From the River to the Sea: Ibaitik Itsasora (115) eta Alfred Zayas

Ibaitik Itsasora

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Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1887980771178070396

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Dr. Blerim Mustafa, Ph.D.@blerimmustafa

Türkiye is in the best position to douse the fire of Israel-Iran conflict

(https://trt.global/world/article/1fd06f964517)

As tensions risk spiralling into a broader regional war, Ankara’s unique diplomatic leverage — and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rapport with US President Donald Trump — could avert a disaster.

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Istanbul / Reuters

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CLARITY PRESS: THE OBLITERATION DOCTRINE: Genocide Prevention, Israel, Gaza and the West – Dan Steinbock

(https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2025/06/27/clarity-press-the-obliteration-doctrine-genocide-prevention-israel-gaza-and-the-west-dan-steinbock/)

FOREWORD BY Dr. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD, former Prime Minister of Malaysia

“Dan Steinbock’s The Obliteration Doctrine: Genocide Prevention, Israel, Gaza and the West is not only a deeply original examination of the ongoing genocide in Gaza from multiple dimensions, but also a timely theoretical framework that warns against the emerging destructive warfare in the 21^st century…. This book will serve as both a critical resource for understanding the Gaza case and a roadmap for preventing future genocides.” AHMET DAVUTOGLU, former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister of Turkiye. Founder and leader of the Future Party, author of Systemic Earthquake: The Struggle for World Order (2019), and prominent academic in International Relations.

(…)

Dan Steinbock’s discussion of the international legal challenges to Israel’s conduct make this a vital contribution to our understanding of the conflict.” WILLIAM SCHABAS, professor of international law, Middlesex University London and author of Genocide in International Law, Cambridge University Press, 2025

“Dan Steinbock has written an indispensable book that illuminates the most fundamental challenges facing humanity at a time when a massive genocide darkens the skies hovering above the planet. …This is a deeply challenging text that deserves close reading, but more than this, citizen engagement and anti-genocide activism.” RICHARD FALK, former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University

“The real purpose of the 1948 Genocide Convention is prevention. This book helps us understand why we have failed.” ALFRED DE ZAYAS, former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, international expert on human rights and ethnic expulsions

“Gaza is our moral ground zero. As Dan Steinbock compellingly recounts, even more shocking than the depth of deprivation in Gaza is the candor with which its architects convey their intent and the impunity they enjoy.” ALEX DE WAAL, internationally renowned authority on famine and the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

“Dan Steinbock advances the urgent discourse begun in his The Fall of Israel, advancing from a concern with moral responsibility to the framework of legal obligation. His astute analysis dissects how States facilitating genocide—whether through direct aid, political cover, or willful inaction—are culpable under international law… This book is an important contribution to human rights scholarship and a clarion call for justice—when humanity needs it most.” CURTIS F.J. DOEBBLER, international human rights lawyer, professor of law, and author who has practiced and taught international law in several world regions.

“With The Obliteration Doctrine, Dr. Steinbock has provided historians and layman readers alike the definitive guide to understanding the atrocities committed by the Israeli government with the assistance of the American empire. The book is very well documented, very readable, with a great amount of supporting evidence for his claims. I highly recommend it.” SCOTT HORTON, director of the Libertarian Institute, author of Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine

“The Obliteration Doctrine places the US-Israeli assault on Gaza in historical context, making clear that it is hardly an Israeli project that the United States and Europe are ‘complicit’ in, but rather a joint project between western governments and Israel to destroy a threat to their hegemony. While it may seem strange to write a book about a genocide that was documented in real time and live streamed to the world, this is a valuable contribution to understanding what happened, how, and why.” DR FEROZE SIDHWA. MD, MPH, FACS, FICS, Pakistani-American trauma and critical care surgeon, and program director of San Joaquin General Hospital volunteering extensively in Palestine, including European hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, and in Ukraine, Haiti, Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso.

” The great merit of Professor Dan Steinbock’s book is that, thanks to its historical, legal and geopolitical approaches, it allows us to grasp the complexity of the absolute tragedy that the Palestinian people are experiencing. By scrupulously studying the theory of the strategy of annihilation claimed to have been used for years by the Israeli army and the historical and legal nature of the notion of genocide, it is a valuable tool for understanding the ongoing human catastrophe in the Middle East.” EDGAR MORIN, internationally-renowned French philosopher and sociologist of information, polycrisis and comple, and  recipient of the French Legion of Honor.

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Dr. Blerim Mustafa, Ph.D.@blerimmustafa

Dr. Blerim Mustafa, Ph.D.@blerimmustafa

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The Jakarta Post@jakpost

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In Colombia, The Hague Group Charges Israel With Genocide

(https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-genocide-united-states-the-hague-group-colombia-international-law-united-nations9

A multilateral coalition arrived to Bogotá to take action to stop Israel’s genocide, despite U.S. condemnation and sanctions against the UN and international courts.

Jose Olivares

Jul 15, 2025

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Convened by the Hague Group, an Emergency Ministerial Conference on Palestine began at the San Carlos Palace in Bogotá, Colombia, on July 15, 2025. From right to left: Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories; Riyad Mansour, Minister of Palestine; Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, Foreign Minister of Colombia Zane Dangor, Deputy Minister of South Africa (Photo by Juancho Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images).

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA—On Tuesday, ministers and officials from over 30 countries gathered in Bogotá, Colombia to convene The Hague Group, an international organization co-chaired by the governments of Colombia and South Africa. The two-day conference will discuss steps forward for the international community to stop Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

The gathering comes amid heightened aggression from the U.S. government against the “emergency conference” and one of its lead speakers—Special UN Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza Francesca Albanese—as Israel continues to sabotage negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Dozens of government officials from around the globe took to San Carlos Palace, the site of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in downtown Bogotá on Tuesday morning. Cameras, mostly from Colombian news organizations, pointed to the front of a large salon, with over two-dozen flags making up the backdrop for a panel of speakers from across the world. The countries represented at the emergency conference this week include Algeria, Bolivia, China, Brazil, Iraq, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Spain, Turkey, and Venezuela.

The Hague Group was created last year through the help of Progressive International, an organization founded in May 2020 to unite, organize, and mobilize progressive forces around the world. The Hague Group is pushing for an end to Israel’s offensive, and has organized this week’s emergency conference. Other organizations, including international human rights groups and organizations advocating for Palestinian rights, are present such as the Hind Rajab Foundation. Notably, Qatar and Egypt, which are overseeing negotiations between Hamas and the Israeli government, are in attendance.

“There is nothing to negotiate about. Israel needs to withdraw from Gaza totally and unconditionally,” Albanese told Drop Site News during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon when asked about the negotiations between Hamas and Israel. “This is the first thing. And then Israel owes huge reparations to Palestinians for what it has done,” she added.

The conference marks an inflection point for how some states will address the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians by Israeli military forces. Some governments and officials are divided in their approach to pressure Israel, with some officials more hesitant than others on whether to call for the severance of diplomatic relations and whether to place sanctions on Israel.

Some government officials will be meeting in private during the week for high-level negotiations. Government officials from several countries will all be meeting in closed-door sessions on Tuesday to discuss the Hague Group’s proposed measures. It is unclear what those proposed measures are, but they are likely to be announced on Wednesday morning during the closing ceremony. In Tuesday’s closed-door meetings, Albanese presented her expertise to international officials.

“The Bogotá conference will go down as the moment in history that states finally stood up to do the right thing,” Albanese had said in the lead-up to the conference. She called the formation of The Hague Group the “most significant political development of the last 20 months.”

During Tuesday morning’s opening event, various officials spoke, calling for an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Colombia’s foreign minister, Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio, said during her morning address that Israel’s attacks constitute an unequivocal “genocide.”

The meeting comes amid heightened aggression by the U.S. government toward the Hague Group, and the escalation of diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Colombia.

In an official statement to Drop Site, the U.S. State Department said it strongly opposed the Hague Group’s meeting in Colombia.

“The United States strongly opposes efforts by so-called ‘multilateral blocs’ to weaponize international law as a tool to advance radical anti-Western agendas,” a State Department official said. “The so-called Hague Group—whose leading voices are South Africa and Cuba, authoritarian and communist regimes, respectively, with deeply troubling human rights records—seeks to undermine the sovereignty of democratic nations by isolating and attempting to delegitimate Israel, transparently laying the groundwork for targeting the United States, our military, and our allies.”

