Fact 1: Anna's antisemitism ran to more than just the 90-year Rothschild trope. George Soros was another of her dog- whistles.Fact 2: I have not "repeatedly suggested on this Forum that Israel is engaged in genocide". My first comment was that although there is no doubt that the Israeli actions in Gaza constitute the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular national, ethnic, racial or religious group, there may be some doubt as to whether the intention is to destroy that group, in whole or in part, or whether it is to kill sufficient members of that group to force them to disown Hamas. As intent is a necessary element in the crime of genocide, it was difficult to label it as genocide at that time.Since the ICJ Ruling was issued it has become abundantly clear that the Netanyahu administration has no intention of complying with the court’s order to take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid. Since then Israel continues to obstruct the provision of basic services and the entry and distribution within Gaza of fuel and lifesaving aid. The fact that 12 UNRWA employees appear to have been involved in the Hamas attack on 7th October, which was first made known by Israel on the day of the ICJ ruling, looks like a cynical attempt to remove UNRWA from all relief work (to the Uk's eternal discredit, we were swift to use this as an excuse for cutting funding for UNRWA, even though the Israeli government has not been able to substantiate claims that the organisation is riddled with Hamas supporters). Moreover, fewer trucks have entered Gaza and fewer aid missions have been permitted to reach northern Gaza in the several weeks since the ruling than in the weeks preceding it, according to the United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs . According to Human Rights Watch, the Israeli authorities are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to its survival. A survey conducted in February by the Association of International Aid Agencies found that almost no aid is distributed North of Rafah. On February 20, the World Food Programme paused deliveries of lifesaving food to the north, citing lack of safety and security. Israeli forces struck a food convoy on February 5, the UN said and CNN documented it. And then of course yesterday we saw the deaths of over a hundred people when Israeli troops opened fire near aid trucks.Between February 1 and 15, Israeli authorities only facilitated 2 of 21 planned missions to deliver fuel to the north of the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza and none of the 16 planned fuel delivery or assessment missions to water and wastewater pumping stations in the north.On February 13 the Israeli Finance Minister blocked a US-funded flour shipment to Gaza, because it was going to UNRWA. The Israel government has also tried to impede the work of other aid agencies. Israel has stopped issuing visas for international staff of humanitarian organisations that work in occupied Palestinian territories. Dozens of foreign aid workers, including heads of organisations, have had to leave Israel and the Palestinian territories, or are overstaying their visas and risking deportation so they can continue working. If Israel does not start issuing visas again, all foreign humanitarian workers will have to leave by early autumn, when the last visas issued in 2023 will expire.The trickle of aid getting into Gaza is not enough to relieve severe shortages of food, clean water and basic medical supplies, and doctors say that children have started dying from malnutrition.And you think the denial of food, water, fuel and medical supplies, coupled with the almost complete destruction of housing and hospital facilities in Gaza isn’t genocide, or can’t be called genocide for fear of giving offence to Jewish people?To argue it’s genocide has nothing to do with antisemitism, other than that the actions of the Israeli government have sadly contributed to an enormous increase in antisemitism in the UK. Nor is the term genocide something that descendants of the Holocaust can appropriate uniquely to what their forefathers suffered, and find offensive its application to their own society. The Holocaust was obviously by far the worst of the 20th century genocides, but there are plenty of other examples of dreadful acts which are generally recognised as genocide. Consider the murder of up to 3 million Polish gentiles, as well as a similar number of Polish Jews during the Holocaust, the 3 million people who died in the Bangladeshi genocide in 1971, and the 3 million in the Cambodian genocide in 1975. More recently there was the Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis (more than 60% of the Tutsi population) were slaughtered. These are just some of the more egregious acts. There are plenty of others that could be cited.Stop being so mealy-mouthed, Jeremy. Time to tell it as it is. And time to be ashamed that our own government is complicit in this genocide. Time and again we support the US in the Security Council and either join in their vetoing of a ceasefire, or abstain. And Ministers and ex-Ministers call decent protesters, including many sympathetic Jews, a Palestinian mob. Something has gone seriously wrong in our government’s moral purpose.Just think: if Biden isn’t persuaded to use the big stick, and end the war in Gaza, he will deliver Trump for 2025. And then we may find ourselves in a wider war in Europe, shorn of US support. Even if war spreads no further, the consequences for Ukraine will be severe.As my last word on the subject of antisemitism, take note that my criticisms are directed at Netanyahu’s administration, not at the Israeli people, and certainly not against British Jews. Many of the latter, because of their sympathy for the Palestinian plight, are regarded by Netanyahu and his band of criminals, as “the wrong sort of Jew”.
Robert Fish ● 68d