Israel Has A Long History of Crimes Against Humanity in Palestine
Even
Israelis say the Israeli government has been committing genocide in Gaza
Main
Points
1. Israel used white phosphorous bombs on
Gazans.
2. Israel conducted carpet bombing on Gaza.
3. Israeli forces targeted children.
4. Netanyahu likens Palestinians to Amaleks
mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
5. Israeli ministers have called for the
genocide of Palestinians.
By New
Age Islam Staff Writer
22
November, 2023
Since
its birth in 1948, Israel has treated Palestinians as outsiders and occupiers
and has persecuted Palestinians in every way. It has fought so-called wars in
Gaza more than 14 times including the ongoing one. All through its occupation
of Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli governments have treated Palestinians like
animals and have dehumanised them. Israel launched its military offensive after
Hamas' surprise attacks on October 7 but the way it has targeted civilians and
civilian buildings, hospitals, schools, refugee camps and water stations, it appears
that the Netanyahu government is doing all this with a certain mindset. In a
recent statement, he likened the Palestinians to Amaleks mentioned in the
Hebrew Bible. The passage exhorts Israelites to exterminate every living being
without discrimination of women, children, the elderly or even livestock and
the destruction of cities in their war against Amalekites.
As the
bombardment of Gaza continues and the world has been condemning Israel's
genocidal offensive, the leaders and ministers of Netanyahu's coalition
government have been making provocative statements against the people of Gaza
and the West Bank. Heritage Minister Amihai Ilyahu who had spoken of a nuclear
attack on Gaza earlier said that the Gazans can go to Ireland or to the
deserts. Another minister of the Netanyahu government said that Gaza should be
completely destroyed. Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian said that the Gazans will be
punished with a lack of electricity and water.
Another
minister of Netanyahu's coalition government Bezalel Smortich said that Gazans
should voluntarily evacuate Gaza for their own welfare because they live in
densely populated areas and lack opportunities for development.
It
should be noted that Bezalel Smortich is a far-right politician with a
terrorist mindset. Journalist Jake Tapper says about him:
"With
the world focussed on Gaza, key members of Netanyahu's cabinet, the coalition
that he formed are throwing fire on the flames, in the West Bank. In the
Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Monday of this week, columnist Odeb Bisharat
called out two members of the Netanyahu cabinet for taking advantage of the
Hamas attacks, taking advantage and using the attacks to advance a racist
anti-Arab agenda. Let's start in the West Bank. Israel Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich is a hateful anti-Arab bigot. He is a far-right politician in the
Netanyahu coalition and has broad powers in civilian issues in the West Bank.
Haaretz reports that since October 7, more than 170 Palestinians have been
killed in clashes with Israelis across the West Bank. Now way back in 2005,
when Israel was withdrawing from Gaza, Smotrich was arrested by the Israeli
security forces, Shin Bet. Smotrich was arrested under suspicion of planning
terrorist attacks. He was held by Shin Bet for three weeks. He was suspected of
planning to block public roads and damaging infrastructure. That's according to
Yiddiot Acronot, a major Israeli newspaper. In 2015, the former deputy head of
Shin Bet called Smotrich a 'Jewish terrorist' according to Israel's Channel
13."
Smotrich
had opposed the government's decision to withdraw from Gaza and so he allegedly
planned terrorist attacks in West Bank to force the government to postpone its
withdrawal. During the ongoing conflict, he has provoked the Israelis to use
the opportunity to 'plunder' the West Bank. No wonder that persecution,
harassment and killing of Palestinians in the West Bank has witnessed a rise
since October 7. The settlers have killed, harassed and driven Palestinians
from their homes with impunity. The IDF has also launched aerial attacks in the
West Bank though no Hamas fighters are there. This strengthens the 'conspiracy
theory' that the Hamas attack was pre-planned to give the Netanyahu government
the premise to launch an attack on Gaza and destroy it completely so that it
may go ahead with its gas exploration and construction of the Ben Gurion canal
through Gaza. Recently, the Israeli security establishment has come up with its
report that the Israeli military shot the participants of the music festival on
October 7. The festival was scheduled for October 5 and 6 but the organisers
changed the date to October 7 and Hamas did not have formation of the festival.
An Israeli lady who survived the attacks testified that Israeli soldiers opened
fire on the festivalgoers. It should be recalled that the Egyptian Intelligence
Minister had claimed that he had personally called Netanyahu and informed him
of 'something big' by Hamas but Netanyahu had pretended to ignore the warning.
Hamas
was originally known as Majama al Islamiyah and was allowed to flourish in Gaza
as a rival group of Yasser Arafat's Fateh in the West Bank. It established
schools, hospitals and social welfare organisations in Gaza and was allowed to
strengthen its base in Gaza. In 1985-87, the organisation changed its name to
Hamas. As Israel left Gaza in 2005, Hamas won the elections in Gaza and formed
the government. During these years, Hamas apparently hardened its stance
against Israel and vowed to free Palestine from Israel's occupation. It did not
even support a two-state solution. After Hamas came to power in Gaza, it had
many wars with Israel. But Netanyahu called Hamas its secret ally in a secret
cabinet meeting. In an interview with CNN, the former IDF soldier Benzie
Sanders said that the Netanyahu government facilitated the transfer of funds to
Hamas to keep Palestinians divided between Gaza and the West Bank.
It is
to be noted that Hamas fired 5000 missiles in 20 minutes on October 7 but the
number of missiles fired came down in successive days though Israel's Iron Dome
had failed to intercept them. Israel started the land offensive after a week.
Still, Hamas did not fire missiles in large numbers. What did stop it from
firing missiles at the same speed?
The
total destruction of Gaza as envisaged by the ministers of the Netanyahu
government is going on. The Israeli government has also distributed
sophisticated weapons among the settlers of West Bank. A genocide is going in
Gaza. The Israeli forces have targeted children and women not only in this war
but also in previous wars. Miko Peled, the son of an Israeli general said:
"And
you got the Israeli army which I like to refer to as one of the best trained,
best equipped and best fed terrorist organisation in the world. And yes, they
have generals and they have nice uniforms but their entire purpose is
terrorism. I’ll give you one example. Almost exactly four years ago, as Israel
began its attack on Gaza, Sept 27, 2008, at 11:25 in the morning what I refer
to as the most shameful day in the Jewish history, the most shameful day in the
history of the Jewish people. Israel began carpet bombing Gaza and on the first
day of what was going to be a 21-day attack, they dropped 100 tonnes of bombs.
Okay, the one-tonne bomb will decimate an entire city block. Gaza is one of the
most densely populated places in the world. 8,00,000 children live in Gaza. At
11:25 exactly is the time when the morning school shift and the afternoon
school shift change. So, all the kids were on the streets. That was the moment
decided by the decision-makers of Israel to begin the attack. This was the
first day of the 21-day slaughter that had absolutely no justification. If
that's not terrorism, I don't know what is."
A PhD
scholar of Israel, Katty, who has studied in the US says that Israel is
committing genocide in Gaza. Ibrahim Awad, a Muslim youth from Georgia whose
mother had left Gaza says that Israel restricts the life of the Palestinians making
them live like prisoners. The military law of Israel says the Palestinians
cannot even extract water from water wells. They cannot even store rainwater in
cisterns. They control electricity and restrict medicine.
During
the ongoing war also, Israel has targeted children and women with an eye on
ethnic cleansing. Out of 12 thousand dead, almost 5500 are children and 3500
are women. Among the 30,000 injured, 75 per cent are women. This means the IDF
attacks the places where women with their children are found taking shelter or
moving in a group. Obviously, every woman is accompanied by one or two
children. This should be taken note of by the world community. The focus of the
IDF is not on Hamas militants but on children and women, not on Hamas' bunkers and
tunnels but on hospitals and schools. This speaks of the real objective of
Israel. Netanyahu's weak coalition government is playing to the tunes of his
far-right coalition leaders who want to destroy Gaza completely and push the
Gazans out of Gaza.
Therefore,
Netanyahu is guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Demands have
been raised for Netanyahu's trial in ICC. South Africa has filed a referral to
the International Criminal Court for an investigation into war crimes committed
by Israel in Gaza.
“South
African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday during a state visit to
Qatar. Ramaphosa said that he believed Israel was committing war crimes and
genocide in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinians had been killed and hospitals
and public infrastructure had been destroyed.
The
South African government has also called on the International Crime Court (ICC)
to issue an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by
mid-December.
South
Africa, along with Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros and Djibouti, submitted a
referral to the ICC to investigate whether war crimes and crimes against
humanity have been committed in Gaza.
Netanyahu's
crimes against humanity not only in this war but also in the 2008 and 2014 wars
should also be investigated. He has been attacking children, women and the
elderly with impunity. But this time he has crossed all red lines.
…
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