The world stood silent while we were slaughtered “Why is there no protection or obligation to apply international law and UN resolutions when it comes to the Palestinian people?” Before Israel’s launching of the current offensive against Gaza, a member of the Israeli Knesset, Ayelet Shaked, of the Jewish Home Party, called for a genocide and collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza. “They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes otherwise more little snakes will be raised there,” she said. Unfortunately this does not represent the stance of only some minority of racist far-right Israeli politicians like Ayelet Shaked, Miri Regev, Mordechai Kedar, Moshe Feiglin...etc. Rather it epitomizes the policy of the majority of Israelis (hard hawks or soft doves) that we, a population that is mostly children, are all mere snakes. This strategy is not new. We have not been only witnessing it for the last month. It has been a long history of endless massacres, decades of systemic ethnic cleansing, forty-seven years of military occupation, apartheid policies and forced displacement since 1948, and all this continues until today. It has not been about Hamas rockets, “human shields,” or tunnels. It has always been about Israel’s control over our lives, land, and borders. And it has been about killing more of us. However, the massacre, genocide, holocaust - call it what you may - of Gaza 2014, is the most ferocious one I have ever eye-witnessed. The observable facts of deliberately targeting and atrociously slaughtering civilians, massacring entire neighborhoods like in al-Shejaya, Khuza’a, Rafah, and obliterating houses are prodigiously shocking. At least 1,875 Palestinians have been killed, with more than 450 children, so far. Over 9,567 others have been injured. Numbers are increasing, many injured people are in critical condition, and countless bodies continue to be pulled from the rubble every today. According to the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, a child or a woman has been killed every hour since the beginning of this assault. More than 70,000 children have been forced to flee from their homes that were totally destroyed or sustained major damage, prompting Save the Children to call the current offensive an “ongoing war on children.” It is worth mentioning that the severe and ongoing Israeli bombardments of Gaza’s only power plant (GPP), aggravated by limited fuel availability, brought the plant’s operation to a total halt on 29 July. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) estimates that Gaza currently receives only about 64 MW of power from Egypt and Israel, equivalent to less than 18 percent of the estimated demand. Even when I use the generator to get electricity for nearly an hour a day - not to mention the hardship to reach this stage - I feel psychologically unsettled, bewildered, overwhelmed and perplexed as I dont know what I have to prioritize and from where I should commence! Equally significant, data collected by the PA’s Gaza Coastal Municipal Water Utility (CMWU) and Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) indicates a significant shortage of water services and a grievous public health threat to the population of Gaza. More than 80 percent of the water wells in Gaza are estimated to not function with about 1.2 million people lacking access to water and sanitation services. The desalination plant in Deir al-Balah, where I live, continues to be non-operational, after it sustained damage during airstrikes - the main ancient water reservoir in the town, dating back to the sixties, has been targeted and destroyed, further restricting the availability of much needed drinking water. We refuse to life in a submissive ghetto: In this surreal (un)reality, the official world chooses not to see and to keep flying in the face of international law. At a joint press conference during the offensive when Netanyahu rejected the cease-fire, UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon supported Israel saying, “No country would accept the rockets raining down on its territory. All countries and parties have an obligation to protect its citizens.” Well, would any country on earth ever accept being brutally occupied, racially oppressed and discriminated against and ethnically cleansed for more than sixty-six years? And why is there no protection or obligations to apply the international law and UN resolutions when it comes to the Palestinian people? It is either silence or injustices that prevail whenever such official bodies speak about this spot on earth. middleeasteye.net/columns/world-stood-silent-while-we-were-slaughtered-374769832
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 02:07:15 +0000