Breaking Through the Gaza Siege: It’s Easier Than We Think

Rasa - Israel has renewed its attacks on the besieged city of Gaza, where many are now malnourished and children have died. Zionism and the way it works bear most of the responsibility.

News ID: 427837

Date: 03 March 2017 - 21:42

RNA - Here, it is not history repeating itself, it is war crime repeating itself: The Zionist regime’s warplanes and tanks have carried out airstrikes and artillery shelling on Gaza in yet another act of aggression against the besieged coastal enclave. The usurper regime’s military said in a statement on Thursday that aircraft and a tank targeted two posts belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. The attacks came after the Israeli army claimed "shots were fired at Israeli forces carrying out routine activities” near Gaza, which resembles a vast open prison.

Also, at least four people sustained injuries after Israeli military aircraft carried out a string of airstrikes on areas in the Gaza Strip. The airstrikes came shortly after the Israeli military claimed that a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip had hit an open area in southern occupied territories, but caused no injuries or damage.

There is no doubt that Israel’s illegal war on Gaza is unacceptable and must end now. Israel must also lift the illegal blockade and end its collective punishment of the civilian population. The relentless air assault and mortar fires have seen Israeli forces flagrantly disregard civilian life and property, which must be protected under International Humanitarian Law and UN Charter. They have set the stage for humanitarian disaster. Sources of economic growth are all completely destroyed – the airport (runways demolished, totally closed); the border for trade with Egypt (now with a sniper tower in the middle of the crossing); access to the ocean (completely cut off since 2007).

Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders are pretty much aware that what is going on in Gaza is a war crime. Deliberately attacking a besieged population is a war crime. For those living in Gaza’s ruins, simply spending time in their own homes, frequenting a mosque, going to a hospital or school is still a dangerous enterprise since any one of these civilian objects could become at any moment a target for the Zionist army under false claims.

Rampant corruption within the United Nations sidelines help from that quarter as well. Reportedly, funds sent by the national governments to help pay for reconstruction, schooling, health care, water, and food rarely leave the Zionist regime’s offices, or are wasted on costs tagged as administrative. Tel Aviv bribes and coerces UN officials and aid workers. It also refuses to issue visas for human rights groups and activists. They cannot administer anything they know nothing about.

Western governments stay away too. They have no idea of Gaza; there is laxity in understanding its horrific situation. They continue to put politics and profits before human rights by aiding and arming the usurper regime. As a consequence, there are global demonstrations in which angry protesters are calling for an immediate end to Western complicity in Israeli crimes. During Netanyahu’s recent visit to Britain, for instance, thousands of protesters, union leaders and others condemned the international community’s silence about “Israel’s shameless human rights violations,” while accusing the United States and Britain of supporting the illegal blockade.

Conclusions are in order:

1- A usurper regime is laying waste to an occupied and besieged population, with Western collusion. Worldwide, there’s a long history: rapacious individuals and commercial entities set forth from centers of wealth and power to plunder distant territories. Hallmarks of imperialism are free rein for capitalist imperatives, concentrated wealth, and bias that occupied peoples don’t matter.

2- Apologists for this colonial system predominate in Tel Aviv and among ruling circles in the West. They accept Israel’s successful pursuit of expansionist goals and tolerate Palestinian suffering. Israel’s war on Gaza may never end. What happens to powerless, abandoned people isn’t on the official agenda for peace in Tel Aviv and Washington.

3- The US government and NATO allies for decades have backed Israel in its war on Palestinians. To suppose a creative response from them to suffering and human rights violations in Gaza would be wishful thinking. The upper levels of Christian-Zionist society readily accept the US role of protector and protagonist of the Zionist project. The Trump administration stays solid with the status quo in occupied Palestine.

With President Trump displaying a revealing ignorance toward the role of Washington in Palestinian suffering, now is the time for the people of Gaza and the West bank to stand up and shape the future of their country, their families, and their communities. They must demonstrate stamina and hold accountable those in Tel Aviv and Washington until they are forced to change course. And this seems to be impossible unless the Palestinian people win the upper hand when it comes to the balance of power. The US and Israel have never staged a responsible domestic or foreign policy; they have always been practicing the foreign policy of force simply because they believe they have the power and, hence, they should have the say in every issue and are free to do whatever they want. Only a powerful rise of the Palestinian nation can change this equation. The US and Israeli only understand the language of force.

The people of Palestine must tell the Zionist regime and its sponsors they are not going away, and that they will keep coming back with more and more of their legitimate demands, ever more informed and determined to achieve their goals through resistance for self-determination and liberty. It is in their hands.

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