Genocide as Colonial Erasure (w/ Francesca Albanese)

The Chris Hedges Report

October 29, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOfDPD9mxv4&t=140s

The latest United Nations report by Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, argues that the violence unleashed against the Palestinians after October 7 is not happening in a vacuum, but is part of a long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians. The report details how the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian is accelerating, in large part because of the complicity and indifference of the international community. The report, released Monday, argues that, if not halted, the mass slaughter and displacement in Gaza of its 2.3 million residents, tactics increasingly being replicated in the occupied West Bank, jeopardizes the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine. It concludes with an urgent appeal to Member States in the United Nations to intervene before Palestinians, especially those in northern Gaza, which Israel appears intent on fully depopulating and annexing, are driven from their homeland. This intervention must, the report states, include a full arms embargo and sanctions against Israel until the mass killing of Palestinians is halted, a permanent ceasefire is in place and Israeli occupation forces and Jewish colonists withdraw from occupied Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Absent this, the report recommends that Israel be formally recognized as an apartheid state and persistent violator of international law, reactivating the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid to address the situation in Palestine and potentially suspend Israel’s membership in the United Nations. Joining me to discuss her report is Francesca Albanese.

Francesca, the report is devastating, as is, of course, every daily report out of Gaza and the West Bank, you do a lot of research out of the West Bank as well. I want to begin with kind of the broader implications of Israel’s genocide, which is at the conclusion of your report, before we go into the specifics, which is at the front of your report, you note in the report that since your last report, and despite the International Court of Justice interventions, genocidal acts have, in your words, proliferated. Nearly a year of scorched earth assault has led to the calculated destruction of Gaza. The human material and environmental cost is unquantifiable. In essence, what you’re saying is that as horrible as things were, it is steadily getting worse and worse for the Palestinians. So let’s talk a little bit about the trajectory. You were one of the first  official investigators, and of course, we should be clear, you’re banned from working in the occupied territories by the Israeli government, but I believe you were one of the first to raise the issue of genocide, which is now, of course, not disputable, but let’s talk a little bit about, globally, the trajectory over the last, now it’s more than a year, what’s been happening.

Read more:

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/genocide-as-colonial-erasure-w-francesca

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South Africa submits 750 pages of evidence in genocide case against Israel

The evidence includes recent statements by senior Israeli officials endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza to build Jewish settlements atop the destruction

News Desk

The Cradle

October 28, 2024

https://thecradle.co/articles/south-africa-submits-750-pages-of-evidence-in-genocide-case-against-israel

South Africa’s legal team on 28 October submitted hundreds of documents to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) offering „undeniable evidence“ of acts of genocide committed in Gaza by the Israeli army and statements by authorities that carry genocidal intent.

„The evidence will show that undergirding Israel’s genocidal acts is the special intent to commit genocide, a failure by Israel to prevent incitement to genocide, to prevent genocide itself, and its failure to punish those inciting and committing acts of genocide,“ a statement from Pretoria says.

„South Africa’s Memorial is a reminder to the global community to remember the people of Palestine, to stand in solidarity with them, and to stop the catastrophe. The devastation and suffering has been possible only because despite the ICJ and numerous UN bodies’ actions and interventions, Israel has failed to comply with its international obligations,” the statement added.

Officials say that the submission, also called a memorial, is presented in more than 750 pages of text, in addition to over 4,000 pages of annexes.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, officials said they are confident that the hundreds of pages of evidence are “more than enough” to sustain their case. “The problem we have is that we have too much evidence,” Ambassador Vusimuzi Madonsela, South Africa’s representative to The Hague, told the Qatari news organization.

Some of the evidence submitted includes public statements made last week by senior members of the Israeli government at a conference named „Preparing to Settle in Gaza,“ which was organized by the extremist Nachala Settlement Movement and promoted by Israel’s ruling Likud party.

“[We will] tell them, ‘We are giving you the chance, leave from here to other countries’,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said during the conference. “The Land of Israel is ours,” he stressed.

Israel is currently trying to expel tens of thousands of Palestinians who remain in northern Gaza as part of an extermination campaign that seeks to transform the region into a military zone under the Generals‘ Plan.

On 26 January, the ICJ ruled it was plausible that Israel had breached the Genocide Convention and ordered the government to ensure that its army refrained from genocidal acts against Palestinians. In response, Israel significantly intensified its ethnic cleansing campaign, including blocking the entry of humanitarian aid to the strip.

International NGO Oxfam on 1 October reported that the Israeli army has killed more children and women in Gaza during the past year than in the equivalent period of any other war this century.

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