SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
the hague
Climate Advocates ‘Confident’ in Victory as Shell Appeals Landmark Ruling
Campaigners described the company’s appeal as “a desperate attempt at justifying more oil and gas extraction.”
Apr 02, 2024
Shell appealed a case on Tuesday at The Hague that ordered the fossil fuel giant to drastically cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
A Dutch court ordered the company in 2021 to reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030. Shell is arguing that customers will turn to other fuel suppliers if it obeys the order.
"This case has no legal basis," Shell's lawyer Daan Lunsingh Scheurleer told the court. "It obstructs the role that Shell can and wants to play in the energy transition."
"Oil and gas will play an important role in both the security of supply and affordability during the energy transition," he claimed.
NEW: Shell is appealing against a landmark order to cut greenhouse gas emissions, after rowing back on its climate targets.
It's a desperate attempt at justifying more oil and gas extraction amidst warnings from experts and increasing climate impacts.
Shell must be stopped. pic.twitter.com/jC0TrDU8VD
— #StopRosebank (@StopCambo) April 2, 2024
Friends of the Earth Netherlands, which brought the case against Shell, said the "scientific basis" for its case has "only solidified" since the initial ruling.
"I am confident that we can once again convince the judges that Shell needs to act in line with international climate agreements," the group's lawyer Roger Cox said.
.@Shell appeal against 2021 historic #climate ruling starts April 2 and @milieudefensie are ready!
“Shell is constantly trying to run away from its responsibility to stop dangerous climate change, but they can't bolt from the courtroom" says @DonaldPols https://t.co/bPlVIXTnI5
— Friends of the Earth International (@FoEint) March 28, 2024
The court order affects the company as a whole, not just its operations in the Netherlands. A verdict on the appeal is expected later this year.
"Shell aims to reduce the carbon intensity of products it sells by 15-20% by 2030 from a 2016 baseline after watering down the target in March," Reutersreports. "Shell has an 'ambition' to reduce customer emissions from the use of its oil products by 15-20% by 2030 compared with 2021. Shell also aims to become a 'net zero' emissions company by 2050."
A report from last year found Shell knew about the impacts of burning fossil fuels much earlier than previously known.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Instead of Holocaust Museum, Detour Signs Direct Israel's Herzog to The Hague
"How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalize genocide today?" asked one Dutch Jewish organizer behind the protest.
Mar 10, 2024
Human rights activists in The Netherlands greeted Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday with large protests and directed him towards the International Criminal Court at The Hague over his nation's alleged war crimes against the Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Herzog was in Amsterdam to attend the opening of the new National Holocaust Museum, but demonstrators said Herzog's presence needed to be challenged given the large scale death and destruction that Israel's military has unleashed in Gaza over the last five months.
As Al-Jazeerareports:
Dutch Jewish anti-Zionist organization Erev Rave, which organized the demonstrations at the musuem’s opening with the Dutch Palestinian community and Socialist International, said that while it is important to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, it cannot stand by while the war in Gaza continues.
"For us Jews, these museums are part of our history, of our past," said Joana Cavaco, an activist with Erev Rav, addressing the crowd before the museum's opening ceremony. "How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalize genocide today?"
A pro-Palestinian Dutch organization, The Rights Forum, called Herzog's presence "slap in the face of the Palestinians who can only helplessly watch how Israel murders their loved ones and destroys their land."
Along Herzog's route through the city, members of Amnesty International—which has accused Israel of apartheid and backed the findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which said policies in Gaza may amount to genocide—carried fake detour signs pointing the motorcade towards the nearby ICC.
As the president of Israel, Amnesty International Netherlands said Herzog "is the political symbol of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. It is unfortunate that Herzog was invited after his controversial statements. That is why we are taking action."
Amnesty and other rights groups have documented numerous incidents in Gaza and the West Bank that they say may amount to "war crimes," including the indiscriminate bombing of civilians areas, the use of prohibited weapons like white phosphorous, attacks on hospitals and emergency medical personnel, the blocking of life-saving food, water, and other supplies, and other acts of "callous disregard for Palestinian lives."
