Opinion | Bernie Sanders: No more arms sales to Netanyahu – WaPost
“As I have said many times, Israel clearly had a right to respond to the horrific Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages, including Americans. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has also waged all-out war against the Palestinian people. Within Gaza’s population of just 2.2 million, more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 103,000 injured — probably 60 percent of whom are women, children or elderly people. A recent U.N. assessment of satellite imagery found that two-thirds of all structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. That includes 87 percent of housing, 84 percent of health facilities, and about 70 percent of water and sanitation plants. Every one of Gaza’s 12 universities has been bombed, as have hundreds of schools.
“During the past year, millions of desperately poor people in Gaza have been driven from their homes, forced to evacuate again and again with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Families have been herded into so-called safe zones, only to face continued bombardment. The children of Gaza have suffered a level of physical and emotional trauma that is almost beyond comprehension and that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
“As horrific as the situation in Gaza has been over the past year, it is getting unimaginably worse. Humanitarian aid workers on the ground report that tens of thousands of children are now experiencing malnutrition and starvation because of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid. The need is greater than at any other time in the conflict; the volume of aid getting into Gaza in recent weeks is lower than at any point since the war began. And Israel’s recent decision to ban the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza, will only make a horrific situation even worse. I have met with doctors who have served in Gaza, treating hundreds of patients a day without electricity, anesthesia or clean water, including dozens of children arriving with gunshot wounds to the head. I’ve seen the photographs and the videos. UNICEF estimates that 10 children lose a leg in Gaza every day. There are more than 17,000 orphans.
“All of this is unspeakable and immoral. But what makes it even more painful is that much of this death and destruction has been carried out with U.S. weaponry and paid for by American taxpayers. During the last year alone, the United States has provided $18 billion in military aid to Israel and delivered more than 50,000 tons of armaments and military equipment.
“In other words, as Americans, we are complicit in these horrific and illegal atrocities. Our complicity must end.”
Ethnic cleansing from the perspective of people Israel is trying to exterminate:
Facing genocide while disabled – Al Jazeera
“The genocide in Gaza is a mass disabling event. More than 400 days of Israeli air strikes and constant ground invasions on heavily populated areas have left more than 22,500 people who have sustained life-changing injuries. Hundreds of people with existing disabilities have been killed or remain under the rubble. Ninety percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced, some as many as 20 times.
“The destruction of infrastructure hinders the mobility of people with all types of disabilities, making it extremely difficult for them to flee when ordered by the Israeli military. Just as the Israeli army is destroying the healthcare system of the Strip, it has also decimated the system of care that used to exist for people with disabilities, killing many professionals who worked in the field. On May 13, Hashem Ghazal, the founder of the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children and also known as the “spiritual father of deaf people in Gaza”, was killed in an Israeli air strike along with his wife.
“I grew up in Gaza in the Nuseirat refugee camp. As a child, I knew many people who had been permanently disabled as a result of Israeli violence. Before the war, nearly 50,000 people in Gaza were registered as living with a disability. While I am no longer in Gaza, this September I was able to speak on the phone and WhatsApp with several Palestinians with disabilities who have been displaced. Here are some of their stories…”
Gangs looting Gaza aid operate in areas under Israeli control, aid groups say – msn/WaPost
“An internal United Nations memo obtained by The Washington Post concluded last month that the gangs ‘may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence’ or ‘protection’ from the Israel Defense Forces. One gang leader, the memo said, established a ‘military like compound’ in an area ‘restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF.’
“Aid organizations say Israeli authorities have denied most of their requests for better measures to safeguard convoys, including appeals for safer routes, more open crossings and permission to allow Gaza’s civilian police to protect the trucks. Israeli forces within view of the attacks have also failed on multiple occasions to intervene as looting was underway, aid workers, U.N. officials, transport workers and truck drivers say.”
Pope Francis calls for investigation into Gaza genocide allegations – CNN
“‘According to some experts… what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,’ Vatican News, the Holy See’s official news outlet, cited the pontiff as writing in a forthcoming book. ‘It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.'”
After more than a year of mass killing and starvation of helpless civilians, the Pope calls for an investigation and minces words about defining “genocide.” The Vatican isn’t demonstrating much more enthusiasm for protecting human beings than it did with investigating church leaders’ cover-up of sexual abuse of children by its clergy. Yes, a thorough investigation should be done of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide going back to 1948. But that will take years and give the Israeli government more time to kill and displace more people in Gaza and the West Bank and take more of their land. The international community needs to stop the killing now.
Here’s some well-documented reading for the “investigation”:
Under the Cover of War: The Zionist Expulsion of the Palestinians – Rosemarie Esber