WE, in the village, cannot help but marvel at the hypocrisy, double-standards and brazen bully tendencies being displayed by the West with regards to the unfolding of events between Palestine and Israel.
Every day, in the last 50 years, horrors are perpetrated against Palestinians while the world watches and does nothing, simply because Israel is backed by the West, in general, and the US, in particular.
How many more murders must be committed before we call what we are seeing by its real name, murder most foul, a genocide.
In 2012, Breaking the Silence, an organisation founded by former Israeli soldiers, whose guilty consciences weighed heavily published a booklet that exposed abuses committed by the Israeli Defence Forces.
The booklet carried reports by more than 30 former Israeli soldiers documenting the beating up of Palestinian children.
It highlighted how the children were intimidated, humiliated, verbally abused and injured by Israeli soldiers.
The West is complicit in murder most foul yet chooses to turn a blind eye.
And, ironically, ‘open’ its eyes on our peaceful nation!
Dozens and dozens of reports have been produced showing how the Israelis use chemical weapons, many of which induce cancer, against the Palestinians.
In 2014, a Norwegian doctor working at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, revealed how some of the injuries of Palestinians were consistent with banned weapons.
In 2009, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of using internationally banned weapons in its three-week long war on Gaza in late 2008/early 2009.
In a 71-paged report titled ‘Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza’, HRW said indiscriminate use of white phosphorus ammunition had killed civilians in Gaza.
The UN confirmed that white phosphorus was used on numerous occasions in civilian areas by the Israelis.
White phosphorous is one of the chemical weapons Americans accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of using against Kurds in the 1990s. According to Amnesty International: “Israeli forces used white phosphorous and other weapons supplied by the USA to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes.”
In the Israel-Palestine conflict, Israel, from day one, has been in direct violation of international and humanitarian law conventions by targeting civilians.
Yet international rights groups and the American government seem to place less emphasis on the atrocities committed by Israel.
Syria was placed under sanctions and ordered to destroy its chemical weapons while Israel has always gone scotfree.
Israel is not accountable to anyone; in fact Israel was one of the countries that alleged President Assad’s forces were using chemical weapons.
There is a huge disparity of arms between the American backed Israeli war machine and Palestinian weapons.
According to Palestine-Israel conflict expert Dan Sanchez: “They (Palestinians) are like fish in a barrel, being blasted by a shotgun from above. It’s like some of the fish in the barrel pathetically spitting water at the gunman, and the US media calls that a shooting battle.”
Since 2000, Israel has killed 1 500 children while Palestinians have killed 132 Israeli children.
Documents by the Washington DC-based Jerusalem Fund claim that Israel breaks more ceasefires than Palestine.
The Jerusalem Fund says, Palestinian launches are rare and sporadic and occur almost always after successive instances of ceasefire violations.
Israel can fire into Gaza and claim self-defence, however, any attack by Palestinians is an act of terror.
Noam Chomsky makes a notation that HAMAS is regularly described as: “Iranian-backed HAMAS which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.”
This is in order to create the wrong impression of the democratically elected Hamas to the American public and the rest of the world.
In 2009, Amnesty International reported that Israel killed 450 when it broke the ceasefire; during that round of fighting, only 13 Israelis were killed, several by friendly fire.
According to UNICEF the “…ill treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalised”.
Another UNICEF report says that, in the past decade, Israel has arrested some 7 000 Palestinian children.
In one case, a five-year-old was detained on allegations that he threw stones and endangered passers-by. Apparently, according to the Israel military, the throwing of stones by Palestinians, no matter what age, is an act of terrorism.
The Guardian has, in the past, reported that Palestinian children are often arrested at night, handcuffed, blindfolded abused and not given access to family members or legal representation.
The paper also says Palestinian children are locked in solitary confinement for days or even weeks and sometimes sign confessions that they later say they were coerced into signing. The confessions are usually typed in Hebrew, which these Palestinian children cannot read.
A report by Amnesty International, in 2008, claims that the Israeli military used Palestinian civilians as human shields. The report points out instances where Palestinians, including children, were forced to carry out dangerous tasks such as inspecting properties or objects suspected to be booby-trapped.
In 2010, two Israeli soldiers were convicted of conduct unbecoming for using a nine-year-old Palestinian child as a human shield to open packages suspected of being booby trapped during the Gaza war. Their sentence: three months probation and a demotion in rank.
Need I say more on Western hypocrisy!
