facility:international court

The death of guilt in Israel
By Gideon Levy | Jan. 11, 2018 | 12:59 PM
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.834183

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Keshet TV’s morning program. It’s the usual mix of news, leisure and entertainment. A discussion about Gaza, with the usual panel – a retired army general and an expert in Middle Eastern affairs. Whenever they talk about Gaza they bring a reserve general and a Middle Eastern affairs expert, who is close to the defense establishment.

The message is always the same: strike, destroy and deter. Nothing about the siege that has been going on for almost 11 years. No siege. No context. The Palestinians were born to kill, and the Gazans to launch Qassam rockets. Apart from that, they have no interest in life. Moving on to the next topic.

They move on to talk about Ahed Tamimi. They make sure to preserve the holy balance: a leftist journalist next to a representative of the fascist Im Tirzu movement. And again, no context. Tamimi woke up one morning and went to slap soldiers. She doesn’t have a 15-year-old cousin who was shot in the head ­– at short range – an hour earlier, no soldiers who invaded her home.

Dr. Uzi Rabi, Middle Eastern affairs expert, confirms that her family is a “family of murderers,” repeating the libel uttered by Im Tirzu’s representative.

Rabi knows. He’s a Middle Eastern affairs expert. The Tamimi family consists of 5,000 people. All murderers. Rabi knows them. He visits Nabi Salah a lot. He met Bassam and Nuriman, Naji and Bushra, the awe-inspiring struggle leaders, and he knows. Trust Rabi. This is what they say in the defense establishment, and Rabi gives it the academic stamp of approval.

One can assume he’s never met the Tamimis or ever been to Nabi Salah. But he’s playing his role obediently, otherwise they won’t invite him to TV morning shows or to Institute for National Security Studies conferences.

I was in the leftist’s role. I commented that they didn’t mention the siege. The retired general, Yom-Tov Samia, rose defiantly and left the studio. He won’t sit with an Israel hater, he said. A few minutes earlier he had greeted me cordially. But now, with the cameras on and the Labor primaries perhaps on the threshold – he will be defense minister, so he declared – it’s better to walk out. Maybe it will be a news item.

He, of course, is an insignificant man, the general who conceived of the “pressure cooker” doctrine to destroy houses with the fugitives hiding inside them. But his behavior is emblematic. The self-declared candidate for the leadership of the left-center party won’t sit with an Israel hater who dared to broach the siege in Gaza. The hater also mentioned that Tamimi had a right to resist the occupation that barbarically shot her cousin in the head.

As far as the Israeli media and public opinion are concerned, there’s never any context, no cause and effect. Oh, how cozy and pleasant it is to be blind. This is what we have commentators for, to leave us in the comfortable darkness. For this we’ll have them on morning shows, before the cooking programs.

But there was also something encouraging about Samia’s performance. He got up and left because he’s involved, and that’s why he isn’t capable of hearing the truth about himself, a candidate for the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In his mind, he is a moral person (“I’ve done more for Gaza than you have,” said the former head of Southern Command). Such a state of mind can only be maintained by omitting the Israeli atrocities from one’s consciousness. This is the routine of the TV channels’ debates, and that’s why Samia was so agitated when someone mentioned things that are forbidden to mention.

Samia is a wonderful example of the Israeli psychological mechanism, which enables the horror to continue indefinitely, thanks to a systematic, unconscious omission of guilt. Any attempt to dispute this drives him out of his mind. He came to the studio to talk about deterrence, and suddenly – the siege. He came to talk about the female terrorist, and suddenly, she has a cousin left with half a head. What’s going on here? I’ve got to get out of here.

To Samia’s credit, his theatrical exit showed that something in him still lives, moves, rebels. He still feels guilty, that’s why he protested so dramatically. With the indifferent majority, everything is already dead. Guilt died here long ago.

Chile and Peru in border spat over La Yarada-Los Palos area - BBC News

signalé par Pierre Ageron sur Twitter

▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34759018

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Chile has protested against the Peruvian government’s decision to create a new district in a tiny disputed border area.

Chile says the move has no legal basis but damages bilateral relations.

Peru says residents in the new La Yarada-Los Palos district will be able to elect their representatives and take part in decisions about their future

The current row began in 2014, after the International Court of Justice gave Peru an additional area of sea.

#Chili #Pérou #frontières

France to Push for UN Security Council Resolution on West Bank Settlements - Diplomacy and Defense - Haaretz
French FM Laurent Fabius told Quartet meet 10 days ago that France intends to advance resolution and hopes to convene follow-up conference in Paris on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Barak Ravid Oct 11, 2015 4:53 AM

▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.679785

The French government intends to advance a United Nations Security Council resolution on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to senior officials in Jerusalem and Western diplomats.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius made a comment to that effect 10 days ago, at a meeting in New York of the foreign ministers of the Middle East Quartet. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made use of the comment to convince right-wing members of his cabinet that new construction in the settlements in response to the recent wave of terrorism would cause Israel severe diplomatic damage.

