Thursday, May 23, 2024

Kyle Rittenhouse still hasn't gotten an education

First up, BURN IT DOWN WITH KIM BROWN.



That really is disgusting and outrageous.  It's 2024.  And Roger Fortson is dead, a victim of racism.  There's no excuse for his murder.

Other news?  Let me start with some celebrity news:




Colton Underwood and Jordan C. Brown are expecting their first baby together.

The Bachelor alum announced on Tuesday that he and his husband are expecting their first baby together via surrogate.

"Our little boy is coming this fall," Colton wrote in a new Instagram post, alongside a series of photos, including a sonogram image.


Good for Colton.  Hope he, Jordan and their baby will be very happy.  These are scary times with hate merchants like Moms For Bigotry.  Takes a lot of courage just to live your life.  So good for Colton.  


Now the week's still young but Kyle Rittenhouse is clearly begging to win Idiot of the Week and may yet.  The chubby girlish shooter fancies himself a voice worth hearing.  THE IRISH STAR reportsTHE IRISH STAR reports:



Kyle Rittenhouse, notorious for his self-defense claim after shooting two people during racial justice demonstrations, has sparked outrage after telling indigenous Americans to leave the country on social media.




Rittenhouse, who was acquitted in the aforementioned case, reacted to a photograph of three native American individuals giving a middle finger salute to Mount Rushmore with the comment, "then leave", prompting a chorus of disapproval online.

Mount Rushmore, often referred to as "Six Grandfathers" by certain Native American communities, is considered sacred and many argue that the carving of US presidents' faces into the stone is a desecration of what they assert is stolen land.



Now I know Kyle is like a high school drop out or something who couldn't get into college and we can all tell, just by looking at him, that he's more than a little slow -- possibly his parents were siblings. 

But some reality for Kyle The Challenged, Mount Rushmore's carvings don't even exist until 1941.  By contrast, Little Kyle, Native Americans go back much further.  The Paleoindians are said to have been in Ohio at least 10,000 years ago (possibly 13,000).  We get it.  You're dumb.  You're stupid.  You have a girlish face and have to overcompensate for that and the fact that you're so short.  A wee little lad is Kyle.  

Now stop attacking the Native Americans and start praying to God so you can have forgiveness for killing two people and not end up in hell.  Oh, who am I kidding?  Of course, Kyle's going to go to hell.

 Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Wednesday, May 22, 2024.  The distribution of aid has ceased operations in Gaza, AP's equipment was seized by Israel, calls for Palestinian statehood increase, and much more.

Last night, AP reported, "The United Nations suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Tuesday due to a lack of supplies and an untenable security situation caused by Israel’s expanding military operation. The U.N. warned that humanitarian operations across the territory were nearing collapse."  Frances Vinall (WASHINGTON POST) quotes UNRWA's Juliette Touma stating, "We have no supplies.  So we have nothing to distribute."  THE NATIONAL notes:

The International Rescue Committee and Medical Aid for Palestinians warned that people in Gaza are surviving on as little as three percent of the minimum daily water needs, leading to severe public health risks at a time of decreasing aid deliveries.

“While Israel’s offensive inside Rafah continues accelerating Gaza’s humanitarian need, our recent assessment found that some Palestinians are surviving on just 3 per cent of the internationally-recognized minimum standard for daily water intake,” both NGOs said.

With Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing, limited fully functioning hospitals, and more than 800,000 people displaced in just the last week, they said they are deeply concerned about the sanitation and health impact for people inside Gaza.


Wait! Wait! Wait!  There's Joe Biden's Pier To Nowhere!  It's finally built! Long after it was promised!  The Pier To Nowhere will save the day!!!

Uh.  No.



None of the aid that has passed through the pier built by the United States in Gaza has been distributed to Palestinians yet, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

According to Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, 569 metric tons of aid from many countries had made it across the temporary pier and there is “more aid on the way.”



Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said on Tuesday that the goods unloaded on the temporary pier that the US built off the coast of Gaza haven't reached those in need, per CNN.

And this entire project may eventually be a failure if Israel doesn't create conditions for aid groups to carry out their operations safely, the UN World Food Program said on Tuesday, per the Associated Press.


This is not a surprise outcome.  For months, various United Nations officials have warned against thi, various aid organizations, Cindy McCain, in her role as the executive director of The World Food Program has repeatedly warned of this.


 Transcript:

CINDY MCCAIN (Executive Director, World Food Programme): Well, thank you for having me.

First of all, the - the bottom line here is that we need to get more aid in, as – as has been said. We are looking at possible – possibly being on the brink of famine in this region. This is something that's not only terrific, but it will spread. And - and with that comes disease and - and everything else that you can imagine.

Bottom line, we need more trucks in, we need more aid in, we need to be able to have more access to be able to distribute the aid. And - and, you know, hopefully maybe a longer time to do that, not just four days. We look forward to - to making sure that we can work with all of our partners on the ground and in the area to make sure that this can happen. And I want to thank the Egyptians for being so helpful in all of this.

MARGARET BRENNAN: UNICEF also said approximately 30,000 children under the age of five in Gaza had stunted growth. And this was even before the war began.

CINDY MCCAIN: Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why?

CINDY MCCAIN: Well, I – the access for aid, again, prior to the war and then, of course, since the war has been an issue all along. And the ability to make sure that these children get the proper nutrients, not just food, but the proper nutrients in this. It's a terrific situation. It's a - it's - it is - it is a massive, catastrophic event that is occurring, and it will cross regions as it happens. We have got to be able to get in there. And not only that, we have to make sure that we can safely have access to be able to feed the people that we need to feed.


And while you nod at that CBS FACE THE NATION segment, grasp that Cindy's been on that program more than once.  She's been on all the morning programs and various other news programs.  But the one above?  It's from November 26th of last year.  That's how much time Joe Biden's had to address this.