The U.S. will “aggressively defend our interests, our military, and our allies, including Israel, from such coordinated legal and diplomatic warfare. We urge our friends to stand with us in this critical endeavor.” The Trump administration withdrew the U.S. from the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year.

Annelle Sheline, a former foreign affairs officer at the State Department who resigned in March 2024 over the slaughter in Gaza, is attending the week’s proceedings. In response to the attempt by the US State Department to bully participating countries at the emergency meeting of the Hague Group, she told Drop Site, “These are sovereign states who have every right to uphold their obligations as UN members, including under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” She added, “This is not the weaponization of international law. This is the application of international law.”

Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions on Francesca Albanese, who has strongly condemned Israel’s U.S.-backed military assault. Rubio said that the sanctions on Albanese are due to her “illegitimate and shameful efforts” to prompt International Criminal Court action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives. “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” he added.

During the press conference, Albanese stressed that nations should sever ties with Israel and place sanctions on Israel. Regarding the sanctions placed on her by Marco Rubio, she said, “it’s not about me. It’s about the Palestinian people,” adding that it is symbolic. Although Albanese is shaken by the actions taken by the U.S., she said, the sanctions are representative of the ongoing war and U.S. complicity.

“There is hope that these two days will move all present to work together to take concrete measures to end the genocide in Gaza and, hopefully, end the erasure of the Palestinians,” Albanese said during her morning address at the opening of the emergency conference, calling for states to take significant steps forward to address the genocide.

Albanese called for each state to “immediately review and suspend all ties with Israel,” and called on governments to review the “military, strategic, political, diplomatic, economic relations—both imports and exports” with Israel and to “make sure that their private sector, insurers, banks, pension funds, universities, and other goods and services providers in the supply chains do the same.” Albanese has recently issued a report naming U.S. companies as complicit in Israel’s war.

“These ties must be terminated as a matter of urgency,” Albanese added. “Let’s be clear: I mean cutting ties with Israel, as a whole.”

Colombia: Host Against Genocide

That the emergency conference is taking place in Colombia is significant and symbolic. Last year, Colombian president Gustavo Petro cut diplomatic ties with Israel, due to the genocide in Gaza. Petro, an outspoken critic of Israel and the U.S., had faced mounting pressure by the U.S. government as well.

During Trump’s first weeks in office, tensions escalated between both governments when Colombia refused to accept a group of deportees from the U.S., who were shackled and being transported in a military plane. Trump and Petro engaged in a loud, public spat on social media, leading to threats of tariffs leveled by both countries.

The brief flare-up was not a blip in U.S.-Colombian relations. In recent weeks, tensions have radically escalated. In early July, the U.S. and Colombian governments both recalled their respective ambassadors, due to escalating tensions in both countries.

According to reporting from El Pais, former Colombian Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva, who had a public falling out with president Petro after he was investigated for allegations of corruption, allegedly sought help from U.S. Republicans to oust Petro. Levya was unsuccessful. In April, Leyva publicly accused Petro of being addicted to drugs.

After the allegations of the attempted ouster surfaced, Petro publicly criticized Leyva and the U.S. government. In turn, the U.S. recalled its top diplomat for “urgent consultations,” accusing Petro of promoting “baseless and reprehensible” statements. Petro then followed suit and recalled the U.S. ambassador.

The Colombian foreign minister opened Tuesday’s event. “Colombia has positioned itself without ambiguity: what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” Villavicencio said on Tuesday morning. “That is why this meeting seeks to go beyond declarations. We seek to support investigations by the International Criminal Court, demand commitment by the International Court of Justice, propose specific sanctions, and mobilize every instrument that International Law allows.”

International Representation

Other speakers on Tuesday morning included Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador and permanent observer of Palestine to the UN; Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, the Executive Director of The Hague Group; Zane Dangor, the Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa; and Dr Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian-American doctor, who has visited Gaza to treat victims.

Dr. Ahmad spoke openly about the devastation he observed, while working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al Aqsa hospital in Deir El Balah last year. “First responders and paramedics are prevented from doing their job or sometimes killed in the line of duty,” Dr. Ahmad said. “Starvation and water is being used as a weapon of war.”

Mansour also addressed the conference’s opening. “The core values we believed humanity agreed were universal are shattered—blown to pieces, like the tens of thousands of starved, murdered, and injured civilians in Palestine,” Mansour said. “Accountability alone is not enough for justice to prevail in Palestine. We must deconstruct the regime of illegal colonial occupation and apartheid to ensure that the current horrifying crimes do not repeat. The best and most assured way to protect the Palestinian people from more crimes is their freedom.”

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@tobararbulu # mmt@tobararbulu

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COUNTERPUNCH: The Geneva International Peace Research Institute Submits Communication to the ICC on the Complicity of the European Commission In Genocide

(https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2025/05/20/counterpunch-the-geneva-international-peace-research-institute-submits-communication-to-the-icc-on-the-complicity-of-the-european-commission-in-genocide/)

Alfred de Zayas

Date: 20 May 2025

Photo: ICC.

Link to original article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/20/the-geneva-international-peace-research-institute-submits-communication-to-the-icc-on-the-complicity-of-the-european-commission-in-genocide/

The United States, Canada, Europe – what we know as the collective West – have turned their backs on the legal commitments undertaken 80 years ago to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and abandoned the over-arching values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the obligations undertaken pursuant to the 1948 Genocide Convention to prevent – not only punish – the crime of genocide.

Instead of strengthening the United Nations Charter as the best hope of survival for humanity, and the only valid “rules based international order”, the collective West has systematically undermined the United Nations system of multilateral negotiation, and is playing really hard ball by a financially blackmailing the Organization and its specialized agencies.

As the global majority in Latin America, Africa and Asia advances toward enhanced cooperation, as the BRICS countries strengthen their economic ties, we in the “West” seem to have lost our way, persist in our obsolete exceptionalism, sterile solipsism, continue provoking others, refusing to resolve disputes by diplomacy, always with a “holier-than-thou” attitude. Our Himalayan hypocrisy, this infantile hubris toward other peoples and cultures further aggravates our isolation.  The fantasy that we are by definition “the good guys” is universally rejected.  Only some ideologues in the West keep repeating the old narrative of our “mission” to bring democracy and human rights to the rest of the world. Wiser observers including Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, Jeffres Sachs of Columbia University, and Ilan Pappé of Exeter University, have demonstrated that our political leaders and the mainstream media are out of touch with reality[1].

Worse than that:  We in the West, once upon a time considered the world leaders in human rights and humanitarian law, are morally bankrupt.  It is inconceivable that we continue to give military, economic, political, economic, propagandistic support to a State that has practised Apartheid since 1948 and committed the crime of ethnic cleansing since the Nakba. Israeli government is in a state of moral meltdown.  We in the West engage in blatant “apology of the crime of genocide”, align ourselves with the State of Israel, which is in open rebellion against international law, the UN Charter, fundamental humanity.  Our credibility is shot.

We citizens of supposedly democratic countries have a duty to protest, a duty to go out in the streets and condemn the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.  We must shout — as my generation did in the late 1960s and early 1970s – “if the government does not stop the Vietnam war, we will stop the government institutions”. Back then we shouted “Not in our name”.  Vietnam was not our enemy.  Today we must reaffirm that the Palestinians are not our enemies, and Israel cannot be our ally in any name, shape or form. If we ally ourselves with the State of Israel, we are ourselves guilty of genocide.

Back in 1975 student protests and a better mainstream media than today succeeded in stopping the slaughter in Vietnam – but only after some 4 million Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians had been killed in the name of “freedom”, but actually in the name of militant capitalism.  Practically no one was ever held accountable for the horrors we visited upon innocent people.  We just “turned the page”.  It pays to read again the 1970 book by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh  My lai 4, A Report on the Massacre and its Aftermath[2]. One of so many massacres during a profoundly unjust war.

The “collective West” bears responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by NATO forces in many theatres — Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.  But today the collective West has advanced to committing and justifying all-out genocide against the Palestinian people.  Our governments are all complicit.  Will there be accountability?

As the International Court of Justice is busy with numerous contentious cases concerning the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians[3], the Geneva International Peace Research Institute(GIPRI)[4]  continues to call for an end of the slaughter, prevention of future conflicts, and accountability of the perpetrators.  It is the function of the United Nations to take effective measures to prevent genocide, and if massacres of this magnitude are occurring, the United Nations must act.  It is far more than just a matter of “Responsibility to Protect”, it is a make-or-break situation.  The UN will lose all credibility if it cannot stop this genocide.  Thus, the United Nations must call on all UN members to impose an arms embargo on Israel, break all commercial relations with the genocidal state. The UN should act to withdraw the credentials of Israeli diplomats, as it rejected the accreditation of the Apartheid South African diplomats in 1974[5].

