#War ​Crimes of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗 Cunts

[xtruss]

Arms experts and campaigners are questioning whether the drone used by the Israeli military to kill seven aid workers, including three former members of Britain's armed forces, was powered by a UK-made engine.

The World Central Kitchen aid workers had just delivered more that 100 tonnes of food aid to a warehouse in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah on Monday when their convoy was reportedly hit multiple times by missiles in an attack involving a Hermes 450 drone.

The attack, which the organisation's founder has said was deliberate and which the Israeli military has called "a grave mistake", has drawn global condemnation and escalated calls within the US and the UK for an end of arms sales to Israel.

It has also drawn scrutiny from arms monitors and aviation experts who say they believe it's possible the drone reportedly involved in the attack was flying with an engine manufactured by the UK-based UAV Engines Limited

The company, located in the West Midlands' village of Shenstone, is a subsidiary of the Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems.

"The evidence seems to stack up that it is a UK engine and, if it's not, then Elbit need to clarify that," Sam Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator at the UK-based Campaigns Against Arms Trade, said on Wednesday.

"Definitely it seems to be based on a UK design at the very least."

Among the evidence, said Perlo-Freeman, are specialist websites and reports which say that the Hermes 450 runs on a UK-made engine.

— By Dania Akkad

[xtruss]

[xtruss]

Pro-Palestine demonstrators gather during a vigil for U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, on Feb. 26, 2024. Photo: Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Aaron Bushnell, Who Self-Immolated For Palestine 🇵🇸, Had Grown Deeply Disillusioned With The Military! “I have Been Complicit in The Violent Domination of The World And I Will Never Get The Blood 🩸 🩸🩸 Off My Hands.”

— By Nikita Mazurov | February 28 2024

Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty U.S. Air Force Airman who set himself on fire Sunday to protest Israel’s war on Gaza, appears to have grown disillusioned with the U.S. military and his own role as a service member, according to posts on the online forum Reddit under a handle matching one used by Bushnell.

Bushnell, 25, made international news when he professed that he would “no longer be complicit in genocide” and recorded himself shouting “Free Palestine!” as he burned to death in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Sunday. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” Bushnell had announced on a livestream before his self-immolation, “but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers is not extreme at all.”

The Reddit posts, by a user named acebush1 and mostly from the past four years, chronicle a young person’s experience struggling with money as the pandemic took hold. The Reddit poster turned to the military and was initially enamored with the Air Force, but quickly came to denounce it.

In the months leading up to Bushnell’s act of self-immolation, several of acebush1’s posts showed how sharply their view of the military had shifted. On the r/Airforce subreddit, a user asked veterans whether, in hindsight, they would still choose to join the military. Acebush1 answered, “Absolutely not.”

“I have been complicit in the violent domination of the world,” they said, “and I will never get the blood off my hands.”

The Intercept analysis linked the acebush1 Reddit account to Bushnell by analyzing his social media activity. In a post on Facebook the same day as his self-immolation, Bushnell had posted a link to the video streaming platform Twitch with the username LillyAnarKitty. Using a Twitch username history tool that identifies a user’s prior account names, The Intercept found that the same Twitch User ID number used by LillyAnarKitty previously employed the handle acebush1.

A Reddit user with the same username — acebush1 — posted over a thousand times since 2014. The Reddit posts mention details that align closely with Bushnell’s life, including being in the Air Force, having a friend who was a conscientious objector, and studying computer science.

As this story was being drafted, acebush1’s posts started to be removed from Reddit. The posts were archived and, though Reddit instantly deletes posts from their new interface, visiting the old-style Reddit user profile page reveals their recently deleted posts.

“A Regret I Will Carry”

The acebush1 Reddit user joined the military soon after posting about their financial struggles at the beginning of the pandemic. On March 19, 2020, acebush1 inquired about becoming an Uber Eats driver. The following month they posted asking for financial help: “HELP – Can’t get stimulus or unemployment benefits, about to run out of money.”

In May, acebush1 posted a photo with the caption “My Dad getting suited up to give me a goodbye? hug before I leave for BMT” — basic military training. According to Bushnell’s LinkedIn page, he enrolled in “Basic & Technical Training” in the Air Force in May 2020.

