I Have Been Disinvited by IJAN from Speaking at the Picket of Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotoveli

Below is the Speech I Would Have Made When Challenging the Police to Arrest Me Again

Last night I posted a blog advertising a speech I was going to give at the picket of Tzipi Hotoveli on Friday evening. Tonight I received an email from Sam Weinstein of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) withdrawing that invitation. You can judge for yourselves whether the reasons given were the real reasons and whether IJAN feared that events were getting out of their control. I have saved both emails here.

In the last few days, our researchers at Fake Reporter alongside @HablocOrg have been monitoring far-right groups on Whatsapp and Telegram.

We saw how civilians are organizing and arming themselves, in order to violently attacks Arab businesses and civilians.

Thread >>> pic.twitter.com/Wq6LfdAqgB

— פייק ריפורטר | FakeReporter (@FakeReporter) May 13, 2021

The alleged reason for the cancellation concerns my refusal to get involved, despite considerable pressure, in the case of alleged harassment of an Israeli activist which dates back many years. I was accused of taking the side of the alleged harasser, which I reject, but nonetheless I confess that I have wrestled with the issue. I have taken the advice of others not to make any further comment on it.

What is important though is the issue of the Metropolitan Police implementing the ‘illustration’ of anti-Semitism in the Zionists’ IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which states that ‘Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’ is anti-Semitic. At a time of genocide this and only this, is what matters, not an arcane personal dispute.

Below is what would have been my speech to the picket/ demonstration next Friday.

I am only going to provide a few links, not only because of the time it takes but because, if I had made the speech, I would not have given any links!

Why comparisons between Israel’s holocaust in Gaza and the Nazi holocaust are valid and relevant

Comrades,

Three months ago, on October 4 2023, I was arrested at this demonstration by the institutionally racist Metropolitan Police for a ‘racially aggravated’ public order offence. In essence I was being accused of anti-Semitism for having compared the Zionist holocaust in Gaza to the Nazi holocaust. Comparing the Nazi treatment of Jews to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is now deemed by the Met to be ‘anti-Semitic’.

Despite being arrested, held for 7 hours in a cell and subject to restrictive bail conditions, I was informed 7 weeks later that the Crown Prosecution Service were not going to charge me. No doubt even the CPS could see the absurdity of charging someone who is Jewish with ‘anti-Semitism’!

People often say to me that even if allegations of Zionist collaboration with the Nazis is true it is better not to mention them for fear of giving unnecessary offence to Jewish people. My response is simple. We will never understand why Israel behaves the way it does unless we understand Zionism, the ideology that governs the actions of the Israeli state – its ethnic cleansing, its desire to ‘cleanse’ Gaza of the Palestinians and now its deliberate and targeted extermination of Palestinian civilians.

Bear in mind that even the terminology of the Israeli state today when it talks of ‘cleansing’ Gaza is identical to Nazi descriptions of  ‘cleansing’ areas of Jews.

The Nazi holocaust against the Jews is being used today to justify Israel’s holocaust of the Palestinians. In the words of Gideon Levy, a Ha’aretz columnist:

I have yet to hear a single teenager come back from Auschwitz and say that we mustn’t abuse others the way we were abused. There has yet to be a school whose pupils came back from Birkenau straight to the Gaza border, saw the barbed-wire fence and said, Never again. The message is always the opposite. Gaza is permitted because of Auschwitz.

People often say that Israelis are suffering from an ‘inter-generational holocaust trauma’.  My response is no. What they are suffering from is a settler-colonial trauma. The fear that the indigenous population that they have oppressed so long will rise up against them.

The slave owners in the Caribbean and the American colonies suffered from a similar trauma and their reaction to slave uprisings was not dissimilar to that of Israel’s reaction to October 7.

The Zionists have magnified October 7 out of all proportion. They have said that this was the largest slaughter of Jews since the holocaust. In fact the largest death of Jews since the holocaust was under the Argentinian Junta (1976-83) which tortured to death 3,000 Jews, up to 12.5% of those who disappeared.

Israel doesn’t mention what happened in Argentina however because at the time it was arming and training the Argentine military. It even refused visas to Argentine Jews because they were ‘the wrong sort of Jew’, a phrase you may have heard recently.

This is however a particularly noxious and racist comparison. Jews in Nazi Germany were killed because they were Jews.  Israelis were killed on October 7 because they were occupiers not because they were Jews.

