Israel is relying on world sympathy fatigue and amnesia. They are biding their time for the world to look away so that they can finish the job they started back in 1948. That is, the elimination of the Palestinian people. With luck, they hope, the world will stop their bleeding-heart moaning about Gaza and the plight of the Palestinians. The joy of the eradication of the ‘Palestinian Problem’ will, God willing, be complete in 2024.
Not so.
As I write, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is hearing South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. This is history in the making. The world is awake and no longer prepared to turn a blind eye to the shocking murderous actions of Israel. Whichever country turns away in cowardice and obliviousness will have to deal with their shame when history looks back at the genocide they allowed to occur on their watch. There can be no more finger pointing at Germany, Rwanda or Myanmar if a country does not stand up and fight for the rights of the Palestinians and the cessation of the genocide.
The strong, very strong, words of South African lawyer, Adila Hassim, leaves one in no doubt that Israel is committing “acts of genocide”. She used language that made me wonder how she could compose herself as she noted the horrific statistics of genocide, destruction, bombing, sniping, homicide, starvation, disease and destitution. I swallowed down a hard lump in my throat and felt helpless. But there she was, like so many millions of people, urging the world to take notice and stop this madness of war that Israel and the United States seem hell bent on conducting.
The world isn’t going to let this continue, not only because of the immorality, inhumanity and unethical nature of what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, but because if Israel is allowed to inflict the attempted elimination of the Palestinian people, then who’s next? What other country will be allowed to commit genocide and get away with it because Israel was given a green light to continue. It’s naïve to think we are all safe if we live in a democratic society and that kind of thing can never happen to us. Israel calls itself a democracy, so if such a “democracy” is allowed to conduct itself in a genocidal manner, then no one is safe. The world will become a free-for-all if the United States and Israel are allowed to behave in such a way that leaves the rest of the world horrified.
This Saturday marks perhaps the most profound uprising from people around the world who will not stand down and allow this genocide to continue – the Global Day of Action for Palestine Rally. Google which rally is closest to you. Do what you can to join the resistance to the inhumanity heaped upon the Palestinian people by Israel. Say “no more”. Say “enough”. We don’t want to live in a world permanently sucked into wars that the United States starts, encourages, funds or fights by proxy. World peace is not a dream, it’s possible with enough people from the bottom pushing up against those at the top. The average person far outweighs the few megalomaniacs at the top who start the wars that the average person has to suffer – not the leaders. Israel and the United States must be stopped from destroying our world.
Reb Halabi
Reb Halabi is a PhD candidate focusing on the intersection of religion and geo-politics.
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