The deliberate shooting down of unarmed civilians, for no other reason than their exercising the right to protest, is not something one associates with modern civilisation, anywhere in today’s world. Such behaviour is beyond mere explanation, utterly resistant to post-event spin. It is wrong. That it has just been practised in the name of that rare entity - a Middle East democracy - only serves to make matters worse.
What happened can be put simply: as the BBC has reported, “Thousands of Palestinians had marched to the border at the start of a six-week protest, dubbed the Great March of Return. The protest comes ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel and the exodus of many Arabs … Sixteen Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border … Israeli officials said soldiers opened fire after rioting broke out”.
However, footage exists showing civilians being shot down while not rioting. Hundreds have been injured. Israeli claims that the march was “organised terrorist activity” have received little support outside the country. Instead, there has been condemnation.
Adam Ramsay at Open Democracy observed “Gaza's been blockaded 11 years. Food, medicine have been stopped from entering. People can't leave. Yesterday, ahead of the 70th anniversary of 800k Palestinians being expelled from Israel, tens of thousands protested, unarmed. Israel's response? 1,400 wounded. 773 shot. 16 dead”.
Human Rights Watch put out a statement, concluding “The number of Palestinians killed and gravely wounded by Israel's soldiers firing into #Gaza is shocking”, while Paul Lewis noted “The appalling killings by Israel on its border with Gaza … are made even worse by the defence of it by the Israeli ambassador”. There was more.
Owen Jones pointed out our own involvement. “A Western-armed and backed state just shot dead at least 15 Palestinian protestors, mostly aged between 17 and 35, and shot 773 protestors with live ammunition. And this is the headline on the BBC website. This is utterly shocking - as is the lack of outrage from our government”.
Press Gang linked to an Israeli media outlet - Ha’aretz - telling “This is a must-read article which shows how the Israeli government will not tolerate even peaceful protests”. Peter Oborne, hardly a raving leftist, was dismayed: “15 unarmed protestors shot dead by IDF, hundreds wounded by live ammunition. Israel's Bloody Sunday”.
Sarah Woolaston - a Conservative MP - remarked “Terrible & wholly disproportionate use of force in #Gaza Shooting unarmed protesters is not defending a border”. And David Schneider, noting that this weekend sees important anniversaries for both Jews and Christians, simply said “Grim to be having Passover which celebrates the liberation of an oppressed people in the Middle East, and then read this”.
Soldiers opening fire on unarmed civilians should never, but never, be a part of any modern democracy. Nor should such acts be allowed to happen again. But they will happen again, with the inevitability of night following day.
This is not merely a failure of decency, or of tolerance. It is a failure of humanity itself.
8 comments:
I hope those anti-Corbyn demonstrators from last week haven't thrown their placards and posters away. I look forward to seeing them out on the streets again demonstrating against this.
This act of state terror of course has been quickly shunted down the order in BBC/ITN/Sky broadcast "news". In a day or two it will disappear altogether. There will be, yet again, no "investigative journalism" when it comes to Israeli government murder of innocent Palestinians.
Meantime, you can bet there will be continuing lies and distortions peddled about the Labour Party.
Even human lives mean nothing to the perpetrators.
And there are still gullible mugs who think Brit mainstream "journalists" are anything other than organised right wing propaganda clerks.
I couldn't believe after seeing what I'd seen the word used by most 'news' channels was "clashes"
I've had several clashes during my life; none of which involved live rounds being fired!
Does that include Carole Cadwallader and Nick Davies, o wise Anonymous? And there's really no difference between Jeremy Bowen and Laura K I suppose. Or Owen Jones and Peter Hitchens. Or Gary Younge and Gary Bushell.
Such a simple world you live in.
1 April 2018 20:44
Still our joke foreign secretary's most recent four tweets.
https://twitter.com/eddwilson/status/980455004946432001
And the comment from the Blairite anti JC brigade at this atrocious act from a so called democracy has oddly been extremely silent..
How odd...
The Israeli government's attitude is that they can never be wrong, no matter how many Palestinians they kill, no matter what the circumstances, no matter that we can all what really happened, and any criticism of their actions is, by definition, antisemitism.
Guess what......As forecast, the Isreali government mass murder atrocity has indeed virtually disappeared from mainstream media "news".
Proof yet again - if it was needed - that a few hundred London based "editors" and "journalists" comprise of a gang of far right cowards, liars and bribed hypocrites without a trace of conscience or decency.
Meanwhile, here's Tomasz Cammynickers with the weather, and hysterical Mary Bright Teeth with the sports.
Have a nice day, Britain. Forget the Palestine murders.
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