Going along to get a Long is Too Great a Sacrifice …

Of Principle, Morality, Humanness, Justice (not caprice) under Law

Some Resist

Refuse

To Acquiescence

To Lie Down and Play Dead

To Surrender Humankind’s (our) 

Essential Character of Goodness

“Within the framework of its principled position of respect for life, we are sending this official statement to the State of Israel”— María Nela Prada Tejada, Bolivian diplomat and public official serving as the minister of the presidency since 2020.

October 31, 2023, Orinoco Tribune reporting on Plurinational State of Bolivia whose government has announced “its decision to sever relations with ‘Israel’ in consideration of the war crimes being committed in the Gaza Strip against the Palestinian people” and “to communicate officially through the diplomatic channels established between both countries consistent with the principles and purposes of the United Nations charter.” Orinoco Tribune October 31, 2023 “Bolivia Severs Diplomatic Relations with Israeli Entity,” https://orinocotribune.com/bolivia-severs-diplomatic-relations-with-israeli-entity/

United Mexican States and Federative Republic of Brazil Leaders have “demanded cease-fire.”

October 31, 2023, The Guardian-U.S. reports: Republics of Chile and Colombia have “recalled their ambassadors from Israel.”

• Plurinational State of Bolivia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Erwin Freddy Mamani Machaca said his government’s decision sends a message of “‘repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip’” and the far-reaching “‘threat to international peace and security.”.

• Republic of Colombia’s President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego pointed to the grounds for his country’s recall of ambassador as Israel’s “massacre of the Palestinian people”.

• Republic of Chile’s President Gabriel Boric Font withdrew his country’s ambassador “to discuss “Israel’s ‘unacceptable violations of international humanitarian law’ being committed in Gaza.”

Federative Republic of Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday reflected on mass killings caused by Israel military forces’ bombing of “a refugee camp in northern Gaza”…: 

“‘For the first time, we are witnessing a war in which the majority of the dead are children…For the love of God, stop!”

The Guardian U.S. “South American countries recall ambassadors and cut ties with Israel over war with Hamas,” October 31, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/bolivia-israel-hamas-gaza-war-crime

November 1, 2023 First Post reporting: “Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday (October 27, 2023) saying “‘What we have now is the insanity of Israel’s prime minister, who wants to wipe out the Gaza Strip’.” https://www.firstpost.com/world/latin-american-nations-sever-diplomatic-ties-with-israel-over-gaza-conflict-13330442.html

The world ‘“must boycott and prosecute” Israel for its ‘ongoing crimes against humanity,’” says Rabbi David Mivasair (Jewish activist, member of Independent Jewish Voices, a U.S. citizen based in Ontario, Canada) in an October 30, 2023, Press TV news interview. “Israeli attacks in Gaza ‘war crimes tantamount to genocide’: Jewish activist” https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/30/713689/israeli-attacks-gaza-war-crimes-tantamount-genocide-jewish-activist

Human Rights Org’s failure to Champion Human Rights
A Resignation

“As a human rights lawyer with more than three decades of experience in the field, I know well that the concept of genocide has often been subject to political abuse”— Craig Mokhiber.

“But the current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist settler colonial ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs, and coupled with explicit statements of intent by leaders in the Israeli government and military, leaves no room for doubt or debate—Craig Mokhiber writes in his resignation letter to the UN. Source Daily Maverick November 1, 2023 “ISRAEL/PALESTINE CRISIS / LETTER
‘The Gaza assault is a textbook case of genocide’ top official tells UN in resignation letter” https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-11-01-the-gaza-assault-is-a-textbook-case-of-genocide-top-official-tells-un-in-resignation-letter/

Excerpt from Craig Mokhiber’s letter (Emphasis added)

“I came to this Organization first in the 1980s because I found in it a principled, norm-based institution that was squarely on the side of human rights (even) in cases where the powerful United States of America and United Kingdom and Europe were not on our side.

The United Nations “was standing up for oppressed peoples… when many affluent governments and subsidiary institutions and many media outlets in the United States were still supporting or justifying South African apartheid, Israeli oppression, and Central American death squads.”

“We had international law on our side. We had human rights on our side. We had principle on our side. Our authority was rooted in our integrity.”

“…No more.”

A substantive change of course is urgent, Mokhiber writes.

“In the immediate term, we must work for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the longstanding siege on Gaza; stand up against the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Jerusalem, and the West Bank (and elsewhere); document the genocidal assault in Gaza; help to bring massive humanitarian aid and reconstruction to the Palestinians; take care of our traumatized colleagues and their families; and, in the political offices of the United Nations, engage seriously, deliberatively and respectfully “in principled approaches.”

