Yanis Varoufakis's Blog, page 16
October 15, 2023
Timeline of my tweets and interviews on Israel-Palestine between 7th & 15th October
Ever since Hamas attacked Israel, my tweets and interviews have caused much controversy. In the interests of both those who agree with me and those who disagree with me, I list below every one of those interventions. An honest debate founded on what each one of us has said (as opposed to what various trolls say we said) is the least we can offer a divided and troubled world.7/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1710627736664854638?s=20The path to ending the tragic loss of innocent lives – both Palestinian and Israeli – begins with one crucial first step: the end of the Israeli occupation and apartheid.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1710642297681985834?s=20When a former Mossad Director concurs that Israel is imposing Apartheid on the Palestinians, is there more to say other than “End Apartheid to Give Peace a Chance”?8/10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avtX-...
“Those who try very hard to extract from people like me, from DiEM25, a condemnation of the attack by the Hamas guerrillas will never get it. And they will never get it for a single reason. Those who care about humans without discrimination, who care equally for a Jew and an Arab, must ask themselves a very important question: What exactly is their idea of the cessation of hostilities? That Palestinians are going to lay down their arms and go back into the largest open-air prison in the world where they are constantly suffocated by the Apartheid state? In other words, back in South Africa in the era of Apartheid, what was the problem? Was it that some members of the Black Resistance, including the ANC but not only the ANC, took up arms against the South African regime and some times killed innocent people? No, that was not the problem. The problem was Apartheid. Apartheid, whether it is practised in South Africa or in Palestine-Israel, is alwys going to procure violence because it is a violent, misanthropic system. Any human being living under Apartheid will either die a terrible, silent death or rebel and, often, take with them innocent people. The criminals here are not Hamas, not even the Israeli settlers who are killing Palestinians. The criminals are us, Europeans and Americans. Every single member of our German society, our French society, our Greek society, the United States society. We have participated in this crime against humanity over the decades by keeping our mouths shut as long as there is no trouble down there. As long as people are dying outside the reach of cameras. As long as it is Palestinians who are dying and not the occupiers. So, this incredible tragedy must be converted into an opportunity for us Europeans to wake up and to redeem ourselves by demanding that we collectively take the first decisive step toward Peace. And that is the destruction of the state of apartheid. Just like we did in South Africa.”7/10https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711331592998625544DiEM25 and MeRA25 declaration: Peace Now!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711153525273645298?s=20The shock and fury in Israel are reminiscent of the emotions in the US after 9/11. That provoked a display of American unity and power. It also led to a misconceived and self-destructive war on terror. Israel may be heading down the same dangerous path.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711157219859878365?s=20Apartheid must be smashed & the two state solution is nearly impossible (even if desirable for a number of reasons). The only realistic civilised solution is for a single secular state for all – with equal civil liberties independently of religion and ethnicity.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711341886445682884?s=20From a very young age I was made aware of how those seeking to cover up inhumanities perpetrated by the Great Powers against the weakest of peoples, they invariably did so by explaining it all away as part of “the realities of the world”…https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711351103638393064?s=20Hamas is nothing like the ANC. [I never said it was.] But Israel’s Apartheid is modelled on the Apartheid the ANC fought. My simple point was that Apartheid (South African or Israeli) IS violence and, thus, begets violence. And the only way to stop violence is to end Apartheid – not moralistically to condemn violence while turning a blind eye to Apartheid.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711373657073705123?s=20If a former Mossad Director says that Israel is imposing Apartheid on the Palestinians, it is an open and shut case. You have lost this one I am afraid https://theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/israel-imposing-apartheid-on-palestinians-says-former-mossad-chiefhttps://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711375495483265171?s=20Let me remind those screaming blue murder when any comparison is made between South African Apartheid with Israel’s that Nelson Mandela was never in doubt that Palestinians lived under Apartheid. [Or that Israel was openly the best ally of the White Supremacists in Pretoria]https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711378779371634972?s=20Just in case you are misinformed (rather than a troll), let me point out our campaign for a Peace Process, along with a cessation of hostilities, both in Ukraine and Israel-Palestine. We are consistent. Are you? https://diem25.org/diem25-and-mera25-declaration-peace-now/https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711387107602653621?s=20No electricity, no food, no fuel for 1 million children. Straight from the horse’s mouth. That can’t be the civilised world’s answer, whatever differences we may have on who did what to whom first or last.https://x.com/GermanPolyglot/status/1711362849564455031?s=20If you did not condemn #Israel‘s killing of unarmed journalists, doctors and children, you lost the right to condemn #Hamas‘ atrocities now. The Geneva Convention on war crimes either applies to everyone or no-one. And anyone invoking it against the weak while exempting the powerful is committing an obscenity.10/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711608211105571157?s=20Apartheid is an abomination. Desmond Tutu, a hero of the anti-Apartheid movement in its place of origin, understood it. Will those who claim to respect Tutu and Mandela follow suit? Or will they continue to defend Apartheid’s continued, strengthened variant in Israel-Palestine?https://x.com/GermanPolyglot/status/1711582200418693399?s=20There is nothing that can justify deliberate violence against non-combatants. This means that attacking Israelis at a rave is wrong, bombing Palestinian hospitals is wrong, abducting Ukrainian children is wrong, torturing Russian prisoners is wrong… In fact the nationality of the victim or attacker is completely irrelevant. Either targeting innocents is ALWAYS wrong, no matter who does it, or you don’t have morals, you just have opinions. We need to stop this weird move where we excuse/ignore war crimes from our preferred side and strongly condemn war crimes from the other side – it leads to the annihilation of ethics itself, everything becomes relative.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711978132645826944?s=201982: Sharon invades Lebanon to destroy the PLO. Thus Hizbollah was born. 2002: Arafat is crushed to end hopes of Palestinian state. Thus Hamas rose up. Now Israel is pulverising Gaza to destroy Hamas. [All such moves had full US support.] Any guesses of likely outcomes?https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711995086811058347?s=20Desmond Tutu made this comparison. I dare you challenge his authority on the subject.11/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712188831233941599?s=20Compare & contrast! Attacking “civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes. Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming – these are acts of pure terror”. UNLESS the attacker is Israel. Then it’s NOT terror!?@?!!!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712343232208609635?s=20I condemn the killing of every person, let alone 40. I also condemn the notion that Israel is imposing Apartheid and war crimes for decades in… self-defence. Foisting Apartheid/Occupation on a whole people for decades can NEVER be self-defence.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ZXE24uiW8
DiEM25 LIVESTREAM EXTRACT (from 1’40” to 17’38”): We are talking about yet another example of humanity’s capacity to dive into moral voids. Just when we thought we had done our worst, we did even worse. The emphasis is on the word WE. It is very natural, in the context of vicious conflicts, for us to have a tendency to take sides. But the long-lasting nature of this tragedy should concentrate our minds so as to take seriously our responsibility for it. A few days ago, in Berlin, I refused to denounce Hamas and, naturally, that stirred up a torrent criticism, of abuse. There is no doubt that if I were in their path, near the Gaza Fence (which, I must stress, is not an international border but a hideous, illegal fence since the people living behind it used to live on the other side before they were ethnically cleansed and forced into the awful Gaza strip), if any one of us were at, say, that music festival dedicated to Peace, the Hamas fighters would have gunned me down or taken me hostage. Those scenes are atrocious. There can be no justification and there can be no way of presenting them as justified. But, I am not going to condemn the Hamas assault on Israel. Those who demand of me, and you, and others, to condemn the Hamas killing spree are insistent that we, for whom every human loss is a calamity for which we consider even ourselves to be responsible, they demand that we – effectively – take the side of the state of Israel. That I shall never do. And who are they who demand that we condemn the Hamas atrocities? It is the same people who……look the other way when Israel kills unarmed journalists, doctors and children…support or tolerate the ritual humiliation to which West Bank Palestinians are treated every day of their lives by an apartheid regime much worse than the original one in South Africa – a reality revealed by, amongst others, Tamir Pardo, Mossad’s former Director, Avraham Burg, the former speaker of the Israeli parliament, renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris and more than 2,000 Israeli and American public figures who have signed a public statementdeclaring that “Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid”…turn a blind eye when murderous settlers rampage in Palestinian areas killing Palestinians at will…whistle in the wind while Israel’s authorities illegally evict Palestinians from the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, where they lived for generations, to hand over their homes to people who just arrived in Israel for the first time…accept uncritically Israel’s declaration of war not against a state (since it has never allowed Palestinians to have one) but against an occupied people whom it has been terrorising for decades.Yes, these same people, who demand of us to condemn Hamas……demand that the Gazan Palestinians lay down their arms and return quietly back into the world’s largest open-air prison, to die slowly under siege surrounded by an ironclad army that has been starving them and shooting at them like fish in a barrel.So, let me be abundantly clear on this: Every loss of a human being, every severed limb, every blinded eye, even a broken finger is a tragedy for which we consider us, humanity as whole, to be responsible. So, let’s be properly responsible, shall we? Let’s embrace our responsibility. But what does this mean now? Does it mean parroting another condemnation of Hamas like that of our governments who did not even slap the wrist of the hand that has been strangling a nation thus brought to the brink of despair? Let us, DiEM25, propose what it means to be responsible now: It means to plug the spring of all this torrent of violence and pain: the never-ending Occupation and its Apartheid Apparatus. In this vein, DiEM25 has called both for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate commencement of a Peace Process under a UN mandate to end Apartheid and to secure security and free movement for all. Now, well-meaning people may disagree on what precise solution this Peace Process will reach, so complex is this tragedy. It may involve a two-state solution or, as is our preference, a single secular federal state with equal civil rights for everyone, or maybe a third alternative. What it
cannot
involve is the continuation of Occupation, the toleration of slow-burning ethnic cleansing through the medium of Apartheid or, indeed, the implied belief that the two peoples are condemned to hating and killing one another ad infinitum.13/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712581737887257044?s=20Israel killed all 1500 Hamas fighters that killed Israelis. More Palestinian civilians have already died than Israelis. Is this not the time to stop the bombings? No, says the ‘civilised’ West, it is time for thousands more coffins until Final Victory. Which means what exactly?https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712741442982978027?s=20When Palestinian fighters commit war crimes, the West/Press loses no time to speak of “acts of pure evil”. When the Israeli military commit war crimes, the West/Press describes them as “inevitable”, as Acts of God – like a Volcano erupting as is its wont, as its nature dictates.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712833938475954584?s=20Quote me in full please: I shall not condemn Hamas, nor the Israeli settlers killing Palestinians. I feel that we, Europeans and Americans, are responsible for these crimes by turning a blind eye for decades.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712935715225452909?s=20Good & bad news for those who want to cancel me for my opposition to Israel’s Apartheid/Occupation: The good news is that I was cancelled in Vienna where, on Monday, I was to deliver the 2023 Otto Wagner 2023 Lecture, organised by IKA Institute for Art and Architecture (even though I had no intention to refer to the situation in Israel/Gaza). https://e-flux.com/announcements/560460/yanis-varoufakis/… The bad news, for you good people who want me cancelled, is that the organisers lacked the guts to admit that they were terrified of hosting me because of my opposition to Israel’s Apartheid/Occupation. They suggested that we all pretend the lecture was postponed until my new book is out in German. When I refused to participate in that lie, they cited “the current dramatically escalating, geopolitical situation”! The gist of it? Civilised Middle Europe recoils in horror when faced with a principled opposition to Israel’s Apartheid. And then, immediately afterwards, covers up its cowardice in lies.14/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713274051123085541?s=20Lest we forget: There IS hope! The future of Peace rests on both sides embracing Peace and turning away from Violence. We rely on progressive Israelis to renounce Apartheid and progressive Palestinians to renounce antisemitism. The rest of us must help them along the way.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713297736794038415?s=20Correct: But purging antisemitism is what we must do for our own soul and clarity of purpose.15/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713305253892759996?s=20As the bombs fall on Gaza and Palestinian flesh is torn apart… As Israelis grieve lost ones and fear for their future… let the rest of us press our governments to announce the World’s Demands: Ceasefire. Release of hostages. End of Apartheid. Equal Civil Liberties for All!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713307284992913526?s=20My message has always been crystal clear – and consistent. I shall never participate in ritualistic selective moral outrage along with those who strategically turn a blind eye to the source of all atrocities: Israel’s Apartheid.https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713676196247167238Question from @bnorma3L: So then the question becomes: do you think that what hamas did a week ago is a legitimate act of resistance? Or ‘just’ a criminal atrocity? I think its the latter. In fact in a way, they are complicit in the murder of Palestinians right now.Let me answer your good question: Breaking out of the illegal Fence, and battling with the Israeli army that is caging Palestinians in, was not an atrocity. Killing civilians (old or young) was a repugnant atrocity. Like in every war, war crimes are indefensible.
“Those who try very hard to extract from people like me, from DiEM25, a condemnation of the attack by the Hamas guerrillas will never get it. And they will never get it for a single reason. Those who care about humans without discrimination, who care equally for a Jew and an Arab, must ask themselves a very important question: What exactly is their idea of the cessation of hostilities? That Palestinians are going to lay down their arms and go back into the largest open-air prison in the world where they are constantly suffocated by the Apartheid state? In other words, back in South Africa in the era of Apartheid, what was the problem? Was it that some members of the Black Resistance, including the ANC but not only the ANC, took up arms against the South African regime and some times killed innocent people? No, that was not the problem. The problem was Apartheid. Apartheid, whether it is practised in South Africa or in Palestine-Israel, is alwys going to procure violence because it is a violent, misanthropic system. Any human being living under Apartheid will either die a terrible, silent death or rebel and, often, take with them innocent people. The criminals here are not Hamas, not even the Israeli settlers who are killing Palestinians. The criminals are us, Europeans and Americans. Every single member of our German society, our French society, our Greek society, the United States society. We have participated in this crime against humanity over the decades by keeping our mouths shut as long as there is no trouble down there. As long as people are dying outside the reach of cameras. As long as it is Palestinians who are dying and not the occupiers. So, this incredible tragedy must be converted into an opportunity for us Europeans to wake up and to redeem ourselves by demanding that we collectively take the first decisive step toward Peace. And that is the destruction of the state of apartheid. Just like we did in South Africa.”7/10https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711331592998625544DiEM25 and MeRA25 declaration: Peace Now!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711153525273645298?s=20The shock and fury in Israel are reminiscent of the emotions in the US after 9/11. That provoked a display of American unity and power. It also led to a misconceived and self-destructive war on terror. Israel may be heading down the same dangerous path.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711157219859878365?s=20Apartheid must be smashed & the two state solution is nearly impossible (even if desirable for a number of reasons). The only realistic civilised solution is for a single secular state for all – with equal civil liberties independently of religion and ethnicity.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711341886445682884?s=20From a very young age I was made aware of how those seeking to cover up inhumanities perpetrated by the Great Powers against the weakest of peoples, they invariably did so by explaining it all away as part of “the realities of the world”…https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711351103638393064?s=20Hamas is nothing like the ANC. [I never said it was.] But Israel’s Apartheid is modelled on the Apartheid the ANC fought. My simple point was that Apartheid (South African or Israeli) IS violence and, thus, begets violence. And the only way to stop violence is to end Apartheid – not moralistically to condemn violence while turning a blind eye to Apartheid.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711373657073705123?s=20If a former Mossad Director says that Israel is imposing Apartheid on the Palestinians, it is an open and shut case. You have lost this one I am afraid https://theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/israel-imposing-apartheid-on-palestinians-says-former-mossad-chiefhttps://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711375495483265171?s=20Let me remind those screaming blue murder when any comparison is made between South African Apartheid with Israel’s that Nelson Mandela was never in doubt that Palestinians lived under Apartheid. [Or that Israel was openly the best ally of the White Supremacists in Pretoria]https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711378779371634972?s=20Just in case you are misinformed (rather than a troll), let me point out our campaign for a Peace Process, along with a cessation of hostilities, both in Ukraine and Israel-Palestine. We are consistent. Are you? https://diem25.org/diem25-and-mera25-declaration-peace-now/https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711387107602653621?s=20No electricity, no food, no fuel for 1 million children. Straight from the horse’s mouth. That can’t be the civilised world’s answer, whatever differences we may have on who did what to whom first or last.https://x.com/GermanPolyglot/status/1711362849564455031?s=20If you did not condemn #Israel‘s killing of unarmed journalists, doctors and children, you lost the right to condemn #Hamas‘ atrocities now. The Geneva Convention on war crimes either applies to everyone or no-one. And anyone invoking it against the weak while exempting the powerful is committing an obscenity.10/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711608211105571157?s=20Apartheid is an abomination. Desmond Tutu, a hero of the anti-Apartheid movement in its place of origin, understood it. Will those who claim to respect Tutu and Mandela follow suit? Or will they continue to defend Apartheid’s continued, strengthened variant in Israel-Palestine?https://x.com/GermanPolyglot/status/1711582200418693399?s=20There is nothing that can justify deliberate violence against non-combatants. This means that attacking Israelis at a rave is wrong, bombing Palestinian hospitals is wrong, abducting Ukrainian children is wrong, torturing Russian prisoners is wrong… In fact the nationality of the victim or attacker is completely irrelevant. Either targeting innocents is ALWAYS wrong, no matter who does it, or you don’t have morals, you just have opinions. We need to stop this weird move where we excuse/ignore war crimes from our preferred side and strongly condemn war crimes from the other side – it leads to the annihilation of ethics itself, everything becomes relative.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711978132645826944?s=201982: Sharon invades Lebanon to destroy the PLO. Thus Hizbollah was born. 2002: Arafat is crushed to end hopes of Palestinian state. Thus Hamas rose up. Now Israel is pulverising Gaza to destroy Hamas. [All such moves had full US support.] Any guesses of likely outcomes?https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711995086811058347?s=20Desmond Tutu made this comparison. I dare you challenge his authority on the subject.11/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712188831233941599?s=20Compare & contrast! Attacking “civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes. Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming – these are acts of pure terror”. UNLESS the attacker is Israel. Then it’s NOT terror!?@?!!!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712343232208609635?s=20I condemn the killing of every person, let alone 40. I also condemn the notion that Israel is imposing Apartheid and war crimes for decades in… self-defence. Foisting Apartheid/Occupation on a whole people for decades can NEVER be self-defence.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ZXE24uiW8
