Dispatch #114 White Lesbian Age 71 Considers: Biden Gives Thumbs Up to Total Destruction of Gaza Infrastructure & Israel’s Plan for Palestinians: Nakba 2.0
- Kathleen A. Maloy
- Nov 18, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 31
Nov. 18th 2023
1001 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President
94 Days Until the 2024 Presidential Primaries Begin
512 Days Since Supreme Court Ruled Women Don’t Have Human Rights
Nakba 2.0: Israeli Gov’t Minister Describes War on Gaza as another Catastrophic Ethnic Cleansing Juan Cole 11/13/2023 www.informedcomment.com. Israel’s security cabinet member Minister Avi Dichter commented during a press conference: “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba. From an operational point of view, there is no way to wage a war – as the IDF seeks to do in Gaza – with masses between the tanks and the soldiers.” www.juancole.com/2023/11/describes-catastrophic-cleansing.html
Tens of thousands of Palestinians in North Gaza are picking/limping/stumbling their way along the road south through a desolate landscape of destruction and dead bodies -- ordered on pain of death by bombing to leave their homes/shelters and walk 6 to 10 miles to unknown destinations having no idea of what or where or how living can be carried on. Carrying children, holding toddler hands, pushing injured and disabled people in wheelchairs, managing small bundles of belongings, and, most critically, holding up their identity cards -- issued at birth by Israel -- they pass by Israeli tanks and armored IDF soldiers brandishing automatic weapons of war. Many, especially children, are also holding up white pieces of cloth having heard reports that IDF soldiers are shooting at legs.
Having raided and destroyed much of Al Shifa Hospital and adjoining neighborhoods, Israel has just announced its intention to continue its ground invasion in the south. Israeli leaflet-drops warn Palestinians sheltering in parts of south Gaza to evacuate or risk death by bombing, tanks, and weapons. Netanyahu has vowed to turn Gaza into rubble – no matter the presence of 2.2M Palestinians. Buoyed by Israel’s decades-long practice of brutalizing civilians with impunity, Netanyahu will destroy Gaza to destroy Hamas.
The Ghosts of Lebanon: To See What Lies Ahead in Gaza, Look Back to Israel’s 1982 Invasion www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/ghosts-lebanon
Biden’s Selective Outrage: The rhetorical choice to pair Israel and Ukraine has not created a common moral cause. It has exposed a double standard. By Fintan O’Toole www.nybooks.com/online/2023/11/14/bidens-selective-outrage/
Despite the oft-used and deliberately misleading phrase “Hamas-controlled Gaza,” Israel de facto occupies Gaza by virtue of a stringent land, air, and sea blockade imposed in 2006. This blockade has decimated the infrastructure, stifled economic growth, created food insecurity for 80% of Gazans, restricted access to healthcare, clean water, electricity, and severely restricted movement to and from Gaza. A 2018 United Nations report concluded that, with a stalled economy, 70% youth unemployment, and widely contaminated drinking water, Gaza had become “unliveable” and presented an undeniable humanitarian crisis. www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-unliveable-un-special-rapporteur-for-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt-tells-third-committee-press-release-excerpts/ In 2021 Israel completed a 40-mile barrier around Gaza -- a technologically advanced mix of 20-foot fence, radar systems and underground sensors touted as the Iron Wall by Israeli leaders.
Gaza is commonly described as an open-air prison for more than 2.2M Palestinians.
Gaza: 15 years of a devastating blockade that benefits no one. The Israeli land, air and sea blockade has left Palestinians in the territory with skyrocketing poverty and a mental health crisis. 15 June 2022 www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-palestine-israel-fifteen-years-blockade-benefits-noone
Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Analysis #4: Why Israel Must Be Held Accountable for Policies toward the Gaza Strip. 1/3/2022 https://imeu.org/article/imeu-policy-analysis-4-why-israel-must-be-held-accountable-for-policies-tow
How Israel’s 10-Year Blockade Brought Gaza to the Brink of Collapse: The crisis in Gaza is not simply a humanitarian tragedy. It’s a moral outrage. By Tareq Baconi 7/7/2017.
Palestinians living in Gaza are refugees and descendants of refugees -- 750,000 Palestinians driven out of their villages and off their land in 1948 during Arab-Israeli War, and never allowed to return. This event known as the Nakba (the Catastrophe) dismantled Palestine and Palestinian society due to the deliberate destruction of 500 villages, the forced exile of half of the Palestinian population, the loss of prominent Palestinian industries, and the eradication of important social and cultural traditions that united Palestinians. www.middleeasteye.net/discover/nakba-palestine-remembering-what-was-lost
The Nakba had a profound impact on the Palestinian people, who lost their homes, their land, and their way of life. A large, deeply rooted, and ancient Arab society, as it had been present for living memory, simply vanished almost overnight. Palestinians today can look beyond the fence around Gaza and see their land, their orchards, and the remains of their villages. www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/the-meaning-of-nakba-israel-palestine-1948-gaza/560294/
For 75 years, Palestinians have resisted occupation, and the dispossession of their land, fighting for the right to return to their villages and orchards. These resistance struggles, energized by community-based organizations, predate the emergence of Hamas in 1987. Hamas is an Arabic acronym of its official name Islamic Resistance Movement. While Hamas has always supported Palestinian armed resistance, Palestinians have continued to organize nonviolent protests and sought other methods of resistance.
On March 30th 2018, a grassroots movement comprising numerous community-based organizations in Gaza led tens of thousands of Palestinians – men, women, children -- on the first of seven planned nonviolent marches to the border fence. Called the Great Return March, these protests demanded an end to the blockade and the Palestinian right of return. Between March 30th and May 15th, Israeli snipers killed 112 Palestinians and injured more than 13,000 with thousands of grievous injuries to legs.
No Justification for Israel to Shoot Protesters with Live Ammunition
Israel: Apparent War Crimes in Gaza | Human Rights Watch
Palestinians Engaged in Nonviolent Protest. Israel Responded With a Massacre. The targeting of unarmed demonstrators by snipers using high-velocity weapons was methodical, precise, and lethal. www.thenation.com/article/archive/palestinians-engaged-in-nonviolent-protest-israel-responded-with-a-massacre/
During these past 6 weeks, with the world watching, tens of thousands of young Palestinian men are digging maimed, dismembered and dead children out of the rubble by hand; hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are enduring unimaginable suffering and trauma; entire generations of thousands of Palestinian families are killed in one moment by unrelenting Israeli airstrikes. Causes for Despair: The human suffering that the people of Gaza have endured in the past three weeks is beyond comprehension. www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/11/23/causes-for-despair-raja-shehadeh/
Riven with heart-rending loss, soul-piercing despair, emotion-numbing trauma, how can Palestinians see any future beyond armed violent resistance and death.
No Justice No Peace No Justice No Peace No Justice No Peace
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