Several months into enrollment, acebush1 appeared excited by the Air Force, reposting a video of a military aircraft in August 2020 and giving it a heading that said: “Man, the Air Force does some cool-ass shit.”

Acebush1 also regularly posted in various video game Reddit communities, including one dedicated to the video game “Valheim.” In Bushnell’s self-immolation livestream, the liquid container he is carrying has a sticker with the slogan ‘the bees are happy,’ a meme from “Valheim.”

In November 2021, acebush1 made multiple posts asking about advice in pursuing a computer science degree. Bushnell’s LinkedIn profile, which has been memorialized “as a tribute to Aaron Bushnell’s professional legacy,” lists him as having been in the process of pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer software engineering.

Nearly a year later, acebush1’s posts shifted from largely video game-based content to posts with titles like “Solidarity with Prisoners!” with a link to a Guardian article about an Alabama prison strike, and to reposting a meme image of anarchist philosopher Max Stirner. In 2023, acebush1 made a post with the title “Free Palestine!” and linked to a video of an activist takeover of UAV Tactical Systems, a drone company operated in part by the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems.

“I Didn’t Realize What A Huge Mistake It Was Until I Was More Than Halfway Through.”

Shortly after the pro-Palestine post, in June 2023, acebush1 wrote, “I’m sticking it out to the end of my contract as I didn’t realize what a huge mistake it was until I was more than halfway through, and I only have a year left at this point. However it is a regret I will carry the rest of my life.”

The poster mentioned a friend who left the armed services on the basis of conscientious objection; Bushnell’s friend Levi Pierpont, according to the Washington Post, objected and left the military.

Acebush1’s posts became more stridently pro-Palestinian as Israel’s war in Gaza got underway. In one, they denounce Israel as a “settler colonialist apartheid state,” and exclaim that there are no Israeli “civilians” because the entire country is engaged in oppression. They refuse on several occasion to denounce armed Palestinian resistance, saying in the apartheid post that they “work for the air force and would also have no right to complain about violent resistance against my actions.”

In November 2023, acebush1 made another post describing “the moral necessity of getting out.”

In the last few months, acebush1 accelerated their posting across various anarchism-related Reddit communities, as well as on other various communities. “Piracy is always ethical,” acebush1 posted. “If you think that you’re making a difference with who you do and don’t choose to give your money to, you don’t understand how markets work.”

Acebush1’s last Reddit post was on February 24, expounding on how “whiteness erases culture” — a day before Bushnell’s self-immolating direct action. In an earlier post, acebush1 had written, “I’ve never been one for bullshit.”

[xtruss]

The World Food Programme says at least 300 trucks worth of aid are needed every day for the north of Gaza alone, yet Israeli disruptions and attacks on aid trucks and convoys make it impossible for agencies to distribute the much-needed aid to the Palestinians.

[xtruss]

The UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, has said that 62% of all homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.

"Over 75% of the population have been displaced - the majority multiple times. When will it end?" the agency asked on X.

Meanwhile, a new report by the World Bank and the United Nations showed that Israel destroyed billions of dollars worth of infrastructure in the first four months of its bombardment of the besieged enclave.

Describing the level of damage inflicted by Israel as "unprecedented", both global bodies said the damage is estimated to be worth at least $18.5b - the combined GDP of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

[xtruss]

Before and After Images Show the Extent of the Destruction By the “War Criminal 🐖 🐷 🐗 Zionist Terrorists” at Gaza's Largest Hospital Complex, Al Shifa, Where Two Weeks of Intense Israeli Siege has Left Charred Buildings and Bodies Strewn About.

Pregnant women in Gaza face hunger, Terrorist Isra-helli bombardment and displacement, leading to premature labour and an increasing number of newborn deaths. Even before the war, Gaza had a high neonatal mortality rate, with 68% of global newborn deaths occurring in the besieged enclave.

[xtruss]

[xtruss]

​​Francesca P. Albanese, An Italian International Lawyer, An Academic and The UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, is a legal scholar, the first woman to hold this pivotal position, and an all-round pain in the neck for “Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Genocidal and Occupier Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗” from Tel Aviv to London to New York. Today, she is the voice of the global conscience speaking truth to the vulgar warmongers committing atrocities in Gaza.

