'It's Time for US to Cut Israel Offby Bruce Robbins
My two children went to the United Nations school in New York. Maybe that's why the news of the 40 people killed at the United Nations school in Gaza hit me so hard. I'm as blasé as the next person about pictures of children's bodies lined up on the ground. We've probably all thought, "Those could be my kids." This time the idea was a little more vivid than usual.
The crowd that gathered outside New York's City Hall on Jan. 7 included a lot of Jews like me. We were there to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg's enthusiastic support for what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza. For years now, many American Jews have been begging the U.S. government not to use us as an excuse for sending Israel the helicopters and the F-16s.
It was cold and rainy, and we all had better places to be. But it was unbearable to think we were represented by people like President Bush and Mayor Bloomberg, who lay all the blame on "terrorists." "New Yorkers know what terrorism is all about," Bloomberg said from near the Gaza border. "If we were threatened in New York, we would do everything in our power to protect our citizens." What is 9/11 doing here? Considering the inequality of arms and the inequality in the number of victims, a better analogy for Gaza and Israel would be David and Goliath.
In international law, and as a matter of human decency, the Israeli government has a responsibility to protect not just its own citizens, but also the Palestinians in Gaza. Though the Israeli army left in 2005, it has never stopped controlling everything that goes into or out of Gaza. It has stopped fuel and medicine from going in, thereby creating what is called a "humanitarian crisis."
One also hears Gaza described as "hell on Earth." I grew up with that phrase. In the 1950s it was applied to the concentration camps.
I know, Holocaust analogies are supposed to be taboo. But when a whole population is fenced in and deprived of food, water and electricity, when anything that moves risks being shot, and when you can also get blown up without moving at all, like the people seeking shelter at the United Nations school, it's natural enough that there will be analogies drawn to the camps.
There were signs at the protest on Jan. 7 that used the word "genocide."
It's probably not the right word. The Israelis are not trying to kill every single Palestinian. They are merely trying to crush Hamas and humiliate the Palestinians, accepting the deaths of some hundreds of civilians as collateral damage along the way. That's bad enough. And the numbers are going up every day.
Who's to blame? Hamas fired the rockets at civilians, and that's wrong. But Israel kept Gaza in a state of siege, and that's wrong too. Then they retaliated against the Gazans for democratically electing Hamas. There is no end to the blame game. What's clear and final is that according to the Anti-Genocide Convention of 1948, a civilian population can never be punished collectively, as Israel is now punishing the Gazans, for the actions of militants in their midst.'
The crowd that gathered outside New York's City Hall on Jan. 7 included a lot of Jews like me. We were there to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg's enthusiastic support for what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza. For years now, many American Jews have been begging the U.S. government not to use us as an excuse for sending Israel the helicopters and the F-16s.
It was cold and rainy, and we all had better places to be. But it was unbearable to think we were represented by people like President Bush and Mayor Bloomberg, who lay all the blame on "terrorists." "New Yorkers know what terrorism is all about," Bloomberg said from near the Gaza border. "If we were threatened in New York, we would do everything in our power to protect our citizens." What is 9/11 doing here? Considering the inequality of arms and the inequality in the number of victims, a better analogy for Gaza and Israel would be David and Goliath.
In international law, and as a matter of human decency, the Israeli government has a responsibility to protect not just its own citizens, but also the Palestinians in Gaza. Though the Israeli army left in 2005, it has never stopped controlling everything that goes into or out of Gaza. It has stopped fuel and medicine from going in, thereby creating what is called a "humanitarian crisis."
One also hears Gaza described as "hell on Earth." I grew up with that phrase. In the 1950s it was applied to the concentration camps.
I know, Holocaust analogies are supposed to be taboo. But when a whole population is fenced in and deprived of food, water and electricity, when anything that moves risks being shot, and when you can also get blown up without moving at all, like the people seeking shelter at the United Nations school, it's natural enough that there will be analogies drawn to the camps.
There were signs at the protest on Jan. 7 that used the word "genocide."
It's probably not the right word. The Israelis are not trying to kill every single Palestinian. They are merely trying to crush Hamas and humiliate the Palestinians, accepting the deaths of some hundreds of civilians as collateral damage along the way. That's bad enough. And the numbers are going up every day.
Who's to blame? Hamas fired the rockets at civilians, and that's wrong. But Israel kept Gaza in a state of siege, and that's wrong too. Then they retaliated against the Gazans for democratically electing Hamas. There is no end to the blame game. What's clear and final is that according to the Anti-Genocide Convention of 1948, a civilian population can never be punished collectively, as Israel is now punishing the Gazans, for the actions of militants in their midst.'
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten