No. 8

January 31, 2024

Suspension of Funding for UN Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees

• Shame on Canada for Actively Contributing to
Starvation of Palestinians

• Reject All Attempts Which Permit Israel to Continue Its Slaughter of Palestinians and Impede Unfettered Flow of Humanitarian Aid

• Facts for Which Canada Must Take Responsibility

• Responses to Decision to Cut Off Funding to UN
Humanitarian Agency in Gaza

• Canada Is an Accomplice to Israel's Clearly Stated Intent to
Starve the People of Gaza

Significance of South Africa Bringing Case Against Israel to
International Court of Justice

• A Legal Perspective

Shame on Canada for Actively Contributing to Starvation of Palestinians

Canada's announcement on January 26 that it has "temporarily" suspended funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) constitutes a heinous attempt to circumvent the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued on the same day. That ruling requires all state parties to the UN Genocide Convention to make sure unfettered humanitarian aid reaches the Palestinians in Gaza. Canada joined the United States, Australia, Italy, Britain, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland in suspending funding following Israel's allegations that several UNRWA staff members had participated in the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. These countries together account for about 60 per cent of the funding for UNRWA.

Canada's ambiguous position on the ICJ ruling according to which it supports the role of the ICJ and is concerned about the humanitarian crisis comes within the context of Canada's support for "Israel's right to self-defence" and its aim to wipe out Hamas. Like Israel, Canada, the U.S. and others claim they are upholding international humanitarian law but their deeds have smashed any such claims. Canada's stand on what Israel is doing to the Palestinians also smashes its "responsibility to protect" doctrine on the basis of which it gave itself the right to intervene in the internal affairs of various countries to carry out regime change.

The immediate question is how the two positions can be reconciled. The 250-word response of Canada to the ruling of the ICJ does not even address the order of provisional measures while claiming it is "deeply concerned about the scale of the humanitarian crisis." It doesn't say whether Canada will demand that the provisional measures be respected or if it even agrees with those measures. It simply repeats that Canada does not accept the premise of the case that Israel is committing genocide. It deliberately ignores that the ruling is about providing immediate relief to the people of Gaza and stopping their slaughter. The Government of Canada acts as if there were no immediate issue in the ICJ ruling even though everything about the humanitarian situation in Gaza has to do with immediacy.

Canada erroneously believes it can reconcile its contradictory claims in the same way Israel the U.S., the UK and other accomplices of its genocidal aim think they can get away with what they are doing to the Palestinian people. Canada's position on the ICJ ruling is delivered with the intent to deceive so as to serve its hidden purpose. Its deeds reveal it to be an accomplice of Israel and its plans to wipe out the Palestinians from Gaza, through starvation, famine and disease. UNRWA is the main organization delivering aid to all Palestinian refugees. Most if not all other aid agencies rely on its infrastructure. By cutting off funding for UNRWA under the hoax that it is the civilian arm of a terrorist organization and thus also terrorist, Canada will never be forgiven for its de facto hindrance of the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Francis Boyle, U.S. human rights lawyer and professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, said, "Countries abruptly cutting off UNRWA funds are now in violation of Article 29(c) of the UN Genocide Convention: 'Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.'"

The Israeli occupiers are impeding the delivery of food, water and medical supplies in their openly announced plans to eliminate the Palestinians from Gaza. As of January 31, at least 26,900 people have been killed in Gaza, including some 11,000 children and 7,500 women. Another 65,949 have been injured, including at least 8,663 children, 6,237 women, while more than 8,000 people are missing. In the occupied West Bank, at least 370 people have been killed, including 99 children, and more than 4,250 have been injured. Canada's suspension of funding actively contributes to Israel's plan to make sure the Palestinian people in Gaza do not get the food, water and medical supplies they need when they face immediate famine, starvation and disease.

To cut funding for UNRWA, the humanitarian agency which sustains and provides infrastructure for the entire population of Gaza and many other Palestinian refugee camps, including in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, which have become permanent since 1948 is a grave crime indeed. It will go down in the annals of history as a most diabolical method devised to help Israel accomplish its intentional genocide in Palestine.

Condemn Decision to Suspend Funding for the UN Humanitarian Agency!

Reference

For Minister Joly's full statement on the ICJ's ruling on South Africa’s request for provisional measures in its case against Israel, click here.

Reject All Attempts Which Permit Israel to
Continue Its Slaughter of Palestinians and
Impede Unfettered Flow of Humanitarian Aid

TML has received a significant number of positive responses to its editorial on the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the case of Israel brought before it by South Africa, specifically its clarification of the ambiguity of the ICJ ruling. Noteworthy in this regard is that when it came to the responses by various countries, organizations and individuals to the ruling, Canada's ambiguous response once again illustrates a deceitful, treacherous aim.

Canada issued a statement reiterating its support for the ICJ, while saying that this does not mean it endorses South Africa's genocide case against Israel. Its position is a diversion of the first order to keep the polity engaged in guessing where it really stands. This includes attempts to embroil everyone is expending their energy in pointing out the hypocrisy, the falsehoods, and so on of Canada's position. It reveals once again the aim of disinformation which is to smash the collective action of the people to achieve a crucial result it has identified, such as an immediate ceasefire and the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid now, as integral demands to uphold the Palestinian people's right to be.