DiEM25 LIVESTREAM EXTRACT (from 1’40” to 17’38”): We are talking about yet another example of humanity’s capacity to dive into moral voids. Just when we thought we had done our worst, we did even worse. The emphasis is on the word WE. It is very natural, in the context of vicious conflicts, for us to have a tendency to take sides. But the long-lasting nature of this tragedy should concentrate our minds so as to take seriously our responsibility for it. A few days ago, in Berlin, I refused to denounce Hamas and, naturally, that stirred up a torrent criticism, of abuse. There is no doubt that if I were in their path, near the Gaza Fence (which, I must stress, is not an international border but a hideous, illegal fence since the people living behind it used to live on the other side before they were ethnically cleansed and forced into the awful Gaza strip), if any one of us were at, say, that music festival dedicated to Peace, the Hamas fighters would have gunned me down or taken me hostage. Those scenes are atrocious. There can be no justification and there can be no way of presenting them as justified. But, I am not going to condemn the Hamas assault on Israel. Those who demand of me, and you, and others, to condemn the Hamas killing spree are insistent that we, for whom every human loss is a calamity for which we consider even ourselves to be responsible, they demand that we – effectively – take the side of the state of Israel. That I shall never do. And who are they who demand that we condemn the Hamas atrocities? It is the same people who……look the other way when Israel kills unarmed journalists, doctors and children…support or tolerate the ritual humiliation to which West Bank Palestinians are treated every day of their lives by an apartheid regime much worse than the original one in South Africa – a reality revealed by, amongst others, Tamir Pardo, Mossad’s former Director, Avraham Burg, the former speaker of the Israeli parliament, renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris and more than 2,000 Israeli and American public figures who have signed a public statementdeclaring that “Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid”…turn a blind eye when murderous settlers rampage in Palestinian areas killing Palestinians at will…whistle in the wind while Israel’s authorities illegally evict Palestinians from the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, where they lived for generations, to hand over their homes to people who just arrived in Israel for the first time…accept uncritically Israel’s declaration of war not against a state (since it has never allowed Palestinians to have one) but against an occupied people whom it has been terrorising for decades.Yes, these same people, who demand of us to condemn Hamas……demand that the Gazan Palestinians lay down their arms and return quietly back into the world’s largest open-air prison, to die slowly under siege surrounded by an ironclad army that has been starving them and shooting at them like fish in a barrel.So, let me be abundantly clear on this: Every loss of a human being, every severed limb, every blinded eye, even a broken finger is a tragedy for which we consider us, humanity as whole, to be responsible. So, let’s be properly responsible, shall we? Let’s embrace our responsibility. But what does this mean now? Does it mean parroting another condemnation of Hamas like that of our governments who did not even slap the wrist of the hand that has been strangling a nation thus brought to the brink of despair? Let us, DiEM25, propose what it means to be responsible now: It means to plug the spring of all this torrent of violence and pain: the never-ending Occupation and its Apartheid Apparatus. In this vein, DiEM25 has called both for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate commencement of a Peace Process under a UN mandate to end Apartheid and to secure security and free movement for all. Now, well-meaning people may disagree on what precise solution this Peace Process will reach, so complex is this tragedy. It may involve a two-state solution or, as is our preference, a single secular federal state with equal civil rights for everyone, or maybe a third alternative. What it
cannot
involve is the continuation of Occupation, the toleration of slow-burning ethnic cleansing through the medium of Apartheid or, indeed, the implied belief that the two peoples are condemned to hating and killing one another ad infinitum.13/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712581737887257044?s=20Israel killed all 1500 Hamas fighters that killed Israelis. More Palestinian civilians have already died than Israelis. Is this not the time to stop the bombings? No, says the ‘civilised’ West, it is time for thousands more coffins until Final Victory. Which means what exactly?https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712741442982978027?s=20When Palestinian fighters commit war crimes, the West/Press loses no time to speak of “acts of pure evil”. When the Israeli military commit war crimes, the West/Press describes them as “inevitable”, as Acts of God – like a Volcano erupting as is its wont, as its nature dictates.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712833938475954584?s=20Quote me in full please: I shall not condemn Hamas, nor the Israeli settlers killing Palestinians. I feel that we, Europeans and Americans, are responsible for these crimes by turning a blind eye for decades.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712935715225452909?s=20Good & bad news for those who want to cancel me for my opposition to Israel’s Apartheid/Occupation: The good news is that I was cancelled in Vienna where, on Monday, I was to deliver the 2023 Otto Wagner 2023 Lecture, organised by IKA Institute for Art and Architecture (even though I had no intention to refer to the situation in Israel/Gaza). https://e-flux.com/announcements/560460/yanis-varoufakis/… The bad news, for you good people who want me cancelled, is that the organisers lacked the guts to admit that they were terrified of hosting me because of my opposition to Israel’s Apartheid/Occupation. They suggested that we all pretend the lecture was postponed until my new book is out in German. When I refused to participate in that lie, they cited “the current dramatically escalating, geopolitical situation”! The gist of it? Civilised Middle Europe recoils in horror when faced with a principled opposition to Israel’s Apartheid. And then, immediately afterwards, covers up its cowardice in lies.14/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713274051123085541?s=20Lest we forget: There IS hope! The future of Peace rests on both sides embracing Peace and turning away from Violence. We rely on progressive Israelis to renounce Apartheid and progressive Palestinians to renounce antisemitism. The rest of us must help them along the way.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713297736794038415?s=20Correct: But purging antisemitism is what we must do for our own soul and clarity of purpose.15/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713305253892759996?s=20As the bombs fall on Gaza and Palestinian flesh is torn apart… As Israelis grieve lost ones and fear for their future… let the rest of us press our governments to announce the World’s Demands: Ceasefire. Release of hostages. End of Apartheid. Equal Civil Liberties for All!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713307284992913526?s=20My message has always been crystal clear – and consistent. I shall never participate in ritualistic selective moral outrage along with those who strategically turn a blind eye to the source of all atrocities: Israel’s Apartheid.https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713676196247167238Question from @bnorma3L: So then the question becomes: do you think that what hamas did a week ago is a legitimate act of resistance? Or ‘just’ a criminal atrocity? I think its the latter. In fact in a way, they are complicit in the murder of Palestinians right now.Let me answer your good question: Breaking out of the illegal Fence, and battling with the Israeli army that is caging Palestinians in, was not an atrocity. Killing civilians (old or young) was a repugnant atrocity. Like in every war, war crimes are indefensible.The post Timeline of my tweets and interviews on Israel-Palestine between 7th & 15th October appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
Timeline of my tweets and interviews on Israel-Palestine since 7th October
Ever since Hamas attacked Israel, my tweets and interviews have caused much controversy. In the interests of both those who agree with me and those who disagree with me, I list below every one of those interventions. An honest debate founded on what each one of us has said (as opposed to what various trolls say we said) is the least we can offer a divided and troubled world.7/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1710627736664854638?s=20The path to ending the tragic loss of innocent lives – both Palestinian and Israeli – begins with one crucial first step: the end of the Israeli occupation and apartheid.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1710642297681985834?s=20When a former Mossad Director concurs that Israel is imposing Apartheid on the Palestinians, is there more to say other than “End Apartheid to Give Peace a Chance”?8/10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avtX-... who try very hard to extract from people like me, from DiEM25, a condemnation of the attack by the Hamas guerrillas will never get it. And they will never get it for a single reason. Those who care about humans without discrimination, who care equally for a Jew and an Arab, must ask themselves a very important question: What exactly is their idea of the cessation of hostilities? That Palestinians are going to lay down their arms and go back into the largest open-air prison in the world where they are constantly suffocated by the Apartheid state? In other words, back in South Africa in the era of Apartheid, what was the problem? Was it that some members of the Black Resistance, including the ANC but not only the ANC, took up arms against the South African regime and some times killed innocent people? No, that was not the problem. The problem was Apartheid. Apartheid, whether it is practised in South Africa or in Palestine-Israel, is alwys going to procure violence because it is a violent, misanthropic system. Any human being living under Apartheid will either die a terrible, silent death or rebel and, often, take with them innocent people. The criminals here are not Hamas, not even the Israeli settlers who are killing Palestinians. The criminals are us, Europeans and Americans. Every single member of our German society, our French society, our Greek society, the United States society. We have participated in this crime against humanity over the decades by keeping our mouths shut as long as there is no trouble down there. As long as people are dying outside the reach of cameras. As long as it is Palestinians who are dying and not the occupiers. So, this incredible tragedy must be converted into an opportunity for us Europeans to wake up and to redeem ourselves by demanding that we collectively take the first decisive step toward Peace. And that is the destruction of the state of apartheid. Just like we did in South Africa.7/10https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711331592998625544DiEM25 and MeRA25 declaration: Peace Now!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711153525273645298?s=20The shock and fury in Israel are reminiscent of the emotions in the US after 9/11. That provoked a display of American unity and power. It also led to a misconceived and self-destructive war on terror. Israel may be heading down the same dangerous path.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711157219859878365?s=20Apartheid must be smashed & the two state solution is nearly impossible (even if desirable for a number of reasons). The only realistic civilised solution is for a single secular state for all – with equal civil liberties independently of religion and ethnicity.