There has been no outrage. We all let this happen. But it is not too late to speak out.
A wounded Palestinian is brought into al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after being shot by Israeli snipers during a protest on the Gaza-Israel border, May 14, 2018. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills.org)
As of writing this, 52 Palestinian unarmed protesters in Gaza have been shot dead by Israeli snipers on Monday, and 2,238 have been wounded, over 1,000 by live ammunition, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Among those killed are eight children under 16 years old. The hospitals in Gaza are at breaking point, and cannot treat gunshot wounds as they pour in. The number of dead and wounded is likely to continue to rise.
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Since March 30, when the Gaza protests began, 101 Palestinians have been killed and well over 10,000 wounded, many maimed for life. Not a single Israeli injury and not a single rocket fired at Israel, even as Israel has bombed Gaza several times in recent weeks.
It doesn’t matter which numbers you want to believe or how many stones have been thrown (not a single injury caused by them), or even how many Hamas officials have called on Palestinians to protest. This is a massacre of a stateless population living under military siege. And we are all accomplices for not doing more to stop it.
On Monday, Israel’s top human rights organization B’Tselem issued a statement calling the shootings “an appalling indifference to human life.” It’s hard to explain it any other way.
The overwhelming majority of the Jewish Israeli population has not spoken out. According to an Israel Democracy Institute Peace Index poll from April, 83 percent of Jewish Israelis find the IDF’s open fire policy in Gaza “appropriate.” Just hours after the massacre, thousands went out into the streets to celebrate the Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai in Tel Aviv.
Only a few dozen Israelis have gone down to southern Israel where the fence separates it from Gaza to hold up signs opposing Israeli actions and calling for a lift of the siege. These are the Israelis who will go down in history as the last vestige of humanity and forward thinking in Jewish Israeli society.
Israeli demonstrators near the Gaza border call for an end to the siege of Gaza. May 11, 2018. (Oren Ziv / Activestills. org)
Everyone who participated in the formal U.S. Embassy inauguration in Jerusalem at the exact same time that just a few miles away, people were being shot down, also have blood on their hands. The participation of Christian bigots and anti-Semites Robert Jeffress and John Hagee adds insult to injury, and could not better demonstrate the current seamless alignment between the racist Israeli right in power and the racist American right in power.
A spontaneous protest in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem was called for 9 p.m. Israel time to protest the atrocities. It is not too late to speak out, to put your bodies out there and resist.
Itshak Gordin Halevy
Unarmed protesters”, armed with Molotov cocktails, stones, catapults, knives and burning kites, are trying to force the Israeli border into the country. No state in the world can allow foreigners to violate its border. Israel had warned the people of Gaza not to approach it. Those who do not follow this injunction do so at their own risk. I thank the IDF soldiers for protecting us.
Ben
No country let’s itself be invaded, harrumphs Halevy. (The Halevy who has always harbored a dishonest concept of who is a “foreigner.”) But when the Palestinians defend against the Israeli invader in the West Bank that’s not allowed. That’s different. That’s called “terrorism.” We see how this works. What the IDF is doing at the Gaza border is terrorism. What the IDF-settler complex in the West Bank is perpetrating is terrorism.
IX Mendoza
Those with Molotovs, stones, knives, etc. only showed up after the massacre had begun! They were trying to defend those being shot at. While I STRONGLY agree Jews should have their own state and homeland, they should not do so at the loss of their own humanity and hateful oppression and murder of others.
I’m half Native American and Scottish, believe me I know.
Margot Dunne
Israel’s actions provoke & promote anti-Semitism.
Lewis from Afula
Margot:
Who cares?
If any Jew in the Diaspora experiences antisemitism, he is free to move here.
mindy
I’d like to unstand 2 points from the above story.
How were more than 1200 wounded, if not from live fire?
I’d also like to point out that at the exact same time the
embassy was being opened in Jerusalem, Hawaii was being destroyed
by volcanic lava, Syrian forces were killing ISIS and
a lot more was happening in the world.
What does one have to do with the other?