military
US declares Israeli units guilty of war crimes – but whitewashes them as ‘individual’ acts
US laws ban sale of arms if they might be used in war crimes – but there will be no pause
The US government has declared five Israeli army units guilty ‘gross violations of human rights’, according to the State Department.
However, while going through the motions of attributing guilt, the US has simultaneously whitewashed the IDF’s systematic genocide and war crimes by describing the crimes as “individual incidents of gross violations of human rights” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank before the current genocidal onslaught – and claiming that the units in question have taken ‘remedial’ corrective measures.
No findings have been made against the IDF for its slaughter of more than 40,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza, mostly women and children and including summary executions and deliberate bombing of families, schools and hospitals – despite the recent discovery of mass graves in Gaza and the advice of senior government officials to the State Department that Israel is committing war crimes with US-made weapons.
State Department spokespeople have told journalist that it has found no evidence that Israel is committing war crimes in its slaughter since 7 October. The US government is currently trying to stop the International Criminal Court issuing international arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli ministers.
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Video: thousands gather for Gaza at Columbia as professor condemns uni’s ‘day of shame’
History professor Christopher Brown describes scandal of university president setting riot police on peaceful anti-genocide demo and condemns craven congressional testimony
Thousands have again gathered on the lawns of Columbia University in New York, despite the attempted repression of the university’s management and the New York police – where they heard speeches from faculty members as well as students against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the authorities’ attempts to silence them:
Despite the state’s aggression, which has included the use of riot police and state troops in various locations – and the shameful demonisation of peace protesters by politicians and pro-Israel lobby groups willing to collude in Israel’s war crimes, mirroring the tactics used in the UK – the protest movement is growing and the US public is increasingly aware and condemning of Israel’s mass murder of Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children.
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Australia’s defence industry is arming Israel’s genocide
Recent months have seen an increasing number of protests directed at the arms industry in Australia and its role in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Actions in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney have drawn attention to the fact that companies arming Israel are operating out of factories and campuses here.
Government records show that between 2018 and 2023, $13 million worth of Australian-manufactured arms and ammunition were exported to Israel.
While Penny Wong claims that Australia has not supplied weapons to Israel for at least five years, the government has issued 322 defence export permits to Israel since the start of 2017, with 52 issued just last year.
Some of these may be “non-lethal” items like body armour or vehicle parts used by the Israeli military. But Australian companies also supply weapons components that are not included in the official count.
Many of the Australian companies arming Israel—including Ferra, HTA, Quickstep, L3Harris and BAE Systems Australia—do so through contributions to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program. The completed jets are sold to Israel by the US.
Australian industry has played a role in the supply chain for the F-35 fighter jets since 2006 and more than 70 Australian companies have participated in the production of components.
This means every F-35A Lightning II that the Israeli Air Force has used to drop bombs on Gaza since 7 October involves components manufactured in Australia. As long as our government refuses to stop arming Israel, these companies will be profiting off genocide.
Ferra, HTA, and Quickstep
Since January, protesters in Brisbane have targeted the factory of Ferra Engineering. Ferra is the sole global manufacturer of the mechanism in the F-35 fighter jets that holds and releases the 900-kilogram JDAM bombs that Israel uses indiscriminately on civilians in Gaza.
The campaign, Shut Down Ferra, was launched on 8 January when activists stormed the factory. Despite intense police intimidation following the first action, there have been successful pickets on three occasions, with more actions planned.
Hundreds of activists have also participated in pickets at the factory of Heat Treatment Australia (HTA) in Melbourne. HTA provides heat treatment to strengthen the components in the F-35s and are described by the Department of Defence as, “Vital to the Australian supply chain for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.”
In Sydney a protest was taking place on 13 April at the Quickstep factory. Quickstep proudly boasts that, “Every F-35 Lightning Il aircraft currently in production incorporates approximately $440,000 of content built at its facility at Bankstown Aerodrome in Western Sydney.”
After the protest was announced, the company removed their signs from outside the factory in an attempt to hide their presence from the community.