(Click to enlarge.)

The mass movement must now condemn the cutting of funding to UNRWA and continue speaking out in its own name to demand an immediate ceasefire and the unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid now. It must repeat the demand for the Government of Canada to abandon its policy of funding Israel, sending weapons and military personnel and hardware to Israel, apologizing for the crimes Israel is committing in the name of self-defence or declaring that anything goes to eliminate Hamas because the government has declared it a terrorist organization. To that end, the Canadian government continues to repeat the falsehood that it was Hamas which caused the deaths of 1,200 people on October 7, when it is now verified that the crimes attributed to it were in fact carried out by the Israeli armed forces.

The whole world now knows the lengths to which the U.S., Canada, the UK and other countries will go to permit Israel to commit the genocide of the Palestinian people. The only conclusion is that countries like the U.S., the UK and Canada have an aim in repeating their lies. That aim is now revealed in their moves aimed at liquidating UNRWA and permitting the conditions which are causing the starvation, famine and disease in occupied Gaza, while Israel also steps up attacks against the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

TML pointed out in its editorial on the ambiguity of the ICJ ruling that our discussion must focus on the resistance movement, its achievements, its difficulties and what together we can do to overcome them and make sure the aim of the resistance movement is realized -- to guarantee the right of the Palestinian people to be and their right of return. In Canada also, more and more, official circles are using so-called noise by-laws to silence and suppress those engaged in speaking out in their own names to express support for the Palestinian resistance.

In this regard, condemnation of the ambiguous position of the Government of Canada includes condemnation of any authority at any level which tries to criminalize opposition to Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. Whether a people are silenced by applying so-called noise by-laws or making opposition to Israeli crimes a matter of hate laws or by cutting funding to UNRWA and all the other measures which are being taken to silence the people by starving them to death, these are infamies from which neither Israel nor its accomplices will ever recover.

The resistance movement will not be deterred from doing everything within its power to stop Israel from committing its crimes and stop the U.S., Canada and other countries from permitting Israel and themselves to act with impunity.

Reference

"Ambiguity Does Not Rule Out Clear Need to Stop Israeli Genocide and Demand Cease Fire Now!" TML Monthly Supplement, January 26, 2024.

Facts for Which Canada Must Take Responsibility

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is the main humanitarian agency in Gaza, with over two million people now dependent on its services and some 3,000 out of its 13,000 staff in Gaza continuing to report to work, despite the ongoing hostilities. Already a total of 152 UNRWA employees have died as a result of Israeli bombardment and ground assaults on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

On January 27, UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillippe Lazzarini warned of the threat to the agency's ongoing humanitarian work, especially in Gaza, following the decision of a number of donor countries to temporarily suspend their funding. Already UNRWA responded to the Israeli allegations by terminating the contracts of nine of the accused and it activated an investigation by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).

"It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region," the Commissioner-General stated.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also strongly appealed to the governments that have suspended their contributions "to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA's operations." The Secretary-General said that the "abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences" but "the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA (across the region), many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met."

On January 28, Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, stated: "The people of Gaza have been enduring unthinkable horrors and deprivation for months. Their needs have never been higher – and our humanitarian capacity to assist them has never been under such threat. We need to be at full stretch to give the people of Gaza a moment of hope."

The Situation Report issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs points out:

In the second half of January, humanitarian partners continue to observe a declining trend in their attempts to access the northern and central areas of Gaza. The reasons include excessive delays for humanitarian aid convoys before or at Israeli checkpoints and heightened military activity in central Gaza. Threats to the safety of humanitarian personnel and sites are also frequent, impeding not only the delivery of time-sensitive and life-saving aid but also posing serious risks to those involved in humanitarian efforts.

As of 25 January, according to the WHO [World Health Organization], only 14 of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functional; seven in the north and seven in the south. 'Partial functionality' indicates that a hospital is accessible by people in need of health care; it can admit some new patients and can undertake some level of surgery. In addition, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis is, 'minimally functioning,' providing available services to patients in its care, but no longer able to receive patients or supplies, as it is surrounded by the Israeli military and experiencing intense fighting. Al Kheir Hospital in Khan Yunis, which was previously designated as 'minimally functioning,' and one of only three in the Gaza Strip that provides maternity services, is no longer operational, with reports of patients, who had just undergone critical operations, having to flee the facility.

On 26 January, Médecins Sans Frontières reported that Nasser hospital could no longer provide vital medical services, leaving many wounded patients with no options for treatment amid ongoing heavy fighting and bombing. The hospital's surgical capacity is almost non-existent, and the handful of medical staff remaining in the hospital are trying to manage with very low supplies insufficient to handle the large influx of wounded people. Between 300 and 350 patients with war-related injuries remain at the hospital, unable to evacuate due to the danger and the lack of ambulances. On January 24, at least one patient at the hospital died because there was no orthopaedic surgeon available. Shelling in the vicinity of the hospital was reported again on 27 January.