The United Nations has the power to adopt a resolution under article 6 of the UN Charter to expel Israel from the UN.  Of course the Unted States will then veto it in the Security Council, but a resolution by the General Assembly would itself have considerable symbolic significance for the international community.  The serial vetoes of the United States to block condemnation of the crimes and atrocities of the government of Israel constitute a flagrant rejection of international law and the whole philosophy of the primacy of law over geopolitics, the necessary respect for the international “rule of law” as the only alternative to tyranny and chaos.

It is a major dysfunction of the international legal system when judgments and advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice are ignored by Israel, the United States, and Europe.  The international community has seen this blatant disregard with regard to the Court’s Advisory Opinions of 9 July 2004[6] and 19 July 2024[7]. The United States has effectively rendered the pronouncements of the highest judicial instance of the United Nations unenforceable.

On the positive side, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu[8] and his former Secretary of “Defence”  Yoav Gallant[9]. Yet, to this day, these arrest warrants have not been implemented.  It is a matter of great concern for the authority of judicial institutions that European States, ostensibly committed to the rule of law, and signatories of the Statute of Rome, have hitherto refused to arrest these persons.  This has had a devastating effect on the credibility of the United Nations and on the image of the Europeans as defenders of the rule of law.

On 22 May 2024 the Geneva International Peace Research Institute submitted a 29-page legal brief to the Proseuctor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, requesting him under article 15 of the Statute of Rome to initiate an investigation into the issue of complicity in genocide, complicity by the US, UK, and many European countries.  Beyond that, GIPRI proposed an investigation into the complicity of the European Commission, and in particular Ursula von der Leyen, who has been a relentless defender of Israel’s criminal actions against the Palestinians in the Occupied territories and Gaza.  Undoubtedly, she and other EU officials have become complicit in the crime of genocide by providing, on behalf of the European Commission, support to a genocidal state.

On 15 May 2025, GIPRI submitted a follow-up communication to its earlier communication.  The text of the new GIPRI  submission to the ICC reads in part

“This is a follow-up on the communication submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI) and other institutions on 22 May 2024[10],  This initial communication set forth in detail the grounds justifying opening an investigation against the current president of the European Commission, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, a national of Germany, for complicity in grave violations of international humanitarian law, amounting to crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC, in contravention of articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute, committed by the Israeli armed forces (IDF) against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including the Gaza Strip.

“This follow-up communication by the Geneva International Peace Research Institute, made pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, urges the Prosecutor to initiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of the existing information provided against Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, the cumulative evidence in the public domain and the solidly documented submissions to the International Court of Justice by numerous governments, including those of South Africa[11] and Nicaragua[12].

“GIPRI renews its call on the Prosecutor to proceed as requested in the legal brief submitted on 22 May 2024 and recently confirmed in the appeal of the Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967[13].  On 4 May 2025 Albanese again called for accountability of Mrs. Ursula van der Leyen and other European Union officials for complicity in the genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people, a crime within the meaning of article 6 of the Rome Statute and article III e of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide[14]. Albanese stated: “The fact that the two highest figures of the EU continue business as usual engagements with Israel is beyond deplorable …I’m not someone who says, ‘History will judge them’ — they will have to be judged before then. And they will have to understand that immunity cannot equate with impunity.”[15] Professor William Schabas of Middlesex University in London has commented: “Von der Leyen is clearly reflecting a position taken by many EU governments, which is one of very unconditional support of Israel, and they’re doing this flying in the face of public information suggesting that Israel is committing terrible crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.”[16]

“Since the filing of the GIPRI communication of May 2024, the genocide in Gaza has not only continued but has become more deliberate, thorough and systematic.  The complicity of European institutions and personally of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, is public record.  Ursula von der Leyen’s own words demonstrate her complicity, as documented by governmental and non-governmental institutions. At issue is not only the crime of complicity, but also the concerted effort to deny that the crimes and atrocities committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians constitute genocide, and the attempt by official European institutions to downplay the use of hunger as a weapon of war as being somehow justified as “self-defense”. The crime of apology of genocide and crimes against humanity can also be understood as a form of “incitement” to hatred and violence within the meaning of article III c of the Genocide Convention.”

Abundant evidence of the crime of genocide and of the complicity of Ursula von der Leyen and other European institutions has been submitted to the International Court of Justice, including during the hearings held from 28 April to 2 May 2025 concerning the pending General Assembly request to the ICJ to issue an Advisory Opinion concerning the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory Presence and Activities of the United Nations.[17] GIPRI further refers to the pertinent Reports of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel[18].

GIPRI recalls that the 1948 Convention against Genocide constitutes jus cogens and that all States and all State institutions are obligated not only to punish, but far more importantly to prevent genocide. This is an erga omnesobligation reaffirmed in the ICJ Judgment in the case Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro[19].  Far from taking concrete measures to prevent the on-going genocide against the Palestinians, the European Commission, Kaja Kallas and Ursula von der Leyen have continued to support the criminal actions of the government of Israel by providing military, political, economic, diplomatic and propagandistic support to the genocidal State, including by furnishing the means for the commission of the crimes in question, within the meaning of Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute.

Let us see whether in the light of GIPRI’s follow-up communication to the ICC, the Prosecutor will decide to open an investigation into the issue of complicity in genocide — not only by governments, but also by institutions and individuals acting in official capacities for the European Union and NATO.

In any event, it is up to us to pushback against and disavow the statements of the US State Department, of Keir Starmer, of the European Commission and its President Ursula von der Leyen.  As concerned citizens of the world, we must demand an immediate stop to the genocide, immediate humanitarian assistance to the victims, the implementation of the right to return of all refugees and expellees, and accountability for the crimes hitherto committed.

All CounterPunch readers are invited to address petitions to the International Criminal Court and demand that the Prosecutor initiate investigations with a view to issuing arrest warrants not only against Netanyahu and Dayan, but also against Ursula von der Leyen, Kaja Kallas, Mark Rutte and all accomplices in this campaign to dismantle civilization.  In the meantime, States that are respectful of the UN Charter and the Genocide Convention should consider activating the inter-State complains procedures provided for by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and by other international human rights treaties.  Moreover, States should consider exercising universal jurisdiction and motu proprio initiating investigations of the perpetrators in absentia.  Should any of these persons enter their territorial jurisdiction, they should be subject to arrest and prosecution on charges of complicity in the ongoing genocide.  Counterpunch readers and other petitioners may address their communications to the
International Criminal Court
Boîte Postale 19519
2500 CM, La Haye
Pays-Bas
otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int
Fax +31 70 515 8555

They can also go on the ICC site and submit petitions online.  https://otplink.icc-cpi.int/faqs
https://otplink.icc-cpi.int/faqs

As Martin Luther King Jr said on 4 April 1967 in an address at New York City’s Riverside Church: “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.”[20]  Gaza is today, the Palestinians are being exterminated. There is no doubt that the Israeli government aims at the “final solution of Palestine”, the ethnic cleansing and deportation of all Palestinians, so that Israel can complete its landgrab and illegal annexation of Palestinian territories.  We must prevent this.  It is our obligation as civilized human beings.

Alas, Western civilization appears to be in a state of moral collapse, and the operators sit in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin and Jerusalem.  Let us hope for a moral revival in the US, UK, France, Germany and Israel.  The Global Majority must take the lead in demanding an immediate stop to the war against the Palestinians. All women and men of good will must demand concrete measures to stop the genocide.  NOW!

Notes.

[1] John Mearsheimer, The Great Delusion, Yale University Press, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pbx94vzKOA.https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/18/62/546393/Books/Reviews/Historian-Ilan-Papp;%E2%80%99s-unflinching-indictment-of-t.aspx. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epq9x0Px5Yk

[2] https://archive.org/details/mylai4reportonth00hers

[3] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192, https://www.icj-cij.org/case/193

[4] https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/27/call-for-the-icc-to-investigate-ursula-von-der-leyen-for-complicity-in-war-crimes-and-genocide/

[5] https://media.un.org/photo/en/asset/oun7/oun7593912

[6] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/131

[7] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/186

[8] https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

[9] https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/gallant

[10] https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/27/call-for-the-icc-to-investigate-ursula-von-der-leyen-for-complicity-in-war-crimes-and-genocide/