At the end of last week, Cindy was again sounding the alarms.

 


Starving children and adults in Gaza are dying after being reduced to the "size of a skeleton", according to the World Food Programme boss.

Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN agency, said her staff describe it as "a complete disaster" and there are serious problems getting trucks in safely and in sufficient numbers.

Israel's offensive following the Hamas attack on 7 October has displaced much of Gaza's population, many of whom are fleeing again as Israel escalates attacks in the southern city of Rafah.

Hundreds of thousands are starving and desperate, and Mrs McCain told Sky News the reality is devastating.

She told Yalda Hakim: "Imagine a child wasting into the size of a skeleton - and of course passing from it - and an adult doing the same thing. That's what we're seeing on the ground.

"If we could get in now we might be able to fend off a hardcore famine, but we're not there yet and we're not getting in."


The  title for this site comes from the late political theorist Judith N. Shklar -- see her BETWEEN UTOPIA AND REALISM.  She's also known for THE FACES OF INJUSTICE in which she explains there is a difference between a tragedy and an injustice -- an injustice could have been prevented. 

And this lack of aid right now? It could have been prevented. It is an injustice and therefore a legal crime.  


An American doctor who refused to evacuate Gaza without his colleagues and called on President Biden to ensure medical workers’ safety announced late Tuesday that he has safely left the Strip alongside the rest of his 16-person team.

Adam Hamawy, who lives in New Jersey, wrote on Instagram that he and his team had been evacuated to Amman, Jordan, and credited Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) for assisting with their safe passage.

“Since I entered Gaza I was bound by two commitments: first that I would leave on May 13 with the entire team I entered with and that our team would be replaced with another to serve patients,” said Hamawy, a reconstructive plastic surgeon.

“Today we received word that the entire [team] was to be evacuated to Jordan and that our administration is committed to facilitating alternative medical teams to offer relief in Gaza.

THE GUARDIAN notes, "According to AFP, the World Health Organization has said northern Gaza’s last two functioning hospitals, al-Awda and Kamal Adwan, were besieged by Israeli forces, with more than 200 patients trapped inside."

In other news, THE WASHINGTON POST reports, "Norway, Ireland and Spain announced plans Wednesday to recognize a Palestinian state. While the move is symbolic, the countries expressed hope that it will press Israelis, Palestinians and the international community toward a two-state solution. In response, Israel -- whose government rejects a two-state solution -- ordered the return of its ambassadors from the three countries."  THE NATIONAL notes the Israeli government's response, "Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz has ordered Israel’s ambassadors from Ireland and Norway to immediately return home, as Norway said it would recognise a Palestinian state and Ireland was expected to do the same."


Let's drop back to yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!



AMY GOODMAN: On May 15th, Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff at the Department of the Interior and a political appointee of President Biden, resigned from her position in protest of the administration’s policies in Gaza. In doing so, she became the first known Jewish appointee to resign from the Biden administration over Gaza.

In a four-page letter of resignation she released publicly, Greenberg Call wrote, quote, “I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration amidst President Biden’s disastrous, continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” unquote.

Lily Greenberg Call chose May 15th as the date of her resignation because it marked the anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” when up to 900,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and displaced in 1948 during the founding of Israel. In her resignation letter, she wrote, quote, “Nakba and Shoah, the Hebrew word for Holocaust, mean the same thing: catastrophe. I reject the premise that one people’s salvation must come at another’s destruction. I am committed to creating a world where this does not happen — and this cannot be done from within the Biden administration,” she wrote.

Lily Greenberg Call joins us today in our New York studio.

Lily, welcome to Democracy Now! Thanks so much for joining us. If you can talk about the significance of the date you chose and why you have decided to resign?

LILY GREENBERG CALL: Thanks for having me, Amy.

So, as I said in my resignation letter, you know, “Nakba” and “Shoah” mean the same thing. I was raised with a fairy tale about the Nakba. The Nakba was something that I was not really told about. And if anything, it was minimized and trivialized. Was raised with this idea that Israel was a land without a people for a people without a land. And, you know, so if there’s no Palestinian society, if there’s nothing to be destroyed, then there’s nothing to mourn. So I felt, as a Jewish person, that it was particularly important for me to acknowledge the significance of the Nakba, and the Nakba that has never really ended, that continues to this day.

And, you know, as I mentioned, there’s something devastating about the parallels between the same word, “Nakba” and “Shoah,” and the idea that what Jews see as our — what many Jews see as our salvation in the formation of the state of Israel came at the expense of Palestinian freedom. And so I want us to reject that premise, the idea that Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom are at odds with each other, and understand that any system that requires that, you know, requires the oppression of one people for another, is inherently unsafe.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you tell us: How did your Jewish faith lead you to make this decision?

LILY GREENBERG CALL: Yeah. So, I mean, I was raised very much steeped in Jewish community. I went to Jewish day school. I have like 20 years of Jewish education. I did, you know, traditional Jewish text study in high school. And a lot of the values that I learned in that, I internalized some really beautiful values, right? There’s this idea of pikuach nefesh in Judaism, which means “saving a life,” and it supercedes any other commandment. You are allowed to break any commandment if it means saving a life. We also say, “To save a life is to save the whole world.” There’s this idea of b’tselem elohim, that every person is made in the image of God. And so, those values, in addition to the fact that Judaism is really steeped in a justice-oriented ethos, that we fight against authority — you know, Jews have been the victims of injustice, of legal injustice, of violence, of persecution, of displacement throughout our history, right? So, I feel that I am really living in my Jewishness, in the essence of what I was raised with, by standing up for Palestinians and by demanding their freedom.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And your views on the Israeli state have evolved over the years. In 2019, as a college student at UC Berkeley, you served as president of Bears for Israel, which is affiliated with AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Could you talk about the evolution of your views?

LILY GREENBERG CALL: Yeah, of course. So, you know, as I mentioned, I was raised in a very — I was raised deeply involved in Jewish community. And within that community, it was very pro-Israel. There was no daylight between being Jewish and support for the state of Israel in the community I was raised in. And I also — you know, I believed in Israel as, like I said, the sort of salvation of the Jewish people, the way to protect Jews from antisemitism. And I grew up experiencing antisemitism from non-Jewish people in my life and in communities, and so it was really powerful for me to advocate for Israel.

But I would say, you know, as I got a little older, over the past eight years or so, two things started to happen at once, or at the same time. So, the first was that my world started to expand. I was able to get to know Palestinians, Palestinian Americans. I worked with some Syrian Palestinian refugees in Greece. I saw for myself some of the injustices that Palestinians face in Israel-Palestine — the checkpoints, you know, the system of apartheid — and started to — you know, they didn’t feel in alignment with my values — right? — and with the kind of country that — you know, the kind of world that I want to live in. So, that was happening. I also studied Arabic and just had all this exposure to Palestinian culture and life.

And at the same time, the coalition of people that I was advocating for Israel with through AIPAC started to move to the right, as Trump came to power, as the Israeli government shifted to the right. And I started to see these people who I had spent years doing pro-Israel advocacy with, in particular, you know, the evangelical Christians, support Trump and support right-wing fascists here in the United States and people who were aligning themselves with white supremacists and antisemites, right? And so, I started to realize, OK, maybe these people aren’t here because they’re invested in Jews and Jewish safety, you know, that there wasn’t — they couldn’t be — they couldn’t care about us if they were aligning with people who were so clearly antisemitic and harmful to my communities.

And so, both of those things together led me to this realization that I had been told a lie — right? — and that the status quo is untenable, and that not only is it devastating for Palestinians — right? — but I think October 7th made it very, very clear that it also doesn’t keep Israelis safe, and that if we wanted to actually create of thriving future for Israelis, for Palestinians, for Jews, for the communities that we care about here in America, something has to change.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to play some of what President Biden had to say earlier this month at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Driven by ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people off the face of the Earth, over 1,200 innocent people — babies, parents, grandparents — slaughtered in their kibbutz, massacred at a music festival, brutally raped, mutilated and sexually assaulted.

AMY GOODMAN: President Biden made those comments in April. In December, he spoke at a Hanukkah holiday reception at the White House.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people and the security of Israel and its right to exist is independent — as an independent Jewish state is unshakable. Folks, were there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe — were there no Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: Lily Greenberg Call, your response?

LILY GREENBERG CALL: I don’t think Jews are safe right now. And I don’t think it’s — you know, I think that part of that is the status quo in Israel. And what makes Jews less safe is these comments from President Biden. I think, you know, continually using this message of Jewish safety as a smokescreen for Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians makes Jews less safe. It enables antisemitism.

And I just want to say that, of course, what Hamas did on October 7th is atrocious. There were people in my community among those people that he’s speaking about. But it’s very clear that the Israeli government is not prioritizing bringing the hostages home. You know, if they cared about that, they would not be bombing the densely populated area that they’re in.

And, you know, again, I am so angry at the president that he is using my community as justification for the slaughter, making us the face of the American war machine. I don’t think that makes us safe. And if he really cared about Jewish safety, he wouldn’t be doing that.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you what the reaction has been among your former colleagues in the Biden administration. You worked both for Kamala Harris and for President Biden. What’s your sense of the people within the bureaucracy of government, how they’re feeling about the continuing American support for Israel’s war in Gaza?

LILY GREENBERG CALL: There’s widespread sentiment within all levels of the administration and all agencies that the president’s continued support for Israel’s assault on Gaza is disastrous. It’s disastrous for American foreign policy, for sentiment towards Americans abroad. It’s disastrous here at home. And it’s very devastating that the leadership of the administration is not only not listening to their colleagues, but to the majority of the American people, who want a ceasefire, who are horrified by what’s happening in Gaza, and who have made their voices very clear.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the power of AIPAC right now. And do you think it’s diminishing, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee? And also, do you feel that the consensus, the Democratic establishment consensus, is breaking at this point? On the one hand, you have these massive protests across the country, President Biden saying, no, he’s not listening to them. Then he says he’s halting 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. But then, within a few days, he announces a billion dollars’ worth of weapons to Israel.

LILY GREENBERG CALL: Yeah, you know, I think the Democratic Party, in particular, has to make a choice. They have to decide if they’re going to align themselves with a group like AIPAC, that supports and funds and enables insurrectionists and white supremacists, and take money from the same people who fund the NRA and Big Oil, you know, people — those groups are completely blacklisted from the Democratic Party. So, are we going to align ourselves with those people and take money from them? Or are we going to choose to uplift and support progressive champions who are fighting for a multiracial democracy and the type of country that we know that we deserve and that we want? And yeah, I do think the consensus is starting to shift a little bit. I think AIPAC realizes that their power is diminishing in particular within the Democratic Party, which is why they are making this kind of shift to the right. And I think, yeah, again, the Democratic Party has to make a choice.

AMY GOODMAN: And your journey from AIPAC and CAMERA — if you can explain what that is — to where you are now? And if you’re finding more and more of your friends back then are actually shifting?

