According to Spiegel, SPD members of the Bundestag in a recent meeting joined local and regional politicians in voicing doubts over Scholz’s chances to succeed and called for Pistorius to step in.
The comments were made on Tuesday at a meeting of the Seeheimer Kreis (Seeheim Circle), a conservative wing of the SPD which claims to be aiming at “a modern and pragmatic policy,” the German newspaper reported
(October 30, 2024)
The defence ministry told Middle East Eye: “As a matter of principle, we only provide intelligence to our allies where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, and in this instance, only information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities.”
(…)
Brendan O’Hara, the Scottish National Party’s spokesperson for the Middle East, told MEE it was “inconceivable”, given the scale of the destruction and death in Gaza, that the flights “do not contain footage which would be of significant interest to the investigators from the International Criminal Court”.
(…)
Labour MP Rachael Maskell told MEE: “It is crucial that any intelligence of breaches of international law are shared with the courts so they can assess the evidence and secure justice.”
“I trust that the UK government is working with the international courts to aid them in their work.”
A retired NHS surgeon who recently returned from working at a hospital in Gaza said he treated children „day after day after day“ who had been deliberately targeted by Israeli drones following bomb attacks.
In harrowing testimony to British MPs on Tuesday, Nizam Mamode said of all the conflicts he had worked in, including the genocide in Rwanda, he and other experienced colleagues in Gaza had „never seen anything on this scale ever“.
He said at least once or twice daily, there were „mass casualty incidents,“ meaning that 10 to 20 people were killed and up to 40 seriously injured. He estimated that at least 60 percent of the people treated at these times were women and children.
Among the acts that would be construed as support for terror would be visiting the family of an attack suspect.
According to the proposal sponsored by Likud MK Ofir Katz, a candidate can be banned by the Central Election Committee without needing the final approval of the High Court of Justice, as is currently required. The proposed law is at base to ban Hadash and Arab parties from participating in the election, as well as weaken the Supreme Court’s power to overturn the decision. Furthermore, since left-wing and Arab voters do not belong to the right-wing camp, blocking participation of Hadash and Arab parties will also benefit the current far-right governing coalition electorally and increase its chances to win the next election.
A Knesset committee session on a controversial bill that proposes deporting relatives of terrorists erupted into a heated altercation, involving shouting and personal insults. The session escalated after MK Ofer Cassif opposed the bill, leading to a tense exchange with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who labeled Cassif a “terrorist.”
The bill would give authority to the interior minister, after holding an arraignment, to expel the family member “to the territory of the Gaza Strip, or a different expulsion destination, depending on the circumstances.” The expulsion would apply for seven to 15 years for an Israeli citizen and 10 to 20 years for a noncitizen. According to the bill, the Israel Police has “all of the authorities given to it by law, including the authority to enter any place, remove from it any person, and use reasonable force to do so.”
The debate before the vote was heated, as far-right MKs who supported the bill accused MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash), who opposed the bill, of being a “terrorism supporter.” At one point, Knesset ushers had to physically stand between Cassif and MK Almog Cohen (Otzma Yehudit) who brutally attacked the Communist lawmaker.
As Cassif entered the hearing, a woman told the Cassif that he should be “ashamed of his position,” and far-right lawmakers began shouting at Cassif, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calling him a “terrorist.” As Cassif addressed the committee, which he called a “gathering of fascists,” lawmakers screamed at him to leave and called on chairman Ofir Katz (Likud) to have him removed from the room. “Lucky you didn’t bring your pager,” one MK quipped, referring to the mass attack attributed to Israel that saw thousands of Hezbollah pagers explode on the men carrying them.”
(October 11, 2024)
Mehr als 40 000 Menschen wurden im Gazastreifen durch die israelischen Sicherheitskräfte getötet, rund 70 Prozent davon waren Frauen und Kinder. Der Gazastreifen wurde in Schutt und Asche gelegt und gezielt unbewohnbar gemacht. Es wird versucht, die palästinensische Bevölkerung zu vertreiben. Das dürfen Demokraten niemals akzeptieren.
(Beifall beim BSW sowie der Abg. Nicole Gohlke (Die Linke))
Der Internationale Gerichtshof ermittelt wegen des Völkermordes gegen Israel. Und auch die Bundesregierung steht wegen Beihilfe zum Völkermord durch die umfangreichen Waffenlieferungen an Israel am Pranger.
(Andrea Lindholz (CDU/CSU): Unerträglich, ehrlich! – Gitta Connemann (CDU/CSU): Das ist eine Täter-Opfer-Umkehr!)
Mit Ihrer Ankündigung gerade, Herr Bundeskanzler Scholz, erneut Waffen nach Israel liefern zu wollen, setzen Sie Deutschland wieder mit auf die Anklagebank des IGH.
(Christian Dürr (FDP): Unglaublich! – Britta Haßelmann (BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN), an die CDU/CSU gewandt: Ihr Koalitionspartner in Thüringen und in Sachsen!)
Laut Auswärtigem Amt wurden seit August Ausfuhren im Wert von 94,05 Millionen genehmigt. (…)
Die neue Zahl geht aus einer Antwort des Auswärtigen Amts auf eine Anfrage der BSW-Abgeordneten Sevim Dagdelen hervor, die der Nachrichtenagentur dpa vorliegt.
Germany‘s arms exports to Israel are much higher than the government said they were, with new numbers showing the government approved exports worth €94 million since August alone.
Last week, Berlin said it had approved €45 million worth of arms exports to Israel for the entire year up to 13 October — a significantly lower sum than before, all amid rumours that the government had stopped approving arms export permits altogether.
The new numbers were made available in response to a query from an MP of the left-wing nationalist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).
The letter by the Muslim councillors adds to pressure mounting on the British government from within the Labour Party to take stronger action against Israel.
Last week, 51 British MPs from seven political parties backed a parliamentary motion calling for the Labour government to take measures against Israel.
(October 15, 2024)
US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday criticized the Biden administration over the “horrors” seen in Gaza due to the actions of an „unrestrained“ Israel.
„The horrors unfolding in northern Gaza are the result of a completely unrestrained Netanyahu gov, fully armed by the Biden admin while food aid is blocked and patients are bombed in hospitals. This is a genocide of Palestinians,” she wrote on X.
„The US must stop enabling it. Arms embargo now,” added Ocasio-Cortez, a high-profile progressive lawmaker.
“Appalled by the scale of the ongoing massacre in Lebanon,” Jean-Luc Melenchon, a left-wing French politician and a former Member of the European Parliament, said in a post on X.
“Netanyahu is violating the sovereignty of states throughout the region with the complicity of Europe and the USA. The genocide in Gaza is spreading without limits.”
Washington Regional SWAT counter-sniper Ben Shaffer said it was “absolutely” concerning that the roof of the AGR International building had been quickly scrubbed and gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’ body disposed of before an official autopsy report could be released.
Five House Republicans — Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz and Cory Mills of Florida, and Chip Roy of Texas — hosted the panel discussion with Shaffer and other witnesses at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
(today)
On Tuesday, Republican leaders from four US House of Representatives national security committees and one subcommittee released a statement endorsing Speaker Mike Johnson‘s proposal to advance legislation this week, offering security assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
„Speaker Johnson has produced a plan that will boost US national security interests in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific,“ the leaders of the House Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Appropriations and Defense Appropriations panels said in a statement.
(02.04.2024)
With the onslaught of new wars, Congress added $70 billion over the last two years to an already bloated Pentagon budget, much of which is funneled directly into the coffers of defense contractors like Palatir, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. The stock values in these companies have since experienced double-digit growth – a lucrative business opportunity not overlooked by lawmakers calling the shots.
At least 25 members of Congress sitting on national security committees have simultaneously purchased stock in these very same companies. The majority of these members sit on the Senate and House Armed Services committees, the entities responsible for overseeing the Defense Department budget and contracts.
(02.11.2023)
Since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, in which more than 1,400 Israelis were killed, shares of Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon Technologies (RTX) have all increased in value, collectively adding roughly $23 billion in market capitalization.
In the weeks preceding the attack, Markwayne Mullin, Kevin Hern, Bill Keating, and Josh Gottheimer purchased shares of those defense companies.
The Workers Party of Britain (WPB), also called the Workers Party of Great Britain (WPGB) or Workers Party GB,[13][14][15] is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom, formed in December 2019 and led by George Galloway, the Member of Parliament for Rochdale since a 2024 by-election.
(01.03.2024)
We, the undersigned parliamentarians, declare our commitment to end our nations’ arms sales to the State of Israel.
Our bombs and bullets must not be used to kill, maim, and dispossess Palestinians. But they are: we know that lethal weapons and their parts, made or shipped through our countries, currently aid the Israeli assault on Palestine that has claimed over 30,000 lives across Gaza and the West Bank.
We cannot wait. Following the interim ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Genocide Convention case against the State of Israel, an arms embargo has moved beyond a moral necessity to become a legal requirement.
We will not be complicit in Israel’s grave violation of international law. The ICJ ordered Israel not to kill, harm or “deliberately [inflict] on the [Palestinians] conditions of life calculated to bring about… physical destruction.” They have refused. Instead, they press on with a planned assault on Rafah that the Secretary General of the United Nations has warned will „exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare.“
Today, we take a stand. We will take immediate and coordinated action in our respective legislatures to stop our countries from arming Israel.
Signatories:
(02.03.2024)
The statement‘s signatories include legislators from Israel‘s top allies and weapons suppliers, including the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada. Just two U.S. lawmakers—Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—backed the statement.
The statement includes six signatories from Germany, which is facing an International Court of Justice (ICJ) case alleging complicity in genocide against Palestinians.
The lawmakers argued that an arms embargo on Israel is both „a moral necessity“ and „a legal requirement,“ given the ICJ‘s interim ruling in late January.
(04.03.2024)
Amid the deadly war in Gaza, over 200 legislators from 11 countries unite to oppose their countries’ arms exports to Israel. In a declaration published by the Progressive International parliamentarians declared “our commitment to end our nations’ arms sales to the State of Israel.”
“Our bombs and bullets must not be used to kill, maim, and dispossess Palestinians. But they are: we know that lethal weapons and their parts, made or shipped through our countries, currently aid the Israeli assault on Palestine that has claimed over 30,000 lives across Gaza and the West Bank. We cannot wait. Following the interim ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Genocide Convention case against the State of Israel, an arms embargo has moved beyond a moral necessity to become a legal requirement.
(05.03.2024)
Three Hadash-Ta’al lawmakers met Monday, March 4, with Jordan’s King Abdullah amid concerns that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan could amplify tensions in occupied East Jerusalem stemming from the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip. MK Ayman Odeh, the head of the parliamentary Hadash-Ta’al alliance, MKs Ahmad Tibi and Youssef Atawneh traveled to Amman and asked the Jordanian monarch to pressure Israel to ensure freedom of worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan and for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Galloway turned the question around: “We had this conversation last night. Why are you reheating it?”
Coates repeated: “Because in the light of the Prime Minister’s…”
“Don’t keep telling me about the Prime Minister as if he was Moses!” the MP interrupted.
“Do you not respect the Prime Minister?” Coates asked.
“Do I respect the Prime Minister? I despise the Prime Minister,” Galloway said.
“What started as protests on our streets have descended into intimidation, threats and planned acts of violence.
“Jewish children fearful to wear their school uniform lest it reveals their identity. Muslim women abused in the street for the actions of a terrorist group they have no connection with.
“Now our democracy itself is a target. Council meetings and local events have been stormed. MPs do not feel safe in their homes. Long-standing parliamentary conventions have been upended because of safety concerns.
“And it’s beyond alarming that last night, the Rochdale by-election …
As he celebrated victory early Friday after winning a parliamentary election, George Galloway, a veteran left-wing firebrand, directed his attack squarely at the leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party.
“Keir Starmer, this is for Gaza,” Mr. Galloway said, wearing the fedora hat that has become his trademark. “You have paid, and you will pay, a high price for the role you have played in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on.”
George Galloway’s victory was described as “beyond alarming” by Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who used a Friday evening address to the nation to warn that British democracy was being targeted by extremists.
Galloway, 69, swept to victory in Thursday’s contest, winning almost 40% of the vote in the parliamentary seat of Rochdale.
“We crushed Labour by ten thousand votes,” he told supporters back at headquarters. “The second place candidate was not the Conservatives,” but an independent. “This is the first time in British political history that in a by-election both of the major parties were completely crushed,” he said.
“We changed politics in Britain for good,” James Giles, Galloway’s campaign manager, told supporters back at campaign headquarters. “Maybe we have changed politics in the world for good.
Sir Keir Starmer faces the prospect of a second rebellion among his MPs over a ceasefire in Gaza, with a government intervention threatening to expose Labour divisions.
The Labour leader had attempted to see off a revolt by tabling a Commons amendment, which for the first time backed an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
However, parliamentary procedure means it may not be debated, potentially forcing his MPs to back a motion put down by the Scottish National Party (SNP).
The mayhem broke out during debate on a motion from the opposition Scottish National Party, or SNP, urging an immediate cease-fire, the release of all Israeli hostages held by Hamas and “an end to the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
The main opposition Labour Party, which is divided over how strongly to criticize Israel, submitted a tweaked version of the motion calling for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” without the mention of collective punishment.
The governing Conservatives put forward their own amendment, which backed an “immediate humanitarian pause,” followed by “moves towards a permanent sustainable” cease-fire.
The papers show that at the start of the war the Foreign Office set up an internal International Humanitarian Law assessment process.
On 10 November it judged: “the volume of strikes, total death toll, as well as proportion of those who are children raise serious concerns”. 2/12
It also said: „the government’s current inability to come to a clear assessment on Israel’s record of compliance with International Humanitarian Law poses significant policy risks”.
But look at what Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said to me just 4 days later… 3/12
In Parliament on 14 November, I asked Mitchell if British-made weapons had been used in violation of international law in Gaza.
He replied reassuring me of Israel‘s commitment to international law, even though just 4 days earlier his department registered serious concerns. 4/12
Mitchell said: „The member will know that the President of Israel has made it clear that his country will abide by International Humanitarian Law“.
These court papers reveal that his own department, the UK Foreign Office, doubted the Israeli President‘s words.
„No more deaths, no more bombs …free Gaza,“ state Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri told the crowd.
„A temporary ceasefire is just the bare minimum of what must happen, and the Greens have been unequivocal in their calls not only for a ceasefire but for a lasting and just peace for Palestine.“
One of the speakers, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, spoke of how she had been in police protection in recent weeks and had been trapped in her home for five months.
Hotovely told Dale that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have found that „every school, every mosque, every second house, has an access to tunnel,“ referring to the tunnels used by Hamas—which were first built when Gaza was under Israeli control in 1980.
„That‘s an argument for destroying the whole of Gaza, every single building,“ Dale said, prompting Hotovely to ask, „Do you have another solution, how to destroy the underground tunnel city?“
Journalist Hamza Ali Shah said the ambassador‘s statement amounted to „a clear call for genocide.“
(Dec 11, 2023)
Legal experts and scholars have been warning since October that U.S. officials could be rendering themselves complicit in war crimes—and genocide—by continuing to arm the Israeli military as it wages indiscriminate war on the Gaza Strip.
Tlaib echoed that warning Monday, noting that the Biden administration has opted to „give weapons to a military that is very publicly and actively committing serious war crimes and crimes against humanity.“
(29.12.2023)
Eli on @GBHNews
Jewish constituents met with Clark who is „2nd in command“ in the House for the Democrats. She has not used her power to stop the genocide in Gaza
Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9A; American Postal Workers Union (APWU); United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) Eastern Region; New York City’s arm of Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA); Adalah Justice Project, American Muslims for Palestine N.Y./N.J.; Jewish Voice for Peace-N.Y.; New York Communities for Change; the New York Working Families Party; and more took to the streets to call for “peace and justice for Palestine.”
They carried signs stressing U.S. worker demands for a cease-fire in the conflict that has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 8,000 children.
Banners at the front show how much $ @ChuckSchumer, @HakeemJeffries, & @SenGillibrand have taken from AIPAC.
@StatusCoup