THREAD: On Tuesday evening it appeared the end was finally in sight. Hamas formally accepted the ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar, and spontaneous celebrations erupted in the streets Rafah and other Palestinian towns in the Gaza Strip. Given that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other US officials have repeatedly insisted that Hamas forms the sole obstacle to a ceasefire agreement, Palestinians could be forgiven for believing that day 213 of this genocidal ordeal would be the last.

THREAD: The eruption of protests in solidarity with the Palestinian people at numerous Western universities, and throughout the United States in particular, represents a pivotal moment. College students are, to be sure, not an accurate reflection of public opinion or faithful mirror of their societies. But their activism often serves as a bellwether, an indication of the shape of things to come.

THREAD: Since 7 October 2023 there has been a concerted campaign by Israel, its apologists and other flunkies to erase any distinction between Palestinian civilians and combatants. “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible”, proclaimed Israel’s head of state, Isaac Herzog, on 13 October. Other Israeli leaders, virtually without exception, have expressed similar sentiments.

THREAD: On 28 March the International Court of Justice issued a new ruling (“Order”) in the case known as Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in The Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel). The ICJ’s ruling came in response to a new request by South Africa, submitted on 6 March, asking the Court “to indicate further provisional measures and/or modify its provisional measures indicated on 26 January 2024”.

THREAD: Steven Bonnell (stage name “Destiny”) responded to my previous thread with a series of his own tweets. True to form it contained more juvenile name-calling (“cowardly fuck”, “disgusting human”, “sniveling worm”, etc.). Regarding the issue of genocide, he appears to have appointed himself the resident expert on the phenomenon:

THREAD: On 29 February I participated in a debate organised by Lex Fridman on Israel and Palestine, alongside Norman Finkelstein, Benny Morris, and Steven Bonnell (stage name “Destiny”). Apart from reposting a link to the recording of the event, I’ve thus far refrained from comment.

THREAD: Many have pointed out that US President Joe Biden’s embrace of Israel is unprecedented, even when compared to his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump. It’s certainly true that Biden has gone to extraordinary lengths to demonstrate his personal and ideological identification with Israel. “I’m a Zionist”, the US president has repeatedly and proudly proclaimed.

THREAD: Who was there first? The short answer is that the question is irrelevant. Claims of ancient title (“This land is ours because we were here several thousand years ago”) have no standing or validity under international law. For good reason, because such claims also defy elementary common sense. Neither I nor anyone reading this post can convincingly substantiate the geographical location of their direct ancestors ten or five or even two thousand years ago.

THREAD: An exchange on the fierce editorial independence of the BBC on coverage of the Middle East: Hello Mouin, X here from the BBC News Channel in London. Hoping you are free for a short live interview on the channel at 2100 UK time tonight, to discuss the latest on ceasefire talks and other lines on the Israel/Gaza conflict. Would be 3-4-mins via Zoom. Hope you can join us.

THREAD: Dr Andreas Krieg (@andreas_krieg), a German academic who teaches at King’s College London, has commented on the hysteria in his native country regarding Israel and the Palestinians with the following tweet: @andreas_krieg “I am becoming increasingly concerned about the criminalization of discourse on the Middle East in Germany. For the time being, I would stay far away from any event organized/hosted in Germany on regional security.”

THREAD: What is UNRWA (Part I)? The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East, commonly known by the acronym UNRWA, is the UN agency that currently provides humanitarian relief and services to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the occupied Palestinian territories (the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem). It has an interesting history.

THREAD: My comments to the Annual Palestine Forum in Doha earlier today: I’ve been asked to speak on the topic of “Hamas in the Aftermath of the War on Gaza”. It’s a topic that makes a number of assumptions: that this war will have a defined ending and aftermath; that there will still be a Gaza Strip; and that the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, will continue to exist within it.

THREAD: I was saddened to learn of the death this past Monday, 5 February, of former Dutch Prime Minister Andreas “Dries” van Agt at the age of 93. He died together with his wife of 70 years, Eugenie, at a time of their choosing. Dries van Agt was an important figure in Dutch politics during the latter part of the twentieth century. A lawyer by training and devout Catholic, he joined the Catholic Peoples’ Party (KVP) and served as Minister of Justice from 1971-1977

THREAD: My brief comments to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Second Chamber (parliament) of The Netherlands this afternoon: 1. The Middle East is experiencing a moment of truth. And so are we. Our governments, our political parties, our civic organisations, and indeed each of us as members of global society, must now choose whether to be part of the solution or part of the problem.

THREAD: The escalating conflict in the Red Sea is not without historical precedent. Initially the crisis was situated much further north. On 10 March 1949 Israeli forces seized control of Umm al-Rashrash, an abandoned British police outpost astride the Gulf of Aqaba in the extreme southeast of Palestine. The conquest provided Israel with its only access to the Red Sea.

THREAD: Earlier today I interviewed @dialash, Senior Staff Attorney with the Center for Constitution Rights (CCR), for my Connections podcast on the topic of “Unsilencing Palestine”. @dialash Towards the end of our discussion, I asked her about a case she and CCR are currently litigating. The case is “Defense for Children International-Palestine, et al., v. Joseph R. Biden, et al.”, and was heard before the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

THREAD: There have been a number of important developments over the weekend. Three US soldiers were killed, and several dozen wounded, in a drone attack on a US military/intelligence base known as Tower 22 in northeastern Jordan, the region where the borders of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq meet.

THREAD: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued its ruling in response to South Africa’s invocation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, accusing Israel of perpetrating the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip. It has been my view that at this stage of the proceedings this case boils down to a single issue: whether the ICJ determines that South Africa has presented a plausible accusation that Israel is committing genocide,

THREAD: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued a press release stating that it will this Friday “deliver its Order” in response to South Africa’s “Request for the indication of provisional measures” in the case concerning “Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel)”.

THREAD: South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide is, to the best of my understanding, only the fourth time a state has been accused before this court of violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The other three are: Bosnia and Herzegovina v Serbia and Montenegro (1993-2007); The Gambia v Myanmar (2019-); Ukraine v Russian Federation (2022).

THREAD: According to a 2 January NYT article, US intelligence sources are claiming that both Hamas and Islamic Jihad were using Al-Shifa Hospital as a “command center”, and also held captives there, until shortly before it was invaded by the Israeli military last November. The report is interesting for several reasons. So far as I can recall, no US intelligence source was available to be directly quoted on the matter when the US was supporting Israeli allegations about the hospital last November.