Palestinian bodies

On Tuesday, tens of thousands of Palestinians attended the funerals of 58 of their own who were killed in (yet) another brazen display of armed forces by Israel. This latest round of Israeli terror also wounded 2,400 people. The cold-blooded murder of Palestinians came the same day the US inaugurated the new US embassy in Jerusalem. The murdered Palestinians included a baby; but the image that stood out was that of a Palestinian man on a wheelchair in a defiant pose. He was amongst those that had been shot dead by Israeli snipers just a day before Palestinians mark the Nakba. This was an unforgiving reminder that nothing has changed in the 70 years since Palestinians were driven out of the Gaza Strip en masse to facilitate new Israeli settlements. Israel’s disrespect of human rights is not new; neither is US loyalty to this apartheid state. Palestinians have been attempting to put up a futile resistance against the Israeli state – but it is impossible to fight against billions of dollars of military equipment with sticks, stones and kites. Already, Israel had killed over 42 Palestinians in the last six weeks during the Great March of Return protests.

The apartheid wall between Israel and Palestine is drenched in the blood of Palestinians, who are fighting for a right to their homes and their land. Reiterating what we wrote in these pages yesterday as well, the moving of the embassy was a deliberate violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions. While it may seem that the US and Israel stand alone on this matter, let’s acknowledge that the rest of the world only makes a verbal affirmation of the disputed status of Israel. It is unwilling to take any real action. This is why it is not just Israel but also the rest of the international community that must bear the burden of innocent blood on their hands. A resolution moved in the UN calling for an investigation into Israel’s brutal murder of 58 Palestinians was blocked by the US. And Washington has blamed the murder of Palestinians on Hamas. This is a smokescreen. It was on the bodies of 58 Palestinians that Netanyahu stood outside the new US Embassy and said “peace comes from recognising truth.” The truth that must be recognised is that the Israeli state is responsible for the illegitimate killing of thousands of Palestinians, that is it an occupying force in another people’s land. The brutal murder of Palestinian citizens is a chance for the West to isolate Israel and the US. Let’s hope that they can become as bold as Palestinians in defying their power.