On 9 August I spoke at the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign National demonstration for Palestine. As an Israeli Jew, born in Palestine prior to the birth of the State of Israel, I am aching for Gaza and for the ease with which many Israelis and their supporters throughout the world excuse the killing of so many Gazans. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, over 2,100 people were killed, while the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem had put the figure at 1,767, of whom 431 are minors and 200 women. Both agree that 70-80 per cent of the killed are non-combatants, all in full view of the world.
I made three points in my speech. Firstly, the impetus for the massacre was not Hamas’s tunnels or rockets, but rather the eliminatory logic that aims to kill as many Palestinians as possible, gaining as much land as possible. It was horrible to hear Israeli member of Knesset Ayelet Shaked advocating the killing of all Palestinian mothers, and Deputy Knesset Speaker Moshe Feiglin proposing the killing all Hamas fighters and their supporters, and deporting all ‘hostile Palestinian families’ after first concentrating them in tent encampments near the Egyptian border.
The massacre also aimed to support Israel’s armament industry. Think of it, after each assault on Gaza, every two years, potential buyers are told about the effectiveness of the weapons, be it house smashing robots or the ‘Iron Dome’, in killing humans: children, women, elders, men. According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, Israel is the fourth largest arms producer, with 150 companies employing 150,000 workers. In 2012 Israel’s armament exports were worth 7.37 billion dollars, exporting mainly to the US, Europe, Latin America and India. However, using humans as guinea pigs is morally unacceptable. Continue reading “For Gaza, again”
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