#Israel's coalition government sequenced its constitutional overhaul back in December 2022, and has since followed diligently on the legislative, policy, and political measures outlined to extinguish #Palestinian self-determination. A reminder thread:
The preamble to the policy platform of #Israel's 37th Government reads: the Jewish people has an exclusive and irrefutable sovereign right to all of the land of Israel (historic Palestine). The government will promote and develop settlements in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).
1. To execute said policy, the government will promote legislative amendments, particularly to the balance between the legislator, executive, and judiciary, and the appointment of justices. The legislative overhaul will take absolute and complete precedence over all legislation.2
2. Further, the Prime Minister will lead the application of Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, identifying the appropriate timing. Ahead of that, settlement outposts (of which there are 147) will be formalized and provided with all essential infrastructure and services.
3. In tandem, power over all organs of Israel's military government of occupied Palestinian territory will be transferred to Minister #Smotrich, who will appoint officials (to rule permanently over Palestinians).
To date, protests have not stopped #Israel's government from pursuing its defining political project - the disenfranchisement of #Palestinians. Likely because the protests skirt the issue and fail to recognize the intersectionality with the #Palestinian cause.
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What should the UN Security Council #UNSC do to ensure human security and peace in #Palestine before the Trump inauguration, mid-January? A short thread about how the agenda can be shaped for the next four years:
1/6 The International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ called on the Security Council to "consider what further action is required to put an end to the illegal presence of Israel, taking into account the present Advisory Opinion."
2/6 Article 29 of the UN Charter provides that the Security Council may establish such subsidiary organs as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions, complemented by Rule 28 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure which allows the Security Council to appoint a commission or committee or a rapporteur for a specified question.
BREAKING: Member of #Israel's parliament Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism, with Smotrich as party leader) tables a draft bill to formalize (circa) 140 settlement outposts across the unlawfully occupied West Bank. A thread:
1/4 The draft bill, tabled this morning, calls for the formalization of settlement outposts - at the vanguard of settler violence and the corrolary forcible transfer of #Palestinians - within two years, doubling the number of Israeli settlements in the oPt to 280.
2/4 In that two year period, settlement outposts will be accorded the full gamut of municipal services and social infrastructure development that would make them a permanent fixture in occupied Palestinian territory.
BREAKING: #Israel's government adopts the 25'-26' State Budget, with an upsurge of military spending indicative of a protracted, high-intensity, armed conflict in #Gaza, the West Bank and beyond. A thread:
1/3 In 22', Israel allocated 90 billion ILS (24 billion USD) to military and security-related spending, which includes the cost of its belligerent occupation of #Palestinian territory (determined to be unlawful by the @CIJ_ICJ in July 24').
2/3 For the fiscal years 25'-26', Israel has allocated 147 billion ILS (39 billion ILS) per year to military spending, an unprecedented 63 percent increase, with the highest proportion of military spending as part of the state budget in Israel's history.
BREAKING: UK government to complete the decolonization of the Chagos Archipelago and reverse sovereignty to Mauritius. A short thread on how international law, and the International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ, in particular, managed the resolution of conflict, and a timely lesson for the decolonization of occupied Palestinian territory.
1/3 In February 2019 the #ICJ rendered an Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, asserting that the UK was under an obligation to bring its presence to an end "as rapidly as possible," and that all States are under an obligation to cooperate in accomplishing that. Similar language was used in the July 2024 Advisory on Israeli practices in occupied Palestinian territory, calling for Israel to end its unlawful presence.
2/3 In May 2019, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 73/95 by a vote of 116 in favour, to 6 against (Australia, Hungary, Israel, Maldives, United Kingdom, United States), with 56 abstentions. The resolution set a timeframe of 6 months for the UK to complete its withdrawal from the Chagos Archipelago. In September 2024 the UNGA adopted Resolution ES-10/24 by a vote of 124 in favor, 14 against, and 43 abstentions. The resolution, giving effect to the July 2024 Advisory Opinion set a timeframe of 12 months for Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
There is a cynical political calculus behind #Israeli rejection of ceasefire arrangements in #Gaza and #Lebanon. A short thread on how the adoption of Israel's State Budget and #USElection2024 fate these efforts to deescalate:
1/5 Israeli constitutional law provides that a State Budget is tabled by 31 October 24', and approved by 31 March 25', or else the government defaults to general elections. Netanyahu and his coalition partners push for a biannual budget to ensure long-term political survival.
2/5 The lynchpins of budget approval are Bezalel Smotirch (Religious Zionism) and Itamar Ben-Gvir (Jewish Power). The budget that they would approve would grant financial support to an open-ended war in Gaza and Lebanon and the colonization of occupied #Palestinian territory.
BREAKING: The Government of #Israel submits to the High Court of Justice that after 11 months of - debilitating and atrocious war in #Gaza - it has not accomplished 'effective control' in any part of Gaza, has not displaced any of Hamas's governmental functions, and is therefore not the occupying power (with commensurate obligations under #IHL).
Facts described are either an admission of a colossal military failure that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the wanton destruction of Gaza, or entirely false. As the International Court of Justice @CIJ_ICJ ruled in July: before October 23' and even more so since, Israel had effective control of Gaza.
Israel, according to the ICJ decision, has obligations as the occupant of Gaza commensurate with its effective control. Irrespective of any decision by the Israeli constitutional court, it cannot invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform its obligations under international humanitarian law.