Evo Morales expells Israeli diplomats and threatens to charge Israeli leadership in ICC

Morales has this really cool jacket he wears-embroidery similar to the Bolivian poncho that hangs in my front hall-a wonderful momento from my time there.

Apart from that he's not all that interesting.

 
[img]http://www.beniciodeltoro.ca/WithEvoMorales003.jpg[/img]

What does some indigenous person know about colonialism anyway, eh bolshie?

Evo is indeed interesting. You should read his 10 commandments to save the planet.

 Other than that, he's a good soccer player and a great speaker. Plus, I want the shirt and jacket!

Over 2000 Argentine Jews died in the Dirty War, and were subjected to specifically "Nazi" and other antisemitic torture scenarios in the prisons and concentration camps. The percentange of Jews among the tortured and killed was much, much higher than among the general population - due to so many Jews being active on the left, but also due to the ingrained antisemitism of the Argentine far-right (remember all the old Nazis there enjoying their retirment as "special advisers" to the torturers).

This was one of the worst massacres of Jews anywhere since the Holocaust. A certain Henry Kissinger also played a role, and this should be remembered whenever the old serial mass murderer ever claims to speak for the Jewish people.

A friend of mine in Bs As whose entire Warsaw Jewish family was murdered by the Nazis in the ghetto and at Treblinka, except his parents who were sent away as young people, survived the Dirty War, and lost many friends in that fascist regime as well. (He is strongly on the side of the Palestinians).

It would be interested if somewhat leftish Peronists now in power in Argentina cut off relations with Israel. I doubt it will happen at this point though, as one might recall the Israeli embassy there was bombed at about the same time as the AMIA (Jewish mutual aid society and community centre).

Israel's abetting of the genocide in Guatemala, a true genocide in the sense of the Shoah and Rwanda, is a deep shame. Never again my arse.

I'm very glad those two burning issues have been brought up. 
(1) Israel is a fortress state living off a variety of military
projects, and (2) the US was indirectly responsible for the torture and
murder of several  thousand Argentines, with Jews singled out for
special treatment - some of the torturers had pictures of Hitler and
Nazi paraphernalia on the premises, and Jewish prisoners were
definitely victims of worse ill-treatment.

<><><> With the
Israeli(-and US) military project involving the economies of so many
suppliers, but also with the strength of Israeli lobby groups and the
Holocaust-sympathy-industry around the world, it's understandable why
only "brave little Bolivia" and Venezuela have so far taken drastic
action.  

<><>(BTW:  I am still offended by
Old-Bolshie's trolling provocation, which sounded for the world like a
tactic to divert attention from Morales's serious, courageous act vis a
vis Israel.) 

Le T][quote wrote:

Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, says he is breaking off ties with Israel in protest against its war in Gaza, which has left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead.

Morales said on Wednesday that he would seek to get top Israeli officials, including Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, charged with "genocide" in the International Criminal Court.

The Bolivian president also dismissed the United Nations and its "Insecurity Council" for its "lukewarm" response to the crisis and said the general assembly should hold an emergency session to condemn the invasion.

"Considering these grave attacks against ... humanity, Bolivia will stop having diplomatic relations with Israel," Morales told diplomats in the Bolivian capital, La Paz.

We need better leaders leading the world........This man is a great example.

Morales has plenty of problems in his own country to solve , for example, the province of Santa Cruz, many of whose people don't appreciate him as some of us do. As for the kangaroo, completely un-democratic ICC, their game is nasty civil war commanders in Africa, the mice. The lions, economic interests behind the wars get impunity.

I'm not sure if Morales was misquoted or not, but the Int'l Court of Justice is different from the ICC.

It is a tribunal under the International Court of Justice that the UNGA can establish at this time. 

see eg. from www.pej.org , posted earlier:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS FOR UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY AND INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

Role of the General Assembly

Calling Emergency Session:

Under resolution 377, Uniting for Peace Resolution , there is a provision for calling for an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The UN General Assembly is the body of the United Nations that best upholds the principle of sovereign equality of states.

Invoking Article 22 to set up an International Tribunal:

Under article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations, the UNGA has the power if it passes a resolution, to set up an international Tribunal to try leaders of states engaged in acts of aggression.

Demanding compliance with Chapter VI of the Charter of the UNL

Chapter VI calls for Peaceful Settlement of Disputes

Under Chapter VI of the Charter of the United Nations entitled Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, a number of provisions have been established to bring about the peaceful settlement of disputes:

(i) The first, provision is to counter conflict of interest in decision making related to conflict
Decisions under Chapter VI, are constrained by Article 27 which reads that a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting.

(i) The second provision is recourse, under article 36, to the rule of international law, through the International Court of Justice:
Article 36 reads....legal disputes should as a general rule be referred by the parties to the International Court of Justice in accordance with the provisions of the Statute of the Court.

Chapter 36 complements Chapter VI in outlining the role of the International Court of Justice

ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE

Under Chapter xiv, Article 92 states that the International Court of Justice shall be the principal judicial organ of the United Nations...and under Article. 93 all members of the UN are ipso facto parties to the statute of the International Court of Justice, and under Article 94, each member of the United Nations undertakes to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice in a case to which it is a party and under Article 96 there is the provision for the UN General Assembly, UN Security Council and other organs of the UN to request the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on any legal question.

UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT MADE A COMMITMENT TO STRENGHTEN THE ROLE OF THE UNGA

The current President of the UN General Assembly, HE Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, has indicated that he would like the UN General Assembly to have a more important role. He is also known for his respect for the international rule of law and for the International Court of Justice (he was Foreign Minister of Nicaragua when the important case of land mines was taken to the International Court of Justice).

 from the aforementioned pej item,

"Invoking Article 22 to set up an International Tribunal:

Under article 22 of the Charter of the United Nations, the UNGA has the power if it passes a resolution, to set up an international Tribunal to try leaders of states engaged in acts of aggression."

I also received a note from Francis Boyle when i wrote him about organized actions, that there was an int'l effort around this element particularly, which sought to function as a deterrent to leaders in their ongoing massacre.  that letter campaign stated,

" Write to the President of the U.N. General Assembly, urging for the
establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI),
under U.N. Charter Article 22.
Fax: +1 (212) 963-4423
Email: http://www.un.org/ga/contactus.asp "

but it looks like Morales is talking about something else, or maybe was misquoted. 

The UN has the power to set up ad hoc tribunals to try individuals - for example [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Tribunal_for_the_for... and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Tribunal_for_Rwanda]....

and what i'd actually like to see would be an ICT-US , specifically naming members of the Bush administration, but that's thread drift i guess..

M. Spector, the UNGA as I understand is the largest legal body of the UN which is mandated to uphold all of the UN Charter, including the Conventions, and Declaration of Human Rights. 

Dr. Joan Russow has run the Global Compliance Project for many years and has spent a good portion of her life in UN work as a Canadian activist.  Dr. Francis A. Boyle teaches international law at the University of Illinois and has written extensively on UN issues.  Both have worked together in efforts to generate grassroots activism directed at the full membership of the UNGA, ie) getting citizens to communicate with the entire spectrum of embassies and diplomats who spend a lot of time floating around the corridors of New York and Geneva but who really don't hear often from ordinary concerned folk.

In the past efforts have included eg. collating the emails of all country embassy diplomats with offices in NY and writing them with requests for UNGA action.  In the past sometimes a focus on specifically the NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) countries was useful.  Or collating the 192 countries and dividing into language groupings for those activists with better skills in diverse languages to write to diplomats of similar persuasion.  with diplomatic language like 'Dear Ambassador; Please [such and such]...". 

I'm elaborating on this now for educational purposes, in the event any babble readers want to take this approach up for future actions, for any campaign.   The UN does have a mandate that can be enforced, and not just by the Security Council.  But don't take my word for it, best write or call Joan or Francis or others who have been involved for many decades in UN work.   And no I don't give out contact info to people I don't know over the internet.  you'll need to take it from here.

here was the main content of the note i got fwded from francis boyle, if you prefer.  Joan has worked with many organizations, and her own Global Compliance Project which has focussed a lot on UN work.  i'm not here to defend any individuals' record. for some reason i'm dumb enough to get sucked into ongoing debates.  i'm sure you could check up with lots of other UN activists, probably there's some who read rabble, i know some other BC peace activists are active in the UN Assciation in Canada. 

___________________________________________________

Sunday, 04 January 2009 19:47 
1. Summary

With the Gaza death toll exceeding 400, the Islamic Human Rights
Commission calls on campaigners to send letters to the President of the
United Nations General Assembly, to urge the U.N. General Assembly to
establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI).

2. Background

After five days of consecutive bombardment of Gaza, and an
ever-increasing death toll, demonstrators all over the world are calling
for an end to the massacre. Campaigners are urged to continue attending
demonstrations and boycotting Israel, and are now asked to send letters
to the President of the U.N. General Assembly, urging for the
long-overdue establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal for
Israel (ICTI), under U.N. Charter Article 22.

On the topic of Israel's current attack on Gaza, Archibishop Desmond
Tutu said on Sunday:

"In the context of total aerial supremacy, in which one side in a
conflict deploys lethal aircraft against opponents with no means of
defending themselves, the bombardment bears all the hallmarks of war
crimes."

Francis A. Boyle, in calling for the creation of such an Israeli war
crimes tribunal, said:

"The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to
the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide
against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine--just as the ICTY has done
in the Balkans. Furthermore, the establishment of ICTI by the U.N.
General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Israeli leaders
such as Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, Defense Minister
Barak , Chief of Staff Ashkenazi and Israel's other top generals that
they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international
crimes upon the Lebanese and the Palestinians."

3. Action required

Write to the President of the U.N. General Assembly, urging for the
establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI),
under U.N. Charter Article 22.
Fax: +1 (212) 963-4423
Email: http://www.un.org/ga/contactus.asp

4. Sample letter

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If you receive a reply to the letter you send, we request you to send a
copy of the letter you sent and the reply you received to IHRC. This is
extremely important as it helps IHRC to monitor the situation with
regards to our campaigns and to improve upon the current model letters.

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Sample letter to the President of the U.N. General Assembly.

[Your Name]
[Your Address]

President
General Assembly
United Nations
New York, NY USA

[Date]

Dear Sir,

Re: Creation of Israeli war crimes tribunal

The current massacre happening in Gaza is of urgent concern to my
community and I. For attacks which bear all the trademarks of war
crimes, is it not time for them to be assessed within the appropriate
context of an Israeli war crimes tribunal?

Surely, you do not need me to relate to you the strangulation and
bombardment of Gaza, and the humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding.
After five days of consecutive bombardment of Gaza, and a death toll
exceeding 400, calls for an end to the massacre fall on the deaf ears of
a murderous Israeli government.

The 1.5 million abused and starved inhabitants of "the world's biggest
concentration camp" are being forced to continue to collectively-pay for
democratically-electing their government.

While the Israeli authorities punish the Palestinians in order to teach
Hamas a hard-handed lesson, the civilian casualties and number of
injured continue to soar. Israel is refusing ceasefire requests, in
spite of Hamas offering it on the basis of reasonable and attainable
compromises: "an end to the blockade, and an Israeli ceasefire on the
West Bank", according to Yuval Diskin, current head of Israeli security
services Shin Bet.

Also, in light of the current attacks which have sparked international
condemnation, Archbishop Desmund Tutu said: "In the context of total
aerial supremacy, in which one side in a conflict deploys lethal
aircraft against opponents with no means of defending themselves, the
bombardment bears all the hallmarks of war crimes."

Over the past 2 months, fuel supply to Gaza has been blocked leading to
the closure of its power plant, and even the U.N. has been forced to
halt distribution of food aid, upon which most Gazans are reliant. The
actions of the Israeli authorities violate the Geneva Conventions and so
many international norms. It is now more necessary than ever for the
U.N. to establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI),
under U.N. Charter Article 22. Failure to create viable accountability
would only further embolden the Israeli government to continue their
extermination of the Palestinians.

As the crimes committed against Palestinians degrade all humanity, we
request you to urge members of the U.N. General Assembly to swiftly take
necessary and appropriate action towards creating an ICTI under U.N.
Charter Article 22, and holding the Israeli government accountable.

I look forward to your reply regarding this urgent matter.

Yours sincerely,

[Your signature]
[Your name]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------

For more information, please contact the office on the numbers or email
below.

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----------------------

IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and
Social Council of the United Nations

Radio France International announces that Qatar and Mauritania have joined the countries having broken all relationships with Israel. The boycott is gowing.