{"id":15038,"date":"2024-02-03T00:46:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T00:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/03\/more-than-800-western-officials-sign-scathing-criticism-of-gaza-policy\/"},"modified":"2024-02-03T00:46:33","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T00:46:33","slug":"more-than-800-western-officials-sign-scathing-criticism-of-gaza-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/03\/more-than-800-western-officials-sign-scathing-criticism-of-gaza-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 800 Western officials sign scathing criticism of Gaza policy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

More than 800 officials from the United States and Europe have signed a scathing criticism of Western policy towards Israel and Gaza, accusing their governments of possible complicity in war crimes. <\/p>\n

They accuse their governments of failing to hold Israel to the same standards they apply to other countries and weakening their own \u201cmoral standing\u201d in the world. <\/p>\n

In an unprecedented display of coordinated dissent since Israel\u2019s war against Hamas began nearly four months ago, the signatories call on their governments to \u201cuse all leverage\u201d to secure a ceasefire and to stop saying that there is a \u201ca strategic and defensible rationale behind the Israeli operation.\u201d <\/p>\n

The public letter, released Friday, comes a week after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found South Africa\u2019s claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to be \u201cplausible,\u201d and ordered Israel to \u201ctake all measures\u201d to limit the death and destruction caused by its military campaign, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and ensure access to humanitarian aid. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe talking points that keep being delivered day after day are not cutting it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The official added that the ICJ\u2019s decision to hear a genocide case lodged against Israel was validation for the authors\u2019 concerns. Israel has strenuously denied accusations of genocide in Gaza. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was really important for those of us on the US side was to link arms with the people in Europe who believe their governments are following the US lead, and feel constrained by that,\u201d the official said. \u201cSo we thought it was important that US officials continue to make clear their concerns with government policy on this.\u201d <\/p>\n

The statement, which does not list its signatories, says that it was \u201ccoordinated\u201d by civil servants in European Union institutions, The Netherlands, and the United States, and endorsed by civil servants in\u00a0Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only natural that the debate in society about the conflict between Israel and Hamas also exists within our ministry. We feel that there should be scope for this debate and we encourage staff to enter into dialogues internally. And these dialogues are taking place.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018We are obliged to do everything in our power\u2019<\/h2>\n

In the letter, the\u00a0officials say that\u00a0they raised concerns internally within their governments and institutions, but\u00a0their\u00a0professional\u00a0concerns have often been overruled \u201cby political and ideological considerations.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are obliged to do everything in our power on behalf of our countries and ourselves to not be complicit in one of the worst human catastrophes of this century,\u201d they write. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s policies, they argue, are counterproductive to its own national security goals. <\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael\u2019s military operations have disregarded all important counterterrorism expertise gained since 9\/11; and that the operation has not contributed to Israel\u2019s goal of defeating Hamas and instead has strengthened the appeal of Hamas, Hezbollah and other negative actors.\u201d <\/p>\n

They say that Western support for Israel has come \u201cwithout real conditions or accountability.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOur governments\u2019 current policies weaken their moral standing and undermine their ability to stand up for freedom, justice, and human rights globally and weaken our efforts to rally international support for Ukraine and to counter malign actions by Russia, China and Iran,\u201d they say. <\/p>\n

Finally, they call on their governments to \u201cdevelop a strategy for lasting peace that includes a secure Palestinian state and guarantees for Israel\u2019s security, so that an attack like 7 October and an offensive on Gaza never happen again.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 800 officials from the United States and Europe have signed a scathing criticism of Western policy towards Israel and Gaza, accusing their governments of possible complicity in war crimes. They accuse their governments of failing to hold Israel to the same standards they apply to other countries and weakening their own \u201cmoral standing\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}