Deb Rutherford

[Amnesty International @amnesty]

There is no more time for excuses: as the evidence of Israel’s genocide continues to mount the international community cannot claim they didn’t know.

As Israeli authorities and forces intensify their brutal campaign of annihilation, particularly in Gaza City, the UN Commission of Inquiry's damning new report provides further confirmation of what Amnesty International and others have been concluding for months: that the Israeli authorities and Israeli forces have committed and are continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

Why is the government continuing to provide military support to a country that is committing genocide?

My letter to the Foreign Secretary, following the UN report confirming that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

The UK is supplying weapons to a country whose leader is wanted for war crimes.

How much simpler can we put it?

[SueBnd 🇵🇸 🇵🇸🍉 @Thehopper7]

He's always right.

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

“My name is Amos Goldberg. I am an Israeli Professor of Holocaust Studies. 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.

A year ago when October 7th happened, like all Israelis I was in shock. It was a war crime and a crime against humanity. 1200 people - more than 800 of them civilians - were killed in one day. Children and the elderly were among those taken hostage. Communities were destroyed. It was outrageous, traumatizing, personal. Like most Israelis, I know people who were killed, who lost loved ones or whose loved ones were taken hostage.

But immediately afterwards came Israel’s response and within weeks thousands of civilians were killed in Gaza. It took me some time to digest what was unfolding before my eyes. It was agonizing to confront that reality. I was reluctant to call it a genocide.

But 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.

It does not need to look like the Holocaust to be a genocide. Each genocide looks different and not all involve killing of millions or the entire group. The United Nations Genocide Convention explicitly asserts that genocide is the act of deliberately destroying a group in whole or in part. Those are the words.

But there does need to be a clear intent.

And indeed, there are clear indications of intent to destroy Gaza: Israel’s leaders - including the prime minister and the minister of defence - and many high-ranking military officers, media personalities, rabbis, as well as ordinary soldiers were very open about what they wanted to achieve. There were countless documented incitements to turn the whole of Gaza into rubble and claims that there are no innocent people living there.

A radical atmosphere of dehumanization of the Palestinians prevails in Israeli society to an extent that I can’t remember in my 58 years of living here.

Now that vision has been enacted. Tens of thousands of innocent children, women and men have been killed. Over a hundred thousand were wounded. There is a near total destruction of infrastructure, intentional starvation and blocking of humanitarian aid. There are mass graves and reliable testimony of summary executions. Children that were shot by snipers. All the universities and almost all hospitals are gone. Almost all the population is displaced. There have been numerous bombings of civilians in so-called ‘safe zones’. Gaza does not exist anymore. It is completely destroyed. Thus, the outcome fits perfectly with the stated intentions of Israel’s leadership.

Lemkin - that scholar who coined the term ‘genocide’ - described two phases of a genocide. The first is the destruction of the annihilated group and the second is what he called ‘imposition of the national pattern’ of the perpetrator. We are now witnessing the second phase as Israel prepares ethnically cleansed areas for Israeli settlements.

And therefore, I have come to the conclusion that this is exactly what a genocide looks like. We don’t teach about genocides in order to realize it retrospectively. We teach about it in order to prevent it and to stop it.

But like in every other case of genocide in history right now we have mass denial. Both here in Israel and around the world.

But reality cannot be denied.

So yes, it is a genocide.

And once you come to this conclusion you cannot remain silent.”

- Statement to Led By Donkeys, December 2024
- Photo: Parliament Square, London, 8.40am, 4th December 2024

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

A British surgeon returns from Ukraine to tell how Russian drones deliberately execute children there. Would it be front-page news? You bet.

But, when the drones are Israeli and the victims Palestinian children, the media yawns.

More from Media Lens:
https://t.co/YG5i6xxvUG

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

Today, my independent colleague @AyoubKhanMP asked the PM for his definition of genocide.

His response — which shows a blatant disregard for Palestinian suffering and international law — is disgraceful.

We will keep demanding: stop the genocide in Gaza.

[Tim Walker @ThatTimWalker]

Why still no mainstream media coverage of what is unarguably newsworthy testimony before a parliamentary committee?

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

There is a very simple reason why the UK government refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza.

If they did, they would be admitting their own complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time.

End all arms sales to Israel, now.

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

King Charles charges this RNLI lifeboat station to launch its boat because he owns the beach. And they’re not the only charity he’s rinsing

(Location: Sennen Cove, Cornwall)

[Channel 4 News @Channel4News]

“The drones would come down and pick off civilians – children.”
A former NHS surgeon, Nizam Mamode, who spent a month working in Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, broke down while testifying about children in Gaza being shot by drones.

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

We’re told there is unlimited money for weapons and warfare, so can’t we find the money to end poverty, build social housing or save the future of our planet?

[George Monbiot @GeorgeMonbiot]

1. Here are my thoughts on the pros and cons of staying on this platform.
Pro: We were here long before Musk took it over. We built this.
Con: He has used our creation to help elect a far-right autocrat, and build his own grim political career.
🧵

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

This is a massive media scandal.

@SkyNews posted a video accurately describing what happened in Amsterdam.

It described violence perpetrated by Israeli football hooligans, and their hideous racism.

They then deleted it. This is the original.

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

How Musk broke Twitter and helped elect Trump
(Location: Tesla European HQ, Amsterdam)

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

The election of Donald Trump is a dark day for reproductive healthcare, the rights of refugees and the future of our planet.

As we speak, people are being slaughtered in Gaza and Lebanon. Our demands on our governments have not changed: stop enabling genocide and end all arms sales to Israel.

We are a global movement, made up of all faiths and backgrounds, united in our opposition to racism and hatred. We will never abandon hope in a more equal, sustainable and peaceful world.

[Middle East Eye @MiddleEastEye]

Award-winning author Arundhati Roy strongly criticised the US and Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and Lebanon in her acceptance speech for the PEN Pinter Prize at a ceremony in London earlier this month

[Have I Got News For You @haveigotnews]

Brand new episode hosted by Jo Brand, with @GrandmasterNabz and @tompeck tonight at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer

[Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn]

Today, we marched to the U.S embassy with a simple demand: stop arming Israel.

We are going to be here as long as it takes to bring about peace and justice. We will never walk away from the people of Palestine.