israel carries out another terror attack in the syrian capital damascus, assassinating an number of people, including five evania military advisors. the tank targeted a three-story residential building in the city's messa neighborhood, which houses several diplomatic missions. iraq's islamic resistance says it has launched a barrage of missiles at the us run innal asad base in western iraq. reports say this is the biggest anti-us operation by the iraki resistance since october 7. there have been no immediate reports of casualties. 106 days into the israely war on the gaza strip. the regime

continues with his carpet bombing campaign across the besieg palestinian territory. the gaza health ministry says 165 palestinians haveen killed in the past 24 hours. the overall death doll from the regimes war has risen to nearly 25,000. new un figures indicate the women are among the main victims of israel's carnage in gaza. according to un women, out of nearly 25,00 people killed in the besieg territory since october the 7th, some 70% makes up women and... children, it says two mothers are killed every hour by israel, and israely forces have carried out fresh raits on two refugee camps in the occupied west bank, abducting several palestinians. one of the camps is near alts, and the other one is located in northern west bank. israel has intensified its raids and arrests across much of the occupite territory since october the 7th. of

of hello, i'm chris williamson and you're watching palestine declassified, we're the only weekly tv show focusing on investigating and exposing. the israeli regime's global war

against solidarity with the illegally occupied people of palestine. in this week's show we'll be looking at south africa's momentous application to the international court of justice. in its comprehensive 84 page submission, south africa sets out the legal basis for its contention that israel is perpetrating genocide in gaza. it's historically significant that south africa has taken the lead in holding israel to account for its crimes against humanity. 30 years ago, nelson mandela said, "we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the palestinians. amina taylor has been looking back at the links between south africa and palestine and the collaboration between south africa's previous apartide regime and the zionist entity. south africa has taken the step to invoke the genocide convention and charge israel in the international court of justice. while there are severe limitations to this process, it is of undeniably..." momentous to see israel

brought before the highest international court to answer for its crime of genocide against the palestinians. the relationship between south africa and palestine is deep and cannot be underestimated. it was forged through oppression and racial subjugation. israel was key player in the development and later the malignancy of apartite rule in south africa. south africa's aparthy prime minister daniel molan was the first foreign prime minister. to visit tel aviv following the nakba. hendrick veerd, a south african apartide architect and prime minister, even claimed in 1961 that israel, like south africa, is an apartite state. that was six decades before amnesty international said the same. in order to improve the image of apartide in south africa, israel and the apartite authorities established a joint secretariat for political and psychological warfare in 1975. by 1981, the aparthite army

in south africa had 200 israeli military advisors and hundreds of aparthy troops were also educated in israeli military academies. israeli m' military instructors provided direct guidance to the south african reconnaissance commando's elite unit in particular. elbit systems, israel's largest arms business, played a key role in the development of south african's military electronics industry. south africa's naval forces were also trained in israel and sold radar systems by elta, a subsidiary of the state-owned israeli aerospace industries. israel was also essential to the... destruction of an electric wall to police the border of apartide south africa with the crew of 50 israeli technicians stationed permanently at the wall for maintenance. the israelis also planted radar devices and mine fields along the border. israeli intelligence

agencies had a steady presence in apartite air of south africa. the apartite intelligence agency boss ran letter bomb campaign against anc figures like ruth first. which employed similar methods in its operation wrath of god against palestinians in lebanon. it is thought likely that israel provided support for this. the israel spy agency, the adl, also spied on many anti-apartite activists, including archbishop desmond tutu, and sold the information to boss agents of the apartite regime in south africa. israel and aparthite south africa worked closely on nuclear research. with south african uranium proving extremely useful to israel's covert nuclear program, are we witnessing the revenge of history? as always, we're joined by our resident expert david miller. david is academic and a former professor at bristol university, and is a

leading british scholarly critic of israel. david is also the co-founder and co-director the lobby and watch dog spinwatch. our guest contributor today is sam hasseini who joins us from washington dc. via skype. sam is a palestinian, american independent journalist who's been piercing through the establishment's falsifications for more than 25 years. he formerly worked for the media watchdog group fairness and accuracy in reporting, and he's contributed to a variety of publications including the washington post usa today and counterpunch. and as the senior analyst at the institute for public accuracy, he's been writing for at least decade about the case for invoking the genocide convention against israel at the international court of justice. welcome to the show. david, do you think israel's history in supporting apartide in south africa had role in this move? well, as it says at the end of the film there, this is the revenge of history, and you can see in the the demeaner and the the the cheers that

went up when the south african leal legal team came back from the hague, that this is seen as being a kind of an atonement for the sins of apartide, and of course the hand held out to the... palestinian resistance and to the palestinian people, it's a is a mark of of how that the south africans see the the struggle intertwined with that of the palestinians as of course you said at the beginning from that famous quote from nelson mandela you who was you who whatever else you might say about mandela, he he's seen this big you know saint in a way and of course you can criticize his his views but whatever else you say about him, he was sored in the palestinians, absolutely and there's pressure on him not to be so when he was released and and he stood first. but sam, i mean, you were one of the the first people pushing for a state to invoke the genocide convention, as i was saying in the introduction there, what what convinced you that there was merit in pushing for this? uh, several things, uh, first off, i actually first really looked

into this possibility in 2014 uh, during the israeli assault then, and i was in touch with the late michael rattner, who was then head the center for constitutional rights in francis boyle. um who had represented uh the plo um and who had been advocating uh move like this, because he did this for bosnia in the 1990s, so he had been through this process uh of going to the uh icj and invoking the genocide convention. in in addition, i had been tracking um the international criminal court and its machinations and its refusal to do anything. uh for the palestinians or to in any way genuinely uh polarize with uh us uh dictates uh and then you had the so i actually wrote my first piece on my substack uh i think on october 8th it at multiple points about what

was gonna come down the line which i think held up pretty well and one of those things was saying that a country should immediately invoke uh the genocide convention i had hoped that if had done so immediately, it might have uh prevented israel from doing what it's done for the last three months and so the and then a certain point you had the prosecutor for the icc um go to the crossing uh between egypt and gaza uh as if to say i'm the cop on the beat here send your complaints to me and lot of people fell for that thinking that the icc would actually be of help uh so i immediately knew that that that meant that an alternative mechanism had to be done because lot of people were were you know taken down a false path. yeah, yeah, well david, i mean, our report there, and he pointed out that that elbit, which, as you know, is israel's

largest arms company had role in in supporting apartide in in south africa, and uh, many of the war crimes being perpetrated by israel today, are likely being committed using albert weapons army, well, of course they are, and of course albert has many plants throughout the uk and in other countries too. uh of course couple of them have been shut down by palestine action through their amazing uh activism, but you know here we are, and people talk about boycotting mcdonald's for their supply to the idf and of course that's a good idea, but elbit are actually producing weapons in this country, which are being used day and daily to kill palestinis over hundred children every single day, and it's an extraordinary position that we're we're what we what we faced with is the the minister here grant chaps was saying just the other day that... 'know that the uh ansara and yemen, it's nothing to do with israel, palestine, it's

far away, it's thousands of kilometers away, several thousand columers less than the uk is of course, but of course this is absolutely to do with what's going on and it's being done in the uk and it should be stopped forth with, the government should step in and say you can't do this anymore, and the government should be enforcing this, but of course it's left to to the extraordinary work of palestine action, which of course everyone should join and support, of course we had that enormous - in in yeman didn't we in the in samarwar city you know supporting the the the action being taken in solidarity with with the palestinian people so for for jan grant to say what he was saying i mean just clearly trying to pull the wall over the public size in this country but sam how did you feel when you heard south africa took the step to invoke the convention after you'd been you know pressing for it for for so long yeah no it was extraordinary i'd gotten winned about maybe six weeks ago that there was a cabinet meeting in south africa uh

because the in part because the parliament had wanted the cabinet to totally cut off relations with israel, not just simply recall the ambassador, and i was fairly sure that they were also considering invoking the genocide convention, so i was very disappointed uh for some time uh that they didn't issue a state. and after that cabinet meeting that they would be invoking the genocide convention. um, but um, reconstructing the timeline, it's quite possible that they had made that decision and that they had just simply been working on this 84 page application to do it as comprehensively as possible. um, and then they finally issued it, and i was, i was overwhelmed, i, i had, i spent my energies focusing on some latin american countries at this point, uh, colombia, bolivia, some others to possibly this criticizing the

palestinian ambassadors for not uh publicly declaring their support for this um and so on. so it's been tremendous, and just about that time that the south africans did that, a whole bunch of groups in the united states i think woke up to the possibility of the efficacy of this, and so you have a coalition now trying to get. other countries to issue declarations, absolutely yeah, but but david, i mean uh, just say what to will you about the level of international support that there is for the the case that south africa has taken against israel? i think you've got to look at this in two ways, one is when you say international support of course, there's the question of states, states parties supporting this, and of course it was south africa at first, and it was only there for quite a while, and then all of sudden a trickle of other countries joined, bolivia amongst them, and then of course laterally bangladesh joined. and you've got a whole list of countries, i think um, around about 20, i possibly more, any western countries? uh, no,

