Atrocities— The Palestinian People/The Planet... Guest Post By Dr. Stephen Frantz

Trying To Connect The Dots

"Maybe We Could Talk" by Nancy Ohanian

The single most important thing that the US can do in the Israel-Hamas war is to demand and enforce an immediate permanent ceasefire that would save lives on both sides and would be good for the planet (Jones & Stein, 2024). To that point, on Oct. 27, 2023 in New York City, the image below shows thousands of Jewish, Palestinian and other protesters taking over Grand Central Station’s lobby demanding a ceasefire of attacks on Gaza by Israeli forces (Photo by: Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/ Tribune News Service via Getty Images). Clearly, US support for Israel’s war in Gaza is deepening the climate crisis per se day-by-day, and making equitable solutions unattainable. 

Historical Review

Beginning in the early 1880s, Jews began arriving in Palestine, ostensibly for a noble purpose offering persecuted Russian and European Jews safe haven; the problem was that land acquisition was exclusionary, excising it from those who had held such land for millennia (Khalidi, 2020; Suarez, 2023). In 1895, Theodore Herzl, the early promoter of Jewish immigration to Palestine, wrote in his diary, “We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us.” … “Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly.” Aware of Herzl’s long-term ambitions, the mayor of Jerusalem Yusuf Diya’ al-Khalidi, wrote in a 1899 letter aimed at Herzl— warning of the dangers he foresaw as a consequence of implementation of creating a Jewish state in Palestine (then part of the Ottoman Empire). Diya said such a move would sow dissension among the indigenous population (the Christians, Muslims and Jews already living there) and they would resist displacement. Herzl’s arrogance basically ignored Diya’s letter and dismissed his concerns as insignificant as well as the very existence of the indigenous population. In essence (with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and British maneuvering), that wholesale racist dismissal of native inhabitant’s rights and ambitions (Weizman, 2023) initiated Palestinian/Israeli difficulties a hundred years ago).

Recall that in 1917 when Lord Balfour penned his sixty-seven word Declaration, it had two basic parts (Gould, 2023). First, it favored the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Second, it stated that ‘nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.’ Whatever happened to that consequential second clause that has been long forgotten, neglected and distorted by the US, by Israel and much of the world (Chomsky & Pappe, 2015)? How does one easily resolve seventy-five years of apartheid rule on an occupied population that began in earnest in 1937-1949 with the partitioning of Palestine (Chomsky & Pappe, 2015; Gould, 2023; Khalidi, 2020; Suarez, 2023)? While the atrocities of October 7, 2024 are chilling and well-recognized, it was another nearly predictable event for rebellion against a hundred years of oppression, living as third class citizens, endless check-points, dispossession, massive land confiscations, demolitions, surveillance & armed drones, assassinations, executions, sniper attacks, helicopter surveillance & bombings, warplanes, etc. (Albanese, 2024; Gould, 2023; HRW, 2021; Shatz, 2023; Weizman, 2023). And it must be recognized that much of the materials of war have been and continued to be supplied by the United States. And as a warning to Hamas’ regional allies, Iran and Hizbullah, the US has also dispatched two aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean (Shatz, 2024)— basically, further ‘defining’ its disingenuous, stance. No consideration has been given to the safety and security— or of the continuing statelessness— of the Palestinian people (Achcar, 2024; Shatz, 2023). 

Permanent Ceasefire Logic

A permanent ceasefire is the most logical route to take if the US is actually serious about the climate crisis and if it cares about the killing of Palestinians and Israelis. Addressing the climate crisis should be a priority that can help to unify people. Instead, infrastructure destruction, sporadic violence, assassinations, genocide, land grabs, and settler-colonial occupation have intervened and are pushing participant belligerents further apart, with the present specter of a widening Mideast war (Hearst, 2024; Jones & Stein, 2024). The US has unparalleled leverage to end the killing and help the planet simultaneously, the war could be stopped within 24 hours with so much aid currently waiting in trucks at Gaza’s borders; but the US administration has not been moved to increase open border-crossings, increase the number of trucks allowed to enter nor to keep border crossings open as long as necessary. Meanwhile, while the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, says that Israel respects international law and the laws of war, Israel is: leveling neighborhoods; killing families (Shatz, 2023); stopping humanitarian aid trucks from entering Gaza; and holding siege to Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, that has left buildings largely destroyed and bodies strewn across the complex (Salman, et al., 2024). International organizations have condemned the siege, with World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warning that “hospitals should never be battlegrounds.’ 

Furthermore, is Israel serious about having all hostages returned since the IDF has allegedly been instructed to extend the Hannibal Directive to all hostages? Hannibal is a controversial ‘secret’ standing order that allows IDF soldiers to kill Palestinian civilians to stop the capture of a soldier, even when that soldier’s life and civilian lives are endangered (Anon., 2024; Ofir, 2024; Weizman, 2023). In fact, hostages have already died from IDF’s bombardment of Palestinian infrastructure in which some hostages were held. While the UN Protection of Civilians Mandate (International Law) forbids the killing of non-combatants, IDF soldiers have explained that their common understanding of Hannibal is, ‘Better a dead soldier than a captured one’; that is, abductions are to be stopped by all means possible (Jamal. 2023; Fetouri, 2024; Ofir, 2024). 

Lastly, what is the true intent of Israel regarding the land of the Palestinians? The undeclared goal is to make Gaza uninhabitable, destroy as much evidence of Palestinian life as possible (both present and past), take the mineral reserves, and open the land to Israeli settlers (Alcalay, 2024; Gould, 2023). Senior military and government officials have stated that ‘the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy (Gearty, 2023). ’The plan is to ‘eliminate everything’. “Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life has never been more callous or flagrant…”(Shatz, 2023). 

Hence, at the moment, there is no possibility of intergovernmental cooperation to address this particular crisis (along with other crises in the world: Ukraine, Syria, Haiti, Africa, etc.). However, the United State’s active complicity with Israel’s war in Gaza, in violation of an International Court of Justice order that Israel is plausibly committing genocide (Wilkins, 2024), has placed it among a diminishing number of nations and in opposition to the sentiment of millions of its own citizens (e.g., below image) as well as countless more internationally. A significant protest by Holocaust survivors, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestinian youth, and others against US support for genocide recently occurred at a major fundraising event at Madison Square Garden (Johnson, 2024*; Lindsay, 2024). Muslims, and congregations of all faiths have stood in solidarity with Palestine (especially during the month of Ramadan) in the streets across America “to ensure that no one in our ruling class knows peace until the genocide has ceased” (Sabir, 2024). At a recent White House policy meeting with the president, vice president, senior White House aides and a group of Muslim leaders, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American emergency physician, walked out of the meeting to protest the Biden administration’s policy on the war in Gaza (Abutaleb and Viser, 2024). She did return to express her concerns over Israeli military violations of international humanitarian law, and to raise concerns about the IDF drone attacks that killed the World Central Kitchen workers (see below). 

Genocide, Famine And Death

Francesca Albanese (the Special Rapporteur on the of human rights for Palestinian territories, UN Human Rights Council) issued a report on 03/25/2024 entitled “Anatomy of a Genocide” concluding that Israel’s policies in Gaza give “reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met” (Cole, 2024). The report further states that in the first few months of the current Israeli campaign against Gaza, Israelis have killed an average of 250 people a day, including 100 children a day, destroying entire neighborhoods and necessary infrastructure - notably crimes against humanity. Finally, the report indicates that Israel has violated several acts described in the Genocide Convention (Muaddi, 2024). A recent estimated death toll is 32,916 people with an additional 75,494 people injured by the IDF since the Oct. 7th attack (MEE, 2024). Further, UN and World Bank records note that Gaza has suffered approximately $18.5 billion in damages to essential infrastructure due to the ongoing Israeli offensive. 

Famine is no longer a risk in Gaza, but a reality. It is estimated that 10 children per day are dying of acute malnutrition and that that over 500,000 Palestinians could die from malnutrition and poor health conditions (Cole, 2024). The fact that the IDF is apparently targeting children is of egregious concern (McGreal, 2024). Gaza hospital doctors have reported a steady stream of children, elderly and others who are clearly civilians with single (sniper) bullet wounds to the head or chest. Below: A child hospitalized with a gunshot wound at the European public hospital near Rafah, Gaza, in February 2024. Photograph: Courtesy of Dr Fozia Alvi. 

