Caitlin Johnstone
Consortium News / November 1, 2024
The huge package of documents that South Africa submitted to the ICJ for its genocide case against Israel already needs updating. Every day brings more horrendous news.
South Africa’s legal team has submitted hundreds of documents containing what it calls “undeniable evidence” as part of its ongoing genocide case against the state of Israel, with the South African representative to The Hague telling Al-Jazeera that “The problem we have is that we have too much evidence.”
The Israeli outlet Haaretz reports that IDF soldiers are actively blocking the return of Palestinians they have driven out of northern Gaza as part of the so-called General’s Plan — a land grab of Palestinian territory using ethnic cleansing by violent force.
Haaretz has been far more critical of Israel’s actions than Western media outlets have been. It recently published an editorial titled “If It Looks Like Ethnic Cleansing, It Probably Is.”
Haaretz’s publisher, Amos Schocken, is now publicly advocating international sanctions on the Israeli government for its apartheid abuses and opposition to a Palestinian state, drawing an outraged response from the Netanyahu regime.
“A Palestinian state must be established, and the only to achieve this is to apply sanctions against Israel.”
Haaretz publisher called for sanctions against Israeli leaders who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, describing the policies as an “apartheid regime” pic.twitter.com/IMXsL6wNOP
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 31, 2024
Last week there was a two-day rally attended by multiple Israeli government officials called “Preparing to Resettle Gaza Conference,” which was exactly what it sounds like: high-profile Israelis gathering to discuss the agenda to drive Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and replace their territory with Jewish settlements.
Humanitarian aid in Gaza has reportedly fallen to its lowest level since Israel’s genocidal onslaught began, with just a few hundred truckloads entering the enclave from Oct. 1 to Oct. 22 and nothing getting through to the north. The U.N.’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs recently warned that “The entire population of North Gaza is at risk of dying,” a warning that was issued shortly before the Israeli Knesset voted to cut off U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid throughout all the territories it controls.
According to a new report from The Washington Post, the U.S. State Department has been inundated with hundreds of reports of U.S.-supplied weapons being used to needlessly kill and harm civilians in Gaza, but in violation of its own rules it has failed to take any action on a single one of them. According to one WaPo source, investigations of these reports have tended to stall out at the “verification” stage, which consists of asking the Israeli government for its side of the story.
Israeli forces reportedly killed 109 Palestinians in a single massacre on Tuesday — including dozens of children — when Israel blew up an apartment building where hundreds of civilians were sleeping.
The IDF killed five journalists in a single day last Sunday, bringing the total number of journalists murdered in Israel’s genocidal assault to at least 180. This occurred shortly after Israel published a kill list of six Al-Jazeera journalists who it claims are secret Hamas fighters, although no Al-Jazeera reporters were among the five killed.
And this is just in Gaza. Israel has already killed some 164 healthcare workers in its ongoing assault on Lebanon, where the Netanyahu government is sabotaging ceasefire negotiations by inserting ridiculous non-starter demands like Israeli planes being allowed to enter Lebanese airspace and Israeli forces being allowed to police the ceasefire deal with military operations in southern Lebanon as they see fit.
Every day there’s more and more ugly news in the Middle East, perpetrated by Israel and its powerful Western backers who make its abuses possible. It’s getting harder and harder to stay on top of. There really is “too much evidence” to keep up with.
Caitlin Johnstone’s blog is CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
