{"id":279425,"date":"2024-11-04T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=279425"},"modified":"2024-10-31T06:37:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T06:37:27","slug":"genocidal-scorecard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/11\/genocidal-scorecard\/","title":{"rendered":"Genocidal Scorecard"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Bibi on Board – by Mr. Fish<\/p><\/div>\n

The latest U.N. report chronicles Israel\u2019s advances in its genocidal assault in Gaza. Israel is intent, the report warns, on expelling the Palestinians, recolonizing Gaza and turning on the West Bank.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

30 Oct 2024 <\/em>– A United Nations report, published<\/a> on Monday [28 Oct], lays out in chilling detail the advances made by Israel in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate \u201cthe very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine.\u201d This genocidal project, the report ominously warns, \u201cis now metastasizing to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nakba or \u201ccatastrophe,\u201d which in 1948 saw Zionist militias drive<\/a> 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, carry out more than 70 massacres and seize 78 percent of historic Palestine, has returned on steroids. It is the next and, perhaps, final chapter in \u201ca long-term intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, who issued the report, titled \u201cGenocide as colonial erasure,\u201d makes an urgent appeal to the international community to impose a full arms embargo and sanctions on Israel until the genocide of Palestinians is halted. She calls on Israel to accept a permanent ceasefire. She demands that Israel, as required by international law and U.N. resolutions, withdraw its military and colonists from Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

At the very least, Israel, unchecked, should be formally recognized as an apartheid state and persistent violator of international law, Albanese states. The U.N. should reactivate the Special Committee Against Apartheid to address the situation in Palestine, and Israel\u2019s membership in the U.N. should be suspended. Short of these interventions, Israel\u2019s goal, Albanese warns, will likely come into fruition.<\/p>\n

You can see my interview with Albanese here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ongoing genocide is doubtlessly the consequence of the exceptional status and protracted impunity that has been afforded to Israel.\u201d she writes. \u201cIsrael has systematically and flagrantly violated international law, including Security Council resolutions and [International Criminal Court] ICJ orders<\/a>. This has emboldened the hubris of Israel and its defiance of international law. As the ICC Prosecutor has warned, \u2018if we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions of its complete collapse. This is the true risk we face at this perilous moment.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.N. report comes amid an Israeli blockade of northern Gaza where over<\/a> 400,000 Palestinians are enduring a starvation <\/a>siege and constant airstrikes<\/a> in an attempt to depopulate the north. Israeli forces have killed 1,250 Palestinians in the assault, launched on October 5, a medical source told Al Jazeera. Reports from northern Gaza are difficult to obtain as internet and phone services have been cut and the few journalists on the ground continue to be<\/a> killed<\/a>. Israel\u2019s ground and aerial assaults are centered on Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun. Civil defense units say they have been barred<\/a> by Israeli forces from reaching the sites of recent strikes and their crews have been attacked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel has ordered Palestinians to flee to designated \u201csafe zones,\u201d but once in these \u201csafe zones\u201d they have been attacked<\/a> and ordered to move to new \u201csafe zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDisplaced people have been systematically chased down and targeted in shelters, including in United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) schools, 70 percent of which Israel has repeatedly attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, Israel\u2019s Rafah invasion<\/a> caused the displacement of nearly one million Palestinians, driven into southern Gaza because of Israeli evacuation orders, into \u201cuninhabitable wastelands of rubble, sewage and decomposing bodies,\u201d Albanese notes.<\/p>\n

By August, 90 percent of Gaza\u2019s population of 2.3 million Palestinians were displaced \u201cunder dire conditions,\u201d according<\/a> to the U.N.<\/p>\n

The months of \u201crelentless shunting of weakened humans from one unsafe area to another \u2014 fleeing bombs and bullets, with minimal chances of escape, amid loss, fear and grief, and with little access to shelter, clean water, food and healthcare \u2014 have inflicted incalculable harm, especially on children,\u201d the report reads. \u201cThe movement of displaced Palestinians resembles the death marches of past genocides, and the Nakba. Forced displacement severs connection with the land, undermining food sovereignty and cultural belonging, and triggering further displacement. Communal bonds are broken, the social fabric shredded and reserves of resilience depleted. Systematic forced displacement contributes to \u2018the destruction of the spirit, of the will to live, and of life itself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The constant displacement \u2014 many Palestinians have been displaced<\/a> nine or 10 times \u2014 from one part of Gaza to another is accompanied by calls<\/a> from Israeli officials to \u201crenew settlements in Gaza\u201d and encourage the \u201cvoluntary transfer of all Gazan citizens\u201d to other countries.<\/p>\n

