The genocide must end

                                                 Commentary

    

            By Reginald Johnson

        

    How long will the world community stand by and do nothing?

   For five months, Israel has been conducting a brutal, some would say barbaric military campaign to punish the people of Palestine for the attacks of October 7, when Hamas extremists assaulted a music festival in Israel, killing over 1,200 people.

  Israel says their military operation in Gaza is only targeting individuals tied to Hamas (which is the governing authority for Palestine) but news reports say otherwise. Israel has carried out a carpet bombing campaign which has leveled apartment buildings, schools, and universities. There have been airstrikes as well on hospitals, churches, mosques, refugee camps, food centers and ambulances. All these attacks are war crimes under international law.

   At this point, more than 31,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed.  The real fatality figure is probably a lot higher because not everyone has been accounted for, including people whose bodies are under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

 Another 1.5 million people have been displaced from their homes.

 Israeli authorities have also blocked aid trucks from getting into Gaza, resulting in acute food shortages. UN officials say that more and more people are going hungry and cases of starvation have already been verified.

  A group of UN experts declared recently that “Israel has been intentionally starving” Gaza, and that “widespread famine” in the besieged enclave is “imminent,” according to a report in Mondoweiss.

  “We’ve never seen a civilian population made to go hungry so completely and so quickly,” said Michael Fahkri, UN Special Rapporteur. “Never in modern history.”

   Medical care in Gaza is also collapsing, as hospitals and health facilities have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombing. This has led to people dying from inadequate medical care and disease.

 The death toll in Gaza could jump exponentially with the onset of famine and the spread of disease. Prof. Devi Sridhar, chair of the global public health division at the University of Edinburgh, predicts that a quarter of Gaza’s 2 million population --- close to half of 1 million human beings --- could die within a year.

 Almost on a daily basis, atrocities are being carried out against Palestinians, particularly in Gaza but also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem --- territories illegally occupied by Israel for the past 57 years.

 On Thursday, at least 21 Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of people waiting for aid in Gaza City in the same area that was targeted hours earlier, according to the Al Jazeera news service. In the earlier incident, the same food distribution point at the Kuwait roundabout, Israel forces shot dead at least six Palestinians, according to the report. Israeli officials claimed that it was actually Palestinians who were shooting at their own people.

 On Wednesday, Israeli forces attacked a food distribution center in Gaza killing one worker and injuring 22, according to the BBC.

 Also on Wednesday, in  East Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 12-year-old boy who was playing with fireworks. Eyewitnesses said the boy posed no threat to the soldiers and was using small fireworks.

 On February 29, UN officials reported that 112 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on a group that gathered around a food supply truck in the early morning hours. In what is being called the "Flour Massacre,” a number of people were killed by gunshots while others died after being trampled by the crowd that went into frenzy after the gunfire erupted. Others died when they were run over by the truck that began driving away to escape the chaos.

 On February 15, dozens of doctors were detained and tortured after a raid by Israeli forces on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to the BBC. The doctors were forced to strip, were blindfolded, forced to remain in a kneeling position, and then were beaten, One doctor was set upon by muzzled dogs, the report said.

 Israeli spokesmen said the IDF raided the hospital because they had evidence Hamas fighters were hiding there.

  Also in February, two little Palestinian girls, sisters, who were putting water into a bucket in the courtyard of their home, were shot dead by an IOF tank. When their father came out and lay down next to them, he was shot dead, too.

The atrocities, the indiscriminate killings, the vast numbers of people being killed and the apparent attempt to engineer a famine, all point towards one conclusion: Israel is conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinians.

 The International Court of Justice reached a similar conclusion when it determined that there was a “plausible case” to be made that Israel was carrying out a "genocide" in Gaza.

 It's clear a great moral crime against humanity is taking place in Gaza.

What is happening in Palestine rivals the ethnic cleansing/genocidal campaigns that took place in the 1990s in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. 

The question is, what is the world going to do about this, if anything?

Certainly some in the UN are oriented to taking action. Fahkri and some of his other colleagues on March 5 called for an arms embargo against Israel until Israel ceases its military campaign.

 A majority of countries on the Security Council of the UN have also agreed to a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

                    

Backers of a ceasefire in Gaza lobby for support from the City Council in Bridgeport, CT  The council approved a ceasefire resolution. (Reginald Johnson photo)

 But every time a ceasefire resolution has been presented to the Security Council, the United States has used its veto to kill it, making clear that the United States is the major stumbling block for the world taking collective action against Israel to stop the genocide.

 President Biden has talked recently, as have other Democratic Party leaders about the need for Israel to control its military forces and avoid civilian casualties. However, talk is cheap. The fact is Biden has not gotten tough with Israel to really back up his words. He could threaten the cutoff of aid to Israel to force that nation to stop the carnage, but he hasn’t done that. He could also ask the US ambassador at the UN to vote with the other nations on the Security Council in passing a resolution ordering Israel to stop its military operations. But he hasn’t done that either.

So until the United States changes its position on what Israel is doing that nation is going to continue with its grossly immoral and totally illegal ethnic cleansing campaign in Palestine.

The United States is the key. The policy here must change. This is why it’s so important that people on the local level continue to speak out and press their members of Congress as well as the White House to get on board behind a cease-fire and insist that Israel stop its barbaric operations. It should be noted that Congress has been as bad as Biden has been on the issue of Israel --- most members in Congress still oppose a cease-fire in Gaza, and that includes both Republicans and Democrats.

 It is somewhat of an indictment of our democracy that while a strong majority of the American people want a cease-fire in Gaza a strong majority in Congress are against it. This is almost entirely because of the huge contributions that are given by pro- Israel lobbies to members of Congress in both parties. The members of our national legislature are in Israel’s pocket.

People and voters have to make it clear to these members of Congress that they need to change their positions and get behind a cease-fire and in turn put pressure on the Biden administration to insist that Israel also agree to a cease-fire, or they will be voted out.

 The genocide in Gaza must be stopped.

 

 

 

 

 

   

Fight over Gaza ceasefire resolution continues

    

      BRIDGEPORT REPORT

 

     By Reginald Johnson 

 

 BRIDGEPORT --- There’s no ceasefire in the battle over the ceasefire resolution.

 After hearing emotional testimony by Palestinian-Americans about the terrible human toll resulting from the Israel-Gaza conflict, the City Council voted overwhelmingly on January 2 to  pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the fighting and asking members of Congress to press the Biden administration into facilitating a peace.

 The final resolution that was agreed to was a stripped-down version from the original one which had put Israel in a negative light, referencing the forced removal of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland in 1948 to create Israel and the “apartheid” system Israel had set up in the Occupied Territories.

  The latest version is more neutral in tone, with the historical references about Israel’s founding removed, the line about “apartheid” taken out and the term “Occupied West Bank” changed to simply “West Bank.”

 The statement calls for an “immediate de-escalation and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza, Israel and the West bank; calls for the release of both Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners; and the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

 And the resolution adds,  “The community in Bridgeport across all faith groups and backgrounds supports an end to the continued violence in hopes for a solution where Palestinians and Israelis can live side-by-side with a two state solution in enduring peace, safety, justice and dignity. Every human being deserves a dignified, peaceful life regardless of religion race or color.”

 Some Jewish leaders were present at the January 2 meeting and they reportedly supported the statement, after the language changes were made.

  After the vote was taken to pass the resolution it appeared the issue was settled. Bridgeport became the first city in Connecticut to pass a Gaza cease-fire resolution and it seemed that calm would finally return to City Hall, after a number of stormy meetings.

  Not so fast.

Within 10 days after the resolution passed, other Jewish leaders came out and denounced the statement saying it was unfair to Israel and criticized the process in which the resolution was passed. That same group, reportedly a coalition of Jewish groups, has called for the rescinding of the cease-fire document.

  As a result of the backlash, City Council meetings have continued to be as packed as they were before the resolution was passed, with both supporters and critics of a ceasefire vying to speak at the public forum prior to the regular council meetings. Supporters come in waving Palestinian flags and showing pictures of people who’ve  been killed in Gaza, while critics show up with Israeli flags and pictures of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7th.

                           

Bridgeport City Council meetings are packed as the debate over a Gaza ceasefire resolution continues. (Reginald Johnson photo) 

  

Carin Sevel, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County, has been leading the charge to get the resolution withdrawn.

 Sevel claimed that the resolution spreads anti-Semitism and in essence calls for “the destruction of Israel.” Sevel said she’s very troubled by the fact that the resolution does not mention the fact that the miltant group Hamas, which is the governing authority for Palestine, conducted the brutal October 7^th attacks against Israel which resulted in the killing of 1200 people.

“Hamas has said repeatedly that their goal is to kill Jews and get rid of Israel,” she said.