On 27 January, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that Israeli forces were continuing to bombard the vicinity of the Al Amal Hospital and the PRCS branch headquarters in Khan Yunis, jeopardizing the safety of medical staff, the wounded, patients, and the approximately 7,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had sought refuge there. The PRCS stated that dozens had been killed and injured inside, and in the vicinity of the two facilities amid ongoing fighting over the previous four weeks. The continuing siege of the facilities is hindering the movement of ambulances and emergency medical teams in the city, and preventing medical teams from reaching the injured and transporting them to the hospital for necessary medical care. The PRCS denied claims by Israeli forces of the presence of armed individuals inside the hospital building and appealed to the international community and partners in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to intervene to protect the hospital, the medical teams, the wounded, patients, and IDPs [International Displaced persons]. On the morning of 28 January, shells were reportedly fired towards the vicinity of the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, with casualties reported, amid intense fighting in the area.

On 26 January, the head of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) for the Occupied Palestinian Territory said that the people displaced who reached Rafah are resorting to living in the street, with sewage running in the streets and conditions of desperation conducive to a complete breakdown in order. An overspilling of violence in Rafah would have severe implications for the more than 1.3 million people who are already crowded into the city. Heavy rainfall has aggravated the humanitarian situation in tent encampments where IDPs have sought shelter, with UNRWA reporting that an unknown number of tents of displaced people in Rafah were flooded and that "thousands of families sleeping on the floor are now freezing and unable to keep dry."

As of 26 January, according to UNRWA, there are an estimated 1.7 million IDPs in Gaza. Many of them have been displaced multiple times, as families have been forced to move repeatedly in search of safety. Due to continued fighting and evacuation orders, some households have moved away from the shelters where they were initially registered. Rafah governorate is where over one million people are squeezed into an extremely overcrowded space. Following intense Israeli bombardment and fighting in Khan Yunis and the central area of the Gaza Strip in recent days, as well as new Israeli military evacuation orders, a significant number of displaced people have moved further south.

On 23 and 25 January, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders via social media to Palestinians in several city blocks in Khan Yunis across a four-square-kilometre area. There are about 88,000 residents in the area, in addition to an estimated 425,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) seeking shelter in 24 schools and other institutions. The affected area includes Nasser Hospital (475 beds), Al Amal Hospital (100 beds) and the Jordanian Hospital (50 beds), representing almost 20 per cent of the remaining partially functioning hospitals across the Gaza Strip. Three health clinics are also located in the affected area. Some 18,000 IDPs are reported to be in the Nasser Hospital, with an unknown number of IDPs seeking shelter in the other health facilities. On 25 January, the Israeli military reissued the same evacuation orders via social media.

Since 11 October 2023, the Gaza Strip has been under an electricity blackout, after the Israeli authorities cut off the electricity supply, and fuel reserves for Gaza's sole power plant were depleted. The communications and industrial fuel shutdown continue to significantly hinder the aid community's efforts to assess the full extent of needs in Gaza and to adequately respond to the deepening humanitarian crisis.

Since November 19, limited fuel amounts have entered the Gaza Strip from Rafah. However, since these are insufficient, hospitals, water facilities and other critical facilities are still only operating at limited capacity.

A Rapid Disaster Needs Assessment team has identified about 570 kilometres of electricity feeder lines that have been damaged as of January 12. This represents some 57 per cent of feeder lines, with damage expected to have increased further since then. Fuel is urgently needed for the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company (GEDCO) teams to conduct damage assessment.

Responses to Decision to Cut Off Funding to UN Humanitarian Agency in Gaza

The Presidency of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has categorically rejected and condemned the "oppressive" campaign led by the Israeli government against the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). "The campaign aims to liquidate the issue of Palestinian refugees, contradicting UN Resolution 302, based on which the UNRWA started work on 18 December 1949, and other UN resolutions related to the refugee issue," the presidency said on January 28. The PA pointed out that Israeli government officials have "openly expressed that there would be no post-war role for UNRWA, revealing the true motive behind the ongoing campaign.

"The refugee issue is at the core of the Palestinian cause, with dozens of UN resolutions adopted on the matter. There is no solution to the Palestinian issue except for the return of refugees, in accordance with Resolution 194."

The Arab League on January 28 warned of the grave consequences of major donor states suspending their funding of the UNRWA. "This campaign is not new and aims to liquidate the work of the agency, which serves millions of Palestinian refugees," explained Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit. The suspension of funding for UNRWA amid Israel's deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip "means leaving Palestinian civilians to starvation and displacement, and implementing the Israeli plan to eliminate their cause once and for all."

Saudi Arabia accused Israel of "pursuing a systematic policy of starvation in the Gaza Strip," Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan told a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo. He called for forcing Israel "to do what we are all committed to, which is adherence to international law and humanitarian law." "We need a valuable and binding international resolution to stop the Israeli occupation's aggression against Gaza," Bin Farhan continued. "The priority is to stop the aggression against Gaza and bring in humanitarian aid," he said.

Canada Is an Accomplice to Israel's Clearly Stated Intent to Starve the People of Gaza

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on January 27 repeated the accusation that the UN Works and Relief Agency (UNRWA) "is the civilian arm of Hamas." He said "We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza. UNRWA is not the solution — many of its employees are Hamas affiliates with murderous ideologies, aiding in terror activities and preserving its authority."

Middle East Monitor points out: "Since the start of the Gaza war, Israel has accused UNRWA employees of working for Hamas, in what was considered as 'justification' for attacking the organization's schools and facilities in the Strip, which houses tens of thousands of displaced people. Indeed, Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with Hamas members in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land."

