{"id":45473,"date":"2014-08-04T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=45473"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:30:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:30:48","slug":"gaza-genocide-and-arab-fratricide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/08\/gaza-genocide-and-arab-fratricide\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza Genocide and Arab Fratricide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s not mince words.\u00a0\u00a0 Israelis are committing genocide in Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0 But the United Nations is loath to use the \u201cG\u201d word and it us using the \u201cC\u201d (condemn) word instead.\u00a0 \u00a0Why?\u00a0 Money talks.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The top <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/ga\/search\/view_doc.asp?symbol=ST\/ADM\/SER.B\/889\" >financier of the United Nations<\/a> is America with a whopping 22.00% in direct funds (followed by Japan 10.83%, Germany 7.14%, France 5.59%, and GB 5.18%),\u00a0 if the United Nations called out the genocide in Gaza, its top financier would have to be punished for its complicity.<\/p>\n<p>According to Article 3 of the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hrweb.org\/legal\/genocide.html\" ><em>Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide<\/em><\/a>, persons committing genocide or complicity in genocide shall be punished \u201cwhether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.\u201d\u00a0 The United States not only supports and funds the ongoing genocide in Gaza, replenishes Israel with more funds and weaponry, but it also uses its political clout to enable Israel to continue its ruthless crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n<p>While many have not been shy about calling these crimes genocide,\u00a0they have\u00a0come under attack for using the \u201cG\u201d word.\u00a0 Is genocide an appropriate term to use?\u00a0\u00a0 Well, it is if one has respect for international law and the rules of the genocide convention. \u00a0\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hrweb.org\/legal\/genocide.html\" >Article 2 of the Convention<\/a> clearly spells out:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIn the present Convention, genocide means any [emphasis added]of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part [emphasis added], a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>(a) Killing members of the group;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There is little argument and ample evidence that Israel\u2019s actions against the people of Gaza in particular, and Palestine as whole, constitute the term genocide.<\/p>\n<p>While the pro-Israel Western media has been unable to conceal the daily, indiscriminate killing of anything that breathes and moves in Gaza (Article 2a) and the terrorization of children, the young and the old (mental harm) with the constant bombardment, bulldozers, and drones (Article 2b), the media has been apt at hiding the horrific effects of the blockade \u2013 the deliberate infliction of condition of life calculated to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part (Article 2c).<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, Amnesty International\u2019s report <em>Suffocating Gaza &#8211; the Israeli blockade&#8217;s effects on Palestinians <\/em>detailed the reality of life in Gaza including restricting the entry of basic goods, food and fuel. On January 28, 2014, the daily Haaretz ran an article entitled \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/news\/diplomacy-defense\/.premium-1.571074\" >In Gaza, water &#8211; and time &#8211; are running ou<\/a>t; Experts say Gaza water shortage likely to bring about illness.\u201d\u00a0 The situation has only exasperated.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, in spite of the evidence, the United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, ignoring all other atrocities, calls an attack on a UN school which killed innocent civilians \u201coutrageous\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps he ought to be reminded of, and heed his predecessor, Kofi Annan who acknowledged responsibility for not having done more to prevent or stop the Rwanda genocide. \u00a0\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/News\/Press\/docs\/2004\/sgsm9245.doc.htm\" >In his July 2004 address to the Commission on Human Rights<\/a>, Mr. Annan said:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf we are serious about preventing or stopping genocide in future, we must not be held back by legalistic arguments about whether a particular atrocity meets the definition of genocide or not.\u00a0 By the time we are certain, it may often be too late to act.\u00a0 We must recognize the signs of approaching or possible genocide, so that we can act in time to avert it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Ban ki-Moon must have missed the speech and the memo; although in July 2012, he did <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/apps\/news\/story.asp?NewsID=42494&amp;Cr=genocide&amp;Cr1=#.U9q2ShZteCQ\" >appoint Adam Dieng<\/a> of Senegal as his Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide \u2013 only to refrain from the \u201cG\u201d word it would seem.<\/p>\n<p>The American government is not alone in its complicity in genocide or in its incitement.