At a square nearby the museum where Herzog gave his speech, reportsReuters, demonstrators crowded the streets and chanted slogans like "Cease-fire Now!" and "Stop Bombing Children!" as they held signs that read "Jews Against Genocide" and "The Grandchild of a Holocaust Survivor Says: Stop Gaza Holocaust."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog attended an opening of Amsterdam’s Holocaust museum, where pro-Palestinian protesters demanding an end to Israel's assault in Gaza booed him https://t.co/L3NceMdAwk pic.twitter.com/ZspcNrl8FF
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 10, 2024
Ahead of Sunday's opening, the Jewish Cultural Quarter that operates the new museum, said in a statement that it was "profoundly concerned by the war and the consequences this conflict has had, first and foremost for the citizens of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank."
The statement said the museum stands "for a just and resolution for all those directly involved" and the impact the ongoing violence and hatred is having beyond the Middle East:
The reduction to black-and-white opposites and apparently incompatible arguments – oppressed against oppressor, good against bad, truth against lie. This polarization has spread hatred toward Jews and Islamophobia. It takes courage to speak out against injustice. It takes courage to recognize that the real world is complex and contradictory, and that our empathy need not be confined to one side.
At the heart of the National Holocaust Museum's mission is the desire to build a just society in the Netherlands by signalling the danger of dehumanizing and excluding those who live among us. That is the message in our presentation, our educational program and our events.
The group said Herzog had been invited to attend the opening prior to the Hamas-led attack on October 7 of last year, but that the fighting since has only further revealed the importance of remembering and learning from the past.
That "the war continues to rage," the statement concluded, "makes our mission all the more urgent."
Keep ReadingShow Less
ICJ Ruling Will Not Halt the Massacre in Gaza, But Begins to Restore World's Common Humanity
The world owes South Africa a huge debt. By bringing Israel to the Hague, South Africa has wrenched moral and legal force from the hands of imperial carnage to the possibility of universal justice.
Jan 26, 2024
Today, history was made: the International Court of Justice has ruled for South Africa.
Israel's military actions in Gaza fall under the purview of the Genocide Convention. In its order, the court established that the Palestinians are a protected national group and there is a risk of irreparable harm for Palestinians under the Genocide Convention.
The court issued urgent measures directing Israel to "take all measures" to prevent genocide as detailed in South Africa's case. Israel’s denials have, in effect, been rejected.
It directed Israel to ensure the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance in Gaza, and instructed it to report on compliance. Most of these measures were passed with a 15-2 vote.
By bringing this case, South Africa asserted our common humanity and wrenched moral and legal force from the hands of imperial carnage to the possibility of universal justice.
It is impossible to reckon with not just how much death, but how much cruelty and contempt, it had to take to bring about this moment. In just the first six weeks of the siege of Gaza, Israel dropped 500 “bunker-buster” bombs on the thin strip of land, a rate of destruction with few precedents in human history. When bombs that size touch the ground, they have a lethal fragmentation radius — an area of death nearing 365 meters (about 1,198 feet). They turn “earth to liquid,” said Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon defence official.
The world owes South Africa a huge debt. By bringing Israel to the Hague, in one fell swoop, South Africa has acted for our common humanity.
In contrast, we have only seen dismissals, falsehoods, and contempt from Western leaders. U.S. President Joe Biden lied to the world to justify the massacre in Gaza. “I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” he declared in early October. That statement, it is now well documented, was a lie. The White House admitted that they “have not seen pictures or confirmed such reports independently” and the Israeli government admitted it had no evidence to support the claim. Biden continued to repeat it.
On January 11-12, I travelled to The Hague as a member of the South African delegation. Minutes before the hearing began inside the Peace Palace, the numbers were updated one final time inside the briefing room. Death toll: 22,000. As I write this note today, it has surpassed 26,000—and many thousands more are missing under the rubble, presumed dead.
That is why this fight is far from over. Today’s ICJ verdict, by itself, cannot halt the massacre. Mass movements, governments, and trade unions around the world are determinedly supporting the Palestinians—exposing Israel’s lies, accounting for the complicity of its backers, and rejecting the sacrifice of our humanity. We must go on.
As the case progresses, all eyes will be on the Hague: Will the ICJ uphold the truth plain for us to see? Israel's military actions in Gaza constitute a genocide. Israel is in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention and "genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.” After all, this case serves as a critical test of Western impunity.
By bringing this case, South Africa asserted our common humanity and wrenched moral and legal force from the hands of imperial carnage to the possibility of universal justice. It has acted for you and me — and our collective conscience.Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular