Ryan Lau | @agorisms

The apartheid state of Israel has long tried to hide some of their more barbaric practices. Most notably, they adamantly refuse to admit their possession of nuclear weapons, despite possessing up to 400 of them. The country has also stolen weapons-grade uranium from the United States. Moreover, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself is far from an innocent man. He famously asserted that the terror attacks on 9/11 were good for Israel, and has smuggled nuclear triggers for his own program.

Sadly, though, these all pale in comparison to the Jewish state’s latest stroke of immorality.

Legalizing Civilian Slaughter

Last May, a number of human rights groups were close to getting a landmark bill to become law in Israel. Its contents? Basically, they were looking to make murder illegal, but the Israeli Supreme Court had other ideas. In a unanimous decision, the court maintained that it would be completely legal for the Israeli military to kill Palestinian civilians. Specifically, they defended the “continued use of snipers and live fire against Palestinian protestors in the Gaza Strip”.

The ruling makes no distinction between violent and nonviolent protestors. In fact, it blatantly refused to make illegal all actions that lead to the death of unarmed civilians, even though many of these are children, some too young to even talk. In just two weeks in 2014, for example, the Israeli military killed 155 children, even more than they killed soldiers. Of the 132 identified, 37 were four years old or younger.

The 2014 murders were particularly horrific, but the apartheid state has shown little mercy since. From March to May of 2018, they killed over 100 unarmed protestors, 60 of whom perished from a single day’s attacks. I am in no way an advocate of war, violence, or murder in any capacity. But a state shows particular abhorrence when it kills even one unarmed man, woman, or child. In the past years, Israel has done so thousands of times with seemingly no consequence.

Aiding Apartheid Israel

Despite this ruling, in addition to the many immoral acts above, the United States of America is a major source of money for Israel. Despite its clear wrongdoings, the apartheid state receives over $3 billion from the U.S. every year. From schools to politics, we learn that apartheid is wrong. Just about every moral code teaches us that killing innocent, unarmed children is wrong. It goes without saying that hiding nuclear weapons is, as well. Why does Israel get a soft spot?

Going beyond the curious discontinuity of funding both sides of a war (the U.S., through a UN agreement, also aids Palestine) it is nearly unimaginable why Israel deserves a dollar of American aid or an ounce of American support. They blatantly disregard the human rights of Palestinians and have praised the worst terror attack on American soil in history for its diplomatic outcome.

In no way is this a statement of approval for Palestine, HAMAS, or any nations affiliated with them. But the United States simply does not aid them in any comparable way to how they support Israel. On the contrary, Palestinians do not kill Israelis in any comparable way to the reverse.

Though it is important to condemn both groups for any murders, this clearly is not an equal fight.

The Israeli Supreme Court Brings Little Hope

Unfortunately, it appears that the most recent ruling from Israel’s top court is the end of the discussion. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has already condemned the human rights groups for daring to challenge the military.

Perhaps slowing down the war to guard innocent life was too much for him. Perhaps he seeks to avoid the personal blowback from his army’s inhumane acts. Regardless, Lieberman, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Israeli military are entirely responsible for the deaths of these Palestinian civilians, as well as any more that have perished and will perish due to the nation’s outright support of civilian slaughter.

This shouldn’t be a radical idea: killing innocent people is wrong. But to apartheid Israel, civilian slaughter is law. Considered the beacon of liberal democracy by much of the world, Israel is really a far cry from a state worth praise. The ethics of war are an immensely complex and debatable issue, but civilized nations all agree that murdering innocents is grossly immoral (whether they follow it is another issue altogether). Until the apartheid state can right this and many other horrible misdeeds, it deserves no support.

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