\u00a0\u00a0 Mainstream media networks and commentators who paint a picture of an Israel \u201cself-defense\u201d to give room to the continued genocide are complicit and must be punished.\u00a0 But in the opinion of this writer, the vilest partners in this crime are the Egyptian and Saudi leaders committing fratricide.<\/p>\n<p>Egypt\u2019s military coup leader and the illegitimate president of Egypt, al-Sisi, whom the Israel ambassador called a \u2018<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeastmonitor.com\/news\/middle-east\/6617-israeli-ambassador-calls-al-sisi-a-qnational-hero-for-all-jewsq\" >hero for all Jews\u2019<\/a> , has trapped the Gazans so that Israel can eliminate them all.\u00a0\u00a0 Genocide will prove to be lucrative business for the Egyptians.\u00a0\u00a0 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtoninstitute.org\/policy-analysis\/view\/egypt-emerges-as-a-route-for-israeli-natural-gas-exports\" >Piping Israeli gas (stolen from Gaza) to liquefaction plants in Egypt to beconverted into LNG and exported across the world.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[SIDE BAR: In 2009, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/David_Wurmser\" >David Wurmser<\/a> writing for the Jewish policy Center opined \u201cIsrael and its neighbor now sit atop roughly two years&#8217; worth of European consumption\u201d.\u00a0 He further suggests \u201ceven modest amounts of Israeli gas exports can carry significant strategic leverage\u201d. Citing Europe\u2019s gas vulnerability, Wurmser wrote \u201cEurope&#8217;s grim reality could represent a unique window of opportunity for Israel to nail down long-term agreements and align export policy with a broader effort to reset Israeli-European relations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The MH 17 was brought down four hours after Israel\u2019s ground invasion of Gaza.\u00a0 Europeans reluctant to enforce further sanctions on Russia was no longer so reluctant. END SIDE BAR.]<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s interest in Egypt and its opposition to the elected president of the Egyptian people, Mohammad Morsi, went beyond a gas transit and the Palestinians.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On May 30, 2013, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/egypts-water-war\/\" ><em>The Times of Israel<\/em><\/a> reported that the construction on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (on the Blue Nile) had sparked a major diplomatic crisis with Egypt \u2013 a concern shared with Saudi Arabia and its plans to divert water from the Nile.\u00a0 In 2012, it was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/news.nationalgeographic.com\/news\/2012\/12\/121217-saudi-arabia-water-grabs-ethiopia\/\" >reported<\/a> that Saudi Arabia had claimed a stake in the Nile.<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi regime showered the coup government with aid after the overthrow of Morsi.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In January, Egypt received a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/townhall.com\/news\/politics-elections\/2014\/01\/30\/saudi-arabia-to-give-egypt-up-to-4-billion-in-additional-aid-report-n1786964\" >further $4 billion<\/a> to Egypt, and in May, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/en.alalam.ir\/news\/1593278\" >Saudi Arabia showered the Egyptians with another $3billion<\/a> while Egypt trapped Gazans to be slaughtered by Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Never has the world witnessed so much impunity.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The United Nations refuses to acknowledge genocide and takes no part in preventing or punishing it.\u00a0\u00a0 The silence of those guarding our rights and our laws makes them\u00a0the silent partners in this crime against humanity.\u00a0 As Jonathan Swift said: \u201c\u201cI never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___________________________________<\/p>\n<p><em>Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the influence of lobby groups.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><em>Join the BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS <\/em><em>campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/span> to protest the Israeli barbaric siege of Gaza, illegal occupation of the Palestine nation\u2019s territory, the apartheid wall, its inhuman and degrading treatment of the Palestinian people, and the more than 7,000 Palestinian men, women, elderly and children arbitrarily locked up in Israeli prisons.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>DON&#8217;T BUY<\/strong> <strong>PRODUCTS WHOSE<\/strong> <strong>BARCODE<\/strong><strong> STARTS WITH<\/strong> <strong>729<\/strong>, which indicates that it is produced in Israel.\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR JUSTICE!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the Convention on the Crime of Genocide, persons committing or in complicity with genocide shall be punished \u201cwhether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.\u201d  The US supports, funds and replenishes Israel with more weaponry on the ongoing genocide in Gaza; it also uses its political clout to enable Israel to continue its crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45473","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=45473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}