War Crimes
The Hallmark of Russian Occupation – Torture
Looking at the blinking cursor, there are several ways that I could open this article and try to make an impression to hold your attention. Shall I cite a statistic? Shall I tell you a story about something I saw in a documentary film?
How about the image above, graffiti scrawled on the wall in a liberated part of Ukraine, the words read, “it’s not a war crime if you had fun.”
There, in a nutshell, is the attitude that Ukrainians under occupation are faced with.
The Statistic
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture recently stated that, having looked at the overall picture from 103,000 recorded claims of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainians, 90% of those cases were torture related. Leading to the inescapable conclusion that it is a “deliberate policy” to act with such barbaric cruelty.
However, that is nothing like the full picture. Following the blitzkrieg of landgrab in the initial weeks of the full-scale war, Russia was occupying 26.4% of Ukraine in March of 2022, in March of 2024 that figure stands at 18.5%. The information that we have on these crimes only comes from liberated territory. There is no way of documenting evidence of crimes in areas beyond Kyiv’s control. But in every part of that 7.9% of their land that the Ukrainians have liberated, the exact same thing is uncovered.
The Documentary Films
The biggest crime scene that remains beyond investigation is the city of Mariupol. The Academy Award-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol offers a first-hand view of Russia’s crimes there.
In Kharkiv region, only 30% of which had been occupied, 25 torture chambers have been examined. In one mass grave alone, in the city of Izium, 449 bodies were recovered. Some of the victims there had been shot in the head, their hands tied behind their backs.
We know that this is Russian policy because we saw the exact same thing in the town of Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv when that was liberated too.
In the film Under Deadly Skies, a Byline TV production, veteran journalists John Sweeney and Zarina Zabrisky went into a torture chamber in the city of Kherson in Ukraine’s south accompanied by a man who had been held there during the Russian occupation. That man, Oleksander, wept when he entered the prison cell where he had been incarcerated. Oleksander is a bear of a man, probably in his 40s or 50s. The kind of person who would normally hide his emotions. In this case it was impossible to do so.
These are not only war crimes being documented, or lives that will always be burdened by nightmares as experiences are involuntarily recounted, this practice implemented everywhere shows us several things that are fundamental to understanding the Russian war in Ukraine. The most important thing that it tells us is that the occupiers are not welcome anywhere.
Had the Russian military been met as liberators by “ethnic” Russians frustrated by a supposed inability to speak Russian as their native language, there would surely be no need to torture them. That is self-evident.
The Victims
When the Russians have occupied any space in Ukraine, they have systemically gone after anyone who they perceive might pose a threat to their control. Certain categories of people are the primary targets. Anyone who had, or has, relatives who had fought against the initial Russian invasion of the Donbas since 2014, they would be rooted out first. Anyone who had served in local administrations would be considered to be likely to be loyal to Ukraine.
Russian occupation means carting such people off to a torture camp. In further efforts to depopulate the areas that Russia is trying to steal from their local populations, many people were sent from their homes to so-called “filtration camps” where lengthy interrogations and strip searches were designed to determine their loyalty towards Ukraine, the nation they knew as their home. The presence of a patriotic tattoo would be sufficient grounds for someone to be disappeared for good. That has been the fate of tens of thousands of people.
Another form of torture, alongside the beatings and mock executions and electric shocks, is sexual violence. As I noted in my last Byline Times article, victims of this kind of torture are both men and women, but it is predominantly girls and women who have been the targets of such heinous depravity. Why? Well, it is not just because the abuser(s) believe it to be fun, as per the opening image, according to testimonies given by the victims they are told that the horror they are subjected to is so that they do not, or cannot, in the future give birth to Ukrainian children.
From Kyiv Oblast in central Ukraine, to Kharkiv Oblast in northeastern Ukraine, to Kherson in southern Ukraine, the picture is always the same. Torture. Summary executions. Rape. Deportation.
Those who argue that Ukraine needs to somehow reach a compromise with Russia, “for the sake of peace”, have to realise that this is no such thing. Their underlying thinking, that maybe Russia does have legitimate claim to this or that part of Ukraine, is blown apart by the fact that the Russians have to torture people to subdue the populations that they have – for now – taken under their control.
Of course, this is not new. And, of course, this behaviour is reflective of the very nature of the hyper-authoritarian Putin regime. Dissent must be crushed and the methods for accomplishing this are always violent. That is the modus operandi at home and for his overseas aggressions.
The Pope
This past weekend the Pope himself drew scorn for suggesting that Ukraine realise it was time to wave a white flag. “When you see that you are defeated, that things are not working out” the Pontiff said, “have the courage to raise the white flag and negotiate.” Pope Francis is wrong in every way.
Ukraine does not see defeat, and it is determined to fight on in this war because it is a war between good and evil. The white flag indicates surrender, is it official Vatican policy that people should be surrendered unto a regime that would torture them? Is it Christian to compromise with evil?
Some Hard Truths
Putin will not countenance giving up an inch of occupied Ukrainian land. His war that began in 2014 has spiraled out of control for him through a series of errors entirely of the Kremlin’s own making. The seizure of Crimea was unwise when it could not be adequately resourced, he should have known that, but he acted impulsively and recklessly. The 2022 invasion of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were an attempt to rectify that problem on a permanent basis. The only way to bring an end to Russian occupation and the violence that comes with this is through military force. That is a responsibility that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are more than ready to accept. The way to ensure that this effort will continue to be successful is through the provision of military aid.
The “negotiated peace” camp needs to understand that living under Russian occupation is not peace. The Pope needs to understand that Ukrainians see only victory. Reversing the occupation of 50% of lands seized in early 2022 and taking control over the Black Sea are evidence that they are capable of this. The parties blocking aid to Ukraine need to understand that they are complicit in sentencing millions of people to continued occupation with every horror that is entailed therein.
Photos/video: members protest at Unite HQ over Graham’s betrayal of Gaza
General secretary’s actions and action prompts demo at union’s executive meeting
Unite union members furious at Sharon Graham’s continued silence on Israel’s genocide in Gaza – and her attempts behind the scenes to prevent officials representing the union at rallies and marches, as well as her ban on film showings and book readings on Unite premises and her attempt to cancel a pro-Palestine event, demonstrated outside Unite’s Holborn headquarters yesterday during a meeting of the union’s executive.
Around fifty protesters, including some with experience of the fight against South African apartheid, gathered with banners calling for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide, to hear speakers and chant for freedom.
Anti-apartheid campaigner Dr Jonathan Fluxman, of Doctors in Unite, spoke to the demo about the racist atrocity propaganda that Israel and much of the western media are using to dehumanise the Palestinians:
Another speaker talked of the solidarity of Jews around the world with the oppressed Palestinians:
And the protesters joined in the South African freedom call and response, “Amandla – Awethu”, ‘Power to the people’:
Sharon Graham has been slammed for her actions – and inaction – relating to Palestine and the Israeli regime’s genocide in Gaza. She has been publicly silent about the slaughter, but has been criticised for banning Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests, banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam, placed an official under investigation who refused to cancel a Palestine solidarity fringe event at Labour’s 2023 annual conference – and senior Unite sources have alleged that she told her chief of staff to threaten a soon-to-retire official with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians. An email from her official union address to an angry member dismissed the genocide perpetrated on the people of Gaza.
Ms Graham’s tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in threat, misogyny and bullying complaints brought by union employees. She is also embroiled in both an employment tribunal for discrimination and a defamation lawsuit brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for the union’s treatment of him and comments made about him by Graham and her close ally Tony Woodhouse.
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Video: ‘Freudian hasbara – ‘Don’t compare other genocides to this one’
Young pro-Israel propagandist’s reaction when she realises what she’s given away speaks volumes…
The penny starts to drop…
The attempt by a young proponent of hasbara – pro-Israel propaganda – to shame a US town hall meeting for discussing a motion calling or a ceasefire in Gaza ended in humiliation when a ‘freudian slip’ let to her admitting that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Laughter broke out at the January meeting in Burlington, Vermont, causing the young woman to pause in her hectoring – and her reaction as she realised what she had said spoke volumes:
Shamefully, the meeting still voted with the pro-Israel propagandists – but the slip revealed that the ‘friends of genocide’ know the truth of what they are inexcusably defending. Tragically for the civilians of Gaza, the US, UK and other western governments are more than prepared to turn a blind eye to the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children and collude in mass murder of innocents.
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Heartbreaking video as little Palestinian boy talks seeing of dad, pregnant mum executed
Shocking matter-of-fact retelling by Faisal Al-Khaldi spotlights the horror of everyday life under Israeli genocide
A video from Alaraby TV provides a devastating window on the horrific reality of life for Palestinians and their children under the genocide of their Israeli occupiers – but has also showcased the love, humanity and courage of the people of Gaza and the West Bank.
Ahmed al-Khaldi and his pregnant wife Fatima were executed in December when Israeli soldiers invaded their home, an incident confirmed by human rights group Euro-Med Monitor. Their son Adam was also killed and his four-year-old little brother Faisal was wounded but survived. Six others in the house were also murdered.
Little Faisal has now spoken to Alaraby about seeing his parents murdered:
As Alon Mizrahi, who shared the video to Twitter, pointed out, the video of Faisal shows a ‘premature maturity’ that can only be born out of great horror – but the love of the anonymous woman who is caring for him is just as powerful. Mizrahi, in a post accompanying the video, commented:
1. The maturity of this kid, which is way beyond his tender age. He recounts things he saw almost like an adult giving testimony. This kind of premature maturity is only the result of tragedy and disaster: a world in which children are not allowed to be children. This has been true for Gaza for generations, thanks to Israel’s occupation, siege and frequent wars.
2. The other thing that stood out for me was the amounts of love showered on this kid by the woman that we never see, but only hear her voice, see her hand and feel her presence. This really melts your heart immediately in it’s universal humanity, but it is also distinctly Arab. This kind of outpouring, heartfelt love, with this tone of voice, this pyisicallity [sic], that heart fully open – that is immediately recognizable to me as Arab.
This genocide has been started, and is being inflicted, with always the big political and cultural purpose of dehumanizing Arabs and Muslims: this has been its underlaying foundation. But what is happening is exactly the opposite.
Hundreds of millions of people have been exposed, for the first time in life, to the immense beauty, generosity, humanity, courage and wisdom the Muslim and Arab world are capable of.
This was made with the intention of making Muslims and Arabs hated, and presenting them as sub-human; but I think, for much of humanity, this has opened gated and portals of love that had been shut before. What is coming out from Gaza’s doctors and journalists and volunteers and rescue teams and children and just people – this has captivated the hearts of countless good souls around this planet.
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Video: ‘unfounded, unverified’ – what UN really said about Israel’s ‘Hamas rape’ claims
Pro-Israel spin and complicit mainstream media claim UN report upheld Israel’s claims – it didn’t and even the UN’s political collusion collapses under scrutiny
Israel’s supporters, compliant ‘mainstream’ media and a host of professional and unpaid amplifier accounts have spent the past few days trumpeting the supposed ‘confirmation’ by the United Nations of Israel’s claims of rapes, mutilations and sexual violence by Hamas during the 7 October raid.
In reality, while they claimed ‘evidence’ was ‘clear and convincing’ of sexual violence ‘committed against captives’, this evidence appears to be purely the claims of captives, since there was no mention of – and no realistic possibility of collecting – forensic evidence from the period and locations of captivity.
Such claims are, of course, at odds with the testimony of female captives that they were treated well and even ‘like queens’. And Pramila Patten added her finding that even if such violence was occurring, it in fact delegitimises Israel’s use of violence, which is preventing the return of captives.
Patten then claimed there were ‘reasonable grounds’ to think that sexual violence took place at the Nova rave and on the road back toward Gaza – already demonstrably farcical when Israeli helicopter gunships are well known to have been firing constantly and repeatedly at anything that moved. And Patten even linked her claim of reasonableness to the mass killing and burning of bodies – killings and burnings which have been firmly linked to the mass chain-gun and missile ‘friendly fire’ of Israeli helicopters known to have fired indiscriminately at Israeli and Palestinian alike under the ‘Hannibal directive‘.
So extensive was this ‘friendly fire’ that hundreds of Palestinian bodies were originally misidentified by Israel as Israelis, proving that the fire came from Israeli sources. In fact, the Israeli military knew – and has admitted to Israeli media – that it killed an ‘immense’ number of its own people on the day of the raid. Patten either ignored, or was ignorant of, this admission.