Sevel told News 12 after a recent meeting that she considered the Bridgeport resolution a “hate bill.” Asked later to explain that, Sevel said that while there is no mention of what Hamas did on October 7, “it mentions Israel fighting. So that in my opinion is blaming the victim.”

 Sevel, as well as other Jewish leaders in Bridgeport, have also charged that the Bridgeport bill was rushed through without getting enough input from the wider Jewish community.

 She disputed the reports that Jewish leaders who were present on January 2, when there was a large crowd in the council chambers, had agreed to support the bill after the language changes were made. Actually, Savel maintained, the rabbis that were on hand the night the bill was passed were frightened into supporting the bill.

  “They were coerced,” Sevel said.

 She claimed that one of the rabbis that was there was  “terrified.” and “left out of there afraid for his life because it was a mob mentality.”

 Commenting on the situation going forward, the federation leader said, “They thought when they passed this resolution that the Jewish community would say ‘well okay, no big deal.’ But it is a big deal. And we are not going away and we will not stop fighting no matter what happens with this. We will not stop. It’s anti-Semitism.”

 Several attempts were made to get comment on Sevel’s remarks from City Council officials who were key players at the January 2 meeting. Both Aidee Nieves, president of the City Council and Councilwoman Jazmarie Melendez, who authored the cease-fire resolution, were called and emailed but could not be reached.

 However, a top official of the Bridgeport Islamic Community Center, which promoted the resolution, pushed back strongly against Sevel’s comments.

 “They’re lying. They’re trying to scare people,” said Aziz Seyal, a member of the center’s Board of Directors.

  About Sevel’s comment that the resolution amounted to a call “for the destruction of Israel” and was a “hate bill,” Seyal said “There is nothing in the resolution which talks about destroying Israel or taking any action against Israel.”

 He added, “They’re just wasting time. They don’t believe in peace. They just want to see the destruction of Palestine and the Palestinian people.”

                 

A billboard on I-95 in Bridgeport calling for a halt to the bombing of Gaza. (Reginald Johnson photo)

Seyal also said that the Jewish federation official was wrong in claiming that Jewish leaders did not have enough input in the resolution’s development. He said that the entire day before the meeting a group of three people representing the Muslim faith the Jewish faith and the Christian faith were working on the resolution to develop something that they could all agree on.

“There was a consensus, he said.

 Further, he said, in the evening more input was sought from other Jewish leaders and they too, agreed to the changes and support the resolution.

 Sevel and other resolution critics also attacked the group Jewish Voice for Peace which supported the Bridgeport resolution.

Deborah Boles, president of the Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Bridgeport, said that Jewish Voice for Peace was an organization that didn’t represent the “mainstream” of the Jewish community. Boles claimed that the group “misled” the people crafting the Bridgeport bill.

Sevel went even further and labeled Jewish Voice for Peace a harmful organization bent on the “destruction of Israel.”

 Jewish Voice for Peace nationally is one of the organizations that is working hard to get a truce in the Israel-Gaza conflict and has sponsored a number of demonstrations.

 Leaders of Jewish for Peace in Connecticut issued a statement responding to the comments by Boles and Sevel. It said in part: “The Jewish Federation is not an accurate representative of Connecticut’s diverse Jewish community. Although groups like the federation often attempt to speak for all Jews, no single organization can do that,”

 It added, “Far too many Jewish people have had the painful experience of being dehumanized or having their Jewishness called into question by those who seek to conflate Jewishness with unconditional support for the state of Israel. We know that the attempt to silence or discredit anti-Zionist or non-Zionist Jewish speech only serves to distract from the Israeli government’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people.”

  “The political beliefs and policies of states such as Israel and the United States must be subject to critical debate. Our Jewish values give us the imperative to speak up against the unconscionable violence and human rights violations perpetrated by the state of Israel,” the statement said.

  A proposed resolution which would rescind the current Bridgeport cease-fire resolution has been offered by Councilman Scott Burns of Black Rock.  It will be the subject of a review and possible vote by the council’s Miscellaneous Matters Committee on Thursday, March 14 at 6 PM in City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace.

 Meanwhile, the war in Palestine continues unabated, despite some occasional talk by President Biden of forging a ceasefire agreement. Since October 7, when the war began when Israel responded to the Hamas attacks, some 30,000 people have been killed. A majority of them are women and children. Another 2 million people in Gaza have been displaced. UN officials say that food shortages are acute and many people may starve.

  The International Court of Justice recently found that there was a “plausible case” for concluding that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza.