#“War Criminal U.S. President Genocidal Joe Biden”

[xtruss]

American Arab and Muslim Leaders Declined an Invitation From “War Criminal U.S. President Genocidal Joe Biden” to Attend the White House's Annual Ramadan Iftar Over His Support of “The Terrorist, Fascist, Illegal Occupier, Genocidal, Apartheid and The War Criminal Illegal Regime of 🐖 Isra-hell.”

The White House instead held a small meeting with some Muslim leaders. Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who spent time volunteering as a Doctor in Gaza earlier this year, walked out of the meeting after handing Biden a letter from an orphaned 8-year-old girl in Rafah.

[nando161mando]

We already have laws on the books that say that the U.S. government can’t send weapons and military funding to countries committing gross human rights violations. The President and Congress should not give Israel billions in unconditional aid that could fuel this conflict’s expansion.

[i-am-aprl]

Yesterday, Palestinian and solidarity organizers disrupted a Biden campaign event 14 times during his speech on the protection of women's rights. These activists called out hypocrisy because Biden and his administration are actively causing a reproductive care catastrophe in Gaza.

50,000 pregnant women do not have access to healthcare in Gaza, and C-sections are being performed without anesthesia. Women and children in Gaza are being killed by U.S.-made and supplied bombs.

described by @winged-wolf-s-collection-of-arts

[ID: Transcription of what the protesters are saying, while security personnel try to get them out:

Israel kills two mothers every hour in Gaza. Ceasefire now! End the genocide! Ceasefire!

Women in Gaza are being murdered. Killing people in Gaza is a war crime. You are a war criminal.

Stop funding genocide! Ceasefire now!

50,000 pregnant women don't have healthcare. Their blood is on your hands. Ceasefire!

Ceasefire now! Stop funding genocide! Gaza is a reproductive issue.

Free, free Palestine!

The end of the video shows article headlines with photos of the protesters or of Joe Biden, from various news organizations:

POLITICO: Biden's abortion rights rally repeatedly interrupted by protesters

ALJAZEERA: Biden speech interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters

CNN politics: Biden's abortion rights rally in Virginia beset by repeated protests over his handling of Gaza

abcNEWS: Biden campaign speech on abortion rights disrupted 14 times by protesters

yahoo!news: Biden abortion rally in Virginia interrupted by multiple protesters: 'Genocide Joe'

NEW YORK POST: Biden claims Gaza heckler is 'MAGA Republican' as he's interrupted at least 10 times at rally

Forbes: Protesters Interrupt Biden's Abortion Rights Speech More Than A Dozen Times

NBC NEWS: Biden interrupted by protesters more than a dozen times at campaign rally

USA TODAY: President Biden's abortion rally disrupted by repeated protests over Gaza

Reuters: Biden's abortion rights rally in Virginia interrupted by Gaza protests

/End ID]

[workersolidarity]

🇵🇸 🚨

FULL STATEMENT FROM HAMAS ON AARON BUSHNELL'S SELF-IMMOLATION IN PROTEST OF THE ISRAELI GENOCIDE IN GAZA

The Hamas political resistance movement released a statement on the self-immolation of American servicemember Aaron Bushnell on Sunday.

🟢 From Hamas:

—

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

We in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) express our heartfelt condolences and our full solidarity with the family and friends of the American pilot Aaron Bushnell, whose name has been immortalized as a defender of humanitarian values and the plight of the oppressed Palestinian people who are suffering due to the U.S. administration and its unjust policies, like the American activist Rachel Corrie who was crushed by a zionist bulldozer in 2003 in Rafah, the same city for which Bushnell paid for with his life to pressure his country's government to prevent the criminal zionist army from attacking it and committing massacres and violations in it.

The administration of US President Joe Biden bears full responsibility for the death of the American military pilot Aaron Bushnell due to its policy that supported the Nazi zionist entity in the genocide war against our Palestinian people, as he gave his life in order to highlight the massacres and zionist ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip.

The heroic pilot Aaron Bushnell will remain immortal in the memory of our Palestinian people and the free people of the world, and a symbol of the spirit of global humanitarian solidarity with our people and their just cause.

