The situation in northern Gaza is catastrophic. Doctors on the ground have reported unimaginable suffering due to Israel’s relentless bombardment and the systematic denial of food, water and humanitarian aid. We must act now to demand urgent action.
Last Saturday, at the national demonstration for Palestine Jeremy Corbyn shared a devastating message from Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Northern Gaza, who last week was shot and injured by the IDF. His words were a plea for humanity:
This is a war of extermination… civilians and their children are calling us from under the rubble, and we are powerless to help them. They have now gone silent.
Email your MP to take action for Gaza
Hospitals are overwhelmed, ambulances are being targeted, and families remain trapped under rubble without hope of rescue. The UK must push for an immediate end to the bombardment, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the protection of medical facilities.
Time is running out. Many thousands of lives hang in the balance and our government must act to save them. Together, let’s pressure our elected officials to act, now.
Email your MP today asking them to take urgent action to address the horrific situation in northern Gaza. Use our template letter, drafted by doctors who have served in Gaza, which highlights the desperate need for medical aid, safe evacuation routes, and an immediate ceasefire.
Amnesty International has released a landmark report that concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, making it the first major human rights group to do so. The nearly 300-page report examines the first nine months of the Israeli war on Gaza and finds that Israel’s actions have caused death, injury and mental harm on a vast scale, as well as conditions intended to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the United States have rejected Amnesty’s conclusion. Amnesty researcher Budour Hassan, who covers Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, dismisses the criticism and says, if anything, Amnesty’s intervention took too long because of how carefully the group gathered and verified its information. “We tried to be absolutely true to the definition of 'genocide' under the Genocide Convention,” says Hassan, who urges U.S. officials in particular to do more to stop the bloodshed. “If there is any country that has the capacity, the power and the tools to stop this genocide, it’s the United States. Not only has the United States failed to do so, it has consistently awarded Israel. It has consistently continued to flout the United States’ own laws in order to continue giving Israel the weapons — the very same weapons that are used by Israel to commit the genocide in Gaza.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Content warning: this article contains footage which some readers may find distressing.
Israel has been reigning down bombs across Palestine, with Al Jazeerareporting 14 people killed in north Gaza, 8 people killed in Beit Lahia, and 2 people killed in Jabalia refugee camp. Residents in Khan Younis were warned to evacuate. However, these Israel evacuation orders are little more than vapid gestures towards a pretence of following international law.
Israel: ‘execution orders’
Israel has repeatedly used evacuation orders, and designated safe zones supposedly for civilians to shelter in. They have also repeatedly, and belligerently, flouted their own designations. Othman Moqbel, CEO of Action for Humanity, explained:
The research, based on the testimonies of displaced Palestinians on the ground, revealed that Israel’s “evacuation orders” often give people just an hour, and sometimes even less, to pack up what remains of their lives and run for their lives. And when they agree to “evacuate”, they are often still chased by a hail of bullets as they try to find new shelter in another “humanitarian zone”.
Action for Humanity’s own research found that a third of so-called evacuation orders were issued at night while people slept. Surely there can be no pretence that Israel is somehow doing Palestinians a favour by issuing what are effectively warnings of imminent execution, not evacuation.
If people do make it to a so-called safe zone, the environment is no such thing:
The food that can be found in these ever-shrinking humanitarian islands in the strip has almost no nutritional value and is rancid to the point of inedible. As Israel turned off the taps and poisoned most wells with its bombs, there is not sufficient water either.
Moqbel concludes:
There are no “humanitarian zones” or “evacuation orders” but only threats of extermination and islands of mediaeval suffering not fit for basic survival, let alone dignified living.
Palestinian and United Nations officials also say that there are no safe areas in the enclave. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been internally displaced, some as many as 10 times since the war began last year.
Israeli impunity
Israel has inflicted such terror on Palestine that terms like “safe zone” or “humanitarian zone” are a farce. Middle East Monitor posted footage of what they described as children “incinerated” by Israeli bombs in a designated ‘safe zone’:
Children ‘incinerated’ as Israeli bombs hit Gaza encampment
Israel bombed a camp of displaced people in the Al-Mawasi 'safe zone' near Gaza's Khan Yunis. The strike happened shortly after the sunset prayer, according to an eyewitness, and resulted in at least 21 deaths with many… pic.twitter.com/WC8Y3kQG0U
In the clip, the night time sky is lit up with screeching bombs, and screams of residents fill the air. Whilst mainstream media may be willing to go along with the lie of Israel’s ‘safe zones’ and ‘evacuation orders,’ actual footage, research, and testimony is showing the depravity of Israel’s terror in Palestine.
‘Leave-or-die’
Earlier this summer, Forensic Architecture, who research state and corporate violence, demonstrated how Israel’s ‘evacuation orders’ are just sending already displaced people running for their lives endlessly, from place to place.
A ‘humanitarian zone’ from which displaced people are ordered to evacuate is a meaningless construct. This morning the Israeli army ordered Palestinians in the eastern part of what it had declared an 'expanded humanitarian zone’ on 6 May to evacuate west, towards areas already… https://t.co/fTqcrqLJv5pic.twitter.com/zNJAgLkIk3
— Forensic Architecture (@ForensicArchi) July 22, 2024
We are still seeing the same pattern, as Israel hounds Palestinians to their death. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Khalili reported from Jabalia:
After the new Israeli evacuation orders which have been issued this early morning. As you can see, the scene here, civilians have been evicted and forced to displace from their homeland.
Mainstream media doesn’t care about the genocide being perpetrated against Palestinians. They certainly aren’t going to pay attention to the evidence coming out from across Palestine about Israel repeatedly terrorising civilians out of their homes, killing them in the middle of the night, starving them, and further implementing their programme of ethnic cleansing.
Advocates for Palestinian rights have reignited their calls for the U.S. to stop sending arms to Israel following a landmark Amnesty International investigation concluding that Israel is committing genocide, as many Palestinians and experts have been saying for months. “My colleagues can no longer deny that this is genocide,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). “We must follow our own U.S.
The Israeli military bombed the supposed “humanitarian safe zone” in southern Gaza on Wednesday, killing dozens in the blast and subsequent huge blaze. The strike on al-Mawasi killed at least 23 Palestinians, including at least four children and a pregnant woman. Israel targeted a densely populated tent camp housing forcibly displaced people, and the fire that broke out as a result of the…
But local branch of rights group says ‘serious crimes’ were potentially taking place that needed investigation
Amnesty International’s Israel branch has distanced itself from the rights group’s allegation that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza, but said “serious crimes” were potentially taking place that needed investigation.
“While the Israeli section of Amnesty International does not accept the accusation that Israel is committing genocide, based on the information available to us, we are concerned that serious crimes are being committed in Gaza, that must be investigated,” it said in a statement.
One of the world’s most prominent human rights groups concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza in a bombshell report released Thursday. In a 296-page investigation, Amnesty International found that the breadth of Israel’s military assault on Gaza — including mass civilian killings, forced displacement, the blocking of humanitarian aid, and many other alleged violations of the…
Daniil Brodsky and the board members stepped down on Thursday, after the group said in a statement the report had “not proved genocidal intent beyond a reasonable doubt”.
Amnesty International released a “landmark new report” on Thursday 5 December. It concluded that Israel “has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip”. But nine hours later, BBC News was still nowhere to be found. The UK’s state broadcaster apparently had nothing to say about “the world’s best known human rights organisation” judging a close British ally to be guilty of genocide.
Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.
And it added:
Governments must stop pretending they are powerless to end this genocide, which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of international law. States need to move beyond mere expressions of regret or dismay and take strong and sustained international action, however uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be for some of Israel’s allies.
Nine hours after the release of the report (more than enough time for an outlet with the immense resources of the BBC to publish at least a simple recognition of its existence), online searches revealedno English-languagenews on the matter.
However, the BBC Hausa team was putting their English-language counterparts to shame by actually doing their job:
So it’s not that BBC News was incapable of reporting the story. Someone just decided it was not something they wanted to be a key story on this morning’s BBC News in English.
Nothing on the BBC, 7 am news either about Amnesty report on Gaza.
In what universe is the fact that a key British ally has been judged guilty of genocide by the world's best known human rights organisation not news?@bbcnickrobinson – are you not embarrassed by this?
To be fair, there was apparently a mention on BBC Radio 4. But even then, the focus was on Israel’s attempts to smear Amnesty rather than on the report itself.
Elsewhere, ‘newspaper of record‘ the Times was also eerily silent on the matter. Fellow newspaper of record the Telegraph, however, surprisingly had enough respect for their profession to cover the report.
Amnesty: “we could find only one reasonable conclusion”
The Amnesty International press release confirmed what the world has been witnessing for the last fourteen months, stating that:
Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.
Secretary general Agnès Callamard added that:
for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza
And she insisted that:
Taking into account the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed, we could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent is the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza
She clarified that, even if Israel argues it has other aims in Gaza, “genocidal intent can co-exist alongside military goals”. And she stressed that any atrocities that happened on 7 October 2023 “can never justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”.
She also slammed the West indirectly, highlighting that:
The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on our collective conscience
Unfortunately, it seems that BBC News isn’t yet ready to do its part to correct that “seismic, shameful failure” or erase that stain.
The world has witnessed the government of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in occupied Gaza. Month after month, the government of Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its specific intent to… pic.twitter.com/BVKXdlnnpu
New Zealand’s Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) has congratulated the Nelson City Council on its vote today to boycott companies which trade with illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.
The city council (pop. 58,000) — New Zealand’s 15th-largest city — became the latest local body to change its procurement policy to exclude companies identified by the UN Human Rights Council as being complicit in the building and maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
“It is [Prime Minister] Christopher Luxon who should be ending all New Zealand dealings with companies involved in the illegal Israeli settlements.
“Instead, our government is cowardly complicit with Israeli war crimes.”
It is a war crime to move citizens onto land illegally occupied as Israel is doing.
Nelson City Council joins Environment Canterbury and the Christchurch City Council — New Zealand’s second largest city — which both adopted this policy earlier this year. Other local bodies are believed to be following.
“We also congratulate local Palestine solidarity activists in Nelson who have organised and battled so well for this historic win today. They are the heroes behind this decision,”minto said.
Minto said following the move by Nelson city representatives, “we are renewing our call for the government to act”.
He again called for the government to:
Ban all imports from the illegal Israeli settlements;
Direct the Superfund, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and Kiwisaver providers to end their investments in all Israeli companies and other companies supporting the illegal Israeli settlements; and
Direct New Zealand government agencies to end procurement of goods or services from all Israeli companies and other companies supporting the illegal Israeli settlements.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on Wednesday that the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon “is holding” — disregarding numerous findings that Israel has violated the ceasefire dozens of times just in the week it’s been in place so far. Touting an “oversight mechanism” developed with France to oversee violations of the ceasefire, Blinken said at a press conference that…
We look at the world of high-tech surveillance with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow and filmmaker Matthew O’Neill. Their new HBO documentary Surveilled is now available for streaming. Farrow says he became interested in the topic after he was tracked by the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube during his reporting on Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse.
The activists at Led By Donkeys have just brought an essential message to Parliament Square.
Amid the ongoing genocide denialism of Keir Starmer’s government, and its steadfast commitment to the country committing genocide, Led By Donkeys took action to remind people of the horror of what Israel has been doing in Gaza.
Led by Donkeys highlight Israel’s genocide
Israel’s 13-month assault on Gaza has so far resulted in over 44,000 Palestinian deaths including over 17,500 children.
So, Led By Donkeys highlighted the words of a Holocaust Studies professor from Israel, Amos Goldberg, who has called Israel’s actions genocide. He said:
For nearly 30 years I have researched and taught the Holocaust, genocide and state violence./And I want to tell whoever is willing to listen that what’s happening now in Gaza is a genocide.
He added:
if you read Raphael Lemkin – the Jewish-Polish legal scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ and was the major driving force behind the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention – what is happening in Gaza now is exactly what he had in mind when he spoke about genocide.
We implore everyone to listen to the whole speech.
"And once you come to this conclusion you cannot remain silent."
This week, however, the government has doubled down on its refusal of reality. Because Keir Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves and other government figures went to a fancy ‘Labour Friends of Israel’ lunch. And they were happy to be in the company of Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, who previously claimed that all of Gaza’s buildings – “every school, every mosque, every second house” – were legitimate targets for Israeli occupation forces.
