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please bro just vote for biden bro one more time bro please i swear bro this is the most important election of our lifetimes bro i promise bro please dont look at gaza bro please vote for biden we need him to send more weapons to ukraine bro its very important bro

My dad's watching the BBC World News feed, and they've been going on about a British ship intercepting a Houthi drone for the past 20 minutes, non stop. Replaying the same grainy footage of the drone being shot down while "experts" talk.

Is this what counts as news these days?

So I'm reading the dissenting opinion of Ugandan Judge Sebutinde which you can find in full here.

WARNING: LONG EFFORT POST!

The primary arguement and summary is essentially that this is a "politcal and historical" issue that should be resolved by diplomacy amongst states and not brought before the court. Seemingly even when that's impossible:

Unfortunately, the failure, reluctance or inability of States to resolve political controversies such as this one through effective diplomacy or negotiations may sometimes lead them to resort to a pretextual invocation of treaties like the Genocide Convention, in a desperate bid to force a case into the context of such a treaty, in order to foster its judicial settlement: rather like the proverbial “Cinderella’s glass slipper”.

As far as I can tell she doesn't address the fact that this case is being brought by South Africa, not a party within the conflict or materially tied to the outcome. She certainly doesn't indicate what their motives might be for doing so.

She does restate that there is a process for arguing for the prosecution of genocide under Gendocide Convention, but the implication her seems to basically be 'get this off my desk' or perhaps 'stop wasting my time until you have incontrovertible evidence'. I'd argue there's a bit of a problem with that, as I'll get to shortly, given her reaction to the evidence presented.

But first, some 'context' around October 7th.

12. On 7 October 2023, thousands of members of the Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (“Islamic Resistance Movement” or “Hamas”), a Palestinian Sunni Islamic political and military organization governing the Gaza Strip, invaded the territory of the State of Israel under cover of thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately into Israel and committed massacres, mutilations, rapes and abductions of hundreds of Israeli civilians, including men, women and children. (Israel reports that over 1,200 people were murdered that day, more than 5,500 maimed, and over 240 hostages abducted, including infants, entire families, the elderly, the disabled, as well as Holocaust survivors.) According to Israel, most of the hostages remain in captivity or are simply unaccounted for and many have been tortured, sexually abused, starved or killed while in captivity.

13. Soon after the 7 October attack, Israel, in exercise of what it describes as “its right to defend itself”, launched a “military operation” into the Gaza Strip whose objective was, first, to defeat Hamas and its network and, secondly, to rescue the Israeli hostages. South Africa claims that as a result of the armed conflict that ensued between Israel and Hamas over the past 11 weeks, 1.9 million Palestinians living in Gaza (85 per cent of the population) have been internally displaced; over 22,000 Palestinians, including over 7,729 children, have been killed; over 7,780 are missing and/or presumed dead under the rubble; over 55,243 are severely injured or have suffered mental harm; and vast areas of Gaza, including entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed including 355,000 homes, places of worship, cemeteries, cultural and archaeological sites, hospitals and other critical infrastructure.

I find some of the language here interesting. South Africa "claims" while Israel "reports". The language in the description of of the October 7th Hamas operation is full of sensationalist and emotionally charged language. "Invaded ... indescriminately ... committed massacres, mutilations, rapes and abductions of hundreds of Israeli civilians, including men, women and children". Notice how different the tone is here to when she summarises the effects of Israel's military operation in Gaza right afterward. It's also worth noting that far more sensationalised and emotional langugage describing the Hamas operation are not given any sort of 'Israel claims' caveat, only the vague statistics Israel offers and theories about ongoing abuse of hostages.

Perhaps that's due a difference in the evidence? So let's look at her response to that and her summaries...

The intervening paragraphs largely lay out the long claims by South Africa detailling the systematic way in which Israel has targeted civilian infrastructure, hit targets South Africa says are 'not military targets', and failed to punish or condemn genocidal statements and incitements from citizens, media, and government figures (I agree with all of that obviously). It then lays out in short Israel's counter claims that the war is only about Hamas and it does not target Palestinians at large (which is obviously bollocks, in my view).

And then we get to her judgement and opinion on whether the evidence supports claims of a potential genocide (not an actual ruling on one, keep in mind, the potential for a one with more evidence brought):

21 ... I am not convinced that a prima facie showing of a genocidal intent, by way of indicators, has been made out against Israel. The war was not started by Israel but rather by Hamas who attacked Israel on 7 October 2023 thereby sparking off the military operation in Israel’s defence and in a bid to rescue its hostages. I also must agree that any “genocidal intent” alleged by the Applicant is negated by (1) Israel’s restricted and targeted attacks of legitimate military targets in Gaza; (2) its mitigation of civilian harm by warning them through leaflets, radio messages and telephone calls of impending attacks; and (3) its facilitation of humanitarian assistance. A careful examination of Israel’s war policy and of the full statements of the responsible government officials further demonstrates the absence of a genocidal intent ... the scale of suffering and death experienced in Gaza is exacerbated not by genocidal intent, but rather by several factors, including the tactics of the Hamas organization itself which often entails its forces embedding amongst the civilian population and installations, rendering them vulnerable to legitimate military attack.

Now this is where I start just straight up calling bullshit. It's just a grab bag of Israeli propaganda lines.

Nothing matters before October 7th. Warnings of strikes when those strikes were often on shelters, refugee camps, hospitals, and neighbourhoods where people could not leave either due to other factors or because when they tried to we've seen they were often bombed or shot at by snipers and tanks even on the so called 'safe routes'. Israel has to bomb everyone and everything because they use civilians as human shields which if you're here I don't need to explain what a crock of shit that has always been.

If I was a genocidal state my reading from this would be simple; print some leaflets telling people to leave for deniability and then you can murder and carpet bomb and target civilians to your hearts content.

This absurd logical loophole gets even more ludicrous when she summarises her opinion of whether Israeli officials held any 'genocidal intent':

22. Regarding the statements of Israeli top officials and politicians that South Africa cited as containing genocidal rhetoric, a careful examination of those statements, read in their proper and full context, shows that South Africa has either placed the quotations out of context or simply misunderstood the statements of those officials. The vast majority of the statements referred to the destruction of Hamas and not the Palestinian people as such. Certain renegade statements by officials who are not charged with prosecuting Israel’s military operations were subsequently highly criticized by the Israeli Government itself. More importantly, the official war policy of the Israeli Government, as presented to the Court, contains no indicators of a genocidal intent. In my assessment, there are also no indicators of incitement to commit genocide.

They only meant Hamas, is a ludicrous supposition in many, if not most cases.

Government officials, including some of those specifically named in the case, regularly refer to any and every Palestinian as being 'Hamas'. The even refer to non-Palestinians and foreign organisations as Hamas. While this has been going on members of the government have called protesters around the world, NGOs, lawyers, South African, the BBC, and the UN 'Hamas'.

You don't reference The Amalek - a biblical story about destroying an entire country and specifically all of it's inahbitents in revenge - if you're only talking about a specific "Palestinian Sunni Islamic political and military organization" as she described Hamas earlier.

There is no reference to or acknowledgement that historically these very same Israeli officials have used Hamas and 'terrorist' without any distinction between the provable or legal designations and just Palestinians or people Israel doesn't like in general.

And finally, for the absurd cherry on this shit-sundae of rationalisations, the fact that the *"official war policy of the Israeli government, as presented to the Court, contains no indicators of a genocidal intent." Has any official war policy of any government, accused of ethnic cleansing or genocide, since the introduction of the Genocide Convention in history, ever just said 'Yeah it's our official policy to do genocide'? That's like saying a serial killer can't have intended murder because his Facebook bio says 'pacifist' in it. Just absolutely fatuous.

Then we have the rationales for why the measures requested by South Africa cannot be 'linked' to the rights under the convention or approved in her view...

(Continued in next comment)

George W. Bush getting extraordinarily renditioned from the Sovereign State of Texas to see the inside of the Hague would be among the funniest outcomes of all this.

ICJ news soon?

The colors of the Russian flag are said to be red for "Great Russia" (Russia itself), white for White Russia (Belarus), and blue for "Little Russia" (Ukraine).

Libs have been using a white-blue-white flag for resistance against Russia. That must mean they want a union of Ukraine and Belarus.

MR PUTIN THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS YEARN FOR FREEDOM

every step towards destabilising and fragmenting is good

maybe states shouldn't have militarized national guards

The evil empire has put its funding to UNWRA, the UN agency that provides aid for Palestinians in the zionist-created ghettos, on hold due to alleged "terrorism" connections.

What a curious coincidence that this happens on the same day that the ICJ tells the zionists to stop being genocidal.

Some initial conclusions from today's ruling;

Israel and its international supporters have been found guilty of committing genocide in occupied Palestine, on the basis of the 'no smoke without fire' precedent. Or, is plausibly suspected of, being pedantic.

Ansarallah & Hezbollah are both non state actors doing their respective countries proud by upholding committments they are only ethically, not actual signatories to, being non-state actors.

The US and UK are attacking Ansarallah without any legal justification, as China has said, and actually impeding their efforts to uphold the genocide convention.

of relevance to the UK, the leader of the Labour party has publically incited genocidal acts. And the Unions, by not supporting Hamas as requested, are also complicit. The Isreali ambassador needs to be sent home for her disgusting comments. Time to start filing lawsuits with the ICC i guess

South Africa (and co-signers) is now the vanguard of moral authority in the world, if it wasn't already, and should be listened to hereafter on matters of international ethics.

Another day another banger by the good netizens of the coal and steel nation of the Land of the Germans.

https://feddit.de/post/8315496?scrollToComments=true

The Hamas is a dirty terrorist organisation. And if the UNRWA has any local workers, it is completly logical, that they are completely infiltrated by the Hamas. The UN cannot defend those workers and their families. And so during the night a few armed people come by and want something from you. Or you are completely radicalised from the start because you were in a Hamas school. Or Hamas plants some of their own.

9 Points from the failing Nazi instance feddit.de

https://old.reddit.com/r/de/comments/1acxdz4/nach_vorw%C3%BCrfen_gegen_mitarbeiter_berlin_stoppt/

Insane, how easy the Hamas with their "We are just Palis"-act are able to get money from the West. Without supporting the Palis there would be no Hamas

This is of course joined by a chorus of "Finally" "Down with these terrorists" and "Well this all won't do anything because russia"

I'll just say this against all those mask off faschos if the Palestinian people deserve genocide because Hamas is fighting against Israel, then what do the germans deserve?

#NotMeUs

Like the first civil war was fought over racism, the second civil war will be fought over racism too (allowing anyone with the wrong skin color into the USA)

Highest fancy boy court in the land rules country shouldn't do genocide because it's "bad vibes" refuses to enforce a ceasefire because they don't want to be seen as harsh.

:texas-cool:

Stolen from here

Hearing lots of concerning rumors about Israel moving a lot of troops and equipment north. Lebanon may be heating up soon

Archive (DoJ site): https://web.archive.org/web/20240127203355/https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/former-soldier-receives-15-years-federal-prison-drug-trafficking-ketamine-and

Archive (The Intercept, 2016): https://web.archive.org/web/20231103135331/https://theintercept.com/2016/02/25/us-extends-drone-war-deeper-into-africa-with-secretive-base/

🎖️ ~~This is wild.~~ ❌❎ The feds busted an AFRICOM drug-trafficking ring, run by Fort Bragg soldiers, that was moving enough ketamine from Cameroon to Fort Bragg to send tens of millions of people down a K-hole. Jan 26, 2024 · 10:01 PM UTC

Uganda just tried to vote against all the measures lol, worst than the Israeli judge

cnn source

Gaza Strip: EU Calls for ICJ Order to Be Implemented

Last 18th, the Community Parliament approved a resolution in favor of a permanent cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas.

On Friday, without demanding a ceasefire in Gaza from Israel, the European Union (EU) called for the "full, immediate and effective" implementation of the order issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The UN agency urged Tel Aviv to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of genocide in the Palestinian territory under constant siege since last October.

In a joint statement, the European Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, recalled that the UN Court's orders are binding and urged the parties to comply with them, without expressly mentioning Israel.

In its ruling, the ICJ ordered Israel to take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence relating to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The case was introduced by South Africa in December 2023 and sought to have the ICJ grant emergency measures to halt the armed onslaught on the Palestinian enclave.

In its request, Pretoria demanded the immediate cessation of military operations in Gaza by Tel Aviv, the adoption of reasonable measures to prevent the genocide of Palestinians, as well as to ensure that displaced persons return to their homes, and have access to humanitarian assistance.

Last 18th, the Community Parliament approved a resolution in favor of a permanent cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas.

This non-binding regulation received the approval of 312 legislators, 131 voted against and 72 abstained in what constitutes the first demand of the community legislature to the belligerent parties.

The resolution called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and the dismantling of Hamas.

What is the true power and political status of the Houthis? Asking in the context of the recent CTH ep and this exchange on r-blackwolffeed.

DHS sent TX AG Paxton demanding access to Shelby Park/Eagle Pass by Friday (1/26)

No brakes on this train, Mr. President!

if you want to see some real brainworms, check /r/worldnews thread on the ICJ ruling lol. lots of Oh look Israel's vindicated because they weren't ordered to stop! the killing can continue! yay!

Hot take: The border fuckery is preventing Genocide Joe from starting a desastrous war in Iran right now, we must give critical support to Gred Abode and the Texas Oblast