Who is Israeli MP Ofer Cassif, why is he backing South Africa at the ICJ?
An Israeli politician is taking a bold stance against the genocide he says his country is perpetrating in Gaza.
“My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents,” he wrote on X on January 7. “Not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide. They are the ones who harm the country and the people, they are the ones who led to South Africa’s appeal to The Hague, not me and my friends.”
via Al Jazeera
trtworld "Israeli lawmaker Ofer Cassif says Israelis who oppose the war on Palestines Gaza face censorship and violence"
alright, tiktok planted an idea in my head and i dont know if it's great or terrible, and its probably already been done. but consider this: deanmon and cassifer as murder husbands 😈
Bernie Sanders finally made a statement, on Nov. 4, calling for a "pause" in the bombing. People in the replies are saying "better late than never!" and I don't even know where to start.
The genocide has been going on for almost a month. Over 9,000 men, women, and children have been murdered. Thousands more have been wounded. Members of press and healthcare and their families have been deliberately targeted and assassinated. Israel has been murdering civilians en masse with impunity for weeks, both lying about it and blatantly admitting to it. 100+ Palestinians have been murdered in the West Bank due to settler terrorism backed by the Israeli army.
In an interview, Dr. Ofer Cassif, the Knesset member who was suspended for calling for an end to Israeli violence against Palestinians, revealed that he'd reached out to Bernie months prior to Oct. 7th because of the pogroms being carried out by Israelis against Palestinians which he said would result with an "explosion [of violence]", but received no response.
what the fuck do you mean "better late than never". what the fuck do you mean? the genocide is still ongoing, and, just like Blinken, Biden, and every complicit ghoul, he's calling for a pause. not a ceasefire. a ceasefire is just the start of what needs to happen. but he hasn't even called for that.
"better late than never" what gives you the fucking right to say that? tell that to the 10,000 people who the U.S. and its allies allowed Israel to murder. tell that to the thousands of wounded. tell that to the thousands who have been displaced. tell that to the people of Gaza who have been without food, water, and fuel for WEEKS. tell that to the Palestinians in the West Bank who are being murdered at the hands of settler terrorists. tell that to the Palestinians who were abducted and tortured and released with blue bands around their ankles. tell that to the Palestinians in occupied Palestine who can't reach their families and friends. tell that to Palestinians in diaspora who have seen their families, their friends, their people slaughtered with the full backing and support of the vast majority of western governments and media.
"better late than never" no, it's not good enough. IT'S NOT. there are SO many people around the world - both citizens and members of government - who recognized the injustice for what it was the DAY the bombing started. we owe the Palestinian people so much more than that. "better late than never" the ONLY thing that could POSSIBLY begin to even "make up" for the horrors and injustices inflicted upon the Palestinian people for almost a century is to end the genocide, end the occupation, end the apartheid, end settler colonialism, and dismantle the colonial state. Palestinians deserve NO LESS than total emancipation. Complete liberation. until then, it is not and will never be enough.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting 70 lawmakers in the Israeli Knesset have signed a motion to expel Ofer Cassif from the legislative body after he signed a petition supporting South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
There’s a war in the Magical world, and James should really be focusing on his work for the Order and on keeping his friends safe. But his thoughts won’t stop spinning, and he’s charged with a restless and destructive energy that he just can’t shake. At least not until he runs into Regulus Black at a Muggle gay bar. Regulus is off limits and bad news, and the idea that he shouldn't is the only thing James needs to follow Regulus home.
What starts out as a reckless way to release tension quickly turns into a romance that should never be, because Regulus is a Death Eater – and more importantly – Sirius’s brother. Except Regulus doesn’t want to be a Death Eater, and James was never very good at avoiding the things he should.
The sharp divisions over Israel's war in Gaza are also on full display inside Israeli politics. Far-left-wing lawmaker Ofer Cassif survived an effort last month to expel him from Israel's legislature, the Knesset, after he voiced support for South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Netanyahu's allies accused Cassif of supporting terrorism. Cassif told our colleague, Michel Martin, he believes the war is a pretext for Netanyahu to seize even more power.
OFER CASSIF: Everybody knows that the government tried to pursue a coup d'etat under the sugarcoated term of judicial reform, in order to turn Israel into a full-fledged dictatorship. So now they are doing the same but under the smokescreen of the war in Gaza. And my persecution and my colleagues' persecution and attempts to silence us is not only of members of the Parliament. But the citizens at large, especially Arab citizens in Israel, have been persecuted intensely since 7th of October. People have been fired from their workplaces and suspended from their university studies solely for expressing grief and sympathy for the innocent civilians in Gaza.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
What was your reaction when you saw this move to impeach you? How did you feel about that?
CASSIF: Believe it or not, I was not that worried about myself. I had life before the Knesset, and I guess that I live life after the Knesset if I'm not assassinated before.
MARTIN: Do you honestly feel that there may be an attempt on your life as a consequence of your positions?
CASSIF: Absolutely. It's very clear Israeli society, under the continuous incitement of Netanyahu and his bigots, Israeli society is not only polarized and enclaved, but even families of the hostages are under violent attack. The violence level in Israel, political violence and violence in general, but the violence - the political violence in Israel is on the rise.
[. . . . .]
CASSIF: There's no military solution. The fanatic Palestinians and the fanatic Israelis must understand there is no military solution to this situation, only a political one. And it was like that 75 years ago, 57 years ago when the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem began, and now. So no military option at all. The main factor that allows or enable this terrible carnage and bloodshed to continue is the administration of United States.
MARTIN: What role would you like to see the United States play, given everything that has happened so far, given where we are now?
CASSIF: When the United States continuously - and it doesn't matter which administration is in power, Democrats or Republicans. It's been going on like this for too many years that there is a blind support not for the people of Israel - I want to emphasize that - for the government of Israel. Those are not the same. If the United States wants really to assist and to stand with the people of Israel, like I do, they should do everything possible against the government of Israel. This specific government who supports Jewish supremacy and racial theory, literally and explicitly, once they support them, it is as if they supported David Duke. If the Biden administration and the people of America really want to help both the Israeli people and the Palestinian people, they must force the government of Israel to end it.
[End Excerpt]
(For those who don't know who David Duke is, and why that comparison is so devastating, here's a profile of him from The Southern Poverty Law Center)
the u.s. government will let nazis march out and about in public because "free speech" but will jump at the chance to say that antisemitism = anti-zionsim and equate all jews with israel.