Israeli deaths on October 7 pale in comparison with Israel’s repeated attacks on Gaza.

In Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014 some 2,200 Palestinians, including 515 children, were killed.  Death of Israelis on October 7 were 1139, half of this.  It is estimated that since the Nakba some 134,000 Palestinians and Arabs have been killed.

On 7 October 400 of the dead were soldiers and police and therefore legitimate targets. Because of Israel’s Hannibal Directive, which mandates that it’s better to kill your own people if they are taken hostage rather than allow them to be swapped for prisoners, that it’s highly likely that the majority of the remaining 739 Israeli deaths were at the hands of their own trigger happy military.

The New York Times Fraudulent Article that Alleged that Hamas had Planned October 7 as a Mass Rape Expedition

That is why we have had a non-stop barrage of atrocity propaganda from Israel.  First it was 40 beheaded babies, baked babies and babies hung from clothes lines. Then it the mass rape story despite there being no victims and no forensic evidence.

October 7 was the catalyst not the reason for the genocide taking place in Gaza today. Chants of ‘Death to the Arabs’ didn’t begin on October 7. Ben-Gvir, who had a picture of Baruch Goldstein on his wall (the man who murdered 29 worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994) became Israel’s Minister of Police at the beginning of 2023. Gvir is a fully-fledged Jewish  Nazi. A Jewish Nazi list became the third largest in the Knesset in the November 2022 elections, not October 2023.

The reasons for making comparisons between Israel today and the Nazi period is quite simple. Any group of people, given the right set of conditions and circumstances, can become genocidal maniacs and Nazis. Racism is not a biological property.

There was nothing German about the Nazis’ extermination of the Jews. The Romanians were even more enthusiastic about killing Jews  when the Germans seemed to be winning the war. Slovakia asked the Nazis to take the Jews off their hands. Croatia even set up its own extermination camp, Jasenovac.

When Israeli ‘Defence’ Minister Yoav Gallant began the genocide, he described the Palestinians as ‘human animals’ the very phrase that Himmler had used about the Jews, when justifying the  Holocaust on October 4 1943 to senior SS Generals. Gallant also promised to starve them and deny water and fuel. Also Nazi tactics.

Netanyahu invoked the example of Amalek, the tribe that god had commanded the Israelites to wipe out – every man, woman, child and infant was to be murdered.

The number of calls to genocide by Israeli politicians is limitless. Israeli Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu suggested that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip was “one of the possibilities”. Law for Palestine released a database of over 500 genocidal statements by influential Israelis, including the President and Cabinet members.

Wiping out the Palestinians is a very popular idea in Israel. The most popular car bumper sticker in Israel is ‘finish them off’. Indeed if the comparison with Nazi Germany is wrong it is because the level of anti-Semitism amongst ordinary Germans was far less than that in Israel.

When the presenters of Israel’s oldest podcast ‘two nice Jewish  boys’ said

‘If you gave me a button to just erase Gaza, every single living being in Gaza would no longer be living tomorrow. I would press it in a second’

there was no condemnation in Israel, let alone a prosecution as would happen if an Israeli Arab were to say the same about Jews. Incitement to murder Palestinians is not an offence in Israel.

There are some who go even further. Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, of the pre-military Yeshivah Shirat Moshe, said:

‘“Whoever comes to kill you... does not only include the young man aged 16, 18, 20, or 30 who is now pointing a weapon at you, but also the future generation (the children of Gaza), and those who produce the future generation (women of Gaza), because there is really no difference,”

In other words one should kill children as well as their mothers because they may become the fighters of the future. Compare this with what Himmler said about killing Jewish children in a speech on October 6^th 1943.

‘I did not assume to have the right to exterminate the men… and have the avengers personified in the children to become adults for our children and grandchildren.’

When pogroms against Arabs broke out in Israeli towns in 2021one user wrote

“We are no longer Jews today. People from Holon, Bat Yam and Rishon Lezion go out to bring war. Today we are Nazis.”

Today in Gaza, with the destruction of hospitals and the murder of patients and doctors and the detention of people like Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of Kamal Adwan hospital, in the Sdei Teiman torture centre, we can see the degeneration of Israeli society before our eyes. A society where 65% of the population is opposed to criminal prosecutions of those who rape prisoners.

