ISRAEL’S INHUMANE practices in West Bank akin to apartheid.
Who would have thought that in the 21st century the tactics of war are now targeting innocent civilians as a form of collective punishment, even though a vast majority of countries have renounced such tactics?
Nearly 200 countries have ratified the Geneva Convention which, among other things, establishes protections for the wounded and the sick and noncombatant civilians, including women and children, in and around a war zone.
The last time a nation or a military intentionally dropped bombs knowing in advance the toll on civilians would be high was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in over 200,000 deaths and untold numbers of illnesses related to radiation poisoning. The show of U.S. military supremacy, the Truman administration claimed, would bring the war with Japan to a quicker end.
In the current Gaza war, Israel has dropped more U.S.-supplied bombs on Gaza than the two atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Allied bombings of Germany, and the U.S. bombing at a pinnacle year in Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have also led an unrelenting air campaign with over 25,000 air strikes in Yemen. In 2021-24, these strikes, sadly with U.S. support, have caused over 20,000 civilian deaths and injuries.
The wars in Yemen and Gaza have created the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with millions of children in both areas need massive humanitarian assistance.
The U.S. Congress enacted the Leahy Law in 1997, revised in 2011, which prohibited the Department of State and the Department of Defense from providing security assistance to units of foreign security forces that were credibly implicated in gross violation of human rights. Because of political considerations, this law unfortunately has been totally ineffective.
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas assault, senior U.S. government officials, including President Biden, have often stated that despite the civilian casualties and the indiscriminate bombing of vital infrastructure — power, water, sewage treatment plants, and hospitals, “Israel has a right to self-defense.” What does this really mean?
Humanity has always recognized peoples’ right of self-defense, which has been codified in international law and in the United Nations Charter. Unfortunately, any one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council could veto any proposed resolution dealing with self-defense, often for political reasons.
The military wing of Hamas clearly should be held responsible for the unprecedented Israeli military retaliation in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack. But because of the U.S. veto, the Security Council has been unable to focus on the major issues that preceded the Hamas attack, namely, the absence of self-determination, the daily siege of the Israeli occupation and military control, the land, air, and sea blockade imposed on Gaza, and the rising hopelessness and anger of the Palestinian people. Israel’s right of self-defense.
UN Security Council resolutions already recognize the right of Israelis and Palestinians to peace and security and to live freely as two peoples inside two states living side by side. Yet, whenever these resolutions are brought up for discussion at the Security Council, the United States exercises its veto power.
Washington has tolerated Israel’s inhumane practices in the West Bank that are akin to apartheid, best understood as a system of prolonged and cruel discriminatory treatment by one racial, ethnic, or religious group of members on another with the intention to control the second group. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current ultra conservative government has clearly stated that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens.” Only Jews can enjoy unrestricted rights in Israel.
As a physician, I am appalled that al-Shifa Hospital, once considered a sanctuary for the infirmed and critically ill, has been attacked by the Israeli military in their presumed search for Hamas. Not even the two years I spent in Afghanistan at the height of the war did the Taliban ever target hospitals. This cannot be said of ISIS and now the current government of Israel. The Geneva Convention — Rule 35 — is clear on this point: Directing an attack against a zone established to shelter the wounded, the sick and civilians from the effects of hostilities is prohibited.
There are some who will quickly judge my opinion as being antisemitic. To those, I say my comments are not directed at a religious or ethnic group but are directed at the actions or inactions of governments that have lost the moral high ground.
In summary, let us call it what it is: Murder, Apartheid, and Genocide.