Friday, July 11, 2014

Demand a Cease-Fire in Gaza

Yesterday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, "I am not talking to anybody about a cease-fire right now. It's not even on the agenda." This was after Hamas, the governing group in Gaza, called for resuming the mutual cease-fire that had halted the last murderous attack by Israel on Gaza's densly populated communities.

Of the more than 100 Gazans who have been killed over the last four days in this most recent attack by Israel, more than half are reported to be women and children.  Israel itself acknowledges that a family of eight died when their Khan Yunis home was deliberately destroyed in an airstrike. UN and human rights organizations have condemned the previous attacks on Gaza as human rights violations and war crimes after documenting that the large majority of casualties of previous Israeli campaigns against the people of Gaza were non-combatants.

"Operation Protective Edge”, the current full-scale attack on the people of Gaza, follows massive policing actions in the West Bank aimed at disrupting the unity government announced by Hamas and the Palistinian Liberation Organization, during which hundreds were arrested and many killed, including children.  In response to this perceived violation of the previous cease-fire, rockets were fired into Israeli territory by Palestinian militants, causing no casualties.  Using the pretext of these rocket launches, Israel launched "Operation Protective Edge" which has closely conformed to its bloody predecessors: “Operation Pillar of Defense” (2012) and “Operation Cast Lead” (2008/9).
In both prior instances, the US worked tirelessly to block UN criticism of Israel’s disproportionate, indiscriminate and ultimately ineffectual military attacks. By delaying UN Security Council efforts at a ceasefire in November of 2012, the Obama administration actually facilitated additional civilian casualties. The U.S. also unstintingly acted to fund replacement of the modern Israeli ordinance expended in the massive military assault on the people of Gaza.

Click here to send a message to President and Congress to insist Israel agree to a cease-fire!.

David Zackon For peace and justice,
David Zackon
Convener, Palestine/Israel Working Group



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