Indeed in some respects Israel is going beyond what the Nazis did. In Budapest it was the Nazis’ protégés in the Arrow Cross, a Hungarian Nazi party, that murdered doctors and patients at two Jewish hospitals (Maros Street and Varosmajor Street). The Gestapo did not touch the hospitals. In Berlin the Jewish hospital survived untouched until the end of the war.  It is Israel which has a peculiar attraction for destroying Palestinian hospitals.

We should also ask ourselves whether the Nazi destruction of Jewish synagogues during Kristallnacht is any different to the Zionist destruction of virtually every mosque in Gaza?

Ever since its creation Israel has laid claim to inherit the memory of the Jews who died in the holocaust. The reality, as Gaza shows, is that Israel inherits the memory of those who killed Europe’s Jews.

In the words of an article in the Jewish Chronicle quoting what I said at Palestine Expo in 2019, ‘Israel is Hitler’s Bastard Offspring’.

I leave you with just one thought. If the level of racism in Israel today had been present in Europe during the Holocaust it wouldn’t have been 6 million Jews who died but 7 or even 8 million.

Tony Greenstein 

Open Letter to Chris Ward, the Genocide Supporting Starmer Puppet and Crony, MP for Brighton Kemptown

‘You have all the independence of a snarling dog on a leash but without the charm’

Chris Ward was parachuted in as candidate for Brighton Kemptown in the General Election. Out went Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the equivocating ex-socialist MP.

Not one Labour Party member voted for Ward. His only qualification was that he was a friend and crony of Starmer. Therefore when I sent him a letter about Gaza I expected no better from him than the letter which I copy below.

However I also decided that it was time to respond to his turgid and repetitive prose, dishonest in every strained syllable. Chris Ward was a political lobbyist in Hanbury Strategy a corporate lobbying group. Keir Hardie must be turning in his grave at what his namesake has done to the Labour Party.

OK everyone, gather round, here's a lovely little story for you all.

Chris Ward - Keir Starmer's former chief of staff - was a longtime close friend.

He stayed at my parent's flat in Edinburgh. We got drunk together, made repetitive Alan Partridge-based gags.

We argued about… https://t.co/suplRCArxh pic.twitter.com/8MAwCJJEGT

— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) May 30, 2024

 

chris.ward.mp@parliament.uk

 Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Dear Chris Ward,

The only reason that you were selected to stand at the last election, in place of the existing MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, was that you were a crony of Keir Starmer.  I would no more expect an independent opinion from you than I would expect it from a snarling dog on a leash. Except that you have less charm than the average Rottweiler. You are a human dictaphone ready to mouth whatever trite phrases Starmer pours into your ear holes at any time.

Israel is, at this moment, starving and massacring 400,000 people in northern Gaza. It has refused to allow the entry of food, fuel and water and it has barred 6 international medical NGOs. It has destroyed every hospital in the north of Gaza and virtually every medical facility in the whole of Gaza.

In Poland and Russia a similar policy, ‘death by hunger’ was pursued by the Nazis and the Governor-General of Poland, Hans Frank. Israel’s behaviour ranks with the worst atrocities of the Nazis. It has just declared UNWRA, the UN organisation responsible for feeding thousands of Palestinian refugees, a terrorist organisation and banned it from working to alleviate the famine in Gaza.

Puppets like you can only repeat mindless, sanctimonious phrases about Israel being under threat as some form of justification. Nazi Germany also claimed that Poland was a threat as did Britain and  America when they invaded Iraq in 2003.

On Tuesday 93 Palestinians were killed, including 25 children, and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. This was one of a series of never ending massacres.

All you can say is that the government is right to continuing to grant 92% of arms export licenses.  You are an accomplice to genocide. Every single bullet should be embargoed, instead we are providing parts for Israeli fighter jets in order that they can commit more atrocities and massacres.

The Steve Bell cartoon banned by Guardian Editor, Kath Viner. Bell was the Guardian's prize winning cartoonist who Viner sacked. Razan al Najjar was a Palestinian medic, aged 21, murdered by an Israeli sniper in 2018 as part of the Great Return.

You say you want to see ‘an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon’ yet you continue to support the supply of weapons that ensure that there will be no ceasefire.  You are nothing but a tiresome dishonest hypocrite.

There is only one way to call a halt to the genocide, a word that seems to be missing from your vocabulary and that is to sanction all trade with Israel.  Israel needs to be subject to the same sanctions regime as South Africa was.

When it comes to Ukraine you have no hesitation in supporting sanctions against Russia but when it comes to Israel you say you don’t agree ‘all exports’ should be terminated. Why?  Because you support ‘Israel’s right to self defence’ which in practice means its right to commit genocide.

If you really believe the murder of thousands of civilians, including 16,000+ children, is acceptable for an occupying power, then you are sick in the head. It is likely when the carnage is finally over that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will be dead thanks to monsters like you. All in the name of eradicating the ‘terrorist’ Hamas when the real terrorists wear Israeli military uniform.

Israel has no more right to self-defence than Nazi Germany did when it occupied France, Poland and Czechoslovakia, to name but three countries.  It is the occupied people and they alone who have an international law right to self-defence not the aggressor. Every occupied people have the right to self-defence against their occupiers. Why do you find this concept so difficult to understand?  Is it a mental or political block that you suffer from?

The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank are illegal.  Israel should therefore get out of Gaza without any preconditions.

Alon Misrahi - committed suicide

You talk about the ‘appalling and sickening attacks on October 7^th’ but I notice that such adjectives are not reserved for the actions of the Israeli military, the torture camps, the mass graves and the shooting of doctors. To give but one example CNN recounted the suicide of an Israeli soldier, Alon Misrahi and the experiences of his friend Zaken:

In a testimony to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in June, Zaken said that on many occasions, soldiers had to “run over terrorists, dead and alive, in the hundreds.”

“Everything squirts out,” he added.

It wasn’t of course ‘terrorists’ that were run over but women and children. There are countless testimonies to the fact that Israel is burying its victims alive and deliberately shooting children in the head.

When Israel began the attack on Gaza its Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant declared that ‘we are fighting human animals and will act accordingly’. In a speech in Poznań (Posen) on 4 October 1943, Heinrich Himmler, who presided over the Final Solution, praised the Nazis as ‘the only people in the world who have a decent attitude toward animals’ and who ‘will also take a decent towards these human animals’ referring to the Jews. 

CNN, being another pro-Zionist propaganda outlet, covered the story not from the point of view of the victims but the perpetrators. SS men too were traumatised by their role in mass shootings. The SS even established a mental hospital in the East to take care of them. That was the reason that the Nazis introduced the gas chambers. But imagine if the press were to cover the holocaust from the perspective of what effect it had on the SS. This is the sublime logic of the war criminal.

Let us also be clear about October 7. 1139 Israelis were killed, one-third of them soldiers and the majority of the remainder by Israel itself as a result of putting the Hannibal Doctrine into operation. But 1139 was a fraction of the deaths that Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere have suffered. In Operation Protective Edge in 2014 twice as many Palestinians were killed without a murmur from pipsqueaks like yourself.

You of course are silent about Palestinian suffering because like your controller Starmer, you are nothing if not an imperialist and racist.

Your ignorance is only matched by your malevolence. Israel is an apartheid society, just as South Africa was.  It was established by ethnic cleansing in 1948 and is now ethnically cleansing Gaza whilst shills like you emit warm honeyed words of concern. Israel has always been the aggressor in the region and it is not Israel but the Palestinians and the Arab people who need the right of self-defence.

You speak of the two-state solution. This nothing but a cover for continued colonisation of Palestinian land. In case you hadn’t noticed the Israeli Knesset voted by 68-9 in July to support a resolution opposing two-states. What is it about that which you don’t understand? A two-state solution would simply mean another form of apartheid with a Palestinian bantustan.

In 2018 Israel passed as a basic (constitutional) law The Jewish Nation State Law which declared that Israel is a state, not of its own citizens but only of its Jewish citizens. In other words Israel is officially an apartheid state. In the words of Benjamin Netanyahu, its Prime Minister,

“Israel is not a state of all its citizens.  According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people – and only it.

When Europe’s Jews, including members of my family, were exterminated in the fires of Auschwitz and Treblinka, people could at least claim that they were ignorant of what was happening. Today, with the Internet and modern means of communication there is no excuse whatsoever for pretending that what is happening in Gaza is not genocide. You are therefore nothing more than an apologist for war criminals and people should understand you as such.

