WARTAIDAMAN.com
(WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 22, 2024) –
The U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) – the nation’s largest umbrella group of national, regional, and local Muslim associations – along with American Muslims, applauds today’s announcement that the Kingdom of Spain, the Republic of Ireland, and the Kingdom of Norway will declare their formal recognition of statehood for Palestine on 28 May.
We also laud the long-overdue application to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by its prosecutor of arrest warrants on “reasonable grounds” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant “bear criminal responsibility for … war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip)” incessantly, flagrantly, and continuously over the past 228 days.
“In the midst of the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and increasing Israeli acts expanding its genocide to the West Bank, the recognition of a state for Palestinians by these European nations, joining a growing, overwhelming majority of the nations of the world, is undeniably timely and momentous,” said Oussama Jammal, USCMO secretary general.
“We understand that this recognition of Palestinian statehood is occurring on paper and that it does not bring the hand of the world to stay the egregiously open and copiously documented Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. Yet it is nonetheless an important step in bringing about the reality of both freedom and justice for Palestinians on their own land.”
Indeed, the prime ministers of Spain, Ireland, and Norway unanimously cited the necessity to internationally establish the fact of Palestinian statehood as a prerequisite for peace and the international imposition of a ceasefire.
This will likely pave the way for other nations to join the 143 out of 193 UN member nations who voted earlier this month in favor of Palestine’s legitimacy as a state, in other words to welcome Palestine, not as an observer, but as an equal voting member of the UN.
It is widely reported that Belgium, Malta, and Slovenia will soon make similar announcements recognizing Palestine as a state. This could up the number of nations endorsing Palestine’s statehood to at least 149, 13 of these European states. The main laggers to Palestine’s seemingly inevitable accession to UN state membership are Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom; France, Germany and Italy; Japan and South Korea, and, of course, the United States.
Many have observed that the Israeli genocide of Palestinians has dramatically catalyzed global political momentum against a century of unbroken Israeli injustice in the Holy Land and against its Muslim, Christian, and Jewish native inhabitants and their human rights.
The ICC prosecutor’s arrest-warrant application lists eight separate categories of war crimes and crimes against humanity that the world has documented a super-abundance of hard evidence to prove against Netanyahu and Gallant:
1.Extermination as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(b) of the Rome Statute
2.Murder as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(a), and as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i)
3.Taking hostages as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(iii)
4.Rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(g), and also as war crimes pursuant to article 8(2)(e)(vi) in the context of captivity
5.Torture as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(1)(f), and also as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity
6.Other inhumane acts as a crime against humanity, contrary to article 7(l)(k), in the context of captivity
7.Cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i), in the context of captivity
8.Outrages upon personal dignity as a war crime, contrary to article 8(2)(c)(ii), in the context of captivity.
These well-documented crimes additionally include intentional targeting of civilians, killing prisoners of war and surrendered combatants, indiscriminate attacks, collective punishment, starvation, the use of human shields, pillage, forced transfer, breach of medical neutrality, targeting journalists, attacking civilians and protected objects, wanton destruction, incitement to genocide, and genocide.
In addition, last March, the UN special rapporteur’s report on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) found:
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the following acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to groups’ members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. Genocidal acts were approved and given effect following statements of genocidal intent issued by senior military and government officials.”
USCMO and American Muslims commend Spain, Ireland, and Norway for their just and courageous stand to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to state recognition among the UN community of nations.
With equal urgency we exhort ICC judicial authorities to the following:
1.Recognize this crucial moment in the history of humanity and muster the courage to immediately issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in order to save the institution of international law and, more crucially, win the battle for humanity that the world is now losing in Gaza and Palestine.
2.Acknowledge that these fascist regime leaders of settler-colonial Israeli society have demonstrated a clear and undisputed stated intention to bring the full military-governmental-societal apparatus to bear in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people in an unequivocal and expandinggenocide.
3.Identify the shockingly heinous Israeli bombardment of Gaza’s besieged, blockaded, and trapped population for seven straight months as unprecedented in the modern world.
4.Verify as acts of genocide the deliberate, declared intent (as meticulously documented by South Africa for the International Court of Justice (ICJ)) of Netanyahu, Gallant and innumerable government officials and military leaders with command authority to deprive Palestinian civilians in Gaza wholesale of what is indispensible to the survival of a population – food, water, fuel, housing, and health care – that this occupying authority has – not virtually, but in fact – imprisoned in order to bring about the unconscionable slow suffering and death of the Palestinians in Gaza.
5.Uphold justice for the more than 15,000 innocent children killed in Gaza and nearly 10,000 innocent women. That’s among a total of at least 35,709 Palestinians killed, meaning innocent women and children make up 70% of all Palestinians killed by the Israelis in Gaza. The Palestinian injured have reached at least 79,990, overwhelmingly civilians, many of whom will die because the Israelis have systematically destroyed hospitals and healthcare in Gaza for this purpose. In addition, another 10,000-plus are missing and likely dead, with numerous mass graves of Palestinians buried by the Israeli military (some bound and alive, including children) especially in and around the Adwan, Al-Shifa, and Nasser hospitals that the Israeli military methodically demolished.
We ask God to bring about justice and relief for the Palestinian people and request the international community and its institutions to do their duty and uphold the human rights of the Palestinians, impose a permanent ceasefire, which is the will of the world, on the Israelis, and hold the perpetrators of these crimes and genocide to account.
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Versi Asli Bahasa Inggris
Kiriman dari ~anthoni mohammad06
Disalin dari PJMI
Oleh M. Ridho Nurjannah F./ MRNF (WI)
