News
Putin Was Declared A War Criminal For *Relocating* The Same Number Of Children Israel Just *Killed*
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/a35062ad497cede8f0d75a52bd5b6892/href
It’s probably worth noting at this point in history that the total number of children killed in Gaza has just surpassed the number of children the International Criminal Court indicted Russian president Vladimir Putin for relocating out of a war zone.
A recent estimate by Gaza authorities puts the number of Palestinian children killed by Israel’s bombing campaign over the last seven weeks at just above the six thousand mark. This number comes from the Gaza Media Office, which is only able to make unconfirmed estimates since the Gaza Health Ministry who normally reports such numbers has lost the ability to count the dead effectively due to communications collapse caused by the bombing.
In March of this year — ironically on the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq — ICC judges issued an arrest warrant charging Putin with war crimes in Ukraine. The allegations? The “unlawful deportation” of some six thousand Ukrainian children to a network of “re-education” camps inside Russia.
Jeb Sprague on Twitter: "Remember that time the @IntlCrimCourt issued an arrest warrant for a head of state for evacuating children OUT of a warzone? More than 6,000 children have been killed in #Gaza. Where are the ICC investigators now? https://t.co/Et9aCN8sUm @KarimKhanQC / Twitter"
Remember that time the @IntlCrimCourt issued an arrest warrant for a head of state for evacuating children OUT of a warzone? More than 6,000 children have been killed in #Gaza. Where are the ICC investigators now? https://t.co/Et9aCN8sUm @KarimKhanQC
As The Grayzone documented at the time, the ICC charges were based on a Yale HRL report which is rife with contradictions, plot holes, and the fairly significant conflict of interest of being funded by the US State Department. The report itself acknowledges that it found “no documentation of child mistreatment,” and that nearly all of the children were returned to their families in a timely manner.
But even if these points were all false and Vladimir Putin did just illegally kidnap six thousand Ukrainian kids to turn them into Russians, would that be worse than murdering them by dropping powerful military explosives on areas known to be packed full of children? Why is one a war crime and the other apparently fine? Russia is no more a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute than Israel is, after all.
A recent United Nations report says that “Since 7 October, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, 67 per cent of the more than 14,000 people killed in Gaza are estimated to be women and children.” If we assume it’s an even 14,000 and make the obscenely generous assumption that every single one of the men killed by Israel were Hamas combatants, 67 percent puts the total number of civilians killed at 9,380 in just seven weeks of bombing.
In the 21 months of the war in Ukraine, the UN estimates the number of civilians killed at around ten thousand. The total number of children killed? Around 560.
The numbers show that Israel is plainly behaving in a way that is far, far more murderous and criminal in Gaza than Russia is in Ukraine, but we good and faithful members of the international community are meant to desire only the Russian leader’s prosecution at The Hague.
The Spectator Index on Twitter: "BREAKING: Gaza government office says death toll has risen to 14,854, including over 6,150 children. / Twitter"
BREAKING: Gaza government office says death toll has risen to 14,854, including over 6,150 children.
Really “international law” does not exist in any meaningful way, which is why powerful governments always just ignore it while the people who are actually detained by the ICC are always from weaker nations (overwhelmingly African). Perhaps nothing better exemplifies this dynamic than the the US government’s American Service-Members’ Protection Act, better known as the Hague Invasion Act. This 2002 law authorizes the use of military force to liberate any US or US-allied military personnel from any ICC attempt to prosecute them for war crimes. “US-allied” would ostensibly include Israeli forces.
In truth our world is ruled by tyrants who do whatever they want to do, and their actions are justified by the mass media who function as propagandists for the US-centralized power structure. Pundits weep and rend their garments over Russian crimes while defending, minimizing and obfuscating the far greater crimes of Israel, because Israel is a part of that globe-spanning power structure while Russia is not.
I have never been particularly interested in defending the Russian government. What I am interested in is opposing the murderousness of the globe-spanning power structure I live under, and all the lies, double standards and hypocrisy used to keep the murders going.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
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Featured image via Adobe Stock.
Newham independent Naqvi trounces Labour in by-election
Labour loses yet another council seat in London borough party fears is becoming ‘another Tower Hamlets’ – and party didn’t even bother to turn up at polling stations
Newham Independents candidate Sophia Naqvi has trounced Labour to win the Plaistow North by-election, giving the Independents their third councillor in the East End borough.
Naqvi won 1286 votes to Labour’s 750 after a clean and well-supported campaign by the independents that saw Labour barely able to muster canvassers for party-imposed candidate Aktharul Alam. Locals have told Skwawkbox that there were no party representatives in sight in at least two polling stations, suggesting Labour knew what was coming from the reactions it received on the doorstep.
