UN Human Rights Council to Investigate Israeli War Crimes in Palestine (VIDEO)

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May 27, 2021

Israeli warplanes attacked hundreds of ‘targets’ in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) decided on Thursday, May 27, to “urgently establish an ongoing independent, international commission of inquiry,” to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council, to,

“Investigate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021”.

The resolution was passed with 24 votes in favor, 9 against, and 14 abstentions. The US delegation of the Council in Geneva expressed its disappointment following the vote, alleging that the resolution represents an obstacle to the ‘progress’ that has been made.

LIVE: UNHRC holds special session on human rights situation in occupied West Bank https://t.co/nVw6GyPzpy

— PresserWatch (@PresserWatch) May 27, 2021

For its part, an Israeli Foreign Ministry’s statement dubbed the resolution a ‘moral failure’, aimed at covering the ‘crimes’ of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas. The Israeli statement also officially rejected the decision and declared that it will not participate in the investigation. 

Below, are the full events that preceded the UNHRC’s vote, as reported on the Council’s website:

Human Rights Council Opens Special Session on “the Grave Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”, Speakers Urge it to Establish an International Commission of Inquiry

“The Human Right Council this morning opened its special session on “the grave human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.  It heard calls from speakers for the Council to establish an independent, international commission of inquiry to investigate in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021.

“In her opening remarks, Nazhat Shameem Khan, President of the Human Rights Council, outlining the proposed extraordinary modalities for the session, said these modalities had been defined due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, which prohibited public meetings of more than 15 participants, and should not serve as a precedent. 

“Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said both sides had the right to defend their citizens, and Palestinians had the right to live safely and freely in their homes, something that they were unable to experience due to the Israeli blockade.  The risk of evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and other neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem remained high, while the situation in the West Bank was alarming, with Israeli Security Forces killing 10 Palestinians on 14 May – the highest number in one day since the collection of these figures by the United Nations began in 2008.  The situation inside Israel was concerning: mob attacks took place on individuals in mixed cities of Bat-Yam, Jaffa and Acra, as well as attacks on places of worship instigated by both sides, with Israeli police failing to protect Palestinian citizens.  Despite the welcome news of the ceasefire, Ms. Bachelet emphasised that the root causes of violence must be addressed. 

“Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, speaking on behalf of his mandate and on behalf of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures, said the events over the past month in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and also across Israel, were a calamitous repetition of what all had previously witnessed in 2018, 2014, 2012, 2008-09, 2000, 1987 and further and deeper into the tragic history of the Palestinians.  The United Nations had demanded repeatedly over the years that Israel comply with its international legal obligations and remove its settlements, stop its evictions, end the unlawful annexation, and halt the demolitions and forced removal of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.  Defiance by the occupying power had been the answer.  The international community must insist upon a brand-new diplomatic playbook to end the Israeli occupation, one that was centred on rights, rather than Realpolitik.

Israel rejects UNHRC decision to launch probe into Gaza war crimes while Hamas welcomes resolution, saying its action against Israel is “legitimate resistance”https://t.co/8j1G9grXT7

— TRT World (@trtworld) May 27, 2021

“Issam Younis, Director of Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza and Head of the Independent Commission for Human Rights of Palestine, said that all over Gaza, for 11 days, entire families were huddled and living on kitchen floors as this seemed the safest place.  But nowhere was safe in Gaza.  Israel’s unlawful closure of Gaza, 14 years of collective punishment, had been tightened.  The bringing down of the Associated Press building had made it more difficult to get information out.  Recent events were a mere symptom: for 73 years, there had been systematic, institutionalised efforts to impose a settler-colonial regime of racial domination and oppression on both sides of the Green Line. 

“Mohammad Barakeh, former Member of the Knesset and Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee in Israel, speaking on behalf of the committee that represented all Palestinians inside Israel, noted that they had been spared displacement in 1948.  Over the past decades, they had faced different forms of discrimination – confiscation of land, imposition of emergency laws, restriction of job opportunities and more.  In July 2018, the Knesset had approved the Jewish nation-state law stipulating that the land of Palestine was the historical home of the Jews, who had the exclusive right to self-determination.  With this, democratic principles were dismissed by Netanyahu and the Israeli State. 

“Muna El Kurd, journalist and resident of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem, said the Israeli occupation forces refused to properly examine the property rights of Palestinians while the Israeli Government and colonial businesses were separating Palestinians from the land.  There was an apartheid regime: settlers could move around freely unlike Palestinians.  Sheikh Jarrah was illegally sealed off; residents could go out with their papers but nobody – nor their friends nor their loved ones- could come into this area.  The colonial violence suffered by residents and people who took part in peaceful protest was barbaric.  Palestinians were fired upon using rubber bullets, including in their homes.

Muna al-Kurd, a renowned journalist and citizen of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied #Jerusalem, was forced out of a UN Human Rights Council session today after she criticized lies by Israel’s UN ambassador. #savesheikhjarrah pic.twitter.com/gkNFTne4ra

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 27, 2021

“In the discussion that followed, speakers, while welcoming the decision of the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes within its material scope that might have been committed on the territory of Palestine, urged the Court to include the crime against humanity of apartheid in its investigations.  History showed the ceasefire would not end the everyday sufferings of the people in the occupied Palestinian territory that had been going on for more than seven decades.  The Council should take decisive actions towards ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territory, including through dispatching a commission of inquiry, speakers said.  Some speakers said the establishment of a commission of inquiry would not serve the purpose of peace.  Regrettably, the self-professed global champions of human rights continued to shield the occupier from global accountability, and literally provided arm and ammunitions for its widely reported war crimes and crimes of apartheid against the Palestinian people.  Member States should support the draft resolution; the credibility of the Council was at stake.

“Speaking in the urgent debate were Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of Namibia; Abdul Momen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh; Shah Mahmood Qureshi,  Minister for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan; and Najla Elmangoush, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Government of National Unity of Libya.

“Also taking the floor were Egypt on behalf of the Group of Arab States, Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Portugal on behalf of the European Union, Sweden on behalf of Nordic countries, Azerbaijan on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, South Africa on behalf of the Group of African States, Mauritania, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, Russian Federation, Bolivia, Bahrain, India, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, China, Republic of Korea, Czech Republic, Venezuela, Sudan, Somalia, Denmark, United Kingdom, Tunisia, Kuwait and Turkey.

“The Council will next meet this afternoon at 3 p.m. to continue the discussion and take action on the draft resolution before closing the special session.”

To read in full, please click here..

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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Lebanese Representative at UNHRC: Hezbollah Part of Resistance, Political Life; Blacklisting It Is False Slander

By Staff

Once again, Lebanon’s representative at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council denied the Zionists the permission to falsify the clear facts.

During a session that discussed Lebanon’s national report as part of the inclusive periodical exhibition of the state of human rights at the UNHRC, Salim Baddoura responded to the Zionist entity’s envoy who accused Hezbollah of ‘terrorism and controlling Lebanon’, stressing that this is a false slander, and that Hezbollah is a Lebanese component that represents a big portion of the Lebanese people.

In his speech, Baddoura underscored that “Hezbollah is part of the resistance against the occupation, and that it participates in the political life,” adding that “accusing Hezbollah of terrorism is a false slander, especially that it is voiced by a power based on occupation that is trying to defame all parties resisting it, minding its record full of Palestinian and Arab human rights violations.”

Baddoura also rejected the occupation’s claims about being keen on Lebanon and the rights of the Lebanese people and their future, noting that ‘Israel’ has long been the source of their suffering due to its occupation, violations, crimes, and destruction of the Lebanese facilities.

According to a statement issued by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry, Lebanon has taken part in this exhibition as a measure of its loyalty to international commitments and strong believe in the importance of the constructive dialogue with the international family to boost the human rights status and the public rights in the country.

The statement noted that as usual, the enemy’s delegation tried to abuse the occasion for hitting at Hezbollah and belittle the Lebanese state, prompting the Lebanese people to confront it strongly and expose its true record which is full of crimes and human rights violations.

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AIPAC and U.S. elections

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By Richard Anderson Falk

AIPAC is a strong lobbying group that is perceived by the political parties to exert great influence on large Jewish donors and Jewish voters generally. The leadership of both parties competes for AIPAC approval, although as an organization it refrains from political endorsements at national levels. It does have a record of opposing Congressional candidates deemed critical of Israel, making inflammatory accusations that candidates critical of Israel are by that fact alone anti-Semitic. Such a campaign has been launched with at least implicit AIPAC support to defeat the candidacy of Ilhan Omer who is running for reelection in urban Minneapolis.

Part of the effectiveness of AIPAC is due to money and tight organizational discipline, and part of its influence is due to the absence of countervailing Jewish organizations that speak for liberal Zionism and progressive Jews. J-Street has attempted to provide a voice for liberal Zionism in Washington, and has limited success at legislative levels, but not in relation to party platforms or the selection of national candidates. Jewish Voice for Peace is an admirably balanced NGO, but its influence is mainly felt in civil society, where it has created growing support for a just outcome of this struggle that has gone on for a century, which includes supported the realization of the Palestinian right of self-determination whether in the form of a viable separate sovereign state or a single state whose foundational principle is ethnic equality.

Throughout its existence, AIPAC has been and remains subservient to the priorities of the Israeli leadership and consistently supportive of maximal Zionist goals, and hence an adherent of antagonistic attitudes on international law, the UN, and international morality. In my judgment, AIPAC has harmed the role of the U.S. in West Asia and at the UN by pushing American foreign policy in belligerent and regime-changing directions, focusing on heightening the confrontation with Iran, and secondarily, with Turkey, which has intensified regional tensions and dangers of war. The recent sanctions debate in the UN Security Council manifested both U.S. belligerence and its defiance of the views of even its normally close European allies.

Richard Anderson Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University. In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967”.

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Hypocrisies About Refugees

July 05, 2019

by Eric Zuesse for The Saker Blog

Here are two visuals from the latest annual U.N. report about the world’s refugee situation, “UNHCR Global Trends 2018”, and though these images don’t pack the emotional punch of a child’s corpse that has just been washed upon a beach after drowning when his family had attempted to escape from a country that the U.S. and its allies were ‘trying to make free’ by bombing it to hell, each of these two pictures below contains a much bigger and more important message than does any such tear-jerking image or anecdote, but each of these pictures requires a bit of intelligence in order to understand it:

The first picture shows the result of the U.S. regime’s regime-change wars under Obama and Trump, in Syria and Venezuela especially. (Syria by using Al Qaeda in Syria to lead jihadists to bring down the Government, and Venezuela by strangulating sanctions that have produced an economic blockade which prohibits food and medicine from being able to reach the population). The 9-year earlier “UNHCR Global Trends 2009”, which covered the end of the George W. Bush Presidency, had reported that “There were 43.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2009,” and that this was up from 42.0 million in 2008. The “UNHCR Global Trends 2007” said only that “available information suggests that a total of 67 million people had been forcibly displaced at the end of 2007”, and so there might have been a reduction during the later years of Bush’s Presidency. In any case, the number of “forcibly displaced people” was stable during the final years of Bush’s second term and the entirety of Barack Obama’s first term, until 2012. 2011 was the first year of the Arab Spring uprisings, which were a CIA production, as was documented by two books from Ahmed Bensada, each of which was well reviewed by Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, in her two articles, one on 18 January 2014, and the other on 25 October 2015. Of course, the impression that the American public was presented about the Arab Spring uprisings is that those were spontaneous. Actually, Obama came into office in 2009 hoping to overthrow Syria’s Government.

So, whereas the numbers had been stable for Obama’s first term of office, all hell broke loose throughout his second term, with his invasions of Libya and Syria, plus his continuation of George W. Bush’s occupations of both Afghanistan and Iraq. And, now, under Trump, the number is back again to GWB’s peak level and rising.

As I noted on June 30th under the headline “U.S. Government Tops All For Creating Refugees”, “the U.S. regime’s regime-change operations produce around half of the entire world’s refugee-problem.” That fact is shown in the second visual here. (Just look at Syria and Venezuela there.) What the first visual shows is that the U.S. regime’s attempts to overthrow the Governments of Syria and of Venezuela caused those global totals to soar. Those two nations alone accounted for nearly half of the global total, and part of the rest was from America’s prior invasions: Afghanistan, Iraq, the U.S.-backed coup in Honduras in 2009, etc. America’s invasions and attempted coups (such as in Venezuela) provided the dynamos that drove those rising numbers of refugees.

Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton at The Gray Zone headlined on June 19th, “This celebrated Western-funded nonprofit collaborated with al-Qaeda to wage lawfare on Syria” and documented how U.S.-and-allied billionaires and the U.S. Government fund “lawfare,” a war in international courts, and not only a huge international propaganda campaign to demonize Bashar al-Assad, in order to overthrow him. I had previously documented that “U.S. Protects Al Qaeda in Syria”. Actually, Obama bombed Syria’s army at the oil center city of Deir Ezzor on 17 September 2016 in order to enable both Al Qaeda and ISIS to take over that city. The U.S. team talk a storm against “terrorism” but quietly (along with the monarchs of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar) sponsor it as being “boots-on-the-ground” fighters — proxies there, instead of U.S. troops — to bring down leaders such as Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad.

So, when the U.S. and its allies complain about the refugee crisis, and pontificate against “dictators,” and assert international law when they are the worst violators of international law, maybe they enjoy fooling their own public, but outside the U.S. alliance, their lying and evil are obvious. It even shows up clearly in the UNHCR’s statistics (such as those visuals). Obviously, China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and other nations that the U.S. regime labels as ‘enemies’, are not to blame for those tens of millions of refugees. The U.S. and its allies definitely are to blame for it. This isn’t a situation where the pot is calling the kettle black, but instead it’s one where the pot is calling the fresh-fallen snow black, and in which only propagandistic ’news’ media refuse to reveal this to their audiences. The snow is white, and the U.S. regime and its allies are red, covered with their tens of millions of victims’ blood and flaming misery.

International poll after international poll finds that the country which is considered to be “the greatest threat to peace in the world today” by the most people worldwide is the U.S., but that Americans don’t think it’s true. So: who is right? Americans? Or the rest of the world? Now, why would people outside the U.S. believe that way? Maybe it’s because of “communist propaganda”? The most important thing to recognize is that the U.S. is a dictatorship. That scientifically demonstrated fact explains a lot. None of these sanctions and coups and invasions against countries that had never invaded nor in any way endangered the U.S. could exist otherwise than this, because any dictatorship is based upon lies. Invading Iraq was based upon lies. Invading Afghanistan was based upon lies. Invading Syria was based upon lies. Invading Libya was based upon lies. The economic sanctions against Russia are based upon lies.American foreign policies are based upon lies. It’s no wonder, then, why Americans are so misinformed.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

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Good riddance: Russia welcomes US pullout from UNHRC, says council can work better now

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Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative at the UN office and other international organizations in Geneva (file photo)

Russia has welcomed the United States’ pullout from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), saying the body has lost nothing and can operate more freely now.

“I cannot say that the council lost anything,” Russia’s permanent representative at the UN office and other international organizations in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, said Wednesday.

“Moreover, I hope that in the wake of the United States’ walkout there will be less politicization, double standards and confrontation,” he added.

The comments came a day after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Washington’s withdrawal over what they called the body’s entrenched bias against Israel.

Speaking at the US State Department in Washington, Haley called the UNHRC a “cesspool of political bias” and accused it of protecting “human rights abusers.”

Pompeo was also scathing in his remarks, blasting the UNHRC for its “shameless hypocrisy” in allowing “some of the world’s most serious offenders sitting on the council itself.”

PressTV-US quits UN Human Rights Council over anti-Israel bias

The United States has announced its withdrawal from the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) over what it calls the body’s entrenched bias against Israel.

Shortly after the UNHRC’s formation in 2006, the administration of then-US President George Bush announced that it would not seek a seat on the council. The boycott continued until 2009, when under President Barack Obama the White House announced willingness to join the council.

Referring to the first US boycott, Gatilov said Wednesday that the UNHRC pushed ahead with no problem back then.

“And I believe it will lose nothing this time,” he argued.

The US administration has long pressured the UNHRC to end its scrutiny of Israel’s widespread human rights abuses against Palestinians.

In May, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said Israel has systematically deprived Palestinians of their human rights, with 1.9 million in Gaza “caged in a toxic slum from birth to death.”

Scores of Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli forces in Gaza since March 30, when they began protests for their right to return to their homelands in the occupied territories.

‘Boorish cynicism’

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also reacted to the US pullout on Wednesday and said it only confirmed Washington’s long-running double standards.

“Our US counterparts have shown boorish cynicism – they are reluctant to admit that they have human rights issues themselves but at the same time, they continue attempts to reshape the council to make it serve their needs, stressing that there was no place for persistent violators of human rights in the council,” Zakharova pointed out.

Calling it a “mistake,” she said the decision only “dealt a powerful blow” to Washington’s own claims of human rights protection reputation.

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Good riddance, immigrant children in cages says it all. US Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council

US Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council

US Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council, Citing Approach to Israel

Top UN official says ‘US should be stepping up, not stepping back’

After months of threats, the Trump Administration announced Tuesday that they are withdrawing the United States from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Officials said the move was because the body is too often critical of Israel’s human rights record.

Israel has long agitated for the US to withdraw from the body, and ratchets that up every time the UN starts investigating a new round of killings in the occupied territories. The US has been talking up this move for awhile.

The outgoing UNHRC leader, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said it was “disappointing, if not really surprising.” He also said the “US should be stepping up, not stepping back.” Zeid’s last address to the forum as leader came Monday, during which he criticized the US over its treatment of undocumented migrants at the border.

That’s probably not the direct reason for the US withdrawal, given how long they’ve threatened to do so. Distancing the US from UN bodies over Israel is a long-standing policy across several administrations, and was likely just a matter of timing.

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Bernie Sanders Talks Out of Both Sides of His Mouth, Tries to Justify Signing onto UN Letter

Posted on May 4, 2017

by Richard Edmondson

Last week all 100 members of the US Senate signed onto a letter criticizing the UN, and particularly the UN Human Rights Council, for seeking to “advance an anti-Israel agenda.” In the above video, Bernie Sanders, probably beloved by more liberals than any other member of the Senate, attempts to justify his decision to add his signature to the letter.

“The thrust of that letter is not to say that Israel does not have have human rights issues. It does,” he says in his defense.

One of course would not know this from reading the letter (the full text of which can be found here ). If Sanders and the other senators truly feel that Israel indeed has “human rights issues,” they evidently don’t regard these as serious enough to merit mentioning.  Israel in the letter is portrayed as nothing more than a victim of persecution.

The first paragraph accuses UN agencies and member states of seeking to exploit the UN as “a vehicle for targeting Israel,” and goes on to assert that such actions have “at times reinforced the broader scourge of anti-Semitism.”

So let’s see…if you criticize Israel at the UN you are helping to advance “the broader scourge of anti-Semitism,” this despite the fact that Israel maintains an illegal occupation “that has no end in sight,” as the interviewer in the above video puts it.

The letter is addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who actually gets cudos from the senators for axing a recent report on Israeli apartheid that had been compiled by the Economic and  Social Commission for Western Asia. Guterres’ deletion of the report from the UN’s website was an act of censorship that prompted the resignation of Rima Khalaf, the ESCWA’s director, as I discussed in a previous post.

But adulation for Guterres notwithstanding, the senators, as mentioned above, particularly have it in for the UNHRC. They grouse that the body “even maintains a permanent item on its agenda–‘Agenda Item VII’–to assess Israel…” Heaven forbid!

Israel is an apartheid state (as the ESCWA report makes abundantly clear) whose policies toward the Palestinians probably even meet the legal definition of genocide, as I have pointed out a number of times previously. The UNHRC would be derelict if it did not have a separate agenda item to discuss such matters. Yet Sanders and the other 99 senators accuse the UNHRC of an “imbalanced focus on Israel.”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a big fan of the UN, which more often than not has been used as a tool to advance US foreign policy goals, and Guterres seems well on his way to following in his predecessor Ban Ki-moon’s footsteps in that regard. Occasionally, however, one or another member of the UN will work up the nerve to criticize Israel or oppose a US war. This is one of the UN’s redeeming qualities.

As for Sanders, he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth to such an extent in the above video that I almost feel embarrassed for him. Welllll…I–I–didn’t write the letter, I only signed onto it! Yes, yes I’m a lifetime proponent of nonviolent protests…uh…but no, I don’t support the BDS movement. Well then what is left for the Palestinians to do, Senator Sanders?—change the subject.

If there were a country somewhere in the world where Jews were forced into an apartheid ghetto surrounded by walls and checkpoints would Sanders, who is Jewish, be opposed to a boycott of that nation? The answer probably is yes–because instead of a boycott, the senator from Vermont would be too busy advocating a military invasion.

This is Jewish hypocrisy from the liberal end of the Zionist spectrum. Hardly any wonder, then, that Sanders, in the video’s closing segment, expresses opposition to a one-state solution–in which Palestinians and Israelis would enjoy equal rights and equal citizenship–because, as he puts it, “that would be the end of the state of Israel.”

In saying this, is Sanders not in effect admitting that Israel is an ethno-theocratic state rather than a democracy? It would seem so, but apparently Sanders has a fondness for ethno-theocratic states provided they are Jewish.

“And I support Israel’s right to exist,” he reminds us.

Given that the left in America so often tends to elevate such “luminaries” as Sanders as its leaders and role models, it is no wonder that the American left has been such a colossal failure.

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Barred from entering Gaza, UNHRC investigation begins in Jordan

A Palestinian rides his bike past houses that were destroyed during the 50-day Israeli aggression against Gaza, on November 16, 2014. AFP / Mohammed Abed

Published Monday, November 17, 2014Al-Akhbar

The United Nations committee investigating possible war crimes by Israel during its summer assault on Gaza has spent the past week in Jordan listening to the testimonies of victims’ families and civil society organizations, Ma'an news agency reported on Sunday.

According to the Palestinian Representative to the Red Cross, Ibrahim Khreisheh, the investigation committee, which was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, was forced to meet with Palestinians in Jordan after it was denied entry to the West Bank and Gaza by Israel.

Khreisheh denounced Israel for denying the committee members entry to Palestine and added that he considered it yet another Israeli violation of Palestinian rights.

The Israeli authorities decided last week not to cooperate with the UNHRC investigation into the Israeli aggression on Gaza this summer, dismissing the investigation as a “kangaroo court” and accusing its chairman, Canadian academic William Schabas, of anti-Israeli bias because of his repeated calls to bring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the International Criminal Court.

The team had intended to enter the Gaza Strip via Egypt, but was prevented from doing so by the security conditions in Sinai.

Instead, the committee will listen to the testimonies of bereaved Gaza families this week using videoconferencing technology, according to Khreisheh, who also said that the committee will visit Gaza in January.

The team, which consists of 15 people includes human rights experts, investigators and technical staff, is required to submit its final report on March 1, 2015.

“Only representatives of Palestine and Israel will be allowed to see the final report 48 hours before it’s submitted to the regular session,” Khreisheh added.

He said that the report will differ from the so-called Goldstone report of 2009, in that it will include possible Israeli crimes from June 16, 2014 until the day the report is submitted.

For 51 days this summer, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip by air, land and sea.

More than 2,180 Palestinians, at least 70 percent of them civilians, were killed, and 11,000 injured during seven weeks of unrelenting Israeli attacks in July and August.

The besieged enclave has also seen widespread destruction of its infrastructure, reaching levels of devastation that UN chief Ban Ki Moon called “beyond description” in a visit to the Gaza Strip on October 14. 80,000 Palestinians homes were damaged, at least 20,000 of these are uninhabitable, leaving over 106,000 of Gaza's 1.8 million residents displaced in UN shelters or hosted by relatives.

According to UN figures, at least 505 Palestinian children were killed during the offensive, and the majority of Gaza’s homeless people are children.

(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)

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• اتفاق وقف الحرب: غزة ذاقت من كل بند ملعقة
• Israel should investigate Gaza war crimes: UNHCR
• Israel will never limit settlement building: FM

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UN Rebukes Turkey over Return of Syrian Refugees

Local Editor

The United Nations slammed on Friday a Turkish decision to send home at least 130 Syrians without its scrutiny, urging Ankara to investigate the riot which sparked the departures that according to reports were forced. The Geneva-based United Nations refugee agency reiterated the principle that forced returns violate international law and said they could not be used as a "punishment or deterrent". "UNHCR was not invited by authorities during the return process to monitor the procedures. Persons under international protection who have violated the law of the host country are subject to the relevant national laws and judicial procedures," Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in remarks emailed to Reuters overnight. "Return to the country of origin, even voluntarily, is also subject to standards and procedures where individuals may be placed at risk on return," she said. Two Syrian refugees still in the camp and a camp official have said the refugees were forcibly deported. Turkish media reports said the protest began after a child died in a tent fire blamed on an electrical fault. Witnesses said hundreds of Syrians were bused to the border after clashes on Wednesday in which refugees in the Suleymansah camp, near the Turkish town of Akcakale, threw rocks at military police, who fired teargas and water cannon. "UNHCR would encourage authorities to assess any underlying issues which may have led to the incident which erupted in the Akcakale camp on 27 March, and where necessary to consider launching a review or as needed an investigation," Fleming added. For its part, Turkey denied on Thursday it had rounded up and deported hundreds of Syrian refugees following unrest at the Suleymansah border camp, highlighting the strain the exodus from Syria's civil war is placing on neighboring states. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said 130 people, identified on camera as being "involved in the provocations", returned to Syria voluntarily, either because they did not want to face prosecution or because of repercussions from other refugees. "Reports that this group was expelled across the border are incorrect," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

Source: Reuters 29-03-2013 - 12:54 Last updated 29-03-2013 - 12:54

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Who is running the Western mainstream media?

by Kourosh Ziabari

Saturday, July 21st, 2012

We usually hear the boastful assertions of the leaders of the Western mainstream media that their media outlets are ideologically, financially and politically independent of their respective governments and what they put forward as packages of information to be consumed by the readers or viewers are unbiased, realistic, unprejudiced and objective.

The Western mainstream media conventionally boast of being professional and attached to the morals of journalism; however, the only thing which is missing in the coverage of these media of the international developments is ethical values, honesty and straightforwardness.

One of the most striking examples of the Western media’s indifference towards the aptitude of their audiences was their coverage of the 2008-2009 Gaza Massacre. From BBC to Reuters, from CNN to Sky News and from Washington Post to New York Times, all of them tried to put a lid on the felonies of theIsraeli regime and by astutely playing with words, downgraded the scale of atrocity and violence exercised by the Israel Defense Forces. They refused to admit that what Israel was committing was an all-out massacre, so they simply eliminated the term “massacre” from their reports and in one of the most controversial cases, the state-run BBC, of whose deceitful tricks we are used to hearing, refused to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee’s humanitarian appeal for Gaza under the growing pressure of the Israeli lobby.

This refusal to air an appeal for humanitarian aid for the crisis-hit Gaza was something which even the British public complained about. On January 23, 2009, Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, wrote a letter to the BBC, Sky and ITV, expressing his “disappointment” that the appeal would not be broadcast. On Sunday, January 25, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams called on the BBC to air the appeal, along with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and Justice Minister Shahid Malik.
According to a report by the Guardian, BBC admited on the same day that it had received 11,000 complaints from the public about its pro-Israeli decision.

In the same year and while the conflict in the beleaguered Gaza Strip was culminating to a humanitarian crisis, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution, condemning Israel for perpetrating war crimes and killing unarmed civilians in Gaza who hadn’t any access to the outside world to even meet their most essential needs, including medicine, foodstuff and stationery for students. Reuter’s report of the UNHRC’s decision was flagrantly lopsided and showed that Reuters and media outlets similar to it, follow nothing but the dictated trajectory of their respective governments. The report, dated January 12, 2009, started like this, “The United Nations Human Rights Council, dominated by Muslim states and their allies, condemned Israel on Monday for “grave violations” of human rights of the people of Gaza.”