The Middle East Eye posted a video on January 28 of Noga Arbel, a former Israeli official and now head of the Kohelet Foundation, speaking to the Knesset on January 4. Arbel said the main threat to Israel was UNRWA and that "it will be impossible to win this war if we do not destroy UNRWA." The Middle East Eye's translation of her remarks included the following: "Our main goal in the war is to eliminate the threat, not to neutralize it. And we know how to eliminate terrorists. It is more difficult for us with an idea. UNRWA is the source of the idea. The idea is that more and more terrorists are born in all kinds of methods and it will be impossible to win the war if we do not destroy UNRWA. And this destruction must begin immediately."

In a January 27 tweet Arbel elaborated: "We DO know UNRWA is the right of return. That's what makes it genocidal. That's how they justify their brainwashing of innocent children to become dead terrorists. It's a fictitious, made up idea no one else in the world has, which has kept generations enslaved to property, even their ancestors had no claim to, and those original unsuccessful thieves have mostly passed away. So it makes no sense and serves no justice to keep their great-grandchildren impoverished and destitute as you try to push them into killing the rightful owners. They should really be allowed to move on with their lives at this point."

The Middle East Eye reported Arbel's January 28 tweet as follows: "I claim the right to MY home, based on a 4,000 years old presence recognized world wide. You claim a right to steal it from me, based on 18 month visit to a land not your own 75 years ago. You can't have it. It's not yours. It will never be yours no matter what lie you tell or how violent you are about it. You tried to colonize it. You lost. Stop trying to kill us or go back to where you came from. This is JEWISH LAND. IT WILL FOREVER BE THAT."

The fact is that for years, Canada has joined U.S. and EU attempts to destroy UNRWA by starving the UN agency of funds.

The decades-long failure to resolve the refugee crisis means that many of the camps serviced by the UNRWA have developed into full-blown neighbourhoods with permanent facilities, religious and educational bodies and essential services. The agency services roughly 5.7 million Palestinians which Israel has repeatedly said must be stripped of their refugee status and thus the right of return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to the homes they were expelled from in 1948, recognized by UN General Assembly Resolution 194.

Already in 2010 Canada said it was redirecting money from UNRWA "in accordance with Canadian values" over concerns that "Hamas had too much power in the organization." That plan failed to bring UNRWA down and Canada restored its funding of the UN agency in 2016.

In 2018, then U.S. President Donald Trump announced an end to U.S. funding for UNRWA which deprived it of hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2021, the EU did the same, withholding some aid from UNRWA over allegations that the curriculum taught in its schools featured "incitement to violence" and hatred against Jews. The Biden administration subsequently restored some U.S. funding despite which officials within UNRWA said the damage had already been done. In a September 2023 report, released a month before the current war broke out, the International Crisis Group, said to be an "independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict," warned that a reduction of funding and "donor fatigue" had left the organization's budget in "dire straits."

"Even if UNRWA is bailed out at the last moment, as has happened before and could indeed happen again in 2023, the perpetual state of crisis is untenable. It undermines staff morale, prompts salary strikes and reduces an international agency with a proud record of aiding Palestinian refugees to a miserable beggar for alms," the report said, adding "It is also inefficient to run what amounts to a welfare state for three million people on a shoestring, as it militates against investing in infrastructure, digitization and other updating of outlay, eroding the quality of services."

Significance of South Africa Bringing Case Against Israel to
International Court of Justice

A Legal Perspective

Preceding the January 26 International Court of Justice ruling, an interview on The Intercept was held with Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), on her own impending case Defense of Children International Palestine v Biden and on the significance of the case brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by South Africa. The first case was filed on November 13, 2023 in the northern district of California on behalf of two Palestinian human rights organizations: Defense for Children International Palestine, and Al-Haq, as well as three plaintiffs from Gaza and on behalf of Palestinian Americans who have family in Gaza. The lawsuit names U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, with failing in their legal responsibility to prevent -- and also their complicity in -- Israel's unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

These are her comments a few days before the ICJ ruling:

"South Africa's filing against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague is truly a historic document, and a historic moment. South Africa framed the current genocide in the context of the Nakba and Israel's action since 1948, through the prolonged belligerent occupation and the closure of Gaza for the last 17 years. That in itself was quite notable. And knowing it was South Africa, with its history of fighting off a colonialist apartheid regime, was very profound. The South Africans felt the weight of moral responsibility, and they really showed up, not just legally, but with heart and with love. What was done so beautifully by South Africa was hitting every single legal element, but continually grounding it back in humanity and explaining what this case is ultimately about. It's about our shared humanity, and that is something that the Genocide Convention, being a reflection of a global commitment to never again target a population because of who they are, this global movement, and the question for all of us to whether or not we are truly committed to global humanity, I think was as much what came out over the three hours of argument.

"Because of the urgency of the moment, South Africa has asked the World Court to put in place some provisional measures while the merits of the case are being adjudicated. That is the same thing that we have asked the court in California to do in our genocide case against President Biden. We have sought a preliminary injunction, because you can't bring back human lives that are lost in the course of a genocide by finding a good ruling three years down the road.

"If the International Court of Justice were to rule that at this moment there's a serious risk of genocide, or an ongoing genocide, and it can be either all states, and especially those states that have the ability to influence Israel's behavior, must take immediate action, or themselves also be in breach of the ICJ's ruling.

"That means that the U.S. and all the European countries, Australia, countries that are providing military support to the genocide, must cease doing so. And if the entire European Union, the U.S., Australia, Canada, and other countries decide that at this moment they're going to simply ignore the ICJ's ruling, that does throw into question the legitimacy of the entire legal system, and that is no small outcome.

"We need an International Court of Justice to be independent, to apply the facts to the law equally for all peoples in protection of all peoples, and being willing to hold the powerful to account. This is a moment of reckoning for international justice and accountability.

"The ramifications of the ICJ proceedings are already being felt, in terms of making states choose which side they are on, the side of humanity or the side of arrogance and destruction of the other. And the concrete ruling will have even further effect, both legally, in the form of potential cases at the national level, and certainly diplomatically, where we may see moves to isolate Israel, and also to have countries behave differently, in terms of how much support they are willing to give to a regime that is attempting a genocide against the Palestinian people."

Aim of Official Disinformation About Hamas and
Its October 7 Operation

– Pauline Easton –

In Canada, the U.S., UK and countries of the European Union, the political resistance movement Hamas is termed a terrorist organization. All kinds of crimes are attributed to it and the claims repeated so that official circles and their media accustom the citizenry and their readers and listeners to associating the resistance movement with terrorism. There is no clearer case of this officially sanctioned disinformation than the narrative endlessly repeated according to which Hamas conducted a terrorist attack against civilians in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. According to this narrative, Hamas raped women, murdered babies, wantonly killed and decapitated civilians as well as taking civilian hostages. The number of victims given is commonly set at 1,200 people and this is quoted every time attempts are made by the media and official circles to justify the crimes Israel is committing against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the name of the need to eradicate Hamas.

Disinformation does not refer mainly to the spread and repetition of lies. It is neither the manipulation of lies per se, although it does that, nor is it a matter of attempting to manufacture consent although it does that also. Disinformation also uses methods such as decontextualization of facts to deprive them of sense and meaning, and the presenting of facts which are themselves random. This is also done to mislead. However, the essence of disinformation and the promotion of false narratives is to set up false alternatives. False alternatives keep the problem within the framework established by the official circles which are dead set against any discussion which they cannot control. In the case of the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, everything is done to wreck the ability of a polity to analyze developments by establishing their own vantage point so as to provide solutions to the matter at hand.

When dealing with the unfolding events in Palestine, the portrayal of Hamas as a terrorist organization and the attribution of a litany of crimes to it and now cutting funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), on the basis of condemnation by association, are for purposes of denying the right of the Palestinian people to be and their right of return. Providing these rights with a guarantee is the alternative to what is taking place. The resistance movement keeps its focus on providing these rights with a guarantee and, at every stage, its strategy and tactics are geared towards ensuring a way forward for these rights to be realized.

Despite all attempts to make Hamas the issue, the entire resistance movement worldwide has not permitted this. It has persisted in targeting the murderous campaign Israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people and upholding their right to be and right of return. It is not likely that the official circles will succeed in their aim to exhaust and smash the unified resistance of the Palestinian and world's people affirming the Palestinians' right to be and right of return.

It is crucial to make sure discussion amongst the people does not fall into the trap set by reactionary official circles and their media, pundits, academics and alleged experts. For instance, the claim that Hamas is terrorist extends to other similar claims such as saying that all the resistance forces are Iranian proxies, or that everything must be done to make sure Hamas cannot exist when a two-state solution is implemented, or the accusations that UNRWA is Hamas' civilian arm and thus must not be funded, and the like. Arguing con vis à vis the narrative which fills the print and social media of countries which support Israel's declared aims in its aggression against the Palestinian people plays the role of ratifying their premise. The only premise which should be ratified is the one which furthers the cause of upholding the Palestinian people's right to self-determination without conditions, based on the principles of guaranteeing their right to be and their right of return.

Hamas Issues Document Revealing Why It Carried Out Al-Aqsa Flood Operation

Al-Aqsa Flood, October 7, 2023

On January 21, the resistance movement Hamas issued a document giving the reasons for its Al-Aqsa Flood Operation. The first section is entirely dedicated to the reasons behind the operation. The document details how for "long decades, the Palestinian people suffered all forms of oppression, injustice, expropriation of their fundamental rights and the apartheid policies." It says: "After 75 years of relentless occupation and suffering, and after failing all initiatives for liberation and return to our people, and also after the disastrous results of the so-called peace process, what did the world expect the Palestinian people to do?"

The second section discusses events of October 7 and responds to the Israeli allegations. It clearly states: "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 targeted the Israeli military sites, and sought to arrest the enemy’s soldiers to [put] pressure on the Israeli authorities to release the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails through a prisoners exchange deal. Therefore, the operation focused on destroying the Israeli army's Gaza Division, the Israeli military sites stationed near the Israeli settlements around Gaza."

It furthermore points out that Hamas forces are committed to avoiding harm to civilians if at all possible and rejects Israeli allegations of indiscriminate killing of civilians, mass rape, beheading of children etc. and cites Israeli media sources' confirmation that Israeli armed forces, using tanks and attack helicopters were responsible for most of the deaths on October 7.