The bold, brilliant and thoroughly researched report Albanese recently issued, aptly titled 'Anatomy of a Genocide, has inspired much admiration around the globe for her tireless work - but also horror and fury among 🐖 Zionist Cunts who do not want Israel's genocide in Palestine to have such an eloquent, precise and detailed account.

This is the second such account after the one prepared by South Africa's legal team against the unfolding Israeli genocide at the International Court of Justice. That equally compelling document now foregrounds Albanese's report as two solid records holding the Israeli settler colony to account for the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Fooled and deluded by the Israel lobby in the US, and by western media propaganda, “Terrorist, Fascist, War Criminal, Genocidal and Occupier Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗” might be under the illusion that like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand, the world is blind to the Israeli state's savagery in Palestine - especially as the lobby has bought and paid for American politicians, who continue to procure weapons that fuel this horror.

Reports such as the one from Albanese, and legal documents such as that of South Africa, comprise a global indictment against a morally depraved and politically bankrupt ideology of theft, murder and mayhem, which lies at the roots of the Israeli settler colony.

What drives Albanese in this report are the facts on the ground, including children and their parents slaughtered in broad daylight. From Satan-Yahu in his garrison state, to the American and European leaders who have backed him, all are implicated in this historic report."

— ✍️ By Professor Hamid Dabashi

[xtruss]

Google, The Scrotums Licker of The Zionist Cunts, Won’t Say Anything About “Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, Apartheid, War Criminal Zionist 🐖 Isra-hell” Using Its Photo Software To Create Gaza “Hit List”

Google Prohibits using its Tech for “Immediate Harm,” But ‘Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, Apartheid, War Criminal Zionist 🐖 Isra-hell’ is Harnessing its Facial Recognition to Set-up a Dragnet of Palestinians.

— Sam Biddle | April 5 2024

About a dozen demonstrators lay on the ground draped in white sheets with a mock version of the Google logo, demanding an end to the company's work with the Israeli government, in San Francisco on December 14, 2023. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

The Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, Apartheid, War Criminal Zionist 🐖 Isra-helli Military has reportedly implemented a facial recognition dragnet across the Gaza Strip, scanning ordinary Palestinians as they move throughout the ravaged territory, attempting to flee the ongoing bombardment and seeking sustenance for their families.

The program relies on two different facial recognition tools, according to the New York Times: one made by the Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, Apartheid, War Criminal Zionist 🐖 Isra-helli contractor Corsight, and the other built into the popular consumer image organization platform offered through Google Photos. An anonymous Israeli official told the Times that Google Photos worked better than any of the alternative facial recognition tech, helping the Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, Apartheid, War Criminal Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗 Isra-hellis make a “hit list” of alleged Hamas fighters who participated in the October 7 attack.

The mass surveillance of Palestinian faces resulting from Israel’s efforts to identify Hamas members has caught up thousands of Gaza residents since the October 7 attack. Many of those arrested or imprisoned, often with little or no evidence, later said they had been brutally interrogated or tortured. In its facial recognition story, the Times pointed to Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, whose arrest and beating at the hands of the Israeli military began with its use of facial recognition. Abu Toha, later released without being charged with any crime, told the paper that Israeli soldiers told him his facial recognition-enabled arrest had been a “mistake.”

Putting aside questions of accuracy — facial recognition systems are notorious less accurate on nonwhite faces — the use of Google Photos’s machine learning-powered analysis features to place civilians under military scrutiny, or worse, is at odds with the company’s clearly stated rules. Under the header “Dangerous and Illegal Activities,” Google warns that Google Photos cannot be used “to promote activities, goods, services, or information that cause serious and immediate harm to people.”

“Facial Recognition Surveillance of This Type Undermines Rights Enshrined in International Human Rights Law.”

Asked how a prohibition against using Google Photos to harm people was compatible with the Israel military’s use of Google Photos to create a “hit list,” company spokesperson Joshua Cruz declined to answer, stating only that “Google Photos is a free product which is widely available to the public that helps you organize photos by grouping similar faces, so you can label people to easily find old photos. It does not provide identities for unknown people in photographs.” (Cruz did not respond to repeated subsequent attempts to clarify Google’s position.)

It’s unclear how such prohibitions — or the company’s long-standing public commitments to human rights — are being applied to Israel’s military.

“It depends how Google interprets ‘serious and immediate harm’ and ‘illegal activity,’ but facial recognition surveillance of this type undermines rights enshrined in international human rights law — privacy, non-discrimination, expression, assembly rights, and more,” said Anna Bacciarelli, the associate tech director at Human Rights Watch. “Given the context in which this technology is being used by Israeli forces, amid widespread, ongoing, and systematic denial of the human rights of people in Gaza, I would hope that Google would take appropriate action.”

Doing Good or Doing Google?

In addition to its terms of service ban against using Google Photos to cause harm to people, the company has for many years claimed to embrace various global human rights standards.

“Since Google’s founding, we’ve believed in harnessing the power of technology to advance human rights,” wrote Alexandria Walden, the company’s global head of human rights, in a 2022 blog post. “That’s why our products, business operations, and decision-making around emerging technologies are all informed by our Human Rights Program and deep commitment to increase access to information and create new opportunities for people around the world.”

This deep commitment includes, according to the company, upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — which forbids torture — and the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which notes that conflicts over territory produce some of the worst rights abuses.

The Israeli military’s use of a free, publicly available Google product like Photos raises questions about these corporate human rights commitments, and the extent to which the company is willing to actually act upon them. Google says that it endorses and subscribes to the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a framework that calls on corporations to “to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.”

Walden also said Google supports the Conflict-Sensitive Human Rights Due Diligence for ICT Companies, a voluntary framework that helps tech companies avoid the misuse of their products and services in war zones. Among the document’s many recommendations are for companies like Google to consider “Use of products and services for government surveillance in violation of international human rights law norms causing immediate privacy and bodily security impacts (i.e., to locate, arrest, and imprison someone).” (Neither JustPeace Labs nor Business for Social Responsibility, which co-authored the due-diligence framework, replied to a request for comment.)

“Google and Corsight both have a responsibility to ensure that their products and services do not cause or contribute to human rights abuses,” said Bacciarelli. “I’d expect Google to take immediate action to end the use of Google Photos in this system, based on this news.”

Google employees taking part in the No Tech for Apartheid campaign, a worker-led protest movement against Project Nimbus, called their employer to prevent the Israeli military from using Photos’s facial recognition to prosecute the war in Gaza.

“That the Israeli military is even weaponizing consumer technology like Google Photos, using the included facial recognition to identify Palestinians as part of their surveillance apparatus, indicates that the Israeli military will use any technology made available to them — unless Google takes steps to ensure their products don’t contribute to ethnic cleansing, occupation, and genocide,” the group said in a statement shared with The Intercept. “As Google workers, we demand that the company drop Project Nimbus immediately, and cease all activity that supports the Israeli government and military’s genocidal agenda to decimate Gaza.”

Project Nimbus

This would not be the first time Google’s purported human rights principles contradict its business practices — even just in Israel. Since 2021, Google has sold the Israeli military advanced cloud computing and machine learning-tools through its controversial “Project Nimbus” contract.

Unlike Google Photos, a free consumer product available to anyone, Project Nimbus is a bespoke software project tailored to the needs of the Israeli state. Both Nimbus and Google Photos’s face-matching prowess, however, are products of the company’s immense machine-learning resources.

The sale of these sophisticated tools to a government so regularly accused of committing human rights abuses and war crimes stands in opposition to Google’s AI Principles. The guidelines forbid AI uses that are likely to cause “harm,” including any application “whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.”

Google has previously suggested its “principles” are in fact far narrower than they appear, applying only to “custom AI work” and not the general use of its products by third parties. “It means that our technology can be used fairly broadly by the military,” a company spokesperson told Defense One in 2022.

How, or if, Google ever turns its executive-blogged assurances into real-world consequences remains unclear. Ariel Koren, a former Google employee who said she was forced out of her job in 2022 after protesting Project Nimbus, placed Google’s silence on the Photos issue in a broader pattern of avoiding responsibility for how its technology is used.

“It is an understatement to say that aiding and abetting a genocide constitutes a violation of Google’s AI principles and terms of service,” Koren, now an organizer with No Tech for Apartheid, told The Intercept. “Even in the absence of public comment, Google’s actions have made it clear that the company’s public AI ethics principles hold no bearing or weight in Google Cloud’s business decisions, and that even complicity in genocide is not a barrier to the company’s ruthless pursuit of profit at any cost.”