ANNELIESE DODDS MP: STAND UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW IN GAZA

The position of Anneliese Dodds MP (Labour - Oxford East) on the situation in Gaza is wholly inadequate. OXFORD CONSTITUENTS: Please email Anneliese to ask her to sign the Early Day Motion on Gaza: <anneliesedoddsmp@gmail.com> Dodds's statement appears followed by my response below. * Dear Jamie, Thank you for contacting me about the situation in…

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: IMPOSE ARMS EMBARGO ON ISRAEL

Amnesty International (27 April 2018): "The time for symbolic statements of condemnation is now over. The international community must act concretely and stop the delivery of arms and military equipment to Israel." "[M]any" Palestinian fatalities "were deliberately killed or injured while posing no immediate threat" "Israeli soldiers are using high-velocity military weapons designed to cause…

‘THE GREAT SERIOUSNESS IT DESERVES’

It is important that the Saudi Arabian-led Coalition in the first instance conducts thorough and conclusive investigations into incidents where it is alleged that IHL has been violated. They have the best insight into their own military procedures and will be able to conduct the most thorough and conclusive investigations. - UK Foreign Secretary Boris…

LABOUR MPS FOR FAMINE

Last week, MPs voted against an independent inquiry into prima facie war crimes perpetrated by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen, and against suspending UK support for the Saudi Arabia coalition pending its findings. Amnesty International, Oxfam and other leading humanitarian and human rights NGOs have called for an immediate suspension of arms exports to Saudi Arabia. Yemen…

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL VS. BORIS JOHNSON

"I'm not going to hide my concerns about this."@JRug asked Foreign Secretary @BorisJohnson about British arms exports to Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/Cg1ymzWJo9 — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) September 22, 2016 *** Amnesty International: The airstrike on Abs Rural Hospital in Yemen's Hajjah governorate on 15 August was the fourth attack on a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)…

Norman Finkelstein on Bernie, Palestine and Politics

The great Norman Finkelstein has been interviewed on Bernie, Palestine and Politics. Among other things, he talks about how Israel has successfully defanged human rights NGO coverage of Israeli crimes: most human rights organisations sat out Operation Protective Edge (2014), while Amnesty reverted to its pre-1987 apologetics. This is an extremely dangerous development, since the human rights…

GUARDING THE GUARDIANS

I interviewed Norman Finkelstein on the role of human rights organisations in the struggle for justice in Palestine: As always in politics, the issue is not what you’d in an ideal world prefer; the issue is choosing between the givens. Of course, politics is also about transforming those givens. But I think you cannot transform a…

EXCLAMATION POINTS

Second Lebanon War (2006): [D]uring the final 72 hours of the conflict… Israel engaged in saturation cluster bombing, hitting more than 850 strike sites with millions of submunitions. According to the United Nations, 90 percent of Israel’s cluster munition strikes took place over this brief period. A commander of an IDF MRLS unit told a…

ENDING COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT IS NOT CONDITIONAL (UPDATED)

A concerted effort is underway to render the lifting of the Gaza blockade conditional on Hamas's disarmament.* In the UK, this is the central message of a new campaign by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). During a debate in parliament yesterday, LFI vice-chair Michael McCann MP was emphatic: The international community needs to put an end to…

HIGH FLIERS

One of IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot's first appointees has begun his term in office by formally signalling his appreciation of the Artillery Corps: Maj.-Gen. Sami Turgeman, head of the Southern Command, cited a number of soldiers for exemplary actions during Operation Protective Edge last summer. Members of the Artillery Corps’s Dragon Battalion and Sky Rider tactical drone…