“… Abandon the failed paradigm of the past” — “the UN’s failure in Palestine thus far is not a reason to depart.” “Embrace fully a more principled course.” Add the UHCHR “logo to the banner of equality and human rights for the Palestinian people” (and) “join the anti-apartheid movement that is growing around the world.”

All of us “will be accountable for where we stood at this crucial moment in history …. Let us stand on the side of justice.”

Craig Mokhiber, director of the United Nations Office of Human Rights in New York, has resigned from his post because the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as a body has failed to address properly the Israel-Palestine crisis. RT News October 31, 2023, “Top UN official resigns over failure to stop ‘genocide’ of Palestinians: The organization has ‘surrendered to the power of the US’ and given in to the ‘Israeli lobby,’ Craig Mokhiber has said,” https://www.rt.com/news/586302-un-official-gaza-resignation/; https://www.ohchr.org/en/about-us
United Nations HEADQUARTERS | SIEGE | NEW YORK, NY 10017, TEL.: + 212 963 5931 | craig.mokhiber@un.org, October 28, 2023, cm_final_letter_signed_pdf

November 1, 2023 Casualty Estimates (update)

Total Deaths 8,796 Palestinians	Dead Children 3,648	Dead Women 2,290	Total Wounded 22,219
Total Missing 2,000	Missing Children 1,100

Press TV news November 1, 2023, “First group of injured Palestinian evacuees from Gaza cross into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, as Israel’s war machine is constantly bombing the besieged Palestinian territory” https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/11/01/713833/Palestine-Israel-Hamas-Gaza-Egypt-Rafah-crossing-injured

Bear in Mind 

“The Foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world” (is) … 

“The INHERENT DIGNITY and equal and inalienable rights (of all human beings)”

THERE WAS A TIME when Prominent Americans were Principled People. Manifest in words and deeds were sound humanistic and moral principles and commitment to the rule of law. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted in such a moment. The First Lady of the United States of America (1933-1945), a Diplomat (beginning in 1945 a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly) and first Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights was a key participant in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She was New York native (b. 1884, d. 1962) Anna Eleanor Roosevelt also known as “First Lady of the World.” 

UN https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day/women-who-shaped-the-universal-declaration

Women’s History Eleanor Roosevelt bio 2017 by Debra Michals, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/eleanor-roosevelt; Image ELEANOR ROOSEVELT of the United States holding a poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Lake Success, NY, November 1949. UN Photo https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day/women-who-shaped-the-universal-declaration

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (document created December 10, 1948) excerpted with minor edits. 

CONTEXT: “Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts that have outraged the conscience of mankind.”… “…If man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, … human rights should be protected by the rule of law.”

DECLARED: “The INHERENT DIGNITY and equal and inalienable rights (of all human beings) is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” “… A WORLD in which human beings enjoy FREEDOM of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want …, the highest aspiration of the common people.” “ESSENTIAL PROMOTION of … the development of friendly relations between (and among) nations” “…

REAFFIRMATION of peoples of the United Nations” (previously set out in UN Charter) “faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women; and determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.” “PLEDGE of Member States … to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms” “AFFIRMED that “common understanding of the rights and freedoms (declared in the UDHR) is of the greatest importance for full realization of the pledge.”

PROCLAIMED in GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS: 

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (is) a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.”

Composition, Compilation Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

Author’s links: https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/828689-epitaph

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nolandanisland@hotmail.com

ONCE UPON A TIME not very long ago

There was an American Leader who spoke with solid knowledge, on the ground experience—

Respectfully and Courageously

He Urged True Peace in the Middle East

That Man from Plains, Georgia

In addition to his civilian service as U.S. President, he had served also in the U.S. Navy and as the State of Georgia's governor. In 1982, former president Carter and his wife Rosalynn Smith Carter established The Carter Center, “a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people around the world. In 2002, Mr. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid was published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster (ISBN13: 9780743285032)

“I have spent a great deal of my adult life trying to bring peace to Israel. My prayer is that all of us who want to see Israelis enjoy permanent peace with their neighbors will join in this common effort”—said the thirty-ninth (1977-1981) President of the United States of America James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr. ending his 2006 “Letter to Jewish Community on Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.”

In that letter, Mr. Carter says he had been on a book signing tour when asked and he accepted an invitation to meet with leaders of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix (six rabbis: three men, three women, five of whom had read his book completely, one partially). They questioned Mr. Carter, and he answered their questions about the text and title of his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. He later disclosed the thoughts he had shared in that meeting.

“A letter to Jewish citizens of America”
This is an excerpt with minor edits from Mr. Carter’s letter to the Jewish Community containing his thoughts expressed in discussions with the six rabbis.

In the discussions, Mr. Carter “defined the word ‘apartheid’ as

the forced segregation of two peoples living in the same land, with one of them dominating and persecuting the other.”

“… [T]he system of apartheid in Palestine,” he said:

“… is not based on racism, but on the desire of a minority of Israelis for Palestinian land, and the resulting suppression of protests that involve violence.”

Mr. Carter continued: 

“[T]he (extreme partiality) for Israel comes from among Christians like me who have been taught since childhood to honor and protect God’s chosen people from among whom came our own savior, Jesus Christ.

“… [I]n the political arena (additionally) is the powerful influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is exercising its legitimate goal of explaining the current policies of Israel’s government and arousing maximum support in (the USA).

“There are no significant countervailing voices.” [Emphasis added]

Grounding his ideas in solid knowledge and direct (on the ground) experience, Mr. Carter affirmed that in the preceding “33 years” he had traveled “throughout the Holy Land,” making direct “observations…especially within the occupied areas.” Additionally, The Carter Center had “monitored the Palestinian elections of 1996, 2005, and 2006, which required a thorough and intimate involvement with Palestinian citizens, candidates, public officials, and also the top political leaders of Israel who controlled checkpoints throughout the West Bank and Gaza and all facets of the elections in East Jerusalem.”

Clearly in evidence, Mr. Carter said: 

“The Palestinian people were being deprived of the necessities of life by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States because 42 percent had voted for Hamas candidates in the most recent election.

“Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees are not being paid, and the U.N. has reported that food supplies in Gaza are equivalent to those among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa with half the families surviving on one meal a day. My other request was that American Jewish citizens help to alleviate their plight.”

“… I am (also) familiar with the extreme acts of violence that have been perpetrated against innocent civilians,” Mr. Carter said. “(I) understand the fear among many Israelis that threats against their safety and even their existence as a nation still exist.” He then stressed his “strong condemnation of any acts of terrorism.” (Emphasis added)

What to do?

In further response to the rabbis’ questions asking what he would do, Mr. Carter first asked them “to join in an effort to induce the Israeli government to comply with the proposal for Middle East peace. Then he offered these succinct recommendations:   

 “Call on Hamas members and all other Palestinians to renounce violence and adopt the same commitment made by the Arab nations in 2002,” specifically:

• Full recognition of Israel’s right to exist in peace within its legally recognized 1967 borders (to be modified by mutual agreement by land swaps) …” in compliance with “United Nations Resolutions, the official policy of the United States, commitments made at Camp David in 1978 and in Oslo in 1993, and the premises of the International Quartet’s ‘Roadmap for Peace.’”

• Immediate “resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians” (consistent with the official spokesman for the Palestinians, head of the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization, President Mahmoud Abbas, who “has repeatedly called for peace talks.”

At the end of his discussion with the rabbis in 2006, Mr. Carter reported that together they “held hands in a circle while one of the rabbis prayed.” At their request, he “autographed copies of (his) book (Palestine Peace Not Apartheid),” and Chaplain (Colonel) Rabbi Bonnie Koppell gave (him) a prayer book.”

“My own prayer,” Mr. Carter concluded, “is that all of us who want to see Israelis enjoy permanent peace with their neighbors join in this common effort.”

The Carter Center press release “Center Jimmy Carter Issues Letter to Jewish Community on Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, December 14, 2006, “Jimmy Carter Issues Letter to Jewish Community on Palestine Peace Not Apartheid,” December 15, 2006, https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/carter_letter_121506.html

In the Moment (an update)

Dimitri Lascaris’s October 11, 2023, piece (excerpted)

Lawyer, journalist and activist Dimitri Lascaris recalls that over many decades the “Israeli government has tested the boundaries (but) rarely exceeded boundaries of the world’s tolerance.”

Relatively Recent Examples of Israel’s testing of the world’s tolerance

“Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza displaced 500,000 people and destroyed or damaged more than 20,000 Palestinian homes, 148 schools and 15 hospitals.”

(United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reported that year that “the unemployment rate in Gaza had reached 44 percent”; and projected that, by the year 2020, close to 100 percent of Gaza’s drinking water supply would be unsafe.)

The Israeli military in 2018 reacted to “thousands of Gazans’ … peaceful ‘Great March of Return’ … by killing more than 150 Palestinians and injuring at least 10,000 others, including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists. An Israeli sniper also shot a Canadian-Palestinian doctor, Tarek Loubani.”

Then, NOW

“In the past,” Lascaris writes, “when the international community’s outrage at Israel’s criminality approached unmanageable levels, Israel lowered the pain dial on the Palestinian people. When the suffering of Palestinians receded from the world’s consciousness, Israel then ratcheted up the pain dial.

“This week, that cycle of calibrated depravity was broken…”— circumstances in which only the government of the United States “could rein in Netanyahu …

(Benjamin Netanyahu: an Israeli Likud Party politician and Israel Defense Forces (1967-) member raised in Jerusalem (and for a time in the U.S. city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) employed by the Boston Consulting Group before returning to Israel (1978); and later assuming the post of Israel’s UN representative (1984-1988); and reigning more than 17 years in the post of Israel’s premiership (1996 – 1999; 2009 – 2021; December 2022 –present).

“… [B]ut the Biden administration is too weak, too distracted by its failing proxy war in Ukraine, and too incompetent to intervene.…”

Is there a true moment of Awakening…  

(stir from distraction and slumber)

or Reckoning 

On the horizon?

Dimitri Lascaris concludes:

“The reality of what Israel has become is now too obvious to ignore. The international community cannot stand idly by any longer. In the weeks and months ahead, I believe that the conscience of the world will be awakened.

“The only question is: how many more Palestinians will the West allow to die before that moment comes?”

Dimitri Lascaris “Israel’s genocide in Gaza is no longer ‘incremental’” posted October 11, 2023, in Human Rights, International, Middle East, https://dimitrilascaris.org/2023/10/11/israels-genocide-in-gaza-is-no-longer-incremental/ Dimitri Lascaris is a multinational lawyer, journalist and activist based in Canada

Composition, Compilation Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images

Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett 

Author’s links: https://www.xlibris.com/en/search?query=Carolyn+LaDelle+Bennett

https://www.xlibris.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/828689-epitaph

https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett

https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/

nolandanisland@hotmail.com

Demonized, Removed, Abused, Denied, Destroyed, Ignored Rohingya

Rohingya are neither “terrorists” nor “enemies” nor “threats.” 

But governments, taking the example of United States leaders, use these pejoratives selectively and expediently against individuals and groups as pretexts for violence, removal, displacement, human rights abuse— actually terrorizing endlessly—those whom they cast as “terrorists,” “enemies,” “threats.”

T

he Rohingya People of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma), appear to be an ancient, indigenous people whose heritage traces to the 8th century, a predominantly Muslim people, who are denied existence: denied country and rendered stateless, denied cultural being subject to human rights protections and protection under law.

Myanmar’s leaders refuse to recognize the Rohingya as an “ethnic minority, one of the eight ‘national (Myanmar or Burma) indigenous races.’” These leaders deny the Rohingya “freedom of movement, state education and civil service.” (Background source Wikipedia)

I

n the news

Though “Myanmar is a signatory to the Genocide Convention—whose signers agree “that genocide is an international crime”—and though Myanmar, under this Convention, “is bound to prevent and punish genocide,” the country’s leaders refuse “to acknowledge that potential international crimes may have been committed” and deny “that atrocities” have been committed against the Rohingya. They blame the victims for the crimes of the leaders, claiming that Myanmar’s “actions against the Rohingya (are) taken to tackle terrorism.”

Genocide: The UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, finds that the case of Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya presents “three legal elements” sufficient to bring prosecution under the charge of genocide: 

(1) “They (the Rohingya) are a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”; 

(2) Myanmar’s actions—“such as killing, forcible transfer, and preventing births”— committed “against the Rohingya constitute genocide”; and   

(3) Myanmar’s actions “demonstrate a clear intent to destroy in part or in whole the Rohingya minority.”

A

t Court

Prior attempts at justice under law: The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, a Bologna, Italy-based United Nations-backed international court, in September 2017 “found Myanmar guilty of genocide against the Rohingya people.”

Sources

 “Myanmar: IHRC report charges Myanmar with genocide against Rohingya” Report June 26, 2018 press release http://www.ihrc.org.uk/activities/press-releases/18666-press-release-myanmar-ihrc-report-charges-myanmar-with-genocide-against-rohingya/

“The Rohingya People,” Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people

Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB