Image is of legal adviser to Israel's foreign ministry Tal Becker and British jurist Malcolm Shaw at the ICJ hearing.
The ICJ case against Israel might not achieve much for the Palestinian cause directly, given that Israeli politicians have explicitly stated that the Hague will not stop them - and I believe them. The Resistance will be what stops them, and they are doing quite well for themselves. Hezbollah has hit highly sensitive and important Israeli military sites over the last couple weeks, and in general persist in several border attacks every day. The battles in Iraq and Syria also continue. Hamas remains largely intact, and is successfully forcing Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip to retreat, and other parts of the Gazan Resistance are continuing to battle down in Khan Yunis. And, last but not least, Yemen is firmly dedicated to the blockade, warding off another ship literally minutes before I started writing this paragraph.
What the ICJ is battling over isn't Palestine and Israel - not really - but the legitimacy of international law itself, and to what degree victimized countries can rely on it to solve problems, versus needing to take more militant routes for justice. In a weird sense, it might be an L for Israel either way. If international law sides with Palestine, then when Israel refuses to stop, it will invalidate international law. If international law sides with Israel, then it will invalidate international law. There is no conceivable way for the West to come out of this looking good.
The South African portion detailing Israeli atrocities against Gaza was largely ignored by the western media. They have instead, obviously, decided to focus on the Israeli portion. Their defense appears to amount to "We didn't do it, Hamas did it. And if we did do it, it doesn't matter, because that's just urban warfare for you. Please get this whole thing thrown out on a very dubious technicality so we don't have to advance to the next stage."
From Craig Murray, who has been physically going to the Hague:
It is important to realise this. Israel is hoping to win on their procedural points about existence of dispute, unilateral assurances and jurisdiction. The obvious nonsense they spoke about the damage to homes and infrastructure being caused by Hamas, trucks entering Gaza and casualty figures, was not serious. They did not expect the judges to believe any of this. The procedural points were for the court. The rest was mass propaganda for the media.
...I am sure the judges want to get out of this and they may go for the procedural points. But there is a real problem with Israel’s “no dispute” argument. If accepted, it would mean that a country committing genocide can simply not reply to a challenge, and then legal action will not be possible because no reply means “no dispute”. I hope that absurdity is obvious to the judges. But they may of course wish not to notice it…
What do I think will happen? Some sort of “compromise”. The judges will issue provisional measures different to South Africa’s request, asking Israel to continue to take measures to protect the civilian population, or some such guff. Doubtless the State Department have drafted something like this for President of the court Donoghoe already.
I hope I am wrong. I would hate to give up on international law. One thing I do know for certain. These two days in the Hague were absolutely crucial for deciding if there is any meaning left in notions of international law and human rights. I still believe action by the court could cause the US and UK to back off and provide some measure of relief. For now, let us all pray or wish, each in our way, for the children of Gaza.
The weekly update is here on the website.
The Country of the Week is South Africa! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Toxic landslide treathens village as oligarch owner evades responsibility
In Denmark, villagers are fearing for the survival of their community as an avalanche of polluted dirt is inching closer to their homes. Nordic Waste, the company responsible for the environmental disaster, has filed for bankruptcy, leaving its oligarch owner, Torben Østergaard-Nielsen, seemingly absolved of responsibility.
The disaster started in mid-December when a landslide at a storage site for polluted dirt sent more than three million cubic metres of soil in motion, lubricated by the clay that was lining the site to prevent pollutants from seeping into the soil below. Since then it has been sliding downhill towards the village of Ølst and the nearby stream with a speed of 40 to 60 centimeters an hour. It is too early to say what caused the landslide but experts are suspecting that the record rainfall of 2023 and potential overfilling of the storage facility by the company were attributing factors.
In the worst case the village will be buried under five metres of toxic dirt and pollutants from the soil will damage flora and fauna of the nearby stream as well as the fjord it drains into for decades to come.
Nordic Waste gave up on cleanup efforts and abandoned the site on December 19th. Since then municipal authorities has been working around the clock, removing dirt to slow down the flow. More permanent measures are needed though if the flow of dirt is to be stopped and nearby landowners has been notified that authorities might seize their land to construct barriers to contain the spill and re-route the stream.
Oligarch owner shielded by bankruptcy
Authorities demanded that Nordic Waste provided an economic guarantee of DKK 205 million to cover cleanup efforts, and today the company, possessing only DKK 15 million in equity, responded by filing for bankruptcy, leaving the financial burden of the cleanup with public coffers.
The company is owned by Torben Østergaard-Nielsen, a secretive oligarch who became rich by selling fossil fuels. In 2021 the CEO of a fuel oil company owned by Østergaard-Nielsen received a prison sentence and the company reviewed a large fine for selling jet fuel to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. Having hoarded an estimated fortune of DKK 42 billion, the oligarch could easily foot the bill for cleaning up his mess but unfortunately the dark arts of corporate law shields him from legal responsibility for Nordic Waste's wrongdoing. In the years leading up to the disaster Østergaard-Nielsen has extracted hundreds of millions in profits from the company. Money he now gets to keep.
In a PR move only a tone-deaf oligarch completely detached from reality could come up with Østergaard-Nielsen has created a charitable "climate fund" with a donation of DKK 100 million to "ensure action that solves the problem with climate change and landslides" as it says on a press release from one of the oligarch's other companies that also claims that the disaster currently unfolding has shown that "climate change is major and we don't have the necessary knowledge to foresee the consequences". Half of the money will go to help affected residents of Ølst.
Government vows action
Østergaard-Nielsen first running from the bill and then adding insult to injury by lowballing the victims with charity has catapulted him into national disdain. His callousness is beyond the pale even for the nation's succdem-led right-wing government. In a press meeting the ministers of justice and the environment , denouncing and shaming the oligarch, are pledging to use the full extent of the law to hold him responsible. Unfortunately the law doesn't extend very far in these situations and unless an actual criminal intent can be pinned on the oligarch personally, everything he has done has been completely legal.
The ministers went on to promise amendments to environmental and bankruptcy law expanding the legal responsibility of owners. However, allowing the bourgeoisie to evade responsibility is the main purpose of bankruptcy law and it remains to be seen how much of a fight the government really wants to pick with the business elite it usually loves to cozy up to, particularly with the Liberal Party, a crucial coalition member, being heavily dependent on financial support from oblique business interests.
Meanwhile, Ølst residents question how the disaster could occur, as Nordic Waste operated the site close to the vulnerable waterway with approved permits from the local council. Opposition councillors has raised concerns about landslide risks at the site for years only to be dismissed by local authorities, underscoring a systemic failure that has left the village in a state of peril.
Waste management business and porkies who belong in the waste pile; name a better duo.