Newham has seen a string of resignations of senior party officers over Keir Starmer’s assault on democracy – and this week saw Cllr Zuber Gulamussen and several party officers resign over Starmer’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. With Independent Group leader Mehmood Mirza already having hammered another imposed Labour candidate in May, Labour figures fear that Newham will become ‘another Tower Hamlets’ – the London borough that the party lost catastrophically to the Aspire group run by Lutfur Rahman, the former – and again current – mayor ousted after a racist smear campaign by the Labour right.
Based on tonight’s result, those fears appear to be coming true. Congratulations Sophia Naqvi and the Newham Independents.
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White House Fears Pause In Fighting Will Let Journalists See What’s Been Happening In Gaza
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/2f59faa78e8aa5aa64f67387188f3ccc/href
Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a four-day ceasefire which will entail the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for 150 hostages held by Israeli forces.
In an article titled “Biden admin officials see proof their strategy is working in hostage deal,” Politico describes the deal as “the administration’s biggest diplomatic victory of the conflict” and reports that White House officials are calling it a “vindication” of Biden’s decision making. Which is an entirely inappropriate level of verbal fellatio for an achievement as minimal as not murdering children for a few days.
Tucked away many paragraphs into this report is a sentence which is getting a lot of attention on social media today saying that according to Politico’s sources there has been some resistance to the pause in fighting within the administration due to fears that it will allow journalists into Gaza to report on the devastation Israel has inflicted upon the enclave.
“And there was some concern in the administration about an unintended consequence of the pause: that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel,” Politico reports.
Rania Khalek on Twitter: "The Biden administration worries that the pause in Gaza will allow journalists to show us the extent of destruction from Israel's genocide. These people are vile. https://t.co/AsOBfVcJ3I pic.twitter.com/D3NxUsEPXY / Twitter"
The Biden administration worries that the pause in Gaza will allow journalists to show us the extent of destruction from Israel's genocide. These people are vile. https://t.co/AsOBfVcJ3I pic.twitter.com/D3NxUsEPXY
In other words, the White House is worried that a brief pause in the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza will allow journalists to report the truth about the Israeli massacre of civilians in Gaza, because it will hurt the information interests of the US and Israel. They are worried that the public will become more aware of facts and truth.
Needless to say, if you’re standing on the right side of history you’re not typically worried about journalists reporting true facts about current events and thereby damaging public support for your agendas. But that is the side that the US and Israel have always stood on, which is why the US empire is currently imprisoning Julian Assange for doing good journalism on US war crimes and why Israel has a decades-long history of threatening and targeting journalists.
During Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza in 2021 the IDF reportedly targeted more than 20 Palestinian press institutions in the enclave, as well as the tower hosting the international outlets AP and Al Jazeera. During this current onslaught Israel has been killing dozens of Palestinian journalists, sometimes by actively bombing their homes where they live with their families. The IDF’s campaign to wipe out inconvenient news reporters has resulted in the Committee to Protect Journalists calling this the deadliest conflict on record for journalists anywhere, ever.
wsbgnl on Twitter: ""The spiralling death toll over a six-week period compares with the 42 journalists killed worldwide in the whole of 2022, including 15 who died covering Russia's invasion of Ukraine, widely considered a highly dangerous conflict for news media."https://t.co/u7JIA6VChZ pic.twitter.com/wg7DwLiFpj / Twitter"
"The spiralling death toll over a six-week period compares with the 42 journalists killed worldwide in the whole of 2022, including 15 who died covering Russia's invasion of Ukraine, widely considered a highly dangerous conflict for news media."https://t.co/u7JIA6VChZ pic.twitter.com/wg7DwLiFpj
Both the US and Israel have been attacking the press in this way because their governments understand that whoever controls the narrative controls the world. They understand that while power is controlling what happens, ultimate power is controlling what people think about what happens. Human consciousness is dominated by mental narratives, so if you can control society’s dominant narratives, you can control the humans.
This is why the powerful have been able to remain in power in our civilization — because they understand this, while we the public generally do not. That’s why they bombard us with nonstop mass media propaganda, that’s why they work to censor the internet, that’s why Julian Assange languishes in prison, that’s why Israel routinely murders journalists, and that’s why the White House is afraid of what will happen if worldwide news reporters are able to get their cameras into Gaza.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
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This Is The Real Face Of The US Empire
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
https://medium.com/media/103574f86d859ecc42e09ee4a30f13f7/href
Someone uploaded one of those viral “help identify this racist jerk” clips featuring a man accosting a street vendor with awful Islamophobic vitriol, and it turned out he was the former US State Department Deputy Director in the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs.
