With US Support, Israel Turns Gaza Into A Death Camp For “Human Animals”
As the US political establishment gives its blessing, Israel resumes its nightmarish assault on the people of Gaza.
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Some have argued that Gaza could already be considered something of a death camp, with the UN declaring it “unlivable” years ago. Even before the blockade imposed in 2006, decades of punitive Israeli policy has contributed to what economists call deliberate “de-development.” Since the blockade, Israeli policy has been, in the words of former government advisor Dov Weiglass, was to “put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger” This has been a dramatic success. In a society held together largely by charity and aid groups, economic activity in the strip had almost disappeared. It’s an area where 95% of the water doesn’t meet UN standards, and Palestinians are prevented from digging wells into their own ground. Israel’s repeated attacks over the years have left much of the civilian infrastructure in ruins and the continued blockade has made it nearly impossible for any of it to be rebuilt.
We were repeatedly exposed to the increasing despair among Gaza’s children who make up half of the population. One recent survey found that half of these children had contemplated suicide over the last year. Topping this humiliation is the fact that the enclave is hermetically sealed. No person or product can enter or leave without Israel’s explicit permission. As a result of these conditions, Gaza has been widely known as an “open air prison” or, more provocatively, as a “concentration camp.” This was the dire state of affairs before October 7th, often ignored in discussions about the attacks, and since then things have gotten far worse.
Israel's War
The scale of Israel’s Operation Iron Sword dwarfs all previous attacks combined. As we discussed last week, Israel has a deliberate policy of targeting civilian residential areas and structures in an attempt to “create shock” in the population. The bombardment has destroyed or damaged the majority of structures in Northern Gaza and have promised that the attack on the south will be just as bad if not worse. Already we see the familiar reports of civilians being told to flee from Israeli bombs only to find them anyway.
Israel’s most recent innovation in the slaughter has been the introduction of a numbered grid system ostensibly designed to “shuffle civilians around in a shrinking battle space” by “ordering them to leave areas that in some cases cover just a few blocks.” The system is designed to be accessed via QR code on dropped leaflets, but the fact that Israel has cut electricity and internet undercuts its stated purpose.
Israel has done similar things in previous conflicts and just as before, the hail of contradictory warnings and leaflets have increased confusion and desperation as families prepare themselves for a tragedy. As we said last week, the cruelty is the point. It is no wonder why one Palestinian man remarked to a Guardian reporter: “What we wish now is to be killed, to avoid going through all this feeling of threat all the time and being in that distress.”
The Special Relationship
Throughout all of this, the US remains resolute behind Israel, obediently repeating the propaganda line about Israel’s “right to defend itself” by executing children by the thousand. As part of its support, the US is giving them a stream of 2000 pound “bunker buster” bombs for Israel to use against the civilians in Gaza. Further underscoring the US support for killing children, officials announced that there would be no “red lines” for Israel’s conduct. They can do whatever they want. In a press release today, Amnesty international’s Secretary General announced in plain language: “U.S.-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families”
Backing Israel further, the US Senate is poised to finalize and pass $14 billion worth of military aid (along with $61 billion for Ukraine), again with no strings or conditions. Biden was asked about conditioning aid to Israel, and he acknowledged that it was a “worthwhile thought,” but continued on the current path of unqualified support. Later, the administration made moves to remove limits on Israel’s access to the US military stockpile, further enabling Israel’s attack on Gaza.
A Second Nakba
All of this happens as Israel is advancing its long standing goals of ethnic cleansing for Gaza. There was a lot of concern in Washington about Israel’s post-war plans, even if such concerns were minimal. Since then Netanyahu has made his plan pretty clear. They want to extend Israeli sovereignty to the Gaza strip. US lawmakers have already been briefed on Israeli plans to expel Palestinians to various countries. The Israelis have been talking about this for quite some times. A report from an Israeli think tank leaked over a month ago out of the intelligence ministry outlined similar aspirations to remove Palestinians from Gaza.
This position has long been held by Israelis. One study from 2016 - before all the talk about Israel’s “far right” turn - showed that nearly half (48%) of Jewish Israelis were in favor of forcibly transferring the Arab population out of Israel. When Israel’s operations began, there were even Israeli officials openly calling for a second Nakba. As it stands now, the number of displaced is over twice the number of Palestinians displaced in 1948.
