US needs to rethink its military and political support for Israel

The United States needs only examine its geopolitical and military support of Israel to understand why opinion about its moral compass is divided. The US is Israel’s principal supplier of military weapons in its war against Hamas.

Around 630,000 Israeli settlers live in the illegally occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Sixty-one per cent of the West Bank was off-limits to Palestinians as of 2021. Around 5.9 million Palestinians are refugees registered with the relevant UN agency.

Hamas’ terrorist attack on October 7 last year – in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 taken hostage – has been condemned. Israel has a right to defend itself in response to events. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has used Hamas’ attack on Israel to further dispossess Palestinians of their land.

World leaders are watching as Israel enacts collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in defiance of international law. Many people are without adequate food, water, shelter or medicine. This misery is further compounded by the killing of over 200 aid workers.

Gaza’s ministry of health has put the Palestinian death toll at more than 33,800 people and the number of injured at more than 76,000. In north Gaza, people are surviving on 245 calories daily, or 12 per cent of their recommended caloric intake, according to Oxfam.

Until American politicians treat Palestinians with the human decency they typically afford themselves, their families or pets, Palestinians will not know self-determination within a two-state solution.

A larger Middle Eastern conflict looms. Eventually, there will be consequences to subjecting a people to life within the world’s largest open-air prison, of which Israel and other countries are reasonably aware.