INTERNACIONAL
President of UN’s top court has long history of anti-Israel bias: ‘Conflict of interest’
JERUSALEM – The controversial International Court of Justice (ICJ) is not only facing severe criticism for its Friday order declaring that Israel should stop its military offensive in Rafah to root out Hamas, but also for the well-documented anti-Israel bias of the U.N. court’s presiding judge.
«Put simply, the U.N.’s highest legal body is a political tool of global antisemitism. The presiding judge in this case was ICJ [International Court of Justice] President Nawaf Salam. He is from Lebanon, a country that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. And in his spare time, he has tweeted such things as a meme that reads ‘unhappy birthday to you: 48 years of occupation.’ He is a politician – a rabid anti-Israel politician – dressed up by the U.N. as a judge,» Anne Bayefsky, the director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital
Bayefsky, a legal expert on the U.N. who oversees Human Rights Voices, said, «And from where did his kangaroo Court get its ‘facts’ in this case? Well, the United Nations, of course. An institution whose highest bodies – the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council – have never even condemned Hamas terrorists and their October 7 atrocities.»
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Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice, listens during a hearing in The Hague, on May 1, 2024. (Remko de Waal/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Orde Kittrie, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued in a February Wall Street Journal opinion article that Judge Salam’s political activism in Lebanon contributed to his bias against Israel and violates the ICJ’s rules. He wrote that the ICJ’s conflict-of-interest rules declare that no judge «may exercise any political or administrative function, or engage in any other occupation of a professional nature.»
Kittrie, a law professor at Arizona State University, also noted that the ICJ charter states that no jurist «may participate in the decision of any case in which he has previously taken part» as «advocate» or in «any other capacity.»
The IDF says its «troops are continuing operations against terror targets in the area of Rafah.» (IDF Spokesman’s Office)
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Salam reportedly ran for prime minister of Lebanon in the last two elections and, as Kittrie wrote, was Lebanon’s U.N. ambassador from 2007 to 2017. Salam was routinely «denouncing and casting votes against Israel’s military conduct and presence in the disputed territories,» wrote the legal expert.
Nawaf Salam, the Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations, speaks with Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of Palestine, during a Security Council meeting on Sept. 28, 2011, in New York City. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
According to an article in the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) Salam wrote on social media in 2015, «When we criticize and condemn Israel it is never because of the Jewish character of the majority of its population,» and in another post said, «Portraying the critics of Israel’s policies as antisemites is an attempt to intimidate and discredit them, which we reject.»
Later that same year, JNS quoted him as tweeting «…#Palestine’s full membership in #UN & ending #Israel’s occupation remain long overdue.»
Lebanon experts argue that the Mideast country has been in de-facto control of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization, Hezbollah, for over a decade and has played a role in joining Hamas’ war by firing multiple missiles into Israel. The Iranian regime-backed Hezbollah, like Hamas, seeks the destruction of the Jewish state.
Fox News Digital approached the ICJ for a comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The ICJ’s order lacks enforcement and the Israeli government said it will plow forward with its military campaign to eliminate four Hamas battalions in Rafah.
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Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman said on Friday of the ICJ order: «No power on earth will stop Israel from protecting its citizens and going after Hamas in Gaza.» He added, «We will destroy Hamas, we will return peace and security to the people of Israel and to the people of Gaza. We cannot go on with a genocidal terrorist regime on our southern border.»
U.N. headquarters and flag juxtaposed with a picture of an Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. (Getty Images/Hamas-Telegram)
Bayefsky noted how the terrorist group responded to Friday’s ruling. «Hamas murderers and rapists themselves best articulate the standing of this ‘legal’ farce. They immediately reacted: ‘We welcome the decision by the World Court’ before referring to the Jewish state as the ‘Zionist enemy’ they intend to annihilate. So the fans of a decision purporting to be anti-genocide, are those who are openly committed to genocide. A U.N. court with friends in low places.»
Salam said in his reading of the ruling, «The Court considers that, in conformity with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, Israel must immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.»
Hamas slaughtered nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The jihadi terrorist movement kidnapped over 250 people, and 125 hostages are still being held captive in Rafah.
