hello and welcome, i'm gisumi shah ahmedi and you're watching the spotlight. israel's restrictions on humanitarian aid for the gaza strip may amount to a war crime. now those are the words of the un human rights chief. this as the european union's top diplomat also on monday accused israel of using starvation as a weapon of war by preventing humanitarian aid from reaching gaza. now, in this edition we will be discussing what this actually means from humanitarian point of view to legal issue. and in order to do that, i am joined by danielle yagich, who was joining us from beirot, and also paul ladory, co-founder of the free palestine movement, joining us live. from berkeley. let's begin

with our guest from beirot, mr. yagit. the uh international, the integrated food security phase classification, the ipc report released on monday says that malnutrition and food shortages have probably exceeded femine levels in northern gaza. what do we mean by exceeding femin levels? because i believe for us and most of our viewers, femin itself is... the extreme yeah, mean it is catastrophic um even think about what a situation in gaza must be like now six months into this genocide, and of course we need to keep in mind that in addition to what the israeli regime has been conducting for the past half year and using starvation now as a method of war, um, the context before october 7 uh was awful in gaza as well, um, i mean, the... un and human rights organizations have

in a previous decade warrant that gaza would be uninhabitable at the beginning of this um of decade, so the current is really genocide of course adds even more to um a situation in which the population had already been under a siege for many years and under a bcade and it's very difficult to imagine what the outcome of all of this will be because now is added as an additional form of warfare in addition to um the bombings and uh killings of palestinian in so many different ways as we have seen being live streamed actually by the perpetrator uh the israeli regime for the past half year. okay let's bring in mr. paul ladurey. mr. ladouri, we've been hearing the word may too often. this may be considered a war crime, it may be considered a genocide. why are? officials refraining from clearly

stating that uh using uh food and starvation as a weapon against palestinians is a war crime and what israel doing, what israelis are doing there is a genocide? well, diplomats and un officials um are always overly cautious, they want to wait until something like the internet. national court of justice or the icc or some official body uh declares uh that this is in fact the case, they defer to other authorities to verify uh what they say in cautious terms publicly, but the fact is everybody knows this. in fact, the israelis have not been hiding it at all, the their public officials have been advocating the use of... um of disease

exposure that is uh exposure to the elements by destroying the homes of palestinians and starvation and uh the lack of clean water, drinking water, potable water, as as means of eliminating the palestinians, they specifically have said openly and publicly that they their intention is to eliminate the palestinians in the gaza strip, so this is this is hardly secret, and it matters little what the the united nations officials say to it, it's happening first, the north of gaza uh where delivery of aid is at its least extent and where they are eating grass and and whatever they can manage animal feed, we know all all the stories, but this is

intentional, the the israeli military has been been destroying - markets and warehouse. is full of food, they have been bombing the the farms and the animals and and everything, their intention, and why are they doing this? why are they doing this? it's because uh, when they shoot somebody or bomb somebody, they are blamed for killing them. when they starve them to death, they haven't actually touched them, have they? uh, but their intention is, and if they have the means, within months or uh... however long it takes, they will starve people to death, and in fact, as we know, uh, children, especially, and the elderly and others have actually starved to death. this was predicted and it's happening. you're absolutely right, and the fact that it is being done intentionally. uh,

let's uh move back to our guest in beirot. well, we do know that the icj issued a provisional ruling, uh, stating that humanitarian aid needs to get to the people in gaza immediately, and that provisional ruling was issued only because it was supposed to be implemented immediately, which uh, the israelis completely overlooked, and that itself obviously requires a ceasefire, because you can't send humanitarian aid under constant bombardment, uh, so uh, does this leave any room uh, to doubt israel's intentions? as using food insecurity as a weapon against gazons. there is absolutely no doubt the israelies have been very transparent in both their goals and in the ways in which they want to achieve them. and this has been very well documented. the

israeli regime for the past weeks and months has openly bragged about um their genocidal intentions and very clear clearly uh made clear that want to remove palestinians from gaza uh through policies of ethnic cleansing and genocide, so um this is very clear, what is happening, what we see more on the political and media discourse is that in particular the western political and media elites um including um we have to to mention the european union are investing crucial efforts in providing propaganda on behalf of the israeli regime and to basically to some extent even in the use of language conceal. uh this very transparent communication that the israelis are actually providing for the entire world to see, so there's absolutely no doubt about what the israelies are intending to do, and also here, if you look at the brother historical context, this is setler colony that only works under the framework of

