The state of Israel is conducting a genocide campaign against the people of Gaza, says Warschawski as he apologizes to the late Tanya Reinhart, who saw the nature of the Israeli plans.
(For the record, Ilan Pappe saw the genocidal intent, and was criticized sharply too by many Israeli activists.)
Warschawski calls on caring European citizens to stand up and fight their leadership which has just recently upgraded its relations with Israel.
Racheli Gai
http://www.alternativenews.org/blogs/michael-warschawski/sanctions-now--upgrading-hell-no-20081202.html
December 2008
Sanctions Now – Upgrading Hell No!
Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center
"Gaza is burning", writes French activist Liliane Cordova Kaczerginski, using the very words of a famous song of a Jewish village destroyed by the Nazis. Like sixty years ago, Gaza is burning and the world is silent, waiting for the outcome of a non-existent peace process. "A hostile entity" – this was the way the Israeli leadership defined, four years ago, a territory in which one and a half million civilians, women, the elderly and children, are trying to survive. As such, the Israeli state has the right, in fact the duty, to launch a war of annihilation.
Several years ago, the late Tanya Reinhardt used the word "genocide" to describe the harsh repression of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories by Israel; I was among those who criticized her for using too strong of a concept. From where you are now, forgive me Tanya, because you were right and saw the true nature of the Israeli plans, and I was dead wrong: the State of Israel is conducting a rampant genocide against the people of Gaza, using the weapon of almost-starvation, electricity cuts and deprivation of drinking water, provoking epidemics and preventing basic health-care. Gaza is under siege, and the war criminal Ehud Barak has just ordered a halt to even the emergency humanitarian aid conveyed by the United Nations.
When Sarajevo was victim of the criminal siege initiated by the Serbian army and militias, the international community retaliated with severe sanctions, a boycott of the Yugoslav regime and the bombardment of Belgrade. When Iraq occupied Kuwait, the international community launched a military offensive against Iraq and a radical embargo that provoked the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent children. Today, that same international community is completely silent in the face of the martyrdom of Gaza. It is our duty, the duty of civil societies all over the world, to demand from international institutions and governments urgent and drastic actions against Israel, a state that is violating the basic rules of international law, hundreds of United Nations resolutions and each and every convention aimed at protecting human rights.
The war crimes committed by the Israeli state against the population of Gaza exclude it from the community of nations. Like apartheid South Africa, it should be sanctioned and boycotted, and not rewarded with an upgrading of the partnership agreement with the European Union.
As an Israeli citizen, I expect from the European Union to help us pressure our government to stop the crimes against the Palestinian population of Gaza. By rewarding Israel with an upgrading of its relations with the European community, the message of EU is a disgrace that should be condemned and fought by all Europeans who care for human dignity.
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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Shlensky
Alistair Welchman
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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
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1 comment:
Thanks for the article Michael. One factual point. You write:
"When Sarajevo was victim of the criminal siege initiated by the Serbian army and militias, the international community retaliated with severe sanctions, a boycott of the Yugoslav regime and the bombardment of Belgrade."
The last part is not correct. NATO bombed Belgrade over Kosova years later, over a different country, a different crisis. They never bombed Belgrade over the criminal siege of Sarajevo and the Nakba-like destruction of Bosnia.
Not that I would have supported that kind of action anyway, but that is a different matter. The factualpoint is important because the "internationalcommunity" precisely collaborated with Belgrade over the destruction of Bosnia, maintaining a criminal arms embargo on the beleagured Bosnian republic, under attack by Europe's fourth most heavily armed power, and continually putting forward plans to recognise Serbian and Croatian ethnic cleansing via the ethnic partiton of multi-ethnic Bosnia, which just happened to be the same plan Milosevic and Karadzic were trying to esablish.
Sharon's outstanding solidarity with Milosevic was no accident.
Keep up the excellent work and solidarity with the horrifically terrorised Palestinian peopleof Gaza.
Michael Karadjis
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