Israel has killed at least 43,163 people in Gaza and wounded 101,510 in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023<\/a>. An estimated 1,139 people were killed \u2013 some<\/a> by Israeli forces \u2013 in Israel during the incursion by armed Palestinian fighters into Israel and more than 200 were taken captive. In Lebanon<\/a>, at least 2,787 people have been killed and 12,772 wounded since the Israeli assault on Gaza began, with 77 killed in strikes across the country on Tuesday alone.<\/p>\n

The report found evidence that Israel has carried out \u201cmore than 93 massacres.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.N. investigators concede the numbers of dead in Gaza are probably a vast undercount given that at least 10,000 people, including 4,000 children, are missing, probably buried under the rubble, where \u201cthe voices of those trapped and dying are often audible.\u201d Other Palestinians, an \u201cuncertain number,\u201d have been seized<\/a> by Israel forces and \u201cdisappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has repeatedly attacked aid distribution sites<\/a>, tent encampments<\/a>, hospitals<\/a>, schools<\/a> and markets<\/a> \u201cthrough the indiscriminate use of aerial and sniper fire.\u201d The report notes that \u201cat least 13,000 children, including more than 700 babies, have been killed, many shot in the head and chest\u201d while approximately \u201c22,500 Palestinians have sustained life-changing injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disturbing frequency and callousness of the killing of people known to be civilians are \u2018emblematic of the systematic nature\u2019 of a destructive intent,\u201d the report reads. \u201cSix-year-old Hind Rajab, killed with 355 bullets after pleading for help for hours; the fatal mauling by dogs of Muhammed Bhar, who had Down\u2019s Syndrome; the execution of Atta Ibrahim Al-Muqaid, an older deaf man, in his home, later bragged about by his killer and other soldiers on social media; the premature babies deliberately left to die a slow death and decompose in the intensive care unit at Al-Nasr Hospital; the elderly man, Bashir Hajji, killed en route to southern Gaza after appearing in a propaganda photograph of a \u2018safe corridor;\u2019 Abu al-Ola, the handcuffed hostage shot by a sniper after being sent into Nasser Hospital with evacuation orders. When the dust settles on Gaza, the true extent of the horror experienced by Palestinians will become known.\u201d<\/p>\n

The genocide has turned the landscape into a toxic wasteland.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly 40 million tons of debris, including unexploded ordnance and human remains, contaminate the ecosystem,\u201d the report goes on. \u201cMore than 140 temporary waste sites and 340,000 tons of waste, untreated wastewater and sewage overflow contribute to the spread of diseases such as hepatitis A, respiratory infections, diarrhea and skin diseases. As Israeli leaders promised, Gaza has been made unfit for human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a further blow, the Israeli parliament on Monday approved a bill to ban<\/a> UNRWA, a lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, from operating on Israeli territory and areas under Israel\u2019s control. The ban almost certainly ensures the collapse of aid distribution, already crippled, in Gaza.<\/p>\n

As of Oct. 20,\u00a0 233 UNRWA workers have been killed<\/a> in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, making it the deadliest conflict for U.N. workers.<\/p>\n

Israel has expanded its \u201cbuffer zone\u201d along the Gaza perimeter to 16 percent of the territory, in the process leveling homes, apartment blocks and farms. It has pushed over 84 percent of the 2.3 million people in Gaza into\u00a0 \u201ca shrinking, unsafe \u2018humanitarian zone\u2019 covering 12.6 percent of a territory now reconfigured in preparation for annexation.\u201d Satellite imagery indicates that the Israeli military has built roads and military bases in over 26 percent of Gaza, \u201csuggesting the aim of a permanent presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blockade of food is accompanied by the destruction of water treatment plants<\/a>, sewage systems<\/a>, reservoirs<\/a>, aid convoys<\/a>, healthcare facilities<\/a> and food distribution points<\/a> \u2014 crowds of desperate people waiting for food \u201chave been massacred\u201d by Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n

