New Left Current (Greece)
The International Court of Justice confirmed that South Africa’s charge under the Genocide Convention that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza” is “plausible”. It has further ruled that Israel must “take all measures” to avoid acts of genocide in Gaza. The court has stopped short of calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Still, most of the “provisional measures” called for by the Republic of South Africa have been endorsed by the court.
What was Israel’s reaction? Since the ICJ heard South Africa’s case two weeks ago, Israel has doubled down on its genocidal acts in Gaza. In 24 hours alone, after the Court’s anouncment, it carried out 21 mass killings, murdering 200 and injuring 370 civilians. At the same time, far-right protesters have been blocking the roads to the crossing at the Israel-Gaza border for days, preventing even the few aid trucks from getting through.
What was the reaction of Western governments to the Court’s announcement? The British Foreign Office announced: “We respect the role and independence of the International Court of Justice at The Hague”, but Israel “has the right to defend itself against Hamas” and “we consider that Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be described as genocide and for this reason we believe that South Africa’s decision to bring the case to justice is flawed and provocative”. The other governments, which support the massacre in Gaza anyway, remain indifferent, continue to send weapons to the state that is committing genocidal acts, prohibit and criminalise any act of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
A day after the World Court’s moderate statement, the killer-state and its genocidal Army announced that 12 UNRWA workers were involved in the 7th October attacks. UNRWA has 13,000 staff in Gaza and 30,000 in total in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the occupied West Bank, in refugee camps hosting millions of Palestinian refugees since 1948 when Western governments created the context and Israel carried out the Nakba, the uprooting of the Palestinian people. Although the accusations are doubtfull and come from “Israeli Army intelligence”, UNRWA has proceeded to dismiss the accused workers.
What was the reaction of Western governments to Israel’s allegations against 12 UNRWA workers? Within hours, 9 countries aligned themselves with this allegation. The US, Britain, Germany, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands,Switzerland, Canada and Australia announced that they were freezing all aid and funding to UNRWA, the only agency providing aid to Gaza, which has been reduced to rubble, where the people are starving and dying without food, water, medical care and medicines, electricity and fuel.
The USA, the hard core of NATO and the former British Empire, the neo-fascists of Meloni and Finland, with a government including a far right party with a neo-Nazi past, did not even wait for an investigation to examine Israel’s allegations. They are complicit in the genocide. They are murderers! They are sending weapons to the army that is committing genocide and condemning an entire people to death.
We are calling on the trade unions, student asseblies and other mass organizations to continue and strengthen their solidarity with the Palestinian people and to demand that the State of Israel be convicted of genocide in the International Court of Justice.
People all over the planet have shown their solidarity, calling the massacre a genocide against the hypocrisy and complicity of their governments. We demand an immediate end to the massacre in Gaza, an end to the Israeli state’s occupation of Palestine.
FREEDOM TO PALESTINE!