Keir Starmer and David Lammy, along with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are war criminals just as the Nazi war criminals who were executed at Nuremberg in 1947. Apologists for genocide like you should be removed from parliament and given lengthy prison sentences for justifying genocide. You are, Chris Ward, a despicable human being who would, 80 years ago, have turned a blind eye to the Holocaust and supported, like Labour’s Herbert Morrison, keeping out Jewish refugees.

My only consolation is that after the next election you will no longer be an MP. I would prefer a genuine Tory to a Starmer poodle.

Tony Greenstein

Letter from Chris Ward MP Justifying Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

Dear Tony, 

Thank you for writing to me about the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.  
 
I agree that the situation in Gaza is intolerable. I want to assure you that I continue to support an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon, which sees hostages released, civilians protected, and aid flow in. This is the only way to alleviate the heart-breaking suffering we are witnessing on a daily basis, and I am acutely aware that there can be no military solution to this dreadful conflict.  
 
I am also concerned about the flow of aid being allowed into Gaza, and I support the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary’s calls to Israel to guarantee support for those in desperate need on the ground. The Government is working tirelessly to help resolve this and secure a diplomatic breakthrough, which ultimately can see a peaceful two-state solution, including the formal recognition of Palestine. An immediate cease-fire is the first step to achieving this.
 
Regarding the export of arms to Israel, the Government’s recent decision to suspend certain arms exports to Israel – including those that could be used in Gaza – followed a careful review of Israel’s compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL), given grave concerns about the conduct and consequences of the war for civilians. I support this, but I do not agree that all exports to Israel should be halted. Israel faces a number of extremely hostile regional and local threats – as witnessed by the appalling and sickening attacks on October 7th - and I support Israel’s right to self-defence. 
 
I believe that the Government is taking the right approach by assessing each export license against IHL while supporting Israel’s right to self-defence. I hope this approach, allied with strong diplomatic pressure on both sides to reach a ceasefire, can help lead to the peaceful and immediate cessation of violence we all want to see. 

Best wishes,

Chris Ward

Tarneem’s Life at War: Learning to Live with the Constant Uncertainty of Evacuation - The Diary of a Young Woman Keeping Ahead of Biden’s Genocidal Monsters

 The hypocrisy of the West’s leaders over the  Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu & Gallant - Unfortunately Biden & Blinken's names aren't on them

Below is a second instalment from Tarneem, a young Palestinian woman I met when she was in England. A gifted writer she describes life under Israel’s genocidal occupation and I hope you read her moving story. I carried the first instalment A Day in the Life of Tarneem at the end of April.

I welcome the proposed prosecution of Netanyahu and Gallant and hope that the rest of Israel's war cabinet and genocidaires, such as Smotrich and Ben Gvir, will follow.

The reaction of the Chief War Criminal, Netanyahu, would be amusing if this were not so tragic.

"ICC prosecutor, with what audacity do you dare compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world?," Netanyahu said in his response to the request. He added that he "reject[ed] with disgust the prosecutor's comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas.

The ‘monsters of Hamas’ treated their captives impeccably compared to the treatment of Palestinians in Israel’s torture camp, Sde Teiman.

The murder of 40,000 plus Palestinians, including 15,000 children, to say nothing of attacks on hospitals, murder of hundreds of doctors and health staff, bombing of schools etc. don’t count in Netanyahu’s eyes because Palestinians are ‘human animals’ and outside the law.

Netanyahu is fond of weaponising the Holocaust but one comparison he and his fellow war criminals have missed is the fact that Himmler justified the extermination of Jews, in a speech on October 4, 1943, by referring to Jews as ‘human animals’.

As the WW2 National Museum article on Himmler’s October 1943 Speeches says

Russians, Czechs, and other Slavs, Himmler resumed, possessed no inherent value as human beings. For the SS, these “human animals” were only valuable insofar as they labored under the lordship of the superior Aryan Germans

So it is with Israel’s ‘human animals’

I've seen countless pictures and videos of IDF soldiers posing with women's lingerie and going through women's underwear drawers in Gaza. Very obsessive about the sexual lives of Palestinian women and men. https://t.co/xGsr4TuvuP

— Naheed Mustafa (@NaheedMustafa) February 12, 2024

When Netanyahu describes Israel’s army as ‘the most moral army in the world’ I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Just today they have killed 3 children in Jenin, which Hamas doesn’t even rule. Their monsters, and here the term is apt, paraded with the underwear of the women they had killed fantasising no doubt about their victims.

