51吃瓜

In cases of chaotic and amorphous tragedy, like that of NATO鈥檚 of Afghanistan or Russian against Ukraine, we can turn to international law to bring clarity and help us sort our right and wrong. But the slaughter perpetrated earlier this month by a group like seems to be different in kind. Political and legal commentators were left in a state of helplessness, their pre-existing categories utterly inadequate to evaluate the causes and consequences of the event. In the face of an atrocity of such magnitude, all such analyses appear insufficient. The only thing to be said is that it was an assault on itself. Nothing more. Reducing the worth of those killed and abducted by Hamas and seeking to defend these crimes against other injustices is reprehensible.

Human dignity is the for dealing with this calamity and all others resulting from it. We cannot allow questions of political consideration, blame or revenge to distract from our commitment to this fundamental value. But the requirement to uphold human dignity only has absolute application if it also has universal application, and vice versa. This is the prerequisite for the possibility of democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Human dignity must be upheld at all costs and under all circumstances. So, just as we cannot forget the innocent Israelis whose lives were taken away at the hands of Hamas terrorists, neither can we forget the innocent Palestinians who were slain by Israel.

Since 2007, Israel has arbitrarily imposed a naval and commercial on the Gaza Strip, placing it under quarantine. Israel made against Gaza in 2009, 2012 and 2014. 1,434 Palestinians were in 22 days (December 27, 2008鈥揓anuary 18, 2009), including 1259 civilians and 288 minors. 30 children died among the 103 Palestinians between November 14 and November 21, 2012. Between July 8 and August 26, 2014, 1,462 civilians鈥攊ncluding 551 children鈥攚ere slain. According to , the Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories of the United Nations, 40% of Gaza鈥檚 male residents have visited Israeli prisons. In Israel, administrative detention allows for an accusation for six months without any charges.

As Israel prepares to launch an offensive of unprecedented proportions against Gaza, the numbers will doubtlessly become more shocking still.

How do Palestinians get caught up in the violence?

Young Palestinians in the Gaza Strip make for easy recruitment for the Hamas military forces because more than 50% are unemployed.

Out of a population of 5 million in Palestine (of whom 2 million live in the tiny Gaza Strip), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today more than 800,000. On May 24, 2023, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, with the Security Council that 鈥渟wift action is needed to prevent outbreaks of violence between Israelis and Palestinians and to avert an imminent food crisis,鈥� to no avail. So, hunger and desperation deepen in Gaza, fueling extremism.

As with its founding in December 1987 at the start of the , Hamas鈥� election win in 2006 cannot be separated from the society in response to the Israeli embargo. Hamas maintains a robust network of philanthropic organizations within a humiliated and defenceless populace. 

How Israel has sought to punish Gaza

In retaliation for Hamas rocket attacks, Israeli have killed the militant group鈥檚 top officials. Since then, its leaders have fled to Qatar. In a news conference, the head of the Israeli Air Force bragged that his organization had carried out between 80 and 100 extrajudicial with a 鈥�90% success rate.鈥�

But Israeli reprisals extend much father than killing Hamas leaders. It has engaged in an inhumane program of collective punishment.

When the advanced through Eastern Europe and into the Soviet Union, they were notorious for such towns and burning them to the ground, killing everyone in them鈥攎an, woman, and child鈥攁s a form of whenever they encountered the slightest resistance from smaller villages. Such collective punishment has long been considered a , violating the on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, customary International Humanitarian Law and the , which based its laws of war on the established after World War II, specifically lists it as such.

For years, 滨蝉谤补别濒鈥檚 IDF has disregarded international law and carried out similar, albeit more targeted, criminal acts, destroying homes and frequently killing innocent women and children if suspected were thought to have resided there. This strategy was used even though the alleged 鈥渢errorist鈥� had previously been apprehended or eliminated.

滨蝉谤补别濒鈥檚 leaders have launched a fierce, vicious, and of collective punishment against the entire Gaza Strip and its 2.3 million trapped residents. This includes cutting off food, water, electricity, and, as a result, sewer and water treatment systems.

The military is preparing to impose a on the prisoner enclave of Gaza, according to 滨蝉谤补别濒鈥檚 so-called 鈥淒efence鈥� Minister , who also declared, 鈥淲e are fighting animals, and we will act accordingly.鈥� According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 900 Palestinians already in the first few days of 滨蝉谤补别濒鈥檚 reprisal against Gaza, including 450 children. Despite his unintentional grimly ironic double entendre, Gallant鈥檚 brutal language is clear, and his policy is an epic war crime of genocidal proportions.

It is revolting to hear Gallant use rhetoric reminiscent of the Nazi soldiers who surrounded the walled-off Ghetto prison camp where over 500,000 Polish Jews were imprisoned before being burnt and blown up in a final orgy of explosives and cannon fire.

Israelis have suffered terrible crimes at the hands of Hamas fighters, but these do not excuse 滨蝉谤补别濒鈥檚 impending response of collective punishment. The initial Israeli bombing and shelling in Gaza left horrific scenes. True, Israel does have the humanity to bury most of the dead victims, many of whom were probably children and elderly civilians, rather than leaving them bleeding out in the street like the victims of Hamas did. But innocents are dead all the same.

US military aid to Israel

On October 12, 2023, in Philadelphia, a sizable, grey four-engine jet with the recognizable fat, squarish fuselage of a military C-17 lumbered eastward. This was almost certainly the first of many such enormous US military headed for Israel and was packed with , bombs and other horrors created by the sick minds of engineers in the US arms industry. These are bad enough in the US military鈥檚 arsenal, even for Americans. Still, they should never be given as a gift to a nation that intends to use its overwhelming power to end the lives of countless civilians as a form of collective punishment for the actions of fighters they have no control over. This is especially true for people in Gaza who are entirely at 滨蝉谤补别濒鈥檚 mercy and unable to escape their walled-in and fenced-in there.

Suppose the US doesn鈥檛 intervene to stop this before it ramps up. In that case, it will be fully complicit in this potentially enormous atrocity by Israel and its military. It is vital to persuade the US to stop providing Israel with military support before any attack on Gaza. The collective punishment of Gaza will be swift and severe to finish the killing job before the US, most likely acting behind the scenes, can force it to halt. The residents of Gaza may not be able to control the armed terrorists and Hamas leaders who dominate them. Still, the US citizens can prevent the US government from more so that it can commit these and other war crimes. 

Most of the US鈥檚 to Israel, since the creation of the Jewish state, is military. An eye-popping in aid has been provided to Israel to control the Palestinians living under its forced occupation. That assistance has been provided without conditions, even after Israel a marked US Navy ship, boarded a Turkish ferry in international waters, killed an American teen for documenting their act of piracy, shot and an American woman reporter who was covering a Palestinian protest in the West Bank or, most recently, invaded Gaza and killed thousands of people.

滨蝉谤补别濒鈥檚 of the population of the Gaza Strip will amount to a war crime under international law. The military offensive will significantly raise the death toll. The best way to ensure 滨蝉谤补别濒鈥檚 security is to restore the Palestinian people鈥檚 dignity, not, as Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Netanyahu鈥檚 administration during the bombardment of the Gaza Strip, to 鈥渢o send Gaza back to the Middle Ages.鈥�

Further, Israel won鈥檛 pay attention to the tepid remarks of US leaders who bemoan their war crimes. They won鈥檛 start listening until US help is wholly cut off. And that will only take place if American citizens demand it. So, let鈥檚 refrain from wasting time protesting war criminals. Let鈥檚 pressure international leadership to stop providing help rapidly, lest they become passively complicit in these war crimes. The cost of abandoning Palestine is unfathomable.

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The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.