It’s interesting that Reuters and their cronies perpetually fail to realize that UNSC, composed of 5 permanent members which hold a right of veto, itself an insult to humanity, is dominated by those who have the least respect for the opinion of 190 countries which are not members of this discriminatory council. In its coverage of the sanctions imposed by the UNSC on Iran, Reuters never used the phrase that “the UNSC, dominated by the US and its European stooges” has passed a new resolution against Iran over its nuclear program; but at the same time, it blatantly described the United Nations Human Rights Council as an organization which is dominated by the Muslims and their allies - one of the tactics of propaganda which the Western mainstream media usually exercise. But the question is: who controls and governs these media outlets? Are they really representatives of the public opinion and people, or simply the puppets of a limited number of governments who want to brainwash the people around the world and distort, falsify and misrepresent the realities before their eyes?

The answer to the first question is that, TV channels such as BBC, France 24, CNN and Fox News are absolutely state-owned and state-run. Aside from the fact that the key figures in all of these media channels are well-off, influential Jews who advertise the interests of the Israeli regime, these outlets are inescapably responsible for advocating and propagating the mindset of the statesmen and their respective governments in order to survive and remain on the stage.

The BBC World Service is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is the British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom abroad. According to the BBC’s 2008-2009 Annual Report, the network received £294.6 million of governmental grants which simply constitutes a small portion of the total budget which is allocated to the BBC World Service by the UK government.

The same goes with Fox News. This TV channel is controlled by the media conglomerate News Corporation which is owned by the Jewish Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch. News Corporation is the world’s third largest media conglomerate after the Walt Disney Company and Time Warner. However, the funding of Fox News and News Corporation comes from the US Department of Defense. Fox News has always claimed that it’s an independent media outlet which gives room to both conservatives and democrats to speak out their mind. It denies any allegation of pro-Israeli bias and refuses to admit that it’s controlled by Pentagon. But the reality is somewhat different. A small number of affluent and prosperous Jews who have ties with the high-ranking US officials control the mass media in the United States.

An interesting report by the US National Alliance showed that a striking majority of the US media, including magazines, newspapers, TV channels, radio stations and news websites are run by the extremist Zionists who are very close to the White House.

The largest media conglomerate in the world today is Time Warner. Among its subsidiaries are New Line Cinema, Time Inc., HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, TheWB.com, Warner Bros., Kids’ WB, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim, CNN, DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network Studios and Castle Rock Entertainment. Each of these subordinates possesses hundreds of magazines, news networks and TV stations which has made the company a giant which seems to be totally undefeatable and indissoluble.

“Warner, founded by the Jewish Warner brothers in the early part of the last century, rapidly became part of the Jewish power base in Hollywood, a fact so well-known that it is openly admitted by Jewish authors, as is the fact that each new media acquisition becomes dominated by Jews in turn,” reads the report by the National Alliance institute.

The second-largest media conglomerate today, with 2003 revenues of $27.1 billion, is the Walt Disney Company. Its leading personality and CEO who chaired the company from 1984 to 2005, Michael Eisner, is a Jew.

“Another Jewish media mogul is Edgar Bronfman, Jr. He headed Seagram Company, Ltd., the liquor giant, until its recent merger with Vivendi. His father, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., is president of the World Jewish Congress,” the report adds.

Lo and behold, it’s said that Zionists control more than 95% of the world’s mainstream media. Robert Chernin who was until 2009 President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation, and Chairman and CEO of Fox Entertainment Group is an ardent Jew. He played an important role in laying the groundwork for the 2003 invasion of Iraq by staging a rigorous and severe media propaganda through Fox News. He advocated the invasion of Iraq and brainwashed the American public to convince them that a military expedition was necessary in Iraq.

Other names can be found who are among the most powerful figures of the mainstream media in the United States and run several newspapers, TV channels and radio stations. Mortimer Zuckerman, the 148th wealthiest American by 2008 is the owner of NY Daily News, US News & World Report and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, one of the largest pro-Israel lobbying groups in the United States.

American journalist, Jeffrey Blankfort has written in an article published by Rense.com that Leslie Moonves, president of CBS television, is a great-nephew of David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the Israeli regime and co-chair with Norman Ornstein of the Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligation of Digital TV Producers.

Overall, the claim that the American or British media outlets are free, independent and reliable is an empty claim for which there is no prooft. American and British media are funded by their respective governments and controlled by a number of fervent Zionists who seek nothing but the promotion of the interests of Israel in the Middle East.
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