With regard to the day of the raid, the UN panel said that of all Israel’s claims, three were positively disproven – and all the rest were unverified, with many based on the ‘inaccurate’ and ‘unreliable’ claims of a group of people who didn’t know what they were talking about. This was not hinted at by the UN panel, but stated flatly and unequivocally – with the two UN women concluding that they had been unable to verify any sexual violence:
And Pramila Patten went on to admit that:
- there was no forensic evidence of rape – or ‘very very little’, with no specification of any evidence that was found
- there was no evidence of ‘systematic’ sexual violence, despite a team of scientists taking part in the UN visit
- she had not tied any sexual violence anywhere to Hamas or any group
Despite this, Israel’s mouthpieces and propagandists have stridently insisted the opposite of the women’s findings, including the political padding and leaving out the inconvenient – but very clearly expressed – reality of what Patten and her colleague said they found, or more accurately did not find.
As with every other claim by Israel so far since its genocide in Gaza began, the claim to have been vindicated by the UN findings falls apart under scrutiny. In contrast, rape, torture and sexual violence toward Palestinian women by Israeli troops and security personnel is credible and widespread.
But even if Israel’s claims didn’t collapse under scrutiny, they would be no excuse for the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza – and Patten and her colleague were absolutely clear about that.
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Black Lambeth councillor quits Labour after suspension over Gaza vote
Sonia Winifred quits Labour in disgust and says she has no confidence in leadership
Cllr Sonia Winifred
A Black councillor in London’s Lambeth borough has quite the Labour party in disgust after being suspended for voting for a ceasefire motion put before the borough council in January.
Sonia Winifred announced her resignation on her social media this afternoon, saying that in voting for an immediate ceasefire she was representing her constituents in ‘wonderfully diverse’ Knights Hill:
Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman MP – also suspended by Keir Starmer – responded with an unfavourable comparison of Labour’s current Stalinist and imperialist regime to the party that stood against South African apartheid a few decades ago:
Shocked to hear that you have been disciplined because of your position on Gaza. On that basis not a single Labour councillor would have dared breathe a word about apartheid in the 80s.
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) March 7, 2024
Solidarity with Sonia Winifred, Diane Abbott and all those hounded by Starmer’s red Tory regime for standing up for justice and humanity.
Israel has so far killed at least 40,000 civilians in Gaza, maimed twice as many and is inflicting starvation and disease on more than two million innocents, half of whom are children.
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Video: ‘Goodbye Palestine’ – deranged US congressman wants Palestine erased
Republican Chuck Fleischmann’s ‘Israel forever’ rant
Republican US congressman Chuck Fleischmann has been caught on video in a deranged rant in which he tells a Palestinian-American ‘Goodbye to Palestine’, appearing – and not denying when asked – to wish for Palestine and its people to be ‘wiped off the face of the earth’.
Fleischmann was challenged by two anti-genocide activists about his support for Israel and began his rant that he will always support Israel before gesticulating in the face of one of the pair and telling them ‘I will never support the Palestinians. Never!’:
Fleischmann’s unhinged rant is a frightening window into the mentality of the US right – and the UK Israel lobby’s murderousness, which differs primarily in being less obviously expressed.
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Excl: new Unite chief of staff ‘threatens London sec with loss of pension bonus’ for Gaza support
No denial from new official appointed by Graham without exec interview
Unite’s new ‘chief of staff’ has been accused by party insiders in London of threatening the union’s London regional secretary with the loss of a discretionary pension bonus if he did not pull back from his support for Palestinians in Gaza against Israel’s genocide.
Sarah Carpenter – who sources say was appointed by general secretary Sharon Graham without the position being advertised and without the approval of Unite’s elected executive, to their and members’ fury – has been accused of making the threat to regional secretary Peter Kavanagh.
Ms Carpenter,
According to Unite sources, you threatened Pete Kavanagh with the loss of his pension bonus if he didn’t back off from his support of Gaza… The sources say that you did this at the behest of Sharon Graham.
If you have any comment or denial to make in respect of this, please provide it no later than 2pm, Weds 6 March. They also say that the position you now hold was not advertised for applications. Is this correct?