On 03/28/2024, judges at the International Court of Justice (IJC) unanimously ordered Israel to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinian population in Gaza (van den Berg, 2024). The IJC reaffirmed that Israel refrain from acts of genocide against Palestinians throughout Gaza and must take actions to ensure unhindered provision of basic services and humanitarian aid (including: food, water, heating fuel, electricity, medical supplies & care, clothing, bedding and shelter). The judges added that this could be accomplished by increasing the number of land crossing points and keeping them open as long as necessary. Israel is to submit a detailed status report in one month to the IJC on how these demands have been met. And Israel has already violated this order by denying UNRAW trucks from entering Gaza, particularly northern Gaza (DN, 03/28/2024). The UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine has stated that Israeli officials are disregarding their function in protecting innocent civilian noncombatants, “in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people” (Cole, 2024). Israel’s recent killing of seven World Central Kitchen international staff/volunteers as they attempted to deliver food to starving civilians [Haaretz reported the IDF knowingly targeted the lethal attacks] (Abutaleb and Viser, 2024; Johnson**, 2024) which calls into question Israel’s true motives. UN spokesperson Stephanie Dujarric said more than 180 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began. Francesca Albanese (UN expert and author of ‘Anatomy of a Genocide”) wrote in a social media post,"Israel is crossing every possible red line, still with full impunity,” "Sanctions now, Indictments now.” 

Temporary Ceasefire Resolution

The UN Security Council’s ceasefire resolution of 03/26/2024 demands an immediate ceasefire leading to a “lasting” and “sustainable” ceasefire; demands the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”; and emphasizes “expand[ing] the flow of humanitarian assistance” (Chavez, 2024). Though it is at times vague and ambiguous, the resolution does demand the release of all hostages, but fails to explicitly mention the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli detention. “Currently, at least 9,100 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, including 50 women, 200 children, and more than 3500 detainees without charges” (Muaddi, 2024). Such an exchange has been a regular requirement of negotiations with Hamas (Weizman, 2023). The resolution does emphasize, but fails to demand, the need to expand the flow of humanitarian aid (Achcar, 2024). The ceasefire is tied to Ramadan, so it is/was very brief because the US insisted on changing the word “permanent” to the more ambiguous “lasting”. National Security spokesperson John Kirby clearly stated that ”Nothing, nothing has changed about our policy. Nothing” (Chavez, 2024; Muaddi, 2024*). Further, on the same day the UNSC resolution was passed, the U.S. State Department shockingly revealed that they found the Israeli government in compliance with international and US law regarding both its conduct in Gaza, as well as the provision of humanitarian assistance. That is, all recipients of US weapons must comply with international law, including not blocking humanitarian aid (Abutaleb and Viser, 2024; Chavez, 2024). Clearly, the State Department is not on the same page with the IJC, the ICC or the UNSC. The cognitive dissonance of the Biden administration is incomprehensible. Nine UN special rapporteurs have warned Israel that the ‘complete siege of Gaza coupled with unfeasible evacuation orders and forcible population transfers’ constitute a violation of international criminal law (Gearty, 2023). And while the IJC order is legally binding, like the initial provisional measures granted by the court back in January, and since ignored by Israel, the court does not have an enforcement mechanism (Muaddi, 2024). In the eyes of the IJC, where does this scenario place the complicit U.S. government? 

The UNSC ceasefire resolution that was allowed to pass because the US abstained (it had vetoed four previous resolutions), will not allow the U.S. relief from international censure. The U.N. notes that states that have been complicit in the Gaza genocide must acknowledge the colossal harm done and, among other requirements, commit to full reparations (UN, 2023). The US is still contending that the ceasefire resolution is “non-binding”; however, this is patently false because a UNSC resolution is legally binding for its 15 member states of which the US is one. The language of the resolution unfortunately does obscure member states’ responsibilities to enforce the ceasefire. 

More Military Aid

Israel rejects the ceasefire resolution and has already violated it (Muaddi, 2024 & 2024*); for example, airstrikes have continued in Rafah, and the assault on al-Shifa hospital continued until very recently. The US is still diplomatically protecting Israel in that no sanctions have been announced against Israel; the US Congress voted on 03/22/2024 to withhold a year of funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) - an unthinkable act since it is the primary relief group supplying much needed food and medical aid to Palestinians. That same day, the Congress voted to provide $3.8 billion in funding to the Israeli military. The US continues to supply Israel with unquestioned armaments and intelligence; it ”quietly" authorized arms shipments including more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, as well as 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines (Wilkins, 2024). This is obscene since, for example, the administration is aware that Israel has used 2000-pound bombs extensively in densely populated areas of Gaza. US Sen. Sanders has stated, ”The US cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000 lb. bombs that can level entire city blocks” (JPS, 2024). The refusal of the New York Times to cover this story of major arms transfer, after it broke in the Washington Post, was ‘journalistic malpractice’ (Solomon, 2024). Rather than amplify the crucial story into ‘the nation’s media echo chamber, the Times opted to quash it.” More than 100 separate weapons shipments have been authorized by the Biden administration since the October 7 attacks (Johnson, 2024; Wilkins, 2024). While the US aims to construct a harbor for delivering much needed aid to support starving men, women and children in Gaza, the airdrops have been insufficient, inefficient, and have been lethal both on land and sea for hungry Palestinians (Mhawish, 2024); sometimes with the ‘lethal assistance’ of the IDF snipers. A typical ship can bring the equivalent of twelve truckloads, whereas there are hundreds of trucks waiting to cross into Gaza. Incidentally, if food and medical supplies would magically arrive in Gaza now, a few thousand Palestinian children would still perish because it would be medically too little too late to cure this man-made horror. 

