Gaza is a little sliver of land along the Mediterranean; it’s 136 square miles of impoverished territory and one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Exit and entry for the 1.8 million people who live there is strictly controlled by Israel on three sides, Egypt (in cooperation with the Israeli and U.S. governments) on the fourth. It is basically an open-air prison; that’s why when the world’s fifth most powerful military unleashes its killing machinery on the place, you get hundreds dead in a short stretch of days. That’s what we’re seeing now.
Indeed, what we are seeing now is collective punishment of the Palestinians, not the Israel vs. Hamas conflict that the U.S. media constantly refers to. Let us be clear: the Israeli government, in the normal course of screwing the Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, took the opportunity of the kidnapping and murder of the three yeshiva students to go on a rampage in the West Bank, arresting hundreds of people, including Hamas operatives released under previous ceasefire agreements, and killing about a dozen Palestinians. It should surprise no one that that would result in a response from Gaza in the form of some very ineffective missiles.
Let’s talk about self-defense. The Netanyahu government has an option for stopping the rocket fire: cease the rampage against Palestinians you started weeks ago. The concept of self-defense does not encompass bombing hospitals, ambulances, and U.N.-run schools. Even if the Israeli government’s extremely dubious claims about hidden caches of weapons in such places were true, it would be no justification for striking medical facilities. Just the order to evacuate from northern Gaza itself amounts to a probable war crime – if the International Criminal Court were anything other than a venue for victors’ justice, Bibi and friends would be standing in the dock at the Hague alongside Barry and John Kerry … and Bush and Cheney, for that matter.
But there is no justice, except that which we bring about ourselves through collective action. So I urge you to contact your representatives in the federal government at every level and make your opposition to this attack known in no uncertain terms. So long as the Israeli government feels it can act with complete impunity, it will continue to heap outrage upon outrage.
luv u,
jp