[11] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192

[12] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/193

[13] https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-palestine

[14] https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-palestine/francesca-albanese

EU President Should Be Investigated for Complicity in Israel’s War Crimes, Says Top U.N. Expert on Palestine

[15] https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/eu-president-must-face-war-crimes-charges–albanese

https://www.sott.net/article/499421-UN-Special-Rapporteur-Francesca-Albanese-EUs-von-der-Leyen-beyond-deplorable-on-Gaza

[16] https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/eu-president-should-be-tried-for-complicity-in-israel-s-war-crimes-says-top-un-expert-on-palestine/ar-AA1E6DID

[17] https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/196/196-20250502-pre-01-00-en.pdf

[18] https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4051243?v=pdf

[19] https://icj-cij.org/case/91

[20] https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

Alfred de Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. He is the author of twelve books including “Building a Just World Order” (2021) “Countering Mainstream Narratives” 2022, and “The Human Rights Industry” (Clarity Press, 2021).

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Date: July 8, 2025

In my recent op-ed for The Jakarta Post – Indonesia leading English language daily newspaper – titled ‘BRICS and the Future of Global Diplomacy,’ I explore the growing significance of the BRICS coalition (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in shaping contemporary international relations. As the group expands its membership and influence, it presents both opportunities and challenges for the existing global governance architecture. The article reflects on how BRICS contributes to a more pluralistic world order, fostering inclusive multilateralism while navigating geopolitical and economic complexities. Rather than framing its rise as a confrontation, the piece considers how BRICS and traditional institutions might adapt to an increasingly multipolar landscape. For a deeper analysis, the full article can be accessed below

https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2025/07/08/brics-and-the-future-of-global-diplomacy.html

Below follow the op-ed that I submitted to the editorial team of the Jakarta Post:

BRICS and the Future of Global Diplomacy

By: Dr. Blerim Mustafa, Ph.D.

The unprecedented direct military exchanges between US/Israel and Iran have fundamentally altered the Middle East’s security landscape. This was not merely another regional flare-up but a tectonic shift that exposed the international community’s dangerous inability to prevent escalation between nuclear-capable states. As warplanes scrambled and air defense systems lit up Middle Eastern skies, the world confronted a sobering reality: our existing diplomatic frameworks are woefully inadequate for managing 21st-century conflicts.

Reassessing Security Approaches: The Potential of BRICS in Multilateral Diplomacy

The recent cycle of violence reveals the bankruptcy of unilateral approaches to regional security. For decades, the Middle East has been trapped in what might be termed the deterrence paradox, where competing security strategies decrease overall stability. Israel’s doctrine of military preemption clashes with Iran’s strategy of strategic patience and proxy warfare, creating a dangerous dynamic where both sides constantly test red lines while traditional mediators struggle to contain the fallout.

The evolution of the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) illustrates these complex dynamics. As a significant multilateral achievement involving all five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany and the EU, its changing status since 2018 has led to a reexamination of safeguards and alternatives. This transition period has seen nuclear non-proliferation considerations reemerge alongside ongoing regional tensions, highlighting how shifts in multilateral commitments can create new diplomatic challenges that require careful management.

This is where BRICS—a coalition representing over 40% of the global population and a growing share of economic and diplomatic influence—can play a decisive role. BRICS offers an alternative model of inclusive multilateralism, where emerging powers can mediate conflicts without the historical baggage of Cold War-era alliances.

The New Multilateral Landscape: BRICS as a Stabilizing Force

Today’s diplomatic environment differs fundamentally from the unipolar systems of the past. Three significant evolutions are reshaping conflict management—and BRICS is central to each.

First, the diffusion of diplomatic influence has created what might be called modular multilateralism. No single power or institution holds exclusive mediation rights. The United Nations (UN) provides legal authority, regional organizations offer cultural fluency, and middle powers contribute niche expertise. The 2023 Saudi-Iran détente, brokered with China’s mediation as a leading BRICS state, highlighted the capacity of alternative diplomatic actors to foster dialogue in intractable conflicts. Such outcomes may invite greater BRICS engagement in mitigating international tensions.

Second, economic interdependence has become both a risk and a tool. Globalized supply chains mean local conflicts now carry immediate worldwide economic consequences. BRICS, with its collective economic weight, can wield coordinated incentives—such as trade partnerships, infrastructure investments, and energy security guarantees—to incentivize de-escalation.

Third, the nature of conflicts themselves has changed. Modern confrontations blend conventional warfare with cyber operations, economic coercion, and information warfare. BRICS nations, with their diverse technological and intelligence capabilities, are well-positioned to develop innovative conflict-resolution mechanisms that go beyond outdated Cold War frameworks.

How BRICS Can Lead Effective Multilateral Responses

The US/Israel-Iran standoff reveals three key areas where BRICS can enhance multilateral engagement.

First, institutional coordination must replace institutional competition. Rather than competing with the UN or Western-led initiatives, BRICS should complement them. A BRICS conflict mediation task force, working alongside regional organizations like the Arab League or the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, could provide a neutral platform for dialogue.

Second, economic tools must be better integrated with political strategies. Current sanctions regimes often lack clear pathways for relief. BRICS could pioneer a peace economy model, linking sanctions relief, investment, and trade access to verifiable de-escalation steps—offering tangible benefits for compliance.

Third, multilateralism must address both state and non-state dimensions. The Israel-Iran conflict plays out through proxy networks across Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. BRICS, with its diverse membership, is uniquely positioned to engage both governments and local stakeholders in conflict resolution.

A Defining Challenge for BRICS-Led Global Governance

The Israel-Iran confrontation represents more than another Middle East crisis—it tests whether emerging powers can reshape multilateralism to fit today’s geopolitical realities. Three lessons suggest a path forward.

The Saudi-Iran reconciliation shows that even entrenched rivals can find accommodation when mediation combines discreet bilateral channels with multilateral oversight. The initial China-brokered talks were later endorsed by regional organizations, creating layers of reassurance.

The mixed results of recent emergency diplomacy efforts demonstrate the need for permanent conflict management mechanisms—an area where BRICS could play an institutional role. While the UN’s preventive diplomacy frameworks remain underutilized, they provide established tools for this kind of sustained engagement.

Finally, the economic consequences of the crisis reinforce that all nations, including BRICS members, have a vested interest in Middle East stability. This shared stake could motivate more consistent collective action, moving beyond the current pattern of crisis attention followed by neglect.

Conclusion: The BRICS Imperative in a Fragmented World

As the dust settles from the latest Israel-Iran confrontation, the international community faces a fundamental choice. It can continue with fragmented, reactive approaches or invest in inclusive multilateral systems capable of addressing both symptoms and causes.

For BRICS, this is a historic opportunity. By leveraging its economic influence, diplomatic neutrality, and collective geopolitical weight, the bloc can pioneer a new model of conflict resolution, advancing a more equitable and effective global order.

The standoffs in the Middle East have often served as crucibles for international diplomacy. Today’s crisis could similarly spur essential reforms—but only if BRICS approaches it not as another problem to manage, but as an opportunity to lead. The alternative—a world where might makes right and institutions fade into irrelevance—is too dangerous to contemplate.

Dr. Blerim Mustafa serves as Special Advisor to the President of the International Eurasia Press Fund (Azerbaijan), and lectures on International Relations and Politics at the University of Rhone (France) and the Geneva Nations Institute (Switzerland).

Gogoratzekoa:

NATO dela kausa, “Europar Distopia versus Europa (EFTA, kasu)” delakoaren ordez, hauxe proposatzen dugu Euskal Herriarentzat: BRICS delakoan sartzea, EFTA-tik BRICS-era

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Geure herriari, Euskal Herriari dagokionez, hona hemen gure apustu bakarra:

We Basques do need a real Basque independent State in the Western Pyrenees, just a democratic lay or secular state, with all the formal characteristics of any independent State: Central Bank, Treasury, proper currency¹, out of the European Distopia and faraway from NATO, being a BRICS partner…

Ikus Euskal Herriaren independentzia eta Mikel Torka

eta

Esadazu arren, zer da gu euskaldunok egiten ari garena eta zer egingo dugun

gehi

MTM: Zipriztinak (2), 2025: Warren Mosler

(Pinturak: Mikel Torka)

Gehigarriak:

Zuk ez dakizu ezer Ekonomiaz

MTM klase borrokarik gabe, kontabilitate hutsa da

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