apartite, and the movement or the ideology of zionism on which this was founded, is inherently anti-indigenous, it's a colonial movement with the idea that palestine. should be settled by the settlers and it's not the land of the indigenous people. in fact, if we go back to the early writings of zinanism, palestine is fantasized as i'm quoting here, a land without a people for people without a land and so on. so the genocidal intent is very clear in um at least the political discourse by the israeli regime, but much more so uh stretches throughout decades of zinanism and what we see now should not be a uh price, nor should there be any doubt about the intentions of the israeli regime? now that the intentions are obviously very clear, uh, mr. larudi, and i'm sorry if i mispronounce your name at first, uh, mr. larudi, we are uh using some words that

previously we would uh see them in historical texts and referring to very serious crimes to be pursued in international uh courts. we are using the word war crime, we are using ethnic cleansing, we're using genocide. uh, what is the legal aspect to this matter and how far should the israelis go before we can see actual? a court ruling uh to stop this, well they've seen a court ruling to stop this, the world court has judged on this, but the problem is that there's there's very little in the way of enforcement, and in fact the genocide convention does not, the the only enforcement under the genocide convention is that all the signator. the genocide convention, meaning 153 of them, one of whom

is is israel, they are bound to do everything possible not to to avoid supporting the genocide, meaning removal of all arms deliveries and other types of services to the one that's committing the genocide or who is committing what can... be called genocidal act actions, since legally speaking, the world court won't even determine that genocide takes place until after it's happened, but nevertheless they can issue injunction and the as they have against anything that can be can be considered a genocidal action. now that that's the only thing is is and you have unfortunately a minority, of countries that are directly enabling the genocide, most importantly the

united states sending mountains, just unlimited arms with which israel can bombard the civilian population of gaza unrelentingly, and and eliminate the population one way or another ' either by expelling them somehow, although there are not any willing cooperating countries, not egypt and not the others, but otherwise they're not, they're not going to step back from the possibility that they might annihilate the uh all or most of the population of gaza, that's that's not off the table, and of course you did mention that there is a... court ruling, i assume you mean those provisional measures that were issued by the icj, but um, the israeli regime is not

complying by those rulings, and uh, mr. gegic, uh, if you could please tell us, what are the measures that we can take to force the israeli entity to comply? yeah, there's a very good question, and i fear um, there is currently no international mechanism or institution that is able or ready to hold the israeli regime accountable, simply because if we can ask the question who would be able to do that, and it's at this point of course the united states which could put an end to this genocide very easily um today, but not only is the united states not willing to um end the israeli atrocities, it is even more complicit and it is enabling uh this war against palestinians so... end of the day palestinians are victims of a uh genocide that is being carried out by the united

states and by parts of the western world uh against defenseless population which is trapped in an extermination camp that gaza has become and then if we look at the international court of justice the united nations i mean the the hegemony of the united states still holds or much of the world also enables the israely regime to stand above international law and to get away with these atrocities and crimes wh the rest of the world is able uh to to watch them live on television, so um, it is very much this um power, imbalance of power that makes it very at this point as we see impossible for um any brother intervention, and at the same time we need to keep in mind the majority of the world belongs to the global south, to the third world and even in the un in a general assembly there's a very clear majority uh in support of a cease fire in support of palestinian. human rights, but none of this can be enforced under the current uh so-called the system, currently the so-called

international community um is depending on. uh, so let's go back to mr. larudi, uh, are there any ways to enforce these court rulings, the ones issued by the icc and the icj, because uh, it would seem very irrational to have an international court set up this body without have. the mechanism to enforce what it rules? well, i differ to some extent with my colleague daniel, with whom i agree on almost everything else. "i think there is a way to enforce the ruling and to enforce, more importantly, the will, the international will. um, yemen is doing it, they are reducing the flow of naval traffic through the red sea. now, it's true that it's being diverted or by land across the uae,

saudi arabia. and jordan and it's getting into israel, but not as easily, not as well, and and at greater cost, in addition, some countries, and it was either this morning or yesterday that canada passed bill in parliament saying that it is not going to supply any more arms to israel, period, and other measures were in. included in that, i don't have that it at my fingertips, but but countries can do that, and even the netherlands has also said it will not ships spare parts, there are other are other ways that that countries can intervene, for example, they can, i know that airlifts have

a and airdrops have a bad name because of the control of... israel over these airdrops, but suppose the countries of the world or serious number of major countries in the world, let's say dozen of them decide to send without israeli controls uh massive amounts of airdrops and aid into the gaza strip without flying through israeli territory, only gaza territory, and to drop it, defying the the the will of... uh the israeli military and the airspace and basically to take over the airspace uh of gaz, these are these are things which are are possible, would would israel and let's say uh shoot down the aircraft of nations like spain and and norway

and belgium, would they do that? i i don't think so, i think that there are ways... and little by little um countries of the world are coming to adopt some of these uh ways, the united states is is an obstacle uh, but uh but i think even the united states will have to take some measures pretty soon, president biden will most likely lose if he runs in the in the fall election, he may resign before the... or or decide not to run, but uh, but there are ways that the countries the world, if they have the will to do it, they can do it with or without the united states. you're absolutely right, and we also have the international public opinion completely shifting against israel. we are

seeing demonstrations in countries that are uh known to be allies of the israeli regime and... uh, interestingly we see that the people in those countries are now uh shifting against uh israel, which shows that public opinion now today is more aware of what is happening on the ground and it is not uh taken by the propaganda uh of a mainstream media and support of the israeli regime, so uh back to our guest in beirot, um, do you think that public opinion can all actually bring about some kind of a change? yeah, i think it remains to be seen in the long run, to what extent the shift in public opinion or the very visible demonstrations that we see, including in western capitals will have an impact, but of for sure we can see that to some extent uh it might exert pressure on um elected um officials and um it might also increase the very clear discrepancy between the regimes that are most of which in

particular in the west are tied to the israeli regime uh and the gap between and the people, but we've also seen uh, especially in places such as germany, increase in censorship, increase in coersion of public descent of protests and um, a boycott of protesters by the state, so this has led in some places even more measures that limit freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the free in particular when it comes to um palestine, but i do think that it's become at least much more obvious that that there is a global support for human rights and that the palestinian cause and what is actually taking place in palestine has become impossible to ignore at the... point, exactly, and mr. larudi, this would be our last question, so uh, in your opinion, we're also seeing a political fallout within thesign of entity

itself, with some members saying that, you are going to extreme and we are losing our allies, what do you think the future holds for the signist entity, considering the situation? the zionist entity is finished, this, it has lost this war. "it has lost the support of the international community, and it has lost the support of even the jewish youth in the united states, which are the largest jewish population outside israel, in fact, i think it's even slightly larger than israel, and i think israel now..." um, it's my understanding that roughly million israeli jews have left since october 7th, that's a major proportion of their population.

unfortunately, what's left in israel is very militant and you can say terrorist occup population, and they are extremely racist, extremely, how should... i say blood thirsty uh, it's it's it's not limited to the officials of the government, there's a large proportion of the population that supports the genocide. i think that um, this is going to be difficult for them to overcome, if had to um see to call a winner in in the war, it seems to me that it's going to the side of hamas despite the the genocide that uh israel is perpetrating on the palestinians, so um,

but in the meantime we have to try to do something to to spare to stop the genocide and to spare the people of gaza, exactly, we need to get that to stop. thank you very much, we're running out of time, and mr. daniel yegic, author and researcher joining us from beirot, and mr. paul lorudi, co-founder of the free palestine movement from berkeley. thank you very much for joining us and thank you to all of you viewers for watching this edition of the spotlight. abu hussein, iraq.

كشيعه وعايشين برا بالخارج يعني تحس اكو فرد اتصال روحي بينك وبين هالبلد هذا يعني لانه شيعه الامام الرضا سلام الله عليه see the story of a man who is recounting the tales from the recent past. why the atomic bomb? why all the power? you

scientists are blamed for the weapons to be used, killing innocent people to get what?

the havines as the us israel genocide in gaza continues for the 166th day, the death tool of gazens exceeds 31,900 mostly women and children. the israeli occupation army admits its failure to intercept a missile fired from yemen and hits the vicinity of the southern port of ilad. and iran's leader congratulates the nation on the persian new year, naming it as surgeon production through people's participation.