Israel openly bragging that nobody is stopping their war crimes

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich openly admitted that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, and bragged that "the world still hasn't stopped us"

Yesterday the Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich gave an extraordinarily brazen speech in which he openly bragged about the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza.

Here are a few selected quotes:

"We are dismantling Gaza, leaving it in ruins with unprecedented destruction, and the world still hasn’t stopped us."

"We are annihilating everything that remains in the [Gaza] Strip."

"The population will reach the south of the Strip, and from there, God willing, to third countries."

He also explained the Israel is only allowing in a few aid trucks (a tiny fraction of what’s required to meet demand for food and medical supplies) after over two months of total siege "so the world does not stop us and accuse us of war crimes"; openly admitted that Israel is deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure; and even argued that Israel shouldn’t even allow water into the Gaza Strip.

Smotrich may think that it’s a clever tactic to allow a few aid trucks in to pretend that Israel is not committing war crimes in Gaza, but most of the rest of what he said amounted to open admission of genocidal actions and intent.

Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime; cutting off food and water to civilians as collective punishment is a war crime; forcibly driving civilians from their homes is a war crime; expulsion of civilians to other countries is textbook genocide; and "annihilating everything" instead of targeting military locations is quite obviously a war crime.

It’s hardly a new thing to see another senior Israeli figure openly bragging about the their genocidal war crimes, especially since the South African submission to the ICC included pages of evidence quoting Israeli politicians, military figures, and journalists expressing genocidal intent.

But it is remarkable to see one of them openly admitting that they’re playing games in order to prevent the international community from holding them to account for their documented war crimes.

Meanwhile the British government remains deliberately complicit.

The likes of Keir Starmer and David Lammy pretend to care about the plight of Palestinian civilians, but behind the scenes they’ve allowed more arms exports to Israel in months than the previous Tory government signed off in the previous three years; they’ve flown over five hundred spy flights over the Gaza Strip; they outright refuse to impose Russia-style sanctions on Israel; they keep allowing US and Israeli aeroplanes to use RAF bases as stopping points for flights carrying who knows who and what; and they even instructed lawyers to lie in court that "no genocide has occurred or is occurring"!

They’re downright complicit, and these latest admissions of genocidal actions and genocidal intent from Smotrich make it absolutely clear that the UK government is complicitly playing exactly the game that these genocidal Israeli politicians want them to.

It’s not just that Israel is openly committing war crimes and genocide, and revelling in their atrocities, it’s that countries like Britain, the US, and Germany are wilfully complicit in allowing them to continue.

We’re seeing Israel brazenly ripping up international and humanitarian law in full view of the international community, and our governments are wilfully going along with it.