Israel has demanded that 1.1 million Palestinians leave their homes. Human rights lawyer Noura Erakat writes: “Israel plans to flatten Gaza. This is beyond comprehension. There’s no irony that in the name of battling ‘barbarism,’ Israel with the backing of the U.S. and most European capitals, will unleash a genocidal campaign.” See reporting from Britain’s Channel 4, with footage from the Norwegian Refugee Council.
See updates from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza and the Electronic Intifada: “Israeli attacks wipe out 44 Gaza families.”
JOHN QUIGLEY, quigley.2@osu.edu
Professor emeritus of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley’s books include The Statehood of Palestine: International Law in the Middle East Conflict (Cambridge University Press) and The Ruses for War: American Interventionism Since World War II. He said today: “The IDF knows that its demand on Gazans to leave is asking them to do the impossible. This demand is effectively a statement of intent to kill in the thousands.”
FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle@illinois.edu
Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. His books include Palestine, Palestinians and International Law and World Politics, Human Rights and International Law. See past IPA news releases. He said today: “The United Nations Secretary General Guterres must exercise his power under U.N. Charter Article 99 to convene an emergency meeting of the Security Council and there call for an immediate ceasefire of all hostilities by both Israel and Hamas. Thereafter the international community must be free to provide massive humanitarian relief supplies to the suffering people of Gaza.” See text of his talk: “Stopping Zionist Genocide Against The Palestinians.” He notes that Israeli violations of international law are long standing — that it has never respected the Geneva Conventions, for example.
REFAAT ALAREER, refatr17@gmail.com, @itranslate123
Alareer is the co-editor of Gaza Unsilenced. His writings have appeared in the New York Times. He said: “#GazaGenocide: Will this be our last sunrise?! We are staying. Some families left to other areas also bombed by Israel. If we are bombed anyway, many believe we must stay wherever we are but also to prevent another Nakba/displacement of native Palestinians.” See interview on “Democracy Now”: “Refaat Alareer in Gaza: Israel’s ‘Barbaric’ Bombardment Is Part of Ethnic Cleansing Campaign.”
See brief backgrounder on the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, from the Institute for Middle East Understanding. See Al-Jazeera documentary: “Al-Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe.”