Students have organised protests on campuses in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra to highlight the ties that arms companies have with Australian universities.
At the University of Sydney, the Eggleton Research Group brings together Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, the Royal Australian Air Force, several government agencies and the university’s Jericho Smart Sensing Laboratory for several research projects with military applications.
Australia’s arms exports
These protests have helped expose Australia’s links with Israel’s genocide in Gaza. But it will take union bans or government-imposed sanctions to stop the companies from arming Israel completely.
The Labor government has no intention of acting. Labor is fully committed to expanding the arms industry in Australia. Last financial year the defence industry saw growth of 4 per cent, after a staggering 18 per cent increase the year before.
In 2018, Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull laid out a plan for Australia to become one of the world’s top ten military exporters. Liberal PM Scott Morrison announced that the size of the Australian Defence Force would be increased by 30 per cent by 2040—the largest it has been since the Vietnam War.
Since taking office, Labor have been just as committed to this militaristic agenda. They have continued to ramp up Australia’s ability to wage military conflict in the region with their roll-out of the AUKUS nuclear submarine program and their expansion of the domestic defence industry.
The Albanese government has just signed the single largest defence export agreement in Australian history with the announcement of a $1 billion deal for Australian-made Boxer armoured vehicles to be made by Rheinmetall in Queensland and exported to Germany.
Rheinmetall has previously worked with Israeli arms company Elbit Systems, which make the drones used by the IDF in Gaza, including the one that killed seven aid workers.
Australia’s growing role as an arms producer is a product of our rulers’ commitment to the US alliance and to Australia’s own imperialist interests.
We need to oppose all military lies with Israel not just to stop the slaughter in Gaza, but to lay the groundwork for a serious fightback against Labor’s ongoing militarism and drive to war on China.
By Angus Dermody
The post Australia’s defence industry is arming Israel’s genocide first appeared on Solidarity Online.
Breaking Biden says US may drop Assange case
A genuine indication of sense from US president – or more mind games?
US president Joe Biden has said that the US is ‘considering’ abandoning the country’s attempt to extradite persecuted Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in response to a request from the Australian government. Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison for years while his legal team attempts to fight a case that should have been thrown out when the main US witness admitted he had been lying when he said that Assange arranged the hacking of US systems.
Last month, the High Court kept Assange in prison when it ruled that the US could have more time to provide assurances that it would not impose a death penalty on the Australian journalist, even though it admitted that the US was attacking his right to free speech in a way it would not do to one of its own citizens.
Before his imprisonment, Assange was effectively kept captive for years in the Ecuadorian embassy when the UK refused to stop trying to extradite him to Sweden, which Assange’s supporters feared was an indirect route to handing him to the US, despite Sweden dropping discredited rape allegations. The US has pursued Assange in vengeance for Wikileaks exposing war crimes by US military.
Last month, the US leaked hints that it might accept a ‘plea deal’ and drop the extradition in return for Assange accepting a lesser conviction – still an outright attack on journalistic freedom and the public’s right to know what their governments are doing. Biden’s latest comment may be more mind games and those who support Assange and the importance of press freedom to a functioning democracy should not let up on their pressure until the case is formally dropped and Assange is free, as he should have been all along.
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Australian Military Refuses To Disclose Arms Deal With Israel To Protect Its ‘Reputation’
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/2b644031098aeba4fec3cda07e5dba80/href
Australia’s Defence Department has refused a Freedom of Information request about the details of an arms deal with Israel on the grounds that such information “could harm Australia’s international standing and reputation,” which suggests the details must be pretty damning. Equally as scandalous, this refusal was reportedly made in consultation with the Israeli government.
In an article titled “Details of defence deal with Israel kept under wraps to protect Australia’s ‘reputation’,” the ABC’s Andrew Greene details how the Australian military snubbed a Freedom of Information request by the Australian Greens regarding a “Memorandum of Understanding” between Australia and Israel that was signed in 2017.
“The document within the scope of this request contains information which, if released, could reasonably be expected to damage the international relations of the Commonwealth,” the Defence Department said in a letter explaining its rejection.
AWPR on Twitter: "Details of defence deal with Israel kept under wraps to protect Australia's 'reputation'"There is no place for secret arms treaties and secret arms deals between countries,"#auspol https://t.co/AcW9SkRDT7 / Twitter"
Details of defence deal with Israel kept under wraps to protect Australia's 'reputation'"There is no place for secret arms treaties and secret arms deals between countries,"#auspol https://t.co/AcW9SkRDT7
“A summary provided by the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to the Greens reveals that the Israeli government was also consulted about releasing the document before Defence ultimately rejected the FOI request,” the ABC reports.
“The document contains information communicated to Australia by a foreign government and its officials under the expectation that it would not be disclosed,” a Defence official wrote in justification of its decision.
Greens senator David Shoebridge objected, saying “There is no place for secret arms treaties and secret arms deals between countries, and there is certainly no place for giving other countries veto power over what the Australian government tells the public about our government’s defence and arms deals.”
“Over 30,000 people have been killed by the State of Israel in Gaza in the past six months. In this context, the Australian public has a right to know about the military trade relationship with the State of Israel,” added Shoebridge.
David Shoebridge on Twitter: "Australia has a secret defence industry cooperation deal with Israel and you're not allowed to know what's in it because apparently Israel has a veto on Australian FOI!? Why, and what, are they hiding? pic.twitter.com/Sjc28vYdMO / Twitter"
Australia has a secret defence industry cooperation deal with Israel and you're not allowed to know what's in it because apparently Israel has a veto on Australian FOI!? Why, and what, are they hiding? pic.twitter.com/Sjc28vYdMO
It’s wild to think about the fact that the Australian warmakers determined this admission, that the truth would harm Australia’s reputation, to be the option that was least destructive to Australia’s reputation. When someone tells you “I can’t tell you the truth about that because the truth will make everyone dislike me,” it means they’ve ruled out every other option before coming to that position because the truth really is that ugly.
It’s like coming home to find your husband frantically burning clothes and mopping up blood and asking him what’s going on, and he says “I can’t tell you because the truth would harm your opinion of me.” Your very first thought after that is going to be that he must have done something very, very bad if that’s the best answer he could give you.
Back in November lawyer and researcher Kelly Trantner published an article with Declassified Australia titled “Australia’s role in the bombing of Gaza” about Israel’s use of Australian equipment to conduct its F-35 bombing campaigns, writing that “no bombs could be dropped on Gaza by an F-35 without parts manufactured for the F-35s by Melbourne company, Rosebank Engineering.”
Trantner notes that more than 70 Australian companies have been awarded “over $4.13 billion in global production and sustainment contracts through the F-35 program to date.” Since the writing of Trantner’s piece, during Israel’s active genocide in Gaza, the Australian Army has drawn controversy by awarding a billion-dollar contract to Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
KellieTranter on Twitter: "'Australia's complete integration into the F-35 global supply chain means that every jet that flies has many Australian parts. And countries using them,like Israel, depend on the replenishment of those parts as needed'#Gaza #CeasefireNowInGaza #auspol https://t.co/5vflkL7FHK / Twitter"
'Australia's complete integration into the F-35 global supply chain means that every jet that flies has many Australian parts. And countries using them,like Israel, depend on the replenishment of those parts as needed'#Gaza #CeasefireNowInGaza #auspol https://t.co/5vflkL7FHK
As we’ve discussed many times, Australia is functionally a military and intelligence asset of the same US-centralized empire as Israel. We’re currently falling all over ourselves helping the US prepare for a future war with China, and we’ve been providing logistical support for the US and UK bombing campaign against Ansarallah in Yemen. If all the violence and chaos we’re seeing in the middle east leads to the US committing to a direct full-scale war in the region, we may be absolutely certain that Canberra will march us into that one as well. All while the empire cages an Australian journalist in a maximum security prison for exposing its war crimes.
Australia, like Israel, is not a real country. Like Israel, Australia is nothing other than a settler-colonialist outpost of western imperialism built on genocide, ethnic cleansing and theft, and now operates in a way that is inseparable from the US war machine. This land will never know peace or justice until we have extricated ourselves from the talons of the empire.
_______________
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Yemen ‘promises Iran 400,000 troops’ in event of regional war
Fighters “ready to completely blockade the Red Sea and target US bases in Africa and the Middle East”, says Iran Observer
Image: Iran Observer
Yemen has promised Iran the support of 400,000 troops if regional war breaks out after Israel’s bombing of the Iranian embassy in Syria to murder a top Iranian military officer, Iran Observer Twitter/X account has said this afternoon. The account, which has 233,000 followers and appears to have access to a stream of information from within the region, notes that Yemen has recruited 200,000 additional fighters since Israel began its genocidal assault on the Palestinians in Gaza and says that the fighters are:
ready to completely blockade the Red Sea and target US bases in Africa and the Middle East.
The news came as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon appeared to warn that the group’s relative restraint so far in the face of Israel’s attacks on homes and bases in Lebanon had run out and that ‘all scenarios’ are possible. Yemen’s Houthis have been attacking – in response to the International Court of Justice’s findings against Israel – Israel-bound and -owned shipping off its coast, undeterred by attacks by the UK and US, whose governments continue to collude in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has killed and maimed well over 100,000 people so far, mostly women and children, and has put more than two million into famine.
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Video: Miriam Margolyes’s powerful statement on ‘vicious, genocidal’ Israel
Jewish actress posts no-holds-barred video supporting Jewish Council of Australia, attacked by Zionists for ceasefire call
Jewish actress and national treasure Miriam Margolyes, a joint UK and Australian citizen, has posted a video supporting the Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) call for an immediate and permanent halt to Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza – along with the imposition of sanctions and an immediate end to Australia’s military ties with Israel.
The JCA has been heavily attacked by pro-Israel groups for the call, with the attacks following similar lines to the dismissal in the UK of left-wing Jewish groups by right-wing nationalist organisations and politicians.
In her video, Margolyes says she has never been more ashamed of Israel – which she described as a ‘vicious, genocidal, nationalist nation’:
Despite the antisemitic representation by western governments and media as if all Jews support Israel, very many do not – and even many who have supported it are disgusted by Israel’s mass murder of, so far, more than forty thousand Palestinian civilians, overwhelmingly women and children, and the blockade and assaults it is using to starve two million more. The UK and Australian establishments continue their complicity in Israel’s war crimes.
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Building Socialism: The Afterlife of East German Architecture in Urban Vietnam – review
In Building Socialism: The Afterlife of East German Architecture in Urban Vietnam, Christina Schwenkel unpacks how the city of Vinh was reconstructed with the aid of East Germany in the aftermath of its bombing by the US between 1964 and 1973. Schwenkel skilfully combines historical analysis and ethnography to explore Vinh’s urban evolution, highlighting the challenges created through socialist planning and the enduring societal impact of Cold War urbanisation, writes Xue Xuan. This post was originally published on the LSE Southeast Asia Blog.
In her book Building Socialism: The Afterlife of East German Architecture in Urban Vietnam, Christina Schwenkel tells of the neglected story of the Vietnamese city Vinh’s socialist reconstruction during the Cold War. This city was badly decimated by US air strikes between 1964 and 1973. To rescue Vinh from its ruins, East Germany provided substantial material and technological assistance that was designed to transform it into Vietnam’s model socialist city. However, this transformation was not without its challenges, as Vinh’s rapid ascendance was followed by a quick fall into “unplanned obsolescence”.
Schwenkel skilfully weaves historical records with ethnographic research to dissect the architectural forms and planning practices of postwar Vinh, while also capturing its residents’ lived experiences within this changing urban landscape.
Schwenkel skilfully weaves historical records with ethnographic research to dissect the architectural forms and planning practices of postwar Vinh, while also capturing its residents’ lived experiences within this changing urban landscape. This historical ethnography of Vinh’s postwar reconstruction offers an in-depth exploration of state-led socialist modernisation, its vision, implementation and subsequent impact. During the Cold War, information about these urban experiments among socialist countries was largely inaccessible and unknown to the external world. To expose these facts contributes to a better understanding of socialist modernisation. It also resonates with the “multiplicity of experienced modernities”, thereby shifting the focus away from the dominant narrative of capitalist spatial production.
Schwenkel contends that socialist planning was both a “utopian science” and a “fantastical art of projection”, often venturing into realms of impracticality.
Interestingly, the book does not dedicate a specific section to explain what socialist urbanism is. Instead, its unique characteristics are gradually revealed across several chapters through detailed documentation of historical events and objects. Schwenkel contends that socialist planning was both a “utopian science” and a “fantastical art of projection”, often venturing into realms of impracticality. She examines two visual devices in the service of modernist planning: figurative drawing and abstract blueprints, delving deep into how these visual renderings of rationalised spaces sought to represent a universal socialist future. However, when materialised in buildings and infrastructures, the rational planning was far from fulfilling its promise: it neither increased labour productivity nor moulded enlightened proletarians. The author employs the case of Quang Trung Housing Estate to concretise how practical problems like poor material conditions and conflicting spatial practices inhibited the rapid construction of mass housing and how residents’ uncivil behaviours serves to contest quotidian forms of urban governance, epitomising the dialectical relationship between civilization and backwardness. The ethnographic approach of this study offers the author an opportunity to deliver a nuanced understanding of the lived experiences associated with socialist urbanisation. This perspective underlines the agency of citizens, challenging prevailing views that often portray citizens as passive participants. Schwenkel traces manifold ways that residents in Quang Trung made the decayed buildings adapt to their changing needs and urban lifestyles. Such acts, as demonstrated in the book, were not arbitrary but planned, which serves as individualised ways to pursue the unfinished utopia.
When recounting the destruction of Vinh during the war with the US, Schwenkel pays particular attention to the contrasting visual techniques employed by the US and Vietnam in reporting and recording urban warfare.
A particularly fascinating aspect of Schwenkel’s analysis is the focus on affect. She skilfully draws together socialist planning and its afterlife in mass housing through the thread of affect, generating many thought-provoking ideas. When recounting the destruction of Vinh during the war with the US, Schwenkel pays particular attention to the contrasting visual techniques employed by the US and Vietnam in reporting and recording urban warfare. In contrast with the aerial photographs by the US military, those photos taken by Vietnamese photographers employ close-up shots in recording the architectural remains of everyday urban life. The intimate portraits of the destroyed buildings powerfully convey the sense of trauma perceived by the people. This sense of trauma further strengthened international solidarity between East Germany and Vietnam, as detailed in the chapter “Solidarity”. It also set the stage for East Germany’s involvement in Vinh’s postwar reconstruction, which is thoroughly explored in the chapter “Spirited Internationalism”. This international solidarity, as demonstrated in the book, was both political and affective, appearing on the surface as a form of brotherhood between East Germany and Vietnam, but at its core, it was characterised by an asymmetrical relationship. The middle part of the book elaborates how this international solidarity gave birth to socialist planning and architectural forms in Vinh.
The author delves into the complexities of international solidarity as affective practice, highlighting the challenge of cultural differences, misaligned expectations, and the difficult balance between altruism and self-interest. The last part of the book features voices from the people of Vinh, who inhabited and used modernist architecture. Their affective attachments to the modernist architecture of the city are reflected in the various modifications they made to their residences, which subverts the narrow understanding of seeing modernist architecture as the product of rationality. To examine this state-sponsored, nationalist project through the thread of affect is very intriguing. It also piques my curiosity: how does affect relate specifically to socialist urbanisation as opposed to capitalist urbanisation? While the author briefly addresses this aspect in certain chapters, a detailed exploration is not provided.
The book not only sheds light on a lesser-known chapter of Cold War history but also propels readers to think about the lasting impact of architectural and urban planning decisions in shaping societal narratives and experiences.
