International Commission of legal experts recommends investigation of US for crimes against humanity

On April 27, the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence in the United States held a press conference where it released the final 188-page report of its investigations into the U.S. for its violations of human rights of its citizens and residents of African descent, concluding these crimes warrant prosecution under international law.

Britain openly admits to breaking international law on Ireland

Having illegally defied the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly over the Chagos Islands, now it is Ireland, which is also to be remilitarized.

(September 9) – The British government has been accused of creating a “rogue state” as it published a bill to violate the Irish protocol of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, an international treaty. Britain’s Direct Ruler in Ireland, Brandon Lewis (pictured), has brazenly admitted in the Westminster parliament that the Tories’ ‘Internal Market Bill’ breaks international law.

Gaza goes dark under new terror campaign

Gaza’s electricity supply has been cut to around three hours a day as Israeli bombing of the besieged Palestinian enclave has continued for ten consecutive days.

Heavy damage was reported after an Israeli drone targeted the a neighbourhood south-east of Gaza City, while civilian property was damaged by an Israeli warplane as it bombed the town on Beit Hanoun.

This Day. The downing of Iran Air Flight 655

By TONY SEED*

(July 3) – On this day in 1988, the American warship USS Vincennes deliberately fired missiles at an Iranian civilian aircraft, Iran Air Flight 655. Two hundred and ninety innocent passengers died. Vice President George W. Bush honoured the warship, saying: “I don’t care what the facts say: I will never apologize for the United States … Life goes on!”

A300B2-203 Iran Air EP-IBT at Mehrabad International Airport, Tehran | Khashayar Talebzadeh

Lies, the Bethlehem Doctrine, and the illegal murder of Soleimani

By CRAIG MURRAY*

 

Protest against the second war on Iraq, Windsor, October 25, 2003.

In one of the series of blatant lies the USA has told to justify the assassination of Soleimani, Mike Pompeo said that Soleimani was killed because he was planning “Imminent attacks” on US citizens. It is a careful choice of word. Pompeo is specifically referring to the Bethlehem Doctrine of Pre-Emptive Self Defence.

Developed by Daniel Bethlehem when Legal Adviser to first Netanyahu’s government and then Blair’s, the Bethlehem Doctrine is that states have a right of “pre-emptive self-defence” against “imminent” attack. That is something most people, and most international law experts and judges, would accept. Including me.

Report from Germany: An assassination and its consequences

Conflict over Iran escalates. Iraqi parliament demands the withdrawal of the German Bundeswehr

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN/BERLIN (german-foreign-policy.com) – Following the USA’s assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and other high-ranking Iraqi and Iranian military personnel, demands are being raised in Baghdad to expel the foreign troops, including the Bundeswehr. The Anti-IS Coalition troops, stationed in Iraq, must leave the country, the Iraqi parliament ruled yesterday. The German government insists on keeping German troops in Iraq to be able to maintain its options for gaining influence in that country. Berlin had earlier already rejected calls to end its deployment for security reasons. Camp Taji near Baghdad, where 27 German soldiers are currently stationed, had already come under missile fire in June. The camp could become a possible target for retaliatory strikes by Iran or pro-Iranian militias. Whereas the German government euphemizes the assassination of Soleimani as “a line of action undertaken by the United States”, the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group officially called it a “violation of international law.” A government advisor spoke of “state terrorism.”

US air strike on Iraq: Denounce US lawless killings and wars and demand Canadian Forces be brought home immediately

– Statement of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), January 4, 2020 –

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) condemns the U.S. imperialist regime’s killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian armed forces, Abud Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leading member of the Iraqi armed forces, and eight other officials. The U.S. military carried out its lawless assassinations with drone missile strikes at the Baghdad civilian airport on January 3.

The war on innocence: Palestinian children in Israeli military court

By RAMZY BAROUD*

The process in which Palestinian children are callously arrested –
infographic prepared by the moqawama website to visualize the scene | Click to enlarge

On July 29, 4-year-old Muhammad Rabi’ Elayyan was reportedly summoned for interrogation by the Israeli police in occupied Jerusalem.

