November 14, 2024

MASTER LIST for DWF NEWS Articles 11/14/24

Genocidal Scorecard  DEATH MARCHES & TORTURE CAMPS

Chris Hedges    Scheerpost

Israel accused of silencing journalists by killing them

The Middle East and the Journalist's Fate

Viktor Mikhin     THE INTEL DROP

Scandinavians, the World's Happiest People, Love Killing for the USA

Ron Ridenour       CovertActionMagazine

Israel/US threaten future of International Criminal Court

Turmoil at the ICC as Fears Rise Over Israel & the US Interference

Craig Mokhiber         Mondoweiss

UNRWA's 'Darkest Hour' Will Go Bleaker Under Trump's Presidency

Damilola Banjo     PassBlue

The 109 road to UN Charter Review & a "new UN"

The Future in the Past

S. M. Sharei -DWF NEWS

Genocidal Scorecard  DEATH MARCHES & TORTURE CAMPS

Chris Hedges    Scheerpost

EXCERPTS

A United Nations report ... lays out in chilling detail the advances made by Israel in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate “the very existence of the Palestinian people in Palestine.”

The Nakba or “catastrophe,” which in 1948 saw Zionist militias drive 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, carry out more than 70 massacres and seize 78 percent of historic Palestine, has returned on steroids.

Reports from northern Gaza are difficult to obtain as internet and phone services have been cut and the few journalists on the ground continue to be killed. ... 

Death Marches & Torture Camps 

Israel has ordered Palestinians to flee to designated “safe zones,” but once in these “safe zones” they have been attacked and ordered to move to new “safe zones.” 

“The movement of displaced Palestinians resembles the death marches of past genocides, and the Nakba. ...

Israel has repeatedly attacked aid distribution sites, tent encampments, hospitals, schools and markets “through the indiscriminate use of aerial and sniper fire.”

The report notes that “at least 13,000 children, including more than 700 babies, have been killed, many shot in the head and chest” ...

Palestinians detained by Israeli forces

“have been systematically abused in a network of Israeli torture camps. Thousands have disappeared, many after being detained in appalling conditions, often bound to beds, blindfolded and in diapers, deprived of medical treatment, subjected to unsanitary conditions, starvation, torturous cuffing, severe beatings, electrocution and sexual assault by both humans and animals. At least 48 detainees have died in custody.

The report criticizes the Israeli media for platforming “proponents of genocide” and withholding “facts from the Israeli public.” At the same time, the Israeli military has killed over 130 Palestinian journalists. 

Palestinians are equated with the Amalek, the Biblical enemies of the Israelites, as well as Nazis, to justify their extermination ... READ MORE

Israel accused of silencing journalists by killing them

The Middle East and the Journalist's Fate

Viktor Mikhin     THE INTEL DROP

EXCERPTS

 The Israeli Armed Forces are deliberately attacking journalists in Gaza and Lebanon to squash alternative versions and control information.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in the 12 months following October 7, 75% of all journalists and media workers killed worldwide were victims of Israeli attacks. These staggering statistics show the scale of risk faced by journalists in Gaza and Lebanon during the ongoing wars; they have to resist aerial bombardments, ground attacks and the deadly precision of IDF sniper fire. In regions beset by unrest, information is power. Silencing journalists is a frighteningly effective way to control narratives, suppress the truth and distort public opinion. Supporters of the freedom of press claim that the persecution of journalists has become a calculated tactic in the arsenal of Middle Eastern conflicts. By silencing the media, the population is deprived of access to unbiased information... READ MORE

 https://www.theinteldrop.org/2024/11/11/the-middle-east-and-the-journalists-fate/?

Scandinavians, the World's Happiest People, Love Killing for the USA

Ron Ridenour       CovertActionMagazine

EXCERPTS 

The World Population Review (WPR) has been conducting this survey measuring human happiness since 2002. Denmark sometimes has been number one and all five Scandinavian countries consistently make the top ten. The world’s greatest warring countries at this moment: Israel=5; UK=20; U.S.=23; Russia=72; Ukraine=105.

It doesn’t bother Israelis’ happiness as they murder Palestinians. Of the 143 countries surveyed Afghanistan hits bottom after 20 years of invasion-occupation by the Yankees. ...

Denmark continued its war alliance by sending troops, war jets, and other weaponry to break Yugoslavia into five countries. Some would obediently join NATO. Denmark followed up in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, even to some countries in Africa where civil wars occur, because the U.S. and Europe control or seek to control their natural resources.

Self-imposed sanctions against Russia are so extensive that the “chickens are coming home to roost.” Gas, oil and electricity rates soared by the hour—between two and eleven times normal the first year. City governments reduced heat in schools, and turned off street lamps at night ...

As fossil fuel and electricity rates increase dramatically, so do food prices. Inflation skyrockets. Major capitalists scoop up record profits, surpassing previous records, yet the government won’t tax them more. My heating bill increased 50% overnight.  READ MORE

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/11/11/scandinavians-the-worlds-happiest-people-love-killing-for-the-usa/

Israel & U.S. threaten future of International Criminal Court

Turmoil at the ICC as Fears Rise Over Israel & the US Interference

Craig Mokhiber         Mondoweiss

EXCERPTS

... A failure to deliver justice in the current case, and any perception of bias on behalf of Israel, any concession to U.S. pressure, or to the Court’s Western sponsors, will almost certainly represent the beginning of the end of the ICC.

On May 20, 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, submitted a request to the ICC for warrants to arrest Israeli leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination. 

Only eight days after the Prosecutor announced the warrant requests and his warning about intimidation of Court officials, the Guardian and +972 Magazine published an exposé revealing a decade of interference, pressure, and threats by notorious Israeli intelligence agencies against personnel of the International Criminal Court in order to derail investigations of Israeli crimes. 

But by then the Court had gone silent on the Palestine file- a silence that would last for five months. Court watchers were left to wonder, and worry, about the unprecedented delay in the issuance of the warrants. 

The coming of these latest developments on the heels of revelations of years of threats and harassment of judges and court officials by Israeli intelligence operatives and Western government officials has put the followers of the Court and opponents of Israeli impunity on heightened alert. 

In one case, the head of the Mossad himself threatened the previous ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and her family. (To her credit, Bensouda resisted the attacks and, acting with exemplary courage and principle, proceeded to open an investigation on Israeli crimes). 

But Israel is not the only state interfering with the work of the ICC. Acting on Israel’s behalf, U.S. legislators, the State Department, and U.S. National Security Council officials have joined forces to pressure, threaten and try to derail the case against Israeli officials, even threatening sanctions against the Court.  

READ MORE

UNRWA's 'Darkest Hour' Will Go Bleaker Under Trump's Presidency

Damilola Banjo     PassBlue

 EXCERPTS

 When Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), told the UN General Assembly that his agency was in its “darkest hour” — the morning after Donald Trump was elected 47th president of the United States — he wasn’t referring to the new hurdle the UN agency would face under the administration of Trump, who disdains the multilateral body. ...

“I am addressing you at UNRWA’s darkest hour,” Lazzarini said as he started his speech to the Assembly.

Lazzarini was describing the devastating effects that would consume the agency if the Oct. 28 Israeli legislation banning UNRWA’s operations providing health, education and other social services to Palestinian refugees in Israel and the occupied territories would go into effect.

The Israeli Knesset passed two bills: one banning the agency’s work and the other cutting off contact between Israel and UNRWA. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to the president of the General Assembly, Philomen Yang, on Nov. 3, formally canceling the 1967 agreement between Israel and UNRWA and triggered in 90 days.

If the legislation sticks, Israel will no longer issue the agency’s staff with work or entry permits, ...

In the General Assembly on Nov. 6, Lazzarini aimed to enlist UN member states to influence Israel to back down on its bans. He reiterated UNRWA’s crucial work while listing the horrors that Palestinian civilians in the Gaza war have been subjected to through Israel’s yearlong retaliatory military operation in the enclave: the destruction of schools, hospitals, water and sewage systems and residences as well as the collapse of the economy. ...  READ MORE

The Future in the Past

Reconstructing Article 109(3) of the UN Charter

Towards the San Francisco Promise to Constitutionalize the United Nations & International Law

Shahr-Yar Mahmoud (S.M.) Sharei

  The 109 Road to UN Charter Review and a "new UN"

 Dr. S.M. Sharei's new book The Future in the Past should be a "must" read for all peace activists and representatives of nations at the UN. Why? Fears of WWIII or nuclear war are now widespread, and intolerable. Yet the UN Charter's flaws have prevented the UN from doing its basic job to "end the scourge of war."  

Dr. Sharei asks if the United Nations, a proven failure at ending wars, is "frozen" and can't be fixed? Can this same UN, undemocratic to its core, ever be changed so that all nations are given voting rights? Can the world community ("we, the people") be given a place at the table, allowed to have representatives with voting rights?

The Future in the Past takes us back to the 1945 ratification of the Charter in San Francisco. It describes the behind-the-scenes details to get the Charter approved by the 50 or so nations. We learn of little known dirty tricks, primarily by the U.S. government, but also the Russians and the UK to keep their undemocratic permanent 5 veto power thus insuring control of the UN.  

The Charter's birth could make a Hollywood movie. Secrecy, spying, intimidation, perhaps even blackmail, paint a somewhat sordid picture. Could the original Charter be considered illegitimate? Are dirty tricks to manipulate weaker nations still happening today at the UN? This question will need answers as a modern Review becomes more and more likely. 

At the time many of the nations that ratified the Charter knew it was undemocratic and opposed the ultimate power given only 5 nations. But the winners of WWII insisted on final decision-making. Period. Not open for discussion. Nevertheless, nations opposed to the Security Council permanent 5 veto power won a compromise agreement in Article 109 (3) which required a future review of the Charter in the hopes of removing the undemocratic veto. Yet we learn that the Review has never been completed.

The book's insights reveal how past attempts for a Review have been stalled to avoid real changes in the Charter. He warns of 109 being sent to UN "Committees" where Review items could die waiting for consensus. We'll need to avoid UN "Special Committees," "Open-ended Working Committees," "High level Committees," "Ad hoc Committees," and even an "Arrangement Committee"!

Dr. Sharei's approach to Charter change appears to stay within the paradigm of the UN Charter and its rules. But why should the UN General Assembly bow down to the discredited Security Council? The General Assembly should be able to launch Charter Review with, or without, the Security Council's approval. A direct comparison between the Earth Constitution and the UN Charter can occur without endless bureaucratic delays.

Is the best model for a "new UN" to change (amend?) the Charter along the lines of the European Union's quasi-federal government or to copy more the US constitutional government wherein the Articles of Confederation (think "UN Charter") were dumped in favor of a federal constitution (think Earth Constitution).

Although The Future in the Past does not bring the Constitution for the Federation of Earth (aka Earth Constitution) into its exceptionally informative analysis, the World Constitution & Parliament Association believes that Charter Review can be the opening needed to begin work with the UN General Assembly utilizing the Earth Constitution as the model, guide, authority and inspiration for a "new UN," one which meets the standards for a genuine "constitutional" movement.  

-- Roger Kotila, PhD [Psychologist, ret.; President, Democratic World Federalists; Editor DWF NEWS; US Vice President WCPA. Website: earthfederation.info and dwfed.org]