The book’s strength lies in its methodological approach. Schwenkel’s transnational perspective, underpinned by extensive use of both German archives and Vietnamese sources, allows for a nuanced understanding of this complex historical interplay. By engaging with key informants in Vinh and delving into local archives, Schwenkel brings to the fore voices that have long been marginalised in historical discourse.
Building Socialism is a compelling read for scholars and enthusiasts of socialist urban planning and architecture, Asian urbanisation, and postcolonial studies. The book offers a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the socialist modernisation in the postwar city of Vinh. It not only sheds light on a lesser-known chapter of Cold War history but also propels readers to think about the lasting impact of architectural and urban planning decisions in shaping societal narratives and experiences.
This book review is published by the LSE Southeast Asia blog and LSE Review of Books blog as part of a collaborative series focusing on timely and important social science books from and about Southeast Asia.
This post gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, or of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Image Credit: khuanchai photo on Shutterstock.
Department of Defense Adopts a Philosopher’s Applied Ontology
When you think of ontology, the branch of metaphysics concerned with what kinds of things there are, what probably comes to mind is talk of universals and particulars or types and tokens. But perhaps you should be thinking of the “precision mission desired outcomes” of “the nation’s warfighters and intelligence professionals.”
That’s because applied ontology, which brings philosophy and information science together to systematically classify the types of objects of various practical technological domains (including medical informatics, finance, intelligence, for example) is being used by the military.
Philosopher Barry Smith (Buffalo), a pioneer in the field, has over the past few decades developed what is known as Basic Formal Ontology (see here and here).
Just recently, the United States Department of Defense (Dod) has directed all of its agencies to make use of Basic Formal Ontology and one of its extensions, Common Core Ontology, as part of its “baseline standards”.
A DoD memo explains:
Ontologies are used across the DoD, Intelligence Community (IC) and with other software applications to enable data sharing, insights, and interoperability across a complex network of global and disparate data and information systems. Most of these ontologies, however, were created in isolation or based on incompatible principles, limiting sustainability and interoperability opportunities. Moreover, they are often tied to existing data sources, which prove inflexible and unscalable when applied to new data streams.
By implementing the new ontology standards, the entire DoD “will realize significant gains in data interoperability, federated search and discovery, decreased analytic timelines, and better cost efficiency.”
A press release offers an example:
“Ontology creates data descriptions that everyone can use,” says Smith… “It’s nearly impossible to join data derived from multiple sources without an ontology.” Smith says engineers working on separate pieces of the fuselage for the Airbus 380 in 2006 had conflicting ways of representing holes in their respective computer-aided design packages. The discrepancy meant that hundreds of miles of wires that had to be threaded through the plane’s airframe couldn’t reach the necessary connection points. Being just a few millimeters short of the mark required $6 billion to correct.
The DoD’s decision about the new standards was made this past January.
(via John Beverley)
The post Department of Defense Adopts a Philosopher’s Applied Ontology first appeared on Daily Nous.
‘Mass resignations’ among IDF spokespeople – including Hagari’s number 2 – Israeli media
Israeli Channel 14 reports discontent and departures in Israeli military’s widely-derided propaganda unit
Israel’s Channel 14 broadcaster has reported a slew of resignations among senior members of Israel’s military ‘Spokespersons unit’ amid growing chaos in the unit. The investigations are said to include the unit’s number two Col Butbul, as well as Colonel Moran Katz, Lieutenant Richard Hecht, the unit’s International Spokesperson.
Israel’s spokespeople have been widely derided for ludicrous claims, including calling a calendar a list of terrorist personnel, and have repeatedly pushed transparent attempts to deflect blame for Israel’s atrocities, including the bombing of multiple hospitals.
Many of the propagandists have become ‘memes’ in their own right – and the latest news has generated at least one classic, showing unit boss Daniel Hagari, who infamously made the calendar claim, pointing at himself in a headline about the resignations:
A screenshot of ‘The Agitator’s video meme
Hagari was reportedly appointed to run the unit without any former role in it.
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