Section 3 is entitled Towards a Transparent International Investigation. It rejects the false narrative of the U.S., Canada, the UK, Germany and others and calls for a truly transparent international investigation.

In the fourth section, entitled Who Is Hamas, the organization describes itself as a "national liberation movement that has clear goals and mission" and "gets its legitimacy to resist the occupation from the Palestinian right to self-defence, liberation and self-determination."

"Our steadfast Palestinian people and their resistance are waging a heroic battle to defend their land and national rights against the longest and most brutal colonial occupation. The Palestinian people are confronting an unprecedented Israeli aggression that committed heinous massacres against Palestinian civilians, most of them children and women."

The fifth section sets out eight demands:

1) an immediate halt of Israeli aggression and crimes and ethnic cleansing being carried out against the entire population of Gaza;

2) that the international community hold Israel legally accountable;

3) recognition of Palestinian resistance as a legitimate right in international law;

4) for a global solidarity movement with the Palestinian people;

5) that the U.S., UK, France and other "superpowers" stop providing Israel with a cover from accountability;

6) rejection of any Israeli or international project aimed at deciding the future of Gaza or the Palestinian people. Palestinians have the right and capacity to decide their own future, it says;

7) rejection of any new mass expulsion or Nakba;

8) for continuing popular pressure worldwide for ending the occupation.

TML recommends the full document be read. It is available here.

Israel's Use of "Hannibal Directive" on October 7

– Nick Lin –

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth recently published an article which carries new documentation and reports that Israeli HQ ordered troops to shoot Israeli captives on October 7, 2023. The article, translated into English by the Electronic Intifada, quotes Ronen Bergman and Yoav Zitun, two journalists who are said to have "extensive sources inside Israel's military and intelligence establishment." They say that at midday on October 7, Israel's supreme military command ordered all units to prevent the capture of Israeli citizens "at any cost" -- even by firing on them. The military "instructed all its fighting units to perform the Hannibal Directive in practice, although it did so without stating that name explicitly," the Israeli journalists revealed. They also revealed that "some 70 vehicles" driven by Palestinian fighters returning to Gaza were blown up by Israeli helicopter gunships, drones or tanks. Many of these vehicles contained Israeli captives. The journalists wrote that, "it is not clear at this stage how many of the captives were killed due to the operation of this order [to the air force]" that they should prevent their being taken to Gaza at all costs. "At least in some of the cases, everyone in the vehicle was killed," the journalists said.

In November, the Electronic Intifada reported on Israeli air force footage, as well as interviews with attack helicopter pilots in an Israeli article, showing that they had been ordered to "shoot at everything" moving between Israel's frontier settlements and Gaza. That Israeli article stated that "in the first four hours helicopters and fighter craft attacked about 300 targets, most in Israeli territory." Bergman and Zitun's new article says that by the end of the day, Drone Squadron 161 alone (which flies Elbit's Hermes 450 drone) "performed no fewer than 110 attacks on some 1,000 targets, most of which were inside Israel."

The new article by Bergman and Zitun says that the original Hannibal Directive ordered Israeli forces to "halt the capturing force at any price" and that "in the course of a capture, the main task becomes rescuing our soldiers from the captors, even at the price of hitting or injuring our soldiers."

Two years after it was exposed by journalists during the 2014 war on Gaza, the directive was allegedly revoked, or at least "clarified." But Bergman and Zitun confirm in their new article that at midday on October 7, the Israeli military "decided to return to a version of the Hannibal Directive." They write that "the instruction was to stop 'at any cost' any attempt by 'Hamas terrorists to return to Gaza,' using language very similar to that of the original Hannibal Directive, despite repeated promises by the defense apparatus that the directive had been canceled." The new article explains that Israel Defense Force (IDF) headquarters ordered all units to carry out the Hannibal Directive soon after the first videos of the Israeli captives emerged.

Bergman and Zitun recount that IDF division command issued a direct order on Oct 7: "You have authority to fire at will." Acting on the orders of young officers from the so-called "Fire Canopy" mobile command center, attack helicopter pilots were also told: "You have permission [to open fire] until further notice -- and throughout the entire area."

Bergman also writes for the New York Times Magazine and is the author of several books about Israeli spy agencies, including Rise and Kill First. Speaking to the Haaretz podcast following the publication of the article by Yedioth Ahronoth, Asa Kasher, the author of the Israeli army's code of "ethics," joined the chorus calling for an investigation into the use of the Hannibal doctrine on and soon after October 7. "Kasher stridently agreed with the families that an investigation is needed immediately," wrote Haaretz, and that this should not wait until the end of the war in Gaza.

In the News

Israel Escalates Aggression in Gaza and West Bank Following International Court of Justice Ruling

Israeli massacres stepped up in Khan Yunis, January 28, 2024.

Following the provisional order issued by the International Court of Justice on January 26, Israel has stepped up its aggression against the people of Gaza and the West Bank many-fold, news agencies report.

