Shameless Israeli government believes it can do what it likes with Palestinians
A relative of Palestinian Mahmoud Abu Taima, who was killed during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border, mourns during his funeral.
These are damning words from The Guardian:
It is inexcusable for soldiers of a military, especially those under democratic civilian control, to shoot and kill protesters, almost all of whom were unarmed, and who pose no credible threat. Yet at the boundary between Gaza and Israel today Israeli soldiers seem to have done just that.
It should make Israelis quail that demonstrators were sprayed with live ammunition with apparent impunity. There were dozens of deaths and hundreds of maimings among the Palestinians who had marched to the border to make a point about their right to return to their ancestral homes.
Israel’s army evinced no shame in committing what looks like a war crime.
These are serious accusations. Yet they were greeted with little more than a shrug.
By blockading Gaza, Israel imprisoned 2 million people behind barbed wire and military towers. Israel treated the violence as a jailer might a prison riot: a tragic fault of the inmates.
This is a dangerous mindset for Israelis to embrace. Yet they have done so because the extreme right in Israel, and most of the present government ministers, nurture the idea that Israel can, through its vastly superior military force, end the national aspirations of the Palestinians.
The full article is even more condemnatory: The Guardian view on Gaza shootings: stop killing unarmed civilians | Editorial | Opinion | The Guardian
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
With the encouragement of Trump and his nasty administration. High time we condemned the 1917 Balfour Declaration and isolated this artificial country.
“End the national aspirations of the Palestinians”. Possibly the most anodyne way of describing genocide ever?
The Israeli government has much to answer for – they won’t of course
because, as always – they get away with it;
There is a central weakness in the arguments of well-meaning , progressive, liberal-minded people who are rightly horrified by the violence meted out by Israeli forces. They all seem to follow the mantra that “Israel has a right to defend its borders but…(in effect)… why do they have to be so extreme about it!!? ” But ,once you accept that Israel is just another country like any other, you end up having to defend its right to defend its borders.
The point is that Israel is an entirely artificial creation, built on land stolen from the Palestinians, with borders that reflect no ethnic, cultural or historical reality except the point on a map that the Israelis have currently advanced to.
When we hear politicians defend “Israel’s right to exist”, we know that there will be limits to their true outrage about the slaughter in Gaza. There is conflict in the Middle East because of the way Israel was set up as a “Jewish state”, automatically creating a conflict between “acceptable” and “unacceptable” religion and cultures.
So, no, Israel does NOT have “a right to defend its borders”. It has a right to negotiate how best to arrange the return of the Palestinians to their own land. If the return of the Palestinians is not the central element in any Peace talks, those talks will be of little value as they would ignore the main cause of the conflict.
Well we can condemn the Israel Government for these atrocities as much as we like on the internet and our own UK Government too but I fear this will have little consequence. It might be ‘old fashioned’ but I think those rusting pens and word processors will have to come out again and with a flourish of the mighty metaphorical sword send a paper avalanche of indignation and condemnation down upon our own pathetic leaders and all those investors who helped to make it all possible, crushing them with shame and humiliation! If that doesn’t work: what’s left?