The tragic incident that cost pilot Bushnell his life is an expression of the growing anger among the American people who reject their country's policy that contributes to the killing and genocide of our people, and rejects their government's violation of global humanitarian values, by providing cover to ensure the impunity of the Nazi entity and its leaders from punishment and accountability.

Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas

Monday: 16 Sha'ban 1445H

Corresponding: 26 February 2024

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[soon-palestine]

Israel’s assault on Gaza had killed at least 172 dependents of United Nations staff by the end of June, according to a confidential UN report obtained by Drop Site, in addition to 195 staff members.

The previously unreported data reflects the extraordinary toll not just for employees of the United Nations but for their families, and emerges as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to address a joint session of Congress Wednesday.

Netanyahu, the subject of a potential arrest warrant from the U.N.’s International Criminal Court, will meet while in the United States with outgoing President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and presidential hopeful/Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris, while meeting with Netanyahu privately, has declined to appear behind him during his address. At least 21 lawmakers, including some establishment figures such as Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., will be boycotting Netanyahu’s address.

The data put together by the U.N.’s Crisis Coordination Centre also includes a breakdown by agency, finding five U.N. Development Program dependents, four UNICEF dependents, three World Food Program family members, and two World Health Organization dependents have been killed. 158 dependents of staff for UNRWA, or the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, have been killed.

In May, the U.N. reported that 188 staff members of UNRWA had been killed by then, but has not previously disclosed the extent of the familial casualties.

Among staff, the killings are similarly concentrated among UNRWA employees. The report was circulated internally July 1, before the U.N.’s International Court of Justice announced its landmark finding that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank is illegal and must be ended. The UN did not respond to a request for comment.

Israeli attacks on U.N. staff have continued since. This weekend, a U.N. spokesperson said that a U.N. convoy was fired on by Israeli forces despite tight coordination ahead of time. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday the U.S. had requested information from Israel about its latest strike on the convoy, adding that he appreciated the “enormous sacrifice and enormous risk humanitarian workers put themselves under.” Miller said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had met Monday with a top U.N. official and discussed the issue. Asked if the U.S. was prepared to dole out consequences if Israel continued killing aid workers, he said, “I don’t have anything to read out on that at this time.”

The UN report is the latest in a series of alarming findings regarding Israel’s actions in Gaza. Most recently, the UN Special Rapporteur reported "reasonable grounds to believe" that Israel’s actions in Gaza may constitute genocide, a finding echoing International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ruled in January that “the Court considers that the plausible rights in question in these proceedings, namely the right of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III of the Genocide Convention and the right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations under the Convention, are of such a nature that prejudice to them is capable of causing irreparable harm.”

However, Israel’s massacre in Gaza continues unabated. On July 22, Israel killed 89 people and injured at least 250 in a new assault on Khan Younis after ordering 400,000 people to leave their homes and refugee camps in the rapidly shrinking “safe zones” of Gaza, 83 percent of which is now a “no-go zone.” Bombings in the no-go zone have also not stopped; in the past 12 hours, dozens have been killed in Al Sabra, Jabalia, and Gaza City neighborhoods.

On Tuesday, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said in an interview with Breaking Points that Michigan voters supportive of Palestinian rights, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, were holding out hope that a Harris administration would be less ideologically rigid in its support for Israel’s war. “The door is open,” he said, adding that representatives of the Harris team had already begun reaching out to local Muslim leaders to set up meetings.

Republican candidate Trump, meanwhile, has left little hope there would be a significant departure from Biden’s policy were he to be elected. Basem Naim, a member of the political bureau of Hamas in Gaza, told Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill that Trump’s recent belligerence was a reminder that there is little difference between the two parties on the question of Israel and Palestine.

“Sad to hear such statements, because it reflects that the complicit American policies towards the conflict here is a non-partisan issue and regardless who will win the election the blind and disgraceful support of USA to Israel will continue,” Naim said in a comment issued following Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention, before Biden dropped out. “But we can very confident[ly] reassure Mr. Trump, that the Democrats have already done the maximum to help their puppet in the region and they both have failed to achieve any of their goals, therefore use your time to put a new strategy to rescue your puppet from its ominous demise, a new strategy based on justice and genuine rights of all people to freedom, dignity, and self determination.”

