Dispatch #137 White Lesbian Age 71 Considers US Continuing the Genocide & Killing, Maiming, Disabling & Orphaning Hundreds of Thousands of Palestinian Children in Gaza

March 31st 2024   1166 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President

229 Days Until 2024 Presidential Elections 11/5/2024

646 Days Since SCOTUS Ruled American Women Don’t Have Human Rights

177 Days Since Israel Began Genocidal Assault on Palestinians in Gaza

“Man-Made Hell On Earth”: A Canadian Doctor On His Medical Mission to Gaza. “I saw scenes that were horrific and I never want to see again,” said Yasser Khan, a surgeon from Toronto. Dr Khan, an ophthalmologist, describes treating children aged 2 to 14 with eyes blown apart and performing numerous eye amputations daily. He notes that Israel is intentionally using weapons that create large amounts of shrapnel. These terrible facial injuries became so common that he began to use the term ‘shrapnel face.’  Even when eye amputations are not required, because instruments needed to remove shrapnel are not available, patients cannot be treated and must be left to go blind. https://theintercept.com/2024/03/23/intercepted-doctor-gaza-interview/ 

U.S. Signs Off On More Bombs, Warplanes For Israel.

The Biden administration authorizes the transfer of 2,000-pound bombs and other weapons to Israel including more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs. The 2,000-pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/29/us-weapons-israel-gaza-war/ 

US approves more bombs and fighter jets worth billions for Israel www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-approves-billions-arms-israel-despite-acknowledging-famine-gaza  

‘What has this child done to deserve such suffering, with his bones protruding due to hunger?’ www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240330-what-has-this-child-done-to-deserve-such-suffering-with-his-bones-protruding-due-to-hunger/ 

“Like Lying in a Coffin”: UNICEF Spokesperson Warns of Devastating Toll on Gaza’s Children. James Elder says that Rafah is a city of children – 600,000 among the 1.1M Palestinians crammed into Rafah.  Starving malnourished children are usually killed by disease, a simple childhood disease like pneumonia. Children with severe acute malnutrition are 10 times more likely to be killed by disease, something UNICEF has been warning about for months. 

Because now Rafah has become a city of children, because the water system and the sanitation system have been devastated, it’s impossible to have the services here that children need to survive. www.democracynow.org/2024/3/29/gaza_unicef 

Famine is setting in’: UN court orders Israel to unblock Gaza food aid. Judges issue unanimous decision and say Palestinians are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance

The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to allow unimpeded access of food aid into Gaza, where sections of the population are facing imminent starvation, in a significant legal rebuke to Israel’s claim it is not blocking aid deliveries. Under international law, using starvation as a weapon of war is explicitly prohibited, while occupying forces are also legally obliged to ensure those in areas they control are supplied with the means of life. www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/28/famine-is-setting-in-icj-orders-israel-to-unblock-gaza-food-aid 

World Court orders Israel to take action to address Gaza famine. 

Judges at the International Court of Justice on Thursday unanimously ordered Israel to take all the necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinian population in Gaza. www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/world-court-orders-israel-take-measures-ensure-food-gets-into-gaza-2024-03-28/ 

Starvation in Gaza: The World Court’s latest intervention. www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240330-starvation-in-gaza-the-world-courts-latest-intervention/ 

Since Israel, supported and protected by the US, has publicly rejected and disparaged legally-binding rulings by the ICJ and UN, this new ICJ ruling will mean little for starving Gazans. Indeed, Israel had already informed the UN that all UNRWA food aid convoys to northern Gaza will no longer be approved.  www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/24/israel-reportedly-blocking-un-food-aid-to-northern-gaza-despite-high-famine-risk 

Always at Israel’s beck and call, Biden signed into law legislation passed by Congress that includes a one-year ban on UNRWA funding.  Even as several Western countries have resumed funding for UNRWA and 1.1M Palestinians are facing imminent famine, the US apparently believes Israel’s allegations with no evidence that 9 UNRWA staff participated in the 7 October attack. https://theintercept.com/2024/03/22/gaza-unrwa-funding-congress/ 

“The Worst of What Humanity Is Capable Of”: Pediatrician Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan on What She Saw in Gaza. Dr. Haj-Hassan just returned from a 2-week service Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza.   

It’s really difficult to describe in words the horrors that we saw in our two weeks there. You know, you watch the news, you have some idea of what you’re going to see. But experiencing in real time entire family structures collapsing, entire families being wiped off the civil registry, having to tell a father or a mother that their entire family, their lifelong partner and all of their children, have just been killed and you weren’t able to resuscitate them, is something that was very difficult to experience and something that I hope I never have to experience again. And frankly, it’s something that I just feel ashamed that we’re still talking about, you know, seven months into this. It just is such a stark representation of our failure, of our failure as humanity. This is not a humanitarian crisis. This is the worst of what humanity is capable of, and it’s entirely all man-made. And when you witness it firsthand, it’s an unbearable injustice. 

Dr Haj-Hassan describes the horrific injuries, especially in children, and the severe lack of medical supplies -- even sterile suture kits – with which to treat patients. Especially heartrending was the need to choose from among many children in severe pain the one or two who might get a little pain medication. She also describes the incredible bravery and unwavering dedication of the medical staff who work 24-hour shifts, whose families are dead or injured, who are also starving and displaced, and whom Israel has relentlessly targeted with assassinations and snipers, kidnapping and torture, and indefinite detention.  

This is an utter and complete failure of humanity, and, to be frank, I feel ashamed to be an American citizen. I feel ashamed to be part of a society that has allowed this to continue. www.democracynow.org/2024/3/28/gaza_msf 

And, yeah, the Biden administration continues to steadfastly maintain its status as a pariah nation, the US partnering with Israel to render null and void the international rules-based order and international humanitarian law as they continue their genocide on Palestinians. 

As Dr. Haj-Hassan says: the US and Israel are showing to the world the worst of what humanity is capable of.