LILY GREENBERG CALL: I think so, yeah. Again, I think it is very challenging and hard to — you know, when you grow up in the communities that I’m from, it’s very hard to change. And also, you know, a lot of Jewish people, unfortunately, we have internalized this message that Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom are at odds with each other — right? — and that to ensure the safety of the Jewish people, this is unfortunately the — we have to be OK with the status quo and with what Israel is doing. And I understand that. I understand our fear of annihilation after the Holocaust. I understand the fear of antisemitism. I feel it in myself. But we cannot let that fear blind us and trick us into somehow thinking — you know, into accepting the slaughter of Palestinians. And I really urge people in my community to think about what it means for us to accept that and to be the face of that.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, the response within the Interior Department? I mean, the secretary of interior is the first Native American cabinet member, first Indigenous cabinet member, the former New Mexico congressmember, Deb Haaland. Her response?

LILY GREENBERG CALL: Yeah, I mean, a lot of folks that I know across the administration have been supportive and understanding. You know, like I said, there is widespread dissent and sentiment within the administration that what the president is doing is disastrous. And, you know, I’ll say that I may no longer be in the federal government right now, I might not be in this administration, but I do feel that I am here upholding my oath that I took to serve the American people, to listen to them. And I’m fighting for a country that we deserve, for a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians and for our communities here in America. And I don’t see that the president is doing that.

AMY GOODMAN: Lily Greenberg Call, thanks so much for being with us, the first known Jewish political appointee to resign over President Biden’s policies on Gaza. She had been working as special assistant to the chief of staff at the Interior Department. She also worked for Biden’s election, as well as Kamala Harris’s.

Coming up, President Biden condemns the International Criminal Court’s decision to pursue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the defense minister. We’ll speak with war crimes prosecutor Reed Brody and the renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappé. Stay with us.


Meanwhile, the Israeli government continues to pretend it is acting in a humane and democratic manner.  What's more humane and democratic than attacks on press freedom, after all?  Brett Wilkins (COMMON DREAMS) reports:


  The White House and press freedom advocates were among those who on Tuesday criticized the Israeli government's shutdown of The Associated Press' live video shot of northern Gaza for violating a new media law by providing access to the banned Al Jazeera network.

The APsaid Israeli authorities confiscated its camera and broadcasting equipment from a home in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. The live shot was broadcast from a balcony on the home.

"The Associated Press decries in the strongest terms the actions of the Israeli government to shut down our long-standing live feed showing a view into Gaza and seize AP equipment," said Lauren Easton, vice president of corporate communications at the New York-based news organization.

"The shutdown was not based on the content of the feed but rather an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country's new foreign broadcaster law," Easton added. "We urge the Israeli authorities to return our equipment and enable us to reinstate our live feed immediately so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world." 


CNN offers this update, "Israel returns AP gear: Israel said it would return camera equipment to the Associated Press after shutting down its live feed showing Gaza and seizing its gear. The reversal came after the White House, Israel’s opposition leader and press groups expressed concerns."

Gaza remains under assault. Day 229 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 35,562, with 79,652 wounded."  Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  




On bodies trapped under rubble, ALJAZEERA notes this morning:

We’re talking about a three-storey building that housed not only residents but also dozens of other displaced Palestinians in Rafah that made it to Nuseirat three days ago.

I met the neighbours. I met the family. I met one of the relatives of people still trapped under the rubble earlier today. They were telling me heartbreaking things.

Imagine escaping the air strikes in Rafah, looking for a safe space but being killed after three days of evacuating – not only being killed but being trapped where the Civil Defence teams do not have any equipment to remove or pull these people from under the rubble.

I saw Civil Defence teams doing their best to pull people from under the rubble. They were digging with their bare hands, with very basic tools. This was not the first time we have seen this scene. We have been seeing this for more than seven months now.

Unfortunately, it may come to a point where the Civil Defence teams will give up on this house because there are more people being targeted every single hour across the Gaza Strip.


April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."



The following sites updated:






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Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Crooked Alito

First, the latest BURN IT DOWN WITH KIM BROWN.



I want to see an arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu.  He is a War Criminal and he's carrying out genocide.  Liars like Hillary Clinton (see Ava and C.I.'s "Media: The pontificators") pretend otherwise, but we know.  I can't stand people like Hillary who just lie like that.  I'm glad Ava and C.I. called her out.  I stand with the students. 


Let's talk about the crooked court tonight.  Specifically Judge Crook Samuel Alito.  If you missed it, see Ruth's "Like Thomas, Alito must recuse himself from all Jan. 6th cases," Alito ran his US flag upside down -- the distress signal.  And he insists that we must believe him that it was his wife who did it.  And he insists that it just so happened to take place when the January 6 insurrectionists were stopped.  We don't believe him.  C.I. told Ruth:

C.I.: There are a number of issues here and multiple red flags.  Alito should recuse himself from any January 6th cases.  Alito states that his wife hung the flag upside down.  He states that it was done in relation to some other protest and has nothing to do with the January 6th attempted insurrection.  He is asking the American people to believe him on that.  That's too big of an ask.  There is the appearance of a conflict of interest and he may very well be lying.  I'm texting you a link to add to what I'm about to say.  Lying?  While attempting to be confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2006, he told Senator Ted Kennedy that ROE V WADE was settled law.  Then came his voting to overturn ROE.  That decision eroded confidence in the Court across the country.  He really is in no place to beg the American people to believe him.  Did his wife do the flag?  He was a judge before he got on the Supreme Court.  His wife knows the rules.  And if she did do it, that actually raises more concerns.  His work colleague is Clarence.  Ginni Thomas was part of the January 6th attempted insurrection.  Was Martha-Ann Alito also part of that insurrection attempt?  Do we need to be concerned as a country over just how deep that insurrection attempt actually was?  These and other questions immediately follow.  So there is the appearance of a conflict of interest.  That requires Alito to step aside on all January 6th cases.  His job is not just to rule.  His job is to rule and to ensure trust in the Court.  Refusing to recuse himself would be failing at his job. And the integrity of the Court is as important as any ruling it issues.  As a member of the Court, Alito has to maintain the integrity of the Court and he can't do that without recusing himself from all January 6th cases.



Public outrage continues this week in response to the disturbing New York Times report that, in the days after the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, a symbol of support for the insurrection was displayed at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The justice has half-heartedly tried to deflect blame onto his wife with some convoluted tale involving her bickering with the neighbors, but in the end, there's no real evading the conclusion: The Alitos publicly hat-tipped the fascist effort to overthrow democracy because they backed Donald Trump's attempted coup. Now there's a growing chorus of people, including Senate Democrats, calling on Alito to recuse himself from all coup-related cases, including one involving Trump's claims to be "immune" from prosecution for his attempts to steal the 2020 election. 

Like Justice Clarence Thomas, whose own wife was intimately involved in the attempted coup plot, Alito is almost certainly going to blow off all the criticism. Chief Justice John Roberts, for his part, will likely allow it. This is for one simple reason: The entire GOP majority on the court is complicit with Trump's designs to end democracy.

The other Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court may not all be as loud and proud about it as Alito and Thomas, but that's more of an aesthetic difference than a material one. When it gets down to brass tacks, the Republican majority is cooperating fully these days with Trump's seditious plans. We know this for two reasons: First, the supposedly "originalist" conservative justices ignored the plain text of the Constitution — which explicitly forbids politicians who have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding future office — to rule that Trump can still run for president. Second, they are currently blocking Trump from being tried for his efforts to steal the 2020 election, using transparently disingenuous methods. 
The timing is especially telling here. The justices were practically tripping over their robes in their haste to issue their illegitimate decision in the ballot case. They heard oral arguments on February 8 and issued their unconstitutional, pro-Trump ruling less than a month later. But on the immunity claims, they are taking a luxurious amount of time. They pushed oral arguments nearly two months after Trump's trial in his Jan. 6 case was supposed to start. It's been nearly a month since then, and still no sign of a ruling. And that's despite every good faith legal scholar pointing out that this case should have never even made it to the Supreme Court. The D.C. circuit already issued a rock solid, common sense ruling that presidents don't get to just attempt coups without consequences. 



Alito’s explanation for the upside-down flag on his property has been, how shall we say, creative. But it’s also befitting for a public servant who clearly believes he has no responsibility to the public.




First, the justice blamed his wife. “I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag,” Alito said in a statement to the Times that was the marital equivalent of throwing his better half under fellow Justice Clarence Thomas’ luxury RV. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”

Then, in a longer explanation to Fox News’ Shannon Bream, Alito put some more flesh on the bone. He claimed that an angry spat with anti-Trump neighbors left his wife “so distraught” that she “hung the flag upside down for a very ‘short period of time.’”

For the sake of argument, let’s give Alito the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume that while the justice claims some of his neighbors are “very political,” he and his wife are politically agnostic. Let’s also assume that three days before Biden’s inauguration — and in light of Trump’s claims of election theft — the Alitos, by chance, seized upon the upside-down flag as a symbolic response to their neighbors’ unneighborly-like behavior and were unaware of its use by Trump supporters to signal their anger over the 2020 election. 

Even if we accept this admittedly unlikely series of events, Alito surely knows now the significance of the upside-down flag and its symbolic importance to Trump and his supporters. And it wasn’t as if the flag hung upside briefly, as he says. That claim is directly contradicted by his neighbors, who say it was fluttering on his front lawn for several days. Surely, Alito understands that some Americans could reasonably draw the impression that he and his wife acted in an overtly political manner, casting doubt on his impartiality as a Supreme Court justice. Even Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., called it “not good judgment.” Moreover, the Supreme Court has very clear and stringent rules for its staff on even the appearance of impartiality or political partisanship. Supreme Court employees are forbidden from any political activity, including attaching bumper stickers to their cars or displaying signs that suggest a political view.




Alito is garbage and always has been.  Senator Ted Kennedy worked hard to nail him down in the confirmation hearing, you may recall, but idiot Dianne Feinstein kept interrupting Ted.  It was his time and he was asking serious questions but the dumb fluffy idiot couldn't shut her damn mouth.  She screwed the left over one time after another.  And that includes on Kavanaugh with all her back alley gossip and planning and scheming.  Was he guilty of what some said?  I have no idea.  And can't have any idea because of the way a US senator chose to handle it.  

Speaking of awful, Sarah Huckabee.  Waist Deep In A Big Fatty. The homophobe is in the news because she's awful and she's doing an awful job.  Graham Gremore (QUEERTY) explains:


The article, tited “A Governor Who Doesn’t Seem to Have Much Interest in Governing Arkansas,” juxtaposes images of the 41-year-old out on the campaign trail flaunting designer clothes alongside horror stories from local residents, including struggling farmers being forced to kill their animals and parents of disabled children who have been dumped from Medicaid by Sander’s administration.

The report also quotes Republican state Rep. Jim Wooten saying, “I don’t know how many people I’ve had say to me, had I known what [state government] was going to look like under Gov. Sanders, I wouldn’t have voted for her.”

It also comes at a time when Sanders has been under intense scrutiny for her outrageous spending, including billing taxpayers for a $13,000 college football kickoff party and $20,000 for a custom-made podium. (She eventually reimbursed the state for the podium, but not before trying everything to get the story squashed.)


My oldest brother worked for this idiot named Deborah Jones for a few years.  She was a huge idiot.  I'd argue she's a racist as well but some might argue that because she was African-American.  There were six people who spoke Spanish in the department and this was a government office that dealt with the people.  My brother was one of the six.  They were paid for their ability to speak Spanish.  They didn't speak Spanish exclusively but Sonya, for example, spoke it often.  And Deborah Jones banned Spanish in the office.  This immediately caused an HR issue because you had customers coming in who only spoke Spanish.

She was the worst.  And she was a bully.  She'd gripe at the women constantly about what they wore and if they were over 30, she'd trash their clothes and say they were trying to dress young.  My brother wore a suit and tie every day because she stayed on his back.  Then one day, a customer thought, since he was in a suit, he was the boss and she hit the roof and wrote him up for overdressing.  Before he could go to HR on it, that same day, she slapped Sonya across the face in front of other employees and customers and finally got fired.

I imagine that's what it's like working for Sarah Huckabee.  I bet the whole state breathes a sigh of relief when she's no longer governor.


Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Tuesday, May 21, 2024.  US President Joe Biden -- who has always made time to defend and excuse away the criminal actions of his drug addicted son -- expresses no sympathy for the children killed in Gaza, the BBC reports on the Israeli government's mistreatment of Palestinians in Israeli hospitals, and much more.


US President Joe Biden has declared "what is happening in Gaza is not genocide."

How do you respond?

How about: presidential candidate Joe Biden declared that wasn't Hunter Biden's laptop.

Now we could go into hundreds of times in his political career when Joe lied to the American people.  But let's stay with Hunter.  The White House and those who lied for Joe then don't want to get honest now but will begrudgingly offer excuses -- and have to me -- that 'you have to remember, that's his son.'  As if his lying is justified in that case because it was for his son.

The Palestinians have sons and daughter who are being killed in this genocide.  We're supposed to feel sorry for a 70 something year old man that his fifty something son is a crack head, paying prostitutes and breaking up his own marriage to sleep with his dead brother's wife?  But Joe's got no sympathy for the children of Palestine.  Actual innocent children who are breaking no laws, obtaining no guns illegally, just trying to live their lives.



Joe Biden has said "what is happening in Gaza is not genocide" following an arrest warrant request by the International Criminal Court prosecutor for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The US president branded the warrant request as "outrageous," adding "whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence - none - between Israel and Hamas."

"What's happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that," Mr Biden said at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House.

He said American support for the safety and security of Israelis is "ironclad".


So was he play acting with his applause at Morehouse on Sunday when he applauded the class valedictorian DeAngelo Fletcher when he spoke (transcript vid DEMOCRACY NOW!):

 

DEANGELO FLETCHER: Dr. King was a global philanthropist of social justice, believing that injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere. His campaign and message reached far and wide. To follow in the footsteps of our great alumnus, it is only right for the class of 2024 to utilize any platform provided to stand in solidarity with peace and justice. The Israel-Gaza conflict has plagued the people of its region for generations. It is important to recognize that both sides have suffered heavy casualties in the wake of October 7th. From the comfort of our homes, we watch an unprecedented number of civilians mourn the loss of men, women and children, while calling for the release of all hostages. For the first time in our lives, we’ve heard the global community sing one harmonious song that transcends language and culture. It is my stance as a Morehouse man — nay, as a human being — to call for an immediate and a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. … Hear the people of this world sing the song of righteous justice. Thank you.



Did Joe just applaud because others were applauding?  Was he having a senior moment and not grasping what was being said?


A permanent cease-fire and not one after the Israeli government has destroyed every home, hospital, school and university in Gaza.

Joe was rushing to defend War Criminal Netanyahu because of the ICC.  From yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!  


AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has announced he’s seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders — the head of the group, Yahya Sinwar; the head of the political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh; and the head of Hamas’s militant wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif. ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan discussed the case in an interview today on CNN with Christiane Amanpour. He began by talking about the charges against Hamas.

KARIM KHAN: The charges are extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention. So, these are the key crimes that are alleged to have been committed by these three individuals. The world was shocked on the 7th of October when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes, from the different kibbutzim in Israel, and people have suffered enormously. And we have a variety of evidence to support the applications that we’ve submitted to the judges.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You have also issued warrants against the top political and military leadership of the government of the state of Israel.

KARIM KHAN: We’ve applied for warrants. Of course, the judges must determine whether or not to issue them, but we’ve applied today. We’ll apply for warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and also Minister of Defense Gallant for the crimes of causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.

AMY GOODMAN: That was the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan on CNN this morning. Netanyahu responded to the possible ICC arrest warrants.

PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] This court has no authority over the state of Israel. The possibility that it will issue an arrest warrant for war crimes against IDF commanders and state leaders, this possibility is a scandal of a historic scale. Eighty years after the Holocaust, the international bodies that were founded to prevent another Holocaust are considering denying the Jewish state its right to defend itself. To defend itself against who? Against those who acted and are still working openly to commit genocide against us. What an absurdity. What a distortion of justice and of history. This will be the first time that a democratic country, which is fighting for its life, according to all the rules of international law, is accused of war crimes.

AMY GOODMAN: That clip of the prime minister was from April. For more, we’re joined by Middle East analyst Mouin Rabbani. He is an editor of Jadaliyya and host of the Connections podcast. He’s contributor to the new book, Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm. He was previously a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, joining us from Montreal.

Mouin, thanks so much for being with us. This story broke just before we went to air. Can you talk about the significance of these charges, if the ICC court decides to bring them?

MOUIN RABBANI: I think they’re very significant, because it places Israel’s leaders of this genocidal onslaught on the Gaza Strip in the dock. And, of course, prosecutor Karim Khan is also seeking the arrest of three Hamas leaders. I think there’s also a lot that can be said about this.

For Karim Khan, once again, history begins on October 7th. Even though his investigation has, by his own account, been ongoing for a number of years and is supposed to take into account all crimes committed since 2014, he has yet to address any crimes between 2014 and 2023 — notably, the crime of apartheid, the crime of illegal settlements in occupied territories, Israel’s — and, for that matter, Hamas’s — conduct in the 2014 war and in 2021.

