what a shameful embarrassment. My fucking country.
US and UK to boycott Nagasaki bombing memorial after Israel disinvited
The US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 killed tens of
thousands of Japanese civilians
7 August 2024
The American and British ambassadors to Japan have announced they will
skip an upcoming ceremony commemorating the victims of the US’s 1945
atomic bombing because the city’s mayor did not invite the Israeli
ambassador.
The Russian and Belarusian ambassadors have also been excluded from the
event this Friday by Japanese authorities.
The Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony is intended to mark the 79th
anniversary of the US atomic bomb attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima that
killed tens of thousands of Japanese civilians, with many more later dying
from radiation poisoning.
The attacks in August 1945 preceded Japan’s unconditional surrender to the
US and the end of the Second World War.
Julia Longbottom, the UK’s ambassador to Japan, told local reporters that
Israel is exercising self-defence in Gaza and should not be treated in the
same way as Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
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Unpacked
In late July, the UK dropped its objection to an International Criminal Court
application for arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The American embassy said that Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador, does
not want to politicise the Nagasaki event by attending.
Emanuel, who was White House chief of staff from 2009 to 2010 under
Barack Obama, was born to an Israeli father who was at one point a member
of Jewish paramilitary group Irgun.
It is understood that Emanuel will attend a separate memorial service for the
victims at a temple in Tokyo, while the US consulate will send a different
representative to the Nagasaki event instead.
'Political motivations'
Nagasaki’s mayor, Shiro Suzuki, said last week that Israel was not invited to
the memorial event because of “the risk of unexpected incidents during the
ceremony”.
“I would like to emphasise that this decision was not based on political
considerations, but rather on our desire to hold the ceremony to
commemorate the victims of the atomic bombings in a peaceful and solemn
atmosphere, and to ensure that the ceremony goes smoothly.”
But Gilad Cohen, Israel’s ambassador in Tokyo, hit back on Monday, accusing
the mayor of “inventing” security concerns.
Benny Morris: Israeli historian calls for nuclear strike on Iran
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“I am really surprised by him hijacking this ceremony for his political
motivations.”
Cohen added that Iran has been invited to the ceremony, saying the move
was the “opposite message that should be sent to the free world and to
civilisation”.
The Israeli ambassador attended a memorial event in Hiroshima on Tuesday.
During Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, multiple ministers and officials have
advocated using a nuclear bomb on Gaza, turning the enclave into a
“slaughterhouse” and “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth”.
South Africa has argued these statements are evidence of genocidal intent in
its ongoing case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of
genocide in Gaza, a charge which Israel denies.
The death toll in Gaza since October 2023 has topped 39,677, with more
than 91,645 wounded and an estimated 10,000 missing, likely dead and
buried under rubble.
According to the medical journal Lancet, the death toll could exceed more
than 186,000 when all war-related deaths are taken into account.
Health officials report that around 70 percent of the victims in Gaza are
children and women.
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