Slaughter In Gaza

I am finding it hard to find the words to describe the horror and anger I feel about the current Israeli killing spree in the Gaza Strip.  Everything about it enrages me.  As I write, over 400 Palestinians have been slaughtered in Israeli bombing raids, of which an estimated 100 are women and children, with a further substantial number being ordinary policemen and traffic cops.   In contrast the Israeli dead from Palestinian rocket attacks in recent weeks can be counted on one hand, with the total over the last eight years counting about 25.   This massive disparity in casualty figures is truly stunning, and reveals the brutal indifference of the Israeli occupation forces to Palestinian life.   In pictorial form, with full stops representing single deaths, last weeks ‘conflict’ would look a little something like this –

Hamas has killed    –  . . . . .

Israel has killed      –  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And quite disgracefully this reality is not being reflected by our mainstream media, who are generally reporting this as a conflict between two equals.  There has been a quite shameful absence of critical thinking, notably in the “impartial”  BBC, with Israeli propoganda often being relayed without question, or without balance.  This is the same BBC that challenged the “Orwellian Newspeak“ of the Russians during the conflict with Georgia, and who routinely adopt a sceptical tone when reporting the words and deeds of other governments, such as Zimabawe, China, or Burma.   Unsurprisingly, this sceptical tone is  rediscovered when they deem to report something that “Hamas says”.

Another quite remarkable aspect of the BBC’s reporting of this atrocity is that they can hardly bring themselves to use the word ‘atrocity’!  A quick google search for “bbc gaza atrocity” brings up  two references to “atrocites” from Aunty Beeb about current events.  One is a reference from an eye-witness who  witnessed atrocities, and the other is an interview with UN special rapporteur Richard Falk who tells the BBC that  the Israeli’s are committing atrocities.  Yet the BBC do not relay this in their other reports.   This despite  ex-US  President Jimmy Carter , among others, calling the Israeli policy in Gaza “a crime and atrocity” as far back as April 2008.

Little is said of the blockade of the Gaza Strip for the last 2 years, or of the fact that Hamas won a democratic election, and is currently in control of what is, in effect, an open-air concentration camp.    And while it is often said that Israel “withdrew from Gaza” in 2005, it is rarely if ever reported that Israel remains in control of the air, and the land and coastal borders.  After Hamas’s election victory, former Israeli Prime Minister’s aide Dov Weisglass claimed Palestinians would be   “put on a diet“.   Israel  only permits items into Gaza that they deem “essential,” and hundreds have died due to a shortage of medical supplies, and not being provided with permits to reach places with better medical provision.

Israel’s aerial bombardment has brought to a head the urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza.  As has been the case for months Gazans are short on blankets, cooking gas and candles, among other essential items.   And yet unbelievably, Israeli Foreign Minister  Tzipi Livni has the sheer inhumanity to claim that  “there is no humanitarian crisis in the [Gaza] Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce.” 

Seemingly to her, and those like her, Palestinians are not human.   In a different time and place, they would be untermensch presumably…

 

~ by blacksheepdiarist on January 2, 2009.