Remembering The Climate Crisis

And by the way, remember the climate crisis? According to UK and US researchers, 99 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted in the first 60 days after the October 7 Hamas attack can be “attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, while almost half the war’s total CO2 footprint is from US cargo planes flying seemingly endless military supplies to Israel” (Jones & Stein, 2024). This war is not just genocide, but an ecological disaster (Bulos, 2024; Muammar, 2024). Farm homes and olive groves have been flattened, tree cover and farmland greatly diminished, spring water access blocked, equipment theft, water polluted and poisoned from exploded munitions, settler attacks, etc.. The linkages are clear, the war is increasing the severity of the climate crisis, eliminating the probability for Palestinian recovery of resources and intensifying chances for a much wider conflict that will impose an even greater impact on the climate. Adding complexity is Israel’s latest assassinations of Iranian Brig. General Mohammad Reza Zahedi plus another commander and five military advisers in Damascus, Syria. All were members of the Revolutionary Guards; their assassinations represents a major step backwards and further increases the risks of direct confrontation and escalation of regional conflict with concomitant climate crisis issues (NBC, 2024). 

What To Do Next

Tahseen Alian, an international law expert has explained - “The logic of a Security Council resolution is that there is a necessity for intervention because the rules of conflict are being broken” (Muaddi, 2024*). The fourth Geneva Convention, regarding occupation, states explicitly that all contracting parties commit to enforcing the implementations of its rules, and that is done through the UN Security Council. The implementation and its mechanisms are subject to political will, and thus to political interests; hence, the UN resolution is what we do with it. 

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has the power to pursue those who are plausibly committing genocide, crimes against humanity, various war crimes and crimes of aggression against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another state (Gearty, 2023). Thus, Hamas and Israel are both guilty of belligerence and war crimes, though the latter has methodically engaged in military actions that breach provisions of the ICC and international humanitarian law (Albanese, 2024). While all agree that Israel has a right to defend itself, what no one contests is that serious violations of humanitarian law by your opponent do not give you license to do the same to them. In international law, there is no “eye for an eye…” clause. While Israel is not a signatory to the ICC, the prosecutor (Karim A. A. Khan) can still investigate its actions, as long as the crimes happened in Occupied Palestine (which acceded to the ICC in 2015). This means that Khan and his team can investigate and issue warrants for the arrest and trial of senior Israeli personnel (and complicit US senior personnel too). Whomever is indicted could result at least to travel restrictions on those individuals, and could well lead to their imprisonment. 

Ending The War

Any ceasefire would obviously save lives and resources on both sides, but the current UNSC ceasefire resolution is weak, of very limited duration and the US is not likely to censure or otherwise hold Israel accountable with any meaningful enforcement. This is a sad commentary on the suggestion proposed by Jones & Stein (2024) that as we near Earth Day 2024, would it not be logical to make an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza a point of global unity? As the US government becomes more deeply complicit in murderous genocide, it risks not only failing its responsibilities at home, but its basic sense of justice and humanitarian responsibilities to the rest of the world. 

Closure

On February 26, 2024, in protest over US policy and Israel’s genocide on Palestine, US Air Force 25-year old Aaron Bushnell immolated himself outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, shouting his last words “Free Palestine” (Alcalay, 2024). Earlier in the day he had posted on Facebook, "Many of us like to ask ourselves, 'What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?' "The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.” He died later that evening. 

Literature Cited

Abutaleb, Y. and M. Viser. 2024. Biden rebukes Israel over aid workers, but his Gaza policy is unchanged. Washington Post: 04/03/2024.

Achcar, G. 2024. The US administration’s hypocrisy and Israel’s cockiness. Informed Consent: 03/20/2024.

