This does not surprise me at all www.irishtimes.com/world/middle... - ThreadSky

carolinedegruyter.bsky.social • 506 days ago

This does not surprise me at all

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/10/20/eu-staff-members-express-fury-over-von-der-leyen-stance-on-israel-hamas-conflict/

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mattsteinglass.bsky.social•506 days ago

This is irrational nonsense. Nobody considers a Russian “blockade (water and fuel)” of Ukraine to be a war crime; it’s Russia’s wanton massacres and torture, kidnapping of kids and its shelling of civilian targets with no conceivable military relevance that are war crimes.

kryptocommunist.bsky.social•506 days ago

Here Von der Leyen calls cutting water and energy a war crime https://x.com/vonderleyen/status/1582630271287021570?s=46&t=zC7_kJzAqet4za6D_D1SAg

mattsteinglass.bsky.social•506 days ago

That refers to bombing Ukraine’s own water and power plants, not to a “blockade” of power or water from Russia.

kryptocommunist.bsky.social•506 days ago

I genuinely don’t see why that difference matters. ukraine is not locked in like Gaza is, and hence can’t have a blockade by Russia.

ifilipau.bsky.social•506 days ago

Gaza is not "locked" in any sense of the word. In addition to Israel, it borders a nominally Palestine-friendly Egypt. Also, Gaza has access to Mediterranean Sea.

kryptocommunist.bsky.social•506 days ago

There is a naval blockade in place, and the Egyptians keep the rafa crossing closed at the moment (and Israel has bombed it repeatedly in the last two weeks)

mattsteinglass.bsky.social•506 days ago

This one of many ways in which the Ukraine and Gaza situations are very different. Another is that Ukraine did not attack Russia. If the argument is that cutting off water to Gaza is a war crime and the EU should condemn it, make that argument. The Ukraine comparison is confused.

kryptocommunist.bsky.social•506 days ago

Cutting of water as a collective punishment is a war crime. Article 33 Geneva convention.

mattsteinglass.bsky.social•506 days ago

If they want to argue “it is wrong that the commission protests Russia’s bombing of Ukraine’s water plants as a war crime but not Israel’s cutoff of water deliveries,” they should say that.

kryptocommunist.bsky.social•506 days ago

I think a nitty gritty focus on the precision of that particular formulation misses that everything understands what it means (ie the double standards vis-a-vis Ukraine and Gaza)

mattsteinglass.bsky.social•506 days ago

The everyone who understands what it means is wrong.

mattsteinglass.bsky.social•506 days ago

The war crimes charges being brought against Russia relate to actions that resemble Hamas’s massacres and kidnapping of Israeli civilians. Whether Israel’s bombing in Gaza is disproportionate to its war aims of removing from power a terrorist organization that attacked it is not at all obvious.

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