But if Israel’s ‘Crime Minister’ is a figure of fun then what of the senile enabler of genocide, Joe Biden who declares that

“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

Biden is right. There is no equivalence between Hamas and Israel. Hamas killed a few hundred Israelis in the course of their resistance to a 57 year occupation and 17 year siege. Israel has destroyed the whole civilian infrastructure of Gaza plus killing probably 50,000 by now. Only the sick, diseased minds of our imperial rulers, who turn the truth on its head could claim that Israel is the innocent party.

Biden claimed that ‘“I will always ensure that Israel has everything it needs to defend itself against Hamas and all its enemies”. You might imagine that Hamas had been occupying Israeli territory. What Biden and the imperialists are doing of course is supporting Israel’s right to occupy and terrorise Palestinians indefinitely. Of course Palestinians have no such right of self-defence despite the fact that it is they, not Israel which has been under occupation for over half a century.

October 7^th was certainly a shock to Israelis but the casualties were just half of those in Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.  It is the idea of fighting back against one’s oppressors that so disturb Biden and Washington’s war criminals, who are no slouches when it comes to committing their own war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq etc.

Germany has also condemned what it calls the “false equivalence”. Of course the German State is an expert when it comes to genocides so it is no surprise that they approve of the genocide in Gaza. Indeed given the expertise of Germany, having carried out the 20^th century’s first genocide in South-West Africa and then the holocaust what is surprising is that they didn’t offer their expertise to the Israelis. After all in 8 months Israel has only killed about 50,000 whereas Germany managed untold millions in the course of 6 years of war.

Perhaps Olaf Scholtz will dispatch the commanders of Germany’s army to teach the Zionists how to go about a really big genocide. Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotoveli spoke in October about killing 600,000 so clearly she and the German state must be disappointed.

Rule based order a la Americaine: for them, not for us... https://t.co/VDk7OxTIyo

— Ewald Engelen (@ewaldeng) May 21, 2024

 

Sunak, Biden’s little puppet, also condemned the issuing of warrants saying that it was "not helpful to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or humanitarian aid in." I can’t remember him making similar comments when the ICC rushed out warrants against Putin for the Ukraine war. Perhaps I’m just being forgetful.

Biden said that ‘"What's happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that," Perhaps Genocide Joe would enlighten us as to how many Israel has to kill bearing in mind the Genocide Convention and Article II which defines genocide as

‘any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its

physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The fact is that there is nothing that Israel can do which won’t meet with Biden’s approval because the United States is not in the habit of kicking its favourite watchdog too hard.

However I don't welcome the proposed prosecution of Hamas leaders. Clearly Karim Khan felt the need to be 'even handed'.

I don't support Hamas politically, after all I'm a Jewish atheist but Hamas is a resistance not a terrorist organisation. It was entitled to break-out on October 7 from the ghetto concentration camp that was Gaza. There is no equivalence between Hamas and the Israeli state, the fourth most powerful in the world, than there was between the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance and the Nazis. Let us bear in mind that the last Commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance, Marek Edelman, made just such a comparison to the fury of Israeli leaders.

As John  Rose wrote in his Obituary for Marek Edelman on 7 October 2009

In the summer of 2002, Edelman, still going strong, intervened in Israel's show trial of the now jailed Palestinian resistance leader, Marwan Barghouti. He wrote a letter of solidarity to the Palestinian movement, and though he criticised the suicide bombers, its tone infuriated the Israeli government and its press. Edelman had always resented Israel's claim on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising as a symbol of Jewish liberation. Now he said this belonged to the Palestinians.

He addressed his letter to the Palestinian ZOB, "commanders of the Palestinian military, paramilitary and partisan operations – to all the soldiers of the Palestinian fighting organisations". The old Jewish anti-Nazi Ghetto fighter had placed his immense moral authority at the disposable of the only side he deemed worthy of it.

It was because Edelman criticised Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians that, despite it trying to co-opt the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance to the Zionist chariot, not even the lowliest clerk at the Israeli Embassy in Poland attended his funeral.  A state funeral in which the Poland President gave the address and at which there was a 15 gun salute.

Would the ICC have prosecuted the Polish Home Army for the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis or the French Resistance? Of course not yet they undoubtedly committed atrocities. So too with Hamas. Even accepting that they committed some atrocities on October 7, they pale in comparison when compared to Israel’s crimes.

