Walla website:

During their conversation yesterday, Biden asked Netanyahu to reach “a truce in the fighting in Gaza to allow the resumption of frozen humanitarian aid efforts.” Netanyahu responded that Israel will begin implementing new measures in Gaza, so there is no need for such a truce, stressing that the truce must come. As part of a deal to release the hostages

Biden did not specify what the loss of US support for Israel would entail - nor did he explicitly mention the possibility of delaying or imposing conditions on arms shipments.

Biden presented his ultimatum to Netanyahu, saying that “if Israel does not change its policy, we will no longer be able to support you.”

The call between Biden and Netanyahu was the most difficult and intense since October 7

[A.k]

🍅BREAKING| Jordan's security forces crack down on a massive protest, which has been besieging the Israeli embassy in Amman for 13 days so far. Several arrests have been reported.

[A.K]

Updates on legal actions against Israel and its allies

📌ICJ:

⭕️South Africa vs Israel: Today 5th April Colombia has filed a declaration of intervention in support of South Africa against Israel. The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, was a resistance fighter who was imprisoned and tortured. Colombia asked the ICJ to consider the repeated and consistent breaches of humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict (for which the ICJ has no jurisdiction) as the context in which genocide is happening. In other words, the violation of those laws further contribute to the genocide. Colombia further submitted more observations on the obligations to prevent and punish genocide (to be used in the future to prosecute the aiders and abetters, IMHO).

⭕️Nicaragua vs Germany: The hearing is scheduled for 8th-9th April (public hearing, on UNWebTV). Unfortunately, it is not as well written as South Africa’s, however, this case is important because it will build jurisprudence on what constitutes “aiding and abetting genocide”. In fact, the system is based on case law, so findings from one case can be used in other cases on similar topics. For example, if it is found that selling weapons to a country on trial for genocide constitutes aiding and abetting, the finding can be used by other courts worldwide to prosecute other countries or governments.

📌Domestic lawsuits:

⭕️UK:

🚨Bindsman has sent a pre-action letter to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs about its decision to suspend funding UNRWA. A pre-action letter means the FDCO needs to respond satisfactorily or else a Judicial Review would start. Judicial Reviews are legal proceedings that question the reasonableness and lawfulness of the way a governmental body came to a decision.

🚨GLAN has started legal proceedings against the government seeking confirmation that the Foreign Office has received official legal advice that Israel has broken international humanitarian law, per a leaked recording of Alicia Kearns. The UK courts have said an oral permission hearing in this case to suspend weapons exports to Israel must occur before 26th April.

🚨The PCS union (UK civil service workers) intends to start a Judicial Review because they allege those workers are forced to break the law when approving the sale of weapons to Israel. Civil servants are bound by the civil service code not to break the law, yet they are also bound by their employment contract to serve the government. So, which one takes precedence? It can be argued that criminal law takes precedence over employment law. Another UK civil service workers union, FDA, stemming from the Illegal Migration Act, asks the same question, ie criminal law vs employment law breaches. The Department for International Trade has similar concerns regarding arms trade.

🚨750 UK Judges and Lawyers (including 4 former Supreme Court judges) have signed an open letter to the government and have included a 17-page legal opinion on Gaza. They have requested that the government take 5 actions:

1. work actively and effectively to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza;
2. take all available measures to ensure safe access to and delivery of the essentials of existence and medical assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, including immediate UK funding to UNRWA;
3. impose sanctions upon individuals and entities who have made statements inciting genocide against Palestinians;
4. suspend the provision of weapons and weapons systems to the Government of Israel; and
5. suspend the 2030 Road Map for UK-Israel bilateral relations and negotiations towards an enhanced trade agreement and initiate a review into the suspension of the UK’s bilateral trade agreement with Israel and consider the imposition of sanctions.

⭕️Germany:

🚨Supported by the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD), the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) and Law for Palestine (Law4Palestine), within Justice and Accountability for Palestine, German lawyers filed an urgent application against the German government to stop the approval of war weapons exports to Israel, aiming to seek a court order to stop the Federal Security Council from approving new weapons exports and to revoke existing ones, preventing their use in the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

[RT]

Veteran House Representative Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House of Representatives and a key ally of US President Biden, signed a letter sent by dozens of Democrats in Congress to the President and Secretary of State in Lincoln, calling for an end to arms transfers to Israel following the killing of aid workers in the Gaza Strip this week.

[NP]