For spurious and sinister reasons, the Western political and media classes are isolating themselves from public opinion and international law on the Gaza genocide in ways hard to believe. Here are a few examples among myriad.
May 1 solidarity march in New York. (Pamela Drew, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)
13 May 2024 – Incredibly, the Israeli genocide in Gaza is now reaching new heights of violence. Casualty figures are not coming in, as the attacks are so bad that bodies cannot be recovered, medics cannot travel and there are almost no medical facilities operational now anyway.
Trying the gravest crimes, ensuring victims have access to justice, conducting fair trials and complementing national tribunals are among the key tasks of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas | The International Criminal Court is based in The Hague, Netherlands.
Established in 2002 and based in The Hague, the ICC is a criminal court that can bring cases against individuals for war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Most recently, on Monday []it issued a request for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three leaders of Hamas, the de facto authorities in Gaza.
The warrants – which must now be formally approved by the ICC’s judges – are related to alleged war crimes stemming from the seven month-long war in Gaza triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in Israel.
Here are five facts about the ICC and how it is helping build a more just world.
UNITED NATIONS, May 21 2024 (IPS)* – The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to seek warrants on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has triggered a strong backlash both from the Biden administration and a group of pro-Israeli Senators in the US Congress.
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Streets in Rafah are emptying as families continue to flee in search of safety. Credit: UNRWA
The names in the ICC arrest warrants also include Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh—all leaders of Hamas.
(UN News)* — Roughly 800,000 people have been forced to flee Rafah since Israel launched a military operation in the area on 6 May, the head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA said on Saturday [] in a renewed appeal for greater protection of civilians in Gaza, safe humanitarian access and, ultimately, a ceasefire.
“Once again, nearly half of the population of Rafah or 800,000 people are on the road,” Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in post on the social media platform X. formerly Twitter.
He said that following evacuation orders demanding people to flee to so-called safe zones, people mainly went to the middle areas in Gaza and Khan Younis, including to destroyed buildings.
UNITED NATIONS, May 16 2024 (IPS)* – As the ancient Greek saying goes: those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first drive them mad. Perhaps destruction is too far-fetched here, but madness is closer home—in Washington DC
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With the 7-month-old Israeli-Gaza conflict showing no positive signs of a permanent solution, there is a lingering sense of growing political craziness in Capitol Hill, the seat of the US government, once described as Israeli-occupied territory.
Last week Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican senator from South Carolina, who once chaired the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, implicitly advised Israel it should drop nuclear bombs over Gaza—perhaps ignorant of the fact that a nuclear fallout will also destroy parts of Israel.
(UN News)* — Large parts of the city of Rafah are now a “ghost town”, with UN humanitarians reporting on Tuesday [] that some 450,000 Gazans have been forcibly displaced from the southernmost city by Israeli evacuation orders in the last week.
UNRWA | Smoke rises over Rafah as bombardments continue. (file)
“Empty streets in Rafah as families continue to flee in search of safety… UNRWA estimates that nearly 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah since 6 May,” said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in a post from western Rafah on X.
“Inland in Rafah is now a ghost town. It’s hard to believe there were over one million people sheltering here just a week ago,” reported UNRWA spokesperson Louise Wateridge.
(UN News)* — Nearly 360,000 people have fled Rafah in the last week amid continuing Israeli bombardment that has crippled humanitarian aid deliveries and is believed to have killed another UN aid worker, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Monday [].
“Nearly 360,000 people have fled Rafah since the first evacuation order a week ago,” the UN agency said in a post on X, referencing leafleting by the Israeli military ordering those in eastern Rafah to leave their shelters.
In another alert, UNRWA warned of ongoing “restricted humanitarian access” to and across the Gaza Strip that was now “a matter of life or death” for Gazans already suffering “relentless bombardments and food insecurity”.
Statement from Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) following forced, unlawful evacuation orders in Rafah:
Tented shelters in Raffah, southern Gaza. Photo: Yousef Hammash/NRC
“Israel’s military offensive in Rafah could lead to the deadliest phase of this conflict, inflicting horrific suffering on approximately 1.4 million displaced civilians in the area.
“The relocation orders issued by Israel today to thousands of Gazans, directing them to move to Al-Mawasi, are beyond alarming. The area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services.
(Jerusalem) –Israeli forces have carried out at least eight strikes on aid workers’ convoys and premises in Gaza since October 2023, even though aid groups had provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities to ensure their protection, Human Rights Watch said on 14 May 2024.
Seeds are emblematic of the connections between our lives, our food, our health and our freedom. They are the first link in the food chain. They embody our heritage and enfold the future evolution of life.
Global Context: Seeds and GMOs
The cultivation of seeds and their free exchange among farmers is the core foundation of our biodiversity and our food security. To have control over seeds is to have control over our lives, our food and our freedom.
Bio-imperialism severely threatens this freedom today through intellectual property rights.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 