April
30, 2024
Israel
exists. Whether the reader likes this or not, it is a verifiable fact. That it
has chosen to exist as a semi-fascist apartheid state that occupies land
illegally while militarily supporting so-called settlers in the ongoing theft
of more land is also a fact. So is the ongoing genocidal slaughter of
Palestinians living in the area known as Gaza. All of these facts are subject
to change, despite Israel’s arrogant proclamations to the contrary—the
slaughter will end and Israel as we know it might, too. This is true despite
its support from the world’s most successful colonial-settler state, the United
States.
Here’s
another fact. Palestine exists. It exists in the hearts and minds of the
Palestinian people—in the Occupied Territories, in Gaza, in exile around the
world and in Israel’s prisons. It also exists in the hearts and minds of
millions of other humans on the planet and in the proclamations by 142
governments that recognize Palestinian statehood. This existence goes far
beyond the groups that make up the current resistance and their supporters. It
is also much more than the dashed hopes represented by the Palestinian
Authority. Like other national liberation movements before it in Vietnam and
Algeria (among others), and the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the
Palestinian struggle is a struggle that goes beyond borders and reaches across
the human population.
Washington
is a decrepit regime, crippled by its economic addiction to war and the
preparation for war. Billions of dollars are handed over to its clients foreign
and domestic, who seem all too willing to hitch their wagons to the death train
pulled by the men and women in the White House, Congress and the Pentagon. It
is a train fueled by the profits of death merchants and cheered by the
sycophant media; a media that pretends diversity of opinion but never stops
promoting the lies and programs of the rulers and their agenda. In other words,
any diversity of opinion ends when it approaches a genuine challenge to the
permanent war economy.
Israel
seems determined to follow Washington’s path. Its regime has gone further than
ever before, stripping away most pretenses of equal treatment for non-Zionists
inside its borders. While Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and its
ongoing incursion into the West Bank continues, its leaders defy the world’s
common humanity and understandings, challenging virtually every rule in what
Washington’s current White House calls the rules-based order. Israel suffers no
punishment for its crimes. Instead, its defense minister challenges the hand of
the nation holding its leash—the United States—telling it that “nobody will
teach the Israeli military morality” after Washington suggested it might
sanction a particularly brutal unit of the Israeli Offensive Forces. Washington
backed off.
Israel
and the United States are committing war crime after war crime. Indeed, the
entire Israeli military, the Israeli government and the governments that fund
them should be sanctioned. There is no moral claim left for Israel to make. Its
crusade is nothing but homicidal madness. The fact that Washington and a few
other morally bankrupt regimes continue to fund that crusade places them in the
war crimes docket, as well. US imperialism has no clothes. Its bloodlust is
once again revealed. The Israeli government is Washington’s mad dog in the
region. Washington feeds the dog and lets it off its chain when it serves the
US empire’s agenda. Of course, like any poorly trained dog, Israel doesn’t
always return when its master calls.
If
one seeks a sense of morality in the US, it seems it can best be found among
those college and university students demanding an end to the slaughter in Gaza
and divestment from the war machine that these institutions support. Liberals
and conservatives call these protesters antisemitic. The media amplifies the
nonsense. At this point, it could be argued that antisemitism is defined as any
statement that does not indicate anything but total support for Israel’s
occupation, land theft and the slaughter of Gazans. When it comes to Congress,
the White House, the Pentagon and the institutions running interference for US
foreign policy regarding Israel and Palestine (and the rest of the world), the
statements regarding antisemitism ring exceedingly hollow upon further
investigation. For example, congressman Mike Johnson’s religious beliefs demand
his rabid support for Zionism. He is a Christian Zionist. Now, the only reason
this branch of Christianity supports the state of Israel in its endeavor is
because these believers understand the Bible’s Book of Revelations to read that
certain things must happen for Christ’s second coming to occur. One of those
things is the rebuilding of a certain temple in Jerusalem where the Al-Aqsa
mosque currently exists. That rebuilding would likely only occur when Israel’s
rebuilding of what is called Greater Israel is completed. This requires the
complete and total defeat of the Palestinian struggle. Only then will these
Christians’ savior come back and lead them to heaven. As far as Jewish people
are concerned, if this time comes they will be slaughtered en masse unless they
quickly convert to Christianity. In other words, Johnson’s version of
Christianity doesn’t care about Jewish people, except as a means to hasten the
ascent into heaven he and his fellow believers are convinced they are due.
Anyhow,
thinking about morality. Not to preach, but certain realities need to be
acknowledged. To set the stage, I grew up as the oldest son of twelve children.
I raised two children of my own. I worked with young people in public libraries
for years and still volunteer. I coached and refereed youth sports and I worked
in undergraduate libraries on college campuses for decades. In other words,
I’ve been around young folks my entire life. However, even people who have not
been around children since they were children themselves must be asking
themselves this question: how can anyone justify on any grounds the slaughter
of over 15,000 children in Gaza since October 7, 2023? If you were appalled at
the murder of children and young people during the attack by Hamas on that
date, how can you be not at least equally appalled at Israel’s ongoing
massacre?
That
is a moral question, not a political one.
(
Middle East Monitor ) – The Israeli authorities, in their campaign of
remorseless killing, doctoring and adjusting the numbers of the Palestinian
populace for whatever future awaits, have been found wanting on accusations
that Hamas terrorists packed, stacked and filled UNRWA (the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).
Not
that this, in of itself, negates the need to feed, clothe and provide medical
assistance to Palestinians being pummelled into oblivion. Or avoid committing war crimes against them. Or avoid starving, humiliating, and degrading
them through administrative fiat and bureaucratic oppression. By any estimation, bad apples do not destroy
the entire crop, and still need harvesting.
From
the outset, Israel asserted that 12 such individuals in UNRWA had participated
in the October 7 attacks by Hamas, sharing the sparse details on January 29
with media outlets. The grateful
recipients of the alleged scandal proceeded to gorge on the thin morsel
comprising a few pages. The Financial
Times, for instance, wrote of Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs having
“something explosive on their agenda”, even if 12 suspects from a Gaza
complement of 13,000 would have barely caused a ripple in any other
circumstance.
Fifteen
donor governments, in a fit of stretched moral outrage, froze promised funding,
insisting that investigations by the organisation be undertaken. The UN’s Office of International Oversight
Services immediately commenced an investigation while US$444 million was
withheld from an aid agency that has assisted dispossessed Palestinians for
three-quarters of a century.
On
February 5, the UN Secretary General António Guterres announced that an
independent panel would assess “whether the agency is doing everything within
its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious
breaches when they are made.” The panel,
chaired by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, and also
comprising the work of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, the Chr.
Michelsen Institute in Norway, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights,
released its findings on April 22.
The
full report, titled “Independent review of mechanisms and procedures to ensure
adherence by UNRWA to the humanitarian principle of neutrality”, was marked by
a total absence of cooperation from Israeli authorities. Two requests from the Colonna-led inquiry in
March and April requesting names and details to support Israel’s allegations
died in silence.
In
its findings, UNRWA was found to have, in place, “a significant number of
mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian
principles, with the emphasis on the principle of neutrality, and that it
possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO
entities.”
It
also noted that staff lists, comprising names and functions, are shared on an
annual basis with Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Israel and the US for East Jerusalem,
Gaza and the West Bank. It falls on the
states in question “to alert UNRWA of any information that may deem a staff
member unworthy of diplomatic immunity.”
The report further notes that “the Israeli Government has not informed
UNRWA of any concerns relating to any UNRWA staff based on these staff lists
since 2011.” Regarding the March 2024
list, Israel made public allegations “that a significant number of UNRWA
employees are members of terrorist organizations. However, Israel has yet to provide supporting
evidence of this.”
The
report does not ignore the challenges facing the agency in the Gaza Strip, one
made more complex since Hamas took over the reins of the territory in
2007. It found, generally, that the
agency had been admirable in maintaining its neutrality in such trying
circumstances, though identified eight “critical areas” for improvement, among
them addressing the neutrality of education, the political position of staff
unions, staff and behaviour, and management and internal oversight mechanisms.
UNRWA schools, for instance, were not found to be breeding grounds of
antisemitism, though some “host-country textbooks with problematic content”
were being used in them. Other areas
needing rectification are unlikely to be taken, given the need for Israeli
cooperation.
As
the report’s executive summary notes, “In the absence of a political solution
between Israel and the Palestinians, UNRWA remains pivotal in providing
life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in
health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
and the West Bank.”
Despite
refusing to furnish any solid evidence, Israel was already preparing the ground
for refusal and refutation ahead of the release. Any findings would be ignored with a
fanatic’s adamance. While the country
jumps at every opportunity to conduct investigations into its own military
misconduct at the drop of hat, with the inevitable exonerations, no external
review would convince them. Nothing
short of the destruction of the agency would satisfy the objectives of the
Israeli state.
In
March, The Guardian quoted one Israeli diplomatic source (nameless, naturally)
as claiming that a “double game” was being played by Hamas and the agency, “so
much so that UNRWA is a Hamas strategic asset.”
Another nameless diplomatic source was of the view that the aid agency
was “so penetrated in Gaza, it cannot be repaired. This is the policy of the state of
Israel. We want to see an end to UNRWA
activity in Gaza. This is not a case of
a few bad apples. It is systemic,
consistent and cannot be ignored.” Out,
it would seem, with the entire orchard.
Presumption
can therefore take the position of hard fact, a point made crystal clear in
another round of allegations (no evidence supplied about that either) that
2,135 UNRWA staff were supposedly members of Hamas, of whom 400 were alleged to
be active fighters.
From
the perspective of lusty warmongers, UNRWA remains an obstacle, a nuisance, a
nightmare of reminder to those wishing to be done with the Palestinian issue
once and for all. May it continue to
thrive, and, more ever, may its funders finally wise up to the fact that in the
viciousness of conflict, civilians should never have to pay the price for
military actions undertaken by others.
Unfortunately, three months after, and a human-confected famine ravaging
Gaza even as the killings continue, various donor countries such as the United
States, Germany and the UK are still minding their wallets.
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