12) IS ISRAEL PLANNING GAZA'S "FINAL SOLUTION"?
By Felicity Arbuthnot, July 11, 2014
Yet another massive assault on Palestine is underway, where, of course, according to the Balfour Declaration, the Jewish population are guests not occupiers since: " ... the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of (this) it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine ..."
Overnight (July 8-9) however, 160 targets were initially hit [at the time of going to press more than 1,000], including the European Gaza Hospital (a war crime without a war.) More than 120 people were killed at the time of writing and untold numbers wounded, adding to the unending onslaught on Palestine from the day the Zionist cuckoo took over the Palestinian nest, homes, gardens, history, culture, ancient sites, cemeteries, villages, valleys, olive and apricot groves on May 14 1948 ignoring, jack booting and bulldozing entirely the "civil and religious rights" of the population, accompanied by subsequent decades of mass murder and demolitions.
The current onslaught is apparently in response to the deaths of three youths from settler families, for whom no one has claimed responsibility and many questions remain. However, homes of two Palestinian "suspects" were arbitrarily destroyed by the Israeli military with no arrests, trial, recourse to law for the dispossessed victims of any kind.
Subsequently in an apparent revenge killing, Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair was kidnapped and murdered, his body doused in gasoline, which was also reportedly poured down his throat before setting him alight. Muhammad's cousin Tariq Khudair, visiting from Florida, was apprehended and beaten so badly by the Israeli police that he seemingly: "woke up in hospital."
This all led to rockets being fired into Israel, though no injuries have been reported. Israel responded by targeting Gaza (Palestine of course, has no meaningful defence forces) with: "400 tonnes of bombs and missiles" with "440 targets being hit" and with: "The battle against Hamas (to) intensify over the coming days; it will exact a huge price." The tiny Gaza Strip is just 41 kilometres long and between six and 12 miles wide and home to 1,816,379 people. Nearly 45 percent of the population is under 14 years.
Israel is clearly planning another "turkey shoot" reminiscent of General Norman Schwartzkopf's infamous boast of his aerial slaughter on the Basra Road, of those seeking safety, with nowhere to hide, in the first Gulf war.
With the UN in the form of Ban Ki-moon flaccidly urging "restraint" and world leaders mute, as ever, on Israel's murdering misdemeanours and homicidal excesses, it must be noted that 2000-2014, Palestinian child fatalities "as a result of military and settler violence" to date are 1,407.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Conventions is unequivocal: collective punishment is a war crime. "No person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation ... are prohibited ... Reprisals against persons and their property are prohibited."
It is a supreme irony that when unspeakable crimes were committed against the Jewish people, their rights, their property, the Nuremberg trials were meticulous in their findings, retribution and laying down of laws to attempt to guarantee "never again", against any race, group or society. In 65 years of unspeakable crimes by Israel against their fellow Semites, the Palestinians, international law has remained deaf mute.
Since US aid to Israel is US$3 billion annually, they too are partner in yet another Middle East crime against humanity.Will the insanity ever end? Maybe there is a glimmer of hope.
The coming week end there are demonstrations in cities around the world in numbers not seen since the proposed assault on Iraq in 2003, in outrage at the attack on Palestine and the Palestinian people. To read the extraordinarily comprehensive list of participating cities arranged in so brief a time should, in itself, be a wake up call for governments.
The US and UK, the closest of Israel's allies and leaders of world wide destruction, both have elections next year perhaps this might be the start of a mega warning message to both countries and to Israel: Enough.- www.londonprogressivejournal.com
(The above article is from the August 1-31, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)