The hooliganism of the US imperialists knows no bounds

Canadians pay utmost attention to developing anti-imperialist solidarity

By NICK LIN

Working people across Canada continue to pay attention to the unfolding events internationally that require them to take a stand to uphold the international rule of law and organize actions in solidarity with the peoples of the world who have courageously set independent paths for themselves, for which they are increasingly being targeted by U.S. imperialism. Canadians must not accept U.S. dictate in world affairs which seeks to overturn the principles and norms of international relations. These have been expressly codified so as to maintain peaceful relations between countries and to find diplomatic means to settle disputes between countries.

Canadian Network on Cuba calls on Ottawa to reopen visa office in Cuba

Canada and the International Rule of Law

By ISAAC SANEY, Spokesperson

The Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC) is deeply concerned by Ottawa’s abrupt decision to shut down the section of its Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC) Office in Havana through which visas were processed for Cuban citizens wishing to visit Canada and those seeking work or study permits. This measure follows the 50 per cent reduction of the staff of Canada’s embassy in Cuba which took place in January of this year. Cubans now have to make their applications through a visa application centre in a third country (the nearest being Mexico). Those having to submit their biometrics (photo and fingerprints), a requirement instituted in 2018 that will apply to most, will have to travel to a centre outside of Cuba to record this information.

US sanctions violate human rights and international code of conduct

Illegal economic sanctions as collective punishment

UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights

An independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council [of the United Nations] has expressed deep concern at the recent imposition of unilateral coercive measures on Cuba, Venezuela and Iran by the United States, saying the use of economic sanctions for political purposes violates human rights and the norms of international behaviour. Such action may precipitate man-made humanitarian catastrophes of unprecedented proportions.

Word. Report [to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations] of the Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order [Alfred de Zayas] on His Mission to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Ecuador [Some Extracts]

One of many “Gringo, Respect” murals in Caracas.

August 3, 2018

The Report of the Independent Expert says:

Introduction

[…]

After his mission, he continued to follow developments in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, including the refusal of the opposition to sign the negotiated agreement of 7 February 2018, the Declaration of the Summit of the Americas and that of the People’s Summit, both held in Lima in April 2018.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrates 70th anniversary

International Human Rights Day is observed every year on December 10, the date on which the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, seventy years ago in 1948. According to its Preamble, the Declaration, which contains thirty articles, was to constitute a “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.”

Afghanistan: a general admission of abject failure – again

By TONY SEED

U.S. General Scott Miller, who took over command of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan on September 2, admitted in an exclusive interview with NBC News on Tuesday, October 30, that the war in Afghanistan “is not going to be won militarily.”

This day. Anniversary of US criminal use of Agent Orange in Vietnam with the collusion of Canada

By TONY SEED

August 10 marks the 57th anniversary of the start of the chemical warfare program in Vietnam in 1961 without sufficient remedial action by the U.S. government. One of the most shameful legacies of the Vietnam War, Agent Orange continues to poison Vietnam and the people exposed to the chemicals, as well as their offspring.

43rd anniversary of Vietnamese people’s great victory over the US imperialists: The real American war in Viet Nam – ‘kill anything that moves’

By DOUGAL MACDONALD

Victory monument in Xuan Loc, Vietnam

Forty-three ago, the U.S. imperialists were resoundingly defeated by the heroic Vietnamese people, who had suffered greatly at the hands of the French colonialists and then the U.S. imperialists. Historic photos show the last of the U.S. invaders scrambling frantically to escape Viet Nam by helicopter, trying to save their worthless skins from the wrath of people’s war.

The era of retaliation

BERLIN (April 23) – Germany’s defence minister reaffirmed that Berlin is basically ready to participate in military aggressions, such as the recent western attack on Syria. “We could also fulfill the contribution from the air that Great Britain had made in this case,” said Ursula von der Leyen, but “we weren’t asked this time.”

War on Syria: CIA program supplied money, weaponry and training to terrorist forces

Introduction

Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by various Arab intelligence services, most notably that of Saudi Arabia. The program is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. It is further evidence that the United States and/or any of its collaborators and accessories including the Canadian government, with its proxy support, training and arms programs in Kurdistan, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are guilty of crimes against humanity through aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic, a sovereign country. The use of proxy mercenary armies camouflaged by a fictitious “civil war,” according to the Obama Doctrine, masks the identities of their sponsors. It cannot hide them however, nor their aggression, from the light of day nor the reaches of international law.

Diplomatic missions briefed on Jerusalem’s status and ongoing Israeli displacement of Palestinians

On March 7, several human rights groups held an event at the Yabous Cultural Centre in Jerusalem to brief diplomatic missions on the current status of Jerusalem. Its status is clearly defined in international law as an occupied territory. However, on December 6, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump made a provocative announcement that the U.S. recognizes Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, as the capital of Israel and as such plans to move its embassy there. This act, along with other developments in Israel, are aimed at creating the facts on the ground to de facto change the status of Jerusalem.

Erasing history: Israeli state archives kept secret

Files in the Israel State Archives|Ofer Aderet

Ninety-five per cent of the Israeli state archives are concealed from public access. The suppression of history is a precondition for the all-round falsification of history of the enforced dispossession of the Palestinian people – “to make possible the Zionist lies about ‘a land without a people for a people without a land’ and to weaken Palestinian resistance as much as possible.” The state’s own chief archivist has condemned the widespread censorship of historical documents containing information that the public has a right to know about | Four articles 

Haaretz Editorial (January 18) – It was hard to believe that the manifesto posted this week on the website of the Israel State Archives was written by a state official subordinate to the Prime Minister’s Office. The text, by the outgoing chief archivist, Dr. Yaakov Lazovik, gives expression to all those values that the state has been trying to destroy in recent years – democracy, liberalism, humaneness and transparency.

Meeting on Korea in Vancouver: Let’s Discuss

TML Weekly published on January 13 a timely and enlightening Supplement on the one-day meeting in Vancouver on Korea co-hosted by the U.S. and Canada currently underway. It raises pertinent questions about what is really going on about a “diplomatic initiative” of a handful of selected countries out of those that make up the world, given that the two Koreas have already concluded initial agreements on a unified team to participate during the 2018 Olympic Winter Games and holding top level meetings. The TML edition includes in-depth material on the question of sanctions and blockades, pointing out “Since the 1909 London Naval Conference, it is an accepted principle in international law that a blockade is an act of war.”

The genocide of the Palestinian people: An international law and human rights perspective

Center for Constitutional Rights, August 25, 2016

While there has been recent criticism of those taking the position that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, there is a long history of human rights scholarship and legal analysis that supports the assertion. Prominent scholars of the international law crime of genocide and human rights authorities take the position that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinian people could constitute a form of genocide. Those policies range from the 1948 mass killing and displacement of Palestinians to a half-century of military occupation and, correspondingly, the discriminatory legal regime governing Palestinians, repeated military assaults on Gaza, and official Israeli statements expressly favouring the elimination of Palestinians.

The International Criminal Court: A mechanism for criminalising opposition to foreign intervention in Africa

From the website Stop Foreign Intervention in Africa

Judges at the International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established on 17 July 1998 when 120 states adopted the Rome Statute which is the legal basis of this organisation. The court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, should not be confused with the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The latter is part of the United Nations and deals with legal disputes between UN member states.

Salvage or plunder? Israel’s ‘collection’ of private Palestinian libraries in West Jerusalem

It is widely known that when more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from Palestine before and after the establishment of the Zionist state of Israel in 1948 by force of arms, most Palestinian land and belongings were stolen, lost or destroyed. What is not well-known is that at least 70,000 books were looted from Palestinian homes, institutions and libraries in 1948. Rare manuscripts (estimated as numbering around 50,000 originating from 56 libraries in and around Jerusalem) are not included in the estimates and are totally unaccounted for. There are rare Palestinian manuscripts in the collection at the National Library, but they are not accessible by the general public. There are also rare Palestinian manuscripts at Hebrew University. Today, there is but one public Palestinian library in Jerusalem. Dr GISH AMIT* documents the plunder and the self-serving rationale of the Zionists that they were “saving” this rich treasury of the people of Palestine, as well as giving an engrossing insight into the many outstanding personalities who animated Palestinian political and cultural life. With the exception of the first photo, all graphics and captions have been added by myself. – TS

