This time, it's unanimous
ICJ orders Israel to stop starving Palestinians
Published in The National, April 1, 2024.
This time it’s unanimous. Yesterday, the world’s highest court, the ICJ, unanimously ordered Israel to allow unimpeded access of food aid into Gaza, where two million people are starving. Not even the judges from Israel and Uganda dissented on this one. The whole world can see that after slaughtering 33,000 Palestinians, Israel is now deploying starvation as its chief tool of genocide against defenceless men, women and children. And they can only get away with it with the blessing - financial and political - of the world’s hegemon, the United States of America.
It’s expected Israel will thumb its nose at this latest order just as it did with the ICJ’s order in January demanding it take all steps necessary to prevent genocide.
Yesterday afternoon in New York City, my daughter took part in a large protest against the genocide. The protestors gathered outside the New York City Public Library on 5th Avenue and walked to Radio City Music Hall on 6th Avenue where later that evening President Joe Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were due to appear for a ‘discussion’ on the White House’s handling of the Gaza crisis. It was moderated by late night talk show host Stephen Colbert in front of a live audience. Each member shelled out between $250 and $500,000 to attend. The event raised more than $25 million for Biden’s re-election campaign.
On the march to the 6th Avenue venue, my daughter told me the crowd was shouting, “While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping,” “Remember Hiroshima, remember Vietnam, Democratic Party, we know which side you’re on,” and “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide - we charge you with genocide.” A group of Zionists of various ages continually heckled the peaceful demonstrators and some tried to start fist fights, but my daughter said they were careful not to engage with them. At sunset, the Muslims amongst them spread plastic sheets on the ground and prayed.
Inside the auditorium, protestors interrupted the proceedings several times. One person yelled, “Shame on you, Joe Biden.” Biden’s more compos mentis and articulate predecessors, both of whom are responsible for millions of deaths during their presidencies, tried to defend him.[1] Obama chimed in that “one of the realities of the presidency is that the world has a lot of joy and beauty, but it also has a lot of tragedy and cruelty.” He went on, “People understandably, oftentimes, want to feel a certain purity in terms of how those decisions are made, but a president doesn’t have that luxury.”
That’s reprehensible. Neither Clinton, Obama nor Biden have the courage to publicly acknowledge that the US is sponsoring a genocide. This has nothing to do with purity, but with valuing human life. It’s clear what these men value more - the money from the billionaire Zionists that funds America’s main political parties and helped to propel each of these men to the presidency.
Once this genocide ends, Israel and the US will have permanent black stains on their already soiled international reputations. If there is any silver lining to this unspeakable horror, it is that it will hasten the end of American hegemony, something the whole world should welcome.
[1] https://www.gicj.org/positions-opinons/gicj-positions-and-opinions/1188-razing-the-truth-about-sanctions-against-iraq; https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2021/Costs%20of%20War_Direct%20War%20Deaths_9.1.21.pdf
Right on Leah - well said !