this time on a raft made from a refrigerator packed with styrofoam. Salty water seeped in as he looked for sardines to feed his family of 22. Though the shoal fish are small, Hamad never goes more than 100 meters from the coast: any farther and the danger of an Israeli attack is too great.

“It’s absolutely forbidden for anyone to fish,” he said. “But we are forced into the sea, although we might be killed, because we can’t find anything to eat.”

FT.com

 

[JohnD]

Nothing they enjoy more than killing people who are not Jews. Starvation as a weapon of war.

"Israeli forces have killed dozens of fishermen who ventured into the water and have targeted farmers across Gaza as they cultivate their land. In the first week of May alone, five farmers were reportedly killed, while off the Gaza coast, one fisherman was killed and five injured, according to the UN.

Israel has obliterated nearly all of Gaza’s livestock, according to the FAO. Its bombs and seizures of land have also rendered most of the enclave’s once-fertile farmland — which accounts for more than 40 per cent of its area, and used to supply nearly half of its agricultural products — barren."

FT.com

 

[JohnD]

Israel denies...


"Strawberry grower Saqr Abu Rabaa fled his farm near Gaza’s northern border as it was engulfed in bombing the day the war began. He returned half a year later, planting vegetables instead. He was resting in his field with his son on a late October afternoon when the drone circling above fired a missile on the farmers, killing Abu Rabaa’s son and two other workers, and wounding Abu Rabaa in the stomach. He fled Beit Lahia again that day, leaving his land but bringing a horse. Two weeks later, Israel struck the horse, too. “He disintegrated,” Abu Rabaa said. “[Israel] doesn’t want Gaza to manage its starvation. Anything that people could make use of or live from, they target,” he said of the horse. Israel denies that it is deliberately attacking civilians or trying to starve people."

 

[JohnD]

Meanwhile, Israel continues to invade, attack and destroy Palestine's West Bank.

Racist genocide by Israel.

"Inside Israel’s ‘Gazafication’ of the West Bank​

UN body says over 900 Palestinians killed since October 7 2023 in occupied territory as Netanyahu deploys air strikes"

 

[Odds]

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that in Tel Aviv, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli campaign group, held its weekly rally Saturday in “Hostages Square”, while another demonstration by families of captives is taking place outside the Israeli military headquarters.

A separate antigovernment protest also occurred at Habima Square in Tel Aviv.

The Times of Israel reported that Shai Mozes, whose parents were held captive and released in separate exchange deals, told the crowd at the protest in Habima Square that Israel’s “real enemy is not Hamas, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is destroying Israel as a Jewish and democratic state”.

Al Jazeera

 

[transam]

Somebody should ask whether he considers Israeli actions in Gaza as war crimes then. Genocide is not so easily proven but the war crimes committed by the IDF are well documented, even filmed by the troops themselves.



I'd ask if you'd be in favour of suspending more of those contracts but won't rely on a coherent response.

Coherent response ? ?

No I am not in favour of suspending the contracts

 

[denso13]

 

[Odds]

"I am an anti-Zionist," Hitchens, who often spoke and wrote of his stance against Israel, said. "I'm one of those people of Jewish descent who believes that Zionism would be a mistake even if there were no Palestinians." ​

"You want irony? How about Jews becoming colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea?”​