Hamas did not attack an Israeli hospital. They did not murder doctors and nurses. They did not bomb ambulances or schools. They did not raze universities to the ground nor did they attack synagogues.  Israel has razed dozens of mosques and churches to the ground, bombing St. Porphyrius Church in Gaza City, the world’s third oldest church.

Hamas did not torture its captives. On the contrary they praised their ‘humane’ treatment much to the fury of Israel’s practiced propagandists. Some even spoke of being treated like ‘queens’. When one Zionist told me on Twitter that they were suffering from Stockholm Syndrome I asked him why Palestinian captives didn’t suffer from the same syndrome! 

Hamas killed some 1139 people on October 7, 400 of whom were military. 38 children including 2 babies died. No one was beheaded, there was no organised rape, these are all discredited Zionist narratives. There are no victims, no forensic evidence and the witnesses to the allegations have confessed that they lied.

There is no evidence that Hamas deliberately killed children, still less babies. Indeed Israel killed probably a majority of Israeli civilians who died because of its Hannibal Directive.

Israel by contrast has killed at least 15,000 children. Slave revolts were far more bloody than Hamas's Uprising yet would we have condemned them and demanded the ‘right of self defence’ for the slave masters?

The United States is now threatening the court because it was only designed for African dictators and Putin. Not for them! This is the arrogance of imperialism. Their ‘rules based order’ is only for other people, never themselves.

And I learnt today that the so-called pier that Biden claimed was there to funnel aid into Gaza has been found to be channelling weapons to the Israeli state. Their lies are never ending.

Please do read Tarneem's heart rending description of what it is like to be fleeing from their genocidal army and having to keep moving whilst Biden & Sunak do their best to protect Israel's Nazi-like war criminals.

All the photos of people fleeing have been taken by Tarneem in Rafah. 

Tarneem has a Fundraiser - Please Contribute to It and Help get her Family out of Gaza

Tony Greenstein

 Life at War, part 2: Learning to Live with the Constant Uncertainty of Evacuation

Israeli forces have begun their ground offensive on Rafah and have seized control of the border, effectively cutting off lifesaving aid deliveries into Gaza, Palestine. The closure of Rafah crossing is simply a death sentence to everyone in Gaza. It’s a death sentence for thousands of injured and patients listed for medical treatment outside Gaza. It’s a death sentence for Gazans who want to evacuate and escape death. It’s a death sentence for patients waiting life-saving and critical surgeries by international medical teams, who won’t be allowed into Gaza. It’s a slow death sentence for many because soon there will be no food, essentials, or humanitarian aid. Food, fuel, medicine, and basic supplies are running dangerously low in Gaza.

Literally, hundreds of people are dying every single day. It’s a mental death sentence, I already feel further isolated from the rest of the world and literally trapped by military tanks from the southernmost point (Rafah crossing) to the northernmost point (Erez crossing) in Gaza. It’s a political death sentence to a so close agreement between Hamas and Israel. It will be used as a political tool and will impact the negotiations. Meanwhile, more Gazans & probably hostages will lose their lives. Of course, Israel, the US and Egypt lie as much as they breathe and say the crossing is open. It’s open in the sense that trucks can drop stuff in the long line of trucks, but the supply route is not open at all, it’s not safe to get trucks into Gaza from a zone full of military tanks!

I was speaking to Lama, my friend in Rafah, and that’s their story of multiple evacuation.

Lost Count

I don't even remember how many times we've had to pack up our lives and flee. It's become a cruel routine, a twisted dance of survival in a land that knows nothing but war and chaos. Each time feels like tearing open old wounds, reliving the trauma of displacement repeatedly. I’m from northern Gaza, I initially evacuated to a friend’s house in Jabalia, then to Gaza city. Then, both of our families evacuated to the middle area, then to Khan Younis and by the beginning of December 2023, we were in a tent in Rafah.

I wonder what people think when they read the word evacuation. Do people consider the psychological trauma inherent in the act itself?I left pieces of myself behind at every stop, memories, belongings – it's all scattered along the way. I left my photo album in the north, my camera in Gaza city, my laptop in the middle area and I have no memories of so many dear friends I have lost. But it’s alright because I still have my life.

Or do people think about the endless debates, the weighing of risks, and the collective anxiety over whether to stay or go, and if so, where to? Do they reflect on the logistical challenges, like the scarcity of available vehicles, which often leave us with no choice but to walk for miles on foot, carrying our mattresses and blankets on our backs. Are people aware of the financial strain imposed by the scarcity and high cost of fuel, making transportation prohibitively expensive? Or do they simply gloss over it as just another word in the endless stream of news about Gaza.

For me, “evacuation” isn't merely a word – it's a call to action, a stark reminder of my vulnerability and indignity we endure every day.And now, as Israel issues evacuation orders for eastern Rafah, we find ourselves once again thrust into uncertainty. "We must endure," I tell myself.

Inhumane Conditions

When we got to Rafah, we had no relatives there and couldn’t stay at someone’s house, so we ended up in a tent. We were late to receive help from aid organizations, so we had to make do with whatever we could find – wood beams, old clothes, bits of fabric, anything to give us some shelter. And the swelling demand for shelters and the lack of supply has sent prices for materials skyrocketing, we have spent all our savings by now. Before the war, we had a small tent in Gaza, mainly for our family gatherings at the beach. I wish I had brought it with me but who knew we’ll end up in a tent.

Our days now revolve around the ceaseless quest for survival, even the most basic necessities – water, food, sanitation – are luxuries beyond reach.

Water is like gold for us now. We wash ourselves and drink from a single bucket. I have been washing my clothes by hands for seven months now. Privacy is a luxury we can't afford. We're crammed together in tight spaces, and the communal bathroom is a daily queue. I’ve told I’ll get used to it but it's not easy when everyone knows your business. I literally want to disappear when I’m standing in line for the bathroom, but if I do, I’ll miss my turn.

Cooking is a hassle too. We must scrounge for firewood just to make a meal, and everything smells like smoke afterwards. I miss wearing or smelling perfumes. Our meals are meager and uninspiring, I haven’t had any fruit for months now, not eggs, not meat yet I’m thankful that we still have some food.

Hygiene is a distant memory, a luxury reserved for those who dwell in more fortunate place but not Gaza. There is sand everywhere, clinging to our skin and clothes like a relentless oppressor, even in our food.

We have endured rainy days; and as you can imagine our makeshift tent is not winterproof or waterproof. Our limited belongings have been soaked by rain multiple times.I remember nights of January when we’d be awake because there is rain leakage into the tent. We would have nowhere to go to except to stand up, stay awake until the rain stops, and then start cleaning. Now,we’re enduring scorching heatwaves, it’s like living in an oven. There are pests, including ants, lizards, and snakes. There are flies, and insects all over the place, while our fragile makeshift tent offering little protection from the forces of nature.

We fall ill with alarming frequency, our bodies weakened by malnutrition and exposure to all these circumstances. Yet, there is no respite from our suffering, no sanctuary! I once couldn’t even find a simple painkiller like Panadol in the pharmacies of Gaza.

Living in makeshift tents is a daily battle for survival, a relentless onslaught of deprivation and despair. We are the forgotten ones, the voiceless masses who cling to life with every ounce of strength we possess. There is no other option if you are a survivor so far.  Ijust hope our resilience knows no bounds and our strength never runs out.

We are now at Al Mawasi area in Khan Younis, and it is just another place without adequate shelter, food, water, and medical care. Just another city of tents and surely not safe at all. There is constant fear of airstrikes and shelling, never knowing when the next bomb will fall or if we'll be the ones caught in its path. We’ll have some bread and sleep on the street because it is too late, and everyone is already tired. Tomorrow, we’ll wake up to build another makeshift tent and start the suffering all over again.

Will It Ever Stop?

I often find myself wondering if this cycle of displacement will ever come to an end. Will I ever sleep on a bed again, instead of a mattress? Will I ever take a hot shower? Will I ever eat my favourite meal of Pizza and enjoy a cup of soda. Will my house in the north of Gaza be standing? Will there ever be a day when we can finally lay down our roots and build a future for ourselves without fear of it being ripped away?

Hope is a fragile thing in Gaza, a flickering flame in the darkness that threatens to be extinguished at any moment. We cling to it desperately, praying for a glimmer of light to guide us through the darkness. But perhaps the most unbearable part is the constant uncertainty, never knowing when the next evacuation will come or where we'll end up next. It's a cruel game of chance, played with our lives as the stakes.