no western countries, no, and and you have also, let's be clear, uh, these are largely countries in in asia, africa and latin america, not arab countries, now of course that's the the rob, isn't it, because it should be the arab countries that should be involved and islamic countries that should be at the forefront of this, and and that takes you to the second question, which is of course the international support for south africa in public opinion, and that is of course overwhelming, all over the world and every single country, the exception of course of israel, yeah, so even overwhelming in in the us, so about what we see then is is the is the step that south africa has taken provides... the way in for people to say, what are our, especially in the arab world, what are our governments doing, i saw massive demonstration in in cairo, just just the other day where the're saying this is, this brings shame upon us, south africa is leading the way, it brings shame upon us that we haven't done this, absolutely, absolutely, um, well, we're going to come back in a moment to to the discussion, but we've got

another report now about the proceedings at the icj, as the proceedings at the international court of justice began and south africa laid out their case, the world look on with hope. the south african legal team, featuring an irish lawyer, meticulously constructed a compelling case that israel has breached the genocide convention with its campaign in gaza. however, as the hearing was taking place, israel attacks civilian locations in two separate countries, ambulance and health services building in south. lebanon in the town of hanen and civilians cueing for food in gaza. at least 32 palestinians including women, children and men, were then killed by the israeli army in hanyunus southern gaza strip with an air strike during the international court of justice session. clearly unashamed of israel's warmungering ways, israeli lawyers

took to the international court of justice the following day to further attempt to justify the unjustifiable. israel's lawyer malcolm shaw from leicester university in britain came across as unorganized and arrogant. "someone has shuffled my papers," he grumbled as he staggered through his address. a widely criticized move took place when western news channels that ignored south africa's presentation at the international court of justice, live streamed israel's response it in an act of censorship by omission. the german government has announced that it will seek to... interven in the international court of justice to support israel, possibly out of dread for its own fate, as german armyman sales to israel soored 1,00% in 2023, with fast tracking system established in october. as a result, germany not only continued to arm israel throughout its murderous war in gaza, but

even increase sales to boost israel's ability to kill. former british ambassador to uzbekistan, craig murray. argued the result the trial at the hague will define the integrity of the institution. israel is not on trial here, what's on trial is actually the international court itself. david, i mean they say that one of the hardest aspects to to prove in in cases like this at the icj is is intent, but i mean there's been a plethera hasn't there of uh of statements from from zinist leaders that that... that do justify the the accusation of genocide, wouldn't you agree? well, you say a plethera, mean what's what's the plural of plethera, there have been so many, and we've talked about this in the program before, you listing statement after statement netanyahu talking about amalec, the people be smited by, and of course that that that passage is from scripture, and and you of course is atheist,

and the zionist by large secularis, there's a religious zionist. yeah uh um fringe uh and but what they're talking about there is in that passage in the bible is uh when he say smiting the amalet we're talking about killing everybody and everything, the goats, the chickens, the hens, the men, the women and the children, every single one, and that's of course incitement to to genocide, and of course what they've had to show uh in south africa is that that this is instatement to genocide and it's been carried out, of course they've done that very effectively by showing the idf. in gaza jumping up and down talking about wanting to kill the gazan so there's an absolutely clear cut case, of course the response from israel to say, well these are just some politicians, they you they're not really important, and of course these are the politicians who are in charge, i mean absolutely extraordinary, yeah, no indeed. sam, i mean, what what do you make of germany vowing to come to israel's aid? yes,

well um, you know, they're batting a thousand, i suppose. um, the germans are, you had the very interesting response by the namibians, um, given the history of german massive oppression of namibia, chiman very effectively, and it's quite possible that namibia will counter with a declaration at the court, you've had bangladesh and colombia state that they will do so, you've had about 30. make some kind of statements regarding the court, but few of them have said that they will issue actual legal declarations. so it's important that uh that more of them uh more of them do that um as soon as possible i believe um but you you have this pattern of the the west obviously not just germany but

you fully expect that the british government the us government of course has been completely dismissive of what south africa has done uh that continue this uh imperialist posture uh basically of of uh enabling. and being complicit with uh with israel's crimes, yeah, absolutely. d david, i mean, what's your assessment of the performance at the icj of of israel's representative? what's his name? malcolm, malcolm shaw? i mean, it was quite extraordinary, wasn't it? it was, i mean, he's got, he's got a tough hand to play, and he played it very badly, so i mean there he is, you saw in the film there, shuffling his papers, not sure where he was and he actually said in the court, yes, someone shuffled my paper. indeed, it's supposed to be top q, supc, mean, and and there we are, that that's the best that israel could come up with, but you know, of course it's a it's a very difficult hand to