And the other thing that struck me is Khan’s attempt to, let’s say, place the onus primarily on Hamas. So, he’s indicted three Hamas leaders and two Israeli leaders. And what struck me is that he is seeking the arrest of Hamas’s titular leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who, according to most accounts, was not involved in the planning and execution of the Hamas attacks of October 7th — presumably, there is some element of command responsibility involved — but he has not sought the arrest of either Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, or the Israeli chief of staff or any of the commanding officers involved in Israel’s onslaught since October 7th, nor, for that matter, other key decision-makers in Israel’s war cabinet, like Benny Gantz, like Gadi Eisenkot and others.

AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about what this practically means, Mouin Rabbani?

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, I think it will have more impact on — assuming, again, that the arrest warrants are indeed issued — it will have more effect on Israel, I think, than on Hamas. I mean, when is the last time you saw Hamas leaders going on a shopping trip in Paris or London? It’s Israeli leaders who will need to travel to Europe and elsewhere, where they would face the prospect of arrest. And I think this also puts other countries in the dock. Will they now — they now have to make a choice between Israeli impunity and their obligations under the Rome Statute, at least those who are members of the International Criminal Court.

And again, I think, in broader political terms, this is of massive significance, despite all the shortcomings that I’ve just been discussed. This means that Israel’s leaders are indicted war criminals. And we heard the clip of Netanyahu once again trying to hide behind the Holocaust and what he claims is Israeli democracy and so on. That’s no longer going to fly. That edifice has been peeled away. Israel will now be seen and judged on the basis of its actions in real time rather than on history in Europe.

AMY GOODMAN: What does this mean for the United States, for the U.S. main ally, Israel, its ally, indicted on war crimes?

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, I think that’s another key issue. The U.S., of course, rejects the International Criminal Court and rejects its jurisdiction over this issue. But I think there’s another key point here, which is all the threats that are being made by the United States, particularly most recently by a group of Republican senators, threatening all kinds of reprisals and retaliations against the International Criminal Court if it were to proceed with this measure. And this is a crime in and of itself. So, it will be very interesting to see if the U.S. follows through on those threats and, if it does, how the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will react.

If I can just make one additional point, the reason we’ve gotten to this, to where we are today, is actually because of Hamas. About a decade ago, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, was coming under increasing Palestinian criticism and condemnation for dragging his feet on the Palestinian application to ratify the Rome Statute and become a part of the International Criminal Court. He said he would only do so if he had the explicit endorsement to do so of the Hamas leadership. And it was only after he obtained that that Palestine sought to become a state party to the International Criminal Court. So, here you have a situation where it is the Palestinians who have been calling for an investigation of all crimes committed in what’s called the situation of Palestine, whether by themselves or anyone else, and Israel and the United States categorically rejecting the court’s jurisdiction and any measures that it may take.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, Israel and the United States are not signatories to the ICC.

MOUIN RABBANI: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: But I’m just looking at this New York Times article from last July: “President Biden has quietly ordered the U.S. government to begin sharing evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, according to officials familiar with the matter, signaling a major shift in American policy.” And, of course, Russia also wasn’t a signatory, and Putin was indicted. Talk about that kind of cooperation with the ICC in that case, but certainly not in this case.

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, that’s called the rules-based international order, where you apply international law and the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and so on to your enemies and adversaries, but you reject them for yourself and your allies, because, there, the rule is total impunity and to do as you please.

And I should say that Karim Khan himself played a rather nefarious role in this. Upon assuming his position of prosecutor, he briefed the Security Council and informed the Security Council that he would only pursue those cases referred to him by the council. And that was a clear signal that he was no longer going to pursue the cases in Afghanistan and Palestine. He did so before Russia invaded Ukraine. Once Russia did invade Ukraine, that principle went out the window, and he basically did the bidding of those who had supported his campaign to become prosecutor. And I think it’s also in that broader context that his continued ability to slow-foot and marginalize and ignore the situation in Palestine, particularly in the context of the current genocide, became untenable.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you, finally, tell us who Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, who lives right in Doha, in Qatar, and Mohammed Deif are?

MOUIN RABBANI: Well, I should add that Qatar is also not a signatory to the Rome Statute, and so, therefore, this should, in principle, not lead to Haniyeh’s extradition to The Hague. Ismail Haniyeh is the head of the Politburo of Hamas and, therefore, the titular leader of the organization. Yahya Sinwar is the leader of Hamas within the Gaza Strip and at the same time is seen as the most powerful leader within the movement as a whole. And Mohammed Deif is the head of the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. And Sinwar and Reif specifically are also seen as the main architects of the October 7th attacks in southern Israel and Hamas’s military strategy in the months since.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Mouin Rabbani, we want to thank you for being with us, Middle East analyst, co-editor of Jadaliyya and host of the Connections podcast, former senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, contributor to the book, Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm.



  Human rights defenders around the world on Monday accused U.S. President Joe Biden of double standards and worse after he condemned a decision by the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor to pursue arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders for alleged crimes committed during the October 7 attacks and subsequent obliteration of Gaza.

Karim Khan, the ICC's chief prosecutor, said the court has formally applied for arrest warrants targeting two Israeli and three Palestinian officials. Khan is seeking to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged "crimes of causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, [and] deliberately targeting civilians in conflict."

Khan said charges against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif include "extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape, and sexual assault in detention."

A panel of ICC judges will determine whether to issue arrest warrants for any of the suspects.

Biden blasted the effort to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant as "outrageous."

"Let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas," the president said in a statement. "We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned what he called the ICC's "shameful... equivalence of Israel with Hamas."

Critics were quick to pounce on what some called Biden's hypocritically disparate responses to the ICC's pursuit of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders and for Russian President Vladmir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

"What's outrageous is Biden's utter disregard for victims of war crimes," said Mark Kersten, an assistant professor of international law at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. "But let's be clear: Biden will feel he must attack the ICC because it directly implicates his own decision-making to repeatedly defend atrocities and their authors."

