Bout fucking time!!
Lawyer's incredible speech dismantling Israeli occupation of Palestine at The Hague
Israeli attack on crowd waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza
If you tolerate this your children will be next
A recently released UNRWA document says its staff report having been tortured while detained by Israeli forces, who pressed them to provide false statements about ties between the agency and Hamas.
“The document said several UNRWA Palestinian staffers had been detained by the Israeli army, and added that the ill-treatment and abuse they said they had experienced included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members,” Reuters reports, saying UNRWA workers “reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency has Hamas links and that staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks.”
This is another one of those stories about Israeli offenses that are so stunning that at first you can mistakenly believe you must not be reading it correctly — especially since the western political-media class haven’t been treating it like the jarring news that it is. If we had anything remotely like an objective news media in the western world, reports that Israel tortured United Nations staff to get them to make false statements against a UN aid agency would be the top story everywhere for days.
Let this sink in: Israel is accused of torturing UN staff.
Many, including myself, speculated that torture was involved in obtaining the Israeli “intelligence” behind initial claims of UNRWA staff involvement in the October 7 attack when this narrative first surfaced back in January. A senior Israeli official told Axios at the time that Israeli intelligence agencies came upon the information about the UNRWA staffers largely through “interrogations of militants who were arrested during the Oct. 7 attack.” Israel has an extensive history of using torture in its interrogations, and there’s no reason to believe such methods haven’t been used on captured Hamas fighters in recent months — but reports that it was actual UN staff being tortured are something new.
We may be certain that if it was Hamas being accused of torturing workers for international aid agencies in order to extract false confessions, we’d never hear the end of it. To this day unsubstantiated rumors of mass systemic sexual violence on October 7 continue to dominate the headlines resulting in scandalous instances of journalistic malpractice, despite the Israeli spinmeisters behind those reports having a much worse track record than UNRWA in the truth-telling department and UNRWA standing much less to gain than Israel by lying. Caitlin Johnstone
Gaza: Aotearoa Must Support Independent Investigation into Mass Graves
Published by Māori Party
April 26, 2024
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops.
Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of the bodies show evidence of torture, mutilation, and mass execution. Some have been found stripped naked with bound hands, while others still had medical tubes attached to them indicating that they were likely buried alive.
In the same week the United States pledged a further $17bn to the Israeli war machine. The US is now calling for an investigation into the mass graves to be led by Israel with no independent international oversight.
“This is a new level of horror that we haven’t seen before” said Te Pāti Māori co-leader and human rights spokesperson Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
“We won’t accept the findings of any investigation that is not independent of Israel and the United States. To do so is to be complicit in covering up one of the worst atrocities to ever be witnessed.
“Israel has proven beyond doubt that they have no regard for the humanity of Palestinian people, or international law. The international community needs to stop viewing them as though they are anything more than a rogue state.
“Israel is demonstrating the depths of depravity that humanity can sink to. It is unconscionable that Aotearoa still maintains diplomatic relations with a nation that is actively committing war crimes” said Ngarewa-Packer.
“We need to impose immediate sanctions on Israel, and end all talks with the AUKUS war machine.
“The United Nations has called for an independent international investigation into the mass graves uncovered at Al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals, and the New Zealand Government must back this call” said Ngarewa-Packer.
“Our government must exert as much pressure as we can to hold Israel accountable for their crimes against humanity.
“Palestine is the last bastion of resistance against global Western colonisation. If Palestine is not free, neither are we,” Ngarewa-Packer said.
"The nastiest of racist war criminals". This is what the International Criminal Court prosecutor has said about these two people leading the slaughtering of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza:
On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin NETANYAHU, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023:Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Statute;
Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health contrary to article 8(2)(a)(iii), or cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
Wilful killing contrary to article 8(2)(a)(i), or Murder as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime contrary to articles 8(2)(b)(i), or 8(2)(e)(i);
Extermination and/or murder contrary to articles 7(1)(b) and 7(1)(a), including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, as a crime against humanity;
Persecution as a crime against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(h);
Other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(k).
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