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** 13 June 2024
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The United Nations was established in 1945 in order to achieve peace and security, and to make sure that the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust never happen again. International tribunals like the International Court of Justice were established. In 2000, the International Criminal Court was created to end impunity for heinous crimes.

This international legal system has become corrupted and is collapsing.

The UN-centric system has become a political playing field, where the enemies of Western values are able to manipulate UN bodies to advance their interests. Israel is the “canary in the coal mine” – the undermining of Israel’s sovereignty is a sign of a deeper problem.

This week the Security Council adopted a resolution purporting to require Hamas to accept the terms of a ceasefire proposal ostensibly agreed to by Israel. The proposal would essentially exonerate Hamas of its crimes, including the massacre on 7^th October, its incessant missile attacks and threats, and the taking of hostages. It would require Israel to give up its campaign to destroy Hamas. The Security Council resolution is unbalanced and unfair.
"The international legal system has become corrupted and is collapsing."
Another example is the latest report released by the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) into crimes in Israel and Palestine, alleging that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war.

The Commission is headed by South African lawyer Navay Pillai who is known for her anti-Israel views. The COI has an unprecedented, broad and open-ended mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of alleged international crimes committed in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The COI’s mandate requires the Commission to assume that Israel is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Basically, it is a witch hunt against the Jewish people.

Together with her two colleagues, Pillay alleges that Israel’s actions also constituted “crimes against humanity” because of the "immense civilian losses", and that they included acts of “extermination.” Under international law, “crimes against humanity” are more serious than “war crimes”. So the message the COI is sending is: Israeli leaders are even worse criminals than Hamas leaders. That is an absurd and immoral finding given that Hamas started this war with its continued missile fire building up to its heinous massacre on 7th October - all part of its genocidal intention to kill as many Jews as possible. Israel, on the contrary, is conducting a war of self-defence on several fronts against the aggression of the Iranian regime.

Of course, it is possible that Israeli military commanders make mistakes or use excessive or unnecessary force, and if that is the case the responsible persons should be brought to account. But wilful acts of aggression carried out with genocidal intent should not be placed on the same moral level with acts of defence carried out carelessly or with excessive force.

The so-called “findings” were based on two reports by “independent experts” - one focusing on the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and another on Israel’s military response.
"Israel has rejected the allegations and accused the commission of systematic bias."

Regarding Israel’s actions, the commission alleged “a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population in Gaza…The commission found that the crimes against humanity of extermination; murder; gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys; forcible transfer; and torture and inhuman and cruel treatment were committed.”

Israel has rejected the allegations and accused the commission of systematic bias.

It is incredible that the COI has the audacity to come out with these findings, at a time that Israel is fighting for its survival against hostile Islamist jihad aggression sponsored by its arch-enemy Iran, as well as taking all necessary action to recover the hostages taken on 7^thOctober in gross violation of all legal norms.

Moreover, Israel’s actions are the subject of separate legal proceedings – including the International Court of Justice’s examination of allegations of “genocide” by Israel, and the International Criminal Court’s investigations into crimes committed on “the territory of the State of Palestine”. None of these judicial tribunals has reached a conclusive finding of Israeli crimes. So how does the COI think it has the necessary information to reach such damning conclusions?

The COI is not a judicial tribunal. It is not independent, and it does not operate on the basis of judicial rules of evidence. It resembles more a Star Chamber, that imposes death penalties based on a pre-determined finding of guilt.

The COI relies on so-called “experts”. This is the same trick that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (Karim Khan) adopts – using so-called “independent experts” to buttress pre-determined conclusions.

Seen in the context of other developments at the Security Council, the International Criminal Court and Court of Justice, this latest UN report is another nail in the coffin of the international legal system, that has shown itself to be biased and corrupt.

Blinken: Hamas response to hostage proposal is unworkable

“Hamas has proposed numerous changes to the proposal. … Some of the changes are workable, some are not,” the secretary of state said.
Read more ([link removed])

Did the ICC prosecutor choose advisers for their anti-Israel stance?

At least some of the experts mentioned by Khan had expressed negative views towards the Jewish state long before the outbreak of the war.
Read more ([link removed])

Politicised decision-making a threat to hopes for lasting peace

Tzvi Fleischer at AIJAC: The extreme biases of the UN system – including the ICC and the ICJ – need to be called out because they threaten not only any hope for a lasting two-state peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but the viability of a system of international law as a way to provide global peace and security.
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** Four hostages were rescued alive
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#BringThemHomeNow


** SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK:
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** Jeremiah 33: 14-26
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^14 “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.

^15 “‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.

^16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it^ will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’


^17 For this is what the Lord says: ‘David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel, ^18 nor will the Levitical priests ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices.’”

^19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ^20 “This is what the Lord says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time,

^21 then my covenant with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne.

^22 I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.’”

^23 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:

^24 “Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms he chose’? So they despise my people and no longer regard them as a nation.

^25 This is what the Lord says: ‘If I have not made my covenant with day and night and established the laws of heaven and earth,

^26 then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.’”

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