play because everybody in the world can see that this is genocide, and there's no question about that, and uh, we have to only wait and see what they what the court itself makes of it, no, indeed. well, some, i mean, i wonder what you can say, i mean, can, can you, can you believe that that even while delivering their case, the israelis bombed lebanon? and committed massacre, another massacre in karn unis at exactly the same time. yeah, it's extraordinary, but it is part of pattern with them. um, when the un general assembly overringly voted uh for a cease fire, you saw a similar spike in attacks against gaza, and this has a long history. every time a us secretary of state in the past, when you know there's been some criticism. uh of israel, they would go and say, you really got to stop this settlement building, for example, uh, and then as soon as they uh, you know, left israel, israel

would announce that it was going to build a new settlement, new colonial settlement on the west bank for example, so there's this pattern with israel of anytime demand is uh made for it to abide by international law, that it immediately as and you saw... with netanyahu's speech, i really hope that the international court of justice takes a very good look at netanyahu's speech following the case where he basically said no one, not the hague, not anyone's going to stop us, completely lawless statements. yeah, i mean david, what's your prediction for the uh icj process? well's point there is the is the opposite one about it being a completely law and that's what we've got to remember here that this is a state. which isn't going to to pay any attention even to the us, if you can get away with it, it will it will, it will just ignore and defy the us. of course, if the us did take serious steps against them,

they would have to collapse, but they they don't care about this, they see themselves as an imperial nexus themselves, the not just as they would, they're not just the the tail of the dog in their conception, they are there to expand to a greater israel and take over you know much of what we now call the middle east or west asia, so what's going to happened of course in the the case itself, i i would i would guess that the the court is going to say that there should be a cease fire and they're going to order a cease fire, but this is a lawless state, mean you know when when the court makes these kinds of uh judgemts uh states may not comply with them and if if we were betting people we would put all of our money in the fact that israel will not comply with a judgment that there should be a cease fire, but if there is a judgment that there should be a cease fire which i think there probably will be then "this will be a tremendous advance for the palestinian cause, but it's only a tremendous advance in in terms of ideas and and the informational battle, there still has to be the question of

what actually happens in in palestine indeed, and simon, if that if that does happen happen if there is a finding that israel is committing genocide, um, there is also reports aren't there circulating now that britain and the united" states could find themselves in the dock for for their collaboration in the for the facilitation of the the uh the agenda side that's actually happening now yes uh well there was already a lawsuit uh from the central for constitutional rights against the united states domestically um i haven't taken look at the i've heard of but i haven't taken look at the recent british case um if it's being done at the icj it could well um have an effect on britain, um, they don't have a reservation on the relevant article, article 9 of the genocide convention as the us does,

um, so that the... could well be uh there there should be follow-up, i mean hopefully, hopefully what south africa has done here will open up several doors uh for further avenues legal and otherwise it should bolster for example the boycott divestment sanctions movement you could have the general assembly asserting itself in a meaningful way uh there are several things that should follow from this yeah and in a word and very briefly so... because we're almost out of time, i mean, what's your prediction, are you optimistic? um, i'm trying to be realistic. i'm reminded that katherine gun exposed that the uh, u.s. and britain spied on general assembly on un security council members during the build-up of the iraq invasion, so i don't know what pressure is being put upon uh, the court now, so hopefully rule on the merits, indeed, well we well we live in hope

and uh time will tell, but ... afraid we are out of time, that's it for this week, so i'd like to obviously thank our guest, sam seni, and of course our resident expert, professor david miller. palestine declassified, we'll be back next week with more forensic investigations and analysis, but in the meantime you can follow the show on facebook, twitter and telegram where we post regular clips and updates and remember to share today's program on your social media platforms to help us continue growing our audience. so until next time, this is chris williams for saying bye for now. israel's genocide on the people of palestine in gaza and the occupied west bank has cost thousands of lives. it has also caused a massive labor shortage. we're talking about i think here primarily about uh cross-border workers, that is to say uh workers who live

in um the west. bank and commute to work in israel, that's that's quite a large economic volume, particularly locally, around 5 and a half billion usd per year, these are some of the factors plaging the occupied west bank, so israel see these shortage of workers uh that they've created, shortage of palestinian workers, it's only a temporary measure. allahuakbar.

"the israeli occupation demonstrates its hatred on houses of the lord. this mask was reduced to rubble by f-16 warjet. their way led to the destruction of the houses around the mosk, causing the fall of martters and injuries amongst neighbors of the mosk. the palestinians did not stand on the romans of them." idly, but they created temporary amors that don't protect them from neither the cold of winter nor the heat of the summer.

the headlines: iran's islamic revolution guard score says five of his military advisors have been assassinated an israelite terror attack in the syrian capital damascus. iran says it reserves the right to respond to israel's organized terrorism, which comes in line with daesh and other tech fury groups in the region, and iraq's islamic resistance targets the us run ain al-assad base in the latest retaliation for the american israely genocide in gaza.