On January 7, Israel paused its military offensive, known as ‘Operation Cast Lead’, for 3 hours to allow  aid to reach the besieged Palestinians in Gaza. 

This was a brief deviation from the standard procedures of blocking access to food, humanitarian aid, fuel, medicine and water, as well as systematically destroying infrastructure and bombing and terrorizing civilians. 

John Pilger, one of only two to win Britain's Journalist of the Year Award twice, and whose documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US, has pointed out that this fits the international standard of the Genocide Convention.  Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of  Illinois College of Law, has done the same.

Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and international law authority at Princeton University, believes that it is no overstatement to compare this ‘collective atrocity’ to that perpetrated by the Nazis on the Jews. 

How can we allow this to occur?

While our media and even major political parties emphasize that Hamas is a ‘terrorist organization’ which is ‘dedicated to the destruction of Israel’, they fail to point out that Hamas’ ‘seizure of power’ was actually the result of a democratic election, and that they have recognized Israel’s right to exist.   Even Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, criticizes Israel’s excessive violence. 

Yonatan Schapira, a former Captain in the Israeli Air Force, has recently been on BBC News 24, speaking about Gaza.  When asked his views on Israel’s actions in Gaza, he said he could answer with two words: “war crimes”.  He said he was speaking out on behalf of the thousands of Israelis protesting in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and many other places.  Saying he wanted to cry and shout about the 1.5 million Palestinians locked in the Gaza ghetto, he denounced the treatment of Palestinians as ‘animals’, and said that members of the anti-occupation movement in Israel are not traitors, but patriots. 

This is an old conflict and is not one-sided, but the argument that Israel is defending itself only convinces the ignorant.  This is a clear continuation of the colonial takeover of valuable land and resources by Israel, and Palestinians are in the way.  As former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, Paul Craig Roberts, named his recent article on Gaza: “May We No Longer Be Silent.”