Butchery in Gaza continues/European arms factories blockaded by their workers/Reuters journalist murdered by Israeli tank fire/UN Chief invokes Article 99 after 34 years

NB: Israel is committing genocide with impunity; conducted in front of our noses. Read the UN definition of genocide; and the brazen hypocrisy of the propaganda about the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea‘. Read also the history of the decades long ethnic cleansing against Palestinians; and the demand for a unitary, secular state. The UN Chief has invoked Article 99 for the first time in his tenure and 34 years after the last time it was invoked, in 1989, during the Lebanon war. That Israel can accuse the UN Secretary General of being a terrorist sympathiser speaks volumes for its arrogance and contempt for international law. Not to mention that of its backers, the USA and UK. The world will not recover from this brazen racism for a very long time. DS

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About 350 Palestinians had been killed and 1,900 injured in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday. More than 17,000 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 46,000 wounded, according to the health ministry… Many more are trapped under rubble.

At the northern end of the Gaza Strip, there was heavy fighting in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The IDF said its troops raided a militant compound, killing “a number” of fighters and uncovering a network of tunnels. Al Jazeera said one of its journalists had lost 22 members of his family in a strike in Jabaliya…

Oxfam said people were reduced to fighting over basic necessities such as food, water and fuel. Marta Valdés García, Oxfam’s humanitarian director, said: “The systemic, militarised chaos has overwhelmed the international humanitarian system … Israel’s so-called safe zones within Gaza are a mirage: unprotected, not agreed or trusted, not provisioned, and not accessible.

“We fear that masses of terrified people will be forced beyond Gaza itself under the guise of ‘safety’. This would force the humanitarian system into an impossible choice between helping civilians and being complicit in their forced deportation.”

Dr Christos Christou, the international president of the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said Gaza faced a catastrophe extending far beyond a humanitarian crisis.

He said: “It is a chaotic situation, and I’m extremely worried that very soon people will be in a mode of just trying to survive, which will come with very severe consequences.” He added that people were being “squeezed in a very small area. My teams on the ground keep saying to me that it is unbearable.”

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Meanwhile, four arms factories in the UK producing Israeli fighter jets were shut down by hundreds of trade unionists protesting under the banner “Workers for a Free Palestine”. Eaton Mission Systems in Bournemouth, BAE Systems at Samlesbury Aerodrome in Lancashire, the L3Harris factory in Brighton and Hove and BAE Govan in Glasgow produce parts for the F-35 stealth combat aircraft currently being used by Israel to bombard Gaza.

The protesters included health workers, teachers, hospitality workers, academics and artists. They called for an end to arms sales to Israel and for the UK government to support a permanent ceasefire. The protests were organised in coordination with workers in France, Denmark and the Netherlands, who also blockaded arms factories on Thursday.

Workers for a Free Palestine said: “Shutting down four factories across the UK today, along with several simultaneous blockades in Europe, are critical acts of solidarity, refusing to conduct business as usual in the face of Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza and ongoing genocide.

“As the British government refuses to call for a ceasefire and directly supports Israel’s military attack, a rapidly growing movement of workers are clearly saying, ‘Not in our name.’”

In Lebanon, the government on Thursday said it would refer to the UN security council reports by Reuters and Agence France-Presse that showed that Israeli military fire had killed a Reuters journalist, Issam Abdallah, and wounded six others in south Lebanon on 13 October…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/07/israel-pounds-250-gaza-targets-in-a-day-as-un-chief-warns-order-may-break-down

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It’s Time to Confront Israel’s Version of “From the River to the Sea”

Israel imposing apartheid on Palestinians, says former Mossad chief

Manifesto of the One Democratic State Campaign for Israel-Palestine

The Guardian view on Gaza’s devastation: don’t look away. See the bigger picture too

Michael Brenner: Europe-Jews-Muslims

Mohammed Hanif: The rest of the world has had it with US presidents, Trump or otherwise

Evil, with one eye

We’re anti-Zionist Jews and we see genocide unfolding in Gaza

Standing up for Palestine is also standing up to save the west from the worst of itself

Netanyahu’s deliberate extremism has failed