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| Israel's crime against children |
The kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenage hikers
belonging to illegally built Jewish settlements in the West Bank could have been a
ploy by Israel Defense Force (IDF) to start up an onslaught on Palestinian
people as collective punishment on the aftermath of Hamas-Fateh reconciliation
deal. Throughout their history the Zionists have conspired and collaborated to
kill Jews to achieve their desired ends. Israel’s security cabinet met to
discuss following the discovery of three teenager’s bodies on June 30. The
ministers had known the boys were dead long before they launched a massive
military search operation in the West Bank two weeks earlier on the pretext of
finding them alive. The operation killed 17 Palestinian civilians and arrested
500 people including some members of Hamas who had been released in the Gilad
Shalit swap deal.
Since 2006, anyone who spends a single day in Gaza can feel
what it really means to be trying to survive in the world’s largest open-air prison
under the total control of a brutal occupying force. More than 1.8 million
people are constantly subjected to extreme terror, arbitrary arrest and other
forms of humiliating punishment to ensure that Palestinian efforts to gain
diplomatic support for establishing an independent homeland is crushed.
Israel’s brutal method of waging war is revealed on its
deliberate attacks on civilians. Mosques, hospitals, schools, disability
centers and civilian homes are frequently bombed. Israel’s policy of
exterminating Palestinian population is seen when its fighter jets bombed and
killed 18 members of al-Batsh family as they slept in their house in eastern
Gaza City. The women and children killed in the attack posed no threat to
Israel nor were they assisting Hamas to fire rockets into Israel.
This time, Israel has chosen to attack Gaza on the Muslim
holy month of Ramadan where all healthy, adult Muslims are obliged to keep a fast
during day and spend a part of the night in prayer. The timing of the attack
clearly shows that Israel wants to disrupt the civilian life in the densely
populated Gaza. Israel is fully aware that Hamas could not be destroyed or
weakened by such tactics. The only aim of Israel is to impose a collective
punishment on the Palestinian population.
No place is safe in Gaza, not even the cemeteries. Not even
the dead escapes Israel’s anger as cemeteries continued to be bombed. People in
Gaza face enormous obstacles in burying their dead as Israel targets all
gatherings. The entire strip of land is closed on all sides and there is no
place to flee to escape bombing and shelling. In the ongoing conflict, Israeli
tank shelling in al-Shujaya residential district in eastern Gaza City killed around
70 people in moments, nearly half of them women and children. The attack
happened when the civilians were trying to flee into safety and bears all the
hallmarks of a war crime and blatant violation of fourth Geneva Convention. Following
the massacre, Israeli forces refused to allow the medical workers and their
ambulances into the area to care for the wounded. Israel is a rogue state that
keeps constantly violating United Nations Security Council Resolutions and has
been successful over the decades in keeping the United Nations on the sidelines
in efforts to find a solution to the problem of Palestine.
Israel’s separation barrier or the apartheid wall is a land
grab and it has become clear that Palestinians will not get a state based on
the 1967 borders. The wall has separated many Palestinian families and many of
them have lost their sources of income as their agricultural lands became
included on the Israeli side of the wall. Israel has not permitted an
independent Palestinian economy to function, forcing tens of thousands of them
to work in Israel and in illegally built Jewish settlements. Many are not
granted work permits in Israel and are forced to work illegally in harsh conditions.
In June 2004, the International Court of Justice, the legal
arm of the United Nations issued an Advisory Opinion declaring the
barrier contrary to international law, but this was ignored by Israel. Israel's
illegally built wall goes far inside the Palestinian territory,
protecting illegal Jewish settlements, blocking free access to precious
Palestinian water and farm lands and isolating some Palestinian
villages and towns.
Israel continues to violate the Geneva Convention by
building Jewish settlements inside the Palestinian territory of West Bank, and
then using the separation wall to annex settlement lands into Israel. The
Articles 47-78 of the fourth Geneva Convention covers the protection of
civilians in times of war, and imposes specific obligations on
the occupying power as regards population transfers, children’s
well-being, medical services and destruction of property. The Article
49 states that the occupying power cannot forcibly expel people, nor can
it transfer parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory.
Israel continues to violate numerous UN Security Council
resolutions, including the unanimously adopted Resolution 242 which calls on
Israel to unconditionally withdraw from the lands it occupied in June 1967 war and
the Resolution 194 calling on Israel to respect the rights of the Palestinian
refugees to return to their properties and homes.
Israel continues to build new Jewish settlements in
the occupied Palestinian lands, most notably in East Jerusalem and
this has begun to draw criticism from the United States and European Union. In
accordance with the United Nations, both the US and the EU regard
Israeli settlements on occupied territories as illegal. The EU countries
such as Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Spain have advised their citizens
not to invest in Israel’s illegal settlements.
There are protests in the cities of Washington, New York,
Chicago, Boston, and in other cities across the United States and in the world.
Many people in the US want their country to stop unconditional support for
Israel’s belligerent foreign policy, extreme nationalism and onslaught on
Palestinian population, but no matter how loud they scream US government is too
busy to hear their demands of justice for Palestinians.
The United States gives military aid to Israel amounting to
billions of dollars every year and provides unconditional political support
despite Israel's aggressive settlement policies; and has refused to hold Israel
accountable for violations of international law in the 2008-9 bombing on Gaza
and the 2012 attack on Gaza. The US government is complicit in creating the
emergency that has now placed over 1.8 million lives at grave risk in Gaza.
The United States has
agreed to spend $30 billion on military aid for Israel between 2009 and 2018.
For the year 2014, Israel is set to receive $3.1 billion in military aid. This
include the Senate Appropriations defence subcommittee decision to allocate
$351 million to finance Israel’s Iron Dome anti- missile system during fiscal
year 2015 compared to $235 million in 2014. Despite the economic problems at
home the US tax payers’ money is allowed to be devoured by the Zionist state of
Israel to finance its aggression on innocent civilians in Palestine. This shows
that United States is a country virtually hijacked by Israel and its leaders
taken hostage to suit on every need of the Zionists.
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By the time this article was written the Israeli military
machine had killed almost 1500 Palestinians, the majority of them were women,
children and the elderly and was on its 27 day of the attack on Gaza which
began on July 8, 2014.
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Written by: Ibrahim Nazim
13 Shawwal 1435
9 August 2014