It sounds made up, but that’s exactly what just happened; Vice has a whole article out about it. The video was uploaded today, and within hours the man was identified as Stuart Seldowitz, who helped direct US diplomacy on Israel-Palestine from 1999 to 2003 and then served on the Obama administration’s National Security Council.
Seldowitz’s identity was confirmed by his former employer Gotham Government Relations, who released a statement denouncing him and saying they’ve ended all affiliation with him.
Seldowitz is seen hounding the New York City vendor or vendors in multiple different videos wearing multiple different outfits, showing a sustained campaign of harassment and abuse. He told them while fully aware he was being filmed that Israel killing thousands of Palestinian kids “wasn’t enough”, insulted their religion, threatened them, mocked their intelligence and their English, called them terrorists, and asked “Did you rape your daughter like Mohammed did?” From the videos he appears to be harassing them for no reason other than because they are Muslims selling halal food.
https://medium.com/media/7280b082dab92faa210e2739b305f341/href
That such a horrible person could climb his way to the highest echelons of the world’s most powerful government — working on Palestinian affairs no less — illustrates an important point about the US empire and what it is. There are no barriers stopping such creatures from rising to the top of that power structure, just the opposite in fact — they get an express lane to the top. That’s why bloodthirsty swamp monsters like John Bolton, Lindsey Graham, Victoria Nuland and Elliott Abrams find themselves so intimately involved with US policymaking.
That’s the true face of the US empire, right there. That’s the empire at its most honest. Not dressed up in affable charm and slick PR work, but sneering and hurling racist invective at immigrants who are just trying to do their jobs in peace. Not performing carefully rehearsed faces of compassion for the Palestinians who are being “tragically” and “unintentionally” killed as “collateral damage” in Israel’s war of “defense” against Hamas, but staring right into the camera and saying “If we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, you know what? It wasn’t enough.”
Too many people look at Israel as something separate from the US empire, seeing it as a small nation run by a historically mistreated ethnic group that everyone singles out and picks on unfairly. If you look at Israel separately from the US-centralized global power structure, it feels off to have any forceful animosity toward Israel and its government, because it feels like you’re picking on the little guy.
$ean P. McCarthy on Twitter: ""We see you we hear you" liberalism is really the mask that hides the blood soaked snarl of the US empire. Getting harder and harder to keep that mask in place https://t.co/99wXiCvqly / Twitter"
"We see you we hear you" liberalism is really the mask that hides the blood soaked snarl of the US empire. Getting harder and harder to keep that mask in place https://t.co/99wXiCvqly
It’s only when you see clearly that Israel is just an arm of the same empire that’s been murdering people by the millions around the world with nonstop invasions, bombing campaigns, proxy conflicts, starvation sanctions and CIA coups that you understand that, yes, Israel really is exactly as evil as it appears to be, and its behavior in Gaza is exactly what it looks like.
The US empire backs Israel for the same reason it backs most of the world’s dictatorships: because a globe-spanning empire can only be held together by nonstop violence and tyranny. Israel and other US-aligned states in the middle east are like the chair and the whip of a lion tamer — weapons used to violently abuse the populations of a crucial geostrategic region into compliance. It suits the empire perfectly to have a nuclear-armed government which exists in a constant state of war in the middle east governed by officials who speak English with American accents and interests which are reliably in alignment with those of the United States.
Stuart Seldowitz is not an aberration but a perfect manifestation of all this. This is the sort of mind which keeps the empire marching along from administration to administration no matter who Americans elect. This is the sort of mind which keeps the weapons flowing, the blood pouring, the fossil fuels burning, and the terrified screams which power the imperial machine continually erupting into the night sky.
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My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
OCISA opens applications for candidate to contest Starmer’s seat in next general election
Left-wing group has been campaigning against friend of genocide in Holborn St Pancras constituency – and is now inviting potential candidates to apply
A Corbyn-inspired group of left-wing activists is inviting applications from would-be candidates to stand against the figure at the head of what used to be the Labour party – ‘Labour leader’ would be inappropriate – in the Holborn St Pancras seat he currently holds.
Labour’s polling lead over the Tories has slumped dramatically in the last few weeks as outrage has grown over Keir Starmer’s support for the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and for Israeli war crimes and apartheid – and as awareness sinks into the voting public’s consciousness that he represents a continuation and potentially even a worsening of Tory policies and attacks on human rights and civic freedoms. Many Labour MPs in once-secure seats now fear the consequences, among Muslim and ethnic minority voters, of their collusion in the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.
A press release from the group this morning explains:
An effort to change British politics enters its final phase. OCISA will be advertising for a democratic, progressive, and community-focused candidate to stand against Sir Keir Starmer in Holborn St Pancras at the general election.