After fourteen months of genocide in Gaza, Keir Starmer was the guest of honour at Labour Friends of Israel's annual lunch this week. pic.twitter.com/vSOgvrA7hY
From @LindaSayle: “Keir Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Pat McFadden, Lucy Powell, Steve Reed, Ellie Reeves, Jonny Reynolds & Peter Kyle – all went to a lunch hosted by Labour Friends of Israel … happy to sit with Tzipi Hotovely & pledge their support for genocidal Israel” pic.twitter.com/HuQCMLfnOM
Of course, right-wing outlet the Telegraph jumped on Led by Donkeys’ protest as being “anti-Israel”. It said that “a huge anti-Israel banner was unfurled outside Parliament by pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday”. The Telegraph even thought it appropriate to go to renowned far-right political party Reform for comment.
In reality, Led By Donkeys were merely reflecting the facts about the situation – as was Goldberg. Clearly, that’s too much to stomach for some:
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a monumental new tool of repression, the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” otherwise known as H.R.9495. The bill will now head to the Senate for a vote. The bill would allow the U.S. Treasury Secretary, soon to be appointed by incoming president Donald Trump, to unilaterally designate any U.S.
Campaigners from Fossil Free London disrupted the opening night of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, demanding the venue sever ties with Barclays over the bank’s funding of fossil fuels and arms.
Swan Lake
During the Swan Lake interval, protesters staged a dramatic lobby demonstration, pouring oil on two campaigners dressed in Swan Lake costumes while others chanted, “Sadler’s Wells, drop Barclays”. Their banner read, “Cut Ties with Barclays”:
Security escorted them out of the building.
The disruption followed an earlier protest outside the theatre, where 10 campaigners in Swan Lake costumes staged a “die-in” next to a banner that read, “Barclays Funds Bombs and Big Oil”. Leaflets explaining the protest were handed out to theatre goers:
Sadler’s Wells has a close relationship with Barclays, which is one of the theatre’s main sponsors. Additionally, Nigel Higgins, the chair of the Sadler’s Wells Board of Trustees, also serves as the chairman of Barclays. So, protesters made the Swan Lake audience aware:
Barclays: wrecking the planet
By February 2024, Barclays had £2bn in shares in eight of the nine companies providing military equipment to Israel.
This included £2.7m in Elbit Systems. Elbit provides 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment. Alongside this, it supplies bombs, missiles, and other weaponry. It markets these as “battle-tested” after bombardments in occupied Palestine.
Barclays has provided over £6.1bn in loans and underwriting to the arms and military technology companies Israel has violently deployed against Palestinians. These include arms firms like BAE Systems, Boeing, and Raytheon.
Meanwhile, Barclays is also making a killing bankrolling the climate crisis. Between 2016 and the end of 2023, Barclays has poured US $235.2bn into fossil fuels. This is according to the latest ‘Banking on Climate Chaos’ report, which placed Barclays among its ‘Dirty Dozen’ – the top twelve worst banks for financing the polluting sector.
Moreover, it has invested over US $190bn in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. Whilst Barclays committed to stop financing new oil & gas expansion ‘projects’ in a renewed energy policy in February, this restricts just 10% of their fossil fuel funding.
Swan Lake is dancing around the issue
Joanna Warrington, campaigner with Fossil Free London, said of the Swan Lake protest:
It’s time for Sadler’s Wells to stop dancing around the issue.
By continuing to partner with Barclays, a bank that fuels climate breakdown and genocide, Sadler’s Wells is complicit in global suffering and the destruction of our future. This sponsorship lets Barclays hide behind a veil of corporate responsibility, while it continues business as usual, bankrolling the industries driving environmental devastation and violence across the world.
Art holds immense power to inspire change and shape our world for the better, but it’s meaningless if we don’t act to protect the future it imagines. Sadler’s Wells must choose: uphold the values of art and humanity, or remain complicit in the destruction and greed that threatens us all.
Featured image and additional images via Talia Woodin
A petition has been launched by Cardiff Palestine Solidarity Campaign to call on Cardiff Council to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s criminal activity against the Palestinian people. The objective is to encourage those companies to cut their support for the apartheid Israel regime and its 14-month-long genocidal war.
The Cardiff and Vale Council Pension Fund invests £111m in companies actively linked to Israel’s illegal war against Palestinians and its illegal occupation of Palestinian land in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. Targetting civilians, starving them, stealing their land, and forcibly displacing a whole population are all illegal under international law.
Now, everyone living or working in Cardiff can express their view by signing the petition that will be put before city councillors in January for them to act in a simple but effective way. Sign here.
The human cost of Israel’s war against Palestine
In July 2024, The Lancet estimated that the total number of Palestinian deaths due to Israel in the previous nine months had reached 186,000.
At least 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since Oct 2023, of which over 17,000 were children.
Israel uses starvation as a weapon of war.
There has been the forced displacement of 1.9 million people in Gaza (total population is 2.2 million), meeting the definition of ethnic cleansing.
Healthcare dismantled in Gaza and “all the components of a society have been destroyed”.
More bombs have been dropped on Gaza in 13 months than the US dropped on Vietnam in its 20-year war in the 1960s/70s; or the equivalent of eight Hiroshima bombs.
Israel’s actions are illegal
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled as illegal all Israeli seizing of Palestinian territory since 1967, and that it has no right to sovereignty over the occupied territory.
The ICJ has previously ruled in 2024 that it is plausible that Israel is committing genocidal acts in its assault on Gaza, and is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has applied for arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Apartheid legislation racially discriminating against non-Jewish citizens has been progressively enacted since 2009, including segregation, forced dispossession, unjust military law and restrictions on freedom of movement.
What has this got to do with Cardiff Council?
Every democratic representative body has an interest in abiding by the rules based international order for resolving conflict – otherwise the bullies always win. There is a duty on everyone to play a part in echoing and amplifying the daily pleas from Palestinians:
for an end to the war, and
for a just outcome to years of illegal expulsions and the occupation of Palestinian land
Cardiff Council can make a simple switch of the 3.5% of its total pension fund pot to companies not on the list of those complicit with the Israeli regime. This a call from Palestinian civil society: including the Federation of Trade Unions, political parties, NGOs, Palestinian women, refugee and cultural organisations, and many others.