The September 30 meeting in New York was due to include the foreign ministers of the Quartet countries — the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations — as well as those from Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The French foreign minister had other plans, however. Two Western diplomats and two senior officials in Jerusalem said Fabius demanded to participate in the meeting as well and exerted strong pressure on the Americans and on EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

In the wake of the pressure, it was decided initially that France, Britain and China, all of which are permanent members of the Security Council, would also be invited, even though they are not direct members of the Quartet. The prospect of their participation, however, led other countries, such as Germany, Norway, Japan, Italy, Spain and others, to demand a place at the table as well. It turned into a conference of 30 foreign ministers from around the world, discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without a single Israeli or Palestinian representative.

A statement in summation of the meeting — mainly ceremonial and with short statements by each of the participants — was agreed upon in advance. Fabius again surprised the gathering by presenting a French diplomatic plan with steps that he said would break the deadlock in the peace process.

According to Western diplomats present and the meeting as well as senior Israel officials briefed on the details, Fabius said he was interested in convening a follow-up conference in Paris to which countries interested in advancing a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be invited, but not the two sides themselves.

Immediately afterwards, he uttered a sentence which has caused a lot of nervousness in Jerusalem over the past ten days. According to the diplomats, Fabius said there were many parties pressing for a vote on a Security Council resolution on the settlements and the subject was being explored. Reports of Fabius’ statement reached Israeli diplomats and Netanyahu, who was in New York at the time, within a few hours.

Like most of the participants at the Quartet meeting, Netanyahu and his advisers were surprised by the process Fabius proposed in his remarks. The Israeli leader’s advisers were quick to speak to associates of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and others who were present at the Quartet parley.

The following day, Netanyahu raised the issue at a meeting with Kerry and expressed great concern. The Americans said they do not know what Fabius intends and had no additional information on the subject. A senior Israeli official noted that from inquiries made in subsequent days, it turned out that it was apparently a process that was only in its initial stages.

Fabius’ short, vague sentence regarding a Security Council resolution on Jewish settlements became a central element of a meeting of the Israeli inner cabinet last Monday, a day after Netanyahu’s return from New York. In the face of pressure that was applied by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Immigrant Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin to announce construction in settlements in response to the wave of terrorist attacks, Netanyahu and his adviser Isaac Molho presented information about the French plans.

Despite the fact that there is no draft or proposed text of a French resolution, Netanyahu, Molho and other participants at the meeting contended that it would state that the settlements are not legal. They presented Fabius’ initial idea as a highly dangerous process that could bring about a wave of boycotts and withdrawal of investment from any Israeli entity operating directly or indirectly in the settlements; serious international isolation; and a risk of a trial at the International Court in The Hague against any entity connected to the settlements. They argued that construction in the settlements at this time would provide backing for Fabius’ initiative and cause Israeli serious diplomatic damage.

Channel 2 reported that Netanyahu and Molho also told the ministers that they had received an American ultimatum that an announcement of new construction in the settlement would cause President Barack Obama to refrain from vetoing the French resolution if it would come to a UN Security Council vote. According to several ministers who attended the inner cabinet meeting, Molho said that Kerry had left him threatening voice-mail messages. Senior American officials denied both the existence of an ultimatum and Molho’s story about Kerry’s threatening messages.

Even if Fabius’ plan does take shape, it would not be the first time that the Security Council adopted a resolution on the settlements. Resolution 465 in 1980, which was passed unanimously without an American veto, stated that the settlements built beyond the 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem, were not legal. The resolution also called for all countries to refrain from providing any form of assistance to construction in the settlements.

Aleppo’s businessmen blame Turks for damaged factories, looted equipment - Al-Monitor : the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/turkey-syria-sued-for-looting-aleppo-industry.html

I listened to a Syrian army commander in the rubble of centuries-old historic buildings in divided Aleppo say, “The basic reason for the fall of Aleppo and Idlib to armed groups is the terrorists sent from Turkey and the support Turkey gives to them.” At Sheikh Najjar Industrial City I heard even more damning accusations that may take Turkey to The Hague. Aleppo industrialists say more than 300 factories were plundered and their equipment sold in Turkey, hence their decision to settle their accounts with Turkey at the International Court of Justice.

L’histoire du pillage de la zone industrielle refait surface. Pour partie par l’armée syrienne et les « rebelles » mais l’essentiel a été fait par des gens venant de Turquie.

Abbas insiste sur le fait que « les Palestiniens » ont choisi de signer spécifiquement ces 15 Conventions internationales parce qu’elles ne nuisent en rien à Israël :
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.585919

During the meeting Abbas stressed that the 15 international conventions that the Palestinians sought to join were chosen specifically because they did not harm Israel in any way. “We joined the conventions on the rights of the child and the fight against discrimination against women,” he said. “We deliberately did not approach the International Court at the Hague or United Nations agencies.”