FOLLOW THE LIES

 They keep lying and killing, and the west backs them up every time. The fascist israeli government seem to feel the need to regularly come up with new lies about the Palestinian resistance, despite the fact that they are already allowed to do whatever the fuck they want, including commit genocide. Now they're saying that a UN relief agency has people working for them who were involved in the Oct.7th attack . Bullshit . It's just another way to prevent the people of Gaza from getting even the meagre help they've been getting.

Home » Im/migrants and Refugees » A new Israeli lie followed by imperialist countries

A new Israeli lie followed by imperialist countries

By a guest author posted on January 29, 2024

The following message is from the “Foreign affairs Department at Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)” to the world’s parties and societal frameworks: “A new Israeli lie followed by imperialist countries … and the victim this time is the UN Relief and Palestinian Refugees Agency.” 

Once again, it is confirmed that the Israeli plan goes beyond the aggression on the Gaza Strip to affect all aspects of the Palestinian issue, in an attempt by Israel to benefit as much as possible from the support provided by the Western coalition. This time the goal is the Relief Agency and millions of Palestinian refugees. 

If the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip was based on the lie of killing children, burning civilians and beheading, then some Western countries followed it and built on it their political positions and practices towards the Palestinian people, even though the White House confirmed  that it has no tangible evidence to confirm the allegations of killing and burning, and that what the American President spoke about this matter was inspired by a phone call with “Stinky Yahoo” and from Israeli reports that were proven to be incorrect even by the Israeli police, who were unable to prove a single piece of information from the dozens of lies spread by Zionist propaganda in the first days of the aggression. 

A new Israeli-American project directly targets Palestinian refugees and their right to return, after Israel announced that 12 employees working for the relief agency in the Gaza Strip participated in the October 7 operation, which resulted in a number of Western countries announcing that they would cut their financial contributions to the agency. 

United Nations Relief and Works for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is considered the primary source in providing educational, health and relief services to millions of refugees who are spread in Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. 

As a result, Israel quickly picked up on these positions and announced publicly and explicitly that the UNRWA will not be part of the “day after the Gaza Strip,” which confirms that there is a real plan being worked on between a group of countries that targets the UNRWA and its future under the pretext of the participation of some of its employees in the October 7 operation.  

Although the Commissioner-General of UNRWA announced the dismissal of a number of employees pending the results of the investigation, which is a surprising and unacceptable measure, a number of Western countries (the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, Finland and Italy) anticipated the results of the investigation and suddenly announced the cessation of financial support for UNRWA, under Israeli pressure. 

This pressure accuses the UNRWA of corruption and subjugation, despite the United Nations confirming that it conducted a number of investigations, all of which confirmed the UNRWA’s commitment to the values and principles of the United Nations, and therefore the Israeli allegations are incorrect.

We in the “Foreign affairs Department of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine” cannot understand the Western positions regarding the UNRWA, except that it is a cheap blackmail tool that some countries have resorted to in the context of continuing the war they are waging against the Palestinian people.

These are measures that can only be explained as a war of starvation, collectively against millions of refugees in the context of exploiting the current conditions to eliminate the refugee issue and the right of return, by targeting the UNRWA, as it is one of the basic foundations on which the right of return is based. 

We call on the parties of the world, especially in the countries concerned that support the Israeli aggression, to raise their voices in rejection of these measures that directly respond to the positions adopted by the Israeli government, which has been inciting for years against the UNRWA and its services. We affirm that new attempts to target UNRWA on the financial level will be doomed to failure, because the reasons relied upon are false and misleading and lack accuracy and objectivity in all their details. 

While we hold the concerned countries responsible for the repercussions of their positions and policies towards the Palestinian refugees who will defend their right to education, health and a decent life free from oppression and aggression, we reaffirm our right to return to our homes and properties from which we were displaced in 1948 by the force of murder and terrorism committed by Zionist terrorist groups with direct support from The British Mandate, which abused the trust of its mandate over Palestine and colluded with the Zionist movement in implementing its  historical project of occupying Palestine and displacing its people

LISTEN TO AWT

 Listen to AWT here .

Thank you.

A MINUTE TO REMEMBER JAY BROWN

 One of the foundations of the Vic punk scene passed away on January 29th, 2007. It was a rough time, but it is also the year my daughter was born, so there were huge ups and downs.

Jay Brown was one of those charismatic people who could make you laugh at things you know are wrong , but it just came out anyway.

He was enthusiastic about Victoria punk, and never gave that up until the very end when he finally closed his eyes for the last time. I still miss him .

 

As an example of his sense of humour, this is something he wrote about me on the Live Vic message board in 2005.....

 a.w.t., shivs, keg killers, lid, sweathogs, mickey christ, nibbler, betty ford, the hoosegow(sometimes), yeknob, blood nasty, AK-47, the beaumonts.......... then there are the straightedge hardcore bands.... I refuse to put Goluza into that catgeory cause he still huffs glue outside at the all ages shows... - Mon, 11 Apr 2005 11:10am

Funny shit. Rest In Peace.

THE GENOCIDE CONTINUES

 This is day 114 of the Gaza genocide, and there have been 19 new massacres with the total murdered so far at 26,422 . And the west still supports this . Anything to do with these "democracies" is a farce.

IS THIS HOW THEY REMEMBER ?

 It is International Holocaust Remembrance Day , and israel continues with it's shameful destruction and genocide of all who live in Gaza, seeming to learn absolutely nothing from history except how to inflict suffering on an entire people. This is truly a sad day for everyone.

Israel’s war on Gaza live: Aid cuts are ‘collective punishment’ – UNRWA

Palestinians flee Israeli ground offensive in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Saturday [Fatima Shbair/AP Photo]

By Lyndal Rowlands

Published On 28 Jan 202428 Jan 2024

• Several countries, including the United States, are suspending funding to the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA after Israel accused some of its staff of being involved in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
• Cutting a “lifeline” to 2 million people in Gaza is “collective punishment”, says Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA.
• Thousands fleeing fighting in Khan Younis have arrived in overcrowded Rafah, where people are sleeping on the street and in tent camps flooded with sewage.
• At least 26,257 people have been killed and 64,797 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.
• 
  
  

DO THEY FUCKING GET IT ?

 No, I don't think israel will get it because they think they are in the right to commit genocide against a people they have dehumanized for fucking decades, and try to continue to do so. Still, I hope others fucking get it.

ICJ Israel decision: A new world order in the making

Apartheid Israel, and its powerful backers, are finally starting to face some accountability for their repeated, longstanding violations of international law.

• 
  Haidar Eid

  Haidar Eid is an associate Professor at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza.

Published On 26 Jan 202426 Jan 2024

Protesters hold a Palestinian flag as they gather outside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as judges rule on emergency measures against Israel following accusations by South Africa that the Israeli military operation in Gaza is a state-led genocide, in The Hague, Netherlands, January 26, 2024 [Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters]

Now that we have heard the interim judgement the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, we can confidently say a new world order is in the making.

The World Court confirmed today that South Africa’s charge under the Genocide Convention that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza”  is “plausible”. It has further ruled that Israel must “take all measures” to avoid acts of genocide in Gaza. The court has stopped short of calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, which has already been demanded by an absolute majority of world nations. Still, most of the “provisional measures” called for by the Republic of South Africa have been endorsed by the court. It is difficult to see how Israel can implement these measures and fulfil its obligations under the Genocide Convention, without agreeing to a ceasefire.

There is no indication, of course, that Israel has any intention of heeding the Court’s provisions. In fact, since the ICJ heard South Africa’s case two weeks ago, Israel has doubled down on its genocidal acts in Gaza.

In the past 24 hours alone, it carried out 21 mass killings, murdering 200 and injuring 370 civilians. So Israel’s message to the Court, and the world at large, is clear: It does not care for the opinion, demands or “measures” of any international institution – legal or political. It will do as it pleases.

All in all, more than 1 percent of the population of Gaza has been killed and another 2.2 percent has been injured in the past three months. Most of the enclave has been destroyed, and almost all of its more than two million residents have been displaced. The relentless siege, coupled with the deliberate targeting of hospitals, led to the collapse of the healthcare system. Medical services are all but non-existent and people are dying of famine and disease, including hepatitis A and Leishmania. Even the smallest of injuries can prove to be a death sentence, as it is extremely difficult to maintain hygiene and prevent infections. Hundreds of women had miscarriages and many others died in childbirth due to lack of medical care.

In this context, it is no surprise that the World Court has found it “plausible” that Israel may be committing a genocide in Gaza. But, given its lack of interest in complying with international law – and the unconditional support it enjoys from the West – there is little reason to expect it to alter its conduct due to the court’s damning interim ruling.

So why did South Africa take Israel to the ICJ, and why does today’s ruling really matter?

As affirmed by South Africa, “Israel’s genocidal acts” must be understood “within the broader context of Israel’s 75-year apartheid”. Israel has committed many violations of international law since 1948, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Its apartheid regime and illegal occupation denied the most basic human rights of the Palestinians for nearly a century. It passed a racist “nation-state law” that states that “the right to exercise national self-determination” in Israel is “unique to the Jewish people”, establishes Hebrew as Israel’s official language, and  establishes “Jewish settlement as a national value” and mandates that the state “will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development.”

After ethnically cleansing most of historical Palestine of its indigenous population through massacres and theft in 1948, it went on to imprison the population of Gaza within the Strip, committing what brave Israeli historian Ilan Pappe defined in his latest book, The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of Gaza and the Occupied Territories, as “ethnic cleansing by other means”. “[Palestinians in Gaza] are contained inside their own areas, but do not have to be counted in the overall national demographics since they cannot freely move, develop or expand, nor do they have any basic civil and human rights,” explained Pappe.

Since the moment of its very inception, Israel worked to eliminate the indigenous population of Palestine through ethnic cleansing, apartheid, ghettoisation and segregation. And now, it is committing the very first livestreamed and globally watched genocide in human history.

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How could South Africa, a nation that itself experienced the worst of settler-colonialism, ethnic cleansing and racial segregation, a nation that has successfully destroyed a vicious apartheid regime and replaced it with a multi-racial, multicultural, progressive democracy remain silent in the face of Israel’s crimes?

It could not.

South Africans recognised that taking no action on Israel’s continuing genocide in Gaza would have meant no lesson had been learned from the Sharpeville and Soweto massacres, from everything they endured under settler-colonial rule, from years of apartheid.

They realised that now that Israel’s occupation and oppression reached their genocidal climax, the international community no longer has the luxury of waiting, issuing statements and hoping for the best. Every single minute of inaction brings more loss, more death and more despair to Palestinians.

So they took action – they took Israel to the highest court of the world, and accused it of committing the world’s most heinous crime: genocide.

Israel may not heed the court’s rulings and provisions, but South Africa’s historic stance will still have consequences. As stated by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa after the ICJ’s interim decision: “Third States are now on notice of the existence of a serious risk of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. They must, therefore, also act independently and immediately to prevent genocide by Israel and to ensure that they are not themselves in violation of the Genocide Convention, including by aiding or assisting in the commission of genocide. This necessarily imposes an obligation on all States to cease funding and facilitating Israel’s military actions, which are plausibly genocidal.”

With this case, South Africa has put not only Israel, but the entirety of the global justice system on trial. This case is a major turning point for humanity, because it marks the first time in history when a Global South country bravely crossed a red line drawn by the colonial West and demanded its favourite settler colony, Israel, be held to account for the crimes it has long been committing against an Indigenous people. Today, thanks to South Africa, the entire colonial West, and its centuries-long history of theft, dispossession, and injustice is on trial at the World Court.

Future generations will remember January 26, 2024, as the day on which the world has finally decided to hold a genocide state, and its powerful backers, accountable for repeated, longstanding violations of international law. Yes, a new world order is in the making

IT NEEDS TO BE SAID AGAIN

 Is it really common knowledge that the u.s.a. is supporting the genocide in Gaza, and not just with bombs but intentional starvation as well ? How can people still proudly say they support israel against the "terrorists" ? Who is terrorizing who ? Fuck u.s. imperialism.

Enabled and Backed by the USA: 

Starving the People of Gaza: “A Direct Result of Israel’s Declared Policy”

January 22, 2024

 

Gaza is suffering from shortages of food, medicine and other basic supplies. People line up for food in Rafah, December 21, 2023.    Photo: AP

Today, the entire world stands by while it witnesses a needless famine, putting at least hundreds of thousands at direct risk of starvation.

It’s not because there is no food. The food is there, lined up in trucks right outside the area struck by famine.

It’s not because there is nobody available to distribute the food. The volunteers to do that are also there—though many are being murdered by massive, indiscriminate bombing going on every day.

The pictures of the children crying for food are also there—so nobody can say they didn’t know.

The problem is the blockade enforced by Israel—and backed up by the United States—that has caused what is now the worst hunger situation in the world… one that is rapidly heading for mass famine and starvation.

 

Palestinians line up desperate for food, Rafah, Gaza Strip, January 9, 2024.    Photo: AP

An Israeli Report Exposes the Forced Starvation

A January 8 report by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem1 —the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories—is titled “Israel is starving Gaza.” The report documents that “The hunger in Gaza is not a byproduct of the war but a direct result of Israel’s declared policy” (emphasis in original).

Assertions and quotes here are from, and documented in, the B’Tselem report2:

• Gaza was already in the throes of a humanitarian crisis before the war, mainly due to Israel’s 17-year blockade. About 80 percent of the population relied on humanitarian aid. Some 44 percent of households were food insecure and another 16 percent were at risk of food insecurity. And now, only a fraction of the amount of food entering before the war is allowed in.
• Israel has systematically destroyed the ability of people in Gaza to produce food. “Most cultivated fields have been destroyed, and accessing open areas during the war is dangerous in any case. Bakeries, factories and food warehouses have been bombed or shut down due to lack of basic supplies, fuel and electricity.”
• Right now, “everyone in Gaza is going hungry. About 2.2 million people are surviving day by day on almost nothing, routinely going without meals. The desperate search for food is relentless, and usually unsuccessful, leaving the entire population—including babies, children, pregnant or nursing women and the elderly—hungry.” If the situation continues, by February 7, 2024, at least one in four residents in Gaza—more than 500,000 people—will be “facing extreme food shortages, hunger and exhaustion.”
• The little food that does get in to Gaza is very difficult to distribute due to the constant bombings, destroyed roads, frequent communication blackouts, and shelters overflowing with hundreds of thousands of displaced people crowding into smaller and smaller areas.

 

Behind Crimes Against Humanity: A Criminal System That Needs to Be Overthrown as Soon as Possible

The leaders of Israel have made clear, in their actions and their statements,3 that their objective is to bomb, terrorize, torture, starve, and crush or exile the Palestinian people from their homeland, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Biden’s widely reported-on spats with Israel’s rulers, and his phony-ass finger-wagging on some of Israel’s most outrageous crimes, have gone hand-in-hand with ramping up massive funding and military aid to Israel, including sending Israel more than 5,000 2,000-pound bombs, some of the most destructive weapons on earth.4 Nor has Biden lifted a finger to stop this horrible starvation, which again is in plain view of the entire planet.

Israel’s—and, yes, America’s—torture and starvation of the people in Gaza is utterly intolerable. There needs to be much, much more resistance from all corners of society to these crimes being committed in our name. And with that—there has to be a much deeper look at how this connects to other crimes America carries out (and has carried out) around the world… the deeper causes… and what must be seriously done to stop it.

One place to start: getting into, and spreading, this post from Bob Avakian.

Follow Bob Avakian (BA) on social media!

“...those of you who are not afraid of the truth: get ready for messages coming at you...”

Substack, Instagram, Facebook, X, Telegram, Threads, TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube

_______________

FOOTNOTES:

1.  B’Tselem is an organization in Israel committed to a “future in which human rights, liberty and equality are guaranteed to all human beings living here, Palestinians and Jews alike.” Its reports on human rights in Israel are carefully documented, and cited in publications like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN.  [back]

2.  The B’Tselem report draws its data from a December 21, 2023 report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (FRC) on the situation in Gaza. That report drew on the work of and was reviewed by prominent experts. It was funded by the governments of the European Union and Australia, along with donors in the UK and United States.  [back]

3.  Israel’s so-called “moderate” president Isaac Herzog declared, as Israel launched its genocidal assault on Gaza, that “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.” Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu (Netan-NAZI) invoked a Biblical story where “god” commands the Israelites to attack their enemy “and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.” And other genocidal declarations from the most influential voices in Israeli politics and media are even worse.  [back]

4.  A New York Times video (12/21/23) detailed how Israel was dropping 2,000-pound bombs, one of the most destructive munitions in Western military arsenals in Gaza. The Times identified that in at least 200 instances, Israel used these munitions—that create massive craters in the earth—in areas where civilians had been order to flee to. When asked for an explanation, an Israeli military spokesman told the Times, “Questions of this kind will be looked into at a later stage.” Since October 7, the U.S. sent more than 5,000 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.

SOLIDARITY

 All acts of solidarity with the people of Gaza no matter how big or small are important right now. Palestine must be free !

Home » Global » Int’l assembly in NYC salutes Palestinian resistance

Int’l assembly in NYC salutes Palestinian resistance

By Sara Flounders and Monica Moorehead posted on January 23, 2024

The International Assembly Against Imperialism in Solidarity with Palestinian Resistance was held at the historic Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial & Educational Center in New York City on Jan. 21. Workers World Party, the organizer of the event, had chosen the date to honor the centennial of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, who died that day in 1924.

Speakers from more than 45 organizations in 30 countries on five continents expressed their solidarity with the liberation of Palestine at the International Assembly Jan. 21, the centennial of V.I. Lenin’s death, in NYC. (WW Photo: Joe Piette)

The unique assembly challenged U.S. imperialist efforts to isolate and demonize the Palestinian resistance and its allies. Organizers surrounded reports by Palestinian Resistance groups with statements from well-known national and international organizations that have decades of authority in the world movement for resisting U.S. imperialist blockades and sanctions, and by workers’ parties and solidarity organizations from around the world.

The live-streamed event attracted participants from the Palestinian territories, South Africa, Vietnam, Australia, Canada, Peru, Spain, Ecuador, Germany, Britain, Croatia and Eswatini (aka Swaziland), according to organizers.  Participants from at least 20 U.S. states also joined online.

From the region under imperialist attack, messages arrived from diverse organizations – with both secular and religious leadership – which are a determined part of the heroic resistance in Palestine and West Asia. 

Global Leninist solidarity

This international solidarity included a delegation from Nicaragua’s mission to the United Nations, and video talks and/or messages by Venezuelan official Carlos Ron Martinez, the Communist Party of Cuba and representatives of Communist parties from Ukraine, Brazil, Kenya, Denmark and Swaziland. 

Also, messages were sent by the Rallye of African Workers in Senegal, Pole for Rebirth of Communism in France – PRCF and Socialist Unity Center of India. Additional Leninist and anti-imperialist authors and commentators sent evaluations of the struggle in this period since the events of October 7 in Palestine. 

From the United States, communist, left, anti-imperialist and progressive forces sent representatives who addressed the Assembly. These included the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, United National Antiwar Coalition, BAYAN USA, Black Alliance for Peace, Party of Communists USA, December 12th Movement, A Call to Action on Puerto Rico, Marxist Youth League, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network, Veterans For Peace, Laundry Workers Center and U.S. Peace Council.

U.S. imperialism attempts to marginalize and isolate this revolutionary upheaval by only naming Hamas as Israel’s enemy –– and then banning statements from Hamas from the media.  Messages from: AnsarAllah in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, One Democratic State of Palestine, Islamic Jihad and Masar Badil (Alternative Revolutionary Path) confirmed the diversity of views in the region’s resistance and their unity in action.

International left forces from International Manifesto Group, Friends of Socialist China, China/U.S. Solidarity Network, a prominent TikTok blogger in China, International Movement for a Just World in Malaysia, a former comrade of African Marxist revolutionary Amílcar Cabral, Alex Saab Support Committee, and the House of Latin America in Tehran, Iran, sent messages that made the event buzz.

Palestinian resistance given a world platform

Monica Moorehead, a Workers World newspaper managing editor, chaired the “Voices and Defenders of Palestinian Resistance” panel. She referred to two prominent Black Liberation leaders, Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton, who both denounced Zionism during the 1960s. Moorehead underlined how since its 1959 founding, Workers World Party has taken a consistent principled stance defending Palestinians’ right to their homeland.

Rabab Abdulhadi (WW Photo: Joe Piette)

The panel featured Palestinian educator and editor Rabab Abdulhadi, whose presentation linked Lenin’s overall contributions on imperialism and national oppression to the struggle for Palestinian self-determination.  Prominent Palestinian novelist and activist Susan Abulhawa and National Lawyers Guild President Suzanne Adely delivered recorded video messages. 

A religious Jewish anti-Zionist perspective was presented by Neturei Karta representative, Joseph Kohn. A secular view came from Michael Kramer, former Israeli soldier and now Palestinian resistance supporter, who spoke on the growing number of Israeli teenagers refusing military conscription.

What the Assembly sought

Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center, opened the Assembly by reading an organizers’ collective statement that the program’s goal was to assert the political, legal and moral right to hear, discuss and meet with the resistance forces who are under attack with bombs the U.S. supplies Israel.

The statement asserted that all who agree with the charge of genocide, as presented in the lawsuit South Africa brought to the International Court of Justice, at The Hague, in the Netherlands, have a moral obligation to act to break the enforced isolation.  

The Assembly organizers were determined to hold a large and secure in-person meeting and a hybrid meeting on Zoom with re-streams to the social media sites of Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook. 

As an added precaution against the widespread shutdowns on corporate platforms –– often made automatically by algorithms –– they streamed the Assembly on a new channel on Telegram: Workers World Party.  

There were two afternoon panels on workers’ struggles and building internationalism. Richie Merino from the Bronx Anti-War Coalition chaired the first and Dianne Mathiowetz, a retired autoworker and United Auto Workers member, the closing session. The panels stressed the importance of organizing with working-class and oppressed communities. 

Speakers included veteran activists with decades of organizing experience –– Brenda Stokely, Omowale Clay and Esperanza Martell –– along with young activists and worker organizers –– Arjae Red and Alice Yaser.

Larry Holmes (WW Photo: Joe Piette)

First Secretary of Workers World Party Larry Holmes highlighted the opening morning panel. He also concluded the Assembly by challenging participants to re-engage with Lenin’s perspective of merging the growing class consciousness of workers in the Global North with the revolutionary anti-imperialist movements of the Global South.

The program, including the statements from Palestinian resistance organizations often banned from corporate media, can be viewed on https://www.workers.org/videos-j21 and Workers World Party channels on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, and Telegram. Everyone in solidarity with Palestinian resistance is invited to re-stream the material and spread it as far as possible.

Contributions to the hall rental and technology expenses are needed and will be appreciated. Send via workers.org/donate.

Authors Sara Flounders and Monica Moorehead were program coordinators, along with Dianne Mathiowetz