Robust protests inside the Cannon House Office Building were held on Tuesday by Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, with more planned for Wednesday to coincide with Netanyahu’s speech.

[palestinegenocide]

The ‘NYT’ justifies Israeli slaughter of Palestinian civilians as necessary tactic

Joe Biden condemned the attack on Donald Trump yesterday, saying, “It’s sick… The idea that there’s political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of.”

Sadly, there is considerable evidence that Biden is wrong, and there has long been political violence in America.

What no one in public life can dispute is that political violence aimed at Palestinians is an enduring condition of Palestinian life. And Israel – an occupying apartheid state committing what most experts call war crimes akin to genocide – is willing to kill endless numbers of civilians to achieve its supposed goals in Palestine.

And the New York Times will then justify the killings as necessary military tactics.

This week saw yet two more massacres of Palestinian civilians. Israel bombed a school in Nuseirat refugee camp and killed 16.

Then Israel bombed what it had called a safe zone in Mawasi, killing at least 90. And how many others are buried under rubble and sand?

In each case, Israel said it was going after Hamas leaders. And American officials had little to say about the massacres. No, they are just numb to a genocide that is being carried out with American weaponry, with the president’s blessing. It is sick, to use Biden’s words, and tragic that we will have to wait for history, in another 10 or 20 years, until the best minds of mainstream discourse admit what any decent person can see before their eyes right now.

The lack of outrage stands in sharp contrast to the overwhelming condemnation of Russian bombings in the Ukraine, including an attack on a hospital this week that some said should go to the International Criminal Court. Israel must never be held to any standard. And the world sees it.

Abetting the war crimes is the New York Times. It ran a long article this week about how Hamas fights, saying that Hamas hides its “ghost army” among civilians, leaving Israel no alternative but to slaughter civilians.

They hide under residential neighborhoods, storing their weapons in miles of tunnels and in houses, mosques, sofas — even a child’s bedroom — blurring the boundary between civilians and combatants. … After Israeli ground troops invaded in late October, Hamas went further in transforming civilian areas of Gaza into military zones, setting traps in scores of neighborhoods and creating confusion about what a combatant looks like by dressing its fighters as civilians.

The Times accepted the view that this sneakiness justifies Israel’s tactics:

Israeli officials say that Hamas’s tactics explain why Israel has been forced to strike so much civilian infrastructure, kill so many Palestinians and detain so many civilians.

So Israel has been “forced” to kill 40,000 Palestinians.

This is moral idiocy. Of course Hamas hides among civilians. That is what guerrilla armies fighting overwhelming force underwritten by a superpower have done forever. The revolutionaries in colonial America did the same thing.

“I was shocked by the story, it is unbelievable,” media critic Donald Johnson writes. “The Times wrote this to defend every attack on civilians and civilian infrastructure that Israel has carried out. They couldn’t have done it any different if they handed it over to the Israeli government to write. Every single thing Israel does— it is Hamas’s fault.”

Johnson wrote to the Times and raised the most obvious analogy, the U.S. massacres of villages in Vietnam.

“I am old enough to remember Americans making the same excuses about My Lai. Your reporters are a disgrace, your paper is a disgrace. You might as well have had the IDF write that article.”

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By Alfredo Garcia Almeida

On July 24, Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington, DC. Netanyahu is scheduled to address a special joint session of Congress and is expected to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House, although this has not yet been confirmed. A meeting with the next U.S. president-in-waiting Donald Trump is also expected to be organized.

Meanwhile a national demonstration is being called by a wide range of organizations to greet the Zionist president by surrounding the US Congress to take a stand with the Palestinian people and to demand an end to the genocide.

