stan van houcke: It goes sickeningly on, day after horrifying day.

maandag 24 juni 2024

It goes sickeningly on, day after horrifying day.

stan,

It goes sickeningly on, day after horrifying day.

On June 6, Israeli forces dropped U.S.-made bombs on displaced Gazans, primarily women and children, at a U.N. school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 40 and injuring hundreds.

Days before that, Israel dropped seven massive American bombs — like the ones Nikki Haley had ghoulishly autographed with "Finish Them!" — on a crowded tent city of sleeping, displaced people in Rafah. The resulting fires burned alive at least 45 and injured hundreds.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society says Israeli forces are firing on them in the West Bank even as they try to remove the dead and injured. U.N. officials worry that warm weather and dirty water could trigger a spike in cholera. Experts say that 9 of 10 children suffer from severe malnutrition, and over a million people could "face death and starvation" by mid-July without more aid.

And as we witness Israel's manufactured catastrophe unfold, an unprecedented crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech in the U.S. has made criticism of Israel increasingly risky for anyone who dares speak out.

Student protests denouncing Israel's genocide have resulted in nearly 3,000 arrests, often by over-zealous, riot-geared police. An acclaimed Palestinian-American nurse at NYU's Langone Health was fired for briefly citing the Gaza "genocide" while receiving an award for her "stellar patient care." And, of course, the rare U.S. journalists willing to challenge Israeli policy, like former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, have been sidelined or fired.

I believe it is the sacred duty of those of us who still have a platform to shine a bright light on these horrors and hold those responsible accountable.

That’s why, as the author of Common Dreams' Further column since 2008, I am asking you to donate to our Mid-Year Campaign and keep independent, nonprofit journalism alive.