Alonso Gurmendi Profile picture
Nov 12, 2024 19 tweets 5 min read Read on X
In celebration of @FranceskAlbs recent standing ovations at both LSE and SOAS, let me highlight the main contributions her Reports have made to the way we understand the genocide of the Palestnian people in Gaza 🧵
.@FranceskAlbs' first and perhaps most important contribution is to put the issue of settler-colonialism front and centre of the discussion of genocide. In essence, genocide is not an accident, but a feature of colonialism; and it is not a rare find in colonial societies Image
This connection to colonialism is what informs her latest conclusion that colonial genocide does not need to take the form of "mass killing" Image
.@FranceskAlbs has also advanced the theory of "humanitarian camouflage" - That, as she puts it, Israel's use of int'l legal terminology as been strategically deployed "in such a permissive manner as to gut those concepts of their normativ content". Image
In other words, Israel's IHL rhetoric advances rather than constrains Israel's abbility to commit genocide. Take for example the rhetoric surrouding "human shields"... Image
...military use of civilian objects... Image
...proportionality... Image
... evauations... Image
... and the protection of hospitals Image
.@FranceskAlbs has then pointed out that, in the context of this humanitarian camouflage, Israel's genocidal intent needs to be discerned from what she calls a "totality triple lens". Image
This means that analysing Israel's actions with regards to Palestinians as a people through the lens of its "humanitarian camouflage" might lead us to believe that no genocide is taking place, rather a normal war...
...Or that looking at Israel's actions with regards to Palestinian land might lead us to believe there's no genocide taking place, rather a military occupation for security reasons...
...Or that looking at Israel's rationalisation of its conduct might lead us to believe there's no genocide taking place, rather an argument for self-defence under international law...
But when one looks at the totality of Israel's actions, through a triple lens, focused on its plans for the land, its attack on Palestinians as a group and its rationalisation of its conduct, the inescapable conclusion of this collective evaluation is indeed genocide
In terms of the totality of the land, Israel's actions are tied to the establishment of a Greater Israel, a colonial and inevitably genocidal plan - not simply a military occupation. Image
Image
In terms of the totality of the group, Israel is turning Gaza into an "unliveable" geography, not just fighting a war. Image
In terms of the totality of conduct, Israel's purported objectives (defeating Hamas and rescuing the hostages) do not preclude the finding of genocidal intent, given that much of what is done in Gaza is not in line with these objectives Image
Image
.@FranceskAlbs deserves much credit for making these connections: the relationship between colonialism and genocide, between humanitarian law and genocide, and between decontextualised legal analysis and genocide.
Yesterday she described herself as a chronicler of genocide. While this is definitely one of her great roles, I think she is more than that. She is showing us how to engage with a colonial, racist and warmongering international law in anticolonial, antiracist and peaceful ways

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More from @Alonso_GD

Jun 24
I think Ahmed misunderstands my point. Nothing in my tweet defends Iran’s atrocious human rights record or justifies/minimises 7/10. What it does is break the actual simplistic narrative of the Middle East, that he supports, that ontologically Israel is good and Iran is evil
The more complex reality is that the brutalities Israel has subjected Palestinians to are always held at a different standard than the atrocities committed by Iran against its own population. Something @afalkhatib himself does, as shown by his recent @jubileemedia
In other words, @afalkhatib can’t really show that I minimise atrocities. In fact, I would gladly join him in condemning Iran’s violations against Iranian women, their support of armed groups that directly target civilians, and the authoritarianism of its government.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 23
Lol not me learning through Canary Mission that Zohran Mamdani is the son of Mahmood freaking Mamdani

Mamdani’s work is just excellent. Highly recommend. Here’s some recommendations 🧵
See for instance his postcolonial analysis of the Rwandan Genocide, where he dissassembles the argument that Hutus simply hated Tutsis and reframes it as a result of Belgium’s colonial policies Image
Then of course is his excellent Neither Settler nor Native, an exploration of how the nation state is inherently a colonial entity that creates “permanent minorities” Image
Read 5 tweets
Jun 20
When the story of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians is told, it will tell the story of how it cut electricity, food and water from the “human animals” and how Israelis mocked the starving thirsty children with videos of running water taps and lit lightbulbs 🧵
It will tell the story of how Israel used unreliable technology and massive collateral damage - bombs “focused on destruction, not accuracy” - to bomb sleeping children next to their sleeping parents, accused by some algorithm of being Hamas
It will tell how families were forced to flee their refuges once, twice, three even four times, fleeing due to evacuation orders that made no arrangements for them and pushed them into areas that were then bombed by the IDF in a perverse theatricality of insincere “humanity”
Read 16 tweets
Jun 19
I really like it when Zionists try to turn the tables of coloniality on me so to speak because I’m a white Peruvian, because it gives me the opportunity to explain how coloniality works in Latin America - you know, the thing I used to tweet most about before the genocide started
I’ve said this many times before: this isn’t about Israel per se. Israel is not important or relevant as a place or location. The reason why it matters is Zionism is a 19th C remnant of extreme coloniality in the 21st C and I oppose coloniality on principle -and genocide ofc
If Israel were not a colonial apartheid state subjugating and colonising Palestinians and bombing Lebanon, Iran, etc and it were a democracy instead I would frankly not care about its politics
Read 4 tweets
Jun 19
Shooting a missile…

- at a hospital...

- that you can’t aim properly, at a military target, but hitting a hospital instead...

- at a military target and causing disproportionate harm on a hospital…

…is a war crime

It doesn’t matter who does it
The problem is this has been normalised for 20 months by Israel and now the cat is out of the box. International Hasbara Law has severely harmed International Humanitarian Law
(I don’t think we have enough information to make a complete determination of the legality of the Iranian strike that damaged/hit the Soroka hospital yet, so read this tweet as me setting out the applicable legal standard for when we do, not as me making a determination already)
Read 5 tweets
Jun 18
Israel’s Letter to the UNSC is interesting in that it accuses Iran of being “substantially involved” in the funding, arming, training and guidance of a “network of terrorist proxies”. To the trained eye, use of this terminology is interesting because of what it *doesn’t say* 🧵 Image
Under int’l law, there are essentially two standards to determine when the actions of an armed group are “attributable” to a state - meaning that the group acts on behalf of the state or as part of its forces: the ICJ’s Effective Control and the ICTY’s Overall Control Test
The Effective Control Test arises from what is perhaps the ICJ’s most famous case: Military & Paramilitary Activities in & against Nicaragua, more commonly known as the “Nicaragua Case”. In this case, Nicaragua accused the US of intervening in its territory through paramilitaries
Read 18 tweets

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