As Israel’s assault claims the lives of hundreds of Palestinian children, there’s no doubt that it’s a form of collective punishment.<\/p>\n
Phyllis Bennis As Israel\u2019s assault on the Gaza Strip rages on, ceasefires come and go. Most last just long enough for Palestinians to dig out the dead from beneath their collapsed houses, get the injured to overcrowded and under-resourced hospitals, and seek enough food and water to last through the next round of airstrikes.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing left but stones,\u201d Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer quoted an old woman saying as she searched desperately through the rubble of what had been her home.<\/p>\n Casualties are soaring. By late July, Israel had killed more than\u00a01,200 Palestinians<\/a>, at least73 percent of them civilians<\/a>\u00a0including hundreds of children. Fifty-six Israelis, almost all of them soldiers, have died too.<\/p>\n A\u00a0July 28 poll<\/a>\u00a0shows 86.5 percent of Israelis oppose a ceasefire. Yet we continue to hear that Israelis want peace.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that at least some of them do. An Israeli protest in Tel Aviv brought 5,000 people into the street. That\u2019s good \u2013 though a far cry from the 400,000 who poured into the streets to protest Israel\u2019s invasion of Lebanon back in 1982.<\/p>\n And when a young Palestinian teenager was kidnapped and tortured to death \u2013 burned alive \u2013 in Jerusalem after the bodies of the three kidnapped young Israeli settlers were found, many Israelis tried to distance themselves from the horrific crime. \u201cIn our society, the society of Israel, there is no place for such murderers,\u201d Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed.<\/p>\n But in fact, there\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0a place for those who call for murder \u2013 at the highest political and military levels of Israeli society.<\/p>\n Meet Ayelet Shaked<\/a>, a member of the Knesset \u2013 Israel\u2019s parliament. She belongs to Israel Home, a far-right party in Netanyahu\u2019s governing coalition. She issued\u00a0on Facebook what amounts to a call to commit genocide, by deliberately killing Palestinians, including women, children, and old people.<\/p>\n \u201cThe entire Palestinian people is the enemy,\u201d Shaked posted. \u201cIn wars, the enemy is usually an entire people, including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n The Knesset member went on to say that the mothers of Palestinians killed should follow their dead sons to Hell: \u201cThey should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.\u201d<\/p>\n Her language reminds me of a chapter in our own history \u2013 the genocidal Indian Wars. U.S. military leaders had called on their troops to wipe out all the Native Americans andCol. John Chivington<\/a>\u00a0was asked on the eve of the Sand Creek Massacre about killing Cheyenne children. \u201cKill and scalp all, big and little, nits make lice,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n Shaked\u2019s comments also echo the words of\u00a0an Israeli colonel<\/a>\u00a0who testified under oath at the wrongful death trial of Rachel Corrie, a young U.S. peace activist killed by an Israeli soldier driving an armored bulldozer in Gaza. \u201cIn a war zone there are no civilians,\u201d said the military officer \u2013 who was responsible for training Israeli soldiers to serve in the occupied territories.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no question that Hamas\u2019 primitive rockets violate international law. They can\u2019t be accurately aimed at military targets. But that doesn\u2019t justify Israel\u2019s violation of its own obligations under international law as the occupying power in Gaza.<\/p>\n Israel has the region\u2019s strongest military, the only nuclear weapons arsenal in the Middle East, and the unconditional backing of the United States. Its assault on Gaza\u00a0violates the Geneva Conventions<\/a>. Israel is imposing collective punishment against all Gazans, attacking hospitals, and using disproportionate force.<\/p>\n Israeli officials know full well that the best way to protect their citizens is to implement a real ceasefire \u2013 a breakthrough that would require opening Gaza\u2019s borders. Some of them also know the best way to keep their citizens safe long term is by ending the occupation altogether. Problem is, not enough of them will admit it.<\/p>\n U.S. taxpayers also have a stake in this conflict because Washington keeps sending Israel\u00a0billions of our tax dollars<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0refuses to push Tel Aviv<\/a>\u00a0to stop violating international law.<\/p>\n For real peace, both of those things must change.<\/p>\n
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