Gaza

Israeli warplanes continued relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip's southern city of Khan Yunis on January 28. "The entire city of Khan Yunis continues to be pounded by Israeli bombardment. Intense fighting is now taking place in the southeastern part of Khan Yunis at the edges of Rafah city," Al-Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported from the southern city of Rafah. Israeli bombing in Gaza killed 165 Palestinians and wounded 290 in 24 hours.

Israeli ground operations remain focused in the south, particularly in Khan Yunis. The city's main hospitals remain besieged by Israeli troops. Al-Nasser Hospital, Khan Yunis' largest medical facility, has been crippled. "We are trapped inside the hospital on all four sides," the morgue director at Al-Nasser told Al-Jazeera.

Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades announced the destruction of Israeli tanks and bulldozers and the targeting of troop gatherings in Khan Yunis on January 28. The previous day, Al-Qassam Brigades released footage showing numerous tanks being struck with rocket-propelled grenades.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on January 29 was quoted by The Cradle, an online news magazine from West Asia, saying: "Over half a million Palestinians in Khan Yunis were instructed by the occupying forces to evacuate their homes, including hospitals and health centres, in a cruel expansion and deepening of forced displacement from southern regions." "Scenes of forcibly displaced people are a disgrace to humanity," it added. They are being pushed towards the border city of Rafah, where tens of thousands of Gazans are stranded after being displaced from several areas of the strip since the start of the war, The Cradle noted.

West Bank

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) escalated military raids across several communities of the occupied West Bank on January 29, killing five Palestinians including a child. IOF forces raided Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin and Dura and fired live bullets, as well as rubber-coated metal bullets, stun grenades and gas.

Resistance fighters fought fiercely and launched attacks against the occupation forces using improvised explosive devices during the IOF incursion into the town of Yamoun. The occupation forces also stormed the village of Deir Abu Da'if, east of Jenin, where they were confronted with a hail of bullets. The IOF arrested two young men after raiding their homes in the village.

The IOF conducted a wide military campaign in Jenin on the night of January 28, carrying out extensive destruction of infrastructure, public facilities, and citizens' property. The resistance bravely confronted the invading IOF soldiers. The occupation forces entered the city through Nasera Street, reinforced by more than 20 military vehicles, including four military D9 bulldozers, followed by additional reinforcements of vehicles. At the same time, sirens were activated in Jenin and its refugee camp. The resistance confronted the IOF incursion, leading to armed clashes and the detonation of locally-made explosive devices against the IOF troops.

Fierce battles broke out in Nablus, as the occupation forces invaded the city and the refugee camps of Askar Al-Jadeed and Balata. They stationed themselves in several areas, including Martyrs' Square in the city centre, Habla neighbourhood, the eastern market, and the vicinity of the refugee camps. Resistance fighters fired at the IOF soldiers as they withdrew from the Old City, and they targeted the occupation forces with a hail of bullets during their withdrawal from Balata and Askar camps.

Intense clashes, including the use of homemade explosive devices took place against the IOF invaders in the vicinity of the refugee camps of Askar Al-Jadeed and Balata, east of Nablus. An armed clash also broke out between resistance fighters and the occupation forces on Schools Street in Balata camp.

Funeral January 29, 2024 in Hebron, West Bank for two recent victims of Israeli raids.

Mass Rallies Promoting Killing and Expulsion of Palestinians Organized in Israel

Israeli newspapers report that 11 government ministers and 15 lawmakers of the coalition government addressed a mass rally on the evening of January 29 and "publicly pledged to rebuild Jewish Israeli settlements in the heart of the Gaza Strip, and calling for forced expulsion of the Palestinian population." Israeli media described the event as having a "carnival-like atmosphere." According to Times of Israel, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism Party, extolled the virtues of creating new settlements, declaring: "God willing, we will settle and we will be victorious."

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not present, "to return home to Gush Katif" -- the name of the Israeli settlement bloc in Gaza that was evacuated in the 2005 Disengagement. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi of Netanyahu's ruling Likud party also called for building settlements in Gaza and "encouraging voluntary emigration." Karhi went on to say that the war -- meaning Israel's aerial bombardment, artillery and ground operations – had created conditions where Gazan civilians could now be coerced into saying they want to leave the territory. [...]

The express purpose of the event, which was organized by the Nachala settlement activist group and the West Bank's Samaria Regional Council and its head Yossi Dagan, was to serve as a rallying cry to the general public and the government to take advantage of the current war to begin again to build Jewish settlements in Gaza, media accounts indicate.

National Security Minister Ben Givr said, "We need to return home, to rule the territory, and yes, also to offer a moral and logical solution to the humanitarian problem: encourage emigration and pass a death penalty law for terror convicts." He is said to have goaded Netanyahu, telling him that it was "the task of brave leadership to take brave decisions."

Communications Minister Karhi made similar comments: "We must settle Gaza, with security forces and settlers who will wrap them and this land in love." He added: "We have an obligation to act, for our sakes and even for the sake of those purported uninvolved civilians, to bring about voluntary emigration -- even if this war, which was imposed on us, turns this voluntary migration into a situation of 'Coerce him until he says, 'I want to do so'" -- quoting a principle in Jewish law whereby someone can be coerced into performing certain religious obligations by physical or other forms of pressure.

Israel also held a conference on January 28 calling for annexing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and supporting settlement expansion. Hamas issued a statement which said: "Organizing such a conference has reflected this rogue entity's disregard for international laws and resolutions, including the recent ruling that was adopted by the International Court of Justice and called for taking all the necessary measures to stop its genocide in Gaza."

Also on January 28, 126 settlers broke through the Moghrabi Gate and invaded Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of occupation forces. Meanwhile, the entry of Muslims to the mosque has been restricted for 17 weeks by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Also that day, for the fourth time, Israeli protesters, including family members of captives held in Gaza closed the Karam Abu Salem crossing, preventing humanitarian aid trucks from entering Gaza.

More Condemnations within Israel of
Netanyahu Government

Demonstration against war in Gaza in Tel Aviv, January 18, 2024.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on January 26 that the previous day 26 former senior Israeli security officials and 17 senior officials in the civil field, including three Nobel Prize winners, signed a public letter calling for the dismissal of the Prime Minister of the occupation government Benjamin Netanyahu, following the failures of the war in Gaza. They consider him unqualified to lead Israel and that his hands are stained with Israeli blood.

Among the prominent names included in the letter are former ministers and chiefs of staff in the occupation army and former heads of the intelligence services, such as Moshe Yaalon, Dan Halutz, Tamir Pardo, Nadav Argaman, Assaf Hefetz and Yaakov Peri, all of whom have headed the Israeli security services or held high-ranking positions. The signatories added to their previous claims that Netanyahu's effort "to destroy democracy" "bears primary responsibility for creating the circumstances leading to the brutal massacre of over 1,200 Israelis and others, the injury of over 4,500, and the kidnapping of more than 230 individuals, of whom over 130 are still held in Hamas captivity. The victims' blood is on Netanyahu's hands." They also noted that he was fundamentally and morally incompetent to lead Israel into war and posed a direct and existential threat to the State of Israel.

Anti-government protests demanding Netanyahu's resignation and early elections, January 27, 2024.

Other Developments in Middle East

Sana'a, Yemen, January 26, 2024

Syria

Three U.S. troops were killed and 34 wounded in a drone attack on the U.S. Al Tanf Military Base on January 28. The base sits partly in Jordan and partly, illegally, in Syria. It is reported that the drone hit a place known as Tower 22, on the Jordanian side of the military base. Jordan has subsequently denied the drone strike took place on its territory. The U.S. uses the Al Tanf base to house and train ISIS splinter groups in its proxy war against Syria.

U.S. President Joe Biden claimed the strike was carried out by "Iran-backed militant groups" as did U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin in a press release. "I am outraged and deeply saddened by the deaths of three of our U.S. service members and the wounding of other American troops in an attack last night against U.S. and Coalition forces, who were deployed to a site in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border to work for the lasting defeat of ISIS. These brave Americans and their families are in my prayers, and the entire Department of Defense mourns their loss. Iran-backed militias are responsible for these continued attacks on U.S. forces, and we will respond at a time and place of our choosing. The President and I will not tolerate attacks on American forces, and we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our troops, and our interests."

Iran's mission to the United Nations in a statement rejected it played any part in the drone attack on the U.S. military outpost. The Iranian mission added that the incident was part of the "conflict between the army of the United States of America and resistance groups in the region, which reciprocate retaliatory attacks." Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, "The resistance groups in the region do not take orders from the Islamic Republic of Iran in their decisions and actions. The Islamic Republic has no involvement in the resistance groups' decisions on the way they support the Palestinian nation or defend themselves and the people of their countries in the face of any aggression and occupation." Iran reiterated that the constant violation of the national sovereignty of Iraq and Syria by U.S. forces as well as attacks against groups and people in those countries and Yemen is the main cause of escalating instability.

In related news, four members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard serving in an advisory capacity were killed January 20 in the Syrian capital of Damascus when Israeli warplanes struck a residential building they were staying in. Iran confirmed the deaths of the Guard members.

Iraq

The Ain al-Asad air base housing U.S. troops in Iraq, on January 20, came under attack by resistance forces opposing U.S. support for the Israeli regime's war on Gaza. The attacks on U.S. forces were the largest in scope and size since early October when resistance groups in Iraq began to target U.S. positions in the country and in neighbouring Syria in a bid to force the U.S. to withdraw its support from Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

Yemen

Yemen's Ansarullah resistance movement, also known as the Houthis, warned the United States and its allies against any violation of the country's sovereignty amid the Yemeni Army's anti-Israeli operations in the Red Sea. "We affirm that Yemen will not allow any violation of its sovereignty, [and] will confront any aggression it faces," spokesperson Abdul-Salam said on January 21. He added: "We affirm our support for the Palestinian people by exerting pressure on Israel to stop its criminal aggression against Gaza." He also urged the United States to "stop evading responsibility for ending the aggression against Gaza."

The U.S. website AntiWar.com writes that U.S. officials told the Washington Post on January 27 that the Biden administration is planning for a "sustained military campaign" against the Houthis in Yemen "even as over a week of near-daily bombing has done nothing to deter the group and has only dramatically escalated the situation."

The report said U.S. officials "could not put any timeline on how long the conflict will last, only saying they don't expect it to drag on for 'years,' as did U.S. wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan." The report said the officials acknowledged they cannot identify an "end date or provide an estimate for when the Yemenis' military capability will be adequately diminished."

(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)

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