US Vice President Kamala Harris not attending Israeli PM’s address to US Congress is ‘welcome news’

US Vice President and Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris 

Washington Exa-miner’s report by Brady Knox that US Vice President and Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris will not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the American Congress scheduled for today, Wednesday 24 July, would be welcome news to progressive thinking people throughout the world, particularly in the context of last Friday’s (19 July 2024) sweeping advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) unequivocally asserting that 57 years of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands captured then and thereafter as “unlawful”, that Israel should rapidly end its unlawful occupation of ‘Palestinian Territory’, evacuate all settlers from the occupied territory, make reparation for the damages caused and declaring that all States remain under “obligation not to render aid or assistance” for any Israeli presence in the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territory’.

Though her announcement is not expected to change the US-Israeli 76-year devastating joint venture in the Middle East, even when she is elected President of the United States, Kamala Harris’ move will nevertheless help redeem somewhat the deadly gangster image the US-Israeli massacres in Palestine had imprinted in the minds of human beings globally!  With an average of over 140 Palestinians being killed daily by the Israeli forces, hosting ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu in the US legislature, even while the International Criminal Court (ICC) is considering the issue of a warrant of arrest on the Israeli PM will only help enhance the perception that armed ‘gangsters’ are in control of powerful countries!  “The move, Washington Examiner said, “is likely an attempt to distance herself from the Biden administration’s stance on the war in Gaza, which has rattled the Democratic Party. By distancing herself from the heavily pro-Israel stance of President Joe Biden, she could help neuter attacks from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.” Many more from the Democratic Party are also expected to avoid the Netanyahu address, his fourth to a joint session of the US parliament.

Meanwhile AFP reported Israeli settlers in Qusra, a village in the occupied territories in Palestine had on Sunday (21/7) attacked foreign volunteers including eight Americans from the US based International Solidarity Movement, who were working in ‘protective presence’ with Palestinian farmers in an olive grove with several of them admitted to a hospital in nearby Nablus. The injured Americans are likely to give testimony of the attacks by Israeli settlers against unarmed Palestinian villagers aimed at forcibly driving away Palestinians even in remote villages.