A new year brings Palestinians more injustice and tragedy, as Israeli soldiers shoot and tear gas unarmed protesters in Gaza, and shoot alleged attackers with liberality.
Operation Cast Lead (winter 2008-9) is emblematic of everything that is wrong with Israel’s approach to Gaza. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a political conflict to which there is no military solution. Yet Israel persists in shunning diplomacy and relying on brute military force – and not as a last resort but as a first resort.
Operation Cast Lead, the first of several incursions by Israel, killed 1,417 Palestinians and just 13 Israelis. Chillingly, the generals call their repeated bombardments ‘mowing the lawn’
Razan Al-Najjar’s death by sniper last June was briefly newsworthy; she was briefly demonized by Israel, then the world forgot about her.
But the NYT chose to investigate, examining 1,000 photos and videos, interviewing experts and over 30 eyewitnesses, and piecing the event together using Israeli 3-D software.
The conclusion: the shooting should never have taken place – no one was endangering Israeli soldiers or the border, and medics were in plain view – and Israel has done little to decrease the frequency of these incidents.
Her death is at best reckless, at worst a war crime.
The International Middle East Media Center reports on the ongoing acts of Israeli injustice and violence that most other media don’t bother with. Not a day goes by – including holidays – without abductions, settler brutality, shootings, and often even deaths.
Elderly women, families, children, and of course young men in the occupied Palestinian territories are regularly treated with brutality by Israeli forces. International laws are in place to protect vulnerable populations, but Israel ignores such laws – and gets away with it. Simple, common decency ought to elicit restraint on the part of the occupier, but does not.
These very brief stories are snapshots of Israeli cruelty between December 15 and 17, 3 days out of the 50+ years of violent occupation which the United States endorses and supports to the tune of over $10 million a day.
The illegal Israeli occupation continues its illegal collective punishment by demolishing the home of an alleged terrorist’s family and terrorizing the entire neighborhood.
WAFA reports that three Palestinian children were killed in an Israeli airstrike bombing that targeted an area to the northeast of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers reportedly opened fire toward the ambulances and prevented their access to the scene….
Electronic Intifada reports that every Friday 11-year-old Nasir insisted that he accompany his two older sisters to the Great March of Return. Both women are medics; Nasir would carry their first aid bags. An Israeli sniper shot him in the head. Israeli forces have killed 1,600 Gazan children since 2000… “An Israeli soldier deliberately killed Faris,” Zaqoul said. “The Israeli soldier said on a loudspeaker ‘you, with the white T-shirt, I’ll shoot you’ – pointing at Faris…”
A dozen years ago Alison Weir described how U.S. media ignored a Palestinian death… this has gone on year after year after year…
Israeli forces killed three Palestinians and injured 376 others by live bullets, rubber-coated steel bullets, concussion grenades and tear gas canisters at the latest ‘Great March of Return’ protests at the Gaza-Israel border on Friday. 126 of the wounded were hit by live bullets fired by Israeli forces.