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711341886445682884?s=20From a very young age I was made aware of how those seeking to cover up inhumanities perpetrated by the Great Powers against the weakest of peoples, they invariably did so by explaining it all away as part of “the realities of the world”…https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711351103638393064?s=20Hamas is nothing like the ANC. [I never said it was.] But Israel’s Apartheid is modelled on the Apartheid the ANC fought. My simple point was that Apartheid (South African or Israeli) IS violence and, thus, begets violence. And the only way to stop violence is to end Apartheid – not moralistically to condemn violence while turning a blind eye to Apartheid.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711373657073705123?s=20If a former Mossad Director says that Israel is imposing Apartheid on the Palestinians, it is an open and shut case. You have lost this one I am afraid https://theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/israel-imposing-apartheid-on-palestinians-says-former-mossad-chiefhttps://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711375495483265171?s=20Let me remind those screaming blue murder when any comparison is made between South African Apartheid with Israel’s that Nelson Mandela was never in doubt that Palestinians lived under Apartheid. [Or that Israel was openly the best ally of the White Supremacists in Pretoria]https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711378779371634972?s=20Just in case you are misinformed (rather than a troll), let me point out our campaign for a Peace Process, along with a cessation of hostilities, both in Ukraine and Israel-Palestine. We are consistent. Are you? https://diem25.org/diem25-and-mera25-declaration-peace-now/https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711387107602653621?s=20No electricity, no food, no fuel for 1 million children. Straight from the horse’s mouth. That can’t be the civilised world’s answer, whatever differences we may have on who did what to whom first or last.https://x.com/GermanPolyglot/status/1711362849564455031?s=20If you did not condemn #Israel‘s killing of unarmed journalists, doctors and children, you lost the right to condemn #Hamas‘ atrocities now. The Geneva Convention on war crimes either applies to everyone or no-one. And anyone invoking it against the weak while exempting the powerful is committing an obscenity.10/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711608211105571157?s=20Apartheid is an abomination. Desmond Tutu, a hero of the anti-Apartheid movement in its place of origin, understood it. Will those who claim to respect Tutu and Mandela follow suit? Or will they continue to defend Apartheid’s continued, strengthened variant in Israel-Palestine?https://x.com/GermanPolyglot/status/1711582200418693399?s=20There is nothing that can justify deliberate violence against non-combatants. This means that attacking Israelis at a rave is wrong, bombing Palestinian hospitals is wrong, abducting Ukrainian children is wrong, torturing Russian prisoners is wrong… In fact the nationality of the victim or attacker is completely irrelevant. Either targeting innocents is ALWAYS wrong, no matter who does it, or you don’t have morals, you just have opinions. We need to stop this weird move where we excuse/ignore war crimes from our preferred side and strongly condemn war crimes from the other side – it leads to the annihilation of ethics itself, everything becomes relative.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711978132645826944?s=201982: Sharon invades Lebanon to destroy the PLO. Thus Hizbollah was born. 2002: Arafat is crushed to end hopes of Palestinian state. Thus Hamas rose up. Now Israel is pulverising Gaza to destroy Hamas. [All such moves had full US support.] Any guesses of likely outcomes?https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1711995086811058347?s=20Desmond Tutu made this comparison. I dare you challenge his authority on the subject.11/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712188831233941599?s=20Compare & contrast! Attacking “civilian infrastructure, especially electricity, are war crimes. Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming – these are acts of pure terror”. UNLESS the attacker is Israel. Then it’s NOT terror!?@?!!!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712343232208609635?s=20I condemn the killing of every person, let alone 40. I also condemn the notion that Israel is imposing Apartheid and war crimes for decades in… self-defence. Foisting Apartheid/Occupation on a whole people for decades can NEVER be self-defence.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ZXE24uiW8DiEM25 LIVESTREAM EXTRACT: We are talking about yet another example of humanity’s capacity to dive into moral voids. Just when we thought we had done our worst, we did even worse. The emphasis is on the word WE. It is very natural, in the context of vicious conflicts, for us to have a tendency to take sides. But the long-lasting nature of this tragedy should concentrate our minds so as to take seriously our responsibility for it. A few days ago, in Berlin, I refused to denounce Hamas and, naturally, that stirred up a torrent criticism, of abuse. There is no doubt that if I were in their path, near the Gaza Fence (which, I must stress, is not an international border but a hideous, illegal fence since the people living behind it used to live on the other side before they were ethnically cleansed and forced into the awful Gaza strip), if any one of us were at, say, that music festival dedicated to Peace, the Hamas fighters would have gunned me down or taken me hostage. Those scenes are atrocious. There can be no justification and there can be no way of presenting them as justified. But, I am not going to condemn the Hamas assault on Israel. Those who demand of me, and you, and others, to condemn the Hamas killing spree are insistent that we, for whom every human loss is a calamity for which we consider even ourselves to be responsible, they demand that we – effectively – take the side of the state of Israel. That I shall never do. And who are they who demand that we condemn the Hamas atrocities? It is the same people who……look the other way when Israel kills unarmed journalists, doctors and children…support or tolerate the ritual humiliation to which West Bank Palestinians are treated every day of their lives by an apartheid regime much worse than the original one in South Africa – a reality revealed by, amongst others, Tamir Pardo, Mossad’s former Director, Avraham Burg, the former speaker of the Israeli parliament, renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris and more than 2,000 Israeli and American public figures who have signed a public statementdeclaring that “Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid”…turn a blind eye when murderous settlers rampage in Palestinian areas killing Palestinians at will…whistle in the wind while Israel’s authorities illegally evict Palestinians from the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, where they lived for generations, to hand over their homes to people who just arrived in Israel for the first time…accept uncritically Israel’s declaration of war not against a state (since it has never allowed Palestinians to have one) but against an occupied people whom it has been terrorising for decades.Yes, these same people, who demand of us to condemn Hamas……demand that the Gazan Palestinians lay down their arms and return quietly back into the world’s largest open-air prison, to die slowly under siege surrounded by an ironclad army that has been starving them and shooting at them like fish in a barrel.So, let me be abundantly clear on this: Every loss of a human being, every severed limb, every blinded eye, even a broken finger is a tragedy for which we consider us, humanity as whole, to be responsible. So, let’s be properly responsible, shall we? Let’s embrace our responsibility. But what does this mean now? Does it mean parroting another condemnation of Hamas like that of our governments who did not even slap the wrist of the hand that has been strangling a nation thus brought to the brink of despair? Let us, DiEM25, propose what it means to be responsible now: It means to plug the spring of all this torrent of violence and pain: the never-ending Occupation and its Apartheid Apparatus. In this vein, DiEM25 has called both for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate commencement of a Peace Process under a UN mandate to end Apartheid and to secure security and free movement for all. Now, well-meaning people may disagree on what precise solution this Peace Process will reach, so complex is this tragedy. It may involve a two-state solution or, as is our preference, a single secular federal state with equal civil rights for everyone, or maybe a third alternative. What it
cannot
involve is the continuation of Occupation, the toleration of slow-burning ethnic cleansing through the medium of Apartheid or, indeed, the implied belief that the two peoples are condemned to hating and killing one another ad infinitum.13/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712581737887257044?s=20Israel killed all 1500 Hamas fighters that killed Israelis. More Palestinian civilians have already died than Israelis. Is this not the time to stop the bombings? No, says the ‘civilised’ West, it is time for thousands more coffins until Final Victory. Which means what exactly?https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712741442982978027?s=20When Palestinian fighters commit war crimes, the West/Press loses no time to speak of “acts of pure evil”. When the Israeli military commit war crimes, the West/Press describes them as “inevitable”, as Acts of God – like a Volcano erupting as is its wont, as its nature dictates.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712833938475954584?s=20Quote me in full please: I shall not condemn Hamas, nor the Israeli settlers killing Palestinians. I feel that we, Europeans and Americans, are responsible for these crimes by turning a blind eye for decades.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1712935715225452909?s=20Good & bad news for those who want to cancel me for my opposition to Israel’s Apartheid/Occupation: The good news is that I was cancelled in Vienna where, on Monday, I was to deliver the 2023 Otto Wagner 2023 Lecture, organised by IKA Institute for Art and Architecture (even though I had no intention to refer to the situation in Israel/Gaza). https://e-flux.com/announcements/560460/yanis-varoufakis/… The bad news, for you good people who want me cancelled, is that the organisers lacked the guts to admit that they were terrified of hosting me because of my opposition to Israel’s Apartheid/Occupation. They suggested that we all pretend the lecture was postponed until my new book is out in German. When I refused to participate in that lie, they cited “the current dramatically escalating, geopolitical situation”! The gist of it? Civilised Middle Europe recoils in horror when faced with a principled opposition to Israel’s Apartheid. And then, immediately afterwards, covers up its cowardice in lies.14/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713274051123085541?s=20Lest we forget: There IS hope! The future of Peace rests on both sides embracing Peace and turning away from Violence. We rely on progressive Israelis to renounce Apartheid and progressive Palestinians to renounce antisemitism. The rest of us must help them along the way.https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713297736794038415?s=20Correct: But purging antisemitism is what we must do for our own soul and clarity of purpose.15/10https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713305253892759996?s=20As the bombs fall on Gaza and Palestinian flesh is torn apart… As Israelis grieve lost ones and fear for their future… let the rest of us press our governments to announce the World’s Demands: Ceasefire. Release of hostages. End of Apartheid. Equal Civil Liberties for All!https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1713307284992913526?s=20My message has always been crystal clear – and consistent. I shall never participate in ritualistic selective moral outrage along with those who strategically turn a blind eye to the source of all atrocities: Israel’s Apartheid.
The post Timeline of my tweets and interviews on Israel-Palestine since 7th October appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
List of war crimes and crimes qualifying as genocide committed by Israel in Gaza between 7th & 14th October 2023
Defenders of Israel’s bombing and invasion of Gaza have challenged me to offer a ‘chapter-and-verse’ list of war crimes that Israel has committed since the Hamas Offensive of 7th October. Here is an indicative, but not exhaustive, list. There is no doubt: Israel is investing in war crimes to effect its recapture and ethnic cleansing of Gaza while, at the same time, practising similar tactics in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court –
Genocide
Article 6(c): Deliberately inflicting on a group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in partImposition of a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, totally depriving Gazans of electricity, food and fuel, and tightening even more the existing 16-year-old blockade thereof.Article 25(3)(c): For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commissionIsrael purchases 10,000 riffles for Israeli settlersArticle 25(3)(e): Directly and publicly Incites others to commit genocide“We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly” (Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant)
War crimes –
Grave breaches of the Wilful killings of the 1949 Geneva Conventions Article 8(2)(a)(i): Wilful killingIsrael’s targeting of the “Shaban family home, killing all six members, two parents and their children”.Article 8(2)(a)(ii); Torture and inhuman treatmentSevere psychological suffering inflicted on Palestinians who, every night, without electricity, fear for their life as bombings continue Article 8(2)(a)(iii): Wilfully causing great suffering and serious injury to body and healthCombined effect of the partial blockade, the total block of Gaza and the war on the mental health of children: “children who survive wars do not emerge unscathed and can pay a high price psychologically, emotionally, or behaviourally”, including “symptoms of anxiety, depression and trauma”. These traumas can go as far as “lack of interest in everyday life” and “nightmares are frequently experienced”, as well as bed-wetting. In 2022, concerns were raised on the ability of children to cope with this situation and the rising number of suicidal thoughts. While these patterns have been noticed and documented after the May 2021 Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip but before the one that arose on 7 October, they are still relevant for the purpose of this material. Indeed, this attack is far more devastating than the precedent, as the Palestinian death toll reaches now 1,900 Palestinians.Article 8(2)(a)(iv): Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonlyFrom 7 to 12 October 2023, “Israeli raids have destroyed thousands of housing units, and private and public properties”Article 8(2)(a)(vii): Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement423,00 Palestinians “forced to flee their homes in Gaza due to the continuous and heavy indiscriminate Israeli strikes”. Subsequently, on 13 October 2023, Israel ordered the evacuation of “1,1 million Palestinians in Gaza”. Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international lawArticle 8(2)(b)(i)): Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilitiesEntire families targeted and under the rubble: “[t]he Abou Dan family was holed up at home, in the Bureij camp in the center of the enclave. Everyone kept checking their phones to make sure that no message had been sent from the Israeli army telling them to evacuate their home. “There was no warning shot, no text message, nothing. All of a sudden, a bomb fell, then two,” said Ahmed Abou Dan over the phone”.Article 8(2)(b)(ii): Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectivesBetween 11 October midday and 12 October midday, “Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes, destroying two houses in Beit Lahiya owned by the Nsair and Al-Bes families […]. They also targeted residential areas in Jabaliya, Al-Tawam, Al-Amoudi, and Al-Karama neighborhoods […].”Article 8(2)(b)(iii): Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflictAt least “12 UNRWA employees have been killed since the start of hostilities.”Article 8(2)(b)(iv): Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipatedFrom 11 October midday to 12 October midday, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes, alongside “intense shelling by filed artillery and naval vessels in Gaza District, targeting residential neighborhoods”, resulting in 78 Palestinians killed.Article 8(2)(b)(ix): Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives“The Israeli bombardment has rendered the Beit Hanoun hospital inoperative and damaged Al-Shifa hospital’s neonatal unit.”Article 8(2)(b)(xii): Declaring that no quarter will be given“[a]ll the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding in and operating from […] we will turn them into rubble. I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere”.Article 8(2)(b)(xiv): Intentionally directing attacks against buildings, material, medical units and transport, and personnel using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with international law“Israel “directly targeted a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance in northern Gaza” on Wednesday, killing paramedics Khalil Al-Sharif, Yasser Al-Masri and Ahmed Dahman”Article 8(2)(b)(xviii): Employing asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and all analogous liquids, materials or devicesIsrael’s use of white phosphorus on 10 and 11 October 2023Article 8(2)(b)(xx): Employing weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or which are inherently indiscriminate in violation of the international law of armed conflict, provided that such weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare are the subject of a comprehensive prohibition and are included in an annex to this Statute, by an amendment in accordance with the relevant provisions set forth in articles 121 and 123Article 8(2)(b)(xxv): Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival“Imposing a total closure of the Strip amounts to a collective punishment of an unprecedented scale […]. All crossings between Gaza and Israel have been closed since Friday, 6 October. Since then, no people or goods have left or entered Gaza via Israel […].”War crimes are an everyday occurrence in the West Bank. From the Observer/Guardian: ‘They want revenge. They’re saying, either we die or you die’: West Bank residents fear rising tide of violence
Sky News, “Israel imposes ‘complete siege’ of Gaza Strip and calls up 300,000 troops”, 9 October 2023, available at: https://news.sky.com/story/israel-formally-declares-war-as-fighting-against-hamas-continues-in-at-least-eight-locations-12980754; Alice Speri, “Israel responds to Hamas Crimes by ordering mass war crimes in Gaza” (The Intercept), 9 October 2023, available at: https://theintercept.com/2023/10/09/israel-hamas-war-crimes-palestinians/, referring to Tom Dannenbaum, X, 9 October 2023, available at: https://twitter.com/tomdannenbaum/status/1711330192013095207.
Jeremy Sharon, “Ben Gvir says 10,000 assault rifles purchased for civilian security teams” (The Times of Israel), 10 October 2023, available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-says-10000-assault-rifles-purchased-for-civilian-security-teams/.
Sky News, “Israel imposes ‘complete siege’ of Gaza Strip and calls up 300,000 troops”, 9 October 2023, available at: https://news.sky.com/story/israel-formally-declares-war-as-fighting-against-hamas-continues-in-at-least-eight-locations-12980754.
Al-Haq, “Palestinian Organizations Call from the International Community to Stop Israel’s Reprisal against Palestinian Civilians”, 8 October 2023, available: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21800.html.
The Guardian, “Gaza diary: ‘We survived another night. Every inch of my body aches- lack of sleep is torture’”, 13 October 2023, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/13/gaza-diary-we-survived-another-night-every-inch-of-my-body-aches-lack-of-sleep-is-torture.
Indlieb Farazi Saber, “How the Israel, blockade affect mental health of Palestinian children” (Al-Jazeera), 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/how-the-israel-war-blockade-affects-mental-health-of-palestinian-children.
Indlieb Farazi Saber, “How the Israel, blockade affect mental health of Palestinian children” (Al-Jazeera), 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/how-the-israel-war-blockade-affects-mental-health-of-palestinian-children.
Save the Children, “Trapped: The impact of 15 years of blockage on the mental health of Gaza’s children’, p.18, 22, available at https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/trapped-the-impact-of-15-years-of-blockade-on-the-mental-health-of-gazas-children/.
Al-Haq, “Urgent Action: Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Call on Third States to Urgently Intervene to Protect the Palestinian People Against Genocide”, 13 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21898.html.
Al-Haq, “Days 5-6: Following Genocidal Statements, Israel Escalates Attacks on Gaza’s Civilian Population Through Killing, Starvation and Cutting Off Vital Supplies”, 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21877.html.
Al-Haq, “Urgent: Israel’s Evacuation Order to 1,1 Million Palestinians in Gaza is Direct Forcible Transfer, Urgent Intervention is Needed”, 13 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21896.html.
Clothilde Mraffko, “In Gaza, entire families destroyed by Israeli bombing: “My son, my niece and another child are still under the rubble’ (Le Monde), 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/10/12/in-gaza-entire-families-destroyed-by-israeli-bombing-my-son-my-niece-and-another-child-are-still-under-the-rubble_6167251_4.html.
Al-Haq, “Days 5-6: Following Genocidal Statements, Israel Escalates Attacks on Gaza’s Civilian Population Through Killing, Starvation and Cutting Off Vital Supplies”, 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21877.html.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel-Flash update #7”, 13 October 2023, available at: https://ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-7.
Al-Haq, “Days 5-6: Following Genocidal Statements, Israel Escalates Attacks on Gaza’s Civilian Population Through Killing, Starvation and Cutting Off Vital Supplies”, 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21877.html.
France 24, “Gaza hospitals overwhelmed by air strikes and siege: doctors”, 10 October 2023, available at: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231010-gaza-hospitals-overwhelmed-by-air-strikes-and-siege-doctors.
Prime Minister of Israel, X, 7 October 2023, available at: Prime Minister of Israel sur X : “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening: “This morning, on Shabbat and a holiday, Hamas invaded Israeli territory and murdered innocent citizens including children and the elderly. Hamas has started a brutal and evil war.” https://t.co/ckPXuXNHk0″ / X (twitter.com).
Abeer Salman, Kareem Khadder and Ruba Alhenawi, “4 Palestinian paramedics killed Wenesday in strikes and shelling on Gaza” (CNN), 11 October 2023, available at: https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-10-11-23/h_b44251fc62ee96a79fcdb942c6aaad97.
Human Rights Watch, “Israel: White Phosphorus Used in Gaza, Lebanon”, 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/12/israel-white-phosphorus-used-gaza-lebanon.
Al-Haq, “Urgent: Israel Announces Total Warfare on Gaza’s Civilian Population, Employing Starvation as a Weapon”, 9 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21830.html.