Israel has all but obliterated<\/a> medical facilities and services in Gaza. It has damaged 32 of 36 hospitals, with 20 hospitals and 70 of 119 primary healthcare centers incapacitated. By this August it had attacked healthcare facilities 492 times. Israel besieged Al-Shifa Hospital for the second time in March and April, killing more than 400 people and detaining 300, including doctors, patients, displaced persons and civil servants. It carried out a forced evacuation of all but 100 of 650 patients in Al-Aqsa hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn August,\u201d the report reads, \u201centry permits for humanitarian organizations nearly halved. Access to water has been restricted to a quarter of pre-7 October levels. Approximately 93 per cent of the agricultural, forestry and fishing economies has been destroyed; 95 per cent of Palestinians face high levels of acute food insecurity, and deprivation for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent months, 83 percent of food aid was prevented from entering Gaza, and the civilian police in Rafah were repeatedly targeted, impairing distribution,\u201d the report notes. \u201cAt least 34 deaths from malnutrition were recorded by 14 September 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

These measures \u201cindicate an intent to destroy its population through starvation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palestinians detained<\/a> by Israeli forces \u201chave been systematically abused in a network of Israeli torture camps. Thousands have disappeared, many after being detained in appalling conditions, often bound to beds, blindfolded and in diapers, deprived of medical treatment, subjected to unsanitary conditions, starvation, torturous cuffing, severe beatings, electrocution and sexual assault by both humans and animals. At least 48 detainees have died in custody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report cites the role of the Israeli media in \u201cinciting\u201d the genocide \u201cby helping to foster an unchecked genocidal climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report criticizes the Israeli media for platforming \u201cproponents of genocide\u201d and withholding \u201cfacts from the Israeli public.\u201d At the same time, the Israeli military has killed<\/a> over 130 Palestinian journalists.<\/p>\n

Palestinians are equated with<\/a> the Amalek, the Biblical enemies of the Israelites, as well as<\/a> Nazis, to justify their extermination.<\/p>\n

Albanese\u2019s report, in a section titled \u201cRisk of genocide in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,\u201d notes that Israel has accelerated its lethal attacks<\/a>, detentions<\/a> and land seizures<\/a> in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenocidal conduct in Gaza set an ominous precedent for the West Bank,\u201d it notes.<\/p>\n

In May 2024, the governance of the West Bank was \u201cofficially transferred from military to civilian authorities \u2014 further de jure<\/em> annexation \u2014 and placed under [Bezalel] Smotrich, a committed Eretz Yisrael<\/a> politician,\u201d the report reads. \u201cThe largest single land appropriation in 30 years was then approved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smotrich, the Minister of Finance, claims<\/a> there are \u201ctwo million Nazis\u201d in the West Bank. He has threatened<\/a> to turn parts of the West Bank into \u201cruined cities like in the Gaza strip\u201d and stated<\/a> that starving the entire Gaza population was \u201cjustified and moral,\u201d even if two million people died. Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz has also called for the West Bank to receive the same treatment as Gaza.<\/p>\n

Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank towns of Jenin, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tubas and Tulkarem live for days under curfew, making it difficult to access food and water. As in Gaza, the Israeli army, during its Operation Summer Camps<\/a>, has \u201ctargeted ambulances, blocked entrances to hospitals and laid siege to Jenin Hospital. Bulldozers destroyed streets and electricity and public health infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drones and war planes carry out airstrikes. Israeli roadblocks, checkpoints and blockades make travel difficult or impossible. Israel has suspended financial transfers to the Palestinian Authority, which nominally governs the West Bank in collaboration with Israel. It has revoked 148,000 work permits for those who had jobs in Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gross domestic product (GDP) of the West Bank contracted by 22.7 percent, nearly 30 percent of businesses have closed, and 292,000 jobs have been lost,\u201d the report reads. Over 692 Palestinians \u2014 \u201c10 times the previous 14 years\u2019 annual average of 69 fatalities,\u201d have been killed and more than 5,000 have been injured. Of the 169 Palestinian children who have been killed, \u201cnearly 80 percent were shot in the head or the torso.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since August, in the Jenin refugee camp \u201capproximately 180 homes were levelled and 3,800 structures damaged, destroying or damaging power supplies, public services and amenities, displacing thousands of families and causing widespread disruption. More than 181,000 Palestinians have been affected, many multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report dismisses the claim that Israel is carrying out the assault in Gaza and the West Bank to \u201cdefend itself,\u201d \u201ceradicate Hamas\u201d or \u201cbring the hostages home,\u201d charging that these claims are \u201ccamouflage,\u201d a way of \u201cinvisibilizing<\/em> the crime.\u201d Genocidal intent, as Judge Dalveer Bhandari<\/a> from the ICJ points out, \u201cmay exist simultaneously<\/em> with other, ulterior motives<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather, the incursion into Israel by Hamas and other resistance fighters on Oct. 7 \u201cprovided the impetus to advance towards the goal of a \u2018Greater Israel.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the context of Israel ignoring the ICJ directive to end the unlawful occupation, the aim to eradicate resistance contradicts the rights to self-determination and to resist an oppressive regime, protected by Customary International Law,\u201d the report reads. \u201cIt also portrays the entire population as engaged in resistance and therefore eliminable. By continuing to suppress the right to self-determination, Israel is replicating historical instances in which self-defence, counter-insurgency or counter-terrorism were used to justify destruction of the group, leading to genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

It notes that Israel, rather than abiding by the 1993 Oslo Accords, which were supposed to lead to a two-state solution, increased its colonies in the West Bank from 128 to 358 and the numbers of Jewish settlers \u201chave grown from 256,400 to 714,600.\u201d Israel passed<\/a> the 2018 Nation State Law that asserts exclusive Jewish sovereignty over \u201cEretz Yisrael\u201d and names \u201cJewish settlement\u201d on occupied Palestinian land a \u201cnational priority.\u201d It cultivates \u201ca political doctrine that frames Palestinian assertions of self-determination as a security threat to Israel\u201d and uses it \u201cto legitimize permanent occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current intent to destroy the people as such<\/em> could not be more evident from Israeli conduct when viewed in its totality,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

A leaked Israeli Ministry of Intelligence \u201cconcept paper\u201d from October 2023 outlines the plan <\/a>to expel the entire Gaza population to Egypt and recolonize Gaza. It is a plan Israel appears to be following.<\/p>\n

Albanese writes that Israel is replicating the patterns of past genocides. It creates through its rhetoric a \u201cvengeful atmosphere\u201d that conditions soldiers to be \u201cwilling executioners.\u201d It claims it is acting in self-defense while targeting a civilian population. It is obliterating the infrastructure that sustains life, a process of \u201cgenocide by attrition.\u201d It uses starvation as a weapon. It is attempting to hide its crimes by killing Palestinian journalists<\/a> and U.N. workers and blocking international agencies and the international media from Gaza.<\/p>\n

We have seen genocide before. We have also seen the complicity or silence of nations that have the power to intervene. History doesn\u2019t repeat itself, but too often it rhymes.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for\u00a0<\/em>The New York Times,\u00a0where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief. He previously worked overseas for\u00a0<\/em>The Dallas Morning News,\u00a0The Christian Science Monitor, and<\/em> NPR. He used to be the host of the Emmy Award-nominated <\/em>RT America show\u00a0<\/em>On Contact.<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright 2024 Chris Hedges<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – chrishedges.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30 Oct 2024 – The Nakba that in 1948 saw Zionist militias drive 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, carry out more than 70 massacres and seize 78 percent of Palestine, has returned on steroids. It is the final chapter in \u201ca intentional, systematic, State-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":279428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3287,1161,417,554,1854,101,100,87,865,1029,3339,487,742,88,2097,767,2571,427,818,880,99,413,539,124,70,965,481,1025,174,886],"class_list":["post-279425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-anti-zionism","tag-arms-industry","tag-bullying","tag-children","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-hezbollah","tag-human-rights","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-middle-east","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-palestine","tag-proxy-war","tag-state-terrorism","tag-structural-violence","tag-syria","tag-unicef","tag-united-nations","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes","tag-warfare","tag-west-bank","tag-yemen","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279429,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279425\/revisions\/279429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}