Over the last decades, with the declassification of most of Israel’s official documents pertaining to the 1948 war and the emergence of a new critical Israeli historiography, much has been written about the dispossession and dispersal of Palestinians, [1] yet only limited attention has been paid to its catastrophic consequences on Palestinian culture. This is due to several factors: the nature of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, which has made the Palestinian experience difficult to reconstruct in later years; [2] the erasure from memory of the urban spaces where that cultural and intellectual life thrived; [3] and the trauma of the Palestinian catastrophe itself, making it both impossible to escape and difficult to discuss. [4] 

What does jailing a Palestinian political leader say about Israeli ‘democracy’?

Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was sentenced to 15 months in prison this week by a kangaroo court for membership in an illegal organization and incitement, but was her trial in a military court just? The use of military courts is in contravention of international law and may constitute a war crime. And what does it say about the irrational political, diplomatic, economic and military support successive Canadian governments give the State of Israel under the hoax that it is “the only democracy in the Middle East”? Four articles and photos.

Khalida Jarrar in the courtroom of the Ofer detention facility, in May 2015 | AP

Hareetz Editorial (December 9) – Khalida Jarrar is a political prisoner. The Ofer Military Court, which on Monday sentenced the Palestinian parliamentarian to 15 months in prison for membership in an illegal organization and incitement, is a political court that punished her for her political activity, and for that alone. Thus Israel, which pretends to be a democracy, has political prisoners, political arrests and political prison sentences, at least in the occupied territories.

Trudeau Liberals defend the indefensible: UN votes on Palestine and Zionist ethnic cleansing

On 24 November 2015 the UN General Assembly adopted five non-binding resolutions on Palestine. Canada voted five against, showing its status as a lapdog to the United States and Israel and its contempt for the rights of the Palestinian people and international law. The only major states voting against all five resolutions were the USA, Canada and Israel.

Word. Britain and France have neither the will nor vision to defeat terrorism: Bashar al-Assad

Photo courtesy of SANA

Full text of interview of President Bashar al-Assad of the Syrian Arab Republic by The Sunday Times. Britain and France, he states, have neither the will nor the vision on how to defeat terrorism. Their airstrikes against ISIS will yield no results, but will rather be illegal and harmful in that they will help in spreading terrorism. (Courtesy of SANA)

US, Canada and Britain are breaking international law in Syria

United Nations Security Council | Mike Segar / Reuters

By SHARMINE NARWANI*

rt.com – The war drums are getting louder in the aftermath of ISIS attacks in Paris, as Western countries gear up to launch further airstrikes in Syria. But obscured in the fine print of countless resolutions and media headlines is this: the West has no legal basis for military intervention. Their strikes are illegal.

At the UN: The world condemns the US blockade against Cuba

Votes in support of ending the blockade:  188
Votes against the ending of the blockade:  2 (USA, Israel)
Abstentions:  3 (Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia)

The blockade is the longest in the history of humankind and has imposed economic, financial and commercial restrictions on Cuba for 50 years and was enacted as a tool for U.S. foreign policy to oust a government that it opposed. It has failed to do so and has only imposed harsh restrictions on goods that have a detrimental effect on the lives and health of Cubans. The fact that the U.S. continues to flagrantly ignore world opinion and international law on this issue shows that there is not a vestige of democracy in the U.S. political system. Any country in the world that decides its own independent path does so at the peril of inhumane punishment.

Telesur reports from New York:

UN votes today on Cuba’s resolution against US blockade for the 23rd time

The blockader gets blockaded

On Resolution 68/8 of the United Nations General Assembly entitled “Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”

To read the full content of Cuba’s detailed Report on the UN Resolution, issued July 2014, click here: Cuba vs the Blockade.

The blockade has been in place since October 1960, almost two years after the triumph of the Revolution over U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, with more and more sanctions being imposed by the U.S. over the last 55 years.