Albanese, F. 2024. Anatomy of a Genocide – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 to Human Rights Council – Advance unedited version: 25pp. (A/HRC/55/73): 03/24/2024.

Alcalay, A. 2024. War on Gaza: Israel’s lethal charade hides its real goals in plain sight. Middle East Eye: 03/26/2024.

Anonymous (out of fear). 2024. A growing number of reports indicate Israeli forces responsible for Israeli civilian and military deaths following October 7 attack. Mondoweiss: 10/27/2023.

van den Berg, S. 2024. World Court orders Israel to take action to address Gaza Famine. Reuters/Middle East: 03/28/2024.

Democracy Now: 03/28/2024.

Bulos, N. 2024. Another casualty of escalating clashes in the West Bank: Palestinian olive harvest. Los Angeles Times (online): 03/28/2024. 

Chavez, A. 2024. Don’t believe the hype –– Biden’s Israel policy hasn’t changed. The Nation: 03/27/2024.

Chomsky, N. and I. Pappe. 2015. On Palestine. Haymarket Books, Chicago. 215pp.

Cole, J. 2024. As Israel defies UNSC demand for Gaza Ceasefire, UN Human Rights Body slams ongoing “Genocide”. Informed Consent: 03/26/2024.

Fetouri, M. 2024. What is the ‘Hannibal Directive’ and how Israel uses it. Middle East Monitor: 01/04/2024.

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Gould, R. 2023. Erasing Palestine: free speech and Palestinian freedom. Verso, New York. 170pp.

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HRW, 2021. A threshold crossed: Israeli authorities and the crimes of apartheid and persecution. Human Rights Watch Report, 218pp.

Jamal, U. 2023. What’s Israel’s Hannibal Directive? A Former Israeli Soldier Tells All. AlJazeera News: 11/03/2023.

Jerusalem Post Staff (JPS). 2024. Bernie Sanders: US weapons deal with Israel is ‘obscene’. The Jerusalem Post: 03/31/2024.

Johnson, J. 2024. 'Unconscionable': Biden Has Approved 100+ Arms Sales to Israel in Just Five Months. Common Dreams: 03/06/2024.

Johnson, J. 2024*. ‘Blood is on your hands!’ Activists disrupt $26 million Biden fundraiser. Common Dreams: 03/29/2024.

Johnson, J. 2024**.'Indictments Now,' says UN expert after Israel massacres World Central Kitchen workers. Common Dreams: 04/02/2024

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Khalidi, R. The hundred years’ war on Palestine: a history of settler colonialism and resistance, 1917—2017. Macmillan Publishers, New York. 336pp.

Lindsay, B. 2024. Biden’s $25 Million NYC Fundraiser Disrupted by Pro-Palestine Protestors: ‘You Are Funding Genocide’. The Wrap: 03/28/2024.

Mahawish, M.R. 2024. AIPAC says we’re not starving in Gaza. How dare they? The Nation: 04/01/2024.

McGreal, C. 2024. ‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza. The Guardian; 04/02/2024.

MEE. 2024. Israel-Palestine live: Global condemnation and calls for investigation after Israel kills seven aid workers. Middle East Eye: 04/02/2024. Muaddi, G. 2024. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 175: ICJ orders Israel to stop famine in Gaza as Israel continues to raid hospitals. Mondoweiss: 03/29/2024. Muaddi, G. 2024*. Security Council ceasefire resolution brings ‘little hope’ to Gaza as Israeli genocide rages on. Mondoweiss: 03/29/2024.

Muammar, B. 2024. Not just genocide but deliberate ecological disaster. The Electric Intifada. 03/30/2024.

Ofir, J. 2024. Another Israeli soldier admits to implementing the ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7. Mondoweiss: 03/26/2024.

Sabir, A. 2024. Observing Ramadan during the Gaza massacre. Jacobin 03/29/2024.

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Smith, A. 2024. Iran vows retaliation on Israel after commanders’ deaths, growing fears of war spiraling. NBC News: 04/02/2024.

Solomon, N. 2024. The NYT finds US complicity in genocide unremarkable. Common Dreams: 04/02/2024.

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Wilkins, B. 2024. Draft UN report finds Israel has met the threshold for genocide. Common Dreams: 03/25/2024.

Wilkins, B. 2024. 'Obscene': Biden Quietly OKs More 2,000-Pound Bombs, Warplanes for Israel. Common Dreams: 03/29/2024.