Twenty-two hours after the press deadline, no response has been received.
Sarah Carpenter was accused last year – as Southern regional secretary – by members of banning showings of the film ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn/The Big Lie’, which exposes the sabotage of Corbyn’s Labour by the party’s hard right and the use of antisemitism smears as part of the sabotage campaign. Pro-Israel lobby group CAA claimed credit for her decision and Sharon Graham’s wider move to ban showings of the film and readings of Asa Winstanley’s book ‘Weaponising Antisemitism/How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn’.
As well as the ban of the book and film from all Unite buildings, Graham was accused of trying to force the cancellation of a pro-Palestine fringe meeting at Labour’s conference last October. The bid failed when the event’s organiser, international director Simon Dubbins, told Graham’s proxies that she’d have to come and tell him herself if she wanted the event off. Unite has now placed Dubbins under investigation.
Graham has also been condemned by Unite members for her public silence over the Gaza slaughter. Members are planning to picket the union executive’s next meeting, which takes place next week.
One Unite source told Skwawkbox of the anger of elected executive members over the latest move:
Pete Kavanagh the Regional Secretary was called up and threatened by Sharon’s new hatchet woman Sarah Carpenter that he backs off supporting Palestine or they would take away his retirement bonus. Pete is due to retire and apparently there is some leavers bonus that is discretionary.
The chief of staff post was not advertised nor was the job interviewed by Executive council. Members are furious.
Unite operates ‘discretionary enhanced pension’ scheme that allows staff to retire five years early without losing pension entitlement they would have had if they worked until full retirement age. A proposal was floated by Graham in 2022 to end this scheme and force staff to work until sixty-five for their full pension and consulted on the change in early 2023, but this does not appear to have been enacted, at least yet, and entitlement under this scheme seems to be what was referred to in the alleged threat.
Kavanagh retired last month.
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South Africa calls on ICJ to take ‘additional emergency measures’ against Israel for Gaza
World court asked to rule immediately, without the delay of a hearing
South Africa has called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take extra ‘urgent’ measures against Israel and its genocide in Gaza – including ordering an immediate halt to military action and to any actions by Israel that may prejudice the right of the people of Gaza not to be subjected to genocide.
The request also asks the ICJ to order Israel to act immediately to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance and the restoration of essential services by ceasing all military operations and ending its blockade of the Gaza Strip, to ensure Palestinians can access food and water.
Because of the urgency of the situation – with hundreds more civilians slaughtered daily and hunger and disease now becoming the biggest killers in Gaza – South Africa has asked the court to issue an emergency ruling without a hearing:
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Genocide apologist deletes ‘Jew-hater’ smear after legal threat from Galloway
Pro-Israel hardliner gets the Galloway treatment
Hardline Israel apologist Ben Freeman has deleted a tweet smearing new Rochdale MP George Galloway, shortly after Galloway responded to the smear with a legal threat.
Freeman – whose Twitter feed is full of rants against peaceful anti-apartheid activism and smearing marches against Israel’s genocide in Gaza as ‘hate’ and ‘racist’ and who has defended Israel’s blockade of Gaza and described antizionism as ‘post-Holocaust Jew hatred ‘propagated by the USSR’ – smeared Galloway as a ‘virulent Jew-hater’ and the votes that gave him his landslide election victory as a ‘dark day for British democracy.
And Galloway responded promptly to tell him to ‘remove this immediately or face the legal consequences’:
Sure enough, the tweet promptly disappeared:
Galloway has a consistent record of taking no nonsense from those who attempt to smear him and has already terrorised a number of journalists who tried to trap him with government lines and bias. And he has a long track record of successfully suing, for large amounts of money, people and organisations who smear him, for example the Daily Mirror group in 1992, the Telegraph in 2004, winning £150,000 in damages plus £2m in legal costs, radio station Jcom in 2008, pro-Israel Guardian hack Hadley Freeman in 2015, who deleted rather than fight, and Twitter – after which its designation of his account as ‘Russian-affiliated state media’ was removed.
As one commenter put it of his interaction with Ben Freeman, Freeman got ‘the Galloway treatment’. Other politicians could learn much from his approach:
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