2024-09-02
Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine has been proceeding since 1948, but it has accelerated over the previous year
By Beverley Dight, Green Issue Co-editor
I recently wrote to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken:
"It was wrong for HAMAS to kill civilians. It is wrong for Israel to kill civilians. The only difference is that while HAMAS killed approximately 1,000 civilians, Israel has killed at least 40,000 civilians after October 7, and much more than that prior to October 7."
The medical journal Lancet has estimated there actually have been about 186,000 Gazan civilians killed over the past year, as a result of deliberately imposed starvation, as well as untreated diseases as most hospitals and the healthcare system have been destroyed, and the rapid spread of disease due to the sewage and water purification systems being destroyed.
Also there are thousands of missing civilians, believed to be buried under rubble. It is disgraceful that fuel is prevented from reaching Gaza, which is needed for machinery to remove the rubble from loved ones still alive, and slowly suffocating.
While it is unanimously stated that HAMAS started the war, and Israel is responding, in fact it is Israel that started the war in 1948 massacring Palestinians and driving over 750,000 from their homes, never allowed to return. It has continued killing and driving Palestinians from their homes and land that Israel covets. Many thousands are in Israeli prisons without charge ‒ Palestinian hostages. It is about time we called for them to be freed. Also, many sources, some Israeli, have pointed out that Palestinian prisoners, both from Gaza and the West Bank, are being tortured, humiliated, sexually abused, raped and killed while in Israeli detention.
Also since October 7 many Palestinians in the West Bank have been forced from their dwellings, including in refugee camps, and many killed. Israeli organization, Peace Now, reported about a week ago:
"The Israeli government quietly sends millions to unauthorized West Bank settler outposts. Settler violence is a feature. It is part of an ongoing effort by the Israeli government to systematically expel Palestinians from their homes and land in Area C in the West Bank." Area C comprises 60% of the West Bank.
"Our government is trying to turn this war into a full scale and perpetual war of total destruction."
It is about time the United Nations and the international community demanded that the USA stop arming Israel and being complicit in its genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. To counteract USA’s claim that Israel must be able to defend itself, the United Nations could send a peace-keeping force to the border area between Gaza and Israel.
Header photo: Destruction in Gaza after October 7, 2023. Credit: Saleh Najm and Anas Sharif, Fars News CC 4.0
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]