In just the first week since a ceasefire commenced in Lebanon, Israeli forces have already broken the agreement and launched dozens of attacks, reports from humanitarian organizations find. CNN’s Clarissa Ward reported on Monday, citing a UN peacekeeping source, that Israel has committed an estimated 100 violations of the ceasefire agreement that went into effect last Tuesday.
A top official at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday that food availability across Gaza has reached “an all-time low” under Israel’s suffocating blockade, which has heavily restricted the entrance of lifesaving humanitarian assistance and plunged the enclave into famine. “Food supply has sharply deteriorated,” FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol said at a…
Joining a growing chorus of liberal-leaning Israelis, a former Israeli defense minister has accused the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes and carrying out ethnic cleansing in besieged northern Gaza as Israeli forces block humanitarian aid and dig in for a long-term occupation. Moshe Ya’alon, a member of Israel’s center right Telem party who served for three decades…
Hunger. Cold. Thirst. Disease. These are the daily realities of life in Gaza, where for the past 423 days, Israel has unleashed a genocide that will come to define our contemporary era. As Palestinians struggle to meet their daily needs, they are also faced with a battle to preserve their memories and dignity. Over the past year, journalist and filmmaker Ruwaida Amer has produced numerous powerful, heart-wrenching documentary reports for TRNN from the rubble and ruins of Gaza, shining a light on the darkest realities of Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians, even as she herself suffers from—and struggles to survive—the onslaught. Calling in from Gaza, Amer joins The Marc Steiner Show to share an honest portrait of her life and the lives of her fellow Palestinians in the midst of genocide.
Studio Production: David Hebden Audio Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Marc Steiner:
Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s good to have you all with us. The War on Gaza has killed at least 45,000 people. No less than 10,000 have been children. Most of the hospitals have been destroyed. Patients are dying, children are dying. The infrastructure has been obliterated. 90% of the 1.2 million Gazans have been displaced. There’s been no food. People living on one meal a day, if they’re lucky. And still it goes on, as I’ve said for decades, not in our name. This must end, and we must help to end it. Israel just appointed Yechiel Leiter, who was part of the fascist, Rabbi Meir Kahane’s, Jewish Defense League, as ambassador to the United States, with Trump’s approval.
Now here, the war rages on. And many of you have seen the documentaries we’ve published by the amazing and brave, Ruwaida Amer, who lives in Gaza, whose home and family have been torn apart. Ruwaida is a video and documentary filmmaker, writer, and producer. You’ve seen her brave and brilliant work here at Real News, as I’ve said, and also appeared on Al Jazeera, BBC, ABC, CNN, Euro News, among others. And written for The Nation and Slate, among others. And Ruwaida, welcome to the Marc Steiner Show. It’s good to have you with us.
Ruwaida Amer:
Hi.
Marc Steiner:
Thank you so much for taking the time and being with us today. Can you just tell us where you are at this moment?
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah, as you know, I’m in Gaza, okay. And I’m in south of Gaza because I live in south of Gaza. Okay, so it’s my home there. Also, there’s no difference between north and south of Gaza, so anywhere there’s a very hard situation. And everywhere, the bombing, that mean maybe in the beginning of the war. So if you are in the south, you aren’t safe, no. I’m in the south, but I live in very hard situation. Every time I hear the bombing, before a few minutes, I was very scary because I had a very strong bomb around my area. So the situation here is not good and not safe. It’s not better than anywhere in Gaza. All the areas under hard bombing, and the worst war in the world. So no one is safe.
Marc Steiner:
And you’ve lost friends and family personally in this war.
Ruwaida Amer:
I have many stories about the losing of people in my life. In general, I don’t like to talk about this, but because I like to be my works private. Or if I’m working as journalist, so the people know that I’m a journalist. But I have another work, I’m teacher. So as a teacher, I lost my students. My students, they are in five grade and sixth grade, that’s mean they’re age nine years and 10 years. And recently I know I lose more than two or three or four students. I lose more than them. And my student told me we have another one, we lose them. In the beginning, in the war, he killed by a very hard bombing in the north. And all the building, a huge building structure, arrived on his head, with his family. So I lost my student, I lost my friends, I lost my close friend. Also, I lost my cousin. Also, maybe I want to be more negative, but I want to tell you, anyone we lose in Gaza, I consider him or her like one of my family, one of my society, one of my people.
Because all the people we lose during the war, they have a great story. They have dreams. They were planning to the future for their families, their children. And we lose very close people in our life. We know them in our normal life, we meet them every day. So now we don’t have them. So maybe it affected in my feeling, my mind. So when I write my articles or when I produce my stories, I feel very sad about the people in Gaza. So to be more clear, I don’t like to talk about my experience because I don’t like the wars. And usually I told my friends after the war ended, I said for my friends, “I think anyone died in the war, is the one, he won, has life.” Because when you be alive and you remember your family, your friends, your studies, you will lose your mind when you think, “How’s my life without them? How I can go to my school without my students? How I can go to the restaurant without my friends?
How I can go to my work without my friend, also? How I can be strong when I see my auntie, when she back from Egypt, and she will back to Gaza when the Rafah Crossing open, and she will not find his son because he killed by bombing Israel in the beginning of this war? Maybe the best thing for me, during this war, I’m writing everything. I live in this war, so I like to comment it. Everything, every situations, anything happened with me, I wrote about it in my articles, also in my documentaries. Like what I work them for Real News. So when you lose anyone from your people, you will feel like lose your life. So it’s not easy. So you will not be sad for your friend just, or one of your family, no. For example, I used to go to the restaurant, very, very famous restaurant in Gaza. So I have very beautiful moments and memories there. All the people working in this restaurant, they killed by Israel. Who will open the restaurant again after the war?
Last two days or three days, I saw post in this restaurant page, they posted the memory for the owners of this restaurant, because all of them killed by the Israeli bombing. And all the comments asking who will reopen this restaurant. If we will see this restaurant again after the war. It’s not just people or persons, no, the places, the streets. I live in Khan Younis city. If you will come to this city, you will just see destruction. Everything is destroyed, weed. You will not find any building good. All of them destroyed by the bulldozers of them and the bombing of them. So also we have memories with the places, the streets, the sea. I feel like our sea is very sad because there is, near the sea, tents for the people. All the people put their tents near or on the beach of the sea. They used to just visit the sea to relax, now they are living near the sea. And the water attack them because we are in the winter season. So maybe you see some news about many tent destroyed by the water, sea and the raining.