Judge Nawaf Salam speaks at the start of a hearing in The Hague, Netherlands, May 16, 2024. (Reuters/Yves Herman)
Some of the IJC judges and outside legal experts have rejected the majority decision. Four of the 15 ICJ justices said the clause that Salam cited in his oral presentation does not mandate that Israel swiftly pull the plug on its military campaign in Rafah. According to this interpretation, the Jewish state is only required to stop its military operations if it «could bring about physical destruction in whole or in part.»
ICJ Vice President Julia Sebutinde, from Uganda, who voted against all decisions opposed to Israel, wrote, «This measure does not entirely prohibit the Israeli military from operating in Rafah. Instead, it only operates to partially restrict Israel’s offensive in Rafah to the extent it implicates rights under the Genocide Convention.»
Sebutinde added, «… this directive may be misunderstood as mandating a unilateral ceasefire in Rafah and amounts to micromanaging the hostilities in Gaza by restricting Israel’s ability to pursue its legitimate military objectives, while leaving its enemies, including Hamas, free to attack without Israel being able to respond.»
The Ugandan jurist also voted against all restrictions that the ICJ ordered against Israel in the court’s January ruling that Jerusalem take steps to prevent acts of genocide as it fights Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
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Hamas terrorists are seen during a military show on July 20, 2017, in Gaza City, Gaza. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Aharon Barak, former Israeli Supreme Court president who has a post as an ad-hoc judge on the ICJ bench, said in his dissenting opinion that the majority view «requires Israel to halt its military offensive in the Rafah Governorate only in so far as is necessary to comply with Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention.»
He added, «Israel is not prevented from carrying out its military operation in the Rafah Governorate as long as it fulfills its obligations under the Genocide Convention.» Barak noted «the measure is a qualified one, which preserves Israel’s right to prevent and repel threats and attacks by Hamas, defend itself and its citizens, and free the hostages.»
INTERNACIONAL
Otro polémico gesto de Nicolás Maduro: entregó 180 mil hectáreas expropiadas por Hugo Chávez al movimiento Sin Tierra de Brasil
Con el objetivo de aumentar la producción de alimentos, Nicolás Maduro entregó este jueves 180 mil hectáreas agrícolas expropiadas durante la era de su predecesor, Hugo Chávez, al Movimiento Sin Tierra (MST) de Brasil.
La adjudicación de esta importante extensión de tierras ocurrió en el marco del proyecto agroproductivo «Patria Grande del Sur», orientado a fortalecer la producción agroecológica y la soberanía alimentaria en la región, según indicó el líder del régimen venezolano.
Y, en la misma línea, agregó: «Buscamos producir alimentos orgánicos a gran escala para nuestro pueblo, para el norte de Brasil y para exportar al mundo».
El plan en la hacienda «La Vergareña», que fue estatizada en 2008 como resultado de una serie de expropiaciones que, según estimaciones privadas, alcanzaron unas nueve millones de hectáreas en el país, contempla el cultivo de caraotas, maíz, yuca, plátano, ñame, sorgo, hortalizas y frutas, además de la cría de gallinas ponedoras, ganado porcino y vacuno.
«Creo en la unión de los pueblos, por eso es que le he pedido al Movimiento Sin Tierra de Brasil recibir estas 180 mil hectáreas de las mejores tierras de Venezuela para dirigir un proyecto suramericano», dijo Maduro en cadena nacional respecto del predio, ubicado en el estado Bolívar (sur) y productivo en el momento de su expropiación, que es más grande que Isla Margarita, uno de los principales destinos turísticos del país caribeño.
«(Son) tierras bien buenas para producir, es uno de los rescates más importantes que hubo en su momento y ya hemos avanzado tremendamente para activar todos los planes productivos», añadió el mandatario, en alusión a las expropiaciones que el gobierno denominó «rescates».
Por su parte, Roxana Fernández, del MST, indicó que buscan reforzar «la soberanía alimentaria» en Venezuela, que en los años más duros de recesión vivió una aguda escasez de alimentos, algo que expertos atribuyeron a los férreos controles estatales, hoy flexibilizados, además de las expropiaciones.
«Es un acto de reafirmación de compromiso de MST con el pueblo venezolano de hacer en estas tierras de la antigua Vergareña un modelo y un ejemplo para el mundo», apuntó Fernández.
El MST -originalmente Movimiento de los Trabajadores Rurales Sin Tierra- fue fundado en 1984 como una organización social y política integrada por campesinos y sus familias en busca de tierras para los pobres en Brasil, convirtiéndose en un movimiento muy controvertido.
Con información de agencias.
INTERNACIONAL
Netanyahu slams ‘terrorist-supporting’ UN council that accused Israel of committing sexual crimes
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is facing intense backlash from Israel over its report accusing Israel of employing sexual violence against Palestinians since October 2023. The report, entitled «’More than a human can bear’: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since October 2023» contains serious allegations against the Jewish state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement on the report, calling the UNHRC «an antisemitic, corrupt, terrorist-supporting and irrelevant body.»
«Instead of focusing on crimes against humanity and the war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organization during the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, the UN once again chooses to attack the State of Israel with false accusations, including outrageous and baseless allegations of sexual violence. This is not a Human Rights Council – it is a Blood Rights Council,» Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on December 9, 2024. (MAYA ALLERUZZO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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Multiple Israeli officials said the report constituted a «blood libel» and said it ignored the acts of sexual violence on Oct. 7.
US Ambassador Designate to the United Nations Elise Stefanik also condemned the «baseless report» as «antisemitic and anti-Israel slander.»
«The so-called ‘Human Rights Council’ has failed to condemn the barbaric atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists against Israel including the brutal slaughter, torture, kidnapping of thousands of innocent civilians, and Hamas’ horrific use of rape and sexual violence against Israeli women and girls, yet disgracefully attacks Israel with unfounded smears,» Stefanik said in a statement.
Additionally, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon called the report «another vile and distorted document from the UN.»
«This report is not even worth the paper it was printed on. Anyone who supported this false publication is complicit in whitewashing Hamas’ war crimes and trampling on the truth,» Danon said in a statement. «The UN is busy looking for ways to blame Israel instead of facing reality. History will judge you.»
Israeli Permanent Member to the United Nations Danny Danon speaks during a session of the Security Council at the New York City headquarters. (Israel United Nations mission)
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UNWatch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital, «the U.N. inquiry is as objective as a Stalinist show trial, and that’s why they completely twisted the facts to falsely accuse Israel of the crimes that Hamas actually committed.»
The report documents a wide range of alleged abuses by Israeli troops, which it calls the Israel Security Forces (ISF), rather than the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the military’s actual name in both Hebrew and English. The report also condemned how Israel was carrying out the war, saying that the destruction led to «disproportionate violence against women and children.»
Additionally, there are complaints in the report of forced public stripping. However, Israel has said that this is necessary to ensure detainees are not hiding explosives. Former IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus was quoted in the report as saying this in a 2023 CNN interview. Even the report acknowledges that «strip-searches for security justifications are not unlawful,» but claims that Israel’s process was not up to international standards.
A view of the United Nations Headquarters building in New York City, United States on July 16, 2024. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Chair of the Commission Navi Pillay condemned the «deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence.» She also says that Israel uses sexual violence to «terrorize» Palestinians and to create «a system of oppression that undermines their right to self-determination.»
«For decades, the head of the Inquiry, Navi Pillay, has been the world’s leading champion of the 2001 UN ‘Durban Declaration’ slander that a Jewish state is a racist state. Inquiry members have referred to the ‘Jewish lobby’ controlling social media and then complained that antisemitism is ‘always raised as a diversion,’» Anne Bayefsky, Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and President of Human Rights Voices told Fox News Digital.
The commission claims that sexual violence, including rape, is part of the IDF’s «standard operating procedures towards Palestinians.»
Bayefsky alleges the commission «ignored hundreds of thousands of submissions which challenged their conclusions… They have also refused to hear testimony from NGOs that would have contradicted the veracity of their pre-determined end product.»
«The Independent International Commission of Inquiry is an independent body mandated by the Human Rights Council, over which the secretary-general has no authority,» Secretary-General António Guterres’ spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told Fox News Digital. «The secretary-general has spoken out repeatedly at the horrors we have seen in this conflict. He continues to be deeply alarmed by the humanitarian situation in Gaza and reiterates his call for all parties to respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law. He underlines that there needs to be accountability.»
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