Israel did not participate in the dialogue but issued a press release stating that it “utterly rejects” Ms. Albanese’s report, calling it “an obscene inversion of reality”.
“The very attempt to level the charge of genocide against Israel is an outrageous distortion of the Genocide Convention. It is an attempt to empty the word genocide of its unique force and special meaning; and turn the Convention itself into a tool of terrorists, who have total disdain for life and for the law, against those trying to defend against them,” the release said.
Israel said its war is against Hamas, not Palestinian civilians.
“This is a matter of explicit government policy, military directives and procedures. It is no less an expression of Israel’s core values. As stated, our commitment to uphold the law, including our obligations under international humanitarian law, is unwavering.”
Yes my brother, one party is involved in an obscene inversion of reality and it’s the one that says that Israel’s commitment to uphold the law, including obligations under international humanitarian law, is unwavering. Along with horrible atrocities in Gaza they have been speed-running colonizing the West Bank in recent months.
Why doesn’t Israel just say “yes we are stealing the rest of Palestine now, fuck off” instead of pretending to be the polite (albeit clumsy with the munitions), law-abiding member of the world community, involved in a slight kerfuffle with their neighbor? I mean, they are getting away with it anyway (thanks to U.S. and GER support)… why lie?
I’m not looking forward to how this phase of the ethnic cleansing will be recalled in the future- “The Arabs realized this was a Jewish nation and left willingly, but smashed the TV on the way out”.
At least Ms. Albanese touched on the historic depth of this tragedy. That’s often purposefully omitted.
Furthermore, “the genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians,” she continued.
“For over 76 years, this process has oppressed the Palestinians as a people in every way imaginable, crushing their inalienable right to self-determination demographically, economically, territorially, culturally and politically.”
She said the “colonial amnesia of the West has condoned Israel’s colonial settler project”, adding that “the world now sees the bitter fruit of the impunity afforded to Israel. This was a tragedy foretold.”