This post on Twitter was made yesterday by this person:
He is the director of the UN aid agency in Gaza. It is the only agency able to reach the people there.
He said this:
The Israeli government has begun to use famine as an instrument war.
Please do not ask me to condone, tolerate, or ignore this.
And please do not tell me it is anti-Semitic to condemn that government and its Zionism that motivated this, because it is not.
Like those Jews who condemn this government - and very large numbers do - I stand up for humanity. Zionism can never excuse its abuse.
And please also don't tell me this is only reaction to Hamas and 7 October. I have condemned what they did then many times. But nothing excuses the war crimes the Netanyahu regime is committing now, or those who supply it with arms. Genocide cannot be condoned, whoever does it.
Has the time come for sanctions to be imposed on Israel?
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I’m horrified at what Israel and its powerful army has done to the ordinary people of Gaza. Heartless barbarism perpetrated under the thin veneer of targeting Hamas. Sure they want to tackle that organisation of terror and mayhem, but I believe they are also deliberately destroying Gaza to ethnically cleanse the territory, and don’t care how many die in the process. War crimes on a massive scale.
We can all individually ‘sanction’ Israel, of course, by not buying products or using services linked with Israel, not traveling or working there, or with its institutions, etc – in short supporting the worldwide BDS movement – https://bdsmovement.net/Act-Now-Against-These-Companies-Profiting-From-Genocide
I absolutely agree, Richard. It is barely credible that the world should stand by and watch this horror. Can Israel really not see the damage they are also doing to themselves and their future?
This is going to detract from the Biden vote in the November presidential election unless he grabs Netanyahu by the short and curlies!
The key part of this story is:
the Israeli Authorities informed the UN that they will no longer approve any @Unrwa food convoys to the north,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the agency, said
Let’s say that we believe him. What’s the reason for the approvals ceasing, when food aid from other organisations is permitted. How do sanctions make a difference when what we should really be looking at is what is wrong with UNRWA, why can’t they be trusted to put food water and medicines in their lorries and only those things.
People indifferent to these questions betray themselves as anti-Israel.
With respect, there is no one else but UNRWA there. And it is the UN.
You just reveal to yourself to be a fascist.
And I am not for one monitor anti-Israel.
I absolutely believe in its right to exist as part of a two state solution that respects the rights of all in the area.
The Guardian reports today that Israel has given no reason for its’ ban. In February it reported that 9 UNWRA employees had been sacked after Israel claimed they had links to HAMAS. Israel has claimed that as many as 10% of UNWRA employees are supporters of HAMAS, but has produced no evidence for these claims. The UN is investigating but has not yet reported. UNWRA has 13,000 employees in Gaza.
So no two state solution and Israel loses the right to exist.
That’s settled everything, thank you for clarifying, because that is the implication of what you stated.
Tell he why there should be a single state solution.
I find it almost unbelievable that civilised nations are still supplying weapons to Israel. What happened in Germany — almost a century ago now — cannot any longer be used to excuse what is happening in Palestine today. It is well past time the world put Israel back in its box. A return to pre-1967 borders is perhaps the only equitable outcome.
the answer to your question is Yes! We would for any other country.
I have been saying similar to your pots on Gaza on Facebook for weeks now and have had very little response.
One friend said she found it so horrible so tried to avoid it and another felt there was nothing they could.
Our MP is well known for not responding and, in any case, moving to a safer seat despite getting 60% of the vote last time. I did contact our Lib Dem candidate and got a good response.
However, elections are not won on foreign policy issues unless British troops are involved.
A related issue is the extent of pro-Israeli influence. The govt. and most of the press have made little or no criticism of Israel, but with headlines like ‘The March of Hate’ show hostility to the Palestinian cause . 75-80% of Conservative MPs including the Foreign Secretary ,are members of the Conservative Friends of Israel. About half of Labour MPs belong to the Labour equivalent.
Alan Duncan says in his book, I read, was tipped to be the Middle Eastern Minister in the FCO but his appointment was blocked because of his sympathy for the Palestinians.
In the US the influence of AIPAC the American-Israeli Political Action Group, is well known. Not only will they fund (political action committees have no restrictions on spending) pro-Israel candidates but fund those running against critics of Israel such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
We don’t now the extent of such of influence here. We need to know.
The formation of Foreign policy needs to be transparent.
Yes Richard – our govt and opposition implicating all of us in this massacre of the innocents. I expected Israel to kill at least ten Palestinians for each of the Oct 7th Israelis massacred by Hamas – given Israel’s historical record of ’10 eyes for and eye 10 teeth for a tooth’, but didnt expect Israel to go this far – in plain sight.
We have to call for immediate ceasefire – supporting all international agencies – and halt arms sales and collusion -( use of Cyprus base) , but its clear that ‘we’ will do nothing until US does – and Biden is just stuck in his cold war/Israel right or wrong – mind set despite it wrecking his possible re election chances.
Other sanctions yes – but rarely seem to work as intended.
We go on the ‘hate marches’ when possible – but as expected no response – as with Iraq, Brexit, Greenham, Vietnam etc – . Demonstrators on right side each time as admitted later by many of those in power (Jack Straw etc) .
Daniel Barenboim BBC4 last night – put his money where his mouth is – he created the Israeli/Arab West Eastern Divan Orchestra with Edward Said American Palestinian – and was the first Israeli citizen to be award Palestinian citizenship.
He has been threatened many times in Israel – called the ultimate Jew Hater – for arguing for a two state solution.
He is a lesson for us all – he has done as much as he can – and that’s what we must do. We need to try to take some kind of class legal action against our leaders for aiding and abetting war crimes, genocide etc. – in plain sight starving a whole population.
Thank you
Michael:
It is not clear to me that agencies other than UNWRA who are supplying aid are doing so by permission from Israel. They are bypassing Israel using air drops and the sea route.
You mean the USA?
It is difficult to find up to date information on who is supplying aid to Gaza. According to the BBC, the USA and Jordan have done air drops. Apparently they are co-ordinated with the IDF which I suppose is necessary to stop them being fired on. It isn’t possible to get in a lot of stuff that way, and reportedly 5 people have been killed when a parachute failed on an air dropped crate.
Some aid has been delivered by sea, coming from Cyprus. It has been checked by Israel before leaving Cyprus. A single ship can deliver 200 tonnes of food enough for half a million meals, against 20 tonnes from a lorry. The planned US jetty is not expected to be available for some weeks yet.
Some aid has reached Gaza via road from other agencies than UNWRA, from surrounding countries – Jordan, Egypt, and also other ngos: Red Cross, Red Crescent, Oxfam, World Food Programme. What is pretty clear is that it is nowhere near enough; before the war 500 lorries a day were entering Gaza.
Excluding UNWRA means cutting off almost all aid.
Even on the narrowest possible terms (destroying Hamas) this is still counter-productive for Israel. For every traumatised child there will be a new freedom fighter/terrorist in the next generation determined to kill Israelis and eradicate Israel. And that of course is what Hamas want. I suspect that it is also what Netanyahu wants, so as to remove any possibility of agreeing a 2-state solution in the foreseeable future. Like Brexit, there will be no winners, only losers.
Unquestioning supporters of Israel accuse others of denying Israel’s right to exist when they have said nothing of the kind. Meanwhile Israel has spent decades destroying the right of Palestinians to exist and that is the declared intention of their cabinet ministers and supporters.
When they complain of the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’, the hypocrisy is breathtaking as that is exactly Israel’s own policy. But then the incessant lying of Israeli spokespersons has long been the norm, currently about their blocking of food, medicine, power and the rest. At some point they will realise that the rest of the world has stopped believing them but it will be too late. It will be a very long road back to any kind of respectability.
Agreed
And thanks
Not helpless spectators
As we sit like spectators of a soccer match on the TV, impotently unable to affect the outcome, the same is not true of our situation as we watch events unfold in Gaza.
What would be the consequence if we spectators campaigned for all of the member states of the UN who oppose Israeli actions to cancel recognition of the Israeli passport pending return of holders to Israel, so that all Israelis would be confined to Israel, until the unconditional withdrawal of IDF forces, open access to aid convoys and the exchange of all hostages, after which good faith negotiations for a sustainable two state solution in Palestine territory should commence?
What would be the consequence if Israel’s demand for recognition as a legitimate state were met, not with an arms embargo or trade sanctions, but simply with global silence?
Buried deeply in the 1012 US appropriations bill that forbade further funding for UNWRA are other poison pills that demonstrate the US continued support for Israel despite the “moral outrage” felt around the world for Israel’s brutality. It approves another approximately $4 B in continued military funding despite violating the US Leahy Law that prohibits continued military funding to any country restricting humanitarian aid. It prohibits funding of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry into Israel’s international law violations and human rights violations in the Occupied Territories and prohibits funding of the UN Human Rights Council unless it drops any possible violations by Israel. It requires any organization receiving US funding to show it is actively taking steps to combat ” anti-Israel bias” and prohibits any funding supporting Palestinian statehood unless it meets certain conditions including “satisfactory co-operation with Israeli security organizations” or without Israel’s agreement. It also prohibits funding of Palestinian Authority if it initiates any investigation by the ICC of Israeli nationals for alleged crimes against Palestinians. Meanwhile the latest UN resolution merely demands a ceasefire until the end of Ramadan which I believe falls on April 5th. Does the carnage start up again then especially if the hostages have been released? The only good thing to come out of this horrible violence is that the saintly face of Israel has been removed and will hopefully lead to that country being made to conform to international law like (almost)everyone else
Matt Carr’s latest on substack recommended, as is his book on terrorism, Infernal Machine.
https://open.substack.com/pub/mattcarr/p/in-plain-sight?r=qshi&utm_medium=ios
Israel’s actions over decades are a recipe for inciting terrorism, and their current actions ensure that it will continue. In future they will have far less sympathy and support.
And a reminder that Israel was born out of terrorism. The Stern Gang and Irigun did not hesitate to massacre Palestinians, blow up civilians and take and execute hostages. Their leaders ended up as Israels leaders. As happened in Ireland and South Africa. And will eventually happen in Palestine- Israel.