Some Thoughts

As Israel drags the world into more violence

Israeli soldiers, forcing their blindfolded hostages to strip

Israel was created by the West in 1948 on Palestinian land, and began with the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 indigenous people.

In Palestine there has been ongoing illegal Israeli occupation, along with war crimes, torture and apartheid for decades, culminating in the current genocide.

Israel has dropped roughly 100,000 tons of explosives on Gaza in the last twelve months (far exceeding the World War II bombings of Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined).

Israel is holding about ten thousand Palestinians hostage, including hundreds of women and children, and has been condemned for using rape and torture.

In Lebanon more than 1,000 people have been killed by Israel in the past two weeks, while up to a million may now be displaced.

Last month Israel booby-trapped shipments of pagers in what the UN described as a “terrifying violation of international law”. The pagers killed and mutilated doctors, nurses, civilians and children in an act of planned terrorism.

82% of the rockets crossing the Israeli-Lebanon border were fired by Israel, and 94% of the deaths are Lebanese.

UK Conservative and Labour governments have continued to support and provide diplomatic cover for Israel, and sold them weapons. Israel has killed civilians pretty much every day for the last year. The Israeli lobby funded (or bribed, depending on how you look at it) a quarter of UK MPs.

The USA is even more complicit in the war crimes and illegal activities of Israel, with many of their politicians taking huge sums from the Israeli lobbyists. “Genocide” Joe Biden alone received more than $4,223,000. No wonder the U.S. has voted more than $300 billion to Israel. Backs mutually scratched. Nearly all U.S. aid today goes to support Israel’s military.

Additional

• Over 650 Palestinian children are currently being held in Israeli prisons.

• Displaced Palestinians have no rights to land and property under Israeli law.

• Israel is the only country in the world that tries children in military courts.

• Over 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza – more than 11,000 women and 16,000 children.

• Palestinians live under Israeli military rule – their access to water, food, electricity, healthcare and education is restricted.

• Thousands of Palestinians are forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for illegal Israeli settlements. There are now 160 illegal Israeli settlements with 700,000 illegal settlers.

• “We will eliminate everything.” Yoav Gallant, Israeli defence minister.

• “It’s an entire nation that is responsible … we will fight until we break their backbone.” Isaac Herzog, Israeli president.

• “Bomb without distinction! There is no room for mercy”. MK Tally Gotliv, Likud.

• Israel has been destroying libraries, museums, universities, hospitals, and schools. It has been killing refugees queuing up for food aid, and killing international aid workers.

Finally, a lovely message I received as a supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace:

"Tonight at sundown, we'll welcome the Jewish New Year, 5785.

As we grapple with the devastation of the last year — one of unspeakable loss and grief — we recommit ourselves to fighting with everything we have to end the genocide.

During these Days of Awe, we reflect on the horrors being carried out in our name, and we return to our spiritual and political calling to dismantle Zionism and build something life-sustaining and beautiful in its place.

Every life is precious.

As Jews, we believe that every person is a whole world, and every life lost an entire universe destroyed.

It is because of this unshakeable belief that we have mourned every single life lost over the past year — Palestinian, Lebanese, and Israeli — and fought at every turn against the efforts of the Israeli and U.S. governments to turn Jewish grief into a justification for genocide."