[The Slim Reaper]

https://thehill.com/policy/internati...mpression=true

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Sunday that efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israeli forces in Palestinian-controlled areas were rooted in anti-Semitism.

Reuters reported that the Israeli leader made the accusation at a Hanukkah ceremony in Jerusalem in front of the Western Wall, a holy site for Judaism, and claimed that the ICC was opposing the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.

“New edicts are being cast against the Jewish people - anti-Semitic edicts by the International Criminal Court telling us that we, the Jews standing here next to this wall ... in this city, in this country, have no right to live here and that by doing so, we are committing a war crime,” he said, according to the news service.

“Pure anti-Semitism,” he added of the ICC's efforts.

His remark comes a day after the ICC's chief prosecutor announced that she wished to open a war crimes investigation into Israeli actions taken in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem. The investigation stems from a case brought to the body by Palestinian officials in 2015.

"[T]here are no substantial reasons to believe that an investigation would not serve the interests of justice," Fatou Bensouda said Saturday, according to the BBC.

Netanyahu, an ally of President Trump, is facing charges of corruption from Israeli law enforcement officials and is currently seeking re-election after a previous election ended with no clear victor earlier this year.

The director of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem reacted to the news in a statement, tweeting that "legal acrobatics" by Netanyahu's administration should not be allowed to halt the investigation.

.@btselem's director called the prosecutor’s finding 'the only possible outcome arising from the facts.'
“Israel’s legal acrobatics in an attempt to whitewash its crimes must not be allowed to stop international legal efforts to, at long last, hold it to account,” @HagaiElAd said https://t.co/tu4O68w2J4

— Hagai El-Ad (@HagaiElAd) December 21, 2019

[Twosugars]

Now I've heard it all

[Liam-]

And people will believe and defend that, whereas if a Muslim said something similar, they’d be dragged through the coals backwards and told they have no place in society, it really desensitises (idk if that’s the right word) actual anti-semitism when it’s used as a weapon like this imo

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Liam-

And people will believe and defend that, whereas if a Muslim said something similar, they’d be dragged through the coals backwards and told they have no place in society, it really delegitimises actual anti-semitism when it’s used as a weapon like this imo

well you just made that up to support your point...

[The Slim Reaper]

The fact they are given a pass for occupying Palestinian land and forcing them to live under a system of apartheid, sort of suggests his wider point was, well, on point.

[Liam-]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

well you just made that up to support your point...

Clearly haven’t, you only have to mention islamophobia and you get a wave of ‘that’s not a real thing, it’s used as a distraction whenever a Muslim is criticised’ it even happens on here alarmingly regularly, so let’s not pretend now shall we

[Twosugars]

The charge of antisemitism is used to muzzle any criticism of the Israeli government

Luckily there are many Jews who reject that charade

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Liam-

Clearly haven’t, you only have to mention islamophobia and you get a wave of ‘that’s not a real thing, it’s used as a distraction whenever a Muslim is criticised’ it even happens on here alarmingly regularly, so let’s not pretend now shall we

im not pretending you just did to support your statement and its not true. if you have a specific example use it

[Kizzy]

Is the guy even in power, I thought he didnt get enough votes to secure a position as leader?

Seems like he has as much respect for the ICC as our govt has for the ECHR...

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

im not pretending you just did to support your statement and its not true. if you have a specific example use it

And what's your view.? You don't appear to have one.

[Tom4784]

Israel is becoming a state not too far removed from the one it's residents escaped from a few decades ago. It's a sad state of affairs and the way Netanyahu and others try to use anti-semitism as a way to discourage investigation into Israel's human rights abuse is disgusting and it undermines anti-semitism and trivialises it, weaponises it even.

Israel is a country, it is not a religion and if it is guilty of human rights abuse which many independent and impartial bodies say they are, then those crimes should be brought to light.

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

Israel is becoming a state not too far removed from the one it's residents escaped from a few decades ago. It's a sad state of affairs and the way Netanyahu and others try to use anti-semitism as a way to discourage investigation into Israel's human rights abuse is disgusting and it undermines anti-semitism and trivialises it, weaponises it even.

Israel is a country, it is not a religion and if it is guilty of human rights abuse which many independent and impartial bodies say they are, then those crimes should be brought to light.

This.

[The Slim Reaper]

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...roup-apartheid

We are Israel's largest human rights group – and we are calling this apartheid
The systematic promotion of the supremacy of one group of people over another is deeply immoral and must end

One cannot live a single day in Israel-Palestine without the sense that this place is constantly being engineered to privilege one people, and one people only: the Jewish people. Yet half of those living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea are Palestinian. The chasm between these lived realities fills the air, bleeds, is everywhere on this land.

I am not simply referring to official statements spelling this out – and there are plenty, such as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion in 2019 that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens”, or the “nation state” basic law enshrining “the development of Jewish settlement as a national value”. What I am trying to get at is a deeper sense of people as desirable or undesirable, and an understanding about my country that I have been gradually exposed to since the day I was born in Haifa. Now, it is a realisation that can no longer be avoided.

