“This is a massive, overwhelming legal victory for the Republic of South Africa against Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. The UN General Assembly now can suspend Israel from participation in its activities as it did for South Africa and Yugoslavia. It can admit Palestine as a full member. And — especially since the International Criminal Court has been a farce — it can establish a tribunal to prosecute the highest level officials of the Israeli government, both civilian and military.”

The International Court of Justice (also called the World Court) has announced it will “deliver its Order on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by South Africa in the case South Africa v. Israel this Friday, 26 January 2024, at 1 p.m.” (7 a.m. ET). South Africa filed its 84-page Application on Dec. 29, 2023. Oral arguments were made before the Court on Jan. 11 (South Africa invoking Genocide Convention: video, text PDF) and Jan. 12 (Israel defense: video, text PDF). See recent statement from UN experts: “Over one hundred days into the war, Israel destroying Gaza’s food system and…

“Administrators at Columbia University responded to reports of students being injured by a chemical attack against an on-campus rally for Gaza by chiding students for holding protests without official authorization. Meanwhile, students told The Intercept that even as the school’s public safety department has said it is investigating the incident, school administrators themselves have yet to contact the victims — some of whom have had to seek medical care for their injuries.”

In a piece titled “Why We’re Not Seeing the Real Gaza War in the Media,” author Norman Solomon writes: “The media words and images reach us light years away from what it’s actually like to be in a war zone. The experience of consuming news from afar could hardly be more different. And if we hold beliefs or unconscious notions that media outlets are conveying war’s realities, that only ends up obscuring those realities all the more.”

The editor of Reporting Right, a weekly guide for journalists, assesses some of the pitfalls of reporting on the radical right ahead of the 2024 election.

“The U.S. designation of the Ansar-Allah, also known as Houthis as a specially designated Global Terrorist is raising concerns about its impact on the peace process and the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. With this designation, there is a heightened risk that the peace process could be derailed, as it may further estrange the Houthi and disrupt diplomatic efforts. This, in turn, could lead to the continuation of blockades at vital entry points such as airports, and seaports, exacerbating the already fragile Yemeni economy. Moreover, public servants, who have been awaiting their salaries since 2016 with the start of the peace process, now…

“This is not only Israel on trial. It is the International Court of Justice on trial. It is a test of the humanity of the world and whether the institutions we’ve built to protect it — today, this court in The Hague — withstand the test of Western impunity.” The ICGSP continues to expand with nearly 2,000 signatory organizations from 100 countries on the initial letter with list of organizations calling for “mobilization in defense of South Africa’s strong case for genocide. Member organizations are working to press their governments to submit Declarations of Intervention to the ICJ in support of emergency…

An important movement within the Christian right, known as the New Apostolic Reformation, has broad implications for the 2024 election.

“The Houthis had consistently expressed their demands publicly: an end to attacks on Red Sea ships in exchange for Israel halting strikes on Palestinians in Gaza, which have killed at least 23,000 so far, most of them women and children. There’s no guarantee the Houthis would have upheld their commitment post-ceasefire. But when a temporary truce did reign in Gaza from Nov. 24 to 30 of last year, the number of confirmed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea significantly diminished, according to the Institute for the Study of War.”

Namibia rejects Germany’s Support of the Genocidal Intent of the Racist Israeli State against Innocent Civilians in Gaza. On Namibian soil, Germany committed the first genocide of the 20th century in 1904-1908, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most inhumane and brutal conditions. The German Government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil.”