Actionists lock on in front of factory gates
This morning, Palestine Action activists have returned to the site of weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems’ UAV Engines production facility, locking on inside vehicles in front of the gates of the factory to prevent production of Israeli drone engines, in defiance of escalating police repression of pro-Palestine protest.
The UAV Engines site manufactures engines for Elbit’s drones, which are tested on Palestinians and are being used by Israel in its genocidal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. The company has denied it exports to Israel, however Campaign against the Arms Trade (CAAT) export license data for military end-use by the State of Israel and Freedom of Information responses show licences in place. Elbit’s and its UAV Engines-designed and produced parts have been linked to documented war crimes, including the murder of seven aid workers in Gaza in April 2024.
Currently, twenty-two Palestine Action members are being detained in British prisons, political prisoners for resisting complicity in genocide, with many subjected to repressive ‘counter terror’ powers. Palestine Action says that this attempted intimidation will not inhibit its resistance to the role of Elbit’s products in Israel’s genocide. The group’s actions saw the Staffordshire firm report its first ever operating loss last year, with continuous impacts on productions and profits caused by those determined to see Israel’s arms trade forced out of Shenstone.
Since the 7th October 2023, with the UK government continually participating in the genocide, activists have continued to intensify their actions against Elbit’s Shenstone operations, forcing shut-downs through occupation, blockades, and vehicular lock-ons.
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Meanwhile……
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/24/israel-hamas-gaza-icc-arrest-warrants-international-criminal-court/
….the Washington Post, in the words of Bernard over at MoA, is trying “to exceed the immense hypocrisy ‘western’ leaders usually display towards against the rest of the world.”
“The Post declares that the International Criminal Court is the wrong place to hold Israel, and its leaders, to account for war crimes.
The ICC is needed to help resolve war crimes in Russia, Sudan, Myanmar. Targeting Israel makes that harder.”
The argument the piece tries to make is irrelevant and has nothing to do with the courts judgment:
‘Israel is not a member of the ICC, and the warrants will have limited practical effect, except possibly preventing Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant from traveling to countries which have pledged to enforce it.’
The war crimes Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of are happening in Palestine, outside of Israel’s recognized borders. Palestine is a state party of the Rome Statute. The ICC thus has jurisdiction over what happens on its ground. The (im-)practicality of the court’s decision is not an argument against it.
‘But the arrest orders undermine the ICC’s credibility and give credence to accusations of hypocrisy and selective prosecution. The ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity.’
The prosecution and the pre-trial court have found a strong likelihood that Israel is committing war crimes and genocide. To not prosecute those crimes against Israeli citizens because the country claims(!) to be democratic and to have its own independent judiciary would be “hypocrisy and selective prosecution”.
By doing the opposite, by prosecuting Israeli citizens, the court is attempting to apply justice equally. The Post defies logic when it claims otherwise.
The Post editors go on to willfully misunderstand the Rome statute which forms the courts legal basis.
‘Israel needs to be held accountable for its military conduct in Gaza. After the conflict’s end — which is long overdue — there will no doubt be Israeli judicial, parliamentary and military commissions of inquiry. Israeli’s vibrant, independent media will do its own investigations.
…
The ICC is supposed to become involved when countries have no means or mechanisms to investigate themselves. That is not the case in Israel.’
The highlighted claims is false. Israel has used the argument that its own courts would, somewhere down the road, handle the issue when it tried to prevent the arrest warrants and to get the cases deferred.
Despite acknowledging Israel’s culpability for that war crime, the editors ignore its relevance for the court’s case.
They, instead, threaten the court with presidential actions:
The ill-considered arrest warrants against Israel only give Mr. Trump a new reason to halt American cooperation with the court, at a time when it’s needed for Russia, Sudan, Myanmar and conflicts elsewhere that atrocities are being committed with impunity and the victims have no other recourse.
The Post, despite its hostility to Trump, seems to welcome any action he might take against the court.
Pointing to other cases that may deserve (or not) the attention of the court is not an argument, but whataboutism writ large.”
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The hypocrisy and double standards of an out of control Western Oligarchy on show here is like arguing that the Germany should have investigated its own conduct during WW2 once the conflict was concluded.
Number of articles in the Guardian in which Gordon Brown has advocated the prosecution of Putin: 2
Number of articles in which he has advocated the prosecution of Netanyahu: 0