Gaza tragedy a war crime

Re: President Trump has squandered his chance for Mideast peace — May 18

What’s the appropriate response to Israel’s shooting dead of dozens of unarmed civilians in Gaza on May 14 — a total of over 100 such killings since March 30 when the March of Return began (with 2,700 injured, 1,300 by being shot, none of them Israelis)?

These are essentially state executions. They constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity. The victims have both the right of return to the land of which they were dispossessed by Israel, and the right under international law to resist the illegal, oppressive and life-threatening occupation and siege to which they are subjected by Israel.

The appropriate response is for the United Nations to raise a force to arrest the killers, charge them with murder and bring them to trial before the International Criminal Court.

In contrast, our prime minister calls for an investigation of these admittedly “inexcusable” acts, knowing full well what happened to the investigations into the 2008-9 and 2014 Gaza massacres. The United States rendered them inoperable.

The Record says Israel “should be making a far greater effort to mitigate the loss of civilian life.”

That is, aim the dumdum bullets at the legs not the head.

Thus do the Canadian government and media continue to enable Israel’s 70-year campaign to cleanse Palestine of the Palestinians.

Peter Eglin

Kitchener