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, said that "there's certainly no quantitative equivalence between Hamas and Israeli officials in terms of the sheer number of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including humans murdered, homes demolished, hospitals bombarded, journalists executed, aid workers snuffed, land stolen, children starved, men tortured... I could go on and on."

Furthermore, "'equivalence' between two actors has zero bearing on who should be arrested and prosecuted," Whitson added. "The ICC has prosecuted individuals for a single offense irrespective of how it compares to other crimes committed by other actors at the same time."

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis—who heads the leftist Democracy in Europe Movement 2025—said on social media that "Biden just declared the International Criminal Court null and void because it dared pursue Israel's war crimes which Biden is actively and enthusiastically enabling."

"In the tradition of George W. Bush, the U.S. president has declared the U.S. a rogue state," he added. 


For more on the topic of the US government backing War Crimes, see Marjorie Cohn's "US-Backed Philippine Government Committed War Crimes, People’s Tribunal Finds" (TRUTHOUT).  Lydia Chantler-Hicks (THE EVENING STANDARD) notes that Joe also declared, "The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous."

No, Joe, what's outrageous is over 14,000 children killed by the Israeli government.  The good thing for Joe about being 81 is that he won't have to live with guilt for many years to come over how his actions have led to the deaths of so many children.  While Joe rages against the ICC, THE WASHINGTON POST notes, "European countries including France and Germany issued statements affirming their support for the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court after its prosecutor sought arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials. President Biden criticized the prosecutor’s decision, saying there is 'no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas'."


Medical workers in Israel have told the BBC that Palestinian detainees from Gaza are routinely kept shackled to hospital beds, blindfolded, sometimes naked, and forced to wear nappies – a practice one medic said amounted to “torture”.

A whistle-blower detailed how procedures in one military hospital were “routinely” carried out without painkillers, causing “an unacceptable amount of pain” to detainees.

Another whistle-blower said painkillers were used “selectively” and “in a very limited way” during an invasive medical procedure on a Gazan detainee in a public hospital.

He also said critically ill patients being held in makeshift military facilities were being denied proper treatment because of a reluctance by public hospitals to transfer and treat them.

One detainee, taken from Gaza for questioning by the Israeli army and later released, told the BBC his leg had to be amputated because he was denied treatment for an infected wound.

A senior doctor working inside the military hospital at the centre of the allegations denied that any amputations were the direct result of conditions there, but described the shackles and other restraints used by guards as “dehumanisation”.

The Israeli army said detainees at the facility were treated “appropriately and carefully”.

The two whistle-blowers the BBC spoke to were both in positions to assess the medical treatment of detainees. Both asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue among their colleagues.

Their accounts are supported by a report, published in February by Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, which said that Israel’s civilian and military prisons had become “an apparatus of retribution and revenge” and that detainees’ human rights were being violated - in particular their right to health.

No doubt, Joe will find an excuse for that.  Or bore us all again with another tale of his root canal last June.  Another topic he'll avoid?  The reporting of THE GUARDIAN's Lorenzo Tondo and Quique Kierszenbaum:

 

Individual members of Israel’s security forces are tipping off far-right activists and settlers to the location of aid trucks delivering vital supplies to Gaza, enabling the groups to block and vandalise the convoys, according to multiple sources.

Settlers intercepting the vital humanitarian supplies to the strip are receiving information about the location of the aid trucks from members of the Israeli police and military, a spokesperson from the main Israeli activist group behind the blockades told the Guardian.

The claim of collusion by members of the security forces is supported by messages from internal internet chat groups reviewed by the Guardian as well as accounts from a number of witnesses and human rights activists.

Those blocking the vehicles say the aid they carry is being diverted by Hamas instead of being delivered to civilians in need a claim relief agencies reject.

Rachel Touitou, a spokesperson for the Israeli group Tzav 9, said the group had been blocking trucks as they made their way through Israel since January, on the grounds that the aid they carried was “hijacked” by Hamas once it reached Gaza.


They're criminals, these people attacking aid workers and stealing supplies are criminals.  But note that they have no fear of arrest.  Rachel Touitou is perfectly willing to speak on the record and defend her crimes because she knows the Israeli government will never punish her for these crimes, that, in fact, the Israeli government agrees with her actions and backs them.


Medical sources have told Al Jazeera that a drone attack has targeted a group of people in the Yibna refugee camp in Rafah in southern Gaza, killing at least three children.

Footage obtained by Al Jazeera showed the first moments after the strike with the bodies of children lying on the ground.

The children were transferred by medical staff to the Kuwaiti Specialty Hospital in Rafah, sources say.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 228 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes,  "At least 35,647 Palestinians have been killed and 79,852 injured in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Tuesday. In the past 24 hours, 85 people were killed and 200 others injured, the ministry said in a statement."   Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  




On bodies trapped under rubble, ALJAZEERA notes this morning:

We’re talking about a three-storey building that housed not only residents but also dozens of other displaced Palestinians in Rafah that made it to Nuseirat three days ago.

I met the neighbours. I met the family. I met one of the relatives of people still trapped under the rubble earlier today. They were telling me heartbreaking things.

Imagine escaping the air strikes in Rafah, looking for a safe space but being killed after three days of evacuating – not only being killed but being trapped where the Civil Defence teams do not have any equipment to remove or pull these people from under the rubble.

I saw Civil Defence teams doing their best to pull people from under the rubble. They were digging with their bare hands, with very basic tools. This was not the first time we have seen this scene. We have been seeing this for more than seven months now.

Unfortunately, it may come to a point where the Civil Defence teams will give up on this house because there are more people being targeted every single hour across the Gaza Strip.


April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."


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