[satellitebroadcast]

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: Telegram

The Occupation’s Massacre Against Displaced People in West Khan Younis is a Result of U.S. Support and Arab Complicity. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) confirmed that the large-scale brutal massacre committed by the occupation against a significant number of displaced people’s tents in Khan Younis at dawn today, Tuesday, which resulted in dozens of martyrs and injuries, and caused severe difficulties in recovery efforts due to the deep craters left by the bombing, is a new war crime within the ongoing campaign of genocide being waged by the occupation against our people, a campaign that knows no limits to its brutality and criminality. The Front affirmed that this crime is a direct result of continued U.S. support and Arab complicity, which always provides the occupation with the green light to continue these horrific massacres against the displaced and shelter camps. The PFLP stressed that war criminals Joe Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris continue to lead the war against our people, providing arms and support, while U.S. fleets take part in the aggression against the region and its people. This is evidenced by the presence of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff inside the operations rooms of the criminal occupation army yesterday. The Front added that the occupation’s claims of targeting a command and control center for the resistance and the presence of leaders inside the tents is a false and fabricated claim aimed at justifying the brutal massacre it committed. The PFLP called for an escalation of resistance operations and retaliation by all forces and fighters in Palestine, in response to these horrific massacres and the ongoing war of genocide. It also urged the Arab nation’s people to follow the path of martyr Maher Al-Jazi by carrying out deterrence operations against the occupation and colonists, and to escalate armed revolutionary violence using all forms of resistance as the means of confronting this occupier, its interests, and its settlers in Arab countries and around the world. The Front affirmed that the forces of resistance face an important responsibility to protect our people, deter the crimes of the occupation, and prevent its terrorism from expanding to encompass the entire region. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Central Media Department September 10, 2024

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Akbar Shahid Ahmed at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a largely triumphant address to Congress on Wednesday, a historic moment that highlighted how deeply implicated the U.S. is in Netanyahu’s widely condemned handling of Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Netanyahu, who repeatedly received standing ovations from hundreds of lawmakers, declared: “Our fight is your fight! Our victory will be your victory!” He cast the U.S. and Israel as jointly aligned against multiple opponents: Iran and its allies, favorite punching bags for both nations; but also institutions working on international justice, like the International Criminal Court, which is considering issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza. He even won huge applause for condemning Americans who have protested the war, casting them as agents of Iran and “useful idiots” — a line that Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who is reportedly being considered as a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, clapped for. Netanyahu thanked President Joe Biden for extensive U.S. support for Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack by the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas.

But he made clear that he expects even more: “Give us the tools faster and we’ll finish the job faster,” the Israeli leader said of American weaponry. Netanyahu’s speech appeared to vindicate attempts by the Israeli leader and House Republicans to undercut criticism of him. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) suggested the address after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for Netanyahu’s ouster earlier this year; Schumer eventually signed on to the idea. Many legislators — at least one Republican and roughly half the Democrats in each chamber of Congress, including Harris (the ceremonial president of the Senate) — skipped the address, citing frustration with Netanyahu’s focus on his own political standing and his resistance to U.S. calls to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. But the presence of an overwhelming majority of Congress will let Netanyahu accurately say he secured broad, bipartisan U.S. support for his ongoing war effort. That could help him quell intense opposition at home, over matters like his slow-rolling of a cease-fire agreement that could help free Israeli hostages captured during the Oct. 7 attack.

This afternoon, Israel Apartheid State PM and War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress that was vile and overtly antagonistic towards Palestinians and pro-Palestine supporters (especially those who took part in the protests across the nation’s campuses) who oppose Israel’s genocide campaign in Gaza and the West Bank.

Nearly half of the Democrats in each chamber, plus Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, rightly skipped out on the speech.

See Also:

The Guardian: Netanyahu tells Congress Israel’s ‘fight is your fight’ amid boycotts and protests

Mother Jones: Bibi Goes MAGA

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Etan Ylessing

George Clooney reached out to a top White House aide after U.S. President Joe Biden criticized the International Criminal Court, threatening warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders with the legal help of his wife, Amal Clooney, according to the Washington Post.

As a veteran British-Lebanese human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney was part of a group of U.K.-based legal advisers who helped ICC prosecutor Karim Khan request a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his minister of defense Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — over suspected war crimes committed as part of Israel‘s war in Gaza that followed the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on southern Israel.  

