WASHINGTON — Thousands of demonstrators converged opposite the White House on Saturday to call for an end to Israeli military action against Hamas, as part of a global day of action against the war in Gaza.

People in the capital held aloft signs questioning US President Joe Biden’s viability as a presidential candidate because of his staunch support for Israel in the nearly 100-day war against Hamas. Some of the signs read: “No votes for Genocide Joe,” “Biden has blood on his hands” and “Let Gaza live.”

South Africa never really had a chance in its genocide claims against Israel if applying the laws of war, being that the entire “show” before the International Court of Justice is a political stunt designed to blacken Israel’s name, using legal-sounding language to launder an anti-Israel agenda.

But many of the arguments that its lawyers made on Thursday were so specious that they removed any veil of seriousness that they might have held onto. From the start, South Africa really had two arguments to go on that had any remote legal significance – and forget about having any chance to actually prove genocide.

They were that top Israeli officials had made horrible statements (many of them should not have been said and were very morally problematic even if legally insignificant) that could allegedly be used to infer genocidal intent, and that the IDF had allegedly killed 23,000 Palestinians, likely 60% to 70% of them being civilians.

If South Africa had stuck to these arguments, any serious lawyer or judge still would have tossed them out of court because: None of the statements they have provided from public officials were official policy or legal statements; many were by officials without real influence over the war; those by key officials could easily be read in context as metaphorical; Israel has publicly produced vast amounts of evidence that it has expended enormous resources to avoid killing Palestinian civilians; and it acknowledged and explained errors, which happen in all wars, where errors have occurred. It also ignored some critical threshold facts that anyone trying to prove a single war crime, let alone the even higher threshold for the penultimate war crime of systematic genocide, would need to confront.

Foreign affairs legal adviser Tal Becker opened the three-hour hearing Friday morning, arguing that if there was anyone committing genocidal attacks in the region, it was and is Hamas. Becker said that on Oct. 7, the world saw ‘’massacre, mutilation, rape and abduction [as well as] torture of children in front of their parents, [and] parents tortured in front of their children.’’

--snip--

Becker argued that the applicants attempt ‘’to deny Israel its obligation to its citizens, its hostages, to the thousands of Israelis displaced from their home,’’ and that South Africa seeks that ‘’Israel should be denied the ability to defend its citizens.’’ Becker reminded the court that Hamas has never hidden its genocidal agenda vis-à-vis Israel. It is no secret, added Becker ‘’that South Africa enjoys close relations with Hamas,’’ saying that by its complaint, Pretoria wants to enable Hamas to ‘’continue its unabated attacks even after Oct. 7.’’ He also noted that a delegation by Hamas arrived to South Africa a few weeks after Oct. 7 ‘’for a solidarity visit’’ as described by Pretoria.

It is not the Israeli operation in Gaza that is unprecedented, claimed Becker, ‘’what is unparalleled and unprecedented is the degree of Hamas entrenchment into the civilian population,’’ in Gaza, he said.

--snip--

Summoning the Israeli defense, Dr. Gilad Noam said that the applicants "did not show a dispute" between the parties [Israel and South Africa," and "misled the court that such a dispute exists." As such, the court should have no jurisdiction over the case, said Noam. He also stressed that the South African complaint does not prove any "irreparable harm and emergency" required for the court to issue provisional measures, as "Israel is taking steps to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza."

The Israeli official briefed on the talks said discussions were underway with international organizations on how to get the medicine to the hostages, who have had no access to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since being abducted on October 7, during Hamas’s murderous onslaught across southern Israel where terrorists killed 1,200 and took 240 others hostage.

Israel has blasted the Red Cross as a mere Uber service that has sufficed with ferrying hostages released by Hamas to the border while failing to visit them in captivity or even ensure that much-needed medicines reach those being held, men, women, children and the elderly. The international aid group has retorted that publicly pressuring Hamas on these issues would not work and risks robbing the group of its perceived status of neutrality that allows it to operate in conflict zones around the world.

Last month, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric sparked fury in Israel for saying in an interview with Israeli TV that saying it was up to Israel to work out the issue with Hamas. “The fact that so many hostages have been denied the medications they need is a death sentence,” Daniel Lifshitz, whose 83-year-old grandfather Oded Lifshitz is held in Gaza told the New York Times. “They should have received what they needed on the first day.”

Some 132 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military.

A child of Holocaust survivors, law prof Menachem Rosensaft has made his life’s work the study of genocide. He finds the allegation against the Jewish state both ironic and bigoted

“The word genocide is used willy-nilly by people all over the world, but genocide, as it has evolved since 1948 when the genocide convention was first adopted by the UN General Assembly, is a legal concept. And whatever else Israel is doing, and has done, it is not intending to destroy the Palestinian people; either on the West Bank or in Gaza,” said Rosensaft, who is a legal expert on genocide.

In short, it’s a specious charge, Rosensaft said in a Zoom interview from his Manhattan apartment. It’s also a perfect example of the type of legal case Rosensaft will be teaching this semester at Cornell University in a new course: “Antisemitism in the Courts and in Jurisprudence.”

--snip--

No one is saying, “I disagree with the government of Hungary, therefore I want Hungary to go out of existence. Or, Australia exists today because colonists usurped land from indigenous people.” You can say we need to find a way to remedy this for the Aborigines, but no one is saying cancel Australia.

A Telegram channel consisting of 3,000 UNRWA teachers in Gaza filled with posts expressing support for the Hamas massacre that took place on October 7 was exposed by a UN Watch report on Wednesday.

Shortly after the infiltration into Israel began, members of the group praised the perpetrators as "heroes," lauded the education received by the terrorists, shared images of dead or captured Israelis, and called for the execution of hostages.
Abhorrent approvals

The chat group contains numerous files containing UNRWA staff names, ID numbers, schedules, and curriculum materials. Despite its intended purpose of supporting UNRWA teachers, the group frequently shares videos, photos, and messages that encourage jihadi terrorism and openly celebrate the Hamas massacre and the rape of civilians.

One example from the report is UNRWA teacher Abdallah Mehjez, who urged Gazan civilians not to heed warnings to move out of harm’s way and instead to serve as human shields. Before UNRWA, Abdallah worked for the BBC.

Israel appears to know the exact location of Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar, the ruler of the Gaza Strip and the mastermind of the October 7 terror attacks, according to multiple reports.

However, Sinwar has surrounded himself with a large number of living Israeli hostages, which is preventing the Israel Defense Forces from carrying out a strike on him, Israel Hayom reported Monday.

It followed a similar statement on Kan public radio on Sunday by former Military Intelligence head Amos Yadlin.

A media watchdog NGO that focuses on anti-Israel reporting uncovered that two Gaza-based photojournalists who worked for AP and Reuters had bragged about footage they acquired while accompanying Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacre.

Ashraf Amra and fellow photojournalist Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa recorded a video laughing at the lynching of an IDF soldier pulled from a tank on October 7 - footage they captured on the scene. The two displayed the footage while livestreaming.

These two were not alone, according to HonestReporting's data. What some might have seen as social media speculation was proven true after the NGO uncovered that Amra conducted an Instagram Live stream on October 7, laughing with his friends and colleagues about the events of the day and sharing what they had seen and done after infiltrating Israeli territory.
Gaza photojournalists bragged about involvement in October 7 massacre

The report details the photojournalists' reflections on the day, adding that Abu Mostafa said: “We were there two hours ago, since the beginning.”

The Biden administration on Wednesday tore into South Africa for filing an application at the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings to declare that Jerusalem was violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its war against Hamas following the Gaza-ruling terrorist group’s murderous October 7 onslaught.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called South Africa’s submission “meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”

US State Department spokesman Matt Miller noted that the US is “not seeing any acts that constitute genocide” by Israel in its war against Hamas.

--snip--

This wasn’t the first time US officials have taken issue with the genocide charge lobbed at Israel since the outbreak of the war.

As terrorists overran the kibbutz, Daniella, Emilia, her sister Sharon, brother-in-law David Cunio, and their 3-year-old twin daughters, Yuli and Emma all sought refuge in the family’s secure room, which was designed to withstand a rocket strike, but that did not have a lock on the door.

They knew that terrorists had infiltrated the kibbutz and they could hear the sounds of shots being fired outside. They then heard sounds of their home being ransacked, but the terrorists were unable to open the door to the secure room as David was holding it shut.Instead, the terrorists set the building on fire. David took Yulia and climbed out of the room’s window, hoping to escape. They were both captured by terrorists.

--snip--

She told Channel 12 that she hugged her daughter Emilia to her, and said: “My love, I am sorry, we are about to die.” Then together with Sharon, they opened the window of the shelter “and I waited for the volley of shots.”

--snip--

They reached the border and were met by crowds of Gazan civilians who began beating those in the trailer as they drove past. Danielle said she threw her arms around the two young girls and tried to shield them as she was beaten on the head.

Aloni recalled her daughter calming her down as she suffered through a panic attack. “I screamed, ‘I’m going to die here! I’m going to die here! I’m going to die here!’ Those were the only words that came out. I felt that I was going to die there. My daughter patted my face, ‘Mom, don’t cry, I’m okay, I’m okay.’ Because each time I saw she was in distress, I started to cry, so she comforted me.”