After relentless indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza for the last six days flattening hundreds of buildings including residential apartments, mosques, schools and hospitals, Israel has amassed almost half a million strong invading force ready to decimate the two million impoverished Palestinians under siege for decades.
Demonising the Palestinian resistant movement as ‘terrorists’ who successfully managed to shatter the myth of the invincibility of the Israeli military machine by breaking out of their ‘open-air prison’ last Saturday 7 October, Israel is justifying its revenge on the Gazan population for reported atrocities, some real and some fake committed by the fighters.
In a joint statement released on Thursday 12 October supported by a large number of Australian Muslim organisations, the Australian government’s stance to ‘stand with Israel’ has been deplored while completely ignoring the rights of the indigenous people of Palestine.
“Australia should be pursuing avenues of peace and restraint when navigating civil conflicts, rather than supporting a decision to light up the Sydney Opera House and Parliament House Canberra with the colours of a colonising, invading, Zionist occupying regime,” the statement read.
At the same time the statement emphasised that Australian Muslims:
- Raise our deep concern about the grave situation in Palestine;
- Strongly reject and address the one-sided portrayal of the Palestinian issue in Australia; and
- Condemn all calls and incitement to violence and hatred of any people. This includes conduct that is anti-semitic, anti-Muslim or Islamophobic, and expressions of hatred.
Palestinian children look toward the sky at the sound of airstrikes at a United Nations-run school in Gaza on Saturday, October 7. Samar Abu Elouf/The New York Times/Redux.
The Israeli Defence Minister said that they are “fighting human animals” as they cut Gaza off from the most basic supplies of electricity, water, food and medicine.
Israeli bombs have flattened not only homes but entire neighbourhoods so far, hit at least 13 medical facilities, killed journalists and at least 4 paramedics. Schools, ambulances, universities, and hospitals are being deliberately targeted.
Fire and smoke rise from Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October 8. Fatima Shbair/AP.
Human Rights Watch has confirmed that banned white phosphorus has been used on people in Gaza and Lebanon. The death toll has climbed to 1,537 including at least 447 children.
The bombings have displaced 340,000 people, many sheltering in UN schools, but these too have been targeted by Israeli bombs. Every one of the over 2 million people who are imprisoned in Gaza are terrified.
Six-month-old Sama Alwadia is rescued from the rubble in Gaza City on October 9. Though the child had survived the initial strike, she died later while being treated for her injuries. Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.
Despite Israeli state and settler attacks against Palestinians escalating since the election of the current Israeli government, Israeli colonial violence has been a constant to Palestinians since the Nakba and the creation of the state of Israel.
“Occupation is violence. Israel hasn’t been defending itself, it’s been waging war on Palestinians, each and every day for decades,” said Nasser Mashni, President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN).
A Palestinian man mourns over the body of his nephew killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 9. Mohammed Saber/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock.
Recently, Netanyahu arrogantly delivered a delusional speech at the UN, showing a new map of the Middle East centered around Israel, absent any mention of Palestine. The response from the Palestinians came on Saturday 7 October crushing Netanyahu’s and Israel’s expansionist aspirations.
“The events of this week are a clear result of Israeli escalation – Israeli forces, including rampaging settlers, have killed Palestinians each and every day this year, just this week Israelis have invaded the most holy sites in Jerusalem; mobs of settlers have attacked Palestinian towns killing Palestinians while Israeli soldiers watch on. And this is on top of a 16 year illegal and inhumane siege on Gaza and 75 years of denial of Palestinian freedom, right of return and self determination” added Nasser Mashni.
Children run for cover as bombs fall near the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on October 9. Samar Abu Elouf/The New York Times/Redux.
Western leaders from Biden, Sunak, Trudeau to Albanese, have provided a textbook response as they rushed to affirm their support for “Israel’s right to defend itself”, ignoring all of the injustices perpetrated against the Palestinians, for the last week, the last year and the last 75 years.
