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UK News Outlets Distort International Court Ruling to Demonize Israel
A May 25 article in the Financial Times on an emergency ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as part of South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide, erred in both the headline, “Top UN Court Orders Israel to Halt Rafah Offensive,” and in the opening sentence:
“The UN’s top court has ordered Israel to ‘immediately halt’ its military offensive in Rafah, the southern Gazan city that had become a refuge for more than 1mn civilians since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted last year.” [emphasis added]
Crucially, as noted in an analysis of the decision by our colleague David Litman, the wording narrowly ordered Israel on Friday to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” [emphasis added]
The ambiguity of the ICJ verdict’s wording, as well as the qualifying language, such as “that could bring…”, was interpreted by four ICJ judges as a limited order instructing the IDF to abide by the Genocide Convention during its activities in Rafah, but not requiring a complete halt to military operations there.
“The measure is a qualified one, which preserves Israel’s right to prevent and repel threats and attacks by Hamas, defend itself and its citizens, and free the hostages,” Aharon Barak, the ad-hoc judge representing Israel at the International Court of Justice, wrote in his minority opinion regarding the decision of the majority judges.
“The measure obliging Israel to halt the current military offensive in Rafah is conditioned by the need to prevent ‘conditions of life that could bring about [the] physical destruction in whole or in part’ of the Palestinian group in Gaza. Thus, this measure does not concern other actions of Israel which do not give rise to such a risk,” wrote German judge Georg Nolte, who joined the majority judges.
This position was also supported by Romanian Judge Bogdan Aurescu and Judge Sebutinde.
The only judge who expressed a contrary position is the South African ad-hoc judge, Dire Tladi,
The Financial Times article errs again, when it states, “The court also ordered Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt…” — neglecting the fact that it’s Egypt, and not Israel, which is keeping the Rafah closing closed, a decision which elicited a rare rebuke of Cairo by US officials.
In fact, after communication with CAMERA’s Israel office, Haaretz corrected an article which included that same false claim.
But it’s not just the Financial Times that grossly misled readers. Most British outlets, in fact, made the same error:
The Guardian promoted the same inaccuracy in a May 24 article, in both the headline, “UN’s top court orders Israel to immediately halt Rafah offensive,” and the text:
The UN’s top court has ordered Israel to halt its assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah in a ruling that will ratchet up the pressure on the increasingly isolated country.
A May 24 article in The Times similarly got it wrong, also in the headline (“International Court of Justice orders Israel to halt Rafah offensive”), and the opening sentence:
The United Nations’ top court has ordered Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah in the latest in a string of diplomatic and legal moves against the country.
Sky News similarly erred in a May 24 article — in the headline, “International Court of Justice orders Israel to halt Rafah offensive,” and the opening sentence:
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Israel to stop its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Channel 4 News also erred in a May 24 report, in both the headline, “UN top court orders Israel to ‘immediately’ halt Rafah offensive,” and the first sentence:
The UN’s international court of justice has ordered Israel to halt its military offensive around Rafah in southern Gaza with immediate effect.
Finally, the Daily Mail similarly got it wrong in a May 25 article, in both the wording of the headline, “Israel pummels Gaza including Rafah just a DAY after top UN court ordered IDF to halt its invasion of the southern city,” and in the opening sentences:
Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, just one day after the top UN court ordered the IDF to halt its military operations in the southern city.
…
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) demanded the immediate release of all hostages still held by Palestinian militants hours after the Israeli military announced troops had recovered the bodies of three more of the captives from northern Gaza.
We’ll be complaining to these media outlets about their grossly misleading characterizations of the ICJ ruling.
Adam Levick serves as co-editor of CAMERA UK – an affiliate of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), where a version of this article first appeared.
The post UK News Outlets Distort International Court Ruling to Demonize Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Palestinian Filmmaker Who Accused Israel of ‘Genocide’ Wins Top Prize at Film Festival With Israel-Set Drama
A Palestinian filmmaker who has accused Israel of “genocide” during the ongoing war in Gaza took home the top prize on Sunday at the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival for a family drama set in Israel that includes Jewish and Arab characters.
Director Scandar Copti won the Golden Alexander for best feature film and a 10,000-euro cash prize for his film “Happy Holidays,” an Arabic- and Hebrew-language film that follows four interconnected characters who “share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations, and cultures.” One character, named Rami, is a Palestinian from Haifa who must deal with his Jewish girlfriend’s sudden decision to change her mind about her planned abortion.
Copti directed and wrote the screenplay for “Happy Holidays.” He also directed the Oscar-nominated 2009 film “Ajami.”
“Happy Holidays” is Copti’s second film, and it premiered in early September in the 2024 Venice Film Festival’s Horizons section, where it won the award for best screenplay. During his virtual acceptance speech at the Venice Film Festival, Copti accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza, where the Israeli military has been waging a campaign against Hamas terrorists.
“Over the past 11 months, our shared humanity and moral compass has been tested as we witness the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he said in comments which elicited applause from the audience. He talked about the “painful reality” in Gaza and said “Happy Holidays” examines “how moral narratives can bring us together as communities, but also blind us to the suffering of others. It explores how traditions and indoctrination can distort our values and make injustice seem acceptable.”
“True freedom is interconnected,” he added. “None of us are free until all of us are free, from all sorts of oppression.”
The jury at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival — which included filmmaker and producer Sara Driver, filmmaker Denis Côté, and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis — applauded Copti’s film “for intricately weaving different narratives and perspectives that fully expose the complexity of national, gender, and class dynamics that can divide societies and for seeing the future in the face of a young woman.”
The post Palestinian Filmmaker Who Accused Israel of ‘Genocide’ Wins Top Prize at Film Festival With Israel-Set Drama first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Gal Gadot Shares Family Photo From Her Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah
Gal Gadot’s eldest daughter Alma recently celebrated her bat mitzvah, and the Israeli actress posted Sunday on Instagram a family photo from the milestone occasion.
The “Wonder Woman” star, 39, posted a photo of herself, her husband Jaron Varsano, and their four children — daughters Alma, Maya, 7, Daniella, 3, and Ori, 8 months. Alma, in a lavender dress, can be seen standing in the center of the photo, and in the caption, Gadot wrote a heartfelt message to the bat mitzvah girl.
“My baby is celebrating her bat mitzvah. I can’t believe the amazing person you’ve become,” Gadot wrote to Alma, who turned 13 on Nov. 5. “Your joy, humor, curiosity, and big heart of yours are absolutely magnetic. You teach me so much about motherhood, life, and myself. Thank you for choosing me to be your mother, for choosing us to be your parents. There is no mountain too high for you, and no ocean too wide and deep that you cannot conquer.”
Gadot concluded her message by saying, “Love you forever and always, Ima.” She also included in the post a selfie that Versano took of himself and Gadot with Alma when she was just born.
The comments section of the post was filled with “mazel tov” messages from Gadot’s fans but also some of her celebrity friends, including Selma Blair, Rachel Zoe, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Ginnifer Goodwin, Sarah Silverman, Jessica Seinfeld, Elizabeth Berkley, and cartoon voiceover actress Tara Strong.
“Look at this beautiful Jewish family!!!!” wrote Chelsea Handler. “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen jokingly wrote in a comment, “Hold on, you’re Jewish? Well, then Mazel tov.” Actress Isla Fisher commented on Gadot’s post saying, “You have the most beautiful family. I can’t believe Alma is having her batty! I could cry. I’m so so proud of her.”
Gadot said in a May 2017 interview, “The best thing is to become a mother and to give life.” In 2022, she talked more about her love of motherhood and childbirth. “I love giving birth. I would do it once a week if I could. It’s so magical,” she told InStyle at the time. “And I always take epidurals, to be fair, so it’s not so painful. Just the moment you feel like you’re creating life, it’s incredible. That is the badass thing I do: the juggling between my family life and my acting career.”
The post Gal Gadot Shares Family Photo From Her Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Urges Soccer Fans Not to Attend Upcoming Paris Game After Antisemitic Attacks in Amsterdam
Israel has urged its citizens not to attend the Israeli national soccer team’s upcoming match in Paris this week, in light of the violent antisemitic attacks against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam last week.
“In the past few days, there have been calls among pro-Palestinian/terrorist-supporter groups to harm Israelis and Jews, under the pretense of demonstrations and protests, taking advantage of mass gatherings (sports and cultural events) to maximize the damage and the media coverage,” Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) said in a public alert issued on Sunday. It additionally noted that “preparations to harm Israelis have been identified in several European cities,” including Brussels, “major cities” in the United Kingdom, Amsterdam, and Paris, where a UEFA Nations League match between Israel and France is set to take place in the city on Thursday at the stadium, Stade de France.
“Given the dynamics of these incidents: independent parties who group online, their broad presence in various countries around the world, actual attempts to hold demonstrations and protests (some of them violent), and concerns that supporters of terrorism/lone wolf attackers will try to blend into these riots with the goal of carrying out an attack — The National Security Council recommends that Israelis abroad … In the coming week, categorically avoid attending Israeli sports/cultural events abroad, and specifically the Israeli teams’ upcoming match in Paris,” the NSC statement read.
The NSC also recommended that Israelis traveling abroad should stay away from all demonstrations and protests, avoid identifying in public as Israeli or Jewish, and check ahead of time if their travel destination can be “problematic” because of demonstrations, riots, crime, or “population of immigrants from countries that are hostile to Israel.”
Late Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday morning last week, hundreds of Israeli soccer fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv were attacked by anti-Israel and antisemitic gangs in Amsterdam following a match between the Israeli team and their Dutch rivals Ajax. The NSC said a “pro-Palestinian mob” led the violence “in what appeared to be a coordinated attack.” Israeli officials said 10 citizens were injured in the violence.
More than 60 suspects were arrested in connection to the attacks, and Amsterdam prosecutors said that four of the suspects, including two minors, remained jailed Saturday and would be arraigned this week, The Associated Press reported. Maccabi Tel Aviv fans returned home to Israel over the weekend following the violence in Amsterdam, and among them were over 170 witnesses of the attacks and more than 230 victims, Israel police said.
Dutch officials and leaders from around the world, including US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned the violence as antisemitic and many of them described the attacks as a “pogrom.”
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced on Sunday that he canceled his trip to Azerbaijan for the United Nations Climate Change Conference so that he can stay in the Netherlands to deal with the aftermath of the attacks. He has since talked about the incident with representatives of Amsterdam’s Jewish community, Israel’s new Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, and on Tuesday he will hold talks with Jewish and social organizations about combating antisemitism.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed on Friday that the France-Israel match will take place in Paris as planned, despite pressure from pro-Palestinian activists to cancel the game. French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the game and 4,000 police officers will be deployed around Stade de France for Thursday’s match to ensure security in and around the stadium, according to French news broadcaster BFM TV.
The post Israel Urges Soccer Fans Not to Attend Upcoming Paris Game After Antisemitic Attacks in Amsterdam first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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