The most transparent genocide in human history
JVL Introduction
Richard Falk, author of this analysis below, was UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine from 2008-2014.
He provides a wide-ranging overview of the current situation, stressing the failure of liberal democracies in the West not just to try to prevent genocide but, by their actions, of being complicit in the genocidal acts we are witnessing.
“[I]nstead of urging compliance with international law and morality by both sides in the face of the most transparent genocide in all of human history” they are abandoning the high moral and legal ground on which they have long claimed to stand.
He also looks at the “dangerous state propaganda” being built up with regard to Iran, fueling the possibility of a wider war in the region and beyond.
And he argues that: “All indications are that Israel used the October 7 attack as a pretext for the pre-existing master plan to get rid of the Palestinians whose presence blocks the establishment of Greater Israel with sovereign control over the West Bank and at least portions of Gaza.”
RK
This article was originally published by Common Dreams on Wed 17 Jan 2024. Read the original here.
In Gaza, the West is enabling the most transparent genocide in human history
This is extraordinary because the states supporting Israel, above all the United States, have claimed the high moral and legal ground and lectured the states of the Global South about the importance of the rule of law.
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A genocide is going on in Gaza and within Palestine. It is being conducted by the Israeli armed forces, as directed in this by the Israeli government. In addition to the evident destruction and mass killings, various members of the Israeli government have stated their clear intent to carry out genocide.
This genocide is not justified by the Hamas 2023 attack on Israel, which followed repeated Israeli oppression/dispossession of the Palestinian indigenous inhabitants, nor is the genocide justified by removing the fighters within the population as a whole. It is ever so obvious that new generations of embittered fighters and terrorists are being created from the masses of traumatised children. Our establishment politicians of all sorts have shown themselves to be hypocritical and worse than useless.
Not only does Falk provide a powerful, wide-ranging analysis, he also makes a proposal that should be taken seriously:
“…timely establishment of a People’s Tribunal on the Question of Genocide initiated by global persons of conscience. …Such a tribunal on Gaza could clarify and document what happened on and subsequently to October 7. By taking testimony of witnesses, it could provide an opportunity for the people of the world to speak and to feel represented in ways that governments and international procedures are unable to given their entanglement with geopolitical hegemony in relation to international criminal law and structures of global governance.”
Here’s a link to the Russell Tribunal on Palestine just over a decade ago. https://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/index.html