The glaring hypocrisy and double standard applied by the Western media and politicians who celebrate the heroism of the Ukrainian resistance against Russia yet condemns the Palestinians for using the same tactics.
Relatives of Palestinians killed on Saturday, October 7, mourn at the morgue of a hospital in Gaza. Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.
“The international community has failed the Palestinians. 75 years after the establishment of the Israeli state and the Nakba, Palestinians are still stateless, still denied their right to return to their homes, and live under brutal and inhumane military occupation and apartheid. With talks of Saudi Arabia joining UAE, Morocco and Bahrain in normalising relations with Israel, and no just political solution for the Palestinians in sight – the devastating events of these last 48 hours are destined to continue”, concluded Mashni earlier last Monday.
Israel the Darling of the West can do no wrong. Each time when their airforce attempt to decimate Gaza indiscriminately it is always an act of self defence ( euphemism for War Crime) goaded by most Western world leaders. An American weapon expert and Army veteran has confirmed the bombing of Gaza Hospital was from a JDAM guided or unguided rocket and his chilly description of the killing delivery, “whistling of the fins correcting on the way down to the hospital”. He said these weapons are given by America to Israel. The myth of existential threat to Israel whenever there is an eruption between the desperate indigenous Palestinians and the armed to the teeth Israel Occupier, continues. The least the Democratic West could morally do is call for restraint and warn Israel (not in a million years) that massacring Palestinian civilians is War Crime. This so called ‘unprovoked’ mayhem is a blatant lie making it like Israel as the Mother Theresa of the Middle East confronting ungrateful recipients of her largesse.
The reason the media is so heavily backing Israel and trying to cover up their war crimes is simply because the majority of western media outlets are owned or run by Zionists or their supporters. This did not happen by accident. Propaganda in pre WW2 Germany and during WW2 was used to de-humanise Jews so that German people would not react to the atrocities leading up to the Jewish holocaust.
To prevent a recurrence of anti-Semitic propaganda, the Zionists and their supporters cornered the media industry including Hollywood.
Now the western world media is being used by Zionists to de-humanise Palestinians and promote Israel. Social media is also being manipulated and AI is weaponising the media. Your search engines always lead to pro-Israel articles when you search “Gaza War”.
So your ordinary Joe is not too concerned when nearly 3000 Palestinian children become “collateral damage” in the “Shooting Fish in a Barrel” kill-fest held by the IDF.. I am preaching to the converted only because it is IMPOSSIBLE to say anything pro-Palestinian on the biased Western media platform.
Who on Earth has the absolute power to make ALL Western State political party leaders Labour, Conservative, Liberal, Republican, Democrat in fact every political leader in every Western country or state, recite Netanyahu’s mantra WORD FOR WORD and then either vote AGAINST a ceasefire or if too scared to do that ABSTAIN. No western government leader in a western country carrying any real power had the courage to vote FOR a ceasefire. Some politicians (not leaders) with a conscience resigned when finding it was impossible to vote for the ceasefire. The UK Labour Party even banned their member MPs from attending any Peace Rallies. Democracy in action?
No political leaders changed their minds even after 10,000 civilians were murdered as “collateral damage” in Gaza. Still no ceasefire.
This makes the so-called “Deep State” conspiracy theory appear not to be theory. Are elected political leaders just puppets?
See https://michaelwest.com.au/kim-beazley/
Beazley commenting on Australia’s ‘deep state’
9.8.16 “Normally when you use the expression ‘deep state’ what you’re talking about is a quite evil process associated with dictatorships that mean that whatever the politics are that run across the surface of a state, underneath it all is the real power that lies in the deep state which is usually a military-intelligence phalanx. Well, we have a benign deep state and the people who are representative of that include many sitting in this room.”
Kim Beazley, newly appointed member of the board of Lockheed Martin Australia, delivering the Australian Naval Institute’s 2016 Vernon Parker Oration