The Lead

The Time Is Now, To Do What You Know Is Right

by Dennis Speed (EIRNS) — Mar. 26, 2024

March 26, 2024 (EIRNS)—The Time Is Now, To Do What Is Right

I met Murder on the way—

He had a mask like Castlereagh—

Very smooth he looked, yet grim;

Seven bloodhounds followed him…

And many more Destructions played

In this ghastly masquerade,

All disguised, even to the eyes,

Like bishops, lawyers, peers , or spies. “

—Percy Shelley, The Masque of Anarchy (1819)

It is genocide, says the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese. She spoke from Geneva yesterday, regarding the systematic mass-killing campaign now being conducted by the Israel Defense Forces, under orders from the Netanyahu regime, and subsidized and fortified by the weapons, money, and influence of Great Britain, the United States, and NATO. In testimony to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday, Albanese said (unofficial transcript): “Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings: ‘The Anatomy of a Genocide.’

“History teaches us that genocide is a process, not a single act. It starts with the dehumanization of a group as other, the denial of that group’s humanity, and ends with the destruction of the group in whole, or in part. The dehumanization of Palestinians as a group is the hallmark of their history—of ethnic cleansing, dispossession and apartheid.

“... When the ground offensive started, the number of daily casualties had seemed to reduce, but, in fact, the level of atrocities increased. Mass disappearance and arbitrary detentions, widespread and systematic torture and inhumane treatment, add to the experience of endless death and loss…. One of my key findings is that Israel’s executive, military leadership and soldiers have intentionally distorted the rules of International Humanitarian Law—distinction, proportionality and precaution—in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people….

“In light of this, I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide against Palestinians as a group has been met. Specifically, Israel has committed three acts of genocide with the requisite intent, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group. The genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians…. This was a tragedy foretold.

“While the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will have to deliberate, the International Criminal Court (ICC) will have to investigate. It is my responsibility to remind you that the Genocide Convention includes a non-derogable obligation to prevent the commission of genocide, a reality the ICJ recognized as plausible, exactly two months ago. The time for states to act was then, and as they did not, the time to act is now. In its darkest hour, the international community cannot continue to ignore that it is Israel’s project to rid Palestine of Palestinians in defiance of international law. The world’s failure to call Israel to account has led to genocide, laid bare in Gaza. Denial of the reality and the continuation of Israel’s impunity and exceptionalism is no longer viable.

“Especially in light of yesterday’s binding UN Security Council resolution, I implore member states to abide by their obligations, which start with imposing an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel, and so ensure that the future does not continue to repeat itself. Thank you.”

Other important developments, in particular the ruling of the British Court in the Julian Assange Case, are covered in the body of today’s reports below. The finding of the United Nations Special Rapporteur, however, is of particular, singular importance. It rips away the mask, not merely from Israel’s overseers, but also the mask from each and every one of us. This is the reason for the demanding crisis of conscience, first experienced and expressed by young people, most notably Jewish Voice for Peace, then other institutions and individuals, finally now affecting many of the most impenetrable, from American commentators like Candace Owens, Alex Jones, and Christiane Amanpour to politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said Friday: “As we speak, in this moment, 1.1 million innocents in Gaza are at famine’s door, a famine that is being intentionally precipitated through the blocking of food and global humanitarian assistance by leaders in the Israeli government.”

Today, the world cannot claim, as it did 90 years ago, after Adolf Hitler’s accession to power, that it was not told, that the truth was hidden until it was too late to stop the crime. Rapporteur Albanese’s rebuke of the international community for not having acted two months ago, at the end of January, following South Africa’s December presentation before the International Court of Justice—"The time for states to act was then”—and her proposal for an immediate arms embargo against Israel—"the time to act is now”—is an important world reality-check. Whatever the Biden Administration is saying, the truth is that the United States is continuing to supply arms to Israel, as are Great Britain and Germany.

The Biden Administration refuses to admit that the nation of Israel is committing genocide, committing crimes against humanity, judged to be such by America’s own Justice Jackson 80 years ago at the Nuremberg Tribunals. Why do the United States, and its “special relationship partner,” Great Britain, tacitly endorse the policy of the depopulation of Gaza? Let us never forget, that, from the time of the April 1968 founding of the Club of Rome, depopulation and de-industrialization has been NATO’s middle name. China’s development projects in Argentina and Ibero-America, in the African continent, and its international Belt and Road Initiative, are hated by NATO and the depopulators. In Ukraine, as in Gaza, as in the intentional and racist destruction of Haiti by the “Dope, Incorporated” international financial/intelligence/drug cartel, depopulation, sometimes through genocidal means, is the willful, intentional, designed result.

This Friday, the International Peace Coalition, joined by various members of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) and other organizations, will raise the standard for action to defeat these crimes, to that outlined in Principle Nine of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s “Ten Principles for A New Security and Development Architecture”: “In order to overcome the conflict arising out of quarreling opinions, which is how empires have maintained control over the underlings, the economic, social and political order has to be brought into cohesion with the lawfulness of the physical universe. In European philosophy, this was discussed, as being in character with natural law, in Indian philosophy, as cosmology, and in other cultures appropriate notions can be found.” It is urgent that we find the “common high ground,” and form the international association that, through this shared commitment to viewing all people as one humanity, can implement readily available solutions, such as the LaRouche Oasis Project, free from the terminal disease of thermonuclear geopolitics. We must act in time, and that time is now.