It took years for people around the world to finally bring an end to the apartheid practices of South Africa. The movement to end the apartheid practices of Israel is ever-growing. Its success cannot come too soon for the suffering Palestinians. A look at some of the violations of international law that Israel is committing even as this is writing, is shocking. In the Gaza Strip: * Bombing schools, residences, mosques and hospitals. * Targeting children, such as those playing on a Gaza beach, killing at least four of them. * Bombing without regard to the safety of ‘non-combatants’. * Blockading all Gaza’s borders: land, sea and air. * Turning off the water supply to Gaza’s residents. * Destroying reservoirs that Palestinians use for drinking water. In the West Bank: * Moving hundreds of thousands of Israelis into the occupied territory. * Displacing hundreds of thousands of residents by destroying entire cities. * Restricting certain roads to ‘Israeli only’. * Establishing countless checkpoints within the West Bank, making movement from one area to another that should take a few minutes, last for hours. * Depriving residents of needed medical assistance. Both lists could go on. Now let’s see what some of the world’s leaders have said about all this. * Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “The indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel are terrorist acts, for which there is no justification.” * U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself from rocket attacks by Hamas militants. * U.S. secretary of State John Kerry said no country can accept such rocket attacks, adding that de-escalating the crisis is ultimately in everyone’s interests. * German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, “The missile attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip has created a situation which threatens a spiraling process of violence and violent counter measures. Israel of course has the right to protect its citizens from rocket attacks.” * Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said that Ban Ki-moon “condemns the recent multiple rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza” and that “these indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas must stop.” * French Ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave said on Tuesday, “When one is here [Ashdod, Israel], 30 kilometers [19 miles] from Gaza, you can feel up close the constant anxiety and fear which the families in the south live with, who find themselves yet again hostage to the violence. I would like to say to these families that we are not forgetting them and that France stands alongside them.” * The UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that Israel and Hamas “must exercise maximum restraint” to end the fighting. It might be helpful to look at each of these statements in some detail, to understand how blatantly and unfairly each one favors Israel.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 22:14:25 +0000
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