The post List of war crimes and crimes qualifying as genocide committed by Israel in Gaza between 7th & 14th October 2023 appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
List of war crimes and crimes qualifying as genocide committed by Israel in Gaza since 7th October 2023
Defenders of Israel’s bombing and invasion of Gaza have challenged me to offer a ‘chapter-and-verse’ list of war crimes that Israel has committed since the Hamas Offensive of 7th October. Here is an indicative, but not exhaustive, list. There is no doubt: Israel is investing in war crimes to effect its recapture and ethnic cleansing of Gaza while, at the same time, practising similar tactics in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court –
Genocide
Article 6(c): Deliberately inflicting on a group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in partImposition of a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, totally depriving Gazans of electricity, food and fuel, and tightening even more the existing 16-year-old blockade thereof.Article 25(3)(c): For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commissionIsrael purchases 10,000 riffles for Israeli settlersArticle 25(3)(e): Directly and publicly Incites others to commit genocide“We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly” (Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant)
War crimes –
Grave breaches of the Wilful killings of the 1949 Geneva Conventions Article 8(2)(a)(i): Wilful killingIsrael’s targeting of the “Shaban family home, killing all six members, two parents and their children”.Article 8(2)(a)(ii); Torture and inhuman treatmentSevere psychological suffering inflicted on Palestinians who, every night, without electricity, fear for their life as bombings continue Article 8(2)(a)(iii): Wilfully causing great suffering and serious injury to body and healthCombined effect of the partial blockade, the total block of Gaza and the war on the mental health of children: “children who survive wars do not emerge unscathed and can pay a high price psychologically, emotionally, or behaviourally”, including “symptoms of anxiety, depression and trauma”. These traumas can go as far as “lack of interest in everyday life” and “nightmares are frequently experienced”, as well as bed-wetting. In 2022, concerns were raised on the ability of children to cope with this situation and the rising number of suicidal thoughts. While these patterns have been noticed and documented after the May 2021 Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip but before the one that arose on 7 October, they are still relevant for the purpose of this material. Indeed, this attack is far more devastating than the precedent, as the Palestinian death toll reaches now 1,900 Palestinians.Article 8(2)(a)(iv): Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonlyFrom 7 to 12 October 2023, “Israeli raids have destroyed thousands of housing units, and private and public properties”Article 8(2)(a)(vii): Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement423,00 Palestinians “forced to flee their homes in Gaza due to the continuous and heavy indiscriminate Israeli strikes”. Subsequently, on 13 October 2023, Israel ordered the evacuation of “1,1 million Palestinians in Gaza”. Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international lawArticle 8(2)(b)(i)): Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilitiesEntire families targeted and under the rubble: “[t]he Abou Dan family was holed up at home, in the Bureij camp in the center of the enclave. Everyone kept checking their phones to make sure that no message had been sent from the Israeli army telling them to evacuate their home. “There was no warning shot, no text message, nothing. All of a sudden, a bomb fell, then two,” said Ahmed Abou Dan over the phone”.Article 8(2)(b)(ii): Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectivesBetween 11 October midday and 12 October midday, “Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes, destroying two houses in Beit Lahiya owned by the Nsair and Al-Bes families […]. They also targeted residential areas in Jabaliya, Al-Tawam, Al-Amoudi, and Al-Karama neighborhoods […].”Article 8(2)(b)(iii): Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflictAt least “12 UNRWA employees have been killed since the start of hostilities.”Article 8(2)(b)(iv): Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipatedFrom 11 October midday to 12 October midday, Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of airstrikes, alongside “intense shelling by filed artillery and naval vessels in Gaza District, targeting residential neighborhoods”, resulting in 78 Palestinians killed.Article 8(2)(b)(ix): Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives“The Israeli bombardment has rendered the Beit Hanoun hospital inoperative and damaged Al-Shifa hospital’s neonatal unit.”Article 8(2)(b)(xii): Declaring that no quarter will be given“[a]ll the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding in and operating from […] we will turn them into rubble. I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere”.Article 8(2)(b)(xiv): Intentionally directing attacks against buildings, material, medical units and transport, and personnel using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions in conformity with international law“Israel “directly targeted a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance in northern Gaza” on Wednesday, killing paramedics Khalil Al-Sharif, Yasser Al-Masri and Ahmed Dahman”Article 8(2)(b)(xviii): Employing asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and all analogous liquids, materials or devicesIsrael’s use of white phosphorus on 10 and 11 October 2023Article 8(2)(b)(xx): Employing weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare which are of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or which are inherently indiscriminate in violation of the international law of armed conflict, provided that such weapons, projectiles and material and methods of warfare are the subject of a comprehensive prohibition and are included in an annex to this Statute, by an amendment in accordance with the relevant provisions set forth in articles 121 and 123Article 8(2)(b)(xxv): Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival“Imposing a total closure of the Strip amounts to a collective punishment of an unprecedented scale […]. All crossings between Gaza and Israel have been closed since Friday, 6 October. Since then, no people or goods have left or entered Gaza via Israel […].”
Sky News, “Israel imposes ‘complete siege’ of Gaza Strip and calls up 300,000 troops”, 9 October 2023, available at: https://news.sky.com/story/israel-formally-declares-war-as-fighting-against-hamas-continues-in-at-least-eight-locations-12980754; Alice Speri, “Israel responds to Hamas Crimes by ordering mass war crimes in Gaza” (The Intercept), 9 October 2023, available at: https://theintercept.com/2023/10/09/israel-hamas-war-crimes-palestinians/, referring to Tom Dannenbaum, X, 9 October 2023, available at: https://twitter.com/tomdannenbaum/status/1711330192013095207.
Jeremy Sharon, “Ben Gvir says 10,000 assault rifles purchased for civilian security teams” (The Times of Israel), 10 October 2023, available at: https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-says-10000-assault-rifles-purchased-for-civilian-security-teams/.
Sky News, “Israel imposes ‘complete siege’ of Gaza Strip and calls up 300,000 troops”, 9 October 2023, available at: https://news.sky.com/story/israel-formally-declares-war-as-fighting-against-hamas-continues-in-at-least-eight-locations-12980754.
Al-Haq, “Palestinian Organizations Call from the International Community to Stop Israel’s Reprisal against Palestinian Civilians”, 8 October 2023, available: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21800.html.
The Guardian, “Gaza diary: ‘We survived another night. Every inch of my body aches- lack of sleep is torture’”, 13 October 2023, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/13/gaza-diary-we-survived-another-night-every-inch-of-my-body-aches-lack-of-sleep-is-torture.
Indlieb Farazi Saber, “How the Israel, blockade affect mental health of Palestinian children” (Al-Jazeera), 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/how-the-israel-war-blockade-affects-mental-health-of-palestinian-children.
Indlieb Farazi Saber, “How the Israel, blockade affect mental health of Palestinian children” (Al-Jazeera), 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/how-the-israel-war-blockade-affects-mental-health-of-palestinian-children.
Save the Children, “Trapped: The impact of 15 years of blockage on the mental health of Gaza’s children’, p.18, 22, available at https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/trapped-the-impact-of-15-years-of-blockade-on-the-mental-health-of-gazas-children/.
Al-Haq, “Urgent Action: Palestinian Human Rights Organisations Call on Third States to Urgently Intervene to Protect the Palestinian People Against Genocide”, 13 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21898.html.
Al-Haq, “Days 5-6: Following Genocidal Statements, Israel Escalates Attacks on Gaza’s Civilian Population Through Killing, Starvation and Cutting Off Vital Supplies”, 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21877.html.
Al-Haq, “Urgent: Israel’s Evacuation Order to 1,1 Million Palestinians in Gaza is Direct Forcible Transfer, Urgent Intervention is Needed”, 13 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21896.html.
Clothilde Mraffko, “In Gaza, entire families destroyed by Israeli bombing: “My son, my niece and another child are still under the rubble’ (Le Monde), 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/10/12/in-gaza-entire-families-destroyed-by-israeli-bombing-my-son-my-niece-and-another-child-are-still-under-the-rubble_6167251_4.html.
Al-Haq, “Days 5-6: Following Genocidal Statements, Israel Escalates Attacks on Gaza’s Civilian Population Through Killing, Starvation and Cutting Off Vital Supplies”, 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21877.html.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel-Flash update #7”, 13 October 2023, available at: https://ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-7.
Al-Haq, “Days 5-6: Following Genocidal Statements, Israel Escalates Attacks on Gaza’s Civilian Population Through Killing, Starvation and Cutting Off Vital Supplies”, 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21877.html.
France 24, “Gaza hospitals overwhelmed by air strikes and siege: doctors”, 10 October 2023, available at: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231010-gaza-hospitals-overwhelmed-by-air-strikes-and-siege-doctors.
Prime Minister of Israel, X, 7 October 2023, available at: Prime Minister of Israel sur X : “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening: “This morning, on Shabbat and a holiday, Hamas invaded Israeli territory and murdered innocent citizens including children and the elderly. Hamas has started a brutal and evil war.” https://t.co/ckPXuXNHk0″ / X (twitter.com).
Abeer Salman, Kareem Khadder and Ruba Alhenawi, “4 Palestinian paramedics killed Wenesday in strikes and shelling on Gaza” (CNN), 11 October 2023, available at: https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-10-11-23/h_b44251fc62ee96a79fcdb942c6aaad97.
Human Rights Watch, “Israel: White Phosphorus Used in Gaza, Lebanon”, 12 October 2023, available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/12/israel-white-phosphorus-used-gaza-lebanon.
Al-Haq, “Urgent: Israel Announces Total Warfare on Gaza’s Civilian Population, Employing Starvation as a Weapon”, 9 October 2023, available at: https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21830.html.
The post List of war crimes and crimes qualifying as genocide committed by Israel in Gaza since 7th October 2023 appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
October 8, 2023
Τα τρία πλούσια δώρα της Κριστίν Λαγκάρντ στην Ακροδεξιά – NEWS24|7
Την πρόσφατη αναβίωση της Ακροδεξιάς σε όλη την Ευρώπη δεν την προκάλεσαν οι τρεις μεγάλες γκάφες της Κριστίν Λαγκάρντ, από τότε που ανέλαβε Προέδρος της Ευρωπαϊκής Κεντρικής Τράπεζας. Όμως, την ενίσχυσαν τα μέγιστα!Η πρώτη γκάφα της Λαγκάρντ ήρθε νωρίς στην θητεία της στην ΕΚΤ και κόστισε στην Ιταλία δισεκατομμύρια και στην ΕΚΤ σημαντικό μέρος της «αξιοπιστίας» της ως στήριγμα του σαθρού ευρώ που ο Μάριο Ντράγκι, ο προκάτοχος της Λαγκάρντ, είχε εργαστεί τόσο σκληρά να εξασφαλίσει.Ήταν Μάρτιος του 2020. Υπό το άγχος που προκαλούσε εκείνες τις μέρες το οικονομικό έμφραγμα λόγω πανδημίας, οι χρηματαγορές βρίσκονταν σε πανικό, ιδίως όσον αφορούσε την φερεγγυότητα της Ιταλίας, μιας χώρας με γιγαντιαία χρέη χωρίς δική της κεντρική τράπεζα για να τυπώνει χρήμα με τον τρόπο που τυπώνουν κατά το δοκούνεκ μέρους των κυβερνήσεών τους η Ομοσπονδιακή Τράπεζα των ΗΠΑ, η Τράπεζα της Ιαπωνίας, ακόμη και η Τράπεζα της Αγγλίας.Όταν σε προγραμματισμένη συνέντευξη Τύπου ρωτήθηκε αν η ΕΚΤ θα στηρίξει το χρέος της Ιταλίας για να περιορίσει τα spreads των επιτοκίων (τη διαφορά στο κόστος δανεισμού μεταξύ των κυβερνήσεων των κρατών-μελών) εντός της ευρωζώνης, η Λαγκάρνταρνήθηκε να επαναλάβει την περίφημη υπόσχεση του Ντράγκι ότι θα κάνει «ό,τι χρειαστεί». Αντ’ αυτού,
έκανε ακριβώς το αντίθετο
, δηλώνοντας: «Δεν είμαστε εδώ για να κλείσουμε τα spreads». Μέσα σε λίγα δευτερόλεπτα, το κόστος εξυπηρέτησης του χρέους της Ιταλίας, ιδιωτικού και δημόσιου, εκτινάχθηκε στα ύψη. Ηυπό τον Ντράγκι ιταλική κυβέρνηση βρέθηκε ξαφνικά σε κατάσταση αποπληξίας. Μόνο η ακροδεξιά ΤζόρτζιαΜελόνι, η οποία έκτοτε σκαρφάλωσε στην πρωθυπουργία, ενθουσιάστηκε.Remaining Time-0:34FullscreenUnmuteΗ δεύτερη γκάφα ήταν λιγότερο ηχηρή, αλλά έχει βαθύτερες και πιο μακροχρόνιες επιπτώσεις. Από το κραχ του 2008 κι ύστερα, η ΕΚΤ στέλνειβουνάφρεσκοκομμένων ευρώ στις μονίμως εύθραυστες τράπεζες της Ευρώπης με την ελπίδα ότι αυτές θα τα δανείσουν στις επιχειρήσεις – ιδίως τις μικρομεσαίες – και έτσι θα αναζωογονήσουν την παραπαίουσα ευρωπαϊκή οικονομία. Όταν τα επίσημα επιτόκια ήταν
αρνητικά
, η ΕΚΤ ουσιαστικά πλήρωνε τους τραπεζίτες για να αποδέχονται εκατοντάδες δισεκατομμύρια ευρώ στους λογαριασμούς τους στην ΕΚΤ. Εκείνοι, αντί να δανείζουν αυτά τα χρήματα στους μικρομεσαίους, τα κρατούσαν σε αυτούς τους λογαριασμούς τους στην ΕΚΤ και
συνέχιζαν να εισπράττουν
τα ποσά που τους πλήρωνε η ΕΚΤ με τη μορφή αρνητικών επιτοκίων.Κι από τότε που ο πληθωρισμός επέστρεψε δυναμικά, και τα επιτόκια έγιναν θετικά και υψηλά, οι ίδιοι τραπεζίτες παρκάρουν δισεκατομμύρια ευρώ των καταθετών τους στους λογαριασμούς τους στην ΕΚΤ για να εισπράξουν τους υψηλούς τόκους της, ενώ συνεχίζουν να πληρώνουν στους καταθέτες τους ψίχουλα τόκων. Κι η Λαγκάρντ; Πως αντέδρασε σε αυτό το διαχρονικό αλισβερίσι; Αντί να χρησιμοποιήσει τις εξουσίες της ΕΚΤ για να βάλει στη θέση τους τους αθεόφοβους τραπεζίτες, έκανε τα στραβά μάτια αφήνοντάς τους ελεύθερους να πλουτίζουν παρασιτικά και ιδίως εις βάρος των μικρομεσαίων.Για άλλη μια φορά, η ΕΚΤ της κας Λαγκάρντ είχε κάνει ένα τεράστιο δώρο στην Ακροδεξιά. Ιδίως στην Ιταλία, όπου οι διαχρονικά ανόητες πολιτικές της ευρωζώνης έφεραν την Ακροδεξιά στην κυβέρνηση, αυτή η ελέω ΕΚΤ ασυδοσία των τραπεζιτών έδωσε στην Μελόνι το πάτημα να επωφεληθεί πολιτικά επιβάλλοντας έκτακτο φόρο στους τραπεζίτες και, έτσι, να εμφανιστεί ως προστάτης των αδύναμων – ένα δώρο ολκής για τους νεοφασίστες. Και σα να μην έφτανε αυτό, Λαγκάρντκαι ΕΚΤ αντέδρασαν στον εύλογο αυτόν φόρο
παίρνοντας το μέρος
των… τραπεζιτών. Δεν μπορώ να φανταστώ αποτελεσματικότερο τρόπο για να ενισχυθεί η απήχηση της Ακροδεξιάς στην Ιταλία κι όχι μόνο!Η τρίτη γκάφα της Λαγκάρντ ήταν η απελπιστικά καθυστερημένη αντίδρασή της στο φούντωμα του πληθωρισμού – απόρροια βέβαια μιας μακράς παράδοσης της ΕΚΤ στις καταστροφικές οικονομικές προβλέψεις. Για να είμαστε δίκαιοι, κι επί Ντράγκι οι «αναλυτές» της ΕΚΤ τα έκαναν συστηματικά μούσκεμα όταν επρόκειτο να προβλέψουν την ύφεση, τον πληθωρισμό κλπ (Σημ. Ποιος ξεχνά τις γελοίες προβλέψεις τους για το ελληνικό ΑΕΠ, χρέος κλπ;). Μάλιστα, σε όλη την περίοδο της προεδρίας Ντράγκι στην ΕΚΤ η κεντρική τράπεζα της ευρωζώνης αποτύγχανε εντυπωσιακά να επιτύχει τον στόχο πληθωρισμού (στο 2% ή λίγο πιο κάτω). Όμως, τότε, ο δράκος που ο Ντράγκι αποτύγχανε να θανατώσει δεν ήταν ο πληθωρισμός αλλά ο αποπληθωρισμός – ο αρνητικός ή πολύ χαμηλός πληθωρισμόςο οποίος τον ανάγκασε να μειώσει τα επιτόκια πρώτα στο μηδέν και στη συνέχεια στο μείον 0,7%.Αυτά τα αρνητικά επιτόκια έκαναν τον Ντράγκι αντικείμενο μίσους μεταξύ των γερμανών μικροαστών αποταμιευτών, ιδίως της παροιμιώδους «νοικοκυράς» στην οποία αναφερόταν μονότονα ως υπόδειγμα χρηστής οικονομικής διαχείρισης η Άγκελα Μέρκελ. Παρόλα αυτά, οι περισσότεροι εργαζόμενοι στη Γερμανία, και όχι μόνο, δεν έδωσαν ιδιαίτερη σημασία καθώς είχα νελάχιστες αποταμιεύσεις ενώ οι πραγματικοί (προσαρμοσμένοι στον πληθωρισμό) μισθοί τους δεν είχαν πληγεί από τον αποπληθωρισμό.Όλα αυτά άλλαξαν επί Λαγκάρντ όταν ο πληθωρισμός έγινε θετικός και μάλιστα υψηλότατος. Σε αντίθεση με τον αποπληθωρισμό, ο πληθωρισμός πλήττει ολόκληρο τον πληθυσμό, τόσο τους εργαζόμενους όσο τα νοικοκυριά της μεσαίας τάξης που αγωνίζονται να τα βγάλουν πέρα. Kεντρικός τραπεζίτης που αποτυγχάνει να τον προβλέψει έχει επομένως εξασφαλισμένη την αποδοκιμασία από όλα τα κοινωνικά στρώματα. Το είδαμε αυτό στη δεκαετία του 1970, το βλέπουμε και τώρα – μόνο που αυτή τη φορά είναι ακόμη χειρότερο.Στη δεκαετία του 1970, τα συνδικάτα ήταν αρκετά ισχυρά ώστε να ανακτούν, σε μεγάλο βαθμό, τις απώλειες των εργαζομένων λόγω του πληθωρισμού μέσω μισθολογικών αυξήσεων. Επιπλέον, δεδομένου ότι η συμμετοχή των γυναικών στην αγορά εργασίας ήταν ακόμη χαμηλή, οι λαϊκές οικογένειες κατάφερναν να διατηρήσουν το βιοτικό τους επίπεδο χάρη στην είσοδο των γυναικών στο εργατικό δυναμικό.Σήμερα, αντίθετα, τα συνδικάτα είναι σκιά του παλιού τους εαυτού και οι περισσότερες γυναίκες είναι ήδη μισθωτές. Η ανεργία μπορεί να είναι χαμηλή, αλλά καθώς οι τιμές συνέχισαν να αυξάνονται τα τελευταία δύο χρόνια, η αγοραστική δύναμη του μέσου νοικοκυριού της εργατικής τάξης έχει υποστεί χτύπημα πολύ μεγαλύτερο εκείνου της δεκαετίας του 1970.Υπό αυτή την έννοια, ο Ντράγκι ήταν τυχερός, τουλάχιστον σε σύγκριση με τη Λαγκάρντ. Τα εργαλεία του (κυρίως το τύπωμα δισεκατομμυρίων για την αγορά ευρωζωνικού χρέους) λειτούργησαν σε συνθήκες αποπληθωρισμού, τουλάχιστον στον βαθμό που συγκάλυψαν την χρεοκοπία κρατών και εταιρειών. Ο λόγος που το Βερολίνο του επέτρεψε αυτά τα εργαλεία ήταν πως, όταν οι μέσες τιμές έπεφταν, η ΕΚΤ του Ντράγκι μπορούσε να προσποιηθεί ότι ο στόχος της απεριόριστης εκτύπωσης χρήματος δεν ήταν να σώσει την Ιταλία (κάτι που απαγορεύει επίσημα το καταστατικό της ΕΚΤ)αλλά να διασφαλίσει ότι τα χαμηλά (συχνά αρνητικά) επιτόκια θα έφταναν σε κάθε μέρος της ευρωζώνης.Η τύχη της Λαγκάρντ εξαντλήθηκε νωρίς στη θητεία της, όταν τα μποτιλιαρίσματα της αλυσίδας εφοδιασμού που προκλήθηκαν από την πανδημία προκάλεσαν πληθωρισμό, τον οποίο αργότερα ο Βλαντίμιρ Πούτιν ενίσχυσε εισβάλλοντας στην Ουκρανία και προκαλώντας τον γνωστό σε όλους εφιαλτικό πληθωρισμό κόστους ενέργειας. Σύντομα, η Λαγκάρντ βρέθηκε αντιμέτωπη με το σκληρό δίλημμα: Να διατηρήσει τα επιτόκια κάτω από το 5%, αφήνοντας έτσι τον πληθωρισμό να της ξεφύγει και, άθελά της, να τροφοδοτήσει με επιχειρήματα και ερείσματα το ακροδεξιό ευρωσκεπτικιστικό κόμμα της γερμανικής αντιπολίτευσης, AlternativefürDeutschland (AfD); Ή, να αυξήσει τα επιτόκια σε επίπεδα που θα κατέπνιγαν μεν τον πληθωρισμό αλλά την ίδια ώρα θα χρεοκοπούσαν την Ιταλία και πολλές ευρωπαϊκές τράπεζες και επιχειρήσεις; Δεν ξαφνιάστηκε κανείς από την επιλογή της Λαγκάρντνα καθυστερήσει την αύξηση των επιτοκίων, μια επιλογή που με μαθηματική ακρίβεια θα οδηγούσε στην ενίσχυση της γερμανικής Ακροδεξιάς.Θα μπορούσε η Λαγκάρντ να είχε κάνει κάτι διαφορετικό; Όπως υποστηρίζαμε από το 2019 το
ΜέΡΑ25
, και το DiEM25 πανευρωπαϊκά, αλλά κι εγώ
προσωπικά
, ναι, και βέβαια μπορούσε! Θα μπορούσε, παραδείγματος χάριν, να είχε ακολουθήσει την εξής διττή πολιτική. Από τη μία, να αυξήσει τα επιτόκια γρήγορα στο 3% ώστε να ξεφουσκώσει η φούσκα της αγοράς ακινήτων και να μην επιτραπεί στον πληθωρισμό να ξεπεράσει το 6% (με αποτέλεσμα να αναγκαστεί, αργότερα, να ανεβάσει τα επιτόκια πάνω από το 4%). Και, από την άλλη, έτσι ώστε και
να ενισχυθούν οι επενδύσεις
(ιδίως στην πράσινη ενέργεια) και να μην καταρρεύσει το Ιταλικό κράτος, να αγοράζει (ή ακόμα και να εξαγγείλει ότι θα αγοράζει) ομόλογα της Ευρωπαϊκής Τράπεζας Επενδύσεων (με τα έσοδα να πηγαίνουν αποκλειστικά για τη χρηματοδότηση της πράσινης τεχνολογίας) και των μελών-κρατών. Αντ’ αυτού, η Λαγκάρντ σπατάλησε την ενέργειά της και το πολιτικό της κεφάλαιο σε άνευ σημασίας αξιολογήσεις της οικολογικής και κοινωνικής «ορθότητας»των τίτλων χρέους που αποδέχεται η ΕΚΤ από τις τράπεζες ως εχέγγυα (π.χ. τις ψευτοδεσμεύσεις τύπου ψεύτικες δεσμεύσεις ESG, δηλαδή “περιβαλλοντικής & κοινωνικής, διακυβέρνησης”) – κινήσεις, δηλαδή, που
δεν κάνουν απολύτως τίποτα
για να βοηθήσουν τις επενδύσεις γενικότερα και την πράσιμη μετάβαση ειδικότερα.Επιπλέον, αντί να υποστηρίξει αλλαγές στις ευρωπαϊκές Συνθήκες που θα γλίτωναν την ΕΚΤ από το να πρέπει πάντα να διατηρεί τα κράτη-μέλη φερέγγυα (παραβιάζοντας το ίδιο της το καταστατικό), η Λαγκάρντ αναλώθηκε σε
άστοχες ομιλίες
στις οποίεςαποδεικνύει ότι δεν κατανοεί τον ρόλο του δολαρίου προϊδεάζοντας για την δήθεν επικείμενη αντικατάσταση του δολαρίου ως παγκόσμιου αποθεματικού νομίσματος.Και τώρα; Το σπάνιο μείγμα ανικανότητας και έπαρσης της Κριστίν Λαγκάρντ βοήθησε στην αναζωογόνηση της πολιτικής τύχης του AfD στη Γερμανία, της Μελόνι στην Ιταλία, του φασιστικούVox στην Ισπανία, για να μην αναφερθώ στα δικά μας φασιστοειδή τόσο εντός της κυβέρνησης Μητσοτάκη όσο και εκτός (που, δυστυχώς, εκπροσωπούνται πλέον στη Βουλή μας). Το μόνο που μπορούμε να κάνουμε τώρα είναι να ελπίζουμε ότι, εν όψει ευρωεκλογών, η ανικανότητατων ίδιων των ακροδεξιών δεν θα τους επιτρέψει να εκμεταλλευτούν πλήρως τα πλούσια δώρα της Λαγκάρντ.
Το πιο πάνω άρθρο αποτελεί απόδοση της μηνιαίας στήλης του Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη στο Project Syndicate
Για την σελίδα του NEWS24|7 πατήστε εδώ.
The post Τα τρία πλούσια δώρα της Κριστίν Λαγκάρντ στην Ακροδεξιά – NEWS24|7 appeared first on Yanis Varoufakis.
Interviewed by Aaron Bastani, for Novara Media, on my TECHNOFEUDALISM
In his new book, ‘Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism’, Yanis Varoufakis explores how giant tech firms, both in the US and China are expanding their control over the planet. His analysis is that, whilst material resources certainly matter, the real battle ground is over digital real estate. Aaron sat down with Yanis to talk about how Europe’s power has faded, Elon Musk’s wet dreams and why the US is really afraid of China. Technofeudalism is available on Penguin Books. Novara Live broadcasts every weekday from 6PM on YouTube and Twitch. Episodes of Downstream are released Sundays at 6PM on YouTube. __________________________ Can you help fund people-powered media? To be ready for next year, we need 5,000 of you to join our regular supporters and back our work. Donate one hour’s wage per month, or whatever you can afford at http://novara.media/support today.
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October 7, 2023
The NEW STATESMAN reviews my TECHNOFEUDALISM
Socialists periodically predict the downfall of capitalism, but each decade the coffin remains empty. In his new book, Yanis Varoufakis – the former Greek finance minister, game theorist and “erratic Marxist” – offers a twist on this familiar narrative. Capitalism, he writes, has already died – we just failed to notice.
By George Eaton
“It does demonstrate the failure of the left because we used to think that organised labour would overthrow capitalism,” Varoufakis, 62, told me when we met recently in central London. “But it turned out that it was another artefact of capitalism that overthrew it – and that’s capitalism itself.”“Technofeudalism”, as the title of Varoufakis’s sixth book has it, is now the defining economic system. Digital hegemons such as Google and Amazon have eroded two of the distinctive features of capitalism: profit and markets.“After 2008, the role of profit was replaced by central bank money [through quantitative easing] and rents; that’s not capitalism as we understood it,” he said.“And the markets were displaced by digital platforms. Now, many people such as [the left intellectual] Evgeny Morozov and Shoshana Zuboff consider companies such as Amazon to be examples of monopoly capitalism. But I don’t: a company is not a market. If you walk into Google as an employee, the moment you step in you leave the market. You enter a Soviet-like Gosplan with better pastel colours and better food. It is a hierarchical, centrally planned operation.”
Photographed for the New Statesman by Charlie Forgham-Bailey
“Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism” is out now with Penguin – Bodley Head.
For the New Stateman’s site, click here.
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October 6, 2023
Interviewed by PoliticsJOE on my TECHNOFEUDALISM
Yanis Varoufakis is an economist, politician and author of Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. He swung by JOE Towers to chat to us about his new book, the regression of neoliberal capitalism to a feudal system ran by a few tech billionaires, and the future of global capital. Subscribe to our new podcast now, or you’re a silly goose: https://linktr.ee/pubcast
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Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy interviews me on my TECHNOFEUDALISM
In his latest book, the Greek politician – who in 2015, at the height of the Greek debt crisis, was catapulted from academic obscurity to Minister of Finance – argues that insane sums of money that were supposed to re-float our economies in the wake of the financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic have ended up supercharging big tech’s hold over every aspect of the economy. And capitalism’s twin pillars – markets and profit – have been replaced with big tech’s platforms and rents; while we, the “cloud serfs”, increase these companies’ power with every online click and scroll. Today on Ways to Change the World, Yanis Varoufakis tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy how the world is grappling with an entirely new economic system and therefore political power, and why Britain and the EU are “irrelevant” compared with the “fiefdoms” of US and Chinese tech firms.
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October 5, 2023
Στο ΚΟΝΤΡΑ-NEWS με τον Πάνο Χαρίτο – video
Ο Γραμματέας του ΜέΡΑ25 Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης στο κεντρικό δελτίο ειδήσεων του Kontra Channel με τον Πάνο Χαρίτο μίλησε για την οικουμενική σημασία της υπόθεσης Ασάνζ για την ελευθερία έκφρασης και την ελευθερία του Τύπου, τη δράση του ΜέΡΑ25 στο δρόμο προς το Συνέδριό του το Δεκέμβριο, για το www.aristera.eu και την ανάγκη διαλόγου της Αριστεράς.
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