Stuart Littlewood writes:

Here’s my email to my MP after seeing this crucially important statement by international law experts.

To

Alister.Jack.MP@parliament.uk

Date

19 October 14:45

Rt Hon Alister Jack, MP for Dumfries & Galloway, Secretary of State for ScotlandAlister.Jack.MP@parliament.uk

Dear Mr Jack, 

Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza (15 October 2023)

Further to my earlier email about the warning from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about the “legal peril” for those giving unqualified support to the Government of Israel’s policies on Gaza and the other illegally occupied Palestinian territories, there is a further development.

800 scholars of international law have issued a powerful statement on potential genocide in Gaza. If you haven’t already seen it you and your cabinet colleagues, and all those at Westminster advocating for the apartheid regime, might do well to familiarise. It can be read here: Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza – Opinio Juris

The following highlights show the stark repulsiveness of the Israeli position and why they should never have been considered close allies. For decent-minded people the Statement finally debunks the propaganda myth that we have “shared values”.

• These are scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies who feel compelled to sound the alarm.
• Pre-existing conditions in the Gaza Strip have prompted discussion on genocide before, with warnings given over the years that the siege of Gaza may amount to a “prelude to genocide” or a “slow-motion genocide”.
• In 1982 the UN General Assembly condemned the massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps as “an act of genocide”.
• Since 2007, shortly after Hamas won the Palestinian elections, Israel has defined the Gaza Strip as an “enemy entity”.
• Earlier this year Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich called Palestinians “repugnant”, “disgusting” and proposed “wiping out” the entire Palestinian village of Huwwara in the West Bank.
• Between 7 October and 9:00 a.m. on 15 October, 2,329 Palestinians were killed and 9,042 Palestinians injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including over 724 children, huge swathes of neighbourhoods and entire families across Gaza have been obliterated. Casualty figures by now will be considerably higher.
• Israel’s Defence Minister ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip prohibiting the supply of fuel, electricity, water and other essential necessities. This intensifies an already illegal and potentially genocidal siege turning it into an outright destructive assault.
• The ICRC stated that orders to evacuate, coupled with the complete siege, are incompatible with international humanitarian law. Almost half a million Palestinians have already been displaced and Israeli forces have bombed the only possible exit route that Israel does not control (the Rafah crossing to Egypt) multiple times.
• The World Health Organisation published a warning that “forcing more than 2000 patients to relocate to southern Gaza, where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number patients, could be tantamount to a death sentence”.
• In the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, since 7 October, Israeli settlers backed by the IDF and police, have attacked and shot Palestinian civilians at point blank range (as documented in the villages of a-Tuwani and Qusra), invaded their homes and assaulted residents. A number of Palestinian communities have already been forced to abandon their homes, after which settlers arrived and destroyed their property. 
• Between 7 – 15 October, Al-Haq documented the killing by Israeli military and settlers of 55 Palestinians in the West Bank with 1,200 injured there.
• Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on 9 October: “We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly”, and afterwards announced that Israel was moving to “a full-scale response” and he had “removed every restriction” on Israeli forces, also stating: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.”
• On 10 October, the head of the Israeli army’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, addressed a message directly to Gaza residents: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water, there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell”.
• Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari acknowledged the wanton and intentionally destructive nature of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza: “The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.”
• On 7 October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Gazans would pay an “immense price” for the actions of Hamas fighters and asserted that Israel will wage a prolonged offensive that will turn parts of Gaza’s densely populated urban centres “into rubble”.
• Israel’s President emphasised that the Israeli authorities view the entire Palestinian population of Gaza as responsible for the actions of militant groups, and subject accordingly to collective punishment and unrestricted use of force: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible.” (So, equally, are Israel’s citizens responsible for the Zionist regime’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, giving Hamas every excuse for their murderous rampage…. Can that be right?)
• Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Israel Katz added: “All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world.”
• On 12 October UN Special Rapporteurs condemned “Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza, comprising over 2.3 million people, nearly half of whom are children. They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for”.
• UN experts warned against “the withholding of essential supplies such as food, water, electricity and medicines. Such actions will precipitate a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where its population is now at inescapable risk of starvation. Intentional starvation is a crime against humanity”.
• On 14 October the UN Special Rapporteur, on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, warned against “a repeat of the 1948 Nakba, and the 1967 Naksa, yet on a larger scale” as Israel is carrying out “mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war”.
• The Palestinian population of Gaza appears to be presently subjected by the Israeli forces and authorities to widespread killing, bodily and mental harm, and unviable conditions of life – against a backdrop of Israeli statements which evidence signs of intent to physically destroy the population.
• Article II of the Genocide Convention provides that “genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as # Killing members of the group # Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group # Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part # Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group # Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
• The Convention provides that individuals who attempt genocide or who incite to genocide “shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals”.
• The International Court of Justice has clarified that “a State’s obligation to prevent, and the corresponding duty to act, arise at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed. From that moment onwards, if the State has available to it means likely to have a deterrent effect on those suspected of preparing genocide, or reasonably suspected of harbouring specific intent (dolus specialis), it is under a duty to make such use of these means as the circumstances permit”. (The many means available to the British Government include sanctions – readily applied to other delinquent nations – and withdrawal of favoured-nation privileges, trade deals and scientific collaboration). 
• Competent elements of the United Nations, particularly the UN General Assembly, are required to take urgent action under the Charter of the United Nations appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide. Emphasis is on the General Assembly given that the Security Council is compromised by the US and UK (both permanent veto-holding members) sending military forces to the eastern Mediterranean in support of Israel.
• All relevant UN bodies, including the Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, as well as the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court are called on to immediately intervene, carry out necessary investigations and invoke the necessary warning procedures to protect the Palestinian population from genocide.

I would add (because it’s nearly always forgotten) that the number of Palestinians currently held prisoner by Israel is 5,200, including 33 women and 170 children. There are 1,264 Palestinians under “administrative detention”, which means they are held indefinitely behind bars without facing trial or any charges. Detention can be extended indefinitely based on “secret evidence”, meaning that a detainee can spend months if not years in prison without being charged.

Sincerely,

Stuart Littlewood