By Tarek Fatah Author & Columnist, Canada

By any account Monday’s massacre of Palestinians at the Gaza border with Israel was a horrendous day in the 70-year existence of the Jewish State and will be remembered as one more bloody milestone in the never-ending conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people.

Those who sent the flower of Palestinian youth towards their certain death as they sat in the safety of their Hamas command posts cannot escape the blame for the death of 58 Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire, with another 2,771 reported wounded.

The civilized world has little expectation from those who consider ‘martyrdom’ as the highest form of existence, but we expect more from Israel than deploying snipers to shoot straight into a frenzied mob, taking out stone-throwing protesters like 10 pins in a bowling alley.

The situation in Gaza is complicated by two factors:

First, there is a deep-seated hatred of Israel that is seen as an occupying power since its creation 70 years ago, despite the fact the Jewish State was a creation of the United Nations, not a result of some Rhodesia-like Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

Secondly, Gaza is governed by Hamas, an Islamist dictatorship designated as a terrorist group that is a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran and one that follows the most radical form of Islamic Sharia.

These two factors make Gaza a cauldron of the worst kind, producing a brew of hatred against the ‘Kuffar’ (non-Muslims) that feeds the need among its youth to accomplish something worthwhile, and what better way than to die in the service of Allah fighting the Jew.

Having said that, it is Israel that is the dominant force in the Middle East, a democracy that claims to uphold values that are the cornerstone of our civilization.

Thus, when Jerusalem orders its troops to shoot at will and inflict maximum casualties on protesters carrying stones and petrol bombs armed with wire cutters and burning tire smoke to camouflage their advance, it is indulging in, if not war crimes, certainly behaviour unbecoming of a civilized state.

Israel virtually eliminated all terrorist incursions from the West Bank by building the Wall on its eastern border with the Palestinian West Bank.

Why can’t Jerusalem build a wall on its western border with Israel to ward off such futile Hamas attempts to use their own youth as gun-fodder?

Both UK Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the Israeli actions. May’s spokesman said she was “deeply troubled” by Israel’s use of live fire and “the scale of the violence” while Macron condemned “the violence of the Israeli armed forces against protesters.”

Elsewhere, Ireland summoned Israel’s ambassador to protest against the fatalities while Russia and China also expressed their concern over the killings.

The UN High Commission for Human Rights is no paragon of democracy and governance, but its chair Rupert Colville was correct in pointing out that “The mere fact of approaching a fence is not a lethal, life-threatening act, so that does not warrant being shot.”

He stressed that international laws that applied to Israel made clear that “lethal force may only be used as a measure of last, not first, resort.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must listen to Israel’s friends, even if what they say is unsavoury to his ears and doesn’t suit the prevalent euphoria caused by the moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Killing more Palestinians will not guarantee security and peace Israel desires; allowing the Palestinians a capital in East Jerusalem, east of the Mount of Olives will certainly do.

Twitter : @TarekFatah

Email : tarek.fatah@gmail.com

Like this: Like Loading...