Latest news with #Sourani
Gulf Today
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
No in-between
Celebrated Palestinian human rights lawyer Raji Sourani is currently focusing on the prosecution of British citizens who have been accused of war crimes while fighting in the Israeli army during the Gaza war. Sourani is a member of a team of lawyers from the Palestine Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) which last week submitted a a 240-page report to Britain's Metropolitan Police war crimes unit. Among the 10 accused are dual British-Israeli citizens. Sourani told Middle East Eye, 'We are here on a very special mission, to say to the police that there are British [nationals] who are involved in ...war crimes in the Gaza Strip and the British police should [hold them] accountable.' The war crimes they have committed include murder, extermination, attacking civilians, persecution, and forcible transfer. Sourani said he expects the police to act as Britain is a country where the rule of law is enforced. Unfortunately, Britain has shown itself unwilling to impose legal and moral accountability on Israelis and non-Israeli nationals recruited by the Israeli army. While the PCHR is focusing on Britons who violate human rights laws, there are hundreds of French and US citizens who should be investigated while serving in Israel's Gaza campaign. Over the decades Sourani has filed multiple cases against Israelis with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and has accused its prosecutors of dragging them out. In November 2024, the ICC finally obliged by issuing warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of instigating war crimes and crimes against humanity. As a result, 125 ICC ember states are required to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they enter their territory. Hungary's authoritarian leader Viktor Orban refused to honour this obligation when Netanyahu visited Budapest this month and withdrew Hungary from the ICC. However, Hungary did not abide by the requirement to effect exit by informing the UN secretary general. As Hungary's withdrawal will not be effective for a year after formally withdrawn, Orban remains obliged to arrest anyone against whom warrants have been issued. After an Israeli strike with a 900-kilogram bomb in October 2023 wrecked his home in the Tel Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City, Surani and his family left the Strip for Egypt and then Paris. Sourani is now based in Messina in Sicily at the home of Triestino Mariniello who is an Italian member of the PCHR which has been targeted by Israel's war. Mariniello told Al-Jazeera, 'We thought it was a good way to try and be more productive in a place where you can actually detach yourself from the constant horrors, even though that may seem impossible these days. We also considered this as an opportunity for our colleague from Gaza to catch a breath after what he's been going through.' In addition to raising a case for war crimes against Britons, the PCHR is working with South African lawyers who have lodged a case on Israeli genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Sourani said in the 'Al-Jazeera' interview, 'What we are witnessing is unprecedented. And what's more concerning is that the people documenting the horrors are dying too, erasing the evidence of what is happening.' PCHR lawyer Nour Naser Abu al-Nour and colleague Dana Yaghi were killed in Israeli strikes early in 2024. Sourani said. 'The world is just watching Israel go beyond human rights law. So we felt the urge to speed up our legal battle. That's another thing that's missing in Gaza – apart from food and safety – is time.' Born in 1953 in Gaza. Sourani studied law at the University of Alexandria in Egypt before returning to the Strip where established a law office to focus on Israeli occupation abuses, including trials by military courts, detentions without warrants, torture and deaths in prison. As a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, he suffered Israeli arrest, trial in a military court, detention, and mistreatment by his jailors. He served a three-year jail sentence (1979-1982) and was imprisoned another three times in 1985, 1986, and 1988, the last period being administrative arrest. At that time, he was named a 'prisoner of conscience' by Amnesty International. He was also briefly detained by the Palestinian Authority for questioning its commitment to the rule of law. In 1990, he was appointed director of the Gaza Centre for Rights and Law. In 1995, he founded the PCHR to monitor and document Israeli actions, promote the rule of law in the occupied Palestinian territories, and support Palestinian efforts to achieve self-determination. The PCHR is funded by the UN and non-governmental agencies in Sweden, Ireland, Britain, the US, Denmark, and Norway. Sourani and the PCHR have received multiple international human rights awards. The first thing which caught a visitor's attention when entering the PCHR Gaza office was the Robert F. Kennedy award received by Sourani in 1991. It is ironic that a Palestinian should receive this award, as pro-Israel US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the slain president John F. Kennedy, was killed in 1988 while campaigning for the presidency by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. In 2013, Sourani shared the Swedish Right Livelihood Award, known as the alternative Nobel Prize, for 'his unwavering dedication to the rule of law and human rights under exceptionally difficult circumstances.' In 2024, Sourani told 'The Guardian,' 'The situation is bleak, black and bloody. There are people who want Gaza to be the graveyard of international law. In whose interest is that?' he asked. 'Either you have the rule of law, or you have the rule of the jungle. There is no in-between. At present it is the powerful and mighty that are winning.' Photo: AFP
Middle East Eye
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Top Gaza lawyer who survived Israeli air strike seeks prosecution of UK citizens
Raji Sourani, founder and director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, is widely considered to be one of the world's leading Palestinian lawyers. In early 2024, he narrowly survived an Israeli air strike in Gaza which blew up his two-storey home. In late February that year, he crossed into Egypt with his family. Since 2015, Sourani has led the legal team representing Palestinian victims at the International Criminal Court. And in the past year, he has been working with South Africa's legal team in its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Now the lawyer is in Britain with a new aim - seeking the prosecution of 10 British citizens accused of committing war crimes in Gaza with the Israeli military. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters On Monday, Sourani joined a team of legal experts at New Scotland Yard in London in submitting a 240-page report to the Metropolitan Police's war crimes team. The report was filed on behalf of his organisation, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC). 'We give very serious evidence' The 10 people accused include Israeli dual nationals. They are suspected of crimes including murder, extermination, attacking civilians and the deportation or forcible transfer of a population. "We are here for a very special mission," Sourani told Middle East Eye on Monday, "to say to the police that there are British [citizens] who are involved in these crimes - war crimes, persecution, crimes against humanity - in the Gaza Strip, and these people should be held accountable. A team of legal experts submitted a war crimes complaint to the Metropolitan Police in London on Monday against 10 British nationals accused of committing war crimes for the Israeli military in Gaza — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) April 9, 2025 "We give very serious evidence for them. We collected it and we have it." "We are giving them these files so that they know and they have to proceed," he added. Sourani said he expects the police to take action: "This is a rule of law country and what we anticipate or expect is that this should work effectively, and hold these suspects accountable." ICJ president 'plagiarised 32 percent of pro-Israel dissenting opinion' Read More » But he levied heavy criticism against Prime Minister Keir Starmer for having denied that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. In November last year, Starmer - a former human rights lawyer - was asked in parliament to share his definition of genocide and to outline what action he was taking to save the lives of people in Gaza. In response, he said he was "well aware of the definition of genocide" and that this explained why he had "never described or referred to [the situation in Gaza] as genocide". His remarks followed similar denials from Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who suggested that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza because millions of people have not been killed. "I think it's a big shame on the prime minister and prosecutor if they are saying it's not genocide," Sourani told MEE. "I'm representing the victims. I'm the one who is on the ground and building these files. You don't need to be a first-class lawyer to prove that. The genocide is being broadcast live." 'You cannot be selective' Sourani sent a message to Starmer: "How many, Mr Prime Minister, do you need of Gaza's children and women to be dead? How many of them do you need to be in famine? How many of them do you need to be displaced and to be kicked out of the Gaza Strip? "It's a big shame when 18,000 children of Gaza [have been killed] and he doesn't recognise genocide." 