Israeli atrocities

How long will the Palestinians mourn their dead and the so-called ‘world community’ keep looking the other way? For how many more years will the unarmed citizens of Palestine be the target of Israeli atrocities as no criminal charges are filed against the perpetrators of such heinous crimes? The killing of another six Palestinians by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Oct 25 has prompted thousands of Palestinians to take to streets across the occupied territories. The latest victims included two unarmed barbers who had nothing to do with any militant activities – if any — in the Israeli occupied West Bank. Now demonstrations are raging across the besieged Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip too. But Palestinians do not have many options available to them apart from observing general strikes and staging protests. When they close their own businesses and commercial activities, Israel does not even feel a pinch, and the rest of the world goes on with its own business. Massive protests in East Jerusalem and West Bank in the wake of the killings have failed to stir the conscience of any major power around the world.

Some countries have — in their routine manner — denounced the crimes but no country in the world is ready to act in an appropriate manner that can challenge Israel. The Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation is mostly confined to the use of catapults and stones whereas Israeli occupation forces have the most advanced killing machinery in the world. It uses precision equipment to target Palestinian leaders and fires indiscriminately into crowds and even isolated targets such as journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. The impunity with which Israeli forces have been killing Palestinian should be a cause of concern and even shame for the rest of the world and most of all for the UN. Israel has assassinated dozens of Palestinian leaders and hundreds of common citizens including children, the elderly, and women since the beginning of this year. Actions that would be considered ‘crossing the red lines’ even in an active war zone, Israel has been doing repeatedly and without an iota of compunction. Israel has crossed all red lines but there is no alarm in the UNSC or in America or the European Union which pretend to be champions of human rights when it comes to China or Russia.

These are crimes against humanity and atrocities against people who just want to live a peaceful and independent life which is a fundamental right in all civilized societies and according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN. Israel does not even spare civilian homes and hospitals which serve as the last sanctuary of the dead and wounded. Each new bout of violence further fuels the acrimony in the region and the hearts of Palestinian people bleed with the cries of revenge. How on earth does Israel think that with such violence it will ever be able to subdue the people? The international silence on the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people is extremely disturbing. Each new atrocity aggravates the situation and tensions run high. For the past few months with near-daily Israeli raids, the occupation forces have killed 185 Palestinians – 50 of them in Gaza — in the first ten months of 2022. Israeli loss of lives has been next to nothing in comparison, with three Israeli soldiers killed. This bloodbath must stop at once and the world must take immediate action against Israel.