- Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN-designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced … I condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces - Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
The Gaza Chamber as a writer on this blog referred to it earlier today is still the target of the merciless onslaught. This morning, a school building where children and their parents sought shelter from murder, this afternoon, a crowded marketplace, both sites of mass slaughter. The war criminals have once again left their calling card, emblazoned across it crimes against humanity. If tomorrow’s news reports were to inform us that the Israelis are spraying areas of the Gaza Strip with Zyklon B, we might express horror but hardly disbelief given that Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians have already been described by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, as "outrageous and unjustifiable". This is how low Israeli military actions against unarmed defenceless civilians have reduced to zero our expectations of them. If these crimes are different in essence from those of the Nazis, the difference escapes me completely.
There seems no end to it although there could be if Israel’s prime backers, the US, adopted a non-racist position and declared that Palestinian lives are as valuable as the lives of any other nationality and that they as leaders of the Western World will protect them. When Bashir Assad of Syria was carrying out war crimes against his own community, the US no longer in need of the torture chambers he operated on their behalf under the rendition scheme, seemed to be within days of bombing his regime into extinction. Human rights the clarion call from the citadel of nauseating hypocrisy.
Alright, it seems if you are considered human. If you are not fortunate enough to have that status in the eyes of the Western hegemon your goose is well and truly cooked by an Israeli white phosphorus bomb. When Netanyahu commits war crimes, not a word from the US. They will block any move to have the tyrant hauled before the International Criminal Court, seeking to cover for his crimes with the same determination that they have always defended Kissinger. War crimes, seemingly, are judged not on the fact that they happen but on who makes them happen: perpetrators matter, not victims.
When confronted with images of the horror in Gaza, there is a tendency to try and make sense of it through recourse to what we know from other situations. The serial bombed ruins of the Strip have not come without precedent. Truly, under the sun there is nothing new other than new people dying much the same as other people did before them, in terror and agony, their death rattle being heard by those who die beside them, not by those in authority.
Having read quite a bit about the battle of Stalingrad over the years, an image of the city as devoid of structure, a rubble strewn warren of dereliction and destruction is ingrained in the mind. Its military strategic value limited, the Nazis laying siege to it simply pulverised it because Hitler had a vanity driven obsession with obliterating its symbolic potency: the city that bore the name of the Soviet leader, Josef Stalin.
Watching images of a pulverised Gaza, its people emerging from the ruins of their habitat, the name Stalingrad reverberates with the weighty tone Bob Hoskins assigned his pronunciation of it while playing the role of Khrushchev in the film Enemy at the Gates. What the citizens of Gaza have in common with their Stalingrad counterparts is an ability to emerge after each murderous attack. In terms of military balance on the side of the defenders Gaza possesses nothing of the strength in depth that Stalingrad could call upon. It does not have the power to militarily repulse the enemy. What the aggressors at the gates of each city share in common is that it is hard to distinguish one from the other. With some artistic licence it is not too hard to conjure an image of Field Marshall Von Paulus standing at his command post in Stalingrad rallying his troops with the words Ich bin ein Israeli.
Tomorrow it will continue. The Enemy at the Gates will bring a child's death each hour. The world stands truly disgraced.
This advocacy of genocide is no longer remarkable When the world at least pretends to oppose genocide here we have an Israeli in the Times of Israel advocating the obliteration of the Palestinians. Now tell us FFS that he is not a Nazi
ReplyDeleteI am finding it increasingly more difficult day by day to cope with the reports of the genocide in Gaza.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is following the despicable inhumanity visited on an entire people I am finding it a little hard to cope.
I don't follow the story too closely but close enough to see pictures of children the fear on their faces bringing tears to my eyes, the annoying propaganda from various quarters near and far, the letters of welcome protest from famous and non famous alike, from politicians and human rights workers.
But what really gets me is my helplessness my lack of power to help.
Simon,
ReplyDeleteWell said, you are not alone in that thought as the slaughter continues helplessness and guilt meet.
It is well beyond comprehension but all we can do is keep opposing the butchery there is no justification for this to continue.
Simon,
ReplyDeleteI think it is a feeling that is pervasive. Just think how much worse it would be if this absolute furore was not being kicked up. They would be exercising their own final solution. I hear of all the young kids in Ireland just into their teens who up until two weeks ago were totally disinterested in politics and were listening to their music. Now they are handing out leaflets and going to rallies.
And in spite of all the noise we still need to quietly reflect and never do what the Nazis did - blame the Jews for it. In that way we will stay separate from both the Nazis and the Zionists.
Tain Bo, AM, Thanks for that. I think we need to boost each other's morale now and again with the positives that arise in these dark days. The horror as Tain Bo says is unfathomable and what little we see pales in comparison to that the Palestinians see.
ReplyDeleteThe BBC coverage is so far fetched it reminds us all to think and think again when we get information from whatever source.
I guess the IDF see the horror too but judging by the slant of the public broadcaster of the UK, Israel's ally, we can only guess at the hogwash the TV news is showing there and the propaganda civilian Israelis see. But there is the internet and most adults have served in the IDF.
Threat from rocket fire aside and the squewed thinking that creates don't they know their state is perpetrating genocide in their name?
If the world is powerless because the USA veto every relevant UN decision where does that leave them?
Simon,
ReplyDeleteI doubt we can rely upon the established media as like any other show on the box their greatest concern is ratings. The other thing reports are going to be deliberately slanted.
I can’t speak for everyone else but this has become a sickening source of depression and your thought of boosting each other’s morale makes sense.
The UN is basically outdated and evidently powerless or powerless when it comes to protecting the stronger nations.
Tain Bo- The obvious slant from the BBC indicates that we should be wary of even the most innocuous news stories, those where the establishment slant is more subtle.
ReplyDeleteI think toeing the government line can often be more vital than ratings. However the latter obviously play a part.