Monday, I participated in a discussion led by Alan Goodman of revcom.us (Revolution Newspaper), whose most recent article on the bombing of a schoolyard in Gaza last weekend, where 16 children were killed, concludes:
If systematically murdering desperate women, children, and other refugees who have taken shelter at UN schools isn’t a war crime, what is?!
The whole world is watching.
Last week, I wrote: “There is a basic question of right and wrong here. Everyone needs to be challenged to confront reality and struggle to stop the “incremental genocide” and ongoing ethnic cleansing being implemented in an extreme way right now against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
The Israeli assault on Gaza must STOP NOW!
Alan described the conditions the Nazis created in 1943 in the Warsaw ghetto where Jews were locked in, systematically killed, and most critically, where the world’s governments, mostly, said and did nothing to stop it. Many people see a strong historical parallel with Gaza now, most importantly, people living there, including children.
Even NBC News has featured the live tweets of 16 year old Farah Baker on the bombardment breaking windows and injuring her mother in her house opposite al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Monday, 150 international law experts, including Richard Falk, released a statement drawing it out further, citing the Geneva Convention on warfare in their Joint Declaration by International Law Experts on Israel’s Gaza Offensive:
The indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, the targeting of objectives providing no effective military advantage, and the intentional targeting of civilians and civilian houses have been persistent features of Israel’s long-standing policy of punishing the entire population of the Gaza Strip, which, for over seven years, has been virtually imprisoned by Israeli imposed closure. Such a regime amounts to a form of collective punishment, which violates the unconditional prohibition set forth in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and has been internationally condemned for its illegality. However, far from being effectively opposed international actors, Israel’s illegal policy of absolute closure imposed on the Gaza Strip has relentlessly continued, under the complicit gaze of the international community of States.
Cheers to Jewish Voice for Peace for producing the video #GazaNames where prominent voices — and everyone — can post a photo memorializing names of those killed.
Protests against the “Protective Edge” attack on Gaza have been large around the world; and not large enough here in the U.S. IF YOU NEED assistance organizing a presence, write us.
If you’re attending the Saturday, August 2 protest at The White House, 1pm, join with World Can’t Wait there. We are co-sponsoring and calling people to join however you can.
DOWNLOAD and PRINT fliers and posters.
Debra Sweet is the Director of World Can’t Wait.