For the past 12 months, the world has watched in horror as Israel destroyed Gaza in what Palestinians and many experts consider a military campaign of genocide – one of the deadliest and most destructive bombing campaigns in history – armed and sponsored by the US government. .
The US has spent at least $17.9 billion on Israeli weapons and that staggering sum continues to grow; The Biden administration in August authorized an additional $20 billion.
This support for Israel violates both US and international law. It also goes against the wishes of the majority of Americans. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans want a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to arms transfers to Israel (including 77% of Democrats) amid death and destruction.
At least 42,000 Palestinians, including more than 16,500 children, have been killed in Gaza. Another 96,000 people were injured there. About 2 million people in the Strip were also left homeless. These are amazing statistics.
Meanwhile, in the consuming West Bank, Israeli soldiers and settlers have unleashed a wave of violent repression while the rest of the world focuses on Gaza. At least 722 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers; more than 1,600 people were also evicted from their homes amid a massive increase in illegal settlements. A recent report from the watchdog Peace Now called the kidnappings in the Jordan Valley “the single largest budget sanctioned since the 1993 Oslo accords.”
It is important to put the past year in context and remember that the violence we Palestinians are facing did not start after the Oct. 7 Hamas. Many people in Gaza are refugees whose families were driven from their homes in what became Israel in 1948. They have lived under the violent, repressive Israeli military regime since the 1967 recruitment. And more than 17 years before Oct. 7, Israel imposed an oppressive blockade and naval blockade on Gaza—denied illegal by the UN and rights groups—that controlled who came in and out. This blockade has left most of the people of Gaza, who were already very poor, desperate.
Now the nightmare of Gaza—the stench of corpses, the widespread destruction, the constant roar of warplanes—is spreading to Lebanon. The death toll has risen to 2,000 in recent weeks and over one million of the country’s five million people have been displaced by Israel’s brutal airstrikes. Israel has also begun ground attacks in southern Lebanon.
Read more: ‘We Can’t Predict What Israel Will Do.’ Inside Lebanon’s Fear and Chaos
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government appear intent on drawing America into war with Iran instead of Israel. Will President Biden finally draw a red line to stop Israel’s expansion? So far, there is no evidence that he is willing to reinstate Netanyahu.
Clearly no one benefits from Israel’s war—certainly not the innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon who are suffering now, or the American people.
But Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are not listening to the wishes of the majority of Americans. Harris pledged “unwavering” support for Israel and announced that he would not impose conditions on the transfer of arms to Israel if elected in November. Donald Trump has vowed that the US and Israel will be “closer” than ever before if he becomes President again.
If there is any hope for peace, it must come from the American people who want a change in US policy towards Israel and the Palestinians. They must demand that the good values ​​of their country—equality and justice for all—be applied to their government’s treatment of the Palestinians, the Lebanese, and others in the region.
In many ways our situation as Palestinians has never felt so hopeless. Freedom is a distant dream when it comes to his survival. My hope is that the growing awareness around the world about the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the apartheid regime in Israel and the occupied territories will bring us closer to our mutual freedom and end to the horrors we have endured so far. long.
A great American once said that universal moral standards bend to justice. But it doesn’t bend on its own. It is up to each of us to create the kind of world we want to live in—one that respects the dignity of all people and the sanctity of all lives.
Source link