Representatives for the Oscar-winning actor were not available for comment on the Washington Post report, which claimed George Clooney called Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, after Biden denounced the ICC arrest warrants against the Israeli leaders as “outrageous.”

Amal Clooney wrote at the time on the site for the Clooney Foundation for Justice that she had looked to uphold the rule of international law and protect lives with her ICC legal advice.

“As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than another’s. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law. So I support the historic step that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,” she stated.

Behind the scenes, George Clooney was apparently concerned his wife could be impacted by sanctions threatened against the ICC for recommending Israeli and Hamas leaders be held accountable for alleged war crimes, according to The Washington Post.

His call to the White House also came ahead of a key fundraiser for Biden’s U.S. presidential reelection campaign set for next weekend in Los Angeles, an event that George Clooney is still expected to attend. The Clooney Foundation for Justice has as a mission providing free legal support and advocacy to victims of genocide, unlawful imprisonment and other human rights abuses. 

The Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities and Israel’s continuing military retaliation in Gaza — where the death toll has surpassed 35,000 people, many of them women and children — has touched off a war of words in Hollywood. 

[walks-the-ages]

July 24th, 2024 A significant protest led by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) culminated in the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators inside the Cannon House Office Building on Tuesday. The demonstrators were protesting the U.S. government’s continued support for Israel’s assault on Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s forthcoming speech to Congress. This large-scale demonstration highlighted the growing dissent among Jewish Americans and other progressive groups against U.S. foreign policy towards Israel. The protest, organized by JVP, saw participation from multiple organizations, including IfNotNow, Democratic Socialists of America, and Shoresh, an anti-Zionist group of Israelis based in the U.S. According to JVP, approximately 400 protesters, including over a dozen rabbis, were arrested during the peaceful sit-in. Protesters wore shirts emblazoned with slogans such as “Not in Our Name” and “Jews Say Stop Arming Israel,” signaling their opposition to the U.S. military support for Israel.

“For nine months, we’ve watched in horror as the Israeli government has carried out a genocide, armed and funded by the U.S.,” said Stefanie Fox, JVP’s executive director. “Congress and the Biden administration have the power to end this horror today. Instead, our president is preparing to meet with Netanyahu and congressional leadership has honored him with an invitation to address Congress. Enough is enough.” President Joe Biden and Congress, Fox argued, must heed the calls for change. “We need an arms embargo now to save lives,” she added. Jane Hirschmann, a daughter of Holocaust survivors and JVP member, echoed these sentiments. “The Israeli government is using U.S. funding and weapons to slaughter and starve Palestinians in Gaza,” Hirschmann stated. “Americans—including Jewish Americans—are disgusted by our own government’s complicity in this genocide.” Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, D.C., comes as the death toll from Israel’s extensive assault on Gaza approaches 40,000 after nearly ten months of continuous bombing. This relentless campaign has devastated much of Gaza’s infrastructure and displaced 90% of its population. Earlier in the week, Israel’s military ordered the evacuation of another area previously designated as a safe zone, leading to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians in a fresh wave of attacks.

Netanyahu has a long history of addressing Congress, having done so more than any other world leader. His first address was in 1996, shortly after he and his right-wing allies came to power following the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a figure whose peace efforts Netanyahu had opposed. Despite the controversy surrounding his policies and actions, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) extended an invitation to Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress in late May. This invitation came just days after it was revealed that Israeli forces used U.S.-made bombs in a devastating attack on a camp of displaced Palestinians. Sonya Meyerson-Knox, JVP communications director, condemned the invitation. “It is utterly shameful that U.S. lawmakers would invite war criminal Netanyahu to address Congress,” she said. “We are hundreds of American Jews calling on our elected leaders to stop funding and fueling this genocide.” The protest against Netanyahu’s visit is part of a broader movement that includes planned grassroots protests ahead of and during his speech, as well as a boycott by dozens of Democratic lawmakers. Netanyahu’s address is scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm ET. Following his speech, he is expected to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday and then travel to Mar-a-Lago to meet with former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.

Vice President Kamala Harris, likely to become the Democratic presidential nominee following Biden’s anticipated exit from the 2024 race, has opted to attend a previously scheduled event in Indianapolis instead of presiding over Netanyahu’s remarks. Progressive lawmakers, including Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), have been vocal in their opposition to Netanyahu’s address. “By bestowing Prime Minister Netanyahu with a joint address, Congress is not only continuing to green-light genocide; it is actively celebrating the man at the forefront of that genocide,” Bush stated on Tuesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also voiced his disapproval, labeling Netanyahu a war criminal and criticizing his invitation to speak to Congress. “Netanyahu is a right-wing extremist and a war criminal who has devoted his career to killing the prospects of a two-state solution and lasting peace in the region,” Sanders remarked on the Senate floor. “He should not be welcomed to the United States Congress. On the contrary, his policies in Gaza and the West Bank should be roundly condemned and his right-wing extremist government should not receive another nickel from U.S. taxpayers.” “The only way to reach a cease-fire and build a just future is for the U.S. to stop sending weapons to Israel now,” said Hirschmann.

[xtruss]

Folks! Kick Genocidal Joe Biden, “The War Criminal, Demented and Complicit in Genocide in Gaza,” Out of Oval Office in 2024!

During U.S. primary elections this year, hundreds of thousands of voters have chosen "uncommitted" rather than endorse President Biden, who they say is complicit in genocide. Primary elections are used to determine the Democrat and Republican candidates for U.S. national elections. The grassroots movement began just a month before primary elections in Michigan - home to one of the largest Arab American populations - and quickly spread to other states.

[nando161mando]

Israel's Netanyahu to address U.S. Congress soon, Johnson says

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/netanyahu-will-soon-address-joint-session-us-congress-johnson-says-2024-05-24/?utm_source=reddit.com

[plethoraworldatlas]

Humanitarians reacted with outrage on Tuesday after former presidential U.S. candidate Nikki Haley wrote and signed an arguably genocidal message on an Israeli artillery shell while visiting an Israel Defense Forces post.

"Finish them! America [loves] Israel always," Haley wrote on the shell Tuesday, signing her name. She was accompanied by Danny Danon, a member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, who posted photos from their tour on social media. Haley, who was the ambassador to the United Nations under then-President Donald Trump, has been an ardent supporter of Israel's war in Gaza and has ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby group.

"Nothing to see here, just AIPAC's favorite politician, Nikki Haley, celebrating death and destruction in Gaza with an autographed missile," IfNotNow, a U.S. Jewish group that supports Palestinian rights, wrote on social media.

"Just disgusting," wrote Alon-Lee Green, director of the Jewish-Arab Movement for Peace, Equality & Social Justice in Israel. In the post, Green pleaded with Americans to take back their "filthy death-promoting politicians."

Alec Karakatsanis, an American civil rights lawyer, wrote that the Haley's message was "one of the most depraved things I have ever seen."

The timing of Haley's autograph of the weapon of war heightened the outrage. On Sunday night, Israel bombed the tents of displaced Palestinians in a "safe zone" of Rafah, killing at least 45 civilians, mostly women and children. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the strike a "tragic mistake," but the Israeli military then killed at least another 21 Palestinian civilians in a similar attack on a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

Haley "spent Memorial Day not commemorating fallen American service members, but visiting Israel as it conducts a brutal massacre in Gaza," The New Republic's Hafiz Rashid reported, calling her autographed message "sick."

One commentator suggested that Haley's act encapsulated the attitude of America's leaders. The most powerful members of both major parties, including President Joe Biden, a Democrat, have supported Israel's war in spite of condemnation by the United Nations General Assembly, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive" in Rafah.

"Biden provided the shells, Republicans autograph them," Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek minister of finance and pro-Palestine public intellectual, wrote on social media. "The U.S. political class is united in its complicity with this genocide."

[darkmaga-retard]

Filmmaker appealed to Harris to “step out from this darkness.”

Sep 05, 2024

Michael Moore, the movie director, wrote in his newsletter today that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, and the U.S. taxpayer is “funding and arming the slaughter of children in Gaza.”

Moore said Netanyahu played U.S. President Joe Biden “like a sucker” and appealed to Vice President Kamala Harris, who promised to keep up the Biden doctrine for genocide, to “step out from this darkness.”

“Show the world your moral courage,” he posted. “Your compassion. You said we’re not going back. Supporting the daily murder of children is not going forward. It’s the same old story of men and their military-industrial complex getting rich off war. Of bullies occupying another people’s land — and claiming the Bible told them to do it! What year is this? 1254 AD?”

Harris said she would not impose an arms embargo against Israel no matter how many Palestinians it kills in Gaza or how far the Netanyahu government aims to expand the war.

Harris has voiced support for Israel but, for some, she seemed like a more moderate voice in the Biden administration. Donald Trump is fully committed to Israel and is the candidate of choice by Miriam Adelson and her Zionist hardliners.

Rumors started to swirl about Harris’s possible support for an Israeli weapons embargo when activists from the Uncommitted National Movement mentioned that they spoke with Harris and she indicated a willingness to hold a follow-up meeting to talk about such a move. 

The Harris aide clarified that Harris did not express any sort of willingness for an arms embargo, Reuters reported. A campaign spokesman told the news agency that Harris intends to stay in contact with the Muslim and Palestinian communities about the war in Gaza.

The report noted that Phil Gordon, Harris’s national security adviser, posted on X that Harris has “been clear.”

“She will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups,” he posted. “She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law.”

[kp777]

By Jon Queally

Common Dreams

June 15, 2024

A joint statement calls on "all States to ensure full co-operation with the Court for it to carry out its important mandate of ensuring equal justice for all victims of genocide, war crimes, [and] crimes against humanity."

Ninety-three nations on Friday, all them state parties to the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court, reiterated their support for the ICC as it assesses an application for arrest warrants of high level Israeli government officials accused of perpetrating war crimes in Gaza.

The 93 countries—including Canada, Bangladesh, Belgium, Ireland, Afghanistan, Costa Rica, Chile, Germany, France, Mongolia, Mexico, New Zealand, and scores of other—cited separate ICC statements defending its mandate for independence and upheld in their joint statement "that the Court, its officials and staff shall carry out their professional duties as international civil servants without intimidation."

Though neither nation is named in the joint statement, both the United States and Israel have publicly condemned ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan for his May 20 arrest warrant applications for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" in the Gaza Strip.

Khan also submitted arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh for their alleged roles in the October 7 attack on southern Israel. Following Khan's announcement in May, U.S. President Joe Biden said, "Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security."

In April it was reported that the U.S. government was working behind the scenes to block the ICC from issuing any arrest warrants targeting Israel officials. Neither Israel nor the U.S. is party to the Rome Statute, though the United Nations has recognized the ICC's jurisdiction over the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), where the alleged war crimes by the occupying power, Israel, took place.

After Khan made his application for warrants, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said, "We've been really clear about the ICC investigation. We do not support it." On June 4, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, along with 42 Democrats, passed a measure that would sanction ICC officials if the arrest warrants for any Israeli officials were approved or carried out.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, was among those who applauded Friday's public statement.

Rajagapol thanked the signatory nations "for defending the ICC and standing up against the bullies, including the relics from the U.S. Senate whose idea of engaging with the world is to use threats," a possible reference to Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) who denounced Khan's applications as "outrageous," applauded the House approval of sanctions, and vowed further punishment for the ICC.

Such punitive measures and high-profile threats directed at the ICC appeared to be the exact kind of intimidation Friday's joint pledge of support is responding to.

"The ICC, as the world's first and only permanent international criminal court, is an essential component of the international peace and security architecture," the statement reads. "We therefore call on all States to ensure full co-operation with the Court for it to carry out its important mandate of ensuring equal justice for all victims of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression, grave crimes that threaten the peace, security and well-being of the world."

With their show of unified support for the ICC and its mandate, the countries said they aim to "contribute to ending impunity for such crimes and preventing their recurrence while defending the progress we have made together to guarantee lasting respect for international humanitarian law, human rights, the of law and the enforcement of international criminal justice."