So it’s so sad. Just the situation in Gaza, it’s hard to express about it in the words or sentences, or paragraphs or articles, or by documentaries. Need a lot of documentaries to show the situation in Gaza. Sorry, I’m not speaking like the answer about the question.
Marc Steiner:
No, that’s fine. It’s fine.
Ruwaida Amer:
About all the question. Sorry about that. Really, the lose is not just a person, the lose also places, also streets, sea, our safe, our peace. We lose everything, by the way.
Marc Steiner:
It’s hard, watching all of your documentaries, reading what you’ve written, following it every day, it’s hard to imagine, for you, to be able to keep up your creative spirit and work in the midst of the madness that surrounds you. Living in that death and destruction, maybe lucky if you have a meal a day, and be able to produce what you produce. I’m sorry.
Ruwaida Amer:
Okay, I will tell you something. Every day I say with myself, I will not work. I will stop my work. Because the war, it’s not just one day or two days, or one month or two month, we are under this war more than one year. So every day I say, “No, I will not work. I will not send ideas. I will not discuss with my friends about the ideas, if I can do that or not.” But in the same time I would say, “No, I will keep my working, continue. I will cover the stories because we need to show for the world, the situation in Gaza.” I want to show for the world, or the people out Gaza, we are human. We deserve to live in good situation. We deserve to find food, water, electricity. Our children deserve to go to their schools. Our children deserve to live with their parents. I work in story about children lose their parents. Maybe you watch this video, and I saw that there is tens of thousand on views on this story.
It was very sad story to hear children talk about their family and their parents, and they will not see their parents again. It’s very sad. Also, if I have patience to work, and complete my work, when I go to film the works or the story, I back to my family, my home, with very bad mood, sad. And I come to sleep, and to think, I said with myself, “When this war will finish?” I ask my friends, “There is any hope to finish this madness or this crazy war?” It’s not easy to go to the people and talk with them about their situation, because you know their situation. You live in this situation. You are not different about them. By the way, I live in the same situation with the people. And many times the people don’t like to talk with me. They say, “Sorry, Ruwaida, because there is no people hear us.” I respect them, by the way. I respect them because they told me there is no people hear us.
If there is people hear us, there is people consider the people in Gaza as human, like them, and deserve to life, like them, the war stop for a long time. But we are more than one year in the same situation with. And I will tell you something, the war, it’s not different in the beginning and the middle. The situation, it’s not different. Because I will be not honest when I say, “No, now the situation better than last two months or three months.” No, no, no, it’s the same thing. Now we don’t have food. I live in very hard hunger. So I don’t know what my family eats every day. There is no food, there is no water, there is no electricity. So the war is, every day worse than before. So there is no change in the situation in Gaza. So when you go to the people to make interviews or to film with them, many people don’t like to do that. I’m one of them. I respect them. A lot of time I leave them and say sorry, and go back again, call them.
I support them. I give them positive energy. I told them this is our right to talk about our situation. We need the world to know what we are living. So some people say, okay, and complete the story with me. Some of people told me no, and I respect them. And I stopped the filming with them, and looking for another family, like this. So the people in Gaza live in very bad psychology feeling. So they are very nervous. They are very sad. They don’t hope for tomorrow. Today the war in Lebanon stop, they have ceasefire. But Gaza, no. All the people in Gaza very sad about it, because why we are allowed? Why the people don’t care? The world don’t care about Gaza, to stop the war in Gaza. Why we will live in Gaza, live in this world, many days or many months? We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. So when you work as a journalist in Gaza, during the war, you will live in very hard challenge to complete your work, to continue your work. And also, as filmmaker or producer, before the war, it’s totally different during the war.
So my work, it was totally different. Because before the war, I filmed very hope and happy stories. And the communities, I was so happy when I would film with a music group. And when I film with the sport, the group or teams. Now I film with the people to talk about hunger, about bombing, about losing, about no schools, about no education, about no health, about no life. So it’s totally different. So it’s not easy for me to work like this, but I did it. And when I finish any work, I feel happy. When I saw a good reaction from the people, out Gaza, about their feeling, their support, I feel like I fresh the letter from Gaza, or the message from Gaza. And I told them what’s happening in Gaza. And because there is big thankful for the journalists in Gaza, photographers in Gaza, because they are working very hard to send the real stories in Gaza, about the real happening in Gaza, during more than one year. And they are under the bombing. The journalists are also targeted by Israel. So we are not in safe, but-
Marc Steiner:
Including you?
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah, but we are working, still working.
Marc Steiner:
And it’s amazing to me that you can continue to produce and write just amazing, creative, brilliant work. You’re telling the story the world has to see. No one else is telling it like you’re telling it, because you’re telling it from the perspective, in the eyes of the people of Gaza, what they’re seeing and feeling. It’s not a detached person. And after watching your films and reading your articles, I just was amazed about how you can continue to do it in the midst of the destruction around you. Almost all the Gazans now are homeless. It’s been destroyed.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah. Yeah. Also, I displaced my home last August.
Marc Steiner:
August?
Ruwaida Amer:
Not August, no, July. And when I displaced my home, I went to my sister home. Also, my sister’s home destroyed. But we live in straight rooms. Just we bought plastic paper to close the walls, because we see the street from the rooms. Her home is not good. You can’t live in it, but we don’t have a place to go there. Also, I have private, my mother, she’s not good. Her health, not good. So we can’t go anywhere with her because she has problem in her walking. So we talked about good place to go there. So it was like just my sister’s home, destroyed. But there’s just one room. It’s good, but we can see the streets, the people on the road, because it was very bombing. And her living room and kitchen don’t have windows and doors. And also the bathroom, like this. And her home, not just destroyed, or so you can see plaque everywhere. That’s affected in my feeling so sad. I couldn’t still there, because I know my my sister home, it was very beautiful. We had very beautiful [inaudible 00:24:18] when visited her.
And she didn’t have also internet. And I wanted to work, I wanted to complete my work. So I were just writing article, and go to hospital to send my work. And under very hard situations, I’m challenged, I work it. I want to work, I want to write because it make me better. When I write what I feel, what I think, it will be good. Also, when I sent in, she left a refuge camp, by the way. And I saw this refuge is totally destroyed. Maybe you can find some articles about this thing. So I want to work and I complete that. I complete my work, and still working until now. Many challenge. If I want to tell you about the challenge I live in, I will not finish, because every second I have a challenge.
Every second living in Gaza, you are challenged. Challenge, the situation, how you want to complete your day, how you want to work, how you want to contact with your friends, or your people, you work with them. It’s not easy to live in this war. I used to live in wars, by the way. I’m not very young. I lived in three wars before, or four wars before. But it’s not like this war. No, this is not war. This is very, very bad thing. It’s not normal war, no, it’s very hard war.
Marc Steiner:
People have called it genocide.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yes, maybe it’s more genocide, by the way. I don’t eat very well for two months. Also, we have people need to take their medicine. To be good, they need to eat very well, because their health is not good. There is no food. I don’t know why there is no food in Gaza. I don’t know, really. I want to tell you something. I told my family, all the time, by the way, I told my family, and give them advice. It’s not advice. It’s crazy advice, by the way. I told them, “Live without think. Stop your mind and live. Just, if you will think about the situation, you will be crazy.” I do that, by the way. I’m trying to be good like this. I don’t like to think about my situation around me. If I will think, I will be crazy, I will not be Ruwaida. No, I’ll be crazy again. So I stop to think.
Marc Steiner:
I was wondering, as you’re speaking, how you have remained so calm, and sound so calm, in the midst of all you have to live in the war, people dying and places have been destroyed. And you tell the story so vividly. The way you tell the story, you almost feel like you’re there, you’re in the middle of it. But somehow you manage to keep yourself calm. I can imagine you as a teacher in school, you were probably a great teacher for the kids. I mean to be able to be this calm.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah, yeah. I’m still teaching them. I stopped to contact with them a long time, but before one month, I restart to contact with them, because a lot of them in Egypt. So I’m teaching them every Saturday. Teaching them science. So I’m clever girl, but in this war, I’m not sure, still clever, by the way. It make me crazy. When I teach them science, I told them, “Oh, I’m very happy because I’m still saved the information of science in my mind.” I thought I lost all the information, all my study, all my culture and science, but Alhamdulillah, I’m still saved a lot of information, and I can think and I can teach them. So really, really, maybe it’s like crazy words, but this is the real life in Gaza. If you think about what you are life, you will be crazy. Because it’s not normal, it’s abnormal.
If you don’t have a problem today… If you don’t have problem with the food, you will have a problem with the water. If you don’t have problem with the water, you have a problem with the food. Maybe one of your family sick, you need medicine, and there there’s no medicine. And the pharmacies are in the hospitals. We was very sick last three weeks and I didn’t find any medicine on how I can be good, because there is not any medicine supplies come to Gaza. So I feel like I will die by flu. But I’m still stronger, Alhamdulillah. And also, every time I told my friends, I’m trying to be strong until the war finish. I am not sure if I will be strong until the… I don’t know if I can keep my energy until the war finish or not, but still trying to be strong. Trying to save my mind at least.
Marc Steiner:
It seems, just seeing you and listening to you, that you’re tapping into some internal strength, that you probably didn’t even know you had. To see what you’ve been able to do, to make the films you’re making. I can say here, that at Real News, we, and I personally, will do everything possible for the world to see your work. Because you tell the story that is real, that nobody else is telling in the way you’re telling it. Especially when you hear the voices of the children in your documentaries.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah, so hard.
Marc Steiner:
It’s hard. It must be hard for you. It’s hard living through what you’re living through, but to have to embrace the pain of the stories of the children and families every day on your work, because you clearly are a person who, you take that in. It’s not like a-
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah-
Marc Steiner:
Go ahead.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah, when I see the children. So if I want to help any family, I help them because they have children. Because the children don’t deserve to live in this world. We lost many thousands of children, babies. Babies, just two days, three days, or month, two months, their age. So when I meet the children… My sister have two children, five years and three years, and they lose their home. Every day they are telling me about their memory in their home. Five years and three years. I think they don’t have big memories in their home because they are very child, but they have. Her son, so Spiderman can come to Gaza and rebuild their home. He wants Spiderman to come to Gaza and rebuild their home. Can you imagine how is the children think in Gaza, because they lose their childhood? There is a lot of children have responsibility, their home, their families. So if you want to go to the market, you will see children sell in the market.
Simple things. They sell simple things just for $1, $2, $3, $5, and they back to their family to buy any food for them. The children live in very hard situation. Our children, their place is in the schools, not in the markets, not in the streets, not in bad tents, not with crying about their parents or their families. So they lose their child heart. So many times when I film it with the children, they are crying. And I hug them and say, “You are heroes. You will be good in the future. And it will end very soon, and you will back to your home in the north. And your mother and father, see you in the paradise. They are in the paradise, and they see us in Gaza and they are very proud of us because we are very strong and still alive in Gaza. And you will complete your family life.” But they are children, and very clever. They know the reality story in Gaza. You can support them, but they know the real story. They know they will not see their parents again. So it’s very hard for them.
So you can’t say anything for child said, “I hope to hug my mother again.” How you can pray her mother to hug her? How you can? So when you work as journalists, or especially filmmakers or produce long video stories, like my works, you will spend more time with the children. Every place or every family in Gaza have children, and you will take your time for them and listen to their words and support them. You don’t know you need to support your family, yourself, your family or the people in your work, or the people you filmed about them. You don’t know. So as I told you, I’m trying to don’t think about my life during the war. Because if I will think, I’ll lose my mind and go to be crazy.
Marc Steiner:
Which is why I am deeply thankful and grateful that you agreed to this today, because I know as calm as your demeanor is, this is very difficult.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah, so hard. It’s not difficult, difficult is symbol. Word to describe the situation here. No, it’s not easy. You feel like you want to cry every step you walk in the street, every second you meet the people outside. Really, many times I don’t like to call and ask about my friends, because I know the situations. My situation, it’s not good. And their situation, it’s not good, but maybe worse than me, because they are in tent, and they are out their cities. We are living Gaza Strip, there is Gaza City. So they are out of their cities, Gaza, and the cities in the north, in more than one year, it’s a long time. So no one can appear to be away from their place long time, like one year. And we live in the situation our grandfather, grandmother live in ’48.
Marc Steiner:
’48, yeah.
Ruwaida Amer:
1948. Okay? We live in this situation. I remembered when I wrote article about Nakba, I asked my grandmother about how the experience was, that he died for the last two years. It’s good thing to die last two years, because he didn’t like the wars. And I will tell you, they destroyed his grave, by the way, also earlier.
Marc Steiner:
Really?
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah. They destroyed his grave. And if we want to visit his grave, we will not find it, because they destroyed it as well.
Marc Steiner:
I don’t think, in many ways, that the world, this country especially, really understands the devastation that’s taking place in Gaza. That’s part of the reason that your documentaries and your writing are so, so important. And I would encourage the world to watch everything you do, if you want to feel and understand what is going on. Because you do it from the heart and you do it from the head, and you bring that story to all of us. I think it’s unfathomable. Most people can’t even begin to understand what it’s like to have to live in this dystopian hell that you have to survive in.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah. Many times I feel like we live… The people out Gaza, or anyone support the war in Gaza to be continued, they consider the people in Gaza, not to human. But we are human. We are doctors, teachers, journalists, and very important people. We are people, have dreams, we have plans for our future. We deserve to life, and we deserve to stop this war very soon, like Lebanon. So I hope to wake up on good news like this, stop this war in Gaza. I will be so happy, so very happy. Because we don’t have energy to complete or to live in more days in this war. Not just the young people or the men or the woman, no, the children. Also, always I said, “Please, stop the war, not just for the people in Gaza, just for the children, because they need to sleep. They need to be in their homes. They deserve to back to their schools. This is the second year without schools, it’s too much. They will lose their education. So the schools is their place, is not the road or the markets or the tents.
So I hope the people out Gaza can know more about the situation in Gaza, and support ceasefire in Gaza. Stop the war. And anyone can work to stop this war. Don’t be slow. Just work very hard to stop this war, because the situation is very hard. And day by day, and second by second, we lose a lot of people, a lot of places, a lot of safe, a lot of peace. So peace is the best solution for everything. The war’s not good thing, by the way, because we lost everything. So I hope my documentaries, my articles, my works, can wish for a lot of people, and very important people in the governments, countries, and they can to work hard to stop the war in Gaza. I hope that. Because the war is not good solution, just the peace.
And all the people deserve to live in peace, especially the Gazan people. Because they live in siege more than to 20 years maybe, and they didn’t find any good day. So solution for the life in Gaza. The people in Gaza want to complete their life without wars, so enough. I posted story on Instagram. I said, “Gaza want to stop the war. Ceasefire now.” And enough. Really, enough.
Marc Steiner:
Enough.
Ruwaida Amer:
It’s too much.
Marc Steiner:
Enough. I know. And you’re doing it now, in terms of talking to our audience. And we can just maybe close with this, to continue what you’re saying about this and why it’s so important to watch your work, for people to understand what is going on, to see and feel what Palestinians are going through, and what we can do to stop it, that’s why your work is so critical.
Ruwaida Amer:
I show the humanity sides of the people in Gaza because all the stories in Gaza now about the human people, they lose their life, their safe, their very important things, like food and water. Imagine you live without food for just one day. How will you feel? Okay, imagine to try all your day to looking for water. Measure your life, your children life without schools. Measure your life without home. Measure your life to live and sleep in the roads, in the streets, without blanket, without good clothes, without good water. Imagine your life without medicine, without good health or good hospitals. Imagine to spend just one day, anyone, feel sick and go to hospital, and sleep in the hospital just one night. He will be very nervous, and, “I want to back to my home.” But the people in Gaza live more than one year in the hospitals, and they made tent in the hospitals, and see the suffering of people in the hospitals.
And it’s very important to look to Gaza, because when you see or watch the stories from Gaza, you will see there is no humanity in the world, because they accepted to be the war more than one year. And the people live in that situation more than one year. By the way, I was very positive in the beginning of the war, and make support for my families. And for my family, I told them, “No, no, no, this war will be just one week, two weeks, three weeks.” But it’s more than one year. I’m very surprised, because we are in this war more than one year. It’s too much, too much. So it’s very important to follow the situation in Gaza, and Gaza need the world. Don’t leave us alone, because we need the people support, out Gaza. Maybe their support will stop this war. Maybe. I hope that.
And if I receive any support message from my friends out Gaza, I feel like I am not alone. There is people feel about my situation, and don’t leave me alone. Also, I’m teaching Arabic language for non-speakers. I have students from America, Australia, Holland, and French, and many Europe countries. And they supported me, and still support me, so I feel I’m good. There is people think about Gaza. There is people support me. Sometimes they send me photos, “We are with Gaza. We are in the roads and street, we call it to stop the war in Gaza.” So it’s good. So I’m working to show for the people what’s happening in Gaza. So I hope they are supporting us and working to stop the war in Gaza. I hope that maybe one day we will be in freedom. I hope that.
Marc Steiner:
Ruwaida Amer, we, here at Real News, will be standing by you and with you as much as we can, and help bring your voice and your work out to the world. You need to be heard. And I want to thank you for everything you’ve done, the work you’ve done as a filmmaker, as a teacher, as a human being.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yes. Also, I want to say I’m not working for me. I’m working for the world to see Gaza, to watch what’s happening in Gaza.
Marc Steiner:
Yes.
Ruwaida Amer:
I’m working every day to be the people following what’s happening in Gaza. If you want to come for me, many times in depression, many times in bad moods, times very bad psychology, my feelings’ very bad, but I’m working hard to show the situation in Gaza, to be the people know what’s happening in Gaza. My work’s not for me, it’s for the world. See Gaza, to watch what’s happening in Gaza, to know what the people, how they live in Gaza during the wars. What is the situation in Gaza? How they get the water, the food. How is the life for the children in Gaza also? So I hope my work reach the people, and they see that, and they watch that, and they work hard to believe the people in Gaza have right to still alive, and have right to be free, and live in freedom and live in safe and peace, and move in their countries and around the world, as any person in the world.