'How many, Mr Prime Minister, do you need of Gaza's children and women to be dead?' - Raja Sourani Sourani continued: "You didn't prevent it. You covered it up. You gave reasons for it. This is going on livestream, 18 months, and you still don't recognise it. This is a big shame on the British government." Now, he said, was the time for legal action against individuals responsible for war crimes in Gaza. "You are calling for rule of law, democracy, human rights. You cannot be selective. You cannot politicise this." The report, which has been prepared by a team of UK lawyers and researchers in The Hague and is based on six months of research, covers alleged offences committed from October 2023 to May last year. Jake Taylor, a barrister from Doughty Street Chambers, was one of the legal experts behind the report. "This has been a six-month intensive process, with the team of lawyers working around the clock in order to go through the vast amount of material available," he told MEE. "Under British law, there is an obligation to investigate British nationals for international crimes if there is significant suspicion. The police will conduct their own investigation. The Hind Rajab Foundation: Pursuing Israeli soldiers worldwide for Gaza war crimes Read More » "The majority of [the report] is open source. We have not done the investigation for the police. We have accumulated all this evidence and passed it on to them, and asked them to investigate themselves." If the police decide there is a reasonable prospect of conviction and it is in the public interest to prosecute, prosecutions will proceed. "I think it's about time for the ICC to activate itself again and do something more serious. They do have the chain of command and they do have the evidence. We are sure that they have enough to act," Taylor said. The Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation has sought to initiate nearly 100 cases against Israeli soldiers in 14 countries with universal jurisdiction: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden and Thailand. In January this year, the Israeli military advised dozens of soldiers against travelling abroad after reportedly tracking around 30 war crimes complaints and legal actions targeting its personnel for their roles in operations in Gaza.
Middle East Eye
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
‘In a state of shock': Palestinians respond to Trump's proposal to take over Gaza
It's not easy to catch Palestinians off guard, given the scenes from 15 months of Israeli bombardment, siege, starvation, and the world's inaction to what Amnesty International has called a "genocide". But if anyone can throw things off kilter, it's US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday said the US would expel Palestinians from Gaza, likely move in American troops, and then develop 'the Riviera of the Middle East' for tourists. The stunning announcement was made alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was given the privilege of being the first foreign leader to visit the White House in Trump's second term. But the backlash to Trump's 'long-term ownership' of Gaza was swift. Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian in the chamber, said, 'Palestinians aren't going anywhere'. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'This president can only spew this fanatical bullshit because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing,' Tlaib wrote on X. 'It's time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up.' Democratic Senator Chris Murphy called Trump's comments a mere distraction. 'The US isn't invading and occupying Gaza. Trump wants us to talk about this crazy idea all day to relieve the pressure on him that is building as the public figures out that a theft is occurring - the billionaires illegally taking over government to steal from us,' he wrote on X, referencing the domestic chaos unfolding as billionaire Elon Musk shuts down US agencies. And Republican Senator Rand Paul, who has long identified as a Libertarian, said, 'The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians.' 'I thought we voted for America First,' he wrote on X. 'We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers' blood.' 'A new Nakba' Palestinians who have already left Gaza marvelled at what they saw as the callousness of Trump's remarks. 'I'm in a state of shock. I almost don't believe they can be rude as such,' Palestinian human rights lawyer Raji Sourani told Middle East Eye. Sourani, 70, born and bred in Gaza, left through Egypt and then went to Europe one year ago after Israel destroyed his home. He remains the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza and is a party to South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. 'A first-class war criminal [like] Netanyahu standing in the White House, invited… and dealt with respectfully as though there is no [International Criminal Court] warrant against him, and praised as a hero and supported politically, financially, legally, and they decide publicly in a press conference in front of the whole world… to complete the genocide mission? To make a new Nakba?' Sourani asked. 'I mean, I just don't believe it.' Instead of expelling Palestinians, Sourani suggested the Israelis be offered one-way tickets instead. 'Why the Israelis not be paid? I mean, in the US, there is a huge, vast land. They can settle them anywhere they like. We didn't do the Holocaust.' Palestinians, he said, 'are the stones of the valley… no power on earth can kick us out'. And while many living inside Gaza today have expressed similar sentiments, others say the notion that all Palestinians will simply tolerate what comes their way is 'dehumanising'. 'You know, there is a lot of mythologisation of the Palestinians, that we are superhumans who, despite any pain, wouldn't leave. That's not true, and that's dehumanising to an extent,' Khalil Sayegh, a Palestinian political analyst based in Washington, told MEE. Sayegh is the founder of the Palestinian-Israeli shared vision platform, The Agora Initiative. His father died of a heart attack in Gaza in 2023 while sheltering at the Church of the Holy Family, which came under attack by Israeli snipers. Trump advisors push for Gulf states to cooperate on Gaza but find no takers Read More » 'When we are pushed and we have to choose between staying or our kids will die, I think many of us would choose rightfully to leave,' he said. 'Others who stay, despite them dying with their kids, we also have to respect them and see them as humans.' If the Rafah border to Egypt reopens, Sayegh said, he estimates that up to half a million Palestinians would leave Gaza now if they were provided the means. It would be, he confessed, 'a disaster' for the Strip. 'However, in terms of ethnic cleansing and the demographic war that we have with Israel, that wouldn't be a threat because, ultimately, the birth rate in Gaza is so high that in three or four years, we'll be able to have the demographic balance back again,' Sayegh told MEE. So where does that leave Trump's extreme opening bid to negotiate Gaza's future? 'Two things have to happen. In my opinion, Hamas has to clearly say that they're willing to not be in the picture. This hasn't happened at all… [And] the Arabs have to push Trump,' he said. 'We've seen the Arabs already doing that. We've seen the Egyptians already doing that [but] they have to come to the table, from my point of view, to Trump with a plan that is actionable.' Saudi Arabia was the first among the Arab nations to denounce Trump's plans and insist on a Palestinian state before it considers what would be the ultimate prize: diplomatic relations with Israel. Jordan and Egypt have also firmly rejected plans to take in Palestinians from Gaza. 'I think the Arabs so far are taking a good stance,' Sayegh told MEE. 'If they continue to do so, I think we can overcome this, inshallah.' Ultimately, whatever Palestinians may be forced to do, they will not be 'good victims,' Sourani said. 'Whatever the conditions are or will be, people have no intention to leave. We have no other home, Palestine is our homeland.' Aftermath By Wednesday morning, Arab Americans For Trump, which led the charge to get him elected among those angered by Joe Biden's perpetuation of the war on Gaza, sent out a press release changing its name to Arab Americans For Peace. 'We are adamantly opposed to the notion of transferring Palestinians outside of historic Palestine for ANY reason,' the statement read. 'We appreciate the president's offer to clean and rebuild Gaza. However, the purpose should be to make Gaza habitable for Palestinians and no one else.' Within hours, the administration began the cleanup effort, with officials significantly walking back Trump's proposal. In an interview with CBS, Trump's national security advisor, Michael Waltz, all but admitted the president was effectively starting a negotiation process by adopting an extreme position. 'The fact that nobody has a realistic solution, and [Trump] puts some very bold fresh new ideas out on the table, I don't think should be criticised in any way,' Waltz said. 'I think it's going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions.' This was further communicated at the White House briefing, where press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, 'Donald Trump, who is the best dealmaker on the planet, is going to strike a deal with our partners in the region.' Asked about US 'boots on the ground' in Gaza, Leavitt said Trump has not 'committed' to that idea 'yet'. And his real estate development of the enclave? 'This is an out-of-the-box idea,' Leavitt responded, and 'American taxpayers' will not be footing the bill, she said. While on a trip to Guatemala, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reframed Trump's entire proposal, saying that Palestinians would only relocate temporarily and that Trump's offer is an act of generosity. 'Obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you're rebuilding it. It is akin to a natural disaster,' Rubio said. 'So what he's very generously offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding of homes and businesses and things of this nature, so that then people can move back in.' Still, there was no way to take back what Trump very publicly put on the table.