This hateful mindset was on display this weekend when the Jerusalem Post published a horrific article accusing a Palestinian grandfather mourning an infant of holding a doll. The very real child was just one of the many thousands of children that Israel murdered for the crime of existing in Gaza. Israelis were so unable to confront the reality of their brutality that they looked in the eyes of a murdered infant and mocked the appearance of the corpse in a major international paper.
The Jerusalem Post ended up retracting their story but the mocking doesn’t stop there. Social media users have highlighted the stream of vile racism coming out of Israeli content creators. The following should speak for itself:
When we look at the horrific statements of Israeli officials and politicians, disgusting racism being casually instilled into Israeli children, and of course the ongoing support for the slaughter in Gaza, it hammers home how far we are from a genuine solution to the problem - and which parties have the most work to do. Until the US ends its support for Israel’s decades long war against the people they believe are “human animals” then the horrors will continue.
What We’re Reading
Pushback Against Lawmaker’s Calls for Antisemitism Inquiry - (Inside Higher Ed 12/4/23
Many faculty members believe Congressman Jim Banks’s threat to withhold federal funding if Indiana University at Bloomington doesn’t investigate reports of antisemitism is a veiled attempt to limit academic freedom.
‘Findings’ without evidence: Human Rights Watch’s report on the Al-Ahli Hospital attack - (Mondoweiss 12/5/23)
Despite drawing on inconclusive evidence, not having had access to the scene, and concluding that it could neither “confirm” nor establish its finding “with precision,” HRW insinuates that the attack on Al-Ahli “resulted from an apparent rocket-propelled munition, such as those commonly used by Palestinian armed groups.”
Yet, it maintains that it “has not been able to conclusively identify” the munition in question and that a “full investigation” is needed. One is left to wonder why HRW would publish such a report at all if there is insufficient evidence to draw conclusions regarding the Al-Ahli attack.
‘This Massacre Should Have Been Prevented’ | Despite Israeli Intelligence Warnings About a Hamas Attack, the Army Didn’t Evacuate the Nova Festival (Ha’aretz 12/5/23)
Top defense officials held urgent consultations the night before October 7 about a possible Hamas attack. But no one in the IDF notified the the Nova festival organizers or the party-goers, hundreds of whom were mown down – and for nine hours, no one came to save them
Hmmm
Did Hamas Fighters Decapitate Israeli Babies? – Israeli Newspaper Answers (Palestine Chronicle 12/4/23) (Based on Ha’aretz 12/3/23)
The terrorists who entered Israel committed crimes against humanity and brutally murdered masses. Along with the difficult descriptions, there was also incorrect evidence, which included, among other things, a volunteer volunteer, IDF officers, President of Rescue Union and Sarah Netanyahu
Gaza war: Israeli government has Ha’aretz newspaper in its sights as it tightens screws on media freedom - (The Conversation 11/28/23)
The communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, has suggested financial penalties be applied to the paper accusing it of “lying, defeatist propaganda” and “sabotaging Israel in wartime”. The proposal aims to cancel state subscriptions to the paper and “forbid the publication of official notices”.
In response, the Israeli Journalists’ Union called the move a “populistic proposal devoid of any feasibility of logic”. Ha’aretz, which is an independent daily newspaper, has been publishing since 1919, and has frequently been the target of right-wing administrations.
Israeli grid maps make life in Gaza ‘macabre game of Battleships’, say aid workers - (The Guardian 12/2/23)
Israel has started using its new grid system for evacuation warnings, which breaks Gaza down into more than 600 blocks, and can be accessed through a QR code on leaflets and social media posts.
It appears designed to allow the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to try to shuffle civilians around in a shrinking battle space as they target Hamas fighters, by ordering them to leave areas that in some cases cover just a few blocks.
But on the ground, people said it had just added to their fear and confusion. After weeks of bombardment and blockades, most people have little access to electricity to charge phones and other devices, and even for those who can get online, the telecommunications system regularly collapses.
On Top of Everything Else, Henry Kissinger Prevented Peace in the Middle East - (The Intercept 11/30/23)
…little attention has been paid to his efforts to prevent peace from breaking out in the Mideast — efforts which helped cause the 1973 Arab–Israeli War and set in stone the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This underappreciated aspect of Kissinger’s career adds tens of thousands of lives to his body count, which is in the millions.