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For Immediate Release
October, 30 2009, 04:01pm EDT
Contact:
Paige
Cram, Communications Coordinator, 212-679-5100, ext 15, communications@nlg.org
National Lawyers Guild Calls for Urgent Action on Goldstone Recommendations
NEW YORK
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls on the United States not to block
Security Council action on the Goldstone Report concerning war
crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed in Gaza when it votes in
the UN Security Council.
The Goldstone Report recommends
that the Security Council require the Government of Israel to launch
independent investigations "into the serious violations of international
humanitarian and international human rights law reported by the [Goldstone Fact
Finding] Mission
[paragraph 1969a]. The Goldstone Report also recommends that the Security
Council "refer the situation in Gaza
to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court" if Israeli
authorities do not initiate "good-faith investigations that are independent
and in conformity with international standards" [paragraph 1969c].
Hamas has agreed to initiate investigation but so farIsrael has refused to launch an
independent, impartial investigation.
Should the U.S. veto Goldstone's
recommendation to refer the situation in Gaza to the International Criminal
Court, allowing the "culture of impunity" identified by Goldstone to
continue, the National Lawyers Guild urges the General Assembly to itself
implement this and other recommendations of the Goldstone Report.
1. The UN General Assembly can do the equivalent
by establishing an Article 22 tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators. Article
22 of the UN Charter provides, "The General Assembly may establish such
subsidiary organs as it deems necessary for the performance of its
functions."
2. Alternatively, the General
Assembly can facilitate prosecution at the International Criminal Court by
adopting a resolution accepting Palestine as a state for the purpose of ICC jurisdiction in that court, a
suggestion made in a July 22, 2009 New York Times op-ed by
John Dugard, a South African professor of
international law who served as a judge on the International Court of Justice,
as a special rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
for the former UN Commission on Human Rights, and as a member of the UN
International Law Commission.
3. As recommended in the Goldstone Report
[paragraph 1971a], the General Assembly can also take action under Uniting for
Peace Resolution 377, which states that
"if the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent
members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of
international peace and security. . . the General Assembly shall consider the
matter immediately with a view to making appropriate recommendations to Members
for collective measures. . . to maintain or restore international peace and
security."
Responding to the U.S. opposition
to the Goldstone Report, Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
stated, "Accountability for breaches
of international humanitarian law and for human rights violations, as well as
respect for human rights, are not obstacles to peace, but rather the
preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace can be
built."
The Goldstone Report recognized the ongoing
blockade of Gaza by Israel and noted that "Israeli
incursions and military operations in the Gaza Strip did not stop after the end
of the military operations of December - January." [paragraph 1915] Action
is especially urgent because the blockade and military incursions continue.
NLG President David Gespass said,
"The current U.S. position is incompatible with any standard of justice.
It is incompatible with President Obama's speech to the UN General Assembly on
September 23, 2009, when he said 'The world must stand together. We must
demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise.' The Israeli
officials who planned and committed the war crimes and crimes against humanity
identified by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission remain in power in Israel to this day, they continue the illegal blockade
of Gaza, and they continue planning and
executing military operations there and in the occupied West
Bank. If the U.S. position prevails the culture of impunity will
continue. The U.S. must not be allowed to obstruct justice. If Israel continues
to refuse to launch an independent investigation, and if action by the UN
Security Council is blocked by a U.S. veto, the UN General Assembly should act.
Justice delayed is justice denied."
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) works to promote human rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests. It was founded in 1937 as the first national, racially-integrated bar association in the U.S.
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The country's largest Muslim civil rights group on Thursday called for added protections for U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar after Florida state Sen. Randy Fine issued an apparent threat against the two Muslim lawmakers.
Fine, who has the endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump in his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, called himself the "Hebrew Hammer" in a post on X on Tuesday and suggested Reps. Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Omar (D-Minn.) should leave office for their own safety.
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has spoken out previously about anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim statements by Fine (R-19), called the lawmaker an "unhinged anti-Muslim bigot."
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Fine was held in contempt of court in Florida earlier this year for making obscene gestures and mouthing curse words at a hearing. He is running in a special election set for April 1, 2025, due to Trump's appointment of Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) to be national security adviser.
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Despite rainy conditions, the United American Indians of New England held its 55th annual National Day of Mourning at Cole's Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Kisha James, who is an enrolled member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and also Oglala Lakota, shared how her grandfather founded the event in 1970 and pledged to continue to "tear down the Thanksgiving mythology."
"The past influences the present" and "the settler project" continues with racism, misogyny, and anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, James told the crowd. "The Pilgrims are not ancient history."
James took aim at fossil fuel pipelines, oil rigs, skyscrapers, corporations, the U.S. military, mass incarceration, and the criminalization of immigrants, and declared that "no one is illegal on stolen on land."
Jean-Luc Pierite, a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana and president of the board of directors of the North American Indian Center of Boston who helped organize this year's gathering, toldUSA Today that "while we are mourning some tragic history but also contemporary issues, we are also expressing gratitude for each [other] and building this community space."
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This year's event in Plymouth included speeches about the suffering of Palestinians—as Israel wages a U.S. government-backed war on the Gaza Strip that has killed at least 44,330 people, injured 104,933, and led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice—and of people impacted by extractive industries.
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According toABC 7:
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This year, they jumped the barricades at West 55th Street just after 9:30 am.
Many sat on the ground, locking arms and chanting "Free, free Palestine!"
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Video footage shared on social media shows members of the New York Police Department grabbing protesters and their banner, and throwing at least one person face-first into the road.
Multiple Indigenous groups circulated messages about Thanksgiving on social media Thursday.
NDN Collective said that "as Indigenous peoples, we reject colonial holidays rooted in the genocidal erasure of our existence. We demand #LANDBACK to reclaim sovereignty, repair ties with Mother Earth, and protect Indigenous ways of life—honoring them for generations to come."
The Indigenous Environmental Network similarly
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Estes examined the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's battle against the climate-wrecking Dakota Access Pipeline. "I actually look at a physical map that was handed out to water protectors who came to the camp. And on that map there was, you know, where to find food, where to find the clinics," he said. "To me, that provided, you know, a kind of interesting parallel to the world that surrounded the camps."
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The truce went into effect early Wednesday after being brokered by the United States and France, with Israeli forces given 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
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All the areas lie within two kilometers (1.24 miles) of the Lebanon-Israel border.
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Israel imposed a last-minute curfew on Wednesday night, prohibiting Lebanese citizens from crossing into the south overnight.
The IDF then accused Hezbollah of violating the cease-fire, announcing on Thursday: "Over the past hour, several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the cease-fire. The IDF opened fire toward them."
Drop Site Newsnoted that the deal bars Hezbollah from carrying out "any operations" against Israel but only prohibits Israel from conducting "offensive" attacks in Lebanon.
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