Although there is demographic parity between the two peoples living here, life is managed so that only one half enjoy the vast majority of political power, land resources, rights, freedoms and protections. It is quite a feat to maintain such disfranchisement. Even more so, to successfully market it as a democracy (inside the “green line” – the 1949 armistice line), one to which a temporary occupation is attached. In fact, one government rules everyone and everything between the river and the sea, following the same organising principle everywhere under its control, working to advance and perpetuate the supremacy of one group of people – Jews – over another – Palestinians. This is apartheid.


Israel is a non-democratic apartheid regime, says rights group
Read more
There is not a single square inch in the territory Israel controls where a Palestinian and a Jew are equal. The only first-class people here are Jewish citizens such as myself, and we enjoy this status both inside the 1967 lines and beyond them, in the West Bank. Separated by the different personal statuses allotted to them, and by the many variations of inferiority Israel subjects them to, Palestinians living under Israel’s rule are united by all being unequal.

Unlike South African apartheid, the application of our version of it – apartheid 2.0, if you will – avoids certain kinds of ugliness. You won’t find “whites only” signs on benches. Here, “protecting the Jewish character” of a community – or of the state itself – is one of the thinly veiled euphemisms deployed to try to obscure the truth. Yet the essence is the same. That Israel’s definitions do not depend on skin colour make no material difference: it is the supremacist reality which is the heart of the matter – and which must be defeated.

Until the passage of the nation state law, the key lesson Israel seemed to have learned from how South Africa’s apartheid ended was to avoid too-explicit statements and laws. These can risk bringing about moral judgments – and eventually, heaven forbid, real consequences. Instead, the patient, quiet, and gradual accumulation of discriminatory practices tends to prevent repercussions from the international community, especially if one is willing to provide lip service to its norms and expectations.

This is how Jewish supremacy on both sides of the green line is accomplished and applied.

We demographically engineer the composition of the population by working to increase the number of Jews and limit the number of Palestinians. We allow for Jewish migration – with automatic citizenship – to anywhere Israel controls. For Palestinians, the opposite is true: they cannot acquire personal status anywhere Israel controls – even if their family is from here.

We engineer power through the allocation – or denial – of political rights. All Jewish citizens get to vote (and all Jews can become citizens), but less than a quarter of the Palestinians under Israel’s rule have citizenship and can thus vote. On 23 March, when Israelis go and vote for the fourth time in two years, it will not be a “celebration of democracy” – as elections are often referred to. Rather, it will be yet another day in which disfranchised Palestinians watch as their future is determined by others.

We engineer land control by expropriating huge swaths of Palestinian land, keeping it off-limits for their development – or using it to build Jewish towns, neighbourhoods, and settlements. Inside the green line, we have been doing this since the state was established in 1948. In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, we have been doing this since the occupation began in 1967. The result is that Palestinian communities – anywhere between the river and the sea – face a reality of demolitions, displacement, impoverishment and overcrowding, while the same land resources are allocated for new Jewish development.

And we engineer – or rather, restrict – Palestinians’ movement. The majority, who are neither citizens nor residents, depend on Israeli permits and checkpoints to travel in and between one area and another, as well as to travel internationally. For the two million in the Gaza Strip travel restrictions are the most severe – this is not just a Bantustan, as Israel has made it one of the largest open-air prisons on Earth.

Haifa, my birth city, was a binational reality of demographic parity until 1948. Of some 70,000 Palestinians living in Haifa before the Nakba, less than a 10th were left afterwards. Almost 73 years have passed since then, and now Israel-Palestine is a binational reality of demographic parity. I was born here. I want – I intend – to stay. But I want – I demand – to live in a very different future.

The past is one of traumas and injustices. In the present, yet more injustices are constantly reproduced. The future must be radically different – a rejection of supremacy, built on a commitment to justice and our shared humanity. Calling things by their proper name – apartheid – is not a moment of despair: rather, it is a moment of moral clarity, a step on a long walk inspired by hope. See the reality for what it is, name it without flinching – and help bring about the realisation of a just future.

Hagai El-Ad is an Israeli human rights activist, and executive director of B’Tselem

[Livia]

[Nicky91]

Apartheid is from South Africa though (yes i know some history facts)

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

Apartheid is from South Africa though (yes i know some history facts)

Apartheid is a system of segregation and control based on race.

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Livia

Are you pro apartheid? Or do you see defence as the same thing? I'd be interested in reading your thoughts, especially as the nazis thought the jews were the reason for their problems, and it so follows that with that kind of racist and magical thinking, they were also acting in their own defence, especially with their lebensraum policy.

[Tom4784]

Israel is a country, a country that has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, I am truly tired of Israel and the right wing making out that attempts to investigate and hold Israel accountable for what they've done is anti-semitic.

It is simply weaponising the accusation of anti-semitism to avoid consequences and it's disgusting considering all the lives that have been lost to actual anti-semitism.

Israel have committed grave crimes and those crimes should be brought to light.

[The Slim Reaper]