Pre-Nakba Commemoration Israeli Violence Against Gazans
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
If Israel was a person, not a nation-state, it would be psychologically diagnosed as dangerously psychopathic, sociopathic, or a combination of both.
lt’s been at war with Palestinians for 70 years, brutalizing defenseless people, holding them hostage to its ruthlessness, remaining unaccountable because of full US support.
Both nations partner in their high crimes. Their ruling regimes represent the greatest threat to regional and world peace – the world community doing nothing to challenge their rage for conquest and dominance.
May 11 was Gaza’s 7th consecutive Great March of Return Friday – protesters rallying peacefully against forced isolation under siege, virtual imprisonment of two million Palestinians, enduring severe humanitarian crisis conditions, the world community largely ignoring their suffering.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli snipers killed one Gazan, wounding 448 others – around one-fourth from live fire. At least seven victims suffered disabling or potentially life-threatening injuries.
A 16-year-old Gazan was shot in both legs – peacefully trying to place a Palestinian flag on the repressive border fence.
Since protests began on March 30, nearly 50 Gazans were killed, around 8,000 wounded, over 2,100 from live fire, including use of banned dum-dum bullets, exploding internally to cause serious damage to bodily areas struck, in some cases fist-sized exit wounds.
Because of longterm blockade, Gaza’s healthcare system is close to collapse, unable to handle the volume of injuries, notably serious ones.
Intermittent power availability makes treatment much harder, Israel’s High Court approving the practice, disregarding dire Strip conditions.
As of late April, the WHO said at least 75 drugs and 190 types of disposable medical equipment were immediately needed. Doctors are in short supply, unable to cope with the volume of weekly injuries.
Israel’s blockade denies Gazans with serious injuries the right to travel outside the Strip for treatment.
Israeli High Court justices refused to schedule an emergency hearing to address the issue, unwilling to rule on vicious Israeli policy toward injured Gazans.
Through end of April, only one wounded Palestinian was granted permission by Israel to seek treatment in the West Bank.
The IDF’s live fire policy and ruthless treatment of peacefully demonstrating Palestinians flagrantly violates international law.
In a 1956 case involving regime killing of 49 Kafr Kassem Palestinians, High Court Justice Benjamin Halevy said the illegality of this order “pains the eye and outrages the heart, if the eye be not blind and the heart be not callous or corrupt.”
He stressed these type orders must not be issued – never obeyed. In 1961, he was one of the Israeli judges involved in Adoph Eichmann’s trial, conviction and death sentence for involvement in high crimes too grave to forgive.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), for the 7th straight Friday, Israel unleashed unprovoked violence against peacefully demonstrating Gazans.
Six journalists and one paramedic were wounded from live fire. PCHR fieldworkers stressed Israeli use of force was used against peaceful demonstrators threatening no one.
During seven Friday protests, not a single Israeli soldier or civilian was harmed, Gazans alone brutally attacked for wanting to live free from brutalizing occupation conditions.
PCHR: “…Israeli snipers deliberately and selectively opened fire at the participants in the peaceful demonstrations which included thousands of civilians in different areas in the eastern Gaza Strip” – at least two dozen in critical condition from May 11 demonstrations alone, a higher number than cited above.
PCHR fieldworkers saw no Gazans armed with weapons, no children used as human shields. Entire families participated as in previous Fridays.
Palestinian medical personnel and ambulances with targeted with toxic tear gas.
Gaza’s Nakba commemoration is expected to draw record large numbers of peaceful demonstrators.
They’ll again be met brutal Israeli violence, the world community doing nothing to challenge it. Washington supports it.
Palestinian suffering continues with no end of it in sight, notably for besieged Gazans.
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