Because we don’t have right as normal people. No, the Palestinians living under bad situation in the world. So maybe the Palestinians come to live, and safe, come to take their rights because we are under occupation. So I know many people no more about the Palestinian case during this war. So that mean our work reached the world. So maybe it’s good point for the journalists in Gaza, they show the real case of Palestine for the world. Maybe the people now they have more information about the situation in Palestine, in general, especially in Gaza. So I hope that if you like my work, I think the people also like my work.
Marc Steiner:
People love your work.
Ruwaida Amer:
Yeah, thank you so much.
Marc Steiner:
You’re telling the story that has to be told, and we are here for you as much as we can be. And you, Ruwaida Amer, I want to thank you for telling the story of the Gazans, of the Palestinians, that needs to be told, and working with us here at Real News. And we’ll be linking to all of your work. And I promise you that I will do everything I can to spread that work so people see the real story through your eyes, through the eyes of the Palestinian people in Gaza. And-
Ruwaida Amer:
Thanks.
Marc Steiner:
Please stay safe. And we’ll stay in touch.
Ruwaida Amer:
I will try, I hope to succeed to be safe. Inshallah.
Marc Steiner:
Inshallah. Once again, let me thank Ruwaida Amer for joining us today. She joins us in the midst of a war that has taken the lives of people she loves, of her students and her friends. Through it all, she keeps writing and making her documentaries that bring into stark reality what Palestinians face every day in Gaza. I have seen few do it as well. I encourage all of you listening to go to our website, type in her name, Ruwaida Amer, R-U-W-A-I-D-A-M-E-R, and experience the reality of what Gazans face every day. We must do what we can to end the carnage in Gaza. And thanks to David Hebden and Cameron Grandino for running the program today, and audio editor Alina Nehlich for working her magic. Rosette Sewali for producing the Mark Steiner Show and the tireless Kayla Rivara for making it all work behind the scenes. And everyone here at Real News, for making this show possible.
Please, let me know what you thought about what you heard today, what you’d like us to cover. Just write to be at MSS at therealnews.com and I’ll get right back to you. And once again, thank you to Ruwaida Amer for your work, for your bravery, for telling the story of the Palestinians in Gaza. And for joining us today in the midst of all of it.
Gaza now has the largest population of child amputees per capita in the world, the UN has reported, as a result of 14 months of Israel’s genocide, which has especially targeted children in relentless bombings and attacks. Israel’s genocide in Gaza has “caused an epidemic of traumatic injuries with no rehabilitation services available,” the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine…
“Canada needs to stop arming Israel and implement an immediate arms embargo.” In Ottawa, over 100 Jewish activists began a sit-in inside a Canadian parliamentary building Tuesday to demand Canada stop arming Israel. Rachel Small, a member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition and a member of the sit-in, says that the Canadian government’s claims that it is halting arms shipments to Israel are…
It’s emerged that the UN is investigating how private sector companies and institutions have been complicit in Israel’s apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and Gaza.
So, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has answered a call for evidence from the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, ahead of a report to the UN Human Rights Council on how the private sector has contributed to establishing and maintain Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The UN: investigating the private sector’s role in Israel’s apartheid
be part of a broader investigation into the involvement of business enterprises, including financial institutions such as banks, pension funds, insurance companies, universites, as well as private military and security companies (PMSC) and weapons manufacturers (WM) (hereinafter all together referred to as “private sector”), in the commission of international crimes connected to Israel’s unlawful occupation, racial segregation and apartheid regime
The deadline for the call for submissions was 30 November 2024, ahead of a report by the Special Rapporteur that will be sent to the 58th Session of the Human Rights Council in March 2025. The thematic report will form part of a broader investigation into the involvement of business enterprises in the commission of international crimes related to Israel’s unlawful occupation, racial segregation and apartheid regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The report will focus on business enterprises including financial institutions such as banks, pension funds, insurance companies, universities, as well as private military and security companies and weapon manufacturers.
In particular, the submission explains the case studies of Trinity College Cambridge and three other UK based charities: UK Toremet, JNF UK, and Achisomoch Aid Company. The submission details how these groups may be aiding and abetting international crimes against Palestinians, violating Palestinians’ fundamental human rights and disregarding human rights due diligence requirements.
The submission also details the obligations of Member States, following the landmark Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice in July 2024, and makes recommendations on opportunities for international mechanisms to fill the accountability gap that exists in this space.
It’s emerged that the UN is investigating how private sector companies and institutions have been complicit in Israel’s apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and Gaza.
So, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has answered a call for evidence from the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, ahead of a report to the UN Human Rights Council on how the private sector has contributed to establishing and maintain Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The UN: investigating the private sector’s role in Israel’s apartheid
be part of a broader investigation into the involvement of business enterprises, including financial institutions such as banks, pension funds, insurance companies, universites, as well as private military and security companies (PMSC) and weapons manufacturers (WM) (hereinafter all together referred to as “private sector”), in the commission of international crimes connected to Israel’s unlawful occupation, racial segregation and apartheid regime
The deadline for the call for submissions was 30 November 2024, ahead of a report by the Special Rapporteur that will be sent to the 58th Session of the Human Rights Council in March 2025. The thematic report will form part of a broader investigation into the involvement of business enterprises in the commission of international crimes related to Israel’s unlawful occupation, racial segregation and apartheid regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The report will focus on business enterprises including financial institutions such as banks, pension funds, insurance companies, universities, as well as private military and security companies and weapon manufacturers.
In particular, the submission explains the case studies of Trinity College Cambridge and three other UK based charities: UK Toremet, JNF UK, and Achisomoch Aid Company. The submission details how these groups may be aiding and abetting international crimes against Palestinians, violating Palestinians’ fundamental human rights and disregarding human rights due diligence requirements.
The submission also details the obligations of Member States, following the landmark Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice in July 2024, and makes recommendations on opportunities for international mechanisms to fill the accountability gap that exists in this space.
Israel killed more than 200 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including 40 members of a single family. The official death toll in Gaza is now over 44,000, although experts believe that is a vast undercount of the true figure. Israel’s onslaught has continued to kill medical and aid workers in recent days, including three people with World Central Kitchen, the head of the intensive care unit at…
Ambassador, at Labour Friends of Israel annual gathering
