Global outrage is growing against Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza

An estimated 7,000 Palestinians remain missing, presumed dead, under the rubble and more than 76,000 have been wounded. Most civilian infrastructure has been destroyed by the Zionist state, including 70 per cent of all homes; twelve universities; and 33 out of 36 hospitals. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army and illegal settlers have killed 486 Palestinians and wounded more than 4,700 since 7 October.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s evil famine strategy has become an important part of his war cabinet’s plan to starve millions of Palestinians to death. According to one prominent genocide scholar, what is happening is a “repeat of Auschwitz”.

To compound the apartheid regime’s criminal conduct, the corrupt Netanyahu accused, quite falsely it turns out, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee (UNRWA) of aiding and abetting “terrorists”, resulting in donor states suspending their funding to the agency, bringing to a shuddering halt its essential humanitarian aid programmes for Palestinians in the occupied and embattled  Strip. The unsupported Israeli accusation saw a shameful rush by Western governments to cut $450 million in funding at a time when “people were dying in droves”, as described by news media.

READ: UN closes 5 cases of Israel’s claims of UNRWA involvement in Hamas attacks

Months later, a rigorous inquiry led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, supported by three well-respected research institutes, concluded that there is no evidence for the claim that 12 (out of 13,000) UNRWA employees in Gaza have Hamas or Islamic Jihad links. We have to wait and see if this decisive conclusion will see the same governments reopen their UNRWA funding channels, thus striking a blow to Netanyahu’s malicious war aims. Or will they continue to drag their feet, as is the case now?

If the latter, then Palestinians will be more than justified in believing that the West remains hostage to the Israeli regime’s lies, and complicit in its vengeful genocide.

Concurrently, another significant report has been issued castigating Israel’s bloody assault on Gaza’s medical institutions and the denial of healthcare. The author is a South African doctor, Tlaleng Mofokeng, who is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. In her scathing report, Mofokeng emphasised her difficulty in gathering data on the number of people needing medical evacuation due to the destruction of civilian infrastructure by Israel in Gaza. However, she has been absolutely clear that the world is witnessing a “genocide” in the enclave.

“Not only is Israel causing irreparable harm against Palestinian civilians with its bombardments, but it and its allies are also knowingly and intentionally imposing famine, prolonged malnutrition and dehydration,” the Special Rapporteur told a press conference in Geneva. Mofokeng did not mince her words when she said that as a practising medical doctor, she bears witness that the very practise of medicine is under attack by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

“This has been a war on the right to health and underlying determinants of health. The healthcare infrastructure in Gaza has been completely obliterated and the right to health has been decimated at every level,” she explained. “The conditions in Gaza are incompatible with the realisation of the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”

She called on leaders within the multilateral system, regional blocs, academia, civil society, philanthrocapitalists, and leaders in global health to abandon their strategy of a” self-imposed passiveness” and so called “quiet diplomacy”.

“People are dying. I call on you yet again, to use all powers and authority vested in you to not perpetuate the pacification and genocide of the people of Gaza.”

Interestingly, students at US universities have emerged as a potent force demanding an end to complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza. Professor Sami Al-Arian’s observation about the ongoing protests sums it up perfectly.

“What’s happening across US university campuses is unprecedented,” said Al-Arian. “I lived four decades in the US, 28 years of which were in academic settings. During my time, it was a very challenging struggle to present an anti-Zionist narrative. But the passion, courage, humanity, creativity and determination displayed these days by students across US campuses make me proud. The Zionist grip on US society is weakening and waning.”

By all accounts, it is abundantly clear that despite various attempts by the apartheid regime to garner and maintain global support for its terrorism in Gaza, it has failed to do so. Indeed, enormous resources allocated by Israel to overwhelm news coverage of the horrendous genocide from the narrow perspective of “Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism” has been a fundamental pillar of Netanyahu’s goal.

As author Ralph Nader points out, throughout history, military empires have reduced their victims, the subjugated people and those who have been abducted to the status of “Others”. The political and mass media institutions usually follow suit by supporting their empire’s predatory policies with slanted coverage.

It is remarkable, therefore, that alongside the armed resistance by Palestinian freedom fighters which has withstood 200 days of relentless bombing and ground assaults, the images of Gaza’s devastation and eyewitness accounts by medics, journalists and displaced families have not allowed the Zionist regime to escape global outrage, which is growing by the day.

Source: Middle East Monitor under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED