{"id":398,"date":"2023-02-02T14:10:52","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T13:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/?p=398"},"modified":"2023-02-02T14:13:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T13:13:43","slug":"media-watch-february-1-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/?p=398","title":{"rendered":"Media Watch – February 1, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
Israeli settlers attempt to establish a new settlement in response to the killing of two settlers the night before, near the illegal settlement of Itamar, West Bank, October 2, 2015. All settlements are illegal under international law. <\/figcaption><\/figure>This month we are focused again on the impact of the new government of terror and racism in Israel on Palestinians in Israel and the oPt affecting health and human rights.<\/p>\n

Of note: The Israeli campaign in the West Bank and Gaza, to provoke, attack, injure, and kill Palestinians continues in full fury, raising the suspicion that the new rightwing government is going to continue these provocations until there is a more militant response from Palestinians and then use that to justify an all-out war. This has certainly happened before and Palestinians are facing horrific grief and dangerous collective punishment. The Israeli rightwing coalition is fulfilling its promises on multiple fronts from hate crimes to violence to subjugating anything and anyone that is not Jewish, Orthodox, or male. While much of the international community is trying to get along with and possibly weakly contain Netanyahu, the power of the Israel hasbara industry was challenged by the recent drama with Kenneth Roth and the Harvard Kennedy School. These are frightening and deadly times and we must not be silent.<\/p>\n

MONTHLY HUMAN RIGHTS HERO AND VIOLATION<\/p>\n

HERO: UN General Assembly resolution to International Court of Justice<\/p>\n

Israeli settlers attempt to establish a new settlement in the northern West Bank in October 2015. Yotam Ronen ActiveStills<\/p>\n

UN General Assembly passed a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestine. Netanyahu called the request a \u201cdespicable decision\u201d.<\/p>\n

Legality of Israel\u2019s occupation referred to UN court<\/strong>
\nLast week, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of Israel\u2019s occupation of the West Bank \u2013 including East Jerusalem \u2013 and Gaza.<\/p>\n

The resolution asks the court to set out the legal consequences of Israel\u2019s violation of Palestinians\u2019 right to self-determination and its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian land since 1967.<\/p>\n

This includes \u201cmeasures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status\u201d of Jerusalem and the \u201cadoption of discriminatory legislation and measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution also asks the court to determine \u201cthe legal consequences that arise for all states and the United Nations\u201d as a result of its findings.<\/p>\n

The International Court of Justice is the UN\u2019s tribunal for settling legal disputes submitted by states and requests for advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it through the UN system.<\/p>\n

Though both are based in The Hague, the International Court of Justice is a separate body from the International Criminal Court, which opened an investigation into the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last year.<\/p>\n

Advisory opinions issued by the ICJ are non-binding.
\nIgnored<\/p>\n

This will not be the first time that the ICJ has weighed in on Israel\u2019s activities in occupied Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n

In 2004, the court ruled that Israel\u2019s construction of a massive wall in the occupied West Bank was illegal and must be stopped immediately and that reparations should be made for damage caused.<\/p>\n

The 2004 advisory opinion had little effect on the ground in Palestine and is one of many recommendations made by UN organs concerning Israel\u2019s violations of Palestinian rights that has gone ignored \u2013 both by Israel and third states.<\/p>\n

Ahead of last week\u2019s vote, the Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council stated that despite the limited material effect of the 2004 advisory opinion, \u201cthe case supported the undeniable right of the Palestinian people to their self-determination under international law and emphasizes the illegality of all annexations and settlements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, the court\u2019s 2004 ruling found that Israel\u2019s wall in the West Bank amounted to de facto annexation of occupied territory.<\/p>\n

Al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights group, said that the new advisory opinion \u201cmay incur, for the first time, important obligations on third states and the international community to bring the occupation to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palestinian human rights groups championed the resolution, which was drafted by the UN\u2019s Special Political and Decolonization Committee and then submitted to the General Assembly.<\/p>\n

Al Mezan, a Palestinian rights group based in Gaza, said that the adoption of the resolution \u201cis a significant milestone in the struggle against Israel\u2019s apartheid settler-colonial regime.\u201d
\nThe rights group noted that many European states either abstained or voted against the measure despite it coming \u201cat a critical time when a new far-right Israeli government has been installed.\u201d<\/p>\n

That government, Al Mezan noted, has \u201cvowed to legalize dozens of illegal settlements and annex the West Bank as a top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Israel is seeing through with those pledges by destroying Palestinian structures in Jerusalem and the South Hebron Hills and issuing forcible transfer notices affecting 1,000 people in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern West Bank this week.
\nEuropean double standards<\/p>\n

The failure of many European states to support the resolution seeking an advisory opinion on Israel\u2019s prolonged occupation throws the double standards by which international law is applied into sharp contrast.<\/p>\n

While imposing unprecedented sanctions on Russia over its invasion and occupation of Ukraine, European states have paid only lip service to opposing Israel\u2019s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

European Union officials even welcomed the new Israeli government led by extremists who have pledged to formally annex West Bank land and complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that began in 1948. Josep Borrell, the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief, has stated that he plans to work with the new government on \u201cfurther improving\u201d relations with Israel.
\nWhile Borrell continues to talk about promoting a two-state solution, Zvika Fogel, a member of the new Israeli parliament, said that \u201cthe occupation is permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fogel belongs to the Jewish Power party headed by Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel\u2019s new national security minister who now oversees Israel\u2019s police and paramilitary Border Police that operate in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Fogel is former chief of staff of the Israeli military\u2019s \u201csouthern command,\u201d which includes the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

In 2018, soon after the launch of Great March of Return protests along Gaza\u2019s boundary with Israel, Fogel championed the use of lethal force against Palestinians who approach the boundary fence, including children.<\/p>\n

He said that shooting and killing children was a reasonable \u201cprice that we have to pay to preserve the safety and quality of life of the residents of the state of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 215 Palestinian civilians, including more than 40 children, were killed during those demonstrations, and thousands more wounded by live fire during those protests between March 2018 and December 2019.<\/p>\n

A UN commission of inquiry found that Israel\u2019s use of lethal force against protesters warrants criminal investigation and prosecution and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

The UN investigators called for sanctions on those responsible and for the arrest of Israeli personnel \u201calleged to have committed, or who ordered to have committed\u201d international crimes in relation to the Great March of Return protests.<\/p>\n

Those recommendations went ignored by the same states who have thrown their support and money behind war crimes trials and other punitive measures after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month we are focused again on the impact of the new government of terror and racism in Israel on Palestinians in Israel and the oPt affecting health and human rights. Of note: The Israeli campaign in the West Bank and Gaza, to provoke, attack, injure, and kill Palestinians continues in full fury, raising the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blocco","category-campagna-ice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401,"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlus.newweapons.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}