For 9 months OCISA has been surveying the electorate in HSP. The overwhelming opinion is voters feel excluded from the political process, 50% want more face-to-face access with an MP who listens and prioritises their concerns.
The candidate selection process will be open and democratic. Several people have made it
known they are interested, but applications are sought from anybody with a commitment to representing their community, regardless of their previous political experience.HoIborn St Pancras is one of the most diverse areas in the country. The electorate is mostly
under forty, cosmopolitan, and progressively minded. OCISA hopes to find a candidate who
can represent their ideals, aspirations, and demands.OCISA wishes to make clear that the UK has a representative parliamentary democracy, and that a political party may win a majority in parliament without their leader in place. The UK does not have a presidential national election between leaders of the two main parties. The electorate has real political power in their hands if they use it locally to choose an individual to represent them, rather than accepting that politics only happens at the national party level where they are entirely powerless.
OCISA is not a political party and has no intention of becoming one. It solely exists to choose a candidate and provide them with campaign !funds and advice from experienced
organisers.Advertisements will be going out to a range of publications in print and on line. Applications should be sent to ocisacampaignshsp@gmail.com with a CV and an
explanation of what you can bring to the role. Deadline for applications is December
11th, 2023.A shortlist of potential candidates will be chosen by a selection panel elected from and by
the membership of OCJSA, with diversity requirement and a built-in bias towards
residents in the constituency. The final choice from the shortlist will be by a democratic
vote of all OCISA members. To find out more, to join OCISA and take part in the selection
process, or to donate to the campaign fund, go to ocisa.org.uk.Members of the news media wanting further information please email ocisacampaignshsp@gmail.com or telephone Eric Jarvis on 0207 733 5997 to arrange an
interview with one of the OCISA Steering Group.
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Video: Camden council admits destroying homeless tents after first denying it
Keir Starmer’s local council tried to deny that it was behind the removal and destruction of tents used by homeless people to shelter from the weather – but has been forced to admit it after bystanders recorded its contractors doing it:
Original video by Streets Kitchen
The council all too eagerly complied with a Met Police dispersal order, after then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s order to target homeless people’s tents, claiming homelessness is a ‘lifestyle choice’. After denying involvement, the council then said that an ‘initial investigation’ had shown its ‘operational involvement’.
Camden is run by the Labour party.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
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Sky News Encourages Their Viewers, All 6 Of Them, To Get Behind Dutton
Low rating news channel, Sky News Australia, has put out the rally cry for their viewers, all 6 of them, to get behind low-polling Opposition leader, the Dark Lord Peter Dutton.
”We need our viewers to muck in and get behind good ol’ Petey Dutton,” said Sky News host, convicted racist Andrew Bolt. ”I can’t wait for a country led by Pete.”
”The air will be crisper, the sun brighter and everything will be a comfortable shade of white.”
When asked why a news channel, admittedly a very low-rating one, would seemingly be barracking for one side of politics rather than remaining neutral, Mr Bolt said: ”We just want what’s best for Australia.”
”And by Australia, of course I mean our demographic, aging, predominantly white boomers,”
”Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m having a little soiree for all my fans and must make sure the telephone booth down the road is free.”
@MWChatShow
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Second UBI sense-making session on Hunome
UBI Lab Finland started building understanding on the many perspectives and possibilities of UBI (Universal Basic Income) on the Hunome ‘social 4.0’ platform (see more about Hunome and why we’ve started using it below). UBI Lab Finland is part of the worldwide UBI Lab Network, comprising of over 40 individual local and thematic UBI Labs […]
The post Second UBI sense-making session on Hunome appeared first on BIEN — Basic Income Earth Network.
The end of Chris Chibnall’s run
The BBC chatted to Chris Chibnall in the lead up to his final episode as showrunner -here’s what he had to say. Can you tell us what audiences can expect from this special?You can expect a massive all action thrill ride from start to finish. There will be laughter, there will be huge jeopardy, and there will be tears at the departure of the Thirteenth Doctor. It’s the biggest threat the Doctor has ever faced – and that any Doctor has ever faced – to their life or lives.Can you talk a bit about the process in putting this feature… Continue reading
Old foe for a new year
One of the Doctor’s most feared nemeses will be back on screens this UK New Year’s Day as Doctor Who returns for a special episode entitled Eve of the Daleks. Following the explosive series finale of Doctor Who: Flux, The Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and friends Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop), will kick-start 2022 with an action-packed spectacular episode set to air on BBC One on New Year’s Day. Eve of the Daleks will also feature guest stars Aisling Bea (This Way Up, Living With Yourself, Quiz), Adjani Salmon (Dreaming Whilst Black, Enterprice) and Pauline McLynn (Father Ted,… Continue reading