The US Policy of Indifference About Palestine

According to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humaniterian Affairs (OCHA) the breakdown of those killed during the recent war on Gaza as last updated on August 6 is, 1030 men (166 militants) women 219, children 414. As for the Israel the death toll is civilians 2 and soldiers 64. The most recent ongoing Palestine-Israel conflicted escalated on 8th July, 2014. It does not qualify to be even called a conflict. The UN had said that Israel might be guilty of war crimes in Gaza and decided to launch a commission to investigate. Guess who did not sign it up, the USA. Yes, the so called compassionate, tolerant, broad minded and sometimes even generous America. According to America its supporting Israel’s right to self defense. There is no war. In any war there is some kind of military compatibility. Israel is using its ultra sophisticated precision bombing to ethnically cleanse the area. The Gaza strip is heavily bombarded by the world’s fifth largest army. No one has been safe from Israel’s bombing and no place was left attack free. 80 per cent of the dead are civilians. They have slaughtered old, women, babies and the unwell, blindly bombing with missiles and shells. The notorious flechette bombs were used to shred people, they are made of millions of tiny steel arrows held together by mesh wire. Imagine the horror. War has rules. Schools, hospitals and shelters are not destroyed. Israel has crossed all limits and by supporting this war America has made its high handed talks of morality, humanity and democracy bite the dust.

Hospitals, schools, power stations, sewage works, water supply — Gaza’s infrastructure is being turned to rubble. Israel has declared more than half of Gaza a no-go area. The people in Gaza are like fish trapped in a barrel with no-where to go. Israel announced it will make Gaza a free-fire zone, when it knows full well there is nowhere for its people to move that is safe, with the borders sealed by Israel and Egypt’s inhumane siege. Israel wants the peace process to begin. It definitely wants the process but not peace. What appalls me the most that amid all this massacre US has decided to let Israel tap a local US arm pile to restock its ammunitions with mortar rounds and grenades. Just before this sanction the US president Obama asked Israel for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, has said, “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This defense sale is consistent with those objectives.” Other than this the US politicians are working in Congress to sanction millions of Dollars for the Israeli Iron Dome.

The U.S. foreign assistance law bars any military assistance to any one country, unit, whatever, engaged in consistent human rights violations. The Israel’s violation of human rights is consistent and extreme; so in reality the US is violating its own law. Secondly, US is a high-contracting party to the Geneva conventions and by supporting Israel it is going back on its own serious international commitments. To sum it up the US is violating its domestic laws and the international humanitarian laws.

The US is contributing to the Israeli indiscriminate massacre of Palestinians. It has blood on its hands. Its refueling their munitions so they can kill more defenseless Palestinians. It’s all very disturbing but what is more disturbing is the prevailing silence of the other nations, especially Muslim countries.