Afrasianet – It is wrong to think that genocide and ethnic cleansing are a pure Israeli act, because the basic school of this culture stems from the culture of the West in general and the culture of the United States of America in particular, the latter maintains a record of genocide as well as the colonial West, which was the first to enslave peoples and plunder their wealth and a torrent of crimes committed throughout its history, whether in the Levant, Africa and even Latin America.
Israel's practice did not differ much from the criminal practices of the United States of America since its inception, as the first thing that the first settlers who came from the depths of European prisons did was that they carried out a systematic criminal process through the genocide of the indigenous population, as well as these criminal practices were not absent throughout the bloody criminal history of the West, led by the United States of America, and the examples are many and known, the most recent of which is the crimes committed in Vietnam, Latin America, Afghanistan, Iraq and what is happening now in Palestine, where the United States is a partner In full with the crimes taking place in Gaza and the West Bank, and since Israel is an entity made by Western hands, it is not surprising that its practices are no different from those of the West itself.
Occasion to speak ... The International Court of Justice is about to consider the request of South Africa and other countries, where a request has been submitted to prosecute Israel for committing war crimes through its practice of the most heinous forms of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinian people.
Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression, the West rushed to support the aggression with all its means of military and material support, but the United States formed an umbrella for Israel in international forums to protect it, and perhaps its continuous use of the veto power in the Security Council to prevent any condemnation of Israel is irrefutable evidence of that.
Here, it must be emphasized that these crimes brought before the High Court of Justice are not the work of Israel alone, but no one disagrees that the United States is a key and active partner in these crimes.
Perhaps it is useful to say here that Israel would not have dared to commit these crimes without American support, not only with weapons, but also by participating in the development of plans with the Israeli War Council, as well as participation through American forces numbering more than two thousand personnel, in addition to intelligence support, in which Britain also participated.
It is noteworthy here that the United States, which wants to drop such a lawsuit against Israel, has already begun to exert pressure on the international community to get Israel out of this predicament, and it may succeed in doing so due to what we have seen from the inaction of society, which has been talking about human rights, democracy and freedom of expression, to the end of this lie, which no longer fools even the naïve.
Axios says it has obtained a copy of a cable issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry instructing its embassies to pressure diplomats and politicians in their host countries to issue statements against South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.
The cable outlines Israel's diplomatic action plan ahead of next week's International Justice hearing, exerting international pressure on the court not to issue a court order ordering Israel to suspend its war on Gaza.
South Africa filed the case last week, arguing in its 84-page report that the military campaign in Gaza violates Israel's obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
That Convention defines genocide as "acts committed with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group" and affirms that Israel's actions in Gaza "are of a genocidal nature because they aim to destroy a significant part" of the Palestinian population in the Strip.
Israel immediately dismissed the case as "baseless" but, unlike previous cases in international courts, decided to appear in court because it is a signatory to the Genocide Convention, where British lawyer Malcolm Shaw will represent her.
South Africa has asked the court to take urgent interim action, including ordering Israel to suspend its military campaign in Gaza, for as long as the case continues.
It is clear from the Israeli Foreign Ministry's cable that Israel's "strategic goal" is for the court to reject the request for an injunction, refrain from specifying that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and recognize that the IDF operates in the Strip in accordance with international law.
"The court's ruling may have significant political, economic and security repercussions, not just legally," the cable said, adding that "we request an immediate and unequivocal public statement along the following lines: to say publicly and clearly that your country rejects the heinous, absurd and baseless accusations against Israel."
The cable says that under the 1948 Convention, genocide is defined as the creation of conditions that do not allow the population to remain with the intention of exterminating them. Emphasizing Israel's efforts to increase humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza and reduce the number of civilians killed is "crucial."
In the cable, Israeli embassies were instructed to ask diplomats and politicians at the highest levels to "publicly recognize that Israel is working to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as minimizing harm to civilians, and that it is acting in self-defense."
Israeli ambassadors were also instructed to act urgently to obtain such statements before the session beginning on January 11, and were told that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would send messages to dozens of world leaders along the same lines.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, "We believe this offer is unfounded and counterproductive, and has no basis in reality whatsoever," but countries that support the Palestinians, including Turkey and Jordan, have backed the issue.
We are talking here about crimes that have not been witnessed in the modern era, these crimes are represented in a list that we will not finish enumerating. Some examples are what has been reported by human rights institutions and their injustice.
The Israeli occupation army stole money and gold jewelry from the Gaza Strip:
There are "dozens of testimonies made by residents of the Gaza Strip about the Israeli army and soldiers stealing money, gold and jewelry estimated at 90 million shekels (more than 24 million and 500 thousand dollars) 92 days ago."
"The robberies came in more than one way, as the first was at checkpoints, such as Salah al-Din Street, where they stole from the displaced people who were displaced from the north of Wadi Gaza towards the south their bags containing their valuable belongings such as money, gold and jewelry."
The second method was "burglary of houses where they asked their residents to leave, where they took souvenir photos and videos, some of whom posted them on their social media accounts, as happened in the town of Beit Lahia (northern Gaza Strip)."
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says it has received testimonies of systematic torture and cruel and inhuman treatment of Palestinian detainees – some of whom are forcibly disappeared – from the Gaza Strip inside Israeli occupation army camps.
The Observatory said in a report that testimonies it received from people detained for several days and released showed that the army and Shin Bet interrogators treated the detainees as "non-human animals" as they told them during interrogation and torture.
According to testimonies, torture begins immediately after arrest, whether from home or asylum centers, as it begins with beatings, forced to remove clothes and keep underpants, before forcing detainees to sit in the street for hours, amid insults and insults that degrade their dignity.
Some of the released detainees reported being forced to "curse themselves and Palestinian factions and figures," before being transported in trucks in "horrific conditions" to open places of detention where detainees were "beaten and abused."
The Israeli occupation army launched random arrest campaigns targeting hundreds of Palestinian civilians from different areas of the Gaza Strip after storming residential homes and schools that turned into shelters for thousands of displaced people.
The arrest campaigns affected doctors, nurses, journalists and the elderly, as well as dozens of women, including "Hadeel Yousef Issa Al-Dahdouh", who appeared in a photo taken into a truck with a group of men naked in an inhumane scene.
A released detainee (who preferred not to be named) said that most of the detainees are later detained in camps for the occupation army and not for the prison administration, adding that once transferred, detainees are forced to stay inside iron cages in cold weather, and in many cases detainees were subjected to "shabeh" operations or "hanging by hands and legs in different positions, and tortured with electric shocks, or arson with cigarette butts, as well as brutal beatings all over the body."
According to the Observatory, the Sde Timan camp, which is run by the occupation army and is located between the cities of Beersheba and Gaza, where the majority of Gaza's detainees are held, has been transformed into a new Guantánamo prison where the dignity of detainees is degraded and the most severe forms of torture and ill-treatment are practiced against them while depriving them of food and treatment.
In his report, he stated that he had documented the arrest of elderly men and women, confirming the arrest of a woman over 80 years of age, and other elderly people over the age of 70.
Euro-Med Monitor confirmed that it received certificates about the death of 2 detainees inside the camp, one of whom was amputated, and Israel did not officially announce – until the time of publication of the statement – their deaths.
On November 3, 2023, Mansour Nabhan Mohamed Warsh died of cardiac arrest 24 days after his arrest, with bruises and shackles on his body.
Four days later, Majed Ahmad Zaqoul died after being detained in Ofer prison and subjected to severe torture.
In a testimony to "Jihad Zaqout", 75, he said that the occupation forces arrested him from his home in Gaza City on December 12, 2023, and beat and kicked him by the occupation soldiers and then tied him with iron baskets, before using him as a human shield by placing him in a residential house inside an area witnessing military operations.
"Zaqout" reported that while he was being transported from the area with other detainees in a truck, soldiers continued to beat them all the way on their heads with rifle butts and hands.
When they arrived at a military camp where hundreds of detainees were held, they were stripped naked and forced to sleep on the floor without a mattress, while they were allowed to go to the toilets once every two or three days, with medicines denied and occasionally beaten.
From the beginning of the war to the present day, Israel has targeted one hundred and six journalists in flagrant violation of Article 79 of the Additional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Armed Conflict.
Amid the continuous bombardment targeting stones, people and trees, the task of journalists in the Gaza Strip seems like a daily date with death, after the helmet and protective vest that distinguish the real carriers from other civilians have turned from a means of protection to a distinctive mark that facilitates the task for the occupation soldiers to seize them, and it is no wonder that journalists turn into major targets for the damage they have caused to Israel's reputation and Benjamin Netanyahu's narrative in which he claims that his army is conducting a war of the utmost morality in Gaza.
From the beginning of the war to the present day, Israel has targeted one hundred and six journalists in flagrant violation of Article 79 of the Additional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Armed Conflict, which states that civilian journalists performing their duties in areas of armed conflict must be respected and treated as civilians, and protected from any form of deliberate attack, provided that they do not carry out acts contrary to their civilian status. This systematic targeting of journalists in such an unprecedented number in the history of modern warfare reveals that Israel, Which does not recognize UN regulations and laws, has placed the task of eliminating those who report the truth among its goals in its war against Hamas and the Gaza Strip.
Israeli retaliation against journalists went to great lengths when it targeted their families
In addition, Israel benefits from the absence of Arab platforms that support Palestinian content, and also benefits from the restrictions practiced by other platforms, to tighten its grip on the scene, and here arises the biggest challenge for the Arab media, which must employ its fan base in order to break the restrictions practiced by the "Meta" platform against Palestinian content, and direct the masses to other platforms that can replace Facebook and Instagram in transmitting information and news.
In conclusion: If there are and still are remnants of those who truly believe in their humanity, they should raise their voices not only to prosecute Israel, but also to prosecute the criminal West as a whole, led by the United States of America.