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Datum Value
Release type Official statement from the Secretary-General
Writer Lightning Bjornsson (they, he, xe/hir)
Written beginning Wed Oct 11 20:31:55 UTC 2023

The Secretariat-General of the Republic of Evdonia is aware of recent violent developments in the Levant, specifically the escalation in Gaza, and more generally in the general environs between and including Naqab and Galilee. We do not condone the actions of Hamas' military wing, nor those of the Israel Defence Force in response, which are utterly disproportionate to the threat faced and are in grave danger of amounting to perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate a genocide (attempt at wholesale extermination of a people, famously done to Armenians in Turkey, and Jews in Germany - one of whom created the term “genocide” for this kind of tragedy) on Gaza.

The Secretariat-General of the Republic of Evdonia calls upon the Israeli state to cease the military operation in Gaza at once, if and only if necessary pay the ransoms of all hostages to secure their release, and reduce the blockade to a land blockade only (allowing Gazan civilians and their civil government to trade freely by sea), and commit to protecting the lives and health of Palestinians of all stripes throughout the Palestine, which it occupies.

We call upon the Israeli state to condemn by criminal punishment, dishonourable discharge or cashiering from the military, and/or propaganda, as appropriate, the speak of the native Palestinians as “human animals” and “grass” (as in “mowing the grass”) and other such inciting and dehumanizing rhetoric, and to criminally punish as hate crimes incursions against native Palestinian land rights (even if overlapped by an Israeli land claim).

We call upon the Israeli state to halt recent judicial reforms, and to solicit UN assistance for the beginning of a truth, reparations and reconciliation process with the native Palestinians. (This is what we mean by ceasing all actions that amount to continuing Nakba.)

We call upon the Israeli people, especially those considering settling in areas internationally recognized as Palestine, to reject complicity with the Israeli state’s war crimes. Avoid military service if you can do so.

We also call upon the state apparatus in Gaza, to the extent that it functions, to limit casualties taken in any military operation to legitimate military targets. The killing and ransom of civilians from the remainder of the Palestine (known as Israel) is not acceptable to us. Ransomed individuals not to be released must be granted prisoner-of-war status according to the relevant Geneva Convention, and this convention should be followed as far as is possible. Prisoner exchanges should be negotiated as soon as possible, if the Israeli authorities can find any shred of benevolence in themselves, as I am aware that the Gazan section of Hamas does not have the resources to sufficiently feed PoWs even if it wanted to.

We call for both Israel and Hamas to submit involved troops to international war-crimes tribunals if summoned.

We call upon the NATO powers and Ukrainian state to immediately walk back unconditional statements of and commitments to support the Israeli state, and to immediately launch war crimes investigations, without fear or favor, into both Hamas and Israel, merging these investigations with the ICC where appropriate.

We call upon the Russian state to engage in a structured complete withdrawal from Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk and other territories in internationally-recognized Ukraine they have occupied, and to immediately launch war crimes investigations, without fear or favor, into both Hamas and Israel, merging these investigations with the ICC where appropriate. We also call on the Russian state to immediately close down coal, oil and gas extraction concerns. The extraction of these fuels, and their use, creates air pollution that changes rain and weather patterns in the Levant, destabilizing them.

If Israel does not cease its aggressive actions, we call upon the whole international community to adopt economic sanctions against Israel, targetting its technological economy, including the cyberweapons industry, as well as to adopt more just and equitable land and natural resource laws, and for developed countries to hold and honor a comprehensive debt jubilee for individuals and less-developed state actors.

These crimes cannot stand.

One day, we hope, the Levant will see justice and peace.

Note to Israeli and Gazan ambassadors-at-large: the Republic of Evdonia claims no territory anywhere in the world. We are not a UN member, observer, or similar such entity. Our international relations are limited to social media posts. While we have the best intentions, we do not have the expertise necessary to mediate negotiations between two sovereign states at war. The same physical person is both the Secretary-General (compare: president) and the entire foreign affairs department. We can be contacted by unsecured email. May I suggest that mediators used for nonbinding arbitration as a diversion from the court system across the developed world are probably well equipped for things like shuttle mediation, although this’d likely be their first time having two sovereign states as their clients? I know it seems stupid, but stupid things have sparked up a war, and stupid things have damped them down too.

Note to NATO, Ukrainian and Russian ambassadors-at-large: see above, and I realize y'all have national economic interests and so on which make these things difficult. I get it. There are systems of power in play that are above even your heads. There are things Vladimir Putin couldn’t do if he wanted to. Figure it out as well as you can. You don’t have to be perfect.

Latebreaking information: Credible sources are describing the Israeli state’s actions as a crime against humanity. This from JustSecurity.org (https://www.justsecurity.